§ MR. MACDONALDasked the First Lord of the Treasury, If the Inscription which is to be placed on the Monument which he will propose to ask to be erected to the memory of the late Earl of Beaconsfield will contain any reference whatever to his actions as a leader of a political party?
MR. GLADSTONESir, as I understand this matter, according to the precedents and custom of Parliament, when the House arrives at a Vote of this kind, it expresses it in terms which are sufficiently full to afford a guide for the inscription to be placed on the public monument. That has been the course pursued on the present occasion, and I 30 apprehend it would not be in accordance with precedent or policy, or within the authority conferred by the Vote of Parliament, to make any addition to what I may call the material words of the inscription. I do not think that any of the monuments, as far as I know, contain references to the acts of persons whom they commemorate in their character of Leaders of a political Party, and certainly I should not propose that there should now be anything that would be at variance with the established practice in the matter.