[M.P.'S AS BADGERS.]
During the intervals of pigeon pie and boiled beef, I have had the pleasure of a few minutes' conversation with Mr. Cordes, and from that conversation I have come to the conclusion that a Member of Parliament holds the same position to the human race that a badger does to the animal race. Some people think that the only earthly purpose for which a badger can have been created was that of being baited, and I have an idea that some persons seem to imagine that a member of Parliament was created for nothing but that we might bait him. But on this occasion we have been brought together not to bait Mr. Cordes, but to fête him.
Conservative Banquet, Newport,
January 20th, 1876.
[THE HONOUR OF BEING M.P.]
It is a great honour still, I am sure, to be a member of the British House of Commons. Lord Rosebery, when he was chairman of the London County Council, in a speech that he made—and I dare say many of you have been interested in some of Lord Rosebery's speeches because he has a fund of humour, and very often one is not quite certain whether he is in earnest or in jest—once said that the position of a town councillor is much more important than that of a member of Parliament. It is quite possible that an individual member of a County Council or a Town Council may be more important as an individual than a member of the House of Commons, but his vote can only mainly affect the locality, whilst the action of a member of the House of Commons may not only affect the whole of Great Britain, but the whole of the British Empire. So I venture to think the position of a Member of Parliament is a little more important than that of a member of a Town Council or a County Council.
Monmouthshire County Council,
February 2nd, 1910.
[NELSON'S SAYING.]
There still exists in the bosoms of our public men the feeling which animated Lord Nelson before the battle of the Nile, when he said, "To-morrow I shall have either a peerage or Westminster Abbey."