Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1878 — A Division in the House of Commons. [ARTICLE]

A Division in the House of Commons.

The division proper is a curiouslymannged ceremony—very' roundabout in the estimate of many persons. After the Speaker has cried “ Order, order!” the Sergeant-at-Arms, with his doorkeepers and messengers, close and lock all the doors leading into the lobbies, corridors, passages, etc. No member outside can enter, nor can any within make their exit; the number within the chamber is thus strictly definite, and all must vote. Until 1836 it was the custom for one party or section to go into a lobby, while the other remained in the House; but since that year the ayes have been directed to pass into the lobby at the Speaker’s right hand, while the noes walk into the lobby at his left. The Speaker names members to act as tellers, selected impartially from among the supporters and opponents of the motion, two each; and the members named are not allowed to shirk this duty. They place themselves at the lobby doors, two and two, each to check the counting of the other. Tw o clerks, as well as two tellers, are placed at each door, holding alphabetical lists of all the members of the House printed on large sheets of stiff pasteboard or cardboard. As the members return into the House from the lobbies, the clerks mark off the names, while, at the same time, the tellers count the total number without noting names. (If any one is disabled by nfirmity from entering and quitting the bbies he is counted at his seat in the use.) When all have re-entered from tlie lobbies, the four tellers approach the table; one of them, belonging to the majority on this particular question, announces the numbers, and, when the Speaker has indorsed or sanctioned this announcement, the important but slow-ly-managed ceremony ends—often amid loud cheers from those members who constitute tlie majority on that particular question. A member sometimes goes into the wrong lobby through inadvertence ; then there is no escape for him; nolens volens his vote is recorded according to the lobby in which he finds himself. During the past session, instances of such misadventures were not infrequent. Instances have been known in which even a Cabinet Minister’s vote is recorded on the side which he really intended to oppose—much to his own mortification. A member thus awkwardly placed usually takes some mode of making the facts known to his constituents and the public; but the official record remains unalterable. It has occasionally happened that only one member approves of a particular question or .motion; he is the only aye; and, as he is not allowed to count himself, the House at once decides that “ the noes have it.” many sessions ago a stranger was descried in one of the lobbies after the door had been closed, and was counted by two of the tellers; but the clerks found him. out and reported the case to the Speaker, who duly admonished the intruder.— Chambers' Journal.