66

"members of parliament, and being desirous of testing their "To the operative," says Dr. Kay, “home has no other rela"accuracy, I resolved, on my return home, to make a cal-“tion than that of shelter-few pleasures are there-it chiefly "culation myself, by watching a child at work in the fac-"presents to him a scene of physical exhaustion, from Story in which I am myself concerned. To my own sur- "which he is glad to escape. Himself impotent of all the "prise, I found the distance was not less than twenty miles "distinguishing aims of his species, he sinks into sensual "in twelve hours; and therefore I can easily believe the "sloth, or revels in more degrading licentiousness. His "statement of the delegates, seeing that the machinery house is ill furnished, uncleanly, often ill ventilated— "in my own works is not driven at any thing like the speed "perhaps damp; his food, for want of forethought and do"of that on which their calculations are founded." "I well "mestic economy, is meager and innutricious; he is debili"know too," says this gentleman, "that the labor now (1836) "tated and hypochondriacal, and falls the victim of dissipaundergone in the factories, is much greater than it used to be, "tion." Dr. Kay also stated, that "Mr. Braidley of Man"owing to the greater attention and activity required by "chester, observed the number of persons entering a gin"the greatly increased speed which is given to the machi-"shop in five minutes, during eight successive Saturday 66 nery that the children have to attend to, when we com- "evenings, and at various periods from seven o'clock until "pare it with what it was thirty or forty years ago." "ten. The average result was, one hundred and twelve Mr. Bulwer in his "England and the English," gives "men and one hundred and sixty-three women, or two hunsome well authenticated examples of the great length of "dred and seventy-five in forty minutes, which is equal to time that some of the children are required to work. One"four hundred and twelve per hour." boy testified that he "worked seventeen hours a day all the year round;" and it appeared from the evidence that David Bywater, a boy of thirteen, was allowed five hours for sleep on one night, and one and a half hour the following night, and so on alternately. The evidence laid before parliament proved that in nearly all the factories, the labor was from thirteen to sixteen hours a day. "The boy thus prepared and seasoned," says Mr. Bulwer, "for the miseries "of life, enters upon manhood-aged while yet youthful, "and compelled by premature exhaustion, to the dread re"lief of artificial stimulus. Gin, not even the pure spirit, "but its dire adulteration-opium-narcotic drugs; these "are the horrible cements, with which he repairs the rents "and chasms of a shattered and macerated frame,"

The number of operatives above the age of forty was found, upon examination, to be incredibly small. In 1831, there was a "turnout" from forty-two mills of sixteen hundred and sixty-five persons, whose ages ranged from fifteen to sixty.

Mr. Gregg concurred with Dr. Kay, and described the diet of the operative as scanty in measure, and norious in quality. It would seem then, that the food of the operatives is not altogether so "wholesome and sufficient" as Mr. Murray admits that the slaves of Virginia receive.

"England and the English" contains a table "drawn," says Mr, Bulwer, "from official returns," and showing the " 'comparative condition of each class as to food, from the honest and independent laborer, to the convicted and "transported felon," The independent agricultural la "borer is unable to get more than an average allowance"Of bread, (daily,) 17 oz. per week, to 119 oz. bread. "Of bacon, per week, 4 oz. "Loss in cooking, 1 oz.

66

3 oz. bacon,

122 oz. solid food."

"nearly four times the allowance of the honest laborer! What

The whole table is too long for insertion here. Mr. Bulwer concludes it by remarking, "that the industrious la"borer has less than the pauper-the pauper less than the "Of these, fifteen hundred and eighty-four were below suspected thief-he less than the convicted-the convicted forty-five; three only had attained a period between fifty-less than the transported, and by the time you reach the "five and sixty, and not more than fifty-one between forty-end of the gradation, you find that the transported thief has “five and fifty were counted as fit for work." Mr. McNish, whose testimony was admitted by the factory committee, and who is said by an intelligent writer, to be "entitled to "the utmost credit," deposed, "that by actual enumeration "of sixteen hundred men in the factories of Kenfrew and 'Lanark, he ascertained that not more than ten had reached 'forty-five years of age, and these, he added, were retained "by the special indulgence and humanity of their masters."

