ny one sitting
of the House, and no member can approach the ballot for at least a week
after he has accomplished a success. The Ladies' Gallery holds only a
very small number of women, and it is jealously screened by a gilded
grating something like that through which the women of an Eastern
potentate's household are permitted to gaze upon the stage from their
box in the theatre.

It will perhaps be news to some readers to hear that this ladies'
gallery, such as it is, is technically not within the precincts of the
House of Commons at all. It is not an {274} institution of the House,
nor does it come under the rules of the House, nor is it recognized by
the authorities of the House. It is there, as a matter of fact, but it
is not supposed to be there, and the Speaker of the House, who is
omnipotent over all other parts of the chamber, has no control over the
occupants of that gilded cage, and is technically assumed to be
ignorant of their presence. The Speaker can, on proper occasions,
order strangers "to withdraw" from all the other galleries set apart
for the use of outsiders, but he has no power over the ladies who sit
in the gallery high above his chair. It has even happened that when
subjects had, as a matter of necessity, to be discussed in the House of
Commons which the Speaker did not consider quite suitable for an
audience of both sexes, he has sent a private and unofficial intimation
to the Ladies' Gallery that it would, in his opinion, be more seemly if
its occupants were to withdraw. But on some occasions a few of the
ladies declined to withdraw, and the Speaker had no power to enforce
his advice, seeing that, technically, there was no Ladies' Gallery
within his jurisdiction. Some time, no doubt, the House of Commons
will adopt more reasonable regulations, and will recognize the right of
women to be treated as rational creatures, as members of the community,
as citizens, and allowed to sit, as men do, in an open gallery, and
listen to the debates which must always more or less concern their own
interests. It is a curious fact that the galleries and other parts of
the House of Lords to which women have admission are open to the public
gaze just as are those parts of the House in which male strangers are
permitted to listen to the debates of the peers.

[Sidenote: 1835--The Orange Associations]

In the year 1835 the public mind of these countries was much surprised,
and even startled, by the discover