The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-21
FAILED FIRST Time.
EMINENT ORATORS WHO MADH
"a BAD WORK OF MAIDEN
SPEECHES
DIsRAELI WAS HoorED AT
Gladstone's Debut Gave No Promise
of the EIninence to Which
He Afterwards At tsA~
tanned.


the strangers gallery Of the house OF.
commons, listened to the debate on the
address In which Lord John Russell, ? Ma.
caulay, Stanley, Buwer and other leading
members of the house took part, says
PMacM1llan's Magazine Next day AZ he;
| wrote to his sister: WAS at the house Of
feommons yesterday during the %halel Of
the debate-one of the finest We have had
! Tor years. Macaulay was admirable. but
| between ourselves, / could floor them all.
| IhlS entire nous. I was never more cen
tdent OF anything than that L could carry
| everything before me in that house. The
| time will come S>~
The time did come four years later.
| when on Dec. Z, 1887, Disrael having been
! returned as a Tory, stood up in the house
OF commons to make his maiden speech.
| The story of that historic fiasco has never
| been fully told What is generally known
| is that Disraeli was interrupted by bursts
| OF lronlcal laughter almost from the be-
ginning of his speech, and that at length.
| utterly unable to catch the ear of the
! mouse, he concluded by shouting at the
utmost pitch of his voice fthe famous
phrase: Though I sitsdown now, the
time Will come When you win hear me-
But the whole episode, what led up TO it
and what followed it, is most interesting
The subject of the debate was a{motipne
by Mr., Smith O'Brien for a select COM
I'LL W inquire INTO the dfIeStuD pfStcrfSe
of VeXatious petitioning Is against Irish
members elected in the popular interest.
Daniel-OConneI supported the motion.
and 1t dspeen. arranged that Sir Robert
Peel should reply; but the strongly eX-
pressed wish Of Disraelt that the duty
| might be given to him, backed as iEswas
by many members of his party, induced
the Tory leader to give way to his ardent
| young recruit.
There had been an absurd though IorIy
bitter quarrel, between OfConneH andsDis-
raelL OConnel was one of DiSraeli's
| sponsors when he carried the Radical
| flag on the hustings at High Wycombe in
1882. Three years later DisraeIi. having
| turned TORY, attacked the Melbourne adj
mlnistration, which was retained in pow
| er by the Irish party, for having clasped,
as he put IT, 'the bloody hand of O,Con-
| nell" OConnel retorted in a speech of
! savage Vituperation in which he declared
that Disraelis life was a living lie, and
| that he was a descendant Of the impeni-
tent thief on the cross" DisraeH chal-
| Iengeds OConEelI but the Irishman after
killing DEsterre in 1915 had made a VOW
against duelling and always wore a black
! kid glove upon his right hand as a token
| of his lifelong repentance for having shed
| another mans blood Then" wrote Dis
raeli, in scathing letter to O'Connel.
I'VE shall meet at Phillippi." Now the two
! antagonists were face to- face at, Phillippi
in the house of commons, with. happily,
the floor between.
Disraeli's failure on this occasion was
not due to nery GUS timidity, bu to the less
! amiable fault of -over-confident huency,
to the young members irritating self-as-
surance of manner, inspired, obviously, by
the conviction that he was about to leap
into parliamentary fame at a single
bound. This, with his foppish attire, his
affected gestures and the knowledge of
his rapid change of political opinion, caus-
ed the British Radicals and the Irish Re
| pealers, both led by the Iusty lung of
O'Connell, to indulge in roars of iroufeal
laughter and other disconcerting cries.
Macaulay, writing to a friend in Paris,
rev days later. said, Speaking Of
the House D'Israeli nearly killed it on
Thursday night. You have, of course,
seen his speech in Galignani. Can you
conceive the impudence of the ATTORNEY
going UP to him in the lobby and say
ing, "A very pleasant speech Of yours,
MI. Ulsrael1. VIII you be kind enough
to tell me what Lord John held beside
| the keys of st. Peter?' The red cap of
liberty, sir During the performance,
Peel quite screamed with laughter"
G!adstone's first appearance as a speak
er in the arena in which he was for so
long a period the most eloquent and pre-
dominant personality, was obscure and
disappointing, He took his seat as a
member for Newark on Jan. 20; 1893,
the opening day of the first session of
the first parliament elected under the
reform act-heing then twenty-three
years old 81
Three weeks later, on Feb. q, he made
his maiden speech. A petition signed by
5000 Wings of Liverpool was presented
| alleging bribery and corruption against
the Tory IRE presentat OF the town,
ana IN the discussion which followed,
| Gladstone fnterposed on behalf of the
electoral honor of his native place
/ livery great orator from Demosthenes
to Burke" Gladstone once said has suf
| fered from nervousness on the eve Of an
important speech, and, although 1 can
not claim to share their gift of golden
ysE PeGen' a Gan claim, more than a fair
share of their defect Of nerves." Ger
tainly, he was extremelyI nervous on this
| occasion, as his indistinctness of utter
ance and heSitancy Of manner only too
! obviously showed That voice which sub
4 -sequently held so. many thousands SPELL
bound by It's music was inaudble from
the gallery in which the reporters We're
taking notes. So little notice did thia
| DEBUT attract, that a speech delivered In
| the mouse few months later by his
brother Thomas, in defense of their ia
LLher, VINO was an owner of slaves on
| MS estates at Demerara, has often been
| described as Gladstone's maiden effort -
/ Lord Salisbury was twenty-folr when
as lord Robert Cecil, he took his seat in
| the mouse of commons as a member FOR
| Stamford in February 1854. Two months
| later, on April Z he delivered his first
| speech on Lord John Russell's university
! bill Hansard gives it only eighteen lines
| OF its narrow columns, and the members
| who Immediately followed lin the debate
| MADE no reference to it; but Gladstone.
| speaking later in the evening, recognized
In generous terms the abilities of the
young man who was destined after the
| lapse of thirty years to become his chief
political rival This first effort, rich
| with promise" said he Indicates that
| there still issue forth from the maternal
| bosom of the university men who, in the
| first days of their career, give earnest
| OF what they may afterward accomplish
| for their country" -fe-~ - -
recent times was that of Sir William Har
court. He was forty-one years old when
| he took his seat. as member. for Oxford =
| on Feb. 16, 1869, and just week later adj
| dressed the house for the first time The
| subject was, happily. lone in which he
! was we'll Yersed. Viscounts5 Bury asked
| for leave to introduce a measure entitled
| the Vacatlng Of Seats bill, to repeal the
| statute OF Queen Anne, which makes it
! necessary for members of the house to
| seek reelection on accepting office in the
| government, on the ground that it served
| no useful purpose. Mr.. Vernon Harcourt
| tas he was then called protested against
I leave being given even to bring in such
bill. The speech. which occupies sly
| columns in Hansard and was loudly ap
| plauded throughout induced Viscount
Bury to withdraw his motion
| Nervousness Is not commonly recognize
1 ed as an Irish falling, but at least three
| celebrated Irishmen have in this CEN
| fury owned Its mastery when up for the