66

64

of

That the operatives should be unfit for labor at the age forty or forty-five will excite no surprise, when the reader reflects upon the early age at which children are sent to the factories-the immense amount of labor required-the short interval allowed for repose the heated and impure atmosphere which they breathe, and the other cruelties inflicted upon them-inflicted too, be it remembered, in the name of liberty! Well may it be said of the operative, dum vivat,

A member of the house of commons has said, that "the 'common characteristic of the operatives, even amid all "the miseries and excesses frequent among them, is that "of desires better than their condition." No doubt of it. The mind, however familiarised to misery, is not apt to desire its continuance.

"effect must those laws produce upon our social system, "which make the laborer rise by his own degradation, "which bid him be ambitious to be a pauper, and aspire to "be a convict!"

Mr. Gregg adds, that "the pernicious practice of mixing "a large proportion of spirits in every cup they take, pre"vails to an inconceivable extent among the manufacturing 'population, at every age and in both sexes.* Ardent spirits "are not the only stimulus which this class of people in"dulge in. Many of them take large quantities of opium, in "one form or another; sometimes in pills, sometimes as "laudanum, sometimes in what they call an anodyne draught, "which is a narcotic of the same kind. The quantity of 'opium, which, from habit, some children are capable of "taking, is almost incredible."

"The fact undoubtedly is," continues the same writer, "that the licentiousness which prevails among the dense "population of manufacturing towns, is carried to a degree "which it is appalling to contemplate, which baffles all sta "tistical inquiries, and which can be learned only from the "testimony of personal observers." The London Quarterly

The English operatives have learned in the school of ex-pronounces Mr. Gregg "an impartial witness," who had perience, that liberty does not imply happiness, or secure enjoyed "unparalleled means of arriving at just conclu

exemption from that decree by which it was ordained that *What a contrast is presented in the habits of the Ame man shall live by the sweat of his brow. Liberty is va- rican slave! We believe the slave-laborers of the United luable not as an end, but as a means of procuring happi-States are less addicted to the use of stimulating drinks, This is no new truth; yet it is an important one, and other country on the globe. The solution is to be found in any equal number of white-laborers to be found in any if it makes no impression, it is simply because of its no-the salutary discipline and supervision to which the slaves toriety. are subjected by their owners.

ness.

than

66

sions," and whose testimony "must be heard with all the stated that he is a "fair specimen" of that great class which deference such authority demands." is part land-holder and part laborer. "I have not worn "The dissoluteness," said Dr. Macfarlane, "of the men "shoes," says Hugh, "for ten years. I have had no stockand women in our manufactories is frightful." "ings but such as you see-the legs of stockings a neighThe appalling evils of the factory system have augmented, "bor gave me when he had worn out the feet of them. I till they have "now extended," says an English writer, "have not got a new coat this five years. This is an old "from hundreds to thousands, and from thousands to mil- "one a neighbor gave me six months ago. There is a son lions of our people." Mr. McCulloch in his Commercial "of mine; he never wore breeches, he never had any; this Dictionary, in treating of the cotton manufacture in England," is a borrowed coat he has on him. That shirt is the only estimates the number of operatives at eight hundred thou- "stitch of clothing he has of his own. We lie on straw sand persons, but adds, that the data "being necessarily "that we get from some neighbor in charity; we do not loose, it is impossible to arrive at any thing like precision." change it, but, as it wastes away, the neighbors give us a His estimate of those employed in the woollen manufacture, wisp to add to it." is three hundred and thirty thousand. The number of ope- O'Donoghoe says, "all the bed-clothes we have is a sinratives in the cotton factories must be very large; for, in 'gle fold of a blanket; the children all lie together and have 1835, the average weekly consumption of raw cotton was "no covering but the sheet. There are numbers in the six millions three hundred and sixty thousand pounds. 'parish as badly or worse off than I am." This individual To demonstrate the truly deplorable condition of the was pronounced a "favorable sample" by the priest of the English operatives, more need not be said. It is obvious, parish, Mr. Lyons, who thus continues: "According to a that their free agency is nominal-not substantial; that vir- "census which I made two years ago, there were then in tually their liberty is a miserable servitude, characterized "this parish seven hundred and fifty-one men who had no by indigence and ignorance, exhausting labor and extreme" shoes, and were unable to procure them. Out of a popuprofligacy. The portrait here exhibited, was not drawn by "lation of (9,000) nine thousand, there were three thousand foreign but by native artists, whose skill had been improved" one hundred and thirty-six persons, male and female, who by study, matured by experience, and of whose impartiality and integrity no doubt can be entertained. Its contemplation can excite no pleasurable emotion in any liberal mind; and, without giving utterance to the feelings it awakens, we pass on to an examination of the condition of the Irish peasantry.

