GREAT MEMORIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XVI, 16 April 1898, Page 476

GREAT MEMORIES.

Undoubtedly the finest memory possessed by any living man to-day, according to the London Standard's idea, is Mr Gladstone’s. Many of his best speeches in the House of Commons, bristling with quotations, together with dates and figures, have been made on the spur of the moment, when reierence to records was impossible. Despite his advanced years, Mr Gladstone can still recite any page of his Homer, if given the number and the first word. The next position ot merit must undoubtedly be assigned to Mr Chamberlain. The member forWest Birmingham seems to know by heart every speech he has ever made, for he often quotes from them without referring to reports. He has a remarkable memory for days, dates and figures. It was attributable to this fact that Mr Chamberlain made a great ‘hit’ in the House of Commons a few years ago. The occasion was an Irish debate. John Dillon had been trying to show from a former speech of the Colonial Secretary’s that he had altered his views upon a certain Irish question. Mr Dillon made quotation after quotation from the speech of a most striking kind, and the Irish members cheered uproariously. The only gentleman who regarded the affair with untroubled air was Mr Chamberlain himself, who sat unmoved amidst the cheers of the one side and the depression of the other. When Mr Dillon had finished, Mr Chamberlain rose to his feet and calmly Informed the astonished House that he had not made a speech on the day named on the subject. Mr Dillon protested (having the speech in his hands), but the member from Birmingham ‘stood to his guns.’ Finally, Mr Chamberlain quite turned the tables on his opponent by giving the exact date on which the speech in question was made, which was two years after the events with which Mr Dillon had connected it, anil thus all the Irish leader’s arguments were destroyed. The statement was challenged at the time, but it was found, on subsequent searching, to be absolutely correct.