THE LONGEST SPEECH ON RECORD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1030, 14 November 1882, Page 3

THE LONGEST SPEECH ON RECORD.

The longest speech on record is believed to have bean made by Dr DeCosmos in the legislature of British Columbia, when a measure was pending which would take from a great many settlers their land. DeCosmos was in a hopeless minority. The job bad been held back till the close of the session, and unless action was taken before noon of a given day ihe Act would fail. The day before, DeCosmos got the floor at 10 a.m., and began to speak against the Bill. Its friends cared little, for they supposed that by one or two o'clock he would be through, and the Bill put on its passage. One o'clock came and he was still speaking. Two o'clock he was saying " in the second place. Three o'clock—he produced a fearful bundle of papers, and insisted on reading them. The majority began to have suspicions—he was going to speak till the next noon and kill the Bill. For a while they became merry over it; ; but as it came on dusk they got alarmed. They tried interruptions, but soon abandoned them, because each one afforded him a chance to digress and to rest. They tried to shut him down, but that gave him a breathing space, and finally they settled down to watch the cjmbat between strength of will and weakness of body. They gave him no mercy. No adjournment for dinner ; no chance to do more than wet his lips with water ; no wandering from the subject, no sitting down. Members slipped out to eat in relays, and returned to sleep, but DeCosmos kept on. It can't be said it was a very logical

eloquent, or sustained speech. There were: repetitions ami digressions. But still he kept on until noon came, lna baffled majority, livid with rage and impotence, and a single man was triumphant, though his voi'-e had sunk to a husky whisper, his blood-shot eyes were almost Bhut, his legs tottered, and his baked lips were cracked and bloody. He had spoken twentv-six hours, and saved the settlers their land.