In fact, the thing was more like a Witenagemot than a legislature.

He said he distinctly recalled a man, whose name he didn't recollect, speaking on a question he didn't just remember what, either for or against he just couldn't recall which; it thrilled him.

He would never forget it.

It stayed in his memory as if it were yesterday.
But as for the present legislature--here Mr.Dick Overend sadly nodded assent in advance to what he knew was coming--as for the present legislature--well--Mr.Newberry had had, he said, occasion to visit the state capital a week before in connection with a railway bill that he was trying to--that is, that he was anxious to--in short in connection with a railway bill, and when he looked about him at the men in the legislature--positively he felt ashamed; he could put it no other way than that--ashamed.
After which, from speaking of the crookedness of the state government Mr.Newberry and Mr.Dick Overend were led to talk of the crookedness of the city government! And they both agreed, as above, that things were worse than in Russia.

What secretly irritated them both most was that they had lived and done business under this infernal corruption for thirty or forty years and hadn't noticed it.