JOKES THAT MADE HISTORY
ONE COST 150,000 LIVES. One of the greatest Acts ever passed by Parliament, the Habeas Corpus Act, had its origin in a practical joke. Lord Grey and Lord Norris were named as tellers. . The former was not always attentive to what he was doing, and a very fat peer coming along, Lord Grey counted him as ten. He did this as a jest at first,, but seeing that Lord Norris had not observed it, he let it pass, and as the majority for the Bill was under ten, this great measure Of liberal reform was passed and not passed! ! , Another fat member once figured in a division in a comical way, although the result was not so startling, During the session of 1875, 'Dr. Kenealy moved for a Rqyal Commission to inquire int othe conduct of the judges in the Tichborne ease. The result of the division was announced with grammatical precision by the Whip, "The Aye to the .'right is one; the Noes to the left are 433.' / The solitary voter in the Aye lobby was Major O'Gorman, the stoutest M.P., of his day. When asked what took him into the Aye lobby, the Major replied; "It's a hot night, I knew the No lobby would be crowded, so I turned into the other!" A joke by a postal Officii caused a flutter of excitement at the French Foreign Office during the war. It appears that four clerks were on duty at Tunis. Having no duties to perform, "one of \them pretended to receive a message to the effect that a French liner-used as a transport had been seized by a German raider. He wrote out the message and showed it to his comrades, and after frightening them stiff he confessed it was a joke. The message was forgotten, and the four went to bed, leaving the form on the table. The man who relieved them, finding it there, and thinking his colleagues had forgotten it, dispatched the message to the resident General's house. It was not until the following day that, the mystery. was explained by the confession of the inn-nocent culprit! Many of tli men who won the supremacy on the ocean were in the Navy not of their own will, but by means of some joke of ruse on the part of the Press Gang. There was a famous instance in. the reign 'of George 11. A live turkey was placed on top of the Monument, v near London Bridge, and a great crowd gathered to look at it. Then the Press Gang came along- and took all the ilkely young men, in sight!
A very grim joke caused a war on one occasion. The ratification of a treaty was in question, and the Turkish Grand Vizier asked the Venetian, Ambassador to swear in Moslem.fashion upon his beard and the beard of the Prophet. The Ambassador would not. "Venetians wear no beards," h £ . said. "Neither do donkeys!" replied the Turk, and that interchange of "complimentte" cost 150,000 lives! '• /
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Shannon News, 8 January 1926, Page 4
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506JOKES THAT MADE HISTORY Shannon News, 8 January 1926, Page 4
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