As They Like It

Day after the ashes of Speaker Edward Algernon Fitzroy (TIME, March 15) were ceremoniously buried in the chancel of Westminster's blitzed St. Margaret's Church, The House of Commons assembled to "elect" his successor. Actually, the new Speaker had already been selected by the majority Conservative Party, approved by Laborites; it only remained for the House to play through a venerable mumbo jumbo.

The clerk, bewigged and begowned Sir Gilbert Campion, rose and pointed silently at National Liberal George Lambert, M.P. since 1891. Lambert then proposed Colonel the Rt. Hon. Douglas Clifton Brown, an Old Etonian, veteran of the First Dragoon Guards and the Northumberland Hussar Yeomanry, and Deputy Speaker since 1938. Smart aleck Captain Alec Stratford Cunningham-Reid, a maverick Conservative who is regarded as a noisy nuisance by his own party, maladroitly interrupted the proceedings: he said that he did not object to Brown personally, but did object to his being thrust on the House by the Conservatives. Loud cries of "Rubbish . . . Nonsense . . . Shame" greeted his protest; and Laborite Will Thorne, the House's oldest member (86), blew two blasts on a football referee's whistle to express his disapproval even more loudly. When order was restored, Brown accepted: ". . . I will give to you my very level best and thereto I pledge my word."

Proposer Lambert and Laborite John Tinker, who had seconded the nomination, then advanced purposefully on Brown, to drag him from his seat. As Brown made the requisite gesture of protest, the two men seized his arms, separated him from his chair. (Origin of this tradition: during the 15th Century, Speakers were apt to be hanged by the King, so a new Speaker was understandably reluctant.)

King and Lords accepted him, the doorkeeper of the Commons announced: "Speaker elected." Brown entered the Speaker's House, donned his full-bottomed wig and the Speaker's traditional large black gown. Then the Sergeant at Arms, majestically carrying the gold mace of royal authority over his shoulder, marched Brown to the Chair of the House. Brown sat down: he was Britain's 139th Speaker of the Commons.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.