PARLIAMENTABY COURTESY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2167, 5 September 1895, Page 45

PARLIAMENTABY COURTESY.

If he has kept them, Lord Playfair musf; have a rare selection of quaint letters addressed to him in his varied public capacities. About six years ago be delivered in various parts of the country a series of valuable lectures on^ome bearings of free trade. These Uctures brought him mimy letters from the unemployed. Some of the writers were convinced that their lamentable condition was directly due to the wide employment of machinery. One proposed that the armies of Europe might well be used for the purpose of a universal smashing up of machinery. Another suggested to Sir Lyon the organisation of a European association for the destruction of machinery, of whiob he was co be the president. The picture of Lord Playfair, probably on a coal black charger, leading the armies of Europe in a raid npon miscellaneous machinery appeals to the imagination with winning forco. It is fortunate for the House of Commons that the withdrawal from its precincts of Ml Gladstone seos the growth and advance to prominence of Mr Arthur Balfour. Mr Gladstone, among his many claims to the esteem of tbe House of Commons, did more than anyone elso to maintain its antique tone of personal courtesy and high breeding. Mil Balfour ia not much more than half the age Mr Gladstone had reached at the time of his retirement from the parliamentary scene, yeb he has, in degree not possessed by any other member, that graceful and dig.iified manner, that instinctive reverence for tho old traditions of the House of Commons, which marked Mr Gladstone from firatto last. Thia is a precious possession the Housg o£ Commons cherishes as something qnifce apart from politics. The peculiar gift ia undefinable, but men who know the House of Commons intimately will recognise ita inheritance by Mr Balfour, and will possibly be able to name more than one prominent quarter in which otherwise supreme parliamentary talents are marred by its conspicuous lack. Cardinel Vaughan has visited the 1 >bby of the House of Commons once or twice this session, but is by no means bo constant in his attendance as was his predecessor's wont. More especially during the height of the Irish fight under the oaptaincy of Mr Parnell, the spare figare of Cardinal Manning, with hia pinched, ■ bloodless, intellectual features, was as familiar in the lobby as that of the average member. Standing aparf, uoually in tho neighbourhood of the passage by the Bill Office, he held earnest conversation with a succession of Irish members. I remembec_ the sensation created one night in the crowded lobby when a burly, devout Irish member, now no more, popped down on one knee and kissed tho ring on the hand extended to bim with quite other intent by the cardinal. In personal appearance Cardinal Vaughan is wholly different from Mr Gladstone's college companion of more than^GO years ago. One never saw Cardinal Manning without recalling a remark dropped by the cardinal in " Lotbair." " I never eat and I never drink," eaid the prelate, for whose characteristics Mr Disraeli was understood to have drawn upon ft study at hand in London. Cardinal Vaugban does not look at all of that way of thinking. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is rover

0. W. 0. Hardman, Sheriff of Tyler Co., W. Va., appreciates a good thing and does nob hesitate to say co. He w»s almost prostrated with ft cold when he procured a bottle oE Chamberlain's Cough Remedy. He Bays : "It gave me prompt relief. I flad it to be an inTaluable remedy for coughs and colds." Fo» sale by all leading chemists.

permitted to leave the island even for a day Until certain dignitaries, including the Lord GhaDcellor, aie Bolemoly nworn in to act In commission during his absenc*. This is a detail of constitutional law familiar to the public, since the swearirjg-in of the commission is regularly recorded in the Dublin papers. The Lord High Chancellor of Ergland has patiently to bear even a harder lot without assurance of the silent sympathy of the nation. During his term of office he is not permitted to leave the kingdom. If he makes holiday he mast chooee a locality somewhere within the boundaries of the bland. The reason for this restriction is that wherever the Lord Chancellor goes be must carry with him the Great Seal, and that is not to be trusted ont of the country. This precious insignia of authority really consists of a pair of «ties made in silver. When necessity arUeß for affixing the Great Seal of England to any document the dies are closed, melted wax is poured in, and, opened in due geasorj, tbe Great Seal is found ready for attachment. It is six inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch thick. The pair of dies now in use date from the accession of her Majesty. On her death they will be cat into pieces and deposited with a loog list of others in the Tower. One Great Seal is lacking to the collection. It belonged to the reign of James 11. That estimable monarch, fleeing before the thunder of the Great Revolution, dropped the seal into the Thames. Another original Great Saal missing is that which, in tbe reign of George 111, was temporarily in the custody of Lord Thurlow. Tbe Lord Chancellor of those days lived in the now unaristocratic quarter of Great Ormond ifcreet. On March 24, 1754, thieves broke in upon tbe Lord Chancellor's house and stole away tbe Great Seal. It probably went into tfao melting pot. Certainly it wts never teen egain. It so happened that Parliament had to be dissolved on the next day, which made the Incident peculiarly embarrassing. The silversmith was promptly put to work, and the dies of a new Great Saai was made in time for übo in connection with the ceremony of Dissolution.