ardent Radicalism. Col. Saunderson, an Irish Unionist member, gifted with a terrific brogue, which he had improved by practice, gave so genial and good-natured a display of Irish humour that he was loved by the Parnellite party whom he derided and exposed. Dr. Robert Wallace, an Edinburgh minister, professor, and journalist, clothed a biting wit in a literary garb so artistic that he kept the House, in which, by the way, he had a seizure and died, alternately hushed with expectancy and convulsed with laughter. Labouchere was the incurable cynic who mocked, at everybody, including himself. Mr. Birrell, the present Irish Secretary, has an instinctive gift of humour which does not desert him even on serious occasions, and is aided by irreproachable literary form. Bernal Osborne belongs to a rather earlier day; but in his prepared epigrams almost always lurked a poisoned dart, intended to pierce the bosom impartially of friend and foe.
The Professors in Parliament.Another class of speakers in the House of Commons that has added to its intellectual distinction, and not infrequently to its eloquence, has been that of the professors. I heard, I think, all of them in recent years, with the exception of John Stuart Mill, whose great literary reputation was perhaps not sustained by his rhetorical performances. As he delivered his maiden speech, Disraeli, fixing him with his eye-glass, is said to have murmured, " Oh, the finishing governess "; and this impression, encouraged by a weak voice and nervous manner, was never quite removed by the intellectual quality of the highly finished essays which this learned philosopher recited to the House. The blind Professor Fawcett was a sincere and powerful speaker; and so, in different ways, were the present Lord Courtney, Professor Jebb, who had a delicate gift of speech, Professor S. H. Butcher, a very able Parliamentarian, as well as a most accomplished man, and Professor Lecky. The figure of the latter, swaying to and fro, with not too graceful undulations, as he delivered the most admirable argument in a high and rather querulous treble voice, is a picture not easily forgotten. In some of these cases and
