It is said there are Judges of the High Court who can sleep during the speeches of counsel, and wake up at the moment that the slumberous presentation of argument is concluded. The atmosphere of the House of Commons is often drowsy. Members may be seen asleep on the benches at all hours. Yet it is a remarkable fact that there is only one instance on record of a Speaker—impassive figure though he be, in a big wig and a flowing gown, reclining in a large Chair under a spreading canopy—having been caught nodding or napping. It was to Shaw-Lefevre, the only Speaker over whom tired Nature asserted itself, and whose weighted lids, despite his desperate resistance, were finally closed in slumber, that Mackworth Praed addressed these lines: Sleep, Mr. Speaker; it’s only fair, If you don’t in your bed, you should in your Chair, Longer and longer still they grow, Tory and Radical, Aye and No. Talking by night and talking by day; Sleep, Mr. Speaker, sleep while you may. END VOL. I. _Printed in Great Britain by_ UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED WOKING AND LONDON FOOTNOTES: [1] This statutory provision was temporarily suspended during the Great War. It was provided by an Act passed in December 1916, making certain new Ministerial appointments, and additional Secretaries or Under-Secretaries, that during the continuance of the War, and for six months afterwards, the limitation on the number of Principal Secretaries and Under-Secretaries who may sit and vote in the House of Commons, shall not have effect. [2] In the Coalition Government during the Great War there were two Chief Whips, one Liberal, the other Unionist, each styled “Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury,” and paid £2,000. [3] Sir Edward Grey, speaking at a public meeting in 1911, when he was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, humorously objected to being referred to as the “Foreign Secretary.” “I am told,” said he, “it gives the impression that, if I am not in the service of foreigners, I am at least an alien.” [4] Three other Ministries were temporarily created for the purposes of the War—Munitions and Shipping and Food. They were brought to an end in 1921. [5] A Committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider the salaries of Ministers, owing to the great rise in the cost of living, following the World War, recommended, in 1921, that the salary of the Prime Minister be raised to £8,000, that the salary of all Ministers of Cabinet rank be £5,000; that the salary of second class Ministers be £3,000, third class Ministers, £2,000, and that Under-Secretaries and Parliamentary Secretaries be paid £1,500. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.