Sessionius. This should not be! Such a time as this puts down a thousand pleasant schemes of summer! When a Bill, an Opposition, and a Closure are met within the Hall of great St. Stephen's! Let the Ex-M.P. bless the summer day, but Whigs, Rads, and Tories, needs must nod to the Sessions Reign.
Enter Vacatia.
Vacatia. Well, o'ertaken Session!
Sessionius. What's that I see? How dare you approach. D'ye mean to give the lie to the prophets, who say I shall not be done until October? Away, thou tempting fancy! Begone! Stay not a moment!
Vacatia. Nay, be not angry! In days gone by thou used to welcome me! Why is it?
Sessionius. Do you not see I cannot move? With Irish Members and Coercion Bills, I may stay here for ever!
Vacatia weeps, and is appeased by Trippius, who explains that they can go unto the seaside by the Sunday trains. Then all go out. Then enter the Excursionists, who sing strange songs in praise of wine and tobacco. After a while the fun grows fast and furious, and the Scene changes to,—
The Garden of Parliamentary Flowers of Speech.
First song, wherein the Speaker works a charm by which certain Irish Members dance a measure with sticks, and striking the floor, then one another's coat-tails, and, lastly, one another's heads. When this is done, Harcourtius appears in the pavan, or "peacock's strut," and marches about. He disappears, and there is a Dance of Woodmen with hatchets by the Gladstonian Family. All this ends merrily with a view of Vacatia working a change as Trippius introduces a View of a possible Autumn Session.