"within five years had not purchased any important article "of clothing, as a gown, a coat, &c. As to night-covering, "of sixteen hundred and eighteen families, the entire population, one thousand and eleven have only one blanket each, "such as it is; two hundred and ninety-nine families have no blanket at all."

66

The evidence to which we shall refer, will be the report Mr. Townsend, the chief constable of police in Longford, of his majesty's commissioners for inquiring into the con- states, that "The other night my police went to execute a dition of the poorer classes in Ireland. The report was "warrant against a man, and on entering the house, they made in 1835. These commissioners appointed assistant "found twelve children and four women lying on some straw, commissioners, who held meetings in upwards of one hun-"scattered on a wet floor, with no covering but an old tarpaulin dred parishes, and obtained evidence from all classes, from the "land-bolder and magistrate to the mendicant himself." "The sort of potato generally used is the lumper," as it grows more abundantly and requires "less manure than any other description." Doyle says, "If it were not for the "plentiful produce of this potato, the scarcity of the sum- Another witness said to the commissioners: "A spring"mer that has just passed would have been starvation. The “well, if it were all ink, would not write for you all the "poverty of the people is bringing it into general use. It is "miseries they suffer." The commissioners say, "some "of a soft, watery quality, and is both unwholesome and un-"bleed the cattle and eat their boiled blood. Others dig "palatable food; pigs will not thrive upon it." "their potatoes before the crop is half ripe, when they get Capt. Hughes, Mr. Stoney, Mr. Stuart, &c. agree, "That "but one stone for three they would have if they could "in ordinary seasons there is one-fifth of the population, who "wait till it ripened. Nay, they are even seen, in the be"have not a sufficiency even of this unwholesome food; and " 'ginning of summer, madly pulling up the potato-stalks to “years of scarcity are so frequent, that they must enter "get, not the young unformed root, but the old rotten potato "largely into any calculation of the general condition of the" that the plant is growing from." "people."

"thrown over the sixteen persons."

Waldron, a Connaught farmer, says, "hundreds would "think it good wages to be made sure of one good meal of po"tatoes a day to themselves and their families, in return for "their labor."

44

John Cornfield, a small farmer, says, "I knew last sum"mer (1834) in my village, a family of nine to be trusting to "eight stone of potatoes for the weck, (if not stinted, they "would consume upwards of three stone a day,) and it is **not of one family, or one village that I speak; but I know “sixty families in the same state. I think one-half of the "land-holders and laborers are supported by the other half] "during the scanty season." "I knew two land-holders of "three acres each," says the Rev. Mr. O'Kean, "who, last "year, had but one meal of potatoes a day for the whole summer. Many a man has cut his only blanket in two, "and sold one-half of it for food, rather than beg. Half the "laborers have no bedstead, but lie on straw spread on the "ground; and they find great difficulty in getting enough of "this for an occasional change. As to bed-clothes, in many "houses, the inmates have nothing to cover them at night "beyond the garments which they have worn by day, and "many must lie down in their day-clothes, although they "should be dripping wet."

46

Hugh O'Malley was examined by the commissioners, who

When large masses are reduced to such privations, can we wonder at the commission of crime, or think it astonishing that a standing army is required to preserve the public peace? Is it not more wonderful, that any respect whatever is paid to property-especially the property of those wealthy individuals, whose “absenteeism" has increased the miseries of their country?

"The habit of pilfering potatoes is common. Wool is "plucked from the sheep's back. Turf is frequently stolen, "and cabbages and turnips where they are raised, though "the certainty of suffering from such depredations very "generally prevents their being raised." "It would be a relief," say the commissioners, "for one-half of them to be transported." Yes, and probably the other "half." Such is the moral wretchedness of this population, "that even "the commission of murder is a recognized title to popular "sympathy, gratitude and protection."

"Out of one hundred families, there appear to be usually "from twelve to eighteen widows. They are seldom half "fed. One meal of potatoes a day is the utmost they can "expect, eked out often with unwholesome weeds."

