Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Manawatu Herald, 7 November 1896, Page 3

Mr Gladstone's First Speech. ♦ . " Maiden Speecheß in Parliament" is the title of an excellent article in the September number of the Windsor Magazine. The first place is given to an account of Mr Gladstone's debut. "On February 21, 1888, a petition was presented relative to electoral corruption at Liverpool, and, promoted doubtless by a sensitive concern for the honour of his birthplace, the new member ventured to interpose in the discussion, which, in accordance with the then existing rule of the House, was ullowed to take place when it 3 prayer had been read. The new Parliament had not been in session a month, aud Mr Gladstone -who had bean returned for Newark at tho General Election in the preceding December — wa.», it must be supposed, still overawed by his surrounding*. At any rate the young man of twentythree was described in the newspapers of the following morning as having been ' inaudible in the gallery,' a circumstance which may have been, however, a3 much dm to * the wretched accommodation of the reporters at that time as to the failure' of the voice that baa since thrilled tens of thousands. Nor dots this circumstance fully explain the long oblivion to which this maiden speech was consigned, for some sort of a rtport of it is to be found in both 'Hansard' and 'The Mirror of Parliament,! although they are qualified by the prefatory warning