§ EARL GRANVILLEMy Lords, since your Lordships last adjourned a notable and most conspicuous figure in this Assembly has passed away. That eminent and remarkable man, Lord Beaconsfield, has passed away, and the close of his brilliant and, if I may be allowed to use the expression, dramatic career has caused an extraordinary sensation in the country. No one can doubt the sympathy of this House with that feeling. I do not merely allude to the great majority of this House who have been accustomed to be led by Lord Beaconsfield and to be influenced by his counsels; but I also feel and know that those of the minority who were the most opposed to him in politics are desirous of doing respect to his memory. I have considered carefully with my Colleagues in this House whether I should move a formal mark of respect by an adjournment of the House to-day. With regard to the great statesmen who have died while the House has been sitting, the general rule has been that such an adjournment should not take place; but there have been exceptions. I, perhaps, may name two instances some what typical within my own experience. The late Lord Clarendon, my great personal political Friend, suddenly died, and it fell to my lot to state to the House the reasons and the precedents why the House should not adjourn, though on a former occasion I had also, when Lord Campbell, with equal suddenness, died, to move the adjournment of the House on the special 1802 ground that on the preceding day he had occupied the post of Speaker of this Assembly. I find that in the case of death when the House is not sitting there is absolutely no precedent for such adjournment at its meeting. Neither in the case of the Duke of Wellington, of Lord Aberdeen, of Lord Derby, nor of Lord Russell was such a step taken, and it appears to me that at such a time, when feelings are excited, it is desirable to proceed according to usage and precedent. I may state that I have now the honour of giving Notice that I shall ask your Lordships on Monday next to agree to an Address to Her Majesty in favour of a Monument to Lord Beaconsfield. That day has been fixed in the other House of Parliament also for a similar Address, in order that both Houses may concur at the same time in the expression of their wishes to Her Majesty with regard to the late Earl. My Lords, there are things in this matter which I should like to say at once; but I feel it more respectful to this House to postpone till Monday the expression of my personal regret and my sense of the loss which this Assembly as a body has sustained in the death of the illustrious man who has gone.
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDONMy Lords, after the intimation given by my noble Friend opposite (Earl Granville) that he intends to again bring this melancholy subject under the notice of your Lordships on Monday next, I do not on this occasion propose to offer any lengthened remarks. But I cannot refrain from stating in a very few words, on a topic so sad to all in this House, and especially to those whom I have the honour of sitting amongst, that having served the whole of my political life, now numbering some 40 years, with my late Friend, your Lordships may imagine I deeply feel the loss we have all sustained. There is no man, I think, in this country who has displayed more chivalrous loyalty to his Sovereign and greater jealousy of the honour of his country than was displayed by my late lamented Friend during his lifetime. It is only those associated most intimately with him in his political life who can appreciate his marvellous courage in adverse circumstances, his wonderful moderation in prosperity, and the extraordinary serenity of his temper on every occasion. My Lords, to those who, like 1803 myself, feel the irreparable loss we have sustained in the death of one with whom we had been so long associated, it is some small consolation that his death has brought out the feeling of the country in his regard, its admiration for his great talents, and that in various ways we have had manifested to us that foreign countries ratified the opinion of his own. I will not further trespass on the time of your Lordships; but I should be doing an injury to my own feelings, and, I am sure, not acting in accordance with the wishes of my noble Friends, if, after the remarks of my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I had remained entirely silent.