de of the House a similar contest was going
forward between the Irish Nationalist members, represented by Dr.
Tanner, and their Ulster brethren, who acknowledge a leader in Colonel
Saunderson.

[Illustration: THE NON-WORKING HAT--IRISH.]

These tactics are made possible by the peculiar, indeed unique,
arrangement by which seats are secured in the House of Commons. In all
other Legislative Assemblies in the world each member has assigned to
him a seat and desk, reserved for him as long as he is a member. That
would be an impossible arrangement in the House of Commons, for the
sufficient reason that while there are 670 duly returned members, there
is not sitting room for much more than half the number. When a member of
the House of Commons desires to secure a particular seat for a given
night he must be in his place at prayer time, which on four days a week
is at three o'clock in the afternoon. On the fifth day, Wednesday,
prayers are due at noon. At prayer time, and only then, there are
obtainable tickets upon which a member may write his name, and, sticking
the pasteboard in the brass frame at the back of the seat, is happy for
the night.

Where, what Mr. Mitchell Henry called, the non-working hat comes in is
in the practice of members gathering before prayer time and placing
their hats on the seat they desire to retain. That is a preliminary that
receives no official recognition. "No prayer, no seat," is the axiom,
and unless a member be actually present in the body when the Chaplain
reads prayers, he is not held to have established a claim. Thus his
spiritual comfort is subtly and indispensably linked with his material
comfort.

A NEW THING IN SYNDICATES.

There is nothing new under the glass roof of the House of Commons, not
even the balloting syndicates, of which so much has been heard since the
Session opened. Fifteen or sixteen years ago the Irish members
astonished everybody by the extraordinary luck that attended them at the
ballot. The ballot in this sense has nothing to do with the electoral
poll, being the process by which precedence for private members is
secured. When a private member has in charge a Bill or resolution, much
depends on the opportunity he secures for bringing it forward.
Theoretically, Tuesday, Wednesday, and (in vanishing degree) a portion
of Friday are appropriated to his use. On Tuesday he may bring on
motions; on Wednesday advance Bills; and on Friday raise miscellaneous
questio