The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-04 00:00:00

-Granville the polite,
And knowing Walsh would tell me I coul,l write.

Pope did not mean to depreciate Walsh's intellect,
or vulgarise the idea of it. He meant, as we do, to
say (as somebody said of Voltaire) that the subject
of his remark excelled in that kind of sense which
all the world has some of—many men a great deal
of—without being eminent men. Macaulay is a
transcendently able Edinburo reviewer and whig
public speaker. He has not Invented anything, nor
elevated anything, perhaps. He has thrown light
on many things, rather than added to the stock of
them; and all his fine gifts have been subordinate
to a mind that is more critical than anything else.
He has wit, fancy, keenness of glance—the "brilliant"
qualitiesas they arecalled—but Use rather than Beauty
is the main cUracteristic of his mind's action. 'Mere
is something hard about his most brilliant exhibi.
tions; something that reminds you of the sparkling
of a grind-stone. In observing, carefully, his writ-
ings, you see that a great predominance is given to
one feature—the pointing out of contrasts and contra-
dictions. This love of antithesis is his most striking
characteristic. He does not ereate ; be dissects.
He is admirably practical in his speeches, which is
an immense blessing. He is as genuine as any
speaker of the age, and you may be sure you will
have, when you hear him a thorough-going original
glance at the controversy (he is best in a controversy)
from a known fixed, and intelligible point of view.
For he is a coherent, well-balanced man. He does
not assume, or laboriously establish, a style, either of
thinking or speaking. All about him is of a piece ;
and he does not invent argument and tone to sup-
port whiggism so much as to satisfy you, that he
is naturally in that intellectual position,
and speaks genuinely from it. All this is
excellent, and real, and healthy. It would be diffi-
cult to say what kind of public speaking could be
better suited to an accomplished, sensible audience,
bent on good sense in lively expression. We do not
disparage it when we say that it is a •'Review "
style of oratory, and smacks of the Edinburgh—as
Disraeli's great efforts smack of 0 Con ingsby "—those
of some leading statesmen of the great world, and
those of others, of petty coteries and dull private
circles.

These volumes, then, arc full of the most enter-
taining reading, and excellent examples of the prac-
tical and lively oratory fitted to discussions, where
business is the object of the discussion. Perhaps no
occasion has yet drawn out from Macaulay all the
qualities for " eloquence," properly so called, which
he possesses, and which are to be seen more vividly
in his " Lays" than in the book before us. It would
be far too long a business (and, indeed. no way be-
longs to this present notice) to speak of the politics of
these speeches. But we can admire Cicero without
hating Antony, and without sympathising with
Milo; suffice it that we have here right hearty and
pointed expositions of the cause of that polite, and
respectable, and dignified "liberalism" which, in Dr.
Pair, and Sir James Macintosh, and many a gifted
and cultivated man, has cut an honourable and intel-
lectual figure in the eyes of the world.

POSTMAN NATIONAL SCHOOLS, ST. MATTHEW'S
MASTLisoss.—The foundation stone of these schools
situated in Salisbury-street, Edgware-road, was laid on
Monday lot, by the Incumbent of St. Matthew's Church,
Mmlebone, the Rev. Robert Franklin Spencer, L.L.D , in
the presence of a numerous attendance of the parnhoners.
When a hymn had been sung, the incumbent delivered an
earnest and affectionate exhortation to the children ass( m-
bled, 200 in number, and the ceremony, which occupied
nearly two hours, concluded by the singing of the Na-
tional Anthem. These schools aro designed by Dr. Spencer
to educate 300 boys and 300 girls in connection with the
selendid church of St. Matthew's, having 1,400 free sit-
twos. In the sixth week of their 'simnel" the day schools
numbered 185 on the book., having commenced with 37
end She Sumelay schools 330, haring commenced with 70
' snap