The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-01 00:00:00

[STAMPED, Id. ADDITIONAL.]

AMERICA.

(ntom OCR emu'. CORIUMONDUCT.)
NEW YORK, JOLT 37.

The majority in Congress can prevent t le taking
up of any subject of legislation except the one
which has called them together, but it cannot pre-
vent members talking about this one, and some of
the opposition have certainly made good use of the
privilege. A Mr. Munger last week tilled six
columns of the Globe, the official reporter of the
debates, its pages being about the size of your
own, with a speech in opposition to the Reeonstruc-
tion Bill, which was partly devoted to the question
of race, and partly to a minute description of the
negro'.s physical conformation, and especially of
the size end shape of his brain ; and when be was
near the close announced that for moat of " the
ideas and thoughts" in his speech he was indebted
to a friend, a doctor, somewhere in Ohio. Long
discourses, almost as absurd, have been delivered by
others on the Mexican question, the condition of
Ireland, and divers other matters having no rela-
tion whatever to reconstruction, or one so remote
that it would require considerable ingenuity to trace
it. The composers of these discourses of course have
not the least expectation that they will make any
impression on their hearers, or in any way affect
the division. They are produced simply for publi-
cation in the Globe, and when the performance is a
more than usually ambitious one, are reprinted in
a pamphlet form on coarse paper at the orator's
own expense, and sent in bushels to his constitu-
ents and the newspapers.
Against this sort of thing the majority have of
course no protection except the " previous ques-
tion ;" and I think the lavish and often tyrannical
use of the " previous question "by the majority
for the purpose of putting an end to debate is due
in the main to the impatience bred by these essays.
The art of debate, properly so called, that is of
attack and defence on the spur of the moment, of
extemporaneous charge and reply, if it ever existed
in America, has died out. I do not know of one
professor of it in public life who would in parlia-
ment secure any reputation whatever. There is I
perhaps no country in which there are not many
ready, fluent speakers, men who can get on their
legs and say something reasonably good off-
hand on any subject that may be under
consideration, but there are very few, :f
any, who are capable of extemporaneous
debate, in the proper sense of the term. On the
rare occasions in either house of Congress in which
this is attempted, it is either carries' on in a con-
versational way, as it might be across a diuner-
table, or it degenerates very rapidly into personality.
The usual course of anybody who wants to reply to
a speech on the spot is to interrupt the orator as he
goes along, ask him questions, or make rejoinders.
a practice to whieh the official speaker rarely makes
any objection. When the orator is allowed to
finish without interruption, and his antagonist rises
to reply in regular order, either the reply is already
prepared, and is therefore, strictly speaking, not a
reply, or if extemporaneous, the cliancea are ten
to one that it is a simple personal castigation. In
almost all debates of importance the speeches are
written out beforehand, and learned by heart, and
therefore contain hardly any reference to the argu-
ments used by others, or else they are simply read,
or offered and not read, so as to fulfil theeonditions
required to procure their publication in the Globe.
One day in the week—Saturday—iP, during the
regular session, given up to mere oratory. Members
who have not had a chance to air their eloquence
on any other day, or who have ideas on some
subject which is never likely to come up for dis-
cussion, on this day talk as much as they please.
Most of the othermembera absent themselves, and
even the audience in the galleries is thin.
The causes of this state of things, like the causes
of nearly all social phenomena, are various. tine
is, perhaps, the absence amongst all but a few
public men of parliamentary training. Only very
few Northerners go to Congress early, or remain in
it many years, and practice in speaking at
public meetings, or at social gatherings, which all
Americans have in a greater or less degree, is not
a preparation for parliamentary debating, any
more than practice in the pulpit. Though public
meetings here, as in England, are theoretically
"meetings for discussion," in reality no discussion
ever takes place at them. Only one side of the
question is presented at them. Opposition is not
permitted, and the speeches are all prepared before-
hand ; so that a man might be never so great a plat-
form orator and yet be completely unable to rise
in his place in Congress and refute an oppo-
nent, or cover him with polite ridicule, on
the spur of the moment Another and more
powerful cause, I think, of the absence of debating
power at Washington, is the imperfect education
of most members of Congress. Nothing but a well
stored mind—wide reading, familiarity with his-
tory, and political principles—will enable a man
to make a good figure in extemporaneous debate ;
and these things only a few congressmen have got.
There are veteran politicians and sharp lawyers,
who can spring to their feet and handle their
weapons with reasonable dexterity, but their mun-
ber is small. The number of good debaters is, of
course, small in all legislative assemblies, but
here it is very small, much smaller than in
England.
The result of this state of things is, that the
majority here is armed with powers of stopping dis-
cussion such as the majority in England dare not
ask for, or if it got them dare not exercise. A
bill might be passed in Congress without any-
body being allowed to open his mouth upen it,
except the mover and seconder ; and bills
have been passed, not precisely in this
way, but with little or no debate. " Half-
hour rules," " fifteen-minute rules," and
" five-minute rules," are also for the same
reason constantly adopted at the commencement of
important discussions, as the only adequate means
of getting any business done ; and the " previous
question," which anybody can move, and which in-
stantly cuts off all debate, is held in reserve behind •
these, and is often used remorselessly, and often,
too, as might be expected in exciting times, grossly
abused. But of its value, or even necessity,
nobcdy who has 'eon much of Congress doubts.
What makes it all the more necessary is, what I sup-
pose I may call the individual good nature of the
members. Good nature, in the sense of unwilling-
ness to hurt the feelings of others or bear hard on
them, is, perhaps, the most prominent of American
characteristics. The exaggerated, or one might
almost say diseased, form of it. which produces the
extraordinary patience and submissiveness in the
presence of all aorta of abuses, such as the impu-