66

Surly porter stands in guilty state

To spurn imploring famine from the gate.

These lines from "Goldsmith's Deserted Village," are applicable to the present day.

The Rev. Mr. Burke stated that "absentees, even in "times of dearth or infectious disease, send over no subscrip"tions; they send nothing but latitats and ejectments.” “The "burden imposed by mendicants falls upon the lower and "middle classes-the farmers and shopkeepers--but chiefly upon the poor themselves. 'Beg from a beggar,' is an old "and current saying among them."

The following is a "fair sample" of the misery of this | farmer in periods of distress, are all beggars in turn. “The class: "My cabin," says a witness, "fell in soon after my "gentry never give to beggars. High walls surround their "husband's death. The neighbors built me a new one, but "demesnes, and a dog is kept at the gates to prevent the "the rain comes in through the roof, which is badly thatched,*"entrance of a beggar." The "and beats in through the walls. I sleep on the ground, "which is almost constantly wet, and often have not so "much straw as would fill a hat. On a wet night, I must "go to a neighbor's house with my infant child, born after my husband's death. I have but a single fold of a blanket "to cover my whole family of five children. I have had it 'for eight years. My children are almost naked. I have 'myself a bad lump on the shoulder, for which I cannot "procure medical assistance. It is getting worse through "the famishing I have had. My potato crop this year was "bad; it cannot last me many weeks. I stuck to the cabin". "while I could, but I have nothing before me for the winter "but to walk the world with my children; and they are so "One hundred and twenty beggars will call at my house "young I must carry three of them." "It was agreed," in a day," said Mr. D. Avery to the commissioners.* They says the assistant commissioner, "by all the bystanders, reported, that the condition of the regular beggar is "far including two magistrates, two protestant rectors, and better than that of every description of laborer." Many of "several catholic priests, farmers and shopkeepers, that few the beggars "keep up and exhibit disgusting sores for the "widows of the small land-holders, much less of laborers, can" purpose of exciting compassion. Some borrow children "be better circumstanced than this woman, and that she affords "for the same object. Others lead about a maniac, or idiot, "a fair illustration of the common case of a widow sinking or deformed child. All the prayer-hawkers (beggars who go "into beggary, and of the struggles she makes to hold her- "about reciting long prayers in every house into which they "self above it.' "force their way) drink. You may often see the prayer'rhymers drunk."

66

"Often," said the medical men examined, one and all, "do we administer medicine to the sick, when we well Political economists contend, that poverty operates as a "know that food and clothing are the real medicines wanted check to marriage. We believe the doctrine is true in re"to rescue them from the grave-remedies indispensable, ference to the middle and higher classes of society, but not "but not to be procured." true of the lowest class. If it be true of these last, the conDr. Walsh says: "In many instances when I have spo- duct of the Irish peasantry cannot be adduced as confirming "ken of gruel as necessary for the patient, I have been told the correctness of the theory; for we have good authority for "I might as well order them claret, because they had neither asserting, that in Ireland, "a lamb, a calf, a bedstead, or a "the material nor the turf to boil it. I have frequently found" blanket-nay, even the promise of a pig, given with the "the sick lying on the bare damp ground without any covering, daughter, is quite enough to induce a youth of eighteen or "straw being considered a luxury which the pig only, who pays "twenty to marry her." [A slender dowry for the wife of an "the rent, has the right to enjoy." exquisite of the present day.]

66

'Death," says Dr. Develin of Galway, "constantly en'sues from complaints induced by insufficient or unwholesome food-owing to this and the want of sufficient cloth"ing either by day or night, they are subject to complaints "that at the age of forty inflict on them all the infirmities of sixty." The cottiers and small holders decline from forty. Poverty bends their spirit and breaks them down. If there "is a bridge to be built, there will not be a man upon it above 'fifty-five."

"The aged have usually been supported by their chil"dren. If sickly and in want of nicer food than potatoes, 'they may die, for none other is to be had, and well were "it had they enough potatoes to keep life in them. Labo"rers, supporting their parents, are often reduced to one "meal of dry potatoes a day. It comes sometimes to count"ing the potatoes. Then, as the second family grows large, "the daughter-in-law begins to grumble. Domestic quarrels "arise-the old people's lives are embittered, and they are "at length driven out to beg. This is the common process.” "The few potatoes I eat, sir,' says an old man, 'cannnot "do me good, for I am afraid they are grudged me; and

"I am quite sure," said Dr. Powell, "that many scores "of sick perish every year for want of proper sustenance. "Our diseases themselves are evidently caused by cold, and 'hunger and nakedness. The poor man regaining his appe-"what is more, I grudge them to myself when I see so many "tite on recovering, finds nothing to eat: a little food would "restore him, but he sinks for want of it."

