the most angry and unseemly recriminations between the various sections of the House; and it has forced many persons of authority to the conviction that in future the work of the Legislature can only be performed, if those great privileges of personal independence and freedom from restraint, which Members of Parliament have hitherto enjoyed to an unexampled extent, are seriously curtailed. any sensible or patriotic person can regard with pleasure. And unfortunately, whilst these are the undoubted results of Mr. Parnell's policy in the House of Commons, we have of late had to witness the still more deplorable effects of his labours out of doors. In his agitation on the Land Question, whatever may have been his motives, and I believe them to have been pure and creditable,—he has sought to attain his end by means which it is hardly an These are not results which exaggeration to describe as criminal. One would be loth to believe that any personal ambition had led him to incite the Irish tenantry to the steps which too many of them have shown themself ready to take; but even if he has been inspired by the best possible intentions, his course has been such as to lay him open to the strongest censures, and to justify those who declare that in the interests not merely of the Imperial Parliament, but of the Irish. people, strong measures must be adopted against him. In Parliament he may have been nearly as much sinned against as sinning; but in his extra-Parliamentary utterances, he has put himself beyond the reach of tolerance or respect. [THE Right Honourable HENRY BOUVERIE WILLIAM BRAND, second son of the twenty first Baron Dacre, was born in 1814, and was educated at Eton. In 1838 he married Eliza Ellice. Sat for Lewes from July 1852 till November 1868, and has sat for Cambridgeshire since the latter date. Was private Secretary to Sir George Grey at the Home Office; Lord of the Treasury from April 1855 till March 1858; and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from June 1859 till July 1866. Chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in February 1872.] THE SPEAKER. A MAN must either be a Member of the House of Commons, or must have an intimate personal acquaintance with its life, in order to understand the full dignity of the Speaker's position, and the reverence habitually shown towards him by those with whom he is associated. His office, his functions, and his authority are defined by no clear and precise rules like those which regulate the place and powers of the Presidents of foreign Assemblies. Mr. Hayward, in one of his entertaining essays, speaks of Parliament as being what the Russian Em VOL. II. S |