[TWOPENCE

ot, ice and e xt,,rtion of railroad and other officials and
~1* hotel-keepers, always tills English travellers with
astonishment. But it is nowhere displayed in such
perfection as at public meetings, and in fact in
all deliberative bodies. Therefore, you can
never in this country trust to an au-
dience to suppress a bore by its spontaneous
action. He is almost sure of freedom of non-
interruption, and in fact from any greater punish-
ment than not being listened to. He will not be
coughed down, or laughed down, or roared down.
People will go to. sleep under him, or leave the
room* but they will not rise in insurrection. In
the House of Commons, orators who wander from
the point, or talk nonsense, or become wearisome,
are at once delivered over to the wild animals who
lurk on the back benches, and who speedily sup-
press them with all kinds of disturbing noises, and
these receive a helping hand in the good work
from the steadiest and most decorous. No formal
action of the house is therefore in most cases ne-
cessary to prevent its time being wasted and the
public business impeded by bores and dunces. It
protects itself by revolution simply, and scorns the
forms of law.

Here the work cannot be done in this way.
No member of Congress would undertake to
put down a speaker by disorderly interruptions,
and if he did he would certainly receive
no aid from his fellows. On the contrary, the
serjeant-at-arms would probably be called to
the aid of the bore, and the impatient listener
be reduced to silence by brute force. The house
has to protect itself from bad or irrelevant speaking
by regular rules. Individual volunteers will not
do the work for it. Thew rules have of course
to be very stringent, and when enforced, to work
with remorseless rigour, and shut out good speakers
as well as asses. But of course, except on occa-
sions in which affairs of great importance are under
discussion, and when men's passions are strongly
roused, these rules are seldom resorted to, and it
may be said that, on the whole, there is far greater
freedom of debate—a man may talk more non-
sense, and wander farther from the point, and on
a greater number of occasions in the course of the
year in the capitol than at St. Stephen's.
I am inclined to think, from what one sees here,
that should the character of the members of the
House of Commons be changed considerably by the
Reform Bill, it too would have to protect itself
against rambling and incoherence by more strin-
gent rules than now exist. There is nothing
which men of limited cultivation find it harder
to do than stick to the point when they are on their
legs, and there is nothing they are more willing
to do than force others to stick to it when they are
listeners.

