A ROW IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS-1853.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2497, 6 January 1877, Page 4

A ROW IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS-1853.

I; I was witness to a curious scene in the House of Lords on the 25th of April of this year, aud as a very imperfect account of it is s;iven'in Hansard, I offer my version. The debate was on the Clergy Reserves in the Canada bill. The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Wilberforce, in makinp; some quotation, smiled. '.This pave offence to Lord Derby. The Bishop admitted the smile, but denied any intention thereby bf imputing anything offensive; Lord Derby—l accept;at once the explanation that lias been offered by the JKight JReverend Prelate, but when he tells me that it is impossible for him to ; say anything offensive, because he has a smiling face, he will forgive me if I quote in his presence from a well-known writer, without intending in*the least to apply thewords.tohim : ... .......,'■ " A man may smile and smile and be a villain." ■ Lord Clarendon,-fin a voice of thunder.] " t)h! Oh ! Oh!" Lord Derby—What noble peer is it whose nerves are so delicate as ;to be" wounded by a backneyed quotation? Lord Clarendon —lam that peer, and protest against any noble lord applying^ even in.the language' of poetry, the epithet of viilain to any member in the house, most of all the use of such an expression by a lay peer toward a right . reverend prelate. Peacemakers rose on both sides of the house. The' reporters had' left the gallery, the bouse was proceeding to a division. Lord Clarendon \ poured out a glass of water and drank it off., Lord Derby at-the same time filled another bumper of water and called out across the table, "Your good health, Clarendon," and so the affair ended. Lord Derby was probably not aware that the same quotation from. " Hamlet" had more than fifty years before produced a "somewhat similar scene in the House of Commons:l My authority was the late Sir Eobert Adair, who was present. The contending parties were Tierney and Pitt, who bad fought a duel a short time before: Tierney was addressing the House. Pitt smiled contemptuously, upon which Tierney said : "TheJtfight Honorable gentleman smiles, but need I remind him that • a man may smile and smile—"' here he paused. " Take the fellow message from ' me," cried Pitt to one of his followers, but before the bearer of the hostile mission could reach the opposition benches, Tierney added, "and yet be a minister." So the affair ended in a laugh instead of * duel.—Lord Albemarle's Recollections.