§ 2.35 p.m.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYMy Lords, before we proceed to the Business of the day, I should like, if noble Lords will permit me, to take this opportunity of saying to your Lordships a few words of a personal character. While I was away, I heard of the decision of this House that the money which was so generously subscribed for a diamond wedding present for my father is to be devoted to setting up a bust of him in your Lordships' House. May I say how deeply touched my mother and I, and my family, are by this news? I cannot imagine any more appropriate memorial to him, nor any tribute which he himself 2 would have so greatly appreciated. He was, more than anyone I have ever known, essentially a House of Lords' man. To him, the House was a second home. He loved every stone of it, and regarded every member, old and young, almost as a member of his own family. Nothing could be more fitting than that the wonderful present that was destined for him by members of all Parties in this Assembly, to which his life was devoted, should now go to perpetuate his memory here. I wish that he could have known of that present; it would have been a source of unending pleasure and pride to him. May I thank the whole House on behalf of my mother, My family, and myself, both for your thought at that time and also for the signal honour which you are now paying to his memory? We shall remember it with pride and gratitude to the end of our days.