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PROPOSED ALTERATIONS IN THE…

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PROPOSED ALTERATIONS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. As the I-lo-LiRe, of Commons in not only busy in re- forming itself, but has at last appointed a select com- mittee to reform the room it sits in, we are tempted to one or two remarks, sufficiently obvious in themselves, out, as a matter of fact, strangely overlooked (says the Pall Mall Gazette.) If in the present room, it is seriously argued, so many speakers are unintelligible, what will they be in a room half as big again? The answer is, that they will be just as unintelligible as »«ey are now, and as they would be if they spoke in a fa? smaller building. The ordinary English orator cannot be understood, simply because he does not speak up, and because he mumbles instead of articu- lating his syllables distinctly. Having got a language overflowing with consonants and feebly sounded Vowels, he intensifies the evil by cultivating a habit of ^ever opening or closing his lips with that decision and completeness without which no lan- guage whatever can be properly spoken. Partly from, mauvaise honte, and partly from that silly conceit which prevents him from taking the Utmost pains to do well whatever he attempts to do, Ordinary English speakers, both in and out of the House, and Kn dish singers, both professional and amateur, seem for the most part bent on supplying a Physical illustration of the old saying, that the use of language is to enable a man to conceal his thoughts. As to the pretence that a room holding conveniently 8ix or seven hundred members would be too large for debating, nobody would repeat it who knows the area jjnd the capacity of the concert rooms of London, jj-here are, however, certain considerations necessary lor making rooms easy for speaking in, which are almost universally overlooked, both by architects as Well as by those who employ them. Amidst a crowd Of suggestions as to the form of a room, one man ad- vocating a square, another a semicircle, another a Parallelogram, a fourth being all for a flat ceiling, another for a coved ceiling, and a sixth for an open '°of, few people remember that after all quite as much depends on the materials of which the walls and ceilings constructed as upon any other condition whatever, plastered walls and ceilings and carpeted floors will deaden the sound in the best of buildings. But or matting being in some shape or other in- dispensable in these comfort-loving days, and legis- lators declining to sit upon uncushioned benches, the floor must be set aside as given up to the ensuring of Personal ease. But this will be of small consequence if only the walls are covered with wood panelling, oak Of course, and though partially gilded, not painted. he roof also should be of oak, treated in the same jvay, and experience proves that an open roof, with 'hat rather flat pitch which is characteristic of the style in which the Houses of Parliament are built, the sides being panelled throughout, makes, in conjunc- tion with the panelling of the walls, an admirable sounding board. With such walls and roof, almost j^y building will be satisfactory, whereas a plaster UUing is ruin to the very best.

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PERSEVERANCE DESERVES SUCCESS!

-----,_---MARTIAL LAW.

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DANCE THE GAROTTCHA.

VERY MYSTERIOUS!

THE CZAR NOT RECONCILED!

AN EDITOR'S REVENGE!

EXTRADITION OF CRIMINALS.