Part 5 (1/2)

His last Reform speech in 1866 was delivered in London, in St James's Hall It was preceded on the previous day by the usual procession through the streets and an open-air dee The poor Londoners were veryThe editors of the ave the asses a holiday, to borrow a phrase of Christopher North

Innu that the ham, would probably sack the town; and fervent entreaties were addressed to the Government to line the streets with troops for the protection of peaceful and law-abiding householders

The Government, which had received its lesson in Hyde Park in the preceding suood many houses and even shops in the West End were actually closed and barricaded by their perturbed and nervous proprietors There was one notable and significant exception to this rule Miss--now the Baroness--Burdett-Coutts not only did not close her house in Piccadilly, but assembled a party of friends at it, and, seated in thePiccadilly, saluted in friendly fashi+on the great ar the road She was cheered vociferously, and ht that she was recognised as the worthy representative of that stout old Radical reformer, Sir Francis Burdett I took up my position to see the procession pass in Pall Mall, opposite the Refor It struck azed upon it with reverence as the houished of the ht, on that dull winter day, how many years I was destined to spend within its walls, or how large a part I was to take in its affairs

Of course, all the fears of the alarmists were falsified The only untoward incidents were the raids of the pickpockets upon the crowds I myself was one of their victi with another reporter in a cab at the tail of the procession The crowd, as we approached Lillie Bridge, was very dense, pressing upon us on all sides Suddenly a hand was put in at the openof the cab, and, before I had the presence of rasp the situation, the pin I wore had been removed from my scarf, literally under my very eyes It was one of the neatest and ht's speech at St James's Hall was a very fine one It contained ain fancied security on the slopes of a slu volcano He demanded if those arned them of the peril to which they were exposed were to be accused of being the cause of that peril It was a brilliant and telling retort upon those who charged hi stirred up a seditious movement for his own personal ends But his best speech at St James's Hall was a brief and unpre Mr Ayrton, the well-known member for the Tower Hamlets, an advanced Radical, and a man who subsequently ressive and unconciliatory utterances, was one of the speakers who followed Bright He referred to the demonstration in front of Miss Burdett-Coutts's house on the previous day, andher with the Queen, as just then in Scotland, by no ht's loyalty, which was strong and real, was outraged by Ayrton's language In burning words, evidently born of genuine emotion, he repudiated and rebuked the want of respect shown to her Majesty, and declared that any wohty real an intense devotion to the memory of her lost husband orthy of the respect and reverence of every honest heart Years afterwards, I have reason to know, that utterance was borne in h personal regard and friendshi+p which her Majesty extended to the old tribune of the people when he became a Minister of the Crown

CHAPTER VI

LIFE IN LONDON

Appointed London Correspondent of the _Leeds Mercury_--My Marriage--Securing Admission to the Reporters' Gallery--Relations between Reporters and Members--Inadequate Accommodation for the Press--Reminiscences of the Clerkenwell Explosion--The Last Public Execution--The Arundel Club--James Macdonell--Robert Donald--Jaazine_--My First Novel--How Sala Cut Short an Anecdote--Disraeli as Leader of the House in 1868--A Personal Encounter with hiht and Forster--W E Baxter--Irish Church Disestablishment Debate in the House of Lords--Mr Mudford--Bereavee unexpectedly took place in my position The London representative of the _Leeds Mercury,_ ow Herald,_ retired from his post, and I was appointed to succeed hied by Mr Russell, it was arranged that I was to act as London correspondent of the _Mercury_ and to continue to be an occasional contributor of leaders On Septeational Church, Cheshi+re, to ed, and I at once went to London to spendThe London suburbs wore a different aspect in 1867 from that which they now present

In the far west of London, at all events, the reign of the searden, was stillendless suites for the accommodation of persons of liarden for the residents in a particular street or square was practically unknown outside the central district of the ton, Shepherd's Bush, and Ham an infinite nuarden and lawn secluded from the public eye My choice fell upon a house of this description in Addison Road North, and there I spent two happy years, the garden, with its fine old tree casting a welcoet the fact that I was, at last, an actual dweller in the world's greatest city

