.

We have only to look at it outwardly to have some doubts about it. At
Versailles, and then at Paris, the sessions are held in an immense hall
capable of seating 2,000 persons, in which the most powerful voice must
be strained in order to be heard. It is not calculated for the moderate
tone suitable for the discussion of business; the speaker is obliged to
shout, and the strain on the voice communicates itself to the mind; the
place itself suggests declamation; and this all the more readily because
the assemblage consists of 1,200, that is to say, a crowd, and almost
a mob. 'At the present day (1877), in our assemblies of five or six
hundred deputies, there are constant interruptions and an incessant
buzz; there is nothing so rare as self-control, and the firm resolve to
give an hour's attention to a discourse opposed to the opinions of the
hearers.--What can be done here to compel silence and patience? Arthur
Young on different occasions sees "a hundred members on the floor at
once," shouting and gesticulating. "Gentlemen, you are killing me!" says
Bailly, one day, sinking with exhaustion. Another president exclaims in
despair, "Two hundred speaking at the same time cannot be heard; will
you make it impossible then to restore order in the Assembly?" The
rumbling, discordant din is further increased by the uproar of the
galleries.[2101]

"In the British Parliament," writes Mallet du Pan, "I saw the
galleries cleared in a trice because the Duchess of Gordon happened
unintentionally to laugh too loud."

Here, the thronging crowd of spectators, stringers, delegates from the
Palais-Royal, soldiers disguised as citizens, and prostitutes collected
and marshaled, applaud, clap their hands, stamp and hoot, at their
pleasure. This is carried to so great an extent that M. de
Montlosier ironically proposes "to give the galleries a voice in
the deliberations."[2102] Another member wishes to know whether the
representatives are so many actors, whom the nation sends there to
endure the hisses of the Paris public. Interruptions, in fact, take
place as in a theater, and, frequently, if the members do not give
satisfaction, they are forced to desist. On the other hand, the deputies
who are popular with this energetic audience, on which they keep and
eye, are actors before the footlights: they involuntarily yield to its
influence, and exaggerate their ideas as well as their words to be in
unison with it. Tumult and violence, under s