Punch (68.1875)

ArBiL 24, 1875.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

173

PUNCH’S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

A

E La n g a lib a xexe .

Monday, April 12 (Lords).—
When Parties fall out, Justice
may come by its own. No such
chance for a hard case as coming
between a Government that is
going out and one that is coming
in. A Minister is so candid when
sitting on the acts
of his predecessor.

Langaxibaxexe
was even luckier
in such a predica-
ment than in the
ardent and honest
advocacy of Bishop
Coxenso. And then
Lobd Ca rnap vox
has a head, as well
a*s a will of his own
—and there seems no reason to doubt that when he
reversed the Colonial Court’s action, and recalled
Governor Pine, in re Langaxibaxexe, and that in
the teeth of Colonial feeling and opinion, he acted
under coercion of his very best judgment. If Punch
had felt any doubt about it, the sifting of the matter
to-night, in the Lords, would have satisfied him. If
this is the best case two such advocates as Lobd Gbet
and Lobd Kihbeexey can .make, Lobd Cabnabvon’s
is a better.

(Commons.) Lewis is rapidly becoming a name of
fear. All the questioning capacity of Mb. Dabby
Gbiffith seems to have become concentrated in the
Clan Lewis. What is there Mb. C. Lewis does not *'< call
attention to—and does not wish to know? And D" 1-i

0., treading on the heels of C. of that ilk, proceeded
Mb. Disbaexi whether Prussia had not addressed a “ menacing”
despatch to Belgium, and what steps England would take to main-
tain Belgian neutrality and independence, if endangered.

Me. Disbaexi, in reply, expatiated on the superfluity of
epithets. The German note was one not of menace, but of
remonstrance—•“ friendly remonstrance” was a familiar phrase
—so let us say “ friendly ” note, not “menacing.” (By the way,
isn’t “friendly” an epithet, too?) “When the neutrality of
Belgium is threatened, Her Majesty’s Government will do their duty to their Sovereign, and not be afraid to meet Parliament.”

A personal duello between Sib L. Park and Sib H. James. Sib H. has held briefs in matters rising out of the Paraguayan Loan.
Sib L. Park had asked a question on the subject, conveying, as far as we can understand it, the imputation that Sib EL James was trying to
get out, through the Select Committee information which the Court has refused to help him to. It is inferred that Sib L. Park’s question
is prompted by the financiers chiefly implicated in the Honduras Loan. People will put “ this ” and “ that ” together.

Substantial progress made in Committee on Artisans’ Dwellings Bill. Me. Fawcett, still in the sulks with the Bill, complains of
the want of machinery to compel Local Authorities to build up after they have pulled down. Me. Cross believes in Local Authorities.
When Home Secretaries do take to believing, their faith is wonderful. Sib Sidney Watebxow knows more about Improvement of
Dwellings than Mb. Cross, or anybody in the House, indeed, and he thinks it would be well to give the Confirming Authority power to
compel the Local. Mb. Cboss put his foot down for his clauses, and neither Mb. Fawcett nor Sib Sydney took anything by their Motions.

Tuesday (Lords).—Justices’ of the Peace qualification will have to go like other qualifications. Lobd Axbemabxe’s Bill takes the
first step to its abolition.

(Commons.) Mb. C. Lewis moved that the Times and. Daily News have been guilty of a breach of privilege in reporting a letter
from Mb. Hebban (Honduras Minister at Paris) to the Chairman of the Foreign Loans Committee, read before the Committee but
not reported to the House. Me. Lewis explained that he took this step because this letter contained a libel on a Member of Parliament.
Mb. Hebban’s letter was read by the Clerk. Then followed a curious scene. It seemed, for a while, as if Mb. Lewis could find
no backer. But a backer was at last found — Biggab could hardly have been desired. Then Mb. Tobbens tried to draw Mb.
Lowe, and Mr. Lowe would not be drawn. Then there was a fight between Ayes and Noes, and Noes all but had it; but
Biggab stood in the breach for the Ayes, and ere the three-minute-glass ran out, the Ayes rallied, and “ had it ” over the Noes.

Then came Me. C. Lewis’s Rider, “That the printers of the Times and Daily News be brought before the bar of the House.”

This was more serious. Nobody had the presence of mind to move the previous question.

Mb. Disbaexi repeated Mb. Tobbens’s attempt to draw Mr. Lowe—with the same lack of success. The Marquis of Hartington
declared Mb. Lowe would not be drawn.

Why, asked Mb. Watkin Wixxiams, try to cripple the Foreign Loans Committee from behind the Times and Daily Neivs f

Then Sib W. Habcoubt dashed into the melee “ a big rough stone”—the ugly word “lobbying.” Thereupon followed confusion
worse-confounded. In spite of Mb. Bright’s warning of the absurd position the House would put itself in, by calling its own organs of
publicity to its bar on a charge of having used the speaking-trumpets supplied them by the House’s own hand, Mb. Disbaexi was ill-
advised enough to vote with Mb. Lewis, and the citation of the Times to the bar of the House was voted by 204 to 153, of the Daily News