PARLIAMENTARY BEVERAGES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5185, 3 November 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

PARLIAMENTARY BEVERAGES.

A. glass of sugar-and-water has long been the traditional sustenance of French orators while delivering their speeches in the Chamber. Of late years, however, some notable politicians have preferred a more exhilarating kind of refreshment. M. Pouyer-Quertier is, or was formerly, supplied with burgundy while addressing the representatives of the people; on one occasion he tossed off a bumper of champagne in sight of the Assembly previously to the utterance of an admirable speech on finance. In the course of his recent famous oration, M. Gambetta is reported to have drunk eight glasses of black coffee. It is said that when he called for the third his friends presented him with a " mazagran," as the French term a mixture of coffee and water, and that they considerately gave a decided preponderance to the pure element. It is further added that the ex-Dictator made a wry face as he swallowed the insipid mixture. What is certain is that M". Gambetta felt ill at the close of the proceedings—whether in consequence of having swallowed eiijht glasses of coffee and water or by reason of other causes may be left to conjecture. Brillat-Savarin mentions the case of an acquaintance of his who suffered seriously from the immoderate use of coffee. He was almost bent double, and had been compelled to reduce himself to an allowance of five or six cups daily. What it is best to speak on is a somewhat difficult question to resolve. The English orators of the classic period were rather of M. Pouyer-Quertier's than of M. Gambetta's way of thinking in this particular manner, and no doubt in many others. Pitt's port, which he frequently diluted with water, is historical. On a certain occasion, it is recorded, that Sheridan being violently assailed by a member who spoke from the opposite side of the House, instead of, more Galllico, shaking his fist at the orator in question, abruptly rose and retired into the dinnerroom. There he called for a bottle of madeira, emptied the whole of its contents into a slopbasin, and drank them without once pausing to take breath. He then returned to the House, and was soon on his legs demolishing the previous speaker. Never, as friend and foe alike declared, had his oratory been so impassioned or so splendid.