become doubtful of the thumb of one of our
gloves, which we are carrying in our hand,
and peer into it as into a cavern ; while
the feeblest of the shako-wearers clearly
burns with ardour to seize a lady's muff (for
ladies accompany this solemn search), and to
pluck out Guy Fawkes from the lining.
Once, in a long passage, and in a gale of wind
that does Æolus's heart good, we have a
sensation. A heavy door bangs loudly, running
feet are heard, a hoarse cry of " Halt ! " echoes
among the vaults. What is it? Have
they got him ? Delightful excitement !
No, it is nothing ; not even a Fenian. Some
of the searchers are not so young as they
were, and are a little blown ; that's all.
We wait for them (frightfully suspicious of
an empty bucket that appears to have
contained coke), and, when they "come up
piping," after the manner of the professional
gentlemen who become distressed in fights,
we recommence our labours. So we go on
for half an hour, always in passages, well
lighted, and by thoroughfares well used by
the many men employed about the building,
until we emerge from beneath the House
of Lords into the open air. Here, the
beef-eaters, still keeping up an air of business,
form into two soldierly lines, and march off
steadily. The rest of the search party
straggle off in various directions, a little
shame-facedly. The imposing ceremony is
over, and we are left blankly looking upon
Æolus, feeling that we have not seen a
great deal after all.

It presently appears that — as is not
uncommonly the custom in this favoured land—
we have been assisting at a performance of
the national comedy How Not To Do It.
For, as we have publicly looked for Guy
Fawkes in all the places where he is by no
means likely ever to be found, so we now
institute a private search among the mysteries
of Æolus's department, and find plenty
of sequestered corners where the apparition
of a conspirator would be by no means out
of place.

The system of ventilation we find to
be ingenious and elaborate, though
perfectly simple; and its results are, on the
whole, most satisfactory. Honourable
members are not more easy to satisfy than
other men, and it happens now and then
that of two members sitting side by side,
the one will be inconveniently hot and the
other inconveniently cold. Towards the
small hours, when Mr. Speaker's
silk-stockinged calves (if it be not contempt of
the House to speak of such solemn subjects)
get a little chilly in the cold air (as will
occasionally happen even in a full House), and
a warm tap has to be turned on, other
gentlemen may now and then be observed
to gasp. But it is unfortunately not possible
to arrange for a different climate for every
seat, and things as a rule go well enough. Of
course, as obtains invariably with scientific
ventilation, the simple expedient of opening
a window plays old gooseberry with the
arrangements. Witness the case of that
noble lord who, dissatisfied with the
temperature of the House of Peers, caused a
window to be opened. It so happened
that this window was situated immediately
above the seats of the Lords Spiritual, and
a great cowering and shivering of bishops
followed. Probably, if the noble lord had
been sitting in the same gale of wind which
rustled lawn sleeves and blew gowns about,
he would not have taunted the right reverend
gentlemen with those satirical allusions to
glass cases to which the sight of their
discomfort moved him. On another occasion
suffocating peeresses, condemned to a
gallery and narrow passage, which forcibly
remind the spectator of a ward in a
convict prison, rebelled, and opened all the windows attainable.The sneezing, coughing,
and wheezing, that followed among
noble lords has never been equalled.

Down-stairs, among the vaults, we
investigate the apparatus for supplying the
Houses with fresh air; up-stairs, among
the rafters, we find great furnaces drawing
the vitiated air away. Here, we
come upon four boilers of a second-hand
appearance, and calculated, we should
suppose, to blow up the Queen and all
her ministers with far greater certainty
than "Guy Fawkes, that prince of sinisters."
Here again we come upon four new
boilers, brave with all the latest improvements,
and on which we find the manufacturer
gazing with calm pride. Up-stairs
again, we are astonished by the apparition
of a railway in the roof, for the readier
transport of coke; and climbing up
perpendicular and smoke-begrimed ladders we
find ourselves high up in a turret or smoke
shaft, up which the smoke from all the west
side of the building is drawn. Here, by the
aid of Æolus's lantern, which he has never
relinquished, we admire an ingenious
apparatus for securing a strong and
constant up-draught, consisting of a small
screw propeller driven by steam. This
contrivance can be worked, its grimy
guardian tells us, at any speed, and is
warranted to prove more effectual than
any other means for attaining its end.