Almost my first business in London was to secure admission to the Reporters' Gallery in the House of Commons There was an autuet access to the Gallery when it began In order to obtain the coveted Gallery ticket I proffered ratuitous services as an occasional reporter to the _Morning Star_

My offer was accepted, and after an intervieith Mr Justin McCarthy, as then editor of the _Star_, I was introduced to Mr Edwards, the chief of the reporting staff, as a new member of that body Edwards, as one of the veterans of the Gallery, was a character in his way

He was an Irishue, a devout Roman Catholic, intensely proud of the fact that he had a son in the priesthood His mind was stored with reminiscences of the Gallery in the days when the status of a Parlianised even in the House of Commons itself Like so many of the Gallery men of this time, his world seemed to be limited to the little society of which he was a conspicuousappeared to interest him that lay outside the i see to Parlia stories were told of hi before I ht, in one of the debates on the Liberal Reform Bill, had made his famous reference to the Cave of Adullam which caused the anti-reformers in the Liberal party to be nickna Star_, and that newspaper's report of this passage in his speech was obviously confused and defective The day after it was printed the er of the _Star_ summoned Edwards to his presence in order to complain of this fact ”Do you think our fellows understood the allusion to the Cave of Adullam?” he inquired of Edwards ”Of course they did,” replied the latter, hotly ”They're an ignorant lot, I know, but there isn't one of thehts!”

Edwards was very kind to me He seemed to feel a profound respect for a , and he did his utreeable One bit of good advice he gave me That was that I should not let anyone know that I received no salary The truth is that in those days the Parliamentary reporters were a very clannish set--almost, indeed, a close corporation

To my youthful eyes, most of thee They could talk of the days in the old House of Commons when no Reporters' Gallery existed, and the unfortunate shorthand writers had to take their notes on their knees, at the back of the Strangers' Gallery In the House of Lords they had to stand in a kind of gangway, and I have heard a venerable uished peeress, who had to pass along this ganghen she went to hear the debates, used deliberately to brush against the reporters as she did so, and knock the note-books out of their hands It was, I suppose, her Grace'sher peculiar affection for the Press The reporters looked with suspicion upon any newcomer, and for a time after I entered the Gallery I was vieith unconcealed dislike by ues

A soht on which I took

Worthy Edward Baines, sitting on the Opposition benches below nised me in the Gallery than he felt it to be his duty to coly hethe reporters' seats, and conversed withenerally agreeable, as was his wont I little knehat offence I was unconsciously giving to arded as impassable divided the members of the Press from the members of the House Occasionally the white-haired, or rather white-wigged, Mr Ross, the head of the _Ti a loomy corner behind the Gallery with so ed a ith a Member of Parliament in their lives, and, to do them justice, they evidently had no desire to do so The caste of reporters neither had, nor wished to have, any relations with the Brahreen benches below them, and I found subsequently that if by any chance a reporter were detected in conversation with even the ive some explanation of his conduct to his Gallery friends afterwards It s the veterans of the Gallery saw a newco on friendly and confidential terms with a well-known Member of the House Sonation, and one of the few friends I had in the Gallery earnestly warned me that the recurrence of such an incident would prove fatal to ined then that the relations of journalists and Members would ever assume their present intimate character?

The accommodation for reporters outside the Gallery was very different then from what it is now There were tretched little cabins, ill-lit and ill-ventilated, i out” But one of these was occupied exclusively by the _Times_ staff, and the other was so small that it could not accommodate a quarter of the number of reporters One of the comht--was given up after a certain hour in the afternoon to the reporters, and hereout” was done As for other accommodation for the Press, it consisted only of a cellar-like apartment in the yard belohere men used to resort to smoke, and of the ante-rooht presided

