[248] "Orders, Proceedings, Punishments, and Privileges of the Commons" ("Harleian Miscellany," vol. v. p. 8).
[249] "The House has a character of its own. Like all great public collections of men, it possesses a marked love of virtue and an abhorrence of vice. But among vices there is none which the House abhors in the same degree with obstinacy" ("Works and Correspondence," vol. iii. p. 215).
[250] The last instance of this occurred on May 6, 1884, when Lord Waveney was addressing the House.
[251] "I must say that it (the House of Commons) would be a better machine if men were a little less vain, and would adopt a policy of silence. If they would be anxious to get through the business of the House without so much anxiety for self-exhibition as I have sometimes observed, I think the House of Commons might do a good deal more work, and very much better work than it does at present."—Speech at the Fishmongers' Hall, April 27, 1881.
[252] Grant's "Recollections," p. 53. Nowadays no member can make this motion more than once.
[253] Molesworth's "History of the Reform Bill," p. 214.
[254] See "Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion," p. 219.
[255] With regard to those well-worn expressions, the "sense" of the House and the "feeling" of the House, it has been stated that the House of Commons has more sense and feeling than any one who sits upon its benches: "The collective wisdom of Parliament exceeds the wisdom of any single head therein."
[256] Pike's "Constitutional History," p. 267.
[257] Peeresses may also claim this as a right.