Dr. Tanner exceeded himself on Tuesday. Mr. Matthews, in defending
his action in relation to the Crewe parricide, said that he hoped no Minister who had to advise her Majesty as to the exercise of her highest prerogative,—that of mercy,— would ever be influenced by any desire to satisfy a popular outcry, on which Dr. Tanner called out : " What about Dungar- van ? " Mr. Matthews said that he did not know who that vulgar interrupter was, on which Dr. Tanner rose to a point of order to ask the Chairman whether the right hon. gentleman was or was not out of order in calling a Nationalist Member a vulgar interrupter. Mr. Courtney said that the epithet was "certainly not outside Parliamentary usage, and was sometimes used not without Parliamentary justice." Then, said Dr. Tanner, " the right hon. gentleman is one of the basest and meanest skunks that ever sat upon that bench." Mr. Courtney of course insisted on an apology for such language ; whereupon Dr. Tanner said, with ingenuous wonder : " I appeal to your fairness, Mr. Courtney : what have I done to apologise for ? " And when Mr. Sexton at length persuaded him to give the apology, he still repeated that he " failed to see" how he had offended. Dr. Tanner's conception of the reciprocal rights and privileges of a Minister and a Nationalist Member is certainly quite the most naif political conception of the day.
Previous page
