3-085-683 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. C. P. Villiers, M.P., Father of the House of Commons, 1898. 'The House of Commons has lost its father. Mr. Charles Pelham Villiers, who was born in 1802, and has represented Wolverhampton since 1835, passed away on Sunday evening, at his house in Cadogan Place. A Parliamentary career which is thus older than the Queen's reign has closed at last...he went to Haileybury, where Malthus and Sir James Mackintosh were among his instructors, in preparation for an Indian career. But before the College course was over he was adjudged too delicate for service in the East!...he took his seat for the first time in 1835 for Wolverhampton as an opponent of the Corn Laws - and that, in those days, was regarded as the role of a madman...he lifted up his voice against Mr. Gladstone and Home Rule...he was one of the group of "forward" men who composed what was known as the Radical Reform party. Sometimes he had to speak against a volley of deliberate coughing...He was Judge Advocate-General in Lord Aberdeen's Coalition Ministry; and as President of the Poor Law Board in Lord Palmerston's Government he did excellent service as a Reformer, besides having a seat in the Cabinet'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.