ribes their persons, their dress, and their characteristic
mannerisms. He tells us how they dine, even the wines and dishes which
they favour, and follows them into the very mysteries of their
smoking-room. And yet there is perhaps a certain fine sense of the
feelings, and opinions, and humours of this Assembly which cannot be
acquired by hasty notions and necessarily superficial remarks, but must
be the result of long and patient observation, and of that quick
sympathy with human sentiment, in all its classes, which is involved in
the possession of that inestimable quality styled tact.

"When Endymion Ferrars first took his seat in the House of Commons, it
still fully possessed its character of enigmatic tradition. For himself,
Endymion entered the Chamber with a certain degree of awe, which, with
use, diminished, but never entirely disappeared. The scene was one over
which his boyhood even had long mused, and it was associated with all
those traditions of genius, eloquence, and power that charm and inspire
youth. His acquaintance with the forms and habits of the House was of
great advantage to him, and restrained that excitement which dangerously
accompanies us when we enter into a new life, and especially a life of
such deep and thrilling interests and such large proportions."[31]

I quote these words from a statesman who knew the House of Commons more
thoroughly than anyone else has ever known it; and, though Lord
Beaconsfield was describing the Parliament which assembled in August,
1841, his description would fit, with scarcely the alteration of a word,
the Parliament in which I took my seat in April, 1880.[32]

The "acquaintance with the forms and habits of the House," which Lord
Beaconsfield attributes to his favourite Endymion, was also mine; from
my earliest years I had been familiar with every nook and corner of the
Palace of Westminster. My father's official residence in Speaker's Court
communicated by a private door with the corridors of the Palace, and my
father's privilege as Sergeant-at-Arms enabled him to place me in, or
under, the Gallery whenever there was a debate or a scene of special
interest. I was early initiated into all the forms and ceremonies of
the House; the manoeuvres of the mace, the obeisances to the Chair,
the rap of "Black Rod" on the locked door, the daily procession of Mr.
Speaker and his attendants (which Sir Henry Irving pronounced the most
theatrically effective thing of its kind