Everything in the House of Commons was modelled accurately on
Westminster. The Canadian Parliament being bi-lingual, French
members addressed the Speaker as "Monsieur l'Orateur," and the
Usher of the Black Rod of the Senate became "l'Huissier de la
Verge Noire." To my mind there was something intensely comical in
addressing a man who seldom opened his mouth except to cry,
"Order, order," as "Monsieur l'Orateur." A Frenchman from the
Province of Quebec seems always to be chosen as Canadian Speaker.
In my time he was a M. Ouiment, the TWENTY-FIRST child of the same
parents, so French Canadians are apparently not threatened with
extinction. I heard in the House of Commons at Ottawa the most
curious peroration I have ever listened to. It came from the late
Nicholas Flood Davin, a member of Irish extraction who sat for a
Far-Western constituency. The House was debating a dull Bill
relating to the lumber industry, when Davin, who may possibly have
been under the influence of temporary excitement, insisted on
speaking. He made a long and absolutely irrelevant speech in a
voice of thunder, and finished with these words, every one of
which I remember: "There are some who declare that Canada's trade
is declining; there are some who maintain that the rich glow of
health which at present mantles o'er Canada's virgin cheek will
soon be replaced by the pallid hues of the corpse.
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