148 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

Parnellite obstruction would no longer be effective and is not
attempted, though there are occasional outbursts by indignant
Members.

There is no time-limit for speeches, but the attitude of the
House does not encourage long orations. A Member making
his maiden speech is listened to with friendly interest, but the
House soon makes up its mind whether a Member is worthy of
attention. The rising of notoriously dull Members to speak is a
signal for many to leave the Chamber, and it is not uncommon for
Members to find that many of their audience are only there
because they want to speak next. If the attendance is low, a
count may be demanded: Members will be summoned from all
parts of the building: if, even so, less than 40 appear, the House
is "counted out" and business comes to an end. The Member
who wishes to speak may intimate his desire to the party Whips
who can raise the matter with the Speaker; or he may rise on the
spur of the moment and trust to catching the Speaker's eye.

The lofty oratory and classical quotations of past centuries
have vanished; for the House is no longer recruited from a
single class, educated on a common pattern. While the good^
speeches of the past may be admired as works of art, those of
to-day are distinguished by clarity and grasp of fact. Bad
speeches, of course, are common enough as in all assemblies of
human beings at all times and places. Exceptionally gifted
orators such as Mr. Lloyd George can make a great impression,
though here again the House expects the speech to contain fact
and argument.

THE BUILDING.

The oblong Chamber in which this debating occurs is not~
large enough to hold more than two-thirds of the Members;
but since an MJVs work is not confined to attending debates
this is not inconvenient, except at the opening of the Session
or on rare occasions when nearly all wish to be presefat; some
of the galleries then accommodate the overflow. The Speaker's