THE FORCE OF PREJUDICE.
WHEN 'the present Speaker was reelected, he particularly dwelt, in his inauguration speech, on the information respecting the forms of the House of Commons which he should be happy to af- ford to new members. The Speaker, in fact, is a sort of drill- sergeant to the Parliamentary awkward squad, who are con- tinually falling out of the ranks, and. mistaking the word of com- mand. Every week much time is consumed by debates on points of order, and Committees are not unfrequently formed to look for precedents which nowhere. exist. It is inconceivable how such a state of things can, have been so long suffered to remain without even an attempt to mend it. The extreme personal inconvenience which it must occasion to so many members, one would suppose, ought to be sufficient to induce them to apply a remedy to the evil, by immediately ordering a manual of the forms of the House to be prepared, to which all might refer. On Monday night, Mr. HUME produced a manual of this description, which had been • compiled for the use of the American Congress, from Hatsell's Precedents, and other books of authority in the British House of Commons. There the members had presented to them, in a con- venient form, all the necessary rules, which at present they are obliged to hunt for among Heaven knows how many cumbrous folios. But were they thankful to Mr. Hums for thus putting them in the way of economizing their time, patience, and eyesight? No such thing; the force of prejudice is so strong in the British House of Commons, that they treated with a visible contempt the idea of receiving any thing in the shape of instruction from America; and Mr. HUME deSisted from pressing the subject on their consideration. Yet this book was merely a methodized compilation of their own forms. With what propriety can they complain of the laborious attendance necessary to get through Parliamentary business, when they obstinately and contemptu- ously reject every attempt to simplify and shorten their proceed- ings? Why should we disdain to learn something from America, who gets every thing she can from us ?
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