The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-10-14 00:00:00

THE BEATITUDES OF "HECKLING.'

At the I:eye' burgh of Banff tti." licrae IS.:actary
has been discoursing on the beatitudes of "heckling,"
remarks the Daily nltyraph, in a lea& r. And what
is " heckling?" Mr. Bruce means something far
different from the combing of flax, which is the generic
nignification of the term ; in his mouth the word is
political ; and many an English and Scotch Member
will exclaim, with a sigh, that. (coin the pain f per-
sonal experience, he knows but too well what "heck-
ling " implies. Just as the operatives comb down the
flax, smooth away the im-gularities of the surface,
brash lad the knots and the dirt which encrust the
substance and which prevent it from being soft and
glossy, no the " heckler " draws a moral in-
etrument, full of sharp teeth. through the Opinion),
of his Member, and comb,i him clean of political
heresy. The practice is peculiarly English and Scotch.
Lord Palmerston was "heckled " by the famous Tiver-
ton butcher Rowcliffe, who, whenever the distinguislex
statesman addressed his constituents, posted himself
before the hustings, and asked him what he had done
in Parliament, what he meant to do, what apology he
could make for betraying his country, and what
guarantee he could offer that he would never do it
again. Being a master of the wit, or rather of the
banter, whieh tickles an English crowd, Lord Palmer-
ston often turned the laugh against his plebeian foe ;
as when he said that, although he would not tell Mr.
Iloweliffe to what party he would allyhimaelf, he would
at least promise notb, join a llowcliffe Administration.
The people of Tiverton gave the vote of their merri-
ment as well as of their political conviction to the
statesman who could thus ironically beautify their
own butcher with the possibilities of political rank.
Mr. Disraeli is also skilled in the art of bringing down
the ridicule of the audience on the head of any one who
is rash enough to interrupt the flow of his oratory, or
to hazard a game of fence after the Conservative chief
has ma.le a great speech. no leszer stars of the poli-
tical firmament are not so fortunate. It is related of a
distinguished owner of racehorses and Member for a
group of Scottish burgs, that on one occasion he strove
to win the favour of his constituents by promising to
vote for the abolition of a number of livid and institu-
tions which they wished to see swept away. What ,
would he do with the Law of Entail? " Abolish it."
And the Law of ypidhec ? "Abolish it." And the !
Game Law? " Abolish it." Anil the Decalogue? in-
sinuated &Scotch wit." "Abolish it," replied the repre-
sentative of the Presbyterian constituency, thrown ~tf
his guard by a series of questions which he had mechani-
cally persevered in meeting with iconoclastic answers.
Coming from a man who had won the Derby, and
addressed to Men who found a special reference to the
Derby in the Decal,,gue, the anti-Mosaic resolution
was, no doubt, duly appreciated. Mr. Bruce, whose
constituency lies in the same part of Scotland, has
been explaining to the people of Banff that he too ,
has undergone a "heckling," After he had ad-
dressed a particular meeting, a man put a long
list of questions. They were not dictated by the
inspiration of the moment, but were the fruit ..4
long forethought, were deliberately framed and written
down on a piece of paper, as if they had been an
epitome of the " Shorter Catechism," drawn up with a
view to see whether Mr. Bruce's views of Calvinism
were souniL 'rhe number was sixteen, the mel,e.
apologising for the brevity of the list on the plea
that the Home Secretary was overwhelmed with work;
but to Mr. Bruce's predecessor the same inquisitor had
put thirty-six. English voters do the Caine thing,
though not so elaborately or deliberately. For the neat
part, they Blake up the "Hosting, t 'atechism" on the
spot. Perhaps, indeed, they would be not less ashamed !
to pull out a paper at a public meeting than a Scotch
minister of the old school was to preach (coma manu-
script. They would fancy that the notes implied a ills-
creditable hick of mother wit ; or, still worse, they
might reflect that they were not giving their Member
fair play by deliberately laying verbal pitfalls on
paper. Scotland is the chief seat of "heckling," and
there we find the best specimens of the art.
Mr. Bruce says that he likes it; and, speaking to a
Scotch audience, he paid the custom the high compli-
ment that it offered urn excellent wht,ol
education.