“Order! order!”
“Am I out of order, sir?” asked he of the Speaker.
“Clearly so,” replied that functionary. “Every interruption, short of a knock-down, is parliamentary.”
“I bow to the authority of the chair, and I say that the ruffianly allusions of certain honorable members 'pass by me like the idle wind, that I regard not.'”
“Where 's that from? Take you two to one in half-crowns you can't tell,” cried one.
“Done!” “Order! order!” “Spoke!” with cries of “Goon!” here convulsed the meeting; after which O'Shea resumed his discourse.
“When, sir,” said he, “I undertook to bring under the notice of this House, and consequently before the eyes of the nation, the case of a distinguished officer, one whose gallant services in the tented field, whose glorious achievements before the enemy have made his name famous in all the annals of military distinction, I never anticipated to have been met by the howls of faction, or the discordant yells of disappointed and disorderly followers—mere condottieri—of the contemptible tyrant who now scowls at me from the cross-benches.”
Loud cheers of applause followed this burst of indignation.