Mr. Serjeant Sherlock raised yesterday week a discussion as to
the old grievance of the grating within which lady visitors to the House of Commons are immured, but Mr. Beresford Hope argued that if this grating were removed, the whole question of dress would have to be reconsidered, and probably the old rule of evening dress, as it existed in the last century, when, on one occasion, in the Irish House of Commons, a Mr. Tottenham got nicknamed "Mr. Tottenham in his boots," only because he entered the House for a close division with his riding-boots on, might be adopted. Opinions appeared to differ as to whether the lady visitors to the House would really prefer to get rid of the grating or not, but if the result of its removal were to produce rather more attention, —not merely to dress, but to moral effect altogether,—the re- moval of the grating would certainly do good. At present, the House of Commons makes too little effort at anything like moral effect. It is getting slovenly. Prepared speeches are few, and of artistic speeches there are hardly any. Government by public speaking is at best a rough sort of affair, but government by indolent and slovenly conversation is even worse.
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