25 MAY 1901, Page 14

SPEECH AND TIME.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Is it quite certain that the average Parliamentary speech is of excessive, or even of considerable, length ? I take at random seven recent numbers of the Times, and find, on examining the time spent in debating the Orders of the Day, exclusive of private business and questions, that one hundred and twenty-eight speeches were made in forty-two hours. These include eleven long Front-Bench speeches on Army reform, the Coal-duty, the Civil List, and the Educa- tion Bill. The result is an average of rather less than twenty minutes for each speech. The average would have been lower still if these seven numbers had chanced to contain a discus- sion in Supply.—I am, Sir, &c., AUDITOR TANTUM.