More than he had expected, burst instantly out
In a howl, of a sort which description would mock;
In the midst of it he was removed from the dock.
And so on. The suggestion above exemplified will perhaps be adopted by some enterprising journalist, prepared to afford the necessary remuneration to competent poets. In the event of another war, the communications of Our Special Correspondent might fall naturally into the form of an Epic, shaped and determined by the course of circumstances. The title of a journal composed in verse might be, for want of a better, The Poetical News.
THE SPEAKER.
The announcement that the present Speaker of the House of Commons is about to take his well-earned pension and Peerage, and that the election of a successor will be one of the first Acts of Parliament when it meets in February, has occasioned much writing in newspapers and conversation in the social circle, in competition with the Temple of Justice, Clubs for Working-Men, the State of the Streets, and the "insobriety" which accompanies the festive season.
As some misconception appears to prevail regarding the Speaker's exalted office, especially amongst the young and gay, and in rural districts, Mr. Punch, the best "Popular Educator" has (with the valuable assistance of Sir Erskine May) compiled a few notes on the subject, which in his leisure moments he hopes to be able to expand into a voluminous treatise, worthy to take its place by the side of Enfield's Speaker, or anybody else's.
The office of Speaker is as old as the Saxon Wittenagemot, but the mace now borne by the Serjeant-at-Arms is not the one which Cromwell impetuously called a "bauble." That interesting relic of a bye-gone age is said to be in a private collection in the United States.
The Speaker is in the Chair whenever the House is not in Committee. If it be asked, when is the House in Committee, the answer is simple—whenever the Speaker is not in the Chair.