rules handed down by long
tradition according to which the business of the House was modelled as
closely as possible on the procedure of the House of Commons itself.
Every boy was supposed to represent some place or other, and marvellous
was the scouring of atlases and geography books to discover
constituencies for the young members. There was a Government and an
Opposition, of course, only in the case of the former the "Ministers"
were elected by the votes of the whole assembly, at the beginning of
each session. They were designated by the titles of their office.
There was a Premier and a Home Secretary, and a First Lord of the
Admiralty, and so on, and great was the pride of a Willoughbite when he
first heard himself referred to as the Right Honourable!

Everything that came before the house had to come in the form of a bill
or a resolution. Any one anxious to bring up a subject (and there was
nothing to prevent the junior fag bringing in a bill if he liked)
usually handed in his motion early in the session, so as to stand a good
chance of getting a date for his discussion. Later on, when more
subjects were handed in than there were evenings to debate them, the
order was decided by ballot, and due notice given every Friday of the
business for the next evening.

Another feature of these meetings was, of course, the questions. Any
one was entitled to question the "Government" on matters affecting the
school, and the putting and answering of these questions was usually the
most entertaining part of an evening's business. Naturally enough, it
was not always easy to decide to whose department many of the questions
asked belonged, but tradition had settled this to some extent. The Home
Secretary had to answer questions about the monitors, the First Lord of
the Admiralty about the boats, the Secretary of State for War about
fights, and so on, while more doubtful questions were usually first
asked of the Premier, who, if he didn't find it convenient to answer
them, was entitled to refer the inquirer to some other member of the
Government.

It need hardly be said that the meetings of the Willoughby Parliament
were occasionally more noisy than dignified, and yet there existed a
certain sense of order and respect for the "authority of the House"
which held the members in check, and prevented the meetings from
degenerating into riots. Another reason for the same result existed in
the doctor, who sanctioned the Parliam