Punch (80.1881)

February 26, 1881.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

87

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

extracted from

THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P.

Monday Night, Feb. 14.—Had a chat this evening with
Mr. Biggar, in whom I find fresh resemblance to some of
our great men. I am told that upon closer acquaintance it
has been discovered that Richard the Third was quite a
mild and placable personage, and that Oliver Cromwell
was not nearly so black as he has been painted in Ireland and
elsewhere. Similarly, upon closer acquaintance, I find Mr. Biggar
genial, affable, and well-informed.

At first a little misunderstanding arose owing to my ignorance of
foreign languages. I was standing in the Lobby, wondering what
Sir Charles Forster was looking for, when Mr. Biggar passing
me, with a friendly smile, said,

" Voos alley beeang f "

" Sir," I said, with what I flattered myself was a manner cal-
culated to take an Irish Member down, " I shall submit the question
to the Speaker whether it is Parliamentary, even in the Lobby, to
address to another Hon. Member such a remark. When a dog has
lived so long without acquiring a bad name, you may as well not
hang him."

But it was all a mistake. Mr. Biggar explained it with great
clearness. It was French, and meant, " You're pretty well, aren't
you ? " I asked Mr. Biggar not to talk in foreign languages any
more, I being wholly ignorant of them, and he said he would not.
It appears he has been to Paris, whence this fluencv. He told me a
good deal about the city, how the Tooleyrees are still in ruins ; how
they call the streets Booleyvards, and how at least one is nearly as
wide as Sackville Street; how the shops are open on Sundays, and
the churches every day; how nice-looking girls go about their busi-
ness in black dresses and no bonnets ; how some of the cabmen wear
white-glazed hats, and none are able to understand French. In
fact, this last was a peculiarity which seems to have struck Mr.

Biggar most forcibly. " They are thorrowlyj igrant of'.their own
language," Mr. Biggar says.

Amongst other incidents of travel he told me how, on entering a
cab, he had said to the man, " Ahlair.'" which, it seems, it is neces-
sary to do when you want to take a cabman by the hour; that is
much cheaper, Mr. Biggar says. He entered the cab at ten minutes
to eleven on Sunday morning at the stand by the Maddyleene, and
it was twenty minutes past eleven before the cabman could
make out that he wanted to go to the Boo Poisonyer, _ which, I
understand, is not an incentive to crime, but the name of a street.
Several men with cocked hats and swords came up, and quite a
crowd of men and women, who jabbered at each other whilst Mr.
Biggar sat reclining in the cab.

"I was thorrowly comfortable," Mr. Biggar. said, "and in the
House, you know, we always let the other side talk when they will,
as it helps us to pass the time. So I sat there and said nothing
except ' Ahlair! Boo Poisonyer.'' " Finally there was a great