Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-02-22
ERROsITY.

L
tunate lot it is to take the part o
auditors. At the hustings, in stht
forum, in every place or position il
fact which calls for a delivery O
speech, the spokesman too oftet
fancies that he is obliged to elongate
his subject by certain quahtum Of
words in order to appear very learned
very wise and very far above bis
fellows. In fine, no matter how
simmered down his paucity of ideas
and sentiments in the great cauldfon
| Of bubbling words, there is the
| speech, and with all its "sounding
brass and tinkling cymbals'' its
fimsy flummeries and dishwater dis
filings, he finds eager listeners who
gulp it down their thirsty Threats
and clap their hands in ecstacles OF
praise. More fools, they. a1sE E
Congress, never deficient in this
attribute of buncombe verbiage, is
threatened at this time with an I'M
usual deluge of the stuff. About
sixty Of its members, who are preg-
nant with grandiloquent conceptions,
are said to be spelling for an oppor-
tunity to "stand and deliver ad
hbttum and ad mfnitum. They
were sorely exercised recently at the
bare hint that in order to afford all a
chance to say something, the gift Of
CAB would have to be subjected to
some cruel, arbitrary limit as to time.
In debate which recently oc-
Cured in the House of Representa-
tives, it was proposed by one member
to limit the speeches to ten minutes,
and another ironically recommended
that two minutes be the limit. The
suggestion elected good deal of
merriment. It is not, after all, re-
marks contemporary, as ridiculous
a proposition as it appears, or was,
perhaps, intended. The mover of it
ought to have heard of one John
Somers, a young man who was the
Junior counsel in the famous case OF
the Bishops, in the reign of James
III. There has never been cause
tried in England which created such,
immense excitement, Or which in
volved more important questions of
constitutional law. Nearly all the
great Barons Of England were press
ent, and an immense crowd filed the
room in which the tribunal sat, and
crowded all the approaches to it.
The most eminent jurists of the
kingdom were pitted against each
other, and the King and the whole
.,a4sa., a,ra;toJ ~, hxoct l. Lar, r,,.x.a,,.,s
the result of the trial. 1t was in
such case as that that the young
lawyer, John Somers, rose, and after
a speech of .1foe minutes, according
to Macaulay, sat down with the repu-
tation of the first constitutional
lawyer in the kingdom. j1E tEt
The ambition for oratorical dis
play in this country has become a
political and financial nuisance. LIE.
gislation is retarded, and the public
time and money consumed, in order
to allow every member of a delibera-
tive body to spread himself upon
every question of public interest.
The evil would not be so great if the
aspirants for oratorical renown would
model themselves after the best mas
ters. The great speeches of antiq-
uity rarely occupied more than an
hour in their delivery. Few of the
most celebrated forensic displays in
the English Parliament compare in
length with one of the briefest in our
Legislative and congressional halls.
Long windedness is no proof Of supe-
rior ability, but rather of the reverse.
1t shows, at all events, that the
speaker has not the capacity of con-
densation, or that he is too lazy to