Mr Wright was one of the characters of the Gallery Like most of the officials of the House in those days, he was a _protege_ of the Sergeant-at-Arinally been a boat-builder on the Thames, and had secured the favour of Lord Charles by his services in teaching his sons to row He certainly looked e, than the keeper of the vestibule to the Reporters' Gallery He was permitted to purvey refreshments of a modest kind to the reporters He always had a bottle of whisky on tap, a loaf or two of stale bread, and amy career in the Gallery, tasted that haht, at the close of his duties, retired to his modest abode in Lae red bandana which he had been flourishi+ng, and using, during the evening, and for greater security placed it under his bed during the night I do not vouch for the truth of this story, universally believed by the Gallery men of my day

I simply repeat that I never in the course of ht's hams The sole refreshs and tea The tea I drank with unfeigned reluctance, but the eggs, however stale, inspired me with a confidence I felt in none of the other viands provided by the ex-boat-builder The reporters nowadays have a dining-roo-rooed indeed

One of Mr Wright's characteristics was his love of talking Johnsonese I can see hied fro on the wooden bench which was his favourite place of rest His head half covered with the famous red bandana; his boots off, and a pair of dirty worsted stockings exposed to view, he twiddled his thulance at the young member of the Gallery who had not yet patronised either his whisky or his hain to speak ”I hope, sir, that you are intellectual enough to appreciate the grandeur of the debate to which you have just been privileged to listen Sir, it fills me with an amazement that is simply inexpressible to listen to those twothe What I want to know, sir, is, where do they get it fro--no, not a h of Mr

Wright, who is dead now, though he lived to see the twentieth century born, and to ry reporter dependent upon his faht of that autumn session of 1867 was a memorable one Mr

Disraeli sat on the Treasury Bench as leader of the House Opposite to hinised leader of the Liberal party

Mrs Disraeli had been seriously ill; was, in fact, still ill when Parliament met Mr Gladstone, who never overlooked the courtesies of debate, in opening his attack upon the Government after the speech had been dulyreference to the personal anxieties of the Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Disraeli was visibly moved He suddenly covered his face with his hands, and one could see that his eyes were filled with tears Nearly thirty years later there was a siain theto a speech by Mr Austen Chamberlain, he spoke of it in terms that made Mr Chaather in the eyes of that hardened political fighter Strange are the links which bind the generations together!

It was in the late autues committed by the Fenians in London took place This was the explosion at the Clerkenwell House of Detention The object of the crime was the rescue of two Fenians ere confined in the prison The authorities at Scotland Yard had got wind of the plot, and sought to put the governor of the prison, and the uard The latter declared themselves quite able to look after their prisoners, and declined the proffered assistance of the police

Instead of keeping guard, as they should have done, round the walls of the House of Detention, they contented the the prisoners--whose names, if my memory does not fail, were Burke and Casey--in their cells at the hour when they usually took their daily exercise in the yard A wheelbarrow, laden with powerful explosives, was deliberately wheeled up to the prison wall, outside the exercise ground, at the ti there An orange was thrown over into the yard, this being the signal that had been agreed upon with the captives, and the fuse attached to the barrel of explosives was lighted Then the conspirators quietly retired, nobodythem A terrific explosion followed

I had just left the reading-roo the quadrangle, when I heard a sound which nise as that of an explosion

I thought that so housewas to be seen, and I wenta note, with the reporter's instinct, of the exactthe London papers were full of the details of the great cri soht, and many more had been injured A breach had been made in the prison wall, but the Fenian prisoners, of course, had not escaped, owing to the precautions taken by the authorities The whole country was roused to a violent state of indignation by this crime, which followed close upon a si carried in a prison van through the streets of Manchester The Manchester crieant named Brett, and for that murder three men--Allen, Larkin, and Gould, who are still faed

On the day following the Clerkenwell explosion I attended the inquest upon soh, I was the only person who could infore was committed The police were soon in hot pursuit of the culprits Five ation at Bow Street were coht, they were Irishow I made my first acquaintance with Bow Street Police Court at the examination of these men It was the old police court--a dismal, stuffy, ill-ventilated rooenerations I have a lively recollection of the fact that whilst I was reporting the proceedings I suddenly fainted, for the first tiratefully the kindness of the police, who removed me from the court room into the fresh air, and tended me with the utmost care until I had recovered This sympathy with illness is one of the best characteristics of our London police