XIII.

MISCELLANEOUS REFLECTIONS ON PARLIA

MENTARY ORATORY.

1. MR. HUME speaks of the indifference "of the public to public oratory." Since the writer has known parliament, the case has been very different. The galleries of the house of commons have always been overfilled at an early hour. On great occasions, all the seats have been occupied five, six, or seven hours before the commencement of the debate. The rush to obtain places at the first commemoration of Handel, when all London seemed to pour into Westminster abbey, was not equal to the rush into Westminster-hall, on the day in which Mr. Sheridan brought his charges against Mr. Hastings.

2. Mr. Hume "compares the sublimity of "ancient eloquence with the temper of modern." He cites the famous oath of Demosthenes,-in which he swears by the manes of those who fell at Marathon and Platea; and the tragical terms in which Cicero describes the crucifixion of a Roman citizen by the order of Verres.

With respect to the passage in Demosthenes, is it not quite certain that it would be both endured and applauded in the house of commons? Towards the close of the American war, lord

North was exactly in the situation in which Demosthenes found himself, after the defeat of the Athenians, at Cheronæa, and might have used for his defence an oath not less bold than that of the Grecian orator. Have there not been moments, when Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox might, in some parts of their speeches, have hazarded, with success, still bolder figures, still bolder appeals to the imagination, still bolder addresses to the passions of their hearers? A want of these appeals, of these bold figures and apostrophes, may be thought to give the speeches of the Greek and Roman orators a superiority over those of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox: but surely those daring flights of oratory would be well received by the house and attended with the greatest effect.

As to the passage from Cicero to which Mr. Hume refers, does it not admit of doubt, whether it be not rather Asiatic than Attic?-It is superior, is it even equal to Mr. Burke's description of the irruption of Hyder Ali into the Carnatic?*

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"When at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with men who either would sign no convention, or whom no treaty, "and no signature could bind, and who were the deter"mined enemies of human intercourse itself, he decreed to "make the country possessed by these incorrigible and pre

*The Reminiscent thinks Mr. Burke's description of the fate of the exiles, in his Letters on a Regicide Peace, a still finer passage; but it is too long for insertion.

"destinated criminals a memorable example to mankind. He "resolved, in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of "such things, to leave the whole Carnatic an everlasting ik monument of vengeance; and to put perpetual desolation as a barrier between him and those against whom the faith " which holds the moral elements of the world together was no protection. He became at length so confident of his "force, so collected in his might, that he made no secret "whatsoever of his dreadful resolution. Having terminated "his disputes with every enemy, and every rival, who buried "their mutual animosities in their common detestation

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against the creditors of the nabob of Arcot, he drew from every quarter, whatever a savage ferocity could add to his "new rudiments in the arts of destruction; and compounding "all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation, into one "black cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities of the 66 mountains. Whilst the authors of all these evils were "idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which "blackened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured "down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Car"natic. Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of war before known or "heard of, were mercy to that new havock. A storm of uni"versal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, de"stroyed every temple. The miserable inhabitants flying

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from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered; "others, without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank, or sacredness of function; fathers torn from children, hus"bands from wives, enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and "amidst the goading spears of drivers, and the trampling of "pursuing horses, were swept into captivity, in an unknown "and hostile land. Those, who were able to evade this tem"pest, fled to the walled cities. But escaping from fire, ❝sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine.

"For eighteen months, without intermission, this destruc"tion raged from the gates of Madras to the gates of Tanjore ; " and so completely did these masters in their art, Hyder Ali "and his more ferocious son, absolve themselves of their

P

"impious vow, that when the British armies traversed, as they "did, the Carnatic for hundreds of miles in all directions, "through the whole line of their march, they did not see one 66 man, not one woman, not one child, not one four-footed beast "of any description whatever. One dead uniform silence reigned over the whole region."

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3. Mr. Hume mentions in high terms "the "correct taste of an Athenian audience;" it seems to have deserved this praise: the Roman audience was its inferior. Many among the senators were elegant, enlightened, and well-informed; but, taking into consideration the single article of the diffusion of knowledge, through the medium of the daily and monthly presses, it is evident that the number of these could bear no proportion to the number of such men in the parliament of England:-and that the English audience is, if the expression may be used, infinitely superior to the Roman.

The pro

portion in the general body of the Roman people, of the well-instructed to the rude and absolutely uncultivated, was certainly very small. What must one think of an audience for whom such a laboured period as the "est enim hæc non "scripta sed nata lex" was necessary, to convince them that homicide in self-defence is justifiable?

The British house of commons is perhaps the best audience ever assembled for a fair trial of eloquence. It possesses, far beyond any audience ancient or modern, a surprizing union of great general information, with the feelings of a popular assembly; due allowance to high birth

and enormous wealth; great benignity, great patience, when it is not too much tried; a just, a fine, and a quick sense of propriety*; fastidious, it is true, but still assigning to every one his just measure, and something beyond his just measure of merit. It is idle to say that a single vote is seldom gained by a speech in the house of commons ;-no speech has been made in the Reminiscent's memory, which was not attended with its due proportion of effect. Mr. Peel's speech in 1813 against catholic emancipation did not, perhaps, gain to ministers a single vote, but no reply being then made to it, the

*Louis the eighteenth observed to a friend of the Reminiscent that " he had travelled much, but had never met with a people that had the taste of John Bull."

In the justness of this observation an Englishman will readily acquiesce: he may confidently ask, if the truth of it do not incontestibly appear in the behaviour of the English to one another, at those festive meetings, where all ranks meet, and equality is the order of the day. There the truest nature of this momentary level is so exquisitely felt, that no rank outsteps the just but almost imperceptible line, which good sense and propriety draw for the occasion.

One of the most humourous narratives, which the Reminiscent has heard, was an account given by the late duke de Bouillon, who, towards the year 1780, resided long in this country, of an attempt, which he made under the ancien régime, to establish a beef-steak club at Paris; the bows and simpers of the aristocrats, the giggling and gesticulations of the musical guests, and the gabble of all:-" Enfin," said the duke, "je demande un chanson ;-j'attends la voix étonnante. de M. Bannister;-voilà un homme qui crie,—Amour !— Amour!-je ne pouvais plus! je bouche les oreilles, et je m'esquive."

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