ould not: and I hope, if there are any members of the House of Commons
who have time to read "Notes and Queries," that one of them may be
induced to take a suitable opportunity of obtaining the Speaker's
judgment.

"Yet at other times," Mr. Ross goes on to say, "the right honourable
gentlemen will listen complacently to discussions arising out of the
complaints of members that strangers will not publish to the world all
that they hear pass in debate." If this be so, I suppose the Speaker
sees nothing disorderly in a complaint, that what has been spoken in
Parliament has _not_ been published: but I read frequently in my
newspaper that the Speaker interrupts {125} members who speak of
speeches having been published. "This is one of the inconsistencies,"
Mr. Ross proceeds, "resulting from the determination of the House not
expressly to recognise the presence of strangers." Inconsistency there
certainly is,--the inconsistency of making publication a breach of
privilege, and allowing it to go on daily.

As strangers may be admitted into the House to hear debates, and not
allowed to publish what they hear, so they may he admitted, subject to
exclusion at certain times, or when the House chooses. And this is the
case. The House, of course, retains the power of excluding them at any
moment. They are always made to withdraw before the House goes to a
division. This is a matter of practice, founded probably on some
supposed reasons of convenience. Again, on any member desiring strangers
to be excluded, the Speaker desires them to withdraw, without allowing
any discussion.

I have only to notice one other observation of Mr. Ross's, which is the
following:

"When I speak of strangers being admitted, it must not be
supposed that this was done by order of the House. No,
everything relating to the admission of strangers to, and their
accommodation in the House of Commons, is effected by some
mysterious agency, for which no one is directly responsible. Mr.
Barry has built galleries for strangers in the new house; but if
the matter were made a subject of inquiry, it probably would
puzzle him to state under what authority he has acted."

I do not think there is anything mysterious as regards admission. I am
fond of hearing the debates, and my parliamentary friends are very kind
to me. Sometimes I content myself with an order from a member, which
takes me into the hinder seats of the non-reporting str