New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-23
ENGLISH ORATORY.
CHAMBERLAIN AND LORD RosEBERY.

H.
yRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUXE.l
BIRMINGHAM, April l.
lord Salisbury has been speaking here for two
Savs but of him | shall not nave much to say be-
cause did not hear him. gather that he made
eood impression on Birmingham as platform
sneaker and very bad one as a statesman; which
might, be expected. This is not a place where
Toryism has much root. People talk Of it as bold
thing on Lord Sallsbury's part to attack the Lib
eral enemy in his chief English stronghold. This
sort of metaphor, like metaphors in general, is
misleading. 1t requires no courage for Consery-
alive to address Birmingham audience. lie Is
not peltvd nor even Kissed. The radicalsm CT the
Midland metropolis IS robust enough TO endure
with patience all that Lord Salisbury can say
against It, to Its face OF behind its back. feopie
who have sat under Mr.. Ashmead bartlett vi
Colonel Burnaby might willingly lena thelr ears
TO a man who whatever else may DC sald vi him'
san sneak The presence OF the Tory chlet III
B,rmina ham is less proof of his own vaor than
tribute to the central Importance OF birmingham ID
nolitics Idon't know whether his many audiences,
or any of them were largely composed of oppo-
pents. What heard was that the Midland counties
had been ransacked 10 provide him with hearers
enough TO fill the Town Hail. On Thursday even
ing said an American friend who had come from
London to sit at Lord Sali,oury's feet land who
had to stand instead of sitting, the platform was
covered with white ties and the body OF the mousse
was Tiled with men more accustomed 70 using
ploughs than making them.
Most of my pilgrmages to Birmingham have
bsen made to hear Mr.. Bright. This one was to
listen to younger men. 1t Is too SOON to say that
Mr. Bright belongs to the past, though his recent
addresses and especially his Corn Law speech at
Glasgow the other day, might be taken to signify
that he himself prefers living over the days when
his fame was and his great vices performed,
to striking ont new line in the days that are.
He to be heard only too seldom. and no pains or
trouble are too great TO bear him, for the number
of speeches he will deliver cannot now be very
great. But to one whose business it is to study.
among other things. English politics, the men of
to-day and of tomorrow are not less important
than those of yesterday i came to Birmingham
10 listen to Mr.. Chamberlain and Lord Rosebery;
two of that younger generation who are to have
hand In shaping English affairs for the next
twenty years more They are both so well
known to you that fresh account of either at this
moment would be thrown away. II bracket Them
together ii is only that they happen both TO speak
from the same platform on the Same night. They
have almost many points of difference as OF Ike
ness. Lord Rosebery is ten years younger than MI.
Chamberlain; the man of today in Scotland o1
tomorrow in England the threshold OF the
newspapers. Mr.. Chamberlain. among whose
faults want of success is not to be reckoned-suc-
cess won by abilities and his own eiforts-always
recalls the celebrated epigram of Talleyrand upon
Theirs long ago. Somebody called Theirs, as
there are Tories angry enough to call Mr.. Chamber
dam now, parvenu. Non. answered Talleyrand,
IL NEST pas parrenu, IL est drrire.
Town Hall audience ia Birnin CHAM is of itself
werth coming to see especially if the conner be an
American, as l dare say have urged before now.
Often as have seen it. to see 1t again is always
fresh surprise. unlike is IL to every other audi
ence in England. My American friend instantly
described 1t as /" so American; and 1t Is. Amer
Jean in keenness of feature. and still more Ameri-
can in its quite marvellous quickness of mind ana
rapid judRment on men and on what men have TO
saw There is no great manufacturing town in
England where so many wOrkingnen are their
own masters. Their habit of thinking for them
selves on public affairs, which has given Birr1ing-
hahn Its political fame. acquired by thinking
fol- themselves about their own business and about
the business of their town; for the wise conduct Of
which latter they have also deserved celebrity, to
which Mr.. Chamberlain has contributed. 1t Is the
most difficult and critical audience public
speaker in this country be called on to tace.-
some FIVE thousand men extremely wide-awake ana
well-informed. and taught by Mr. Bright TO be ex-
acting IN the matter of oratory.
Lord Rosebery was to address them as president
of the Junior Liberal Association of birmingham.
He said later in the evening that If this was the
Junior Association he should be glad to know
what the Senior was like. 1t was enough that 1t
was Liberal meeting-nO need TO CLEAN for hearers
in the agricultural outskirts Of the town. or dis
turb the patrican repose of three counties. Lcrd
Rosebery a stranger 20 them,-this Is his first
appearance in Brnin gham,-but whether from his
reputation. or his face and manner Or tor whatever
reason, they gave him the sort of welcome COM
monty reserved for old friends. 1t was expected of
him to answer Lord Salisbury. and TO Lord Sails
bury accordingly the greater part OF his speech
dev oted. The answer minute and effective,
but it had the disadvantage of being an answer.
Disadvantage because Lord Rosebery has a con-
structive power which may be pat to better use
than is to be found for 1t in controversy retort.
His talent for repartee may be employed on lesser
occasions; here 1T would have been worth his
while to state his from his own standpoint,
and leave Lord Salsbury's sinister sarcasms to
answer themselves; or to be answered by Mr..
Chamberlain, since to him II to anybody the cbal-
lenge from Hatfield gas addressed The account of
the Conservative leader given in the opening sem
fences would have left a sufficient impression.
After describing Lord Salisburys first speech as
dealing with politics " in spirit / will not call
capti0us but in spirit of conciseness," Lord Rose
berry proceeded:
He touched on every point very much a sore
throat is touched, with caustc. He dealt with
every point IN single sentence aud pointed
every sentence with sneer; anu when yon re-
member that the late Lord Beaconsfeld, the chief
whose shade and whose memory the Tory party
now vainly invoke, once accurately described his
colleague Lord Salisbury a master OF fouts and
sneers, IL would not be decorous in humble people
like ourselves TO quarrel with the definition oil
eminent a master.
That is a sentence to bring party cheers and it
brought them rs did most of Lord Rcsebery's pc
RODS. But when he had passed from Lord Sails
bury and entered upon peroration devoted to
definition of Liberalism, and the worth OF Liberal
ism to the country the speech reached higher
level and eyen its epigram became more glitter