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Parliaments

2 lbs. (3 cups) molasses 4 ozs. (1/2 cup) butter 2 lbs. (8 cups) flour I teaspoonful baking powder 2 tablespoonfuls powdered ginger 1/4 teaspoonful salt Put the molasses into a saucepan, bring to boiling point, then add the butter, and pour the mixture upon the flour mixed with the baking powder, ginger and salt. Work the dough well with the hand until quite smooth, and let it stand a day and a night; then roll out very thin, and cut into oblong shapes. Lay the cakes on a buttered tin and bake in a moderate oven for ten minutes.

Parliaments are a species of gingerbread, sold in small, thin, hard cakes. Parliament was consumed by Thackeray's Georgy Osborne. This delicacy is referred to in company with lollipops in the "Rejected Addresses":

Roll, roll thy hoop, and twirl thy tops, And buy, to glad thy smiling chops, Crisp parliament and lollipops, And fingers of the lady.