A MODEL SPEECH. BY A DEFEATED CANDIDATE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 42, 20 February 1869, Page 3

A MODEL SPEECH. BY A DEFEATED CANDIDATE.

At the official declaration of the poll for Nottingham, last December, Mr Osborne said : —Matters are somewhat reversed siuce last Monday, for then I was in the first place. But lam accustomed to that, (laughter). From the time that I saw the great coalition on both sides against me, I did not begin to funk —(laughter)— but I began to have doubts as to the security of my position. I acknowledge the popularity of your present senior member, Sir Robert. He is, in fact, the real work-., ingraen's candidate iu Nottingham (cheers.) I also acknowledge tbe high standing and the local connections, together with the advantageous association'of his name with the Robin Hoods, which Colonel Wright may claim, and I say that in him you have a good man (cheers). I don't know that, if he had other principles, you could have a better mau. I don't like his principles ; but he has something about him that Ido like—-I like his wife. (Roars of laughter, amid which the speaker shook hands with Mrs Wright.) From the moment when I saw two of tlie handsomest, two of the best, two of the most winning women in Great Britain enter into this contest, in the shape of Lady Clifton —(cheers) —and Mrs Wright, I wrote up to my wife and said, It is all 'U P with me.' (Great laughter.) Gentlemen, we hear something of bribery at elections. I accuse you, Mrs Wright, of having won people by the witchery of your smile ; I accuse you, Lady Clifton, of having made your husband what he is by your winning ways and your charitable hand. (Applause.) Though beaten, lam not disgraced : I have been defeated by two women, whomT could not find the equals of. Well, I don't complain. Tt is very easy to laugh when you wiu ; the great art of tbe philosopher is to play the mountebank when you lose. (Laughter and cheers*) Of course there is some vexation in being beaten. No man likes it. I don't like being beaten; but at the same time I have been so good-humored ly beaten. I have been patted on my back by my opponents,- and smiled upon now by my most arch "foe (bowing to Mrs Wright,) so that I'shall go away with a very cordial remembrance of both, my supporters and my opposers. (Cheers.) Some mistakes have been committed iu this contest. Necessarily that will happen. The whole thing here, as Lord Derby said of his Reform Bill, was a leap in the dark ; and a precious leap I have made of it. (Cheers.)