I am always away the first two weekends in January – the first for the annual Study of Parliament Group conference and the second in order to serve on the interview panel for Thouron Scholarships – so this is the first opportunity of the year to pen a quiz. This is is on quotations. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners. Please do feel free to contribute even if you don’t know all the answers.
1. It is common now for people to refer to the Westminster Parliament as ‘the mother of Parliaments’. However, the phrase was not coined to refer to Parliament. Who coined it? And what did he identify as the mother of Parliaments?
2. Who described himself as ‘Not a reluctant peer but a persisent commoner’?
3. Who wrote, in one of his books, ‘The Lords do not encourage wit, and so are obliged to put up with pertness’? This was many years before he was elevated to the peerage.
4. Which peer was quoted by Anthony Sampson as declaring ‘The only justification of the Lords is its irrationality: once you try to make it rational, you satisfy no one’?
@ Lord Norton:
I couldn’t resist your first question and offer to ruminate on same.
First use of this line was by John Bright (1811-1889) Liberal Statesman in his speech, January 1865 Birmingham, in reference to our Westminster Parliament being the propagator of others world wide.
However, the oldest Parliament was in Iceland established 930AD. Although the Isle of Man was first established in 979AD and continues standing.
However, the oldest Parliament was in Iceland established 930AD. Although the Isle of Man was first established in 979AD and continues standing.
These years co-inciding roughly with the development of the books of Law throughout Europe in these islands of Hywel,(Wales) Athelstan,(Kent) Brehonster.(Ireland)
The Assembly of Whitland (Wales seems to like Assemblies)took place in 945ad(?) and that was under some trees.
The book of Law of Hywel was still used in places in Wales,in the early 17thC.
The writing of Law at that time was probably
due to, and prompted by, the knowledge and learning of the Islamic Schools of Translation and Law in Cordoba and Toledo in southern Spain, a culture in its heyday.
1. John Bright, and he said “England”
2. Tony Benn
3. Disraeli
4. Lord Campbell of Eskan
Half the of the answers are purely Google results, I have to confess!
1.
a. John Bright in 1865 is the earliest I can find and he was describing b. — England.
Yet, I’d not be surprised to find an earlier one provided by a competitor.
2.
Tony Benn
3.
James Ewing Ritchie, Viscount Palmerston
4.
Lord Campbell of Eskan
1) John Bright, referring to England, both because it had been a model for other parliamentary systems, and because it has created many Parliaments in colonies / dominions through its Acts – a more recent example would be the legislatures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (which are, I hasten to add, not colonies)
2) Tony Benn
3) Benjamin Disraeli
4) Jock Campbell, Baron Campbell of Eskan
1) John Bright. England?
2) Anthony Wedgewood Benn, formerly Viscount Stangate, and better known as Tony Benn.
3) Bertrand Russell, later the Earl Russell.
4) Lord Campbell of Eskan.
1. John Bright and England.
2. Tony Benn.
3. Benjamin Disraeli, later Earl of Beaconsfield and Viscount Hughenden.
4. Lord Campbell of Eskan.
Many thanks for the, as usual, impressive responses. I was rather expecting Question 4 to be the difficult one, but in the event it was Question 3 that produced different answers.
As is clear from the responses, the answer to Q1 is John Bright and England, to Q2 Tony Benn and to Q4 Lord Campbell of Eskan. I can confirm that the answer to Q3 is Benjamin Disraeli.
The first two readers to supply the correct answers are therefore Jonathan and Michael. A commendation to maude elwes for getting in first to name John Bright and, indeed – if England is the mother of Parliaments – to identify the possible father.