HUMOURS OF PARLIAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 3, 5 January 1926, Page 9

HUMOURS OF PARLIAMENT

EX-SPEAKER'S MEMORIES

Inaugurating the jubilee session of the Glasgow Parliamentary Debating Society iv October last, Viscount Ullswater detailed many hints for young debaters, and related in racy terms experiences as Speaker of the House of Commons. There, he said, he had listened to at least 50,000 speeches but, like the sailor's parrot, he had thought a great deal and said nothing. However, that experience might enable him to give some useful criticism and hints upon speaking and the method of speaking. Oratory was the art of persuading. The best wtiy to persuade was to show that they had a complete knowledge of their subject. Therefore, they must saturate themselves with it. Let them think over their arguments, for if arguments did not convince themselves they would convince nobody else. They would do well to disregard small points and go for tin; big arguments^ arranging their topics so as to flow easily. Regarding form in speaking, there were three golden rules: Stand up, speak up, and shut up. (Laughter.) The chief object was .to enable tho voice to travel. He knew one brilliant man who apparently read his ontire speech out of the floor, therefore^ to use a vulgarism, he counselled, "Spit it out." (Laughter.) Gladstone warned his son Herbert never to get down on the despatch box; If they did not speak up the reporters could not take them down. Nothing was more disheartening after delivering a good sjpeech than to read, "Lord Ullswatcr, who was indistinctly heard, was understood to observe " (Laughter.) Personally his rule was to speak to those in the extreme end of. the hall. They must bo careful not to bawl. They should never speak too long;- it was better to leave an audience hungry than, satiated. They should also -avoid repetition. Frequently he had heard a speaker use the same 'argument three and four times until the speech petered out. They should avoid" tricks of nctibri. "Whatever you do, never put your hands in your pocket*. -Doff't think about your hands and they •. will find their proper jalace'."" He illustrated tho point by amusing incidents in the Commons, and recalled that Gosehen was always feeling for his buttons. Another statesman had an action as if he were an old bathing woman splashing a' child in the water. Even the Earl of Balfour —who, he hoped, was not listening in—got into a hopeless entanglement by placing two pairs of eyeglasses on his sleeves. Harcourt turned his back on his 'audience and addressed the few behind him. Another insisted on pacing the House, and had perforce to await the dinner hour before speaking. Tricks of action were bad; so were tricks of phrase. One member began and ended every speech with the hope that the House would allow him a few words, whereas the House could not ,help itself. (Laughter.) Yet another always referred to "eddication." His wife might have corrected him, but it was too delicate a task for a colleague. Lord Ullswater counselled his hearers, not to be afraid, of nervousness. With respect to preparation, some speakers learned their speeches by heart before delivery. ' That was a tremendous effort, and had its daugcrs, while the effect was rather wooden. Disraeli aiwl Macaulay did not. Fox threw himself into the middle Of a, sentence and left Providence to get him out. Preparation was necessary to preserve the exordium and the peroration, and they could leave the centre part to take cure of itself. He had found humour extremely useful. "Don't become the servant of humour. If you become known as a humourist, God help you." (Laugh: ter.) After eulogising the House of Commons, Lord Ullswater concluded by remarking: "If you know a better hole, go to it." ' . • ■