Lu rd Beaconsfield I see that it is counted a matter
for jest that I should come here this afternoon to honour the descendant of a Whig. He was, I would remind you, no common Whig, if there were ever such a creature. No other found such reward in the service of his country. No other provoked such a sense of gratitude in his fellow countrymen that their generosity was not great enough to give it its proper, its decent expression.. They built him a palace, but withheld the crowns, so over- come were they with the inadequacy of the mere subscription of funds to honour such a memory. It was into this palace that the right honourable gentleman whom we honour today was born, into the heart of Whiggery, with a divinely ordained right to the suffrage of the people. It is him I come to honour, and with no reluctance or feeling of impropriety. It was no Whig who in the summer of your trial called forth the men from the shires; all men of metal; the large-acred squires from Dorset: the yeomen from broad Lincolnshire; the stout hearts from Devon; the loyal Puritans of Essex; from the weald they trooped on; from the dales of Yorkshire; their spirit quickened. Quickened by a Whig, you say? As well believe that the Council of Ten could have led the people of Venice against their oppressors. If it is .pointed to me that the right honourable, gentleman devoted so many years of his life to resurrecting the memory of his Whig forebear in a pile of three volumes, then I answer that this filial piety is the final evidence of his fortunate emancipation from Whigdom.
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