The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-03-03
Wit in Parliament.
GJennings's Anecdotal History of the British Pal

[Jennings's Anecdotal History of the British Par
r.a liament.]
The question of the regency has been raised
by the illness of George III. and Thurlow had
been intriguing with both political parties
Having made up his mind that his interest lay
on the king IS side, he left the woolsack apd
addressed the House of Lords, concluding lis
speech with the impressive exclamation, "a nd
when forget my king may my God forg
me" On hearing Lord Thurlow's imprecatioa
Pitt is said to have rushed out of the House,
exclaiming several times, ooh, what rascalp
Burke, on the same occasion, muttered, "The
best thing that can happen to you" and
Wilkes, eying the chancellor askance, said
sotto voce, "God forget you, he win see you
d first
George ~. was protesting that he could not
do what he had said, on his honor as a gentle
man, he would not do. Pardon me, SIRE"
said the duke of Wellington; "you majesty is
lot gentlemen" The king started. "Your
majesty, say, continued the imperturbable
soldier, sis not gentleman, but the sovereign
of England, with duties to your people far
above any to yourself"
When Feargus OConnor was charged in the
House with being a republican he denied it,
and said he did not care whether the queen or
the devil was on the throne. Peel replied
When the honorable gentleman sees the SOW
ereign of his choice on the throne of these
realms I hope he'll enjoy, and I'm sure he'll
deserve the confidence of the crown"
Lord Eldon is credited with neat retort- He
was presenting an anti-Catholic petition from
the Glasgow company of tailors when Lynd-
hurst, who had lately changed sides on the
question of Catholic relief, said in stage
whisper, "What, do tailors trouble themselves
with such measures" "My noble and learned
friend" replied Lord Eldon, 'tnight have been
aware that tailors cannot like turncoQts"
On an occasion when Col Barre brought
forward a motion ON the British navy, Lord
North said to friend sitting next him: "Now
Bare will give us our naval history from the
beginning, not forgetting Sir Francis Drake
and the Armada. All tnat is nothing to me,
so let me sleep on, and wake me when we come
near our own times" His friend at length
reused him, when Lord North exclaimed:
Where are we?" "At the battle OF La Hogue,
my, lord" "Oh, my dear friend" said North,
"you have woke me century too soon.'
Mr.. Jennings recalls O'Connell's comment
on the defense set up by parliamentary re-
porter for misquoting the liberator's speech,
viz, that the rain had streamed into his pook-
cts and washed out his notes. "This," O'Con-
nell remarked, "was the most extraordinary
shower of rain he had ever heard of, inasmuch
as it not only washed out the speech he did
make, but washed in another and an entirely
different one." Familiar is O'Connell's sneer
at the fewness of Lord Stanley's personal ad-
herents after some general election
"Thus down thy hill, romantic Ashbourne glides
The Derby dilly carrying six insides'
Equally ready was his parody on three mem
bers OF Parliament, Coils. Sibthorpe, Perceval
and Werner, two of whom looked as if they
never needed razor, and the third as if he
repudiated one:-
"Three colonels, in three distant counties born
Lincoln, Armagh aud Sligo did adorn;
The first in matchless impudence surpassed;
The next in bigotry; in both the last
The force Of nature could no further &c,
To beard the third, she shaved the other two.'
John Brights Scriptural illustrations are Of
ten marked by singular beauty as well as per-
tnence. Referring to his own reluctance to
accept office, he said that he had always been
charmed by the story of the Shunammite wo-
man contained in a single verse of the Old
Testament. In return for her hospitality the
prophet wished to make her some amends and
said, "Shall speak for thee to the king, or to
the captain of the host?" Bright went on to
say that 1t had always appeared to him a great
answer that the Shunammite woman returned.
She said, II dwell among mine own people,
Perhaps the aptest illustration ever en-
ployed by Disraeli was his criticism OF Sir Rob-
ert Peel's tactics: "The right honorable gem
tleman caught the Wings bathing and walked
away with tnelr clotneS. we need not say
that the metaphor precisely describes Disraeli's
own strategy in passing the second reform bill,
a measure which his own colleague, Lord Der
by, termed "a leap in the dark" but to which
he was reconciled by the reflection that 1--WE
have dished the Whlgs.'
Sheridan described Dundas as one "who
generally resorts to his memory for his Jokes,
and to his imagination for his facts" Asked by
some one, on the conclusion of his speech on the
Hastings trial, how he came to compliment
Gibbon with the epithet luminous" which so
delighted the historian, Sheridan answered in
half-whisper, 81 said voluminous." But
perhaps none of Sheridan's elaborate epigrams
produced such effect upon his auditors as an
unpremeditated sentence uttered in the Course
of debate upon the liberty Of the press Give
them," said he, "a corrupt House of Lords,
give them a venal House OF Commons, give
them tyrannical prince, give them q truck
ling court, and let me have but an unfettered
press will defy them to encroach a hairs
breadth upon the liberties of England"