Mr. Hughes sat by me most of the night, and occasionally
brought and introduced to me some eminent person whom he thought
I would like to know.
The members of our National House of Representatives, however
turbulent or disorderly, never would submit to the fashion
of treating a speaker whom they do not want to hear which
prevails in the House of Commons. When Mr. Gladstone got
through, the night was far spent, and the House evidently
wanted to hear Disraeli, then vote and go home. Mr. Plunket,
a member for the University of Dublin, who seemed an intelligent
and sensible man, rose, wishing to correct a statement of
Mr. Gladstone's, which he thought had done him an injustice.
Disraeli rose about the same time, but bowed and gave way.
The House did not like it. Poor Plunket's voice was drowned
in the storm of shouts--"Sit down. Sit down. Dizzy, Dizzy,"
in which my friend, Mr. Hughes, although of Gladstone's party,
joined at the top of his lungs. I think the Bedlam lasted
five minutes. But Plunket stood his ground and made his correction.
Although Bernal Osborne was a man of great wit and sense,
and Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach were
then, as the latter is now, very eminent characters, yet the
only speakers who belonged to the rank of the great orators
were Gladstone and Disraeli.
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