EXTRAORDINARY SCENE IN PARLIAMENT.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1061, 18 July 1883, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE IN PARLIAMENT.

The oldest members of the House can remember few parallels to the tumult of riotous excitement that followed the declaration of the division in the early hours of this morning.. The Government lobby was the first to be cleared, and immediately Mr Ashraead Bartlett and other scouts jostled their way through the dense crowd at the/ bar, and made known the figures to the front Opposition bench. There was a lull for a few minutes, and then Mr Callnn and two pr three Tory members rushed from behind the Speaker’s chair and announced in stage whispers the numbers in the Opposition lobby. Lord Randolph Churchill vehemently slapped his knee, Baron Henry de Worms waved bis hat, and the whole Opposition burst into a yell of victory. Mr Callan, at the bar, leaped and gesticulated, and threw bis hat into the .air and effusively shook the arm of Lord Henry Lennox. While the whips stood at the table mutely awaiting a lull in order to announce the figures, one-half of the Opposition were on their feetj waving their hats, clapping their hands and otherwise demonstrating by methods hitherto unknown in Parliament their exultation over their victory. The Irish members, with the exception named, remained seated, but cheered and jeered in chorus. At last the figures were announced, and then the outburst war lenewed, cries of “ Gladstone” being also raised. The Prime Minister, who was placidly writing on bis knee his usual report of the evening’s proceedings, remained unmoved. The Speaker, hopeless of restoring order, stood up, and, amid the most discordant din, directed the clerk to read the remaining orders, which were disposed of with unusual alacrity, and the House adjourned. —Pall Mall Gazette.