houting out "divide," or "adjourn;" or it is Colonel Sibthorpe who
counts the house. These ridiculous privileges of members to interfere
with the current of public business because they may be sleepy or
stupid themselves, are really intolerable, besides being so numerous
that the first dozen years of a parliamentary life will scarcely teach
a man a tithe of them. But of all these "rules of the house," the
most unjust and tyrannical is that which compels a man to put up with
any impertinence because he has already spoken. It would seem as if
each honourable member "went down" with a single ball cartridge in his
pouch, which, when fired, the best thing he could do was to go home
and wait for another distribution of ammunition; for by remaining he
only ran the risk of being riddled without any power to return the
fire.

A case of this kind happened a few evenings since:--A Mr. Blewitt--I
suppose the composer--made a very absurd motion, the object of which
was to inquire "What office the Duke of Wellington held in the present
government, and whether he was or was not a member of the cabinet."
Without referring the learned gentleman to a certain erudite volume
called the Yearly Almanack and Directory, Sir Robert Peel proceeded to
explain the duke's position. He eulogised, as who would not? his
grace's sagacity and his wisdom; the importance of his public
services, and the great value the ministers, his _confreres_, set upon
a judgment which, in a long life, had so seldom been found mistaken;
and then he concluded by quoting from one of the duke's recent replies
to some secretary or other who addressed him on a matter foreign to
his department--"That he was one of the few men in the present day who
did not meddle in affairs over which they have no control." "A piece
of counsel," quoth Sir Robert, "I would strenuously advise the
honourable member to apply to his own case."

Now we have already said that we think Blewitt--though an admirable
musician--seems to be a very silly man. Still, if he really did not
know what the duke represented in her Majesty's government--if he
really were ignorant of what functions he exercised, the information
might have been bestowed upon him without a retort like this. In the
first place, his query, if a foolish, was at least a civil one; and in
the second, it was his duty to understand a matter of this nature: it
therefore came under his control, and Sir Robert's application of the
quotation