Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Sources
Why, Sir, the right hon. gentleman below me (Mr. Horsman) who said a
little against the Government, and a little against this Bill, last
night made an attack upon so humble an individual as I am. He is
the first member of this new party who expressed by his actions his
great grief. He retired into what may be called his political Cave of
Adullam, to which he invited everyone who was in distress, and everyone
who was discontented. He has long been anxious to found a party in this
House, and there is scarcely a member at this end of the House who is
able to address us with effect, or to take much part in our debates
whom he has not tried to bring over to his party and his cabal. At last
he has succeeded in hooking the right hon. gentleman, the member for
Calne (Mr. Lowe). I know it was the opinion many years ago of a member
of the Cabinet that two men could make a party; and a party formed of
two men so amiable, so genial as both of those right hon. gentlemen,
we may hope to see for the first time in Parliament a party perfectly
harmonious and distinguished by a mutual and an unbroken trust. But
there is one great difficulty in the way. It is very much like the case
of the Scotch terrier which was so covered with hair that you could not
tell which was head and which was tail. Sir, the right hon. gentleman,
the member for Calne, told us that he had had some peculiar election
experiences....
Now, the constituency which the right hon. gentleman represents
nominally consists of 174 members, seven of whom are working men, but
his real constituency is a member of the other House of Parliament who
could have sent here his butler or his groom. Sir, I think that in one
sense, looking on the right hon. gentleman as an intellectual gladiator
in this House, we are much indebted to the Marquis of Lansdowne that he
did not do that. I have said that I wanted to explain the particulars
of this Bill, and to appeal to the good sense and the patriotism of the
gentlemen opposite not lightly to reject it. I ask them not to take the
disparaging description of their countrymen which has been offered to
the House by the member for Calne, and the hon. member for Salisbury,
who, I presume, from their association at the Antipodes, seem to take
only a Botany Bay view of this subject, and of the character of the
great bulk of their fellow-countrymen. Why, the right hon. gentleman
said on one night, when I was not here, that I, even in the matter
of the cattle plague, set class against class. I ask any man in this
House: Is it possible to do a thing that is more perilous than that
which is done by the right hon. gentleman and his Australian colleague,
the member for Salisbury, viz., to make it appear that there is a gulf
which shall not be passed by legislation, between the highest, the most
powerful and the most numerous portion of the middle class, and the
great body of the working people who are really the very heart of this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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