Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/142



N Mr. Thomas Burt, the member for Morpeth, we had an excellent example of what the mine and the trades-union can do to form the mind and character of a legislator. Similarly, in Mr. Leonard Henry Courtney, member for Liskeard, we have an equally perfect sample of what an institution so far removed from the mine as the university, working at high pressure, can effect.

Mr. Courtney has been but a short time in Parliament, and I feel that it is consequently somewhat premature to take his political horoscope. He, however, entered the House so exceptionally well equipped for the discharge of his legislative duties, and has on the whole executed them so efficiently, that his claims to recognition as an eminent Radical cannot be overlooked. He is, beyond all question, a very able man, whatever his critics in or out of the House may say to the contrary; and, among the younger members of the Commons, I know no one whose future conduct will be better worth watching. He is one regarding whom it may be safely predicted, that, to use a Scotch proverb, he will speedily "either make a spoon or spoil a horn."

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