Mr. Courtney, speaking at Liskeard on Thursday, gave, in an
unexpectedly amusing speech, the story of the Speaker- ship. To begin with, he did not want to be Speaker. Also a certain number of Members did not want to see him in the Chair. They thought him " too sententious," as the Australian ex-convict said of the Recorder who trans- ported him. He was himself strongly in favour of a unani- mous choice, and therefore desired to see Mr. Campbell- Bannerman elected. When that proved impossible, and he was urged to stand as a public duty, he determined to consult the Members of his own party. His party came to the well-known decision, and he was glad. While the Speakership was hanging over him, he felt like the Bishop who orders his tomb in Browning's poem. "I thought over and over again of that poor Bishop ordering his own tomb as I dwelt on the possibilities of entering upon the Speaker's office." Mr. Courtney ended a most enter- taining speech by saying that his instinctive desire not to be drowned in the dullness of the pomp and ceremony which surround the Speakership was akin to the feeling in favour of an occasional " break out," which possesses the mass of man- kind. He had a great sympathy with the impulse to kick over the traces, though, as he parenthetically remarked, he had not done it yet.
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