The dispensary surgeons all concurred in declaring, that the larger proportion of the cases they attended were "dis"eases of the stomach, brought on solely by insufficient or "unwholesome food, and want of clothing and shelter from "the weather. Dropsy from these causes is frequent among "the young."

From what has been said it may be readily inferred, that mendicancy is very prevalent. Widows and orphans, the aged and the sick, the laborer, the mechanic, and even the

*In Ireland, even the healthy and the young were ragged and dirty, and their cabins were the most wretched I ever saw. I thought I saw the most cheerless dwellings in Italy that mortals could well inhabit, but they did not compare with those of Ireland. These cabins are built of turf; the walls are low, and the floor is of earth. The pig lives much of the time in the mud-cell, and the donkey also enters in here. It is thus that thousands of the Irish peasantry live in idleness, poverty and filth. [Fisk's Travels in Europe.

*

*

"young mouths opening for them."" One witness asserted, that the turning out of the aged father is now so common, that "the contrary is the exception." When "it comes to counting the potatoes," it presents the agonizing alternative whether a man's child or parent should perish. Destitution so hopeless displaces, if it does not obliterate, every feeling save that of self-preservation. The obligations of filial duty are stifled by the intensity of misery. Instead of competence and comfort to soothe the pillow of age, the feeble parent is often driven out of doors, and forced, during the remnant of life, to beg by day-to sleep at night upon the damp ground; and, with the broad canopy of heaven as his

"It is a fact no less surprising than pleasing to record, that, during two years spent in travelling through every part of the Union, I have only once been asked for alms, and that once was by a female who was very unwell; and who, although decently dressed, told me that she wanted a bit of money to buy some food."-(Murray's Travels, vol. 2.) Although he travelled through the slave-holding states-the hot-beds, so called, of oppression and tyranny-he was not often asked for solid proofs of his compassion.

covering, resign himself to his dismal and disconsolate | Whether greatness has been "thrust upon him," or power doom. "lay in his way and he stumbled upon it," or whether he We might proceed and give additional proofs of the pre-has fairly acquired it by the possession and exercise of great valent wretchedness of this class of the Irish population; but cui bono? We have adduced examples enough to convince the understanding and soften the heart. Most gladly do we now discontinue the detail of the numberless evils endured by this people-evils which, we believe, they have borne with a fortitude and a patience unparalleled in any other civilized country. "A population of eight millions (about treble the present slave population of our Union) left," says an intelligent English writer, "to live or die as it may happen." This too in a country which Heaven has blessed with a salubrious climate, and a soil of remarkable fertility-a country, one-third of whose rich soil is estimated by competent judges, to lie yet uncultivated.

The evidence which we have brought forward proves, that the operatives in the factories of England do not enjoy "comparative comfort and good usage;" that they are worked "beyond their power;" that hence deformity and disease ensue, and that among those who undertake the longcontinued and painful labor of the factories, few are fit for labor of any kind when they arrive to the age of forty. It proves, that their food is not "wholesome" or "sufficient;" that they breathe an atmosphere rendered unhealthy by the effluvia generated in the cotton manufacture. It proves, that the intellectual and moral improvement of the children are generally neglected, and that they are early taught to indulge freely in the use of artificial stimulants. It proves, that parents subsist by the oppression of their children; and, finally, that among both sexes-the young-the middle aged and the old—there are few, if any, whose lives afford practical proof of any respect for virtue or religion.

abilities, we cannot determine. The Duke of Wellington is reported to have said, that Mr. O'Connell possesses more power in Great Britain than any man since the revolution of 1688. Be this as it may, he is no ordinary man; and, if he does not enjoy a well-earned fame, he possesses an extensive and unenviable notoriety. We think less of his moral than of his intellectual endowments. Had he common abilities only, he never could have obtained that influence in the house of commons, and over the public opinion of Great Britain, which he is thought, by many, to possess and to wield. His besetting sin seems to be the love of agitation, contention, and, we had almost said, calumny and detraction.

