be summoned to the Bar, charged with breach of privilege. Mr. Disraeli,
then leader, did his best to get out of the difficulty. Mr. Lewis, in
full flush with the white waistcoat, was inexorable. The printers were
ordered to appear. They obeyed the summons, and the House finding itself
in a position of ludicrous embarrassment, they were privily entreated to
withdraw, and, above all, to be so good as to say nothing more on the
matter.

Never since the House of Commons grew out of the Wittenagemot has that
august Assembly been brought so nearly into the position of Dogberry.
"You shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in
the Prince's name." "How, if a' will not stand?" queried the wary second
watchman. "Why, then," said the unshakable City officer, "take no note
of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch
together, and thank God you are rid of a knave." Thus, in the spring of
1875, under the temporary leadership of Mr. Charles Lewis, did the House
of Commons act towards the representatives of the _Times_ and the _Daily
News_, with the added embarrassment that the vagrom men in question had
not refused to stand, but were even then in the lobby awaiting judgment.

In the following Session Mr. Lewis succeeded in stirring up another
historic scene. It was he who brought under the notice of the House of
Commons Mr. Lowe's historic declaration, made in a speech delivered at
Retford, that before Mr. Disraeli had undertaken to pass a Bill creating
the Queen Empress of India, two other Prime Ministers had been
approached on the subject by Her Majesty, and had declined to be a party
to the proceedings. Mr. Lewis was utterly devoid of sense of humour, a
poverty that largely accounts for his failure in public life. The only
joke he ever made was unconsciously produced. It happened one night in
Committee of Supply, when, girding at the Irish members opposite, he
sarcastically expressed the hope that the vote before the Committee
"would not prove another fly in the ointment to spoil the digestion of
honourable gentlemen opposite."

"Mr. Chairman," observed Mr. Delahunty, who then represented Waterford
City, "we have many peculiarities in Ireland, but we don't eat
ointment."

Thus, though Mr. Lewis had no humour in his own nature, he was
occasionally the cause of its ebullition in others. The short note he
elicited from Mr. Lowe when he assumed the right to call the right hon.
gentleman