"
To return to the London of the "seventies" and "eighties" after
this brief journey to the East, nothing is more noticeable than
the way public interest in Parliamentary proceedings has vanished.
When I was a boy, all five of the great London dailies, The Times,
Morning Post, Standard, Daily Telegraph, and Daily News, published
the fullest reports of Parliamentary news, and the big provincial
dailies followed their example. Every one then seemed to follow
the proceedings of Parliament with the utmost interest; even at
Harrow the elder boys read the Parliamentary news and discussed
it, and I have heard keen-witted Lancashire artisans eagerly
debating the previous night's Parliamentary encounters. Now the
most popular newspapers give the scantiest and baldest summaries
of proceedings in the House of Commons. It is an editor's business
to know the tastes of his readers; if Parliamentary reports are
reduced to a minimum, it must be because they no longer interest
the public. This, again, is quite intelligible. When I first
entered Parliament in 1885 (to which Parliament, by the way, all
four Hamilton brothers had been elected), there were commanding
personalities and great orators in the House: Mr.
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