Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1894 — Gladstone’s First Speech. [ARTICLE]

Gladstone’s First Speech.

Mr. Labouchere has come into possession of a photograph of a sketch of Mr. Gladstone making his first speech in the House of Commons in 1883. The sketch, which is said to have been drawn at the time, represents Mr. Gladstone, then a member from Newark, speaking from the front bench below the gangway in the old house that was burned down the next year. Mr. Gladstone’s very first utterance in the House of Commons was made, not from the front bench' below the gangway, but from under the gallery, where he was almost inaudible to reporters; and, curiously enough, it was in reply to Rigby Wason, then member from Ipswich, and father of Mr. Eugene Wason, who now represents South Ayrshire as one of Mr. Gladstone’s stanchest supporters.