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Chap. XX.] Debates in Parliament. |
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the " tacked " clauses ; nor did they. The controversies of 1860 and 1861 were much recalled in 1909 and 1910 when the Lords rejected the " People's Budget" which the "people" did not seem much to want. The speech of the evening was considered to be Lord Lyndhurst's, but I did not hear it as 1 was unable to get a seat in the gallery till 9.0 o'clock, and he had spoken earlier in the evening. It was his last speech. He died in 1863, aged 91. Whenever he spoke in the later years of his life a special hand-rail was provided for him to lean on, I saw it on the above-mentioned night after he had used it. The numbers on the Division were 90 for the Bill and 164 against of peers present; which with proxies, 14 on one side and 32 on the other, brought up the numbers to 104 and 193, or 89 majority against the Bill.
There was also great excitement in connection with No. 2, as it was quite uncertain up to the end what the result would be. As it happened there were 274 for the Bill and 274 against, and the Speaker gave his casting vote against the Bill.
No. 3. This was the 4th night of the debate, and as long as I live, I shall never forget the impression made on the House or on myself, by the solemn and striking words of the 14th Earl of Derby, the " Rupert of Debate " as Bulwer Lytton had called him.
" I say, for my part, even if it should be that for the last time I now have the honour of addressing you, that it will he to my dying day a satisfaction to me that I have been enabled to lift up my voice against the adoption of a measure of which I believe the political folly is only equalled by its moral injustice."(Hansard, vol. cxcvii., col. 40.)
And it was his last speech in the House of Lords, for he died on October 23, in the same year.(a)
The speech of the Bishop of Peterborough (Magee) on the same subject 2 nights previously (June 15), is always considered to have been the finest speech ever delivered in the English Parliament; but I am sorry to say I did not hear it. __________
(a) The Irish Church was the subject of the very first public speech I ever made on an East-Bourne platform (April 20, 1868), and my share in that controversy I rejoice in more than in any other public work I ever undertook. Who was the true prophet, John Bright who said:" I see this measure giving tranquillity to our people, greater strength to the Realm, and new dignity added to the Crown, or the 14m fcari ot Derby ? |
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