CHAPTER EIGHT.
THE WILLOUGHBY PARLIAMENT IN SESSION.
The "Parliament" at Willoughby was one of the very old institutions of the school.

Old, white-headed Willoughbites, when talking of their remote schooldays, would often recall their exploits "on the floor of the house," when Pilligrew (now a Cabinet Minister) brought in his famous bill to abolish morning chapel in winter, and was opposed by Jilson (now Ambassador to the Court at Whereisit) in a speech two hours long; or when old Coates (a grandfather, by the way, of the present bearer of that name in the school) divided the house fifteen times in one afternoon on the question of presenting a requisition to the head master to put more treacle into the suet puddings! They were exciting days, and the custom had gone on flourishing up to the present.
The Willoughby Parliament was an institution which the masters of the school wisely connived at, while holding aloof themselves from its proceedings.

There was no restraint as to the questions to be discussed or the manner and time of the discussion, provided the rules of the school were not infringed.

The management was entirely in the hands of the boys, who elected their own officers, and paid sixpence a term for the privilege of a seat in the august assembly.
The proceedings were regulated by certain rules handed down by long tradition according to which the business of the House was modelled as closely as possible on the procedure of the House of Commons itself.
Every boy was supposed to represent some place or other, and marvellous was the scouring of atlases and geography books to discover constituencies for the young members.

There was a Government and an Opposition, of course, only in the case of the former the "Ministers" were elected by the votes of the whole assembly, at the beginning of each session.