"Agitation or excitement," says a former reporter to the house of commons,* "is necessary to his very being-as "much so as the air he breathes. He is in his element "when in the midst of the political storm and tempest and "whirlwind. I once heard him say, that independently of "the great object for which he is struggling, he exults in the "struggle itself. He would feel unutterably wretched on "his own account were a political millenium to take place in "Ireland."

This trait of character, while it enables an individual to excite the passions of men, frequently unfits him for directing and restraining those passions within proper bounds. The eloquence which engenders a popular demand for innovation, is not always accompanied by the profound sagacity required to decide what innovations should be made. Mr. O'Connell may, by agitation and clamor, excite public sympathy in behalf of Ireland; but his countrymen want substantial relief, and Of the "comparative comfort and good usage," enjoyed by they know that food and clothing are more valuable than any the Irish peasantry, the reader has also an opportunity of declarations of sympathy from the public. That impovejudging. That their food is "wholesome and sufficient" herished yet generous people, are required by this great agicannot believe: nor can he think, that "their clothing, al- tator of his own country and calumniator of ours, to give to though coarse, is suited to their necessities and to the cli-him some 10 or £12,000 annually to keep alive his patriotmate." The operatives of England, and the poor of Ireland, ism, and prevent him from yielding to ministerial blandishdeserve the sympathy of the philanthropist of every clime; ments. Signor Manuel Ordonez lived comfortably, and and eminently are they entitled to the serious attention and amassed a fortune, by administering the funds of the poor. kindness and sympathy of British legislators. The duty of And Mr. O'Connell, while cogitating upon the necessities ascertaining and applying the appropriate remedies to ar- of Ireland, felt forcibly admonished of the necessity of selfrest, as far as circumstances will authorize, the enormous preservation. The essential difference between their chaevils which now afflict both classes, devolves upon her ma-racter is this: Signor Manuel Ordonez was a man of great jesty's subjects, and not upon the people of our country, who piety, while Mr. O'Connell is overflowing with philanthropy. have not assumed the guardianship of the oppressed and "One meal of dry potatoes a day" may serve to keep breath suffering portion of the people of Great Britain, or conceived in the body of an Irish peasant, but they alone are utterly necessary to hold meetings and denounce the authors of inadequate to nourish the corporeal and intellectual powers English cruelty or Irish oppression. Our citizens have of a patriot; and no man has studied this truth with more pursued this course, not from an insensibility to human suf-shrewdness than Daniel O'Connell. He has evinced no fering, but from the well-grounded conviction, that this line partiality for "lumpers," however large they may grow; and of conduct best comported with self-respect, and the obliga- doubtless he, even, had rather be a "poor slave" in Virtions of international courtesy. If oppression and tyranny ginia, than an ignorant and pennyless Irishman, reduced to be required to awaken the compassion, excite the benevo- the dire necessity of "counting the potatoes." lence, and stimulate the patriotism of a nation, then the A great responsibility rests upon Mr. O'Connell. His people of Great Britain have only to contemplate the condi-Irish countrymen have honored him with office and their tion of the operatives to whom reference has been made. confidence, and they have a right to expect from him an The cruelties inflicted upon the helpless children employed in the factories, are sufficiently harrowing to provoke the indignant interposition of every patriot, and to enkindle every particle of English or Irish eloquence. No orator could select a finer theme for the display of his powers; no patriot should await a more animating inducement to manifest his loyalty to his country. Were additional incentives wanting to develop British compassion, and British philanthropy, in all their length and depth and breadth, those incentives might be found, with surprising facility, among the destitute, houseless, and hungry peasantry of Ireland.

it

The readers of the Messenger are aware, that Mr. O'Connell is the professed champion of the people of Ireland.

earnest and unremitting devotion to their interests and welfare. When he shall have succeeded in diffusing among all classes of his countrymen the means of procuring a decent living, and thus strengthened the cause of virtue, by diminishing the temptations to vice;-when he shall have secured a substantial liberty to the operatives of England, and the poor of his own native land, then he may claim a large measure of applause and gratitude. If his ambition be not then satiated, and he should feel oppressed by the weight of his philanthropy, he can find on the continent of Europe a large stock of misery, in which he might easily in

*Random Recollections of the House of Commons.