: Wit and Wisdom of Lord Tredegar by Morgan Godfrey Charles - Speeches addresses etc.; Morgan Godfrey Charles 1830-1913 Quotations

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ppose there is such a thing as ignorance among men about those who do not live in the same station as themselves, and I always put it down to that. Some day or other they may come to find out that what they say against Lord Tredegar is not all true.

NATURALLY A CONSERVATIVE.

You will not wonder that I am in a graver mood than is usual on these occasions. For more than 30 years my lamented father occupied this chair, and I believe he was present on every occasion of this kind. In that time, the show has been raised from a very small one to be one of the most important in the country. My father has left me, amongst other possessions, an hereditary trust in the shape of this Agricultural Show. If I have given any hope that I shall fill the position as my father filled it, I shall feel very much flattered. It is not my intention to make great changes. There is no way of showing disrespect more than in making great changes, turning everything topsy-turvey, as if we knew everything better than those who went before us. I am naturally Conservative, and come of a Conservative family. I intend to keep to what was good of my late father. I have inherited a great trust in this show, and I hope that in future it will be seen that the show has not lost its prestige, its popularity or its utility.

POLITICS ON THE BRAIN.

Everybody now has got politics on the brain. We dream of politics and we almost drink politics--at least, we have been drinking politics to-night. So far as I am concerned, I should like, Rip Van Winkle-like, to go to sleep for the next two months and wake up to find the general election over; only then I should like to wake up to find it had gone the right way.

THE UNRULY HOUND.

It is wrong to introduce politics at this dinner, and, in fact, I have no great liking for politics on any occasion, though I do at times have a little to do with them. And I have a little way of my own. I have a most unruly hound in my pack, which I call "Radical," and I lick him whenever I have the opportunity. It does the hound good, and at the same time eases my own mind. Though I have no great love of politics, I think this is a time, if ever, a member of Parliament should feel inclined to speak. There is one subject which must be in everybody's mind, and for the consideration of which everyone must brace himself in the next session--that is "tenant's right." That is a question in which every agriculturist must take a deep interest; and for myself I think meetings of this sort much more likely to promote a goodly feeling between landlord and tenant than the provisions of any Act of Parliament.

THE WHOO WHOOPS.

I thank you for the way the toast of my health has been received; but I do not quite see the propriety of "whoo whoops" at the end. That is an expression that sportsmen use only when they are about to kill something; I do not see its applicability in the present case. I hope that you do not mean all you have expressed.

M.P.'S AS BADGERS.

During the intervals of pigeon pie and boiled beef, I have had the pleasure of a few minutes' conversation with Mr. Cordes, and from that conversation I have come to the conclusion that a Member of Parliament holds the same position to the human race that a badger does to the animal race. Some people think that the only earthly purpose for which a badger can have been created was that of being baited, and I have an idea that some persons seem to imagine that a member of Parliament was created for nothing but that we might bait him. But on this occasion we have been brought together not to bait Mr. Cordes, but to f?te him.

THE HONOUR OF BEING M.P.

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