"
"Then," queried TIME, "what are these Members putting questions
'arising,' they say, 'out of the answer just given? They don't spare a
syllable, and take up five times as much of the Sitting as Members who
put their questions on the Paper, and are not allowed to read them.
You don't mean to say that such a transparent evasion of the rule is
permitted?"
"It looks very like it," said _Mr. P._; "but it's not at all the sort
of thing that would be permitted in our House of Commons. We make
Rules, and the Speaker sees that they are obeyed in the spirit, as
well as in the letter."
By the time questions were over, following on the prelude of private
business, the evening was getting on. Members evidently tired out; had
crowded in to vote on the Pump-handle question; sat in serried rows
during the squabbles of question-time; and as soon as business was
actually reached, House swiftly emptied, leaving about a score of
Members. TIME more than ever distracted. _Mr. P._ increasingly perky.
"Ho! ho!" he said, rubbing his hands, "I don't wonder at this Star
going to the Dogs. Stop till you come over to Westminster, TIME, dear
boy, and we'll show you how public business should be carried on."
[Illustration]
Explain to them that House is now in Committee on a Bill that had at
earlier stages occupied some months of the Session, practically the
greater portion of its working time.
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