The AYES Have It;
Or The NOES Have It," As The Case May Be.
But all the spectators
must then retire from the gallery; for then, and not till then, the
voting really commences.
And now the members call aloud to the
gallery, "Withdraw! withdraw!" On this the strangers withdraw, and
are shut up in a small room at the foot of the stairs till the
voting is over, when they are again permitted to take their places
in the gallery. Here I could not help wondering at the impatience
even of polished Englishmen. It is astonishing with what violence,
and even rudeness, they push and jostle one another as soon as the
room door is again opened, eager to gain the first and best seats in
the gallery. In this manner we (the strangers) have sometimes been
sent away two or three times in the course of one day, or rather
evening, afterwards again permitted to return. Among these
spectators are people of all ranks, and even, not unfrequently,
ladies. Two shorthand writers have sat sometimes not far distant
from me, who (though it is rather by stealth) endeavour to take down
the words of the speaker; and thus all that is very remarkable in
what is said in parliament may generally be read in print the next
day. The shorthand writers, whom I noticed, are supposed to be
employed and paid by the editors of the different newspapers. There
are, it seems, some few persons who are constant attendants on the
parliament; and so they pay the door-keeper beforehand a guinea for
a whole session.
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