The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-11-18 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY REPORTING.

About thirty-five years ago the debate, which was about En-
glish labourers, being. one evening unusually dull, Jack Finnerty,
who had but a short time before been imported from Tipperary,
said to the only reporter-in the gallery at the time, that he felt
very drowsy, and that he would .be after taking a little bit of a
nap, if lie would tell him, when he awoke, any thing which
might take place. The other agreed, and Jaek, in a moment,
Was. fast locked in the' arms of Morpheus. An hour elapsed,
and after half-a-doin yawns Jock opened his eyes.
"Has any thing happened.?." was his'first question to his
friend.

"To be sure there has," said the other, whose name was
Morgan O'Sullivan—" Mr. Wilberforce has said, that it always
appeared to him beyond all question, that the great cause why
the Irish labourers were, as a body, so much stronger, and cc-
' pable of enduring so much greater physical fatigue, than the
English, was the surpassing virtue of the potatoe.. And he"—
" Morgah, my dear fellow," shouted Jack, and at the mention
of the Irish potatoe, his countenance lighted up with ecstacy'as
he spoke, " Morgan, my dear fellow, this is so important that
we must give it in the first person."
"And I have no doubt," continued Mr. Wilberforce,
if it had been my lot to have been born and reared in"—
" Did the metnber say reared?" interrupted Jack exultingly,
evidently associating the word with the growth of potatoes in
his own. 'blessed country.'
"Ile said reared," observed the other who then resumed—
" had it been my lot to be born and reared in Ireland, where
my food would have principally consisted of the potatoe,—that
most nutritious and ,salubrious root, instead of being the poor,
infirm, shrivelled creature-you, Sir, and honourab:e gentlemen
now behold me—l would have been a tall, stout, atheletic man,
and able to carry an enormous weight."
Here Jack Finuarty observed, looking his friend eagerly in.
the face-," Faith, Morgan, and that's what I call true elo-
quence ! Go on."

•
"I hold that root to be invaluable, and the man who first
cultivated it in Ireland I regard as a benefactor of the first
magnitude to his species. And -my decided opinion is, that
[wrier until we grow potatoes in England in sufficient quantities
to feed all our labourers will those classes be so able-bodied a
class as the Irish. (Hear, hear !.ftern both sides of the house.")
Well, by St. Patrick, but that bates everything,' observed
Jack, on finishing his notes. • That's rale philosophy. And
the other mimbers cried "hear, bear !" did they ?' •
The other members cried " Hear, hear !" answered Morgan.
In a quarter of an hour afterwards the house rose.—Morgan
went away direct to the office of the paper for which he was em-
ployed; while Jack, in perfect ecstasies at the eulogium pro-
nounced on the virtue of ould Ireland,' ran in breathless haste
to a public-house, where the reporters who should have-been on
duty for the other morning papers were assembled. He read
over his notes to them, which they copied verbatim, and not be-
ing at the time in the best possible condition for judging of the
probability of Mr. Wilberforce delivering such a speech, they
repaired to their respective offices, and actually gave a copy of
it to the printer. Next morning it appeared in all the papers except the one with which Morgan O'Sullivan was connected;
The sensation and surprise it -created in town exceeded every
thing. In the evening the house met as usual, and Mr. Wil-
berforce, on the Speaker taking the chair, rose and begged the
indulgence of the house for one moment to a matter which con-
cerned it, as well as himself personally. 'Every honourable
member,' he observed, has doubtless read the speech which I
am represented to have made on the previous night. 'With the
permission of the house I will read it.' (Here the honourable
member read the speech amid the most deafening roars of
laughter.) I can assure honourable members that no one
could have read this speech with more surprise than I myself
did this morning when I found the paper on the breakfast table.
For myself, personally, I care but little about it, though if I
were capable of uttering such nonsense as is here put into my
mouth, it is high time that, instead of being a member of this
house, 1 were an inmate of a lunatic asylum. It is for the dig-
nity of this house that I feel concerned; for if honourable mem-
bers were capable of listening to such nonsense, supposing me
capable of giving expression to it, it were much more appro-
priate to call this a theatre for the performance of farces, than
a place for the legislative deliberations of the representatives of
the nation.'

It was proposed by some members to call the printers of the
different papers in which the speech appeared to the bar of the
h6uSe, for a-breach of privilege ; but the matter was eventually
allowed to drop.— The Great Metropolis.