Here and there in London by James Ewing Ritchie

England, Ireland, Scotland, and our forty colonies are ruled, not from Downing-street, not from Privy Councils at Buckingham Palace, nor by the _Times_ newspaper, as some pretend, nor even by the stump orator, but by the Lobby of the House of Commons. This I know, that if I were a member of the United Kingdom Alliance, and wished to root up the liquor traffic in England -- that if I were a Scotchman, and endeavoured to confirm and extend the provisions of the Forbes Mackenzie Act -- that even were I of the Green Isle, and raised the cry of justice for Ireland, whatever that may mean -- I'd plant myself in the Lobby of the House of Commons, and there win victory or die.

Externally the Lobby is a handsome one; little more. Mr. Timbs tells me it is "a rich apartment, forty-five feet square, and has on each side an archway, carved open screens, inscribed _Domine salvam fac Reginam_, and windows painted with the arms of parliamentary boroughs. The brass gas standards by Hardman are elaborately chased. The doorways lead to the library, the post-office, vote paper office, central hall, &c. " Is this all? Yes, is the answer of one of the matter-of-fact class, of whom Peter Bell is such an illustrious example.