Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-27
SPEAKERS IN THE COMMONS.
English Oratory - Gladstone and

George Jacob Holyoake, reported in . Providence
paper.
Gladstone, he said, has q clear. penetrating
voice, so that you can hear him in any part of
the house, and that is the first condition OF eff
fective speaking. The debate on the part of the
opposition is closed, and the prime minister has
to reply. He has nothing to say, but for
quarter of an hour his words will ring out over
the house, gathering around him, in a great
mist. so to speak. What he says has sense of
sound, always coherent, and the sense Of Sc
quence is not violated, ando yet when he has
spoken for Is minutes, no one can tell what it is
that he has been saying. But oil this time he
Is thinking upon the subject and preparing to
say something to the point. He presently
stands erect, places his hands at his coat lapels.
pulls down his coat with slight jerk and that is
the indication that he has concluded what to
do. And then follows torrent of words.
thunder and MISUNDERSTANDING chefy-mak-
ing so luminous the subject that the most
stupid persons in the house-and there are
enough of such there--are able to see every
thing relating to it. Then comes the perora-
ton. In sentences, bright, crisp and impressive
Everybody is convinced and the question is car
have been made. The prime minister has q
stately impetuosty. He speaks with felicity
and facility ofutterance. But there is higher
charm. DIR. Pussy said of Cardinal Newman
that he has the faculty Of speaking the truth
without wounding single human heart. Mr..
Gladstone has this same faculty in very large
degree. John Bright has no faculty of the kind.
His object is to state strongly and
with overwhelming force and to educe
the conclusion he desires, and If anybody
Is wounded, so much the worse for them that
they did not do the right thing before he spoke
to them. Both Bright and Gladstone have
humility; but they have it in different kinds and
degrees. Bright's humility rises from con-
seriousness of how far his great powers fall short
OF enabling him to accomplish the good which
he intends. Mr.. Gladstone regards his endow-
ments as endOwments given to him by q great
power, not for his own glory, but for the service
of the people. He is always on the watch for
the true way, and that's why his life has always
here remarked, seen the attribute of Christian
humility so beautifully exemplified in any HUI
man being as it is seen every day in Mr.. Glad
stone, when he is confronting hostile and i'm
placabe opposition. He never wounds his
enemies; never makes invidious comparisons
between his own superiority and their inferi-
orty.
OF Bright's oratory the speaker said that It il
exceedingly Impressive. There is no voice in
the house OF commons or anywhere else to be
compared with his. His speeches are massive,
and his mode of expression is so distinct and in
dividual that If you see a line of his oratory
standing by itself you will know that 1t is Mr..
Bright's at once. II you take any of his SEN
fences, the clear, strong, MASSIVE way in which
the thought is conveyed, will render any inn
provemeRt impossible. All this has been &C.
quired. 1t has been acquired as Lord Beacons-
field acquired power, who Is the man who
climbed on phrase to power" Beaconsfeld
was Jew, had no principle OF any kind except
for his own ACCOMPLISHMENTS; was poor and dis
liked, and yet by his native brightness, by his
perpetual study of mode of expression, by label
ing the members with appropriate terms by q
natural facility in the selection of terms, by
coming the proper phrase at the right time
and waiting until the right time to use it: In
this way he attained the highest distinction that
could be accorded to any man by England
Golden, the associate of Bright, the speaker
said was man of marvellous common sense
and great desire to state it.. He used to 20
before the people to convince them, Bright to
incite them to carry out that of which they had
been thus convinced. Lord Beaconsfleld, he
continued, had this disadvantage, that nobody
believed anything that he said. And so far as
can be Judged he did not care about that at ALL
Then he had voice that was not satisfactory.
speakers in whose accent there is sense of
petty larceny. Further than this Beaconsfield
tried to look like an idiot and in that he was
very successful. The speaker only remem-
bered OF Beaconsf1eld's laughing but upon one
OCCASION and that was when an Irish member
said: ''The whisky in my country is the real
thing 1t goes down the throat like torch
light procession" ~'N
MT ROebuck, the speaker said, was the most
mathematical speaker in the house of commons.
He always relied upon the mathematical princi-
pie that the shortest cut between two points is
the straight line. His statements were more
direct and more impressive (because direct) than
those OF any other speaker When Lord West
bury spoke it was as though the words came
out from machine. In the continuity of his
thought he resembled Lord Bacon more than
any other member. The story is told of West
bury that when he was pleading before court
the judge interrupted him in the middle of
word for recess. Westbury took his seat, and
when the court again came in continued his ar
gument, commencing upon the syllable where
ne had broken off: The speaker mentioned Mr..
Lawson and Mr. Osborne as among the humor-
lists of the house. Their humor differed in kind.
however. Lawson's humor was like the I'M
corking Of ginger beer. 1t affected the house
like flow of soda water. Mr. Osborne's humor
was of rOugher Order-mOre the .humor of the
stable-boy. In bringing his remarks to close
the speaker summed up the qualities Of the ora
tors of whom he had spoken as follows: Glad
stone is circumambient and luminous; Bright,
massive; Golden. argumentative; Roebuck,
mathematical; Beaconsfeld, epigrammatic.