The Speaker made an interesting speech at Sandy, in Bedfordshire,
on Wednesday, where he bad a great reception on his first visit home in his new capacity. He remarked on -the close attention with which our Colonies and the English- speaking Assemblies generally, follow the proceedings of the House of Commons :—" A day or two previously he received a volnme, containing a series of the decisions of his predecessor in the chair of the House of Commons, compiled, not by a resi- dent in this country, but by the Clerk, Assistant, and Serjeant- at.Arms in the Representative Assembly of the South Austra- lian Legislature, who had issued a series of volumes containing the decisions of his (Mr. Peel's) predecessor, now Lord Hampden, then Mr. Brand, from 1872 to 1883, giving in minute detail, presumably for the guidance of his own Legislature, the circum- stances under which the decisions were given, and the terms in which they were uttered." And Mr. Peel asserted in dignified language, the enormous importance of maintaining to the full the efficiency and representative adequacy of the House of
Commons. Evidently he did not feel in any way despondent as to his own power to keep it to the true spirit of its traditions.
Previous page
