The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-16 00:00:00

in composition; He can selaem satisfy his own exquisite
ttste. So great is his command of style, that, although be
composes, with great rapidity, he is over-prone to alter his
composition, in the attempt to improve and to polish sot-
tences which ordinary writers would deem unsusceptible
either of improvement or of polish.
His speeches, being delivered extempore, contain, like
the speeches of orators in general, many repetitions. These,'.
when he peruses a report of them, he lops off without
mercy, and which lopping off, whilst it frequently improves
the discourse as specimens of classic composition, curtails
them, at the same time, of what the bulk of his hearers!
consider, perhaps, their " fair proportions." Nor is he less
hostile to tumid metaphors. We recollect when, on one
occasion, he delivered a brilliant speech in the large room
in the King's Arms Hotel, in this town, he employed a
simile which, although it was rather forced, produced a
marked effect upon his auditory. A gentleman who had
missed the favorite simile from the printed report,
mentioned the subject to the Right Honourable Gentleman
himself. " Why," said Mr. Canning, " the thing was
well enough when uttered in the heat of extemporaneous
speaking; but it would • not have read well in print."
Under such subjection had the Right Honourable Gentle-
man placed his fancy, that he would 'rather sacrifice a
figure, which he knew had produced a powerful effect
upon his hearers, than run the risk of being charged with
employing meretricious ornaments in his speeches.

Mr. Canning is not, however, insensible- to the great
importance of repetitions in speaking. Dr. Johnson, when
asked by Mr. Boswell for advice touching a speech which
the latter had to make in the House of Lords, on a Scotch
appeal ease, told him to be sure to bring the leading points
of the subject repeatedly before their Lordships; " for,"-
said the Doctor,'" attention► is apt to flag, and you must
frequently present the prominent topics to their mind."—
Mr. Canning entertains the same opinion on the import-
ance of repetitions in extemporaneous discourse; for,
when asked by the late Marquis of Titchfield ( a noble-
man who gave great promise of becoming a clever speaker
had he survived) why he had erased a rather emphatic re-
petition from the report of a speech which he had just
delivered from the balcony of the house of our resorted
townsman, Mr. Bolton, and which was then under revisal,
he exactly coincided in the sentiment of Dr. Johnson,
which was quoted, at the moment, by an' individual present
in the room.

No person but one who has seen the manuscripts can
form any idea, not of the corrections, but of the alterations
which the Right Hon. Gentleman makes in his speeches,'
when a report of them is submitted to his perusal before
they are printed. He is fastidious even to a fault. He
alters a word, changes it, and then alters it again. Some
sentences he remodels entirely, erasing the words as ori-
ginally uttered, and interlining the short-hand-writer's ma-
nuscript with the amended sentence. The writer of this
sketch has seen many of these corrected speeches ; and has
frequently profitted by observing the propriety and ele-
gance of the alterations which Mr. Canning introduced in
speeches which were preparing for the press. Whole
passages, too, were often omitted, as has been noticed in
the speeches recently published in London; and the ora-
tion, however it might be heightened in beauty as a piece
of composition, was, under the hand of the Right Hon.
Gentleman, both " shaven and shorn." But his altera-
tions are not confined to the manuscript. What printers
term a proof comes in for almost as great a share of cor-,
rection as the original manuscript; and the speech is not
permitted to go to the press until he has seen a revise.
All the speeches which Mr. Canning delivered in Liver-
pool, from the year 1812 to the year 1823, underwent
this rigid ordeal; and they may, therefore, be considered'
as among the best specimens of his style as well as of his
eloquence. We have known him to occupy from six to .
eight hours in correcting a speech which had not taken
him more than one hour and a half in the delivery.
Brilliant and argumentative as Mr. Canning's speeches
always are, we have reason to believe that he seldom, if
ever, commits any part of them to writing before delivery.
We • have occasionally seen in his hand a small slip of
paper, on which there seemed a few memoranda; but
they were so brief that they could be of very little assist-
ance to the orator, whose speeches bear every mark of
being extemporaneous effusions. Doubtless the Right
Hon. Gentleman meditates his subject before he rises to
make a set speech ; but the elaboration, unlike the tedious
process which the speeches of some orators undergo, is
purely mental.

Mr. Canning is a great favourite with the reporters.
There is some professional reputation gained by reporting
his speeches correctly; and he who can transcribe a speech
of the Right Honourable Gentleman's,• verbatim, which
very few can accomplish, is considered an adept in the art
of reporting. None, however, but one who writes short-
hand with rapidity can do full justice to Mr. Canning's
eloquence. The mere long-hand note-taker may give a
fair report of his speeches ; but the style of the Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman is so felicitous, and his choice of
words so happy, that there is great danger that the note-
taker may, by altering the arrangement of the sentences
and changing the phraseology, mar the beauty and sym-
metry of the oration.

There is a great and striking difference between the num-
ber of words which the three greatest orators at present in
the House of Commons, Canning, Brougham and Mack-
;ninutes,
intosh, will throw out in a given time. Mr. Brougham is
the slowest and most deliberate speaker of the three. A very
therefore, so dif-
ficultrapid long-hand-writer "might almost take down one of his
lndilisitugthies Hon, and aninpdid Learnedin hi s
deli
very
,Gentlemandnd
iwsi
speaking.l speeches
speak, v verbatim, aMtiliiiern:sCP'a'ace of from forty to 40 to 43
as many words as the former will throw out:. 'in so. But
as some persons might im
the task of reporting Mr. Canning is no t.,
agj:.-Je. The free, flowing
style of the Right Honourable Ctentleman carries the re-
porter smoothly along, a_nd. -renders the task comparatively.
pleasant. Sir Jameskackintosh is the most rapid speaker
in the House. Yew, if any, reporters can do his speeches
justice ; and the gentlemen of the press would almost as
soon see his satanic majesty rising to make a speech as Sit'
James. So difficult, indeed, is the task of reporting the
Honourable and Learned Knight's speeches, that we have
been occasionally astonished on perusing what we deemed
pretty accurate reports of his long and rapidly delivered
orations.

We have already noticed the extreme care with which
Mr. Canning- corrects and alters his speeches before he
commits them to the press. It will, no doubt, surprise
most of our readers when" they are told that his Right
Honourable friend and colleague, Mr. Huskisson, is little
inferior, in this respect, to the Foreign Secretary. He
alters his speeches as much as Mr. Canning, remodels
sentences like him, and, like him, erases from, the short-
hand-writer's manuscript whole passages, which had been
listened to with pleasure when delivered, and loudly ap-
plauded by his hearers;—so remarkably do these two
great men agree in opinion, that sentiments uttered in the
heat of extemporaneous speaking are not always fit for pub-
liCation, and that they must be carefully expunged when
the oration which contains them is about to be ushered
into the world in a permanent form, under the sanction of
the orator himself.

MELANCHOLY Acci erday morning a
most heart-rending accident occurred to the eldest daughter of
Mr. Jakens, residing near the Turnpike, Bethnal Green-road,
which at present appears most likely to prove fatal in its conse-
quences. The young lady, it would appear, on entering the
kitchen, had proceeded to the firerplaee, and while stooping to
take up the poker, with the intention of stirring the fire, a large
kettle of boiling water fell over her neck and shoulders. Every
assistance was administered, but up to a late hour-last evening she
remained in a dreadful state.: