M.P.'S MEMORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

M.P.'S MEMORIES.

/ AMUSING STORIES OF THE MOVING 4 OF THE ADDRESS IN PARLIAMENT.

In connection: with moving the Address in the House of Commons, it is a curioui| ■ fact that the House likes new members— who are usually selected to discharge this;; duty—to betray some nervousness, and it is seldom that the hon. gentlemen are 8 disappointed. The case of a young Irishman, who ~-;■;:. got up to speak one night in 1579 prove ked t a storm of laughter. He was unable to 9 utter a single word. / For a quarter of an hour he stood on), ': his feet, and although he indulged in a! great deal of gesticulation, not a sound seemed to escape his lips. The would-be < orator was in such an extreme condition of nervousness that while thinking he was addressing the House he was in real- n ity talking to himself. 'There is one more point,' said a well-" ,known member, who had been speaking : for some time in a debate in August, 1594; . but what the point was he had instantly . _ forgotten, as he candidly told the House as he sat down. A similar misfortune once befell ths.\ late Lord Iddesleigh when, as Sir Stafford Northcote, he was making a vigor*; ous attack on the Gladstonian Government of the day. At the CLOSE OF HIS SPEECH ' X he said, 'Before I sit down there is one i" more charge against the Prime Minister,; and it is the most serious.' Then he stopped short, and was visibly perturbed, for he had forgotten what the;.':■-;. charge was. Twice again did he repeat; what he had said, but the point would not;;-: come back to his mind, and he had per- -.' force to resume his seat. Speeches in support of the Address,or in t fact any other speeches, are not supposed;?; to be read in Parliament; but Sir William ; ' Harcourt, Mr John Morley, and Sir Chas.A ',: Dilke always used to commit their in-vjt; tended utterances to paper, as did like-I'^ -wise the late Lord Derby. The Marquis of Dufferin has stated that ■:,; when^asked by Lord Palmerston to move. the Address to the Throne in the House-; of Lords on. the re-assembling of Parlia '-; ment after Prince Albert's death, he", deemed it advisable to sit down and writf %'z out every word of his speech. Then he > carefully committed it to memory, and--.: was thus enabled to deliver an oration':; of an hour and a half's duration without recourse to his manuscript. One of the most successful speeches ever made in support of the Address in. Reply to the Queen's Speech was that of :^; Lord Rosebery, as seconder in the House of Lords, on February 9. 1871. It was also, his maiden effort, and evoked the WARMEST CONGRATULATIONS of the leaders of both parties in the Gilded Chamber. A certain member of Parliament once >' went down to the House intent on delivering a great oration, but he lost his. manuscript somewhere within the pre> cincts of the House. It was picked up by . another member of mischievous propensities, who, seeing an. opportunity for a good practical joke, forthwith conveyed his unexpected 'find' to Sir Thomas Wyse,, The latter gentleman at once sought the seclusion of a committee-room, where he diligently applied himself to the task of/;-: learning the speech, by heart. This accomplished, he returned to the House, and watched for an opportunity of taking part in the debate. The chance . came at length, and the 'stolen thunder',; began to reverberate through the Chamber, to the great delight of a number oi:'"'-_' members who had been let into the secret. , The original owner of the speech was flattered at first, but when as the oration proceeded he came to recognise his owivu well-rounded and familiar phrases, life face assumed such a -comical expression of mingled surprise, indignation, and con*' fusion that the, gravity of the merjbWS;'; interested completely broke down* __JsS