A LONG SPEECH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1534, 14 November 1883, Page 2

A LONG SPEECH.

» 0 "..in. _ The longest speech on record is believed to have been made by Dr De Cosmos, in tho Legislature of Britißh Columbia, when a measure was pending whose passage would take front a great many settless their lands. De Cosmos was in a hopeless minority. The job had been held back till the eve of the close of the session; unless legislation was taken before noon of a given day the act of confiscation would fail. The day before the expiration of the limitation De Cosmos got the floor about 10 a.m., and began his speech against the Bill, His friends cared little, for they supposed that by one or two o'clock he would be through, and the Bill could be put oh its passage. One o'clock came anil Do Cosmos was speaking still-had' not more than entered upon his subject. Two o'clock -He was saying, "m the second place." Three o'clock, lie had produced a fearful bundle of evidence, and insisted on reading it. Tho majority began to have a suspicion of the truth -he was going to speak till next noon and kill tho Bill, 'For awhile they made morry over it, but as it came: on to du3k they began to get alarmed. They tried interruptions, but soon abandoned them, because each one afforded him time to digress and gain time, They tried to shout him down but that gave him a breathing space, and finally they settled down to watch tho combat between strength of will and weakness of body, They gave him no mercy. No adjournment for dinrier no chance to do more than wet his lips with water; no wandering from his subject; no sittirisj down. : Twilight darkened; the gas .was! lit; members slipped out to dinner in relays, and returned to sleep in squads, but De Cosmos went on. The Speaker to whom he was addressing himself, was alternately dozing, snoring, and trying to look wide-awake. Day dawned and the majority slipped out in squads to wash and breakfast, and the speaker still held on, It cant be said it was a logical, eloquent, or sustained speech. There were digressions in it, repetitions also. But still the speaker kept on; at last, noon came to a baffled majority, livid with rage and impotence, and a single man, who was triumphant, though his voice had sunk to a husky whisper, his eyes were almost shut, and were bleared and bloodshot, his legs' tottered under him, and his baked lips, were cracked and smeared with' blood.' De Cosmos had spoken twenty-six hours, and saved tho settlers thenland!