THE HAT IN PARLIAMENTARY LIFE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1367, 12 May 1898, Page 9

THE HAT IN PARLIAMENTARY LIFE.

SOME AMUSING INCIDENTS.

The hat plays an important part ia : Parliamentary customs. It also contributes occasionally to the gaiety of life in the House of Commons. No incident is greeted with more hearty laughter than that of a Member, after a magnificent peroration, plumping down on his silk hat on the bench behind him. The bashful and awkward Member generally figures in these accidents. Most members have sufficient self-possession, while speaking, t > remember to remove their hats before sitting down; but the misfortune of fo'rgetfulness has befallen even ol 1 and cool Parliament hands, and the result —a misshapen hat —has completely spoiled the effect of some of their most eloquent speeches. A few years ago a London • Member sat down, after his maiden speech, on a new silk hat, which he had provider : in honour of the auspicious occasion, and as he was ruefully surveying his battered • headgear, to the amusement of the unfeeling spectators, an friish representative

rose and gravely said : —" Mr Speaker, pe.imit me to congratulate the honourable member on the happy circumstance that when he sat on his hat his head was not i 1 it." The call to " Order, order ! " from the Speaker was drowned in roars of : laughter. This London representative j enjoyed the unenviable distinction of being j known as " the Member who sat on his J hat," until some other absent-minded legislator unintentionally established his j claim to the title by crushing his headgear I in a similarly awkward fashion. j When men meet together in public as- ! semblies, or in social life —as in a theatre j or at a reception—the ordinary custom is to uncover while they are seated, and to j wear then hats as they enter or leave the place. In Parliamentary life that rule is : reversed. Members have their heads ! covered as they flit about the Palace of j Westminster, but in the chamber they j can wear their hats only when they are seated on the benches. As they walk to i their seats or rise to leave the Chamber i they must be uncovered. This custom is j the source of much confusion to new i Members, and has given rise to many j funny " contretemps." The House never

fails to show its resentment of a breach of etiquette, however trivial. It will, without distinction of Party, unanimously roar with indignation at a new Member, who, ignorant or unmindful of the Parliamentary custom, wears his hat as he walks up or down the floor of the Chamber. An amusing incident occurred in the early days of the first session of the present Parliament. An offending Member, startled by the shout which greeted him as he was leaving the Chamber with his hat on his head, instead of in his hand, paused in the middle of the floor, and looked around with a mingled expression of fright and perplexity. " Hat, hat 1 " shouted the House. This only embarrassed him the more. He felt his trousers pockets and his coat tails for the offending article of attire. He even looked at his feet tc see if he were wearing it at that extremity of his person. It is impossible to conjecture what might have happened further, had not an Irish Member, amid the loud laughter of the House, politely taken off the hat of the

confused legislator, and then handed it to him with a courtly bow. But the story of the humours of the Parliamentary hat is not yet ended. When a Member is alluded to in the course of a speech, he raises his hat, and he performs a similar act of politeness when a Minister answers a question put by him. A Member addressing the House stands, of course, uncovered. But that rule does not always prevail. There is an occasion when it is positively out of order for a Member to speak on his feet, and with his hat off. He must speak from his seat, with his hat on his head. When a debate is terminated, and the question which has been discussed is put from the chair, an interval of two minutes—during which the electric division bells ring out their summons all over the precincts of St. Stephen's—is allowed to enable Members

ro get to the Chamber. The time is taken j by a sandglass on the table, and when it ! lias elapsed the doors of the Chamber are locked. It is at this particular junction i that it is essen.ial that a Member who | desires to address the Chair on a point of | order should retain his sect and wear his | hat. If he were to follow the ordinary | practice, and stand up uncovered, he would be roared at and shouted at from ! all sides of the House for this breach of etiquette. Mr Gladstone had occasion a few years ago to address tho Chair just as a division was about to ba taken, and, forgetful of the rule for the moment, he rose to his feet. A shout of :i Order, order!" drawing his attention to his mistake, he sat down again; and as he never brought bis hat intj the Chamber

(an example which is followed by most Ministers) he was obliged to put on the headgear of one of his lieutenants who sat on the bench beside him. .Now Mr Gladstone's head is of an abnormal size. He has to get his own hats made to order. It is improbable that the hat of any other Member of the House would lit him ; but the hat available on the occasion of which I write only just covered his crown, and Members made the rafters ring with laughter at Lis comical efforts to balance it on his head for the few minutes ho oo I cupied in speaking from his scat on the front Opposition bench.—Michael Mac- j Donagh, in the Nineteenth Century, '