3-082-543 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. William Court Gully, Q.C., M.P., a candidate for the Speakership, 1895. 'A Drawing from Life by Mr. R. Ponsonby Staples. An interesting if not edifying canvass of the claims of various members of Parliament to succeed Mr. Peel in the Speakership [of the House of Commons] is now on the point of settlement. The high office is one to which any member may honourably aspire, but which few men could fill with the dignity and distinction associated with Mr. Peel's tenure of it. The many qualities of mind and body which are requisite in a Speaker might well give pause to any rapid settlement of the question which has had, unfortunately, to be considered during the last three or four weeks. The list of names which originally were mentioned has now dwindled down to two or three...as Mr. Campbell-Bannerman and Mr. Courtney have now withdrawn from the contest, it is understood that Mr. William Court Gully will receive official support...He was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1860, and took silk in 1877. Mr. Gully has been Liberal member for Carlisle since 1886, having previously unsuccessfully contested Whitehaven on two occasions'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.