"The honorable member would denude us of every rag of the principles which we have proclaimed from the housetops."
"Ah! The honorable member opposite shakes his head at that. But he can't shake mine!"
A well-known member of Parliament informed the House that an "oral agreement is not worth the paper it is written on."
Barristers are usually credited with possessing accuracy of speech, but some expressions recently reported indicate that they are capable of a blundering use of words. A member of the bar, in his opening speech for the defense, said:
"Gentlemen of the jury, the case for the crown is a mere skeleton, for, as I shall presently show you, it has neither flesh, blood, nor bones in it."
But a Leeds barrister outdid his competitors when he said fervidly:
"Gentlemen of the jury, it will be for you to say whether this defendant shall be allowed to come into court with unblushing footsteps, with the cloak of hypocrisy in his mouth, and take three bullocks out of my client's pocket with impunity."
In his "One Thousand and One Anecdotes" Alfred H. Miles records some exceptionally amusing bulls. Among these are the following:
Sir Boyle Roche described himself on one occasion as "standing prostrate at the feet of royalty"; and, in the days of threatened rebellion, wrote to a friend: "You may judge of our state when I tell you that I write this with a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other."
Even worse than the foregoing was the climax of an honorable member's speech in the House of Commons: "I smell a rat; I see it floating in the air; and, by heaven, I'll nip it in the bud!"