Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1911 — “Wild Peers Unmuzzled.” [ARTICLE]

“Wild Peers Unmuzzled.”

The phrase “wild peers unmuzzled” is of higher lineage than careless readers might Imagine. When Mr. Gladstone was ejected from Oxford in the general election of 1865, and was driven for refuge to South Lancashire, we find him talking after this fashion: “At last, my friends, I have corns amongst yon, and I have come —to us© a phrase which has become very far mous and is not likely to be forgotten —I have come amongst you unmuzzled." It was Lord Palmerston who had given currency to the phrase. The prime minister, partly in his own Interests and in the interests of domestic peace, had made anxious efforts to keep Gladstone In Oxford. The earl of Shaftesbury tells us that Palmerston said: “He is a dangerous man. Keep him in Oxford and he is partially muzzled, but send him elsewhere and he will run wild.”—London Chronicle.