A "SATURDAY NIGHT'S" SPEECH IN THE MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 80, 15 February 1864, Page 4

A "SATURDAY NIGHT'S" SPEECH IN THE MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Klkction or bunkum speeches are a large class of American sensations. They are spoken in tho House of Representatives, or on tho Mississipi wharf, while tho steamboat is stopping for passengers. They are full of the most extravagant metaphors, and' the most startling oddities. t cannot refrain from quoting the best I ever read—a speech actually delivered in serious earnest, and on an important question too—General Riley's speech in the Missouri House of Representatives, February Bth, 1801. It will show how utterly unlike are the ideas of oratory in England and America. After a long and heated discussion rn the reference of a bill amending the eliarter of the city of Carondclet to a standing committee of the House, Mr. Riley obtained the Hour, am) addressed the House:— Mr Speaker,—Everybody is pitching into this matter like toad frogs in a willow swamp, on a lovely evening in the balmy month of June, when the mellow light of the full moon tills with a delicious Hood tho thin, ethereal atmospheric air. (Applause.) I want to put in a word, or perhaps a word and a half. There seems to be a disposition to tight. I say if there is any fighting: to be done, eoine on with your corn cobs and lightning bugs. (Applause.) >'o\v there has been a great deal of bombast here to-day. I call it bombast from Alpha to Omega. Sir, the question to refer is a gre at and magmiiccnt question. It is the all absorbing question—like a sponge, Sir, —a large unmeasurable sponge, of globe shape, in a small tumbler of water—it sucks up everything:. Sir, the debate has assumed a latitudinotity. "We have had a little black jet buncombe, a little two-bit, bung-hole buncombe, and the devil and his grandmother knows what other kind of buncombe. (Laughter). Why, Sir, just give some of'cm a little Southern soap and a little Xorthem water, and quicker than a hoimd pup can lick.a skillet they will make enough buncombe lather to wash the golden Hock that mams abroad the azure meads of heaven. (Cheers and laughter). I allude to the starry firmament. Tho Speaker—The gentleman is out of order. He must confine himself to the question. Mr. l»iley—I'll stick to the text as close as a pitch plaster to a pine plunk, or a lean pig to a hot jam rod:. (Cries of "Go on !" " You'll do !") I want to say to these carboniferous gentlemen, the.>e igneous individuals, these detonating demonstrators, the pereginuous volcanoes, conn; on with your crackers, come on with your eombn.-dibles ! If 1 don't—well, I'll suck the Gulf of Mexico through a goose quill. (Laughter and applause.) Perhaps you think lam diminutive tubers, and sparse in the mundane elevation. In the language of the noble bard— " L was born in a thicket To be seared by a cricket." Sir, we have lost our proper position. Our proper position is to the zenith and nadir—our heads to the one, our heels to tho other at right angles with the horizon, spanned by that azure arc of the lustrous firmament, bright with the eorruseations of innumerable constellations, and proud as a speckled stud-horse on a country court-day. (Cheers.) "Hut how have the mighty fallen!" in the language of the poet Silversmith. "We have our proper position. Wc have assumed a sloshindicular or a diagonological position. And what is the e-iu.se? Echo answers, II Buncombe," sir, " Buncombe." Thepeoplehavo fed on buncombe, while a lot of spavined, ring-boned, hamstrung, wind-galled, swine-eyed, split-hoofed, distempered poU-eviled, pot-bellied politicians have had their noses in the public crib, until there ain't fodder enough left to make gruel for a sick grasshopper. (Cheers and laughter). Sir. do they think they can stuff such bnneome down our crawr Xo, sir; you might as well try to .stutf butter in a wind rat, with a hot awl. (Continued laughter). The thing can't be done. Mr. Speaker, you must excuse ! nn« Jor my latitudinosit}* and cireumloeutoriness. My old blunderbuss scatters amazingly, but if any body gets peppered, it ain't my fault if they are in the way. Sir, these candadical, supersquirtical, mahogany faced gentry—what do they know about the hkvsings of freedom About as much, Sir, as a toad fro£ dous of high glory. Do they think they can escape me ? I'll follow them through Pandemonium and high water. (Cheers and laughter). These are the ones that have got our liberty pole off its perpendicularity. "Tis they who would rend the stars and stripes—that noble flag, the blood of our revolutionary fathers embalmed in its red. The purity of the cause for which they died —denoted by the white and blue—the freedom they attained, like the azure air that wraps their native hills and lingers on their lovely plains. (Cheers). The high bird of liberty | sits perched on the topmast branch, but there is no | secession salt oil his glorious tail. I fear he will no i more spread ids glorious pinions to soar beyond the azure regions of the boreal pole. But let not Missouri pulFthe feather from his sheltering wing, to plume a shaft to pierce his noble breast; or, what i.s j the same, make a pen to sign a secession ordinance. . (Applause). Alas, poor bird, if they drive you out jot the branches of the hemlock of the Xoiih, and the palmetto ot tho South, come over to the gumtree of : the W e.-.t, and we will protect your noble birdsliip, while water grows and grass runs. (Immense applause), -dr. Speaker, I subside for the present. . /-^ HK of "Wales' UnminAv.—The festivities at Sandringham in connection with tho celebration of the anniversary of the birthday of the Prince of "Wales were m tho main strictly private, and the I huge number ot persons from the neighbourhood" who , drove on to the estate were disappointed of seeing ! . anything* oxcept the Prince and his party, who were shooting in the neighbourhood of the hall, and who were joined bv the Princess of "Wales and the Princess lioyal. At anout -1 o,elock on Monday afternoon the cluidron of the Wol t'erton, andDersingiiam rJioolr? Httnndcd, and 2. ur ( XVO

of the hall, being attended hy the clergy on the estate, and were afterwards provided -with dinner in a part of the coach-honscs iiti-ocl up as a dining-room. Their "Royal Highnesses and their Royal relatives manifested great interest in the proceedings. The cottagers and workpeople on the estate also had a dinner; Carmichel, the Prince's steward, presiding. The following toasts were given andenthus iastieally responded to:—"The Queen," "The Prince and Princess of Wales/' " Princc Alfred and the rest of the Royal Family," <c The Crown Princess of Prussia," " General Ivnollys," and "The Equerries." TELEGKAriiic Fkat.—The Emperor's speech on the opening of the Session consisted of 2,044 words. The transmission by telegraph from the central station j in Paris eommcnccd as soon as it was ascertained that j the reading had been' completed, which was at about hall-past 1. The average time occupied in the trans- I mision to the principal cities of France and Europe j was an hour and a qmirter. The capitals for which j the longest time was required from a want of direct communications were Ivome; St. Petcrsbttrg, Athens, j and Lisbon. The speech was nevertheless received i everywhere before the evening, and the journals of j the whole of Europe produced it on the following ; morning, the same as those of Paris. —Tttucs, Nov 11. j