Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London LifeKirwan, Daniel Joseph
History
Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life
Kirwan, Daniel Joseph
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- Social life and customs
The man just now speaking from notes is Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert
Anstruther, of the Grenadier Guards, member for Fifeshire, a Harrow
man, and an earnest liberal of the Scotch stamp.
The little old man in evening dress, pale face, and having a circle
of white beard around his throat, who is playing with his fingers
nervously, is The O'Conor Don, member for Roscommon, who is looked up
to by all the Irish members.
The slender young gentleman, not yet in his twenty-fifth year, and
very fashionably dressed, leaning up against the back of the Speaker's
chair in conversation, is Henry George, Earl Percy, son of the Duke of
Northumberland, who married the eldest daughter of the Duke of Argyll,
and will one day be the proprietor of the second proudest title in
England as well as of half a dozen castles, a score of manors, and
three or four baronies. This young man was sent to the House of Commons
by his father, the Duke of Northumberland, as a Conservative, but it
is rarely that he takes the trouble to open his lips in debate. He has
a very great reputation for driving tandem, and is known to be a judge
of boquets and claret--young as he is as a legislator in the House of
Commons--but he bears a good reputation, and has not done anything to
dishonor the proud name of Percy as yet.
That young gentleman with the pointed yellow moustache and goatee of
the Vandyke type, is Sir David Wedderburn, of an old Scotch family,
and quite an active working young member of the opposition when led
by Disraeli. Very often the peers of the Upper House may be found in
the Commons, from motives of curiosity or to get intelligence of the
birth of new bills before they are sent to the Upper House. They have a
gallery of their own, these peers, and hardly ever trouble the floor of
the House.
Occasionally a prelate of the English Established Church may be found
in the Peers' Gallery of the House of Commons, listening to the
debates, and to-night there are two bishops in the gallery, one of
whom is Dr. Fraser, Bishop of Manchester, who is said to be the most
practical minded prelate in England. Dr. Fraser has a well outlined
face and a very compact head, with a clear, firm eye. He is big with a
scheme for the education of the working classes, and looks to be deeply
interested in the debate. His companion is the Bishop of Peterborough,
who is acknowledged to be the ablest speaker and clearest thinker in
the English Episcopate. Viscount Bury is now on his legs. The Viscount
is of all the speakers I have heard, the very dullest. He reads from
notes which he takes page for page from his hat, and I am certain
that I never listened to such a dreadful monotone as his voice. The
Viscount dresses plainly, and yet he has a Dundreary look, the light
side whiskers which he wears giving him an affected appearance. The
Viscountess Bury is a daughter of Sir Allan McNab, and in her younger
days was a celebrated beauty, and was a toast in fashionable society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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