WHY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS LOCKS ITS DOORS.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume X, Issue 88, 7 February 1907, Page 3

WHY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS LOCKS ITS DOORS.

SOME ANCIENT CEREMONIES j THAT WASTE A LOT OF TIME.

It jis not generally known that constitutionally both the House of Lords and Commons are supposed to be in ignorance of each other s existence. This being so, no direct allusion to the other House is allowed in debate. - A speaker may refer to something which has occurred elsewhere, but were he to say, ; “The other night Lord Milner in the House of Lords said,” the gist of what Lord Milner .did say would be drowned in indignant cries of “Order.” The rule which regulates the conduct of a new member on entering the House to be sworn is as strange as any.

He has to be accompanied by two friends who stand on either side of him. The signal to advance being given, they march slowly from the bar to the clerk’s table, bowingthree times to the chair on their journey.

Many readers will probably inquire “Why three times ?” The reason is lost in the mists of antiquity. Debates in the House of Commons are conducted with much more formality than in the House of Lords. In the latter place the sexes are not divided, ladies and gentlemen sitting next each other in the narrow gallery that runs round the chamber ; indeed they may even be frequently seen on the floor in the portion reserved for strangers.

Messengers, also, who are not allowed to pass the bar in the Lower House, slide freely about in the House of Lords. But it is in the conduct of the debates that the greatest difference exists. In the House of Lords the doors remain open ; in the Commons 'they are locked, the House being jinvarinbly found in this condition by the Usher of the Black Rod wheiji that functionary summons the faithful Commons to the House of Lqrds, either to hear the King’s Speech read or the Royal assent given to such bills as have passed both Houses In the old days, when the spies of the Court infested the House, and when liberty of speech would have been endangered could the Sovereign but have known all that on occasion was being said about him, the locking of the doors was absolutely necessary. Even now they are not opened till Black Rod has knocked three times. In the present day such a procedure is simply a survival. So also is the custom which decrees that when the Commons are informed to which bills Hiq Majesty has been graciously, pleased to give his consent, the announcement is made in Norman-French, which no one understands. Still, meaningless as some of the customs ai-e, the House still clings to them with a devotion and respect quite touching to witness.

So far as can be discovered, only one dog has over had the temerity to enter the venerated Chamber during debate. Its appearance, so the report runs, caused such a profound sensation “that the whole House seemed to sink into a state of stupefaction, a condition which became intensified when the dog proceeded to bark at Lord North who was addressing the House.” /'Even his lordship, who does not, da a rule lose his presence of mind,” •said the report, “when anything partaking of the unforeseen happens, became greatly perturbed, and once spoke of the dog as the hon. member who was interrupting him.”-