The sense of the ridiculous, which is, after all,
the great defence against bores, prevails here to
only a very limited extent in literary and oratorical
matters, although it is rapidly growing. A "spread-
eagle orator" is now received, both in and out of
Congress, with more or less laughter ; a few
years ago only a very small circle laughed at him
at all. The war, in some manner which 1 cannot
undertake to explain, has greatly sobered the
national taste, and at the same time developed
the national sense of humour. I might illustrate
this in various ways, but I will confine myself to
mentioning the fate which has overtaken the
famous " Fourth of July oration." It used to be
the custom, until within the last ten years, for
every village, I might almost say every township,
to celebrate the day by ringing the bells at day-
break, letting off firework/ and cannon all day long,
and assembling in some convenient place about
noon to hear the Declaration of Independence read,
and to listen to an " oration" from some speaker
of more or less celebrity. In the smaller towns
he was generally a local lawyer, or politician.
The "oration" was generally a glorification of the
United States, its size, wealth, and prospects,
accompanied with liberal abuse of the European
aristocracy. and glowing description of the agonies
with which its members watched the rising power
of the great republic. The rhetorical accounts of
the feelings of the aristocracy towards this country
became ridiculous long ago, and many a pleasant
bit of satire has been published on the popular
impression of the way in which the nobles of the
Old World passed the Fourth of July. The wags have
long been in the habit of describing them as re-
treating on the morning of the great day to their
back drawing-rooms and other secluded retreats,
and there passing the long hours in wailing and
gnashing of teeth, fancying that they heard at
every moment on the breeze the roar of the re-
publican cannon celebrating the birth of the de-
tested democratic commonwealth. Before the war,
Fourth of July celebrations had become much less
frequent, and the " orations " furnished every
year a greater number of jokes ; but since
the war they may be said to have become
extinct. This year I only heard of one or two,
while the newspapers abounded in ridicule of
them, and anecdotes about them, and about the
"American eagle," which has always played a
leading part in them. Moreover, fireworks were
suppressed in most of the great cities, although the
day was as usual kept as a holiday, and shone glo-
riously on innumerable picnics and processions.
One of the best of the anecdotes which wont the
round of the papers was of a Southern orator who
as usual opened his discourse by describing the
gyrations of the eagle in the upper air. " Feller-
citizens," said he, " I see him a-soarin' and
a-soarin', and a-soarin'," all the while keeping his
eyes moved skyward, as if he was really watching
its flight. A countryman in the crowd, who fol-
lowed the speaker's looks, here called out—" Do g-
gaun me, if 1 see cry bird " Feller-citi-
zens," roared the orator angrily, " I was speakin'
in a figger

THE CoNrEDERATE GENERAL,.—We feel im-
pelled to guy u word in behalf of the military skill. valour.
and ability of certain of the rein generals whom the
Southern papers are now denouncing for incompetence and
imbecility in the held. Since Jeff. Thompson, Chalmers,
Hindman, and especially Longstrett. have come out iu
favour of reconstruction under the Military Bill, we find
that their services to the rebellion are spoken of with
utter contempt. and Longstmet is said to have proved him-
self a " failure " and a" nobody " tbmughout the entire
war. Now, we are quite certain that Longstreet, at least,
was not rated in this way by any of our generals
or by oar soldiers who fought him. It was con-
ceded by them all, that with the exception of Stonewall
Jackson, Lee had no subordinate, and the t 'onfederacy no
upholder, who tendered more efficient and signal military
service than Longatreet. We need not recall the lon lid
of terrible battles in which he and his corps figured, tor
the hundred times in which he put to test the genius of
our greatest commanders. We are sure that neither Giant,
Hancock. Sheridan, nor Warren would speak of Leapt:net,
as a soldier, in any such way as he is now spoken of by his
unreconstructed fellow-citizens of the South. But is
daring to exercise his owe judgment upon polities, he
could expect nothing better than he is receiving at the
hands of the :•loutlivrn turnibproofa."—Ecio Than,
July 19.

BROWN an
.1 P-1

. _; FLOUR

I .r
-1* obtain OT tra '.‘ ,I. •
011111•1 lustem..
"John
.melt packvt.

12FtGaKFA .4 T.

t
s
nio ,0
• :'

~ ~ .' ~

ailifirtisemods 1.e.. •

. •

r~lakwt:n.W.,!.; i •

k I
711114.1. .
Roue:

`.1.%1.11:kf.-.
0., ( II
Wval,

tko,

71v) TI, I
rie•lct, I h. I ~! I
YW it t I .!

• COCOA.

-~7 :-Y.

1:!F..::, .INI. c.

cei~~~c~

:tet, by TI•

• . ,rvis.g,
i.n.

:I • - "..ippeuil
•. . •
.•• E.

TUN t VrAtv.i. Tl.}: It %I' r:: 1 • tr.iNi:
?lAN h .11111 • /It 4" .10 /I CL1•1:
s4ua,l. NLily . %ha '1111; I IlAr.