[Illustration: A BEEF-EATER TEMP. HENRY VIII.]
The proceedings at the opening of the forthcoming Session, the fifth in
the fourteenth Parliament of Queen Victoria, will be fully reported in
the morning papers. There is a proceeding preliminary to the Speaker's
taking the Chair which, from its history and character, is of necessity
conducted in secret. It is the search through the underground chambers
and passages of the House with design to frustrate any schemes in the
direction of a dissolution of Parliament that descendants or disciples
of Guy Fawkes may have in hand. The present generation has seen, more
especially when a Conservative Government have been in power, some
revolutionary changes in Parliamentary procedure. The solemn search
underneath the Houses of Parliament, preceding the opening of the
revolving Sessions ever since Gunpowder Plot, is still observed with all
the pomp and circumstance attached to it three hundred years ago.
The investigation is conducted under the personal direction of the Lord
Great Chamberlain, who is answerable with his head for any miscarriage.
When a peer comes newly to the office he makes a point of personally
accompanying the expedition. But, though picturesque, and essential to
the working of the British Constitution, it palls in time, and the Lord
Great Chamberlain, relying upon the discretion, presence of mind, and
resource of his Secretary, usually leaves it to him. Oddly enough, the
House of Commons is not officially represented at the performance, the
avowed object of which is not, primarily, to secure the safety of the
Lords and Commons, but to avert the conclusion aimed at by Guy
Fawkes--namely, to blow up the Sovereign. It is as the personal
representative of the Queen that the Lord Great Chamberlain takes the
business in hand.
To this day the result of the inquiry is directly communicated to Her
Majesty. Up to a period dating back less than fifty years, as soon as
the search was over, the Lord Great Chamberlain dispatched a messenger
on horseback to the Sovereign, informing him (or her) that all was well,
and that Majesty might safely repair to Westminster to open the new
Session. To-day the telegraph wires carry the assurance to the Queen
wherever she may chance to be in residence on the day before the opening
of Parliament.