[f. SPEAKER + -SHIP.]

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  1.  The office of Speaker in a legislative or other assembly.

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1653.  in S. Jeake, Charters Cinque Ports (1728), 91. Whereas by septennary Revolution the Speakership of the Ports is now devolved upon us.

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1803.  G. Rose, Diaries (1860), II. 35. Unless he could be prevailed with to take the Speakership of the House of Lords, separated from the Great Seal.

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1844.  Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp., IV. 379. Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Esq., whose appointment to the Speakership of the House of Commons is mentioned … in this letter.

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1883.  H. Tuttle, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 370–1. It was an easy and natural promotion to the Speakership of the Imperial Diet.

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  2.  Oratory.

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1887.  Saintsbury, Manchester, 149. There was room for all kinds of Speakership in the great campaign of the League.

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