Great Britain. Parliament; Great Britain. Parliament -- History; Representative government and representation
Members who consider themselves aggrieved or insulted have now no
redress save by an appeal to the Speaker. In old days they often took
the matter into their own hands, and many a duel was the outcome of
hasty words spoken in Parliament. So prevalent, indeed, did the habit
of duelling become, that in 1641 a resolution was passed in the
Commons empowering the Speaker to arrest any member who either sent or
received a challenge. The practice of parliamentary duelling long
continued, in spite of every effort to stifle it. Wilkes was wounded
in 1763 in Hyde Park by a member named Martin, who had called him "a
cowardly scoundrel." Lord Castlereagh and Canning met in 1809, and
had, in consequence, to resign their seats in the Cabinet.[312] Lord
Alvanley fought Morgan O'Connell, son of the Liberator, on his
father's account. Charles James Fox was challenged by Mr. Adam, of the
Ordnance Department, for a personal attack made in the House of
Commons, and faced him in the old Kensington Gravel Pits. At the first
shot Adam's bullet lodged harmlessly in his opponent's belt. "If
you hadn't used Ordnance powder," said Fox, with a laugh, as he shook
hands with Adam after the fight, "I should have been a dead man."[313]
[312] Bell's "Life of Canning," p. 251.
[313] Pryme's "Recollections," p. 235.
If duels were fought in those days on very slight provocation,
challenges were also occasionally declined on equally poor grounds.
Colonel Luttrell, member for Middlesex, and afterwards Lord
Carhampton, refused to fight his own father, not because he was his
father, but because he was not a gentleman!
The last duel between politicians was that fought by the Duke of
Wellington and Lord Winchelsea, as the result of some remarks made by
the latter during a debate on the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill in
1830. Since that time no parliamentary dispute has been referred to
the arbitrament of the pistol.
Although there has been a perceptible improvement in parliamentary
deportment as the centuries have advanced, the same can scarcely be
said of parliamentary dress. In the time of Charles II.,
knee-breeches, silk stockings, and silver-buckled shoes were
absolutely _de rigueur_ for members of the Commons. A hundred years
later members of Parliament always wore court dress, with bag-wig and
sword, in the House. The formal costume prescribed by etiquette was
rigidly adhered to, and none but county members were permitted the
privilege of wearing spurs.[314] At this time, too, Cabinet Ministers
were never seen in Parliament without the ribbons and decorations of
the various orders to which they belonged. The regulation which bids
the mover and seconder of the Address to appear in court dress on the
first day of the new Parliament is the only relic of this custom.
[314] Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. i. p. 45.
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