Was there someone popularly labeled by public as "Lord Mum"?
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Your teacher was quite correct that the term 'Lord Mum' was a nickname given to James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, as applied, for example in this political satire from 1796, relating to his peace mission to France, now held in the collection of the British Museum:
- copyright British Museum, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
The text above Malmesbury in the picture reads:
Q - Are you empowered to treat for yourself only? A. I don't Know Q - Can you treat for your Friends ? - A - I don't Know. Q - What proposals have you to make? A - i don't know. Q - Have you been fully instructed in this business? A - No. Q - What are you come here for? A - I don't Know Q - Then it seems you know nothing at all about the Matter? A No. but I'll send back & enquire'
or this example, Lord Mum overwhelmed with Parisian embraces, also dated 1796, and also from the British Museum collection:
- copyright British Museum, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that the nickname related to any fear of public speaking.
In fact, it seems to have been simply a play on his title. The 'l' is silent, so Malmesbury is pronounced "m AA m s - b er - ee", or more simply "Mumsbury", which reduced to the simpler 'Lord Mum', for the purpose of satire.
Interestingly, another contemporary satire (in the Lancashire dialect) titled Whistle Pig and Tom Grunt, by Tim Bobbin, esq (a pseudonym) uses a different play on Malmesbury's title, referring to the Earl as 'Lord Mumblebery':
"... when lord Mumblebery whent to Paris; an agen, when the' sent's him to Lisle e Flanders; an agen, th' last yeor, when Bonnipeeter sent o'er th' mit'n ha mede a farrantlier pecoss thin the' han mede neaw; ..."
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