SOME MAIDEN SPEECHES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7435, 23 June 1902, Page 2

SOME MAIDEN SPEECHES

._s — + COMEDY AND PATHOS. • / There are some curious stories in the chapter, on maiden speeches in Mr MacDonagh's " Parliament, its Comedy, its Pathos," newly published by Messrs rP. S. King and Son : — "My Lords," said the Earl of Rochester in the reign of Charles 11., rising to make his maiden speech in the House of Lords, " my lords, I rise this time for the*,, first i time — the very first time. My lords; I divide my speech into four branches." Here there was an embarrassing pause of some seconds. "My lords," the earl then ejaculated, "if ever I rise again in this House, you may, cut me off root and branches and all, for ever." >'■''• Even John Bright, late in his career, said he never rose in the House" without "a trembling at the knees and a secret wish that somebody else would catch the Speaker's eye." What, then, would a, young member's feelings be on making his first attempt? Mr Disraeli, said his wife, is "the sweetest-tempered of men, but he is always very irritable when He is going to speak." Mr Chamberlain made his maiden speech on August 4, 1876, in a discussion on the Education. Bill. • He began modestly, and, therefore, well. "As he had so recently come" into the House, he felt reluctant to trespass on its time, being of opinion that he should best show his respect for the Assembly he was so proud to enter by refraining from addressing it while inexperienced in its forms and practices." .Mr Chamberlain was thoroughly self-possessed, yet not assertive, although he surveyed the House while addressing it through an eye-glass. The speech made a good impression. Disraeli, then Prime Minister, • emerged from his private room on hearing that " Chamberlain, the Radical, is up." . Mr Balfour was two and a ftalf years iu the House before he plucked up courage to make his maiden speech. Cob'den, though with little practice in speaking, made his maiden speech the second day after he entered Parliament. Ifc was an appeal for the abolition of the Corn Laws. The speech, said Mr Morley, sounded a new key, and startled men by^ an accent that was strange in the House of Commons. Ihe thoughtful among them recognised the rare tone of reality, and the note of a man dealing with things and not words. He produced that singular and profound effect which is perceived in English deliberative assemblies when a speaker, leaves party recriminations, 'abstract arguments, and DisraelL then Prime Minister, emerged from his hearers of telling facts in the condition* of the nation. A Cobden is wanted in 1902. Parnell, in his maiden speech, was obviously and painfully nervous. He could only stainmer out a few barely intelligible sentences," in protest against a description of Irelandapplied in the course of the discussion — as a geographical fragment of England ! Rather more than half a century before Mr Parnell, another Irish M.P< described his maiden-speech emotions humorously. It was the Mr Dogherty who became Chief Justice of Ireland. He asked Canning what he thought of his maiden speech. "The only fault I can find with it," said Canning "is that you called the Speaker 'sir' too°often." "My dear friend," said Dogherty, "if you knew the mental state I was in while speaking you would not Wonder if I had called hjm 'ma'am.'" Whiteside, another Irish member who also became Chief Justice of Ireland, used to relate that on seeing, during his maiden speech, the Speaker's wig surrounded by blue flames, he knew it was time to sit