SOME ORATORICAL BULLS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2287, 4 March 1912, Page 7

SOME ORATORICAL BULLS.

+ MIXED METAPHORS EVEN IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. The ex-Irish Attorney-General’s delightfully mixed metaphor at Bootle about the milch cow which distilled golden sovereigns is another proof that one should not use a metaphor unless one really means it. The House of Commons produces a rich crop of these weeds of oratory. When Mr. Bryce, Ambassador at Washington, was Irish Secretary he amused the House by .describing the Irish Local Government Board as “a malignant fairy which steps in off its own bat.” It was an Irish member who, after pointing out that the Irish Land League was losing public > support and had to practise economy, went on to say “But, sir, the well is running dry, and they think that by putting in the pruning knife, they can bring more grist to the mill.” Another Irish Omonist described a concession to the Nationalists as “the first stitch in the dismemberment of the Empire.” I Mr. Field, who has something of a | reputation for this sort of thing, I once said—“ The right honourable gentleman shakes his head —and I’m sorry to hear it,” and on another occasion, speaking of a bill relating to the shipping of cattle across the i Irish sea, he begged his fellow members “not to look at the subject I from a live stock point of view.” But even the most practised speakI ers sin in this way at times. The I present Prime Minister, usually I counted among the most lucid and I logical of debaters once affirmed that “retribution is a thorny subject w r bich requires delicate handling, or it will tread on somebody’s toes,” and the leader of the Unionist party once spoke of “an ampty theatre of unsympathetic auditors.” Even Mr. Gladstone, replying to an opponent in the House who shook his head at some statement attributed to him—“No, no ; it will not do for the honourable member to shake his head in the teeth of his own words.” Lord Curzon, another extremely lucid speaker, was once betrayed into saying, ‘"Though we are not yet out of the wood, yet we have a good ship.” and Sir W. Hart Dyke, in complimenting Mr. Lowther, said that he “had caught a big fish in his net —and went to the top of the tree for it.” Lord Midleton, then Mr. Brodrick, informed the House of Commons, w T hen it was settling down to discuss the affairs of the Army, that “among the many jarring notes heard in this House this subject at least must be regarded as an oasis.” — “Manchester - Guardian.”