3-082-485 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart., M.P., a candidate for the Speakership, 1895. 'The struggle over the Speakership [of the House of Commons] seems likely to resolve itself into a contest between Mr. Gully, as the Ministerial candidate, and Sir Matthew White Ridley as the representative of the united Opposition. There seemed for a time some chance that the Government would, after all, persuade Mr. Courtney to be nominated; but any movement in that direction has been summarily checked by Mr. Chamberlain. On the Ministerial side there is a strong feeling that the Government ought not to accept Sir Matthew White Ridley, and on the Conservative side it is said that, should a Ministerial nominee be elected, he will be ejected from the Chair by a Unionist majority in the next Parliament.' From "Illustrated London News", 1895.