Mr Farquharson proceeded to give his grounds
for this confidence and admiration, reminding the
Jordanville electors that they had met Mr Murchison as
a Liberal standard-bearer in the last general election,
when he, Farquharson, had to acknowledge very valuable
services on Mr Murchison's part. The retiring member then
thanked his audience for the kind attention and support
they had given him for so many years, made a final cheerful
joke about a Pagan divinity known as Anno Domini, and
took his seat.
They applauded him, and it was plain that they regretted
him, the tried friend, the man there was never any doubt
about, whose convictions they had repeated, and whose
speeches in Parliament they had read with a kind of
proprietorship for so long. The Chair had to wait, before
introducing Mr Alfred Hesketh, until the backbenchers
had got through with a double rendering of "For He's a
Jolly Good Fellow," which bolder spirits sent lustily
forth from the anteroom where the little girls kept their
hats and comforters, interspersed with whoops. Hesketh,
it had been arranged, should speak next, and Lorne last.
Mr Hesketh left his wooden chair with smiling ease, the
ease which is intended to level distinctions and put
everybody concerned on the best of terms. He said that
though he was no stranger to the work of political
campaigns, this was the first time that he had had the
privilege of addressing a colonial audience.
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