6 DECEMBER 1935, Page 6

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

TNTERNATIONAL cricket has for some reason sent 1. more men to the House of Commons than interna- tional football (Alfred Lyttelton and F. S. Jackson come at once to mind), but by all accounts Mr. W. W. Wakefield, in moving the Address on Tuesday, laid the foundations of a Parliamentary success not much below the level of his Rugby achievements, It is worth while recalling that there is a member 'of the House, in the person of Mr. George Lambert, who moved the Address with the active co-operation of Mr. Gladstone. That was at the opening of the 1898 session. The Prime Minister had two long conversations with the mover, who made his speech in the end under singular—not to say unique—conditions. It should, of course, have been the first business when the House met at 8.45 (as it did then), but the Irish chose to raise a point of privilege and kept the controversy on it going till the Speaker went out for his traditional chop at eight o'clock. Everyone else departed chopwards too, and when the Speaker returned at 8.30 Mr. Lambert began his speech before a House consisting of Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Balfour and the seconder.

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