THE WORK OF PARLIAMENT 149

chair is in the middle of one of the short sides of the Chamber;
Government supporters sit on his right and the Opposition,
feeing them/ on his left. The front bench on the Government
side, called the Treasury bench, is occupied by Ministers,
with their subordinates sitting close behind. The rows of benches
are divided, half-way down the House, by a gangway, and
Members who are not in agreement with the Government or
with the official Opposition take seats below the gangway, on the
far side from the Speaker's chair; thus in the present Parliament
the Liberal Party sits below the gangway on the Opposition side.
Apart from these rules, Members have no right to any particular
seat; attendance at Prayers is stimulated by the fact that a Member
may at that time reserve a seat for the rest of the day. Some of
the older and better-known Members are always allowed to
take their customary place. In front of the Speaker's chair is a
table for the Clerks of the House; on it are the Mace and some
official documents, and dispatch boxes. Above the chair is a
gallery for the compilers of Hansard, the official verbatim report
of Debates, and for the Press.1 Opposite the Press gallery is one
for "Distinguished Strangers" such as Peers or foreign
Ambassadors. There is also room in the galleries for a limited
number of the general public; Members ballot for tickets to give
to their friends and constituents. The House has the right to
dear the galleries and hold a Secret Session, as was done once
or twice during the War.

The House of Lords is similar in arrangement to the Commons,
but more gorgeous in appearance. The rest.of the Palace of
Westminster contains Committee Rooms, kitchens, dining and
writing rooms and a notoriously inadequate library; there are
also the older parts of the building—-Westminster Hall, where
William Wallace, Warren Hastings and Charles I were tried,
St. Stephen's Chapel and the cellars used for the Gunpowder Plot.
Flanking the debating Chambers of the Commons and Lords are

1 The right of newspapers to publish accounts of the Debates was
hotly contested and 'successfully maintained in the z8th century.