Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/83

 "'It soon became clear that in the new order of things parliamentary ability must fetch a higher price than any other kind of ability; and he felt that in parliamentary ability he had no superior.'"

"Parliamentary ability" does not here, I think, include the ability of a counsel in conducting a case before a Parliamentary Committee; and I think it might be shown that ability of a superior order in conducting a case before a Parliamentary Committee fetches at the present time, or at least it fetched a quarter of a century ago, a higher price than what is called parliamentary ability.

I had the honour, at the time of the Reform Bill of 1832, to be consulted by a Member of Parliament, who said he had been asked to recommend a candidate to a certain constituency, and he asked me if there was any of the men whom I knew as likely to meet the exigencies of the case. I was at that time a member of a debating society, where a short time before I had heard a man make what then appeared to me to be a very good speech. I recommended this man. The Member of Parliament did not seem to think he could recommend this man, seeing he had had a quarrel with him. With some trouble I overcame this difficulty, and the Member of Parliament went