§ MR. SCHWANN,who had upon the Paper two Questions addressed to the President of the Board of Agriculture, withdrew them and said he hoped he might be allowed to express his deep regret, which he was sure was shared by every Member of the House, at the unexpected and most sudden bereavement which had fallen upon the House. Having regard to the great sincerity, ability, and energy with which he always discharged 660 his official duties, he was sure the whole House had anticipated for Mr. Hanbury a successful career in statesmanship and will deeply regret his death.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR,rising at the conclusion of Questions, said—I hope the House will not think lam taking a course which is at all improper if I ask to be allowed to take this opportunity to express the sympathy which, I am sure, is deeply felt on both sides of the House, and equally on both sides of the House, for the sudden, the tragic, loss of the distinguished statesman who passed away this morning. There is no parallel for such an event during the sitting of the House in my not short experience of Parliament, but yet I feel confident I am only taking the course which the House would desire me to take. Mr Hanbury was for nearly a generation a prominent and distinguished member of this Assembly. No man, I think, had a greater love for the House of Commons; no man had a minuter or more accurate knowledge of its procedure; no man, in or out of office, was more assiduous in his attendance or more anxious to take his full share of the work which devolves upon this hard-worked Assembly. Of Mr. Hanbury as Minister for Agriculture we know much; but we do not know, I think, all he would have been able to do in that office. It was quite evident to those who watched his career that he brought to it an originality of method and a desire to adapt what is, after all, a young office to the needs of the agricultural community which have won tributes of praise and regard from all those interested in agricultural pursuits in every part of Great Britain. By his loss, not only do all the many friends which he possessed on both sides of the House and among all sections of politics greatly suffer, but the House itself loses one of its oldest and one of its most distinguished Members, and the country at large is deprived of the services of a man whom we had every reason to believe for many years to come would be able to devote his great administrative capabilities to the benefit of the country. That sadness greatly adds to the sympathy which everybody will feel for those whom he has left behind. Everybody must feel how dark is the shadow cast over our proceedings by the sudden 661 disappearance from among us of one who not a week ago was taking an active part in Cabinet and Parliamentary work.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN (Stirling Burghs)I am sure all Members of the House would wish to associate themselves with the expressions to which the Prime Minister has just given utterance. I have, indeed, nothing to add to his plain and feeling statement. Mr. Hanbury has been long a conspicuous and distinguished member of the House; he was devoted to the House of Commons, and to his work in it; he was strenuous, industrious, vigorous, frank, friendly, accessible. I do not know that any better qualities could be attributed to any member of the House of Commons. He has been taken from us—cut down in the flower of his age. There remains to us nothing but a friendly and regretful memory of him, and I think, while expressing that regret, we can only add a word of sincere sympathy with the sorrowing wife he has left behind him.
§ MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)I hope the House will allow me to add one word in order to emphasise, if it is necessary to do so, the absolute unanimity of feeling on this subject in all parts of the House. There is no portion of the House where the sentiments expressed by the First Lord of the Treasury are more universally felt than here among my colleagues on these benches. In the past it has been my fortune on more than one occasion to hold communications with the late Mr. Hanbury on Irish affairs, and I always found him a man of courageous and independent judgment, and, in addition to that, a man full of sympathy with the wants and needs of Ireland.
§ MR. CHAPLIN (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)As a member of this House who for a great number of years has been more or less connected with agriculture I hope it will not be regarded as presumption on my part if I ask leave to say how entirely I desire to associate myself with every word that has fallen from the Leader of the House. When Mr. Hanbury was appointed Minister for Agriculture it may be remembered that some criticisms were made on the 662 appointment of a man who was not supposed to be directly connected with that interest. He lived to falsify every one of those apprehensions. His zeal, his energy, his activity in the interest of that great industry, which constituted almost a new departure, have never been equalled. He won the esteem and commanded the confidence of the whole agricultural interest. His work will not easily be forgotten, and his loss will be deeply deplored by the agricultural world, and by none more than by myself.
§ SIR WILLIAM TOMLINSON (Preston)Having sat for eighteen years as the colleague of the late Mr. Hanbury in the representation of Preston, I hope I may be allowed to add an expression of my deep sorrow for the loss we have sustained—a loss in which I have a personal share. I only wish to lay a little emphasis on his great devotion to the duties of the office he held. Only on Monday week he and I were present at a great meeting of our constituents, and although to address a mass of people is not a light thing, so desirous was he not to miss any opportunity of promoting the interests of his Department that he went to Preston specially for that purpose, and against my desire travelled back by the night mail. I assure the House that I can speak in the name of the constituency for which he sat when I say that one and all of its members, to whatever party they belong, feel his loss very deeply.