Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-03-11
BROUGHAM'S oRAToRY.
How y E7an Spoke and Left a Name to Pos

How p s1an Spoke and Left a Name to Pos
terity.
those who have only heard Lord
Brougham speak must understand that
they have scarcely an idea of the ora
tory of Harry Brougham. From the
first day he entered the House of Peers
as Lord Chancellor he seemed to be
trammeled by sense of his position.
He would have compromised it's dig
nifty, as well as the Character of a min
lister of the Crown, if he addressed his
new audience, cold and aristocratic as
it was, with the fierce and powerful
defamation in which he had formerly
excelled. There is a well-known story
that when his mother heard that he
had accepted tho Chancellorship she
said: Then Harry Broughaa1 is
ruined;" and ruined he most certainly
was, as an orator. He had made him
self great, but he was destroyed by be-
ing made great by others. Harry
Brougham's speeches produced much
the same kind of sensation as would
be experienced on witnessing the act
ing of the elder Kean. Brougham I'M
consciously acted his speeches. His
action, too, was anything but graceful;
but it was natural, and perhaps that
which is natural cam scarcely be
deemed ungraceful. The want of
finish, however, was always lost
in the sense of the rugged
earnestness of the speaker, and of the
terrific power with which he hurled his
invectives at his opponents-a power
which had once the effect of causing an
old stager like Canning to spring from
his seat, half frantic, and eXclaim,
while striking the table in front of him
with extraordinary force, cit is false
hood" While Brougham spoke. the
impression would be on the nearer that
any attempt TO reply would be hope
less undertaking. And hopeless it
would have been to any one but Can
ming. Brougham had q great fand of
humor at his command, but Canning,
with an amount of humor still more re-
dundant, had q command of wit and
anecdote which carried everything be-
fore it. The House has more than
once been absolutely electrified by some
fierce denunciation on the part OF
Brougham, and in less than five min
utes afterward that same House has
been indulging in peal after peal OF inn
moderate laughter at the inimitable
dexterity with which Canning warded
off the attack and flung ridicule on his
opponent. On one occasion, on the
first night of a session, Brougham at
tackled the Government for having, ac-
cording to the announcements in the
speech from the throne, stolen many of
the measures advocated by his side of
the House and made them their own.
The speech was telling one. and the
more telling because it was true. It
was applauded to the very echo, and
doubtless many of those who heard b m
wondered how Canning would rebut the
fierce attack. When he rose the
House welcomed him with tremendous
cheering, as if anticipating the success
which usually attended his efforts. In
this instance, too, it was not doomed
to be disappointed. In spirit of the
utmost good humor he said that the
honorable and learned gentleman had
reminded him of an anecdote which he
would relate to the House. In the reign
of Queen Elizabeth an author named
Denis had written play, which was
produced at the Theater Royal of the
day. In this play was introduced a
scene in which for the first time on any
stage there was an imitation of a thun-
derstorm. Denis attended the perform
ance, and had the modification to wit
ness his piece, Notwithstanding the
thunderstorm, uneGu vocally damned.
Time passed on, and with it the men,
DRY of his play and it's unlucky fate,
when, one night, he went to see new
play from the pen of anot Ter author.
The piece was in every respect superior
to that of poor Denis, who witnessed
each successive scene with feelings of
envy. 1t happened, however, that the
author had also introduced thunder
storm. AS soon as Denis, who was in
the pit. heard the rolling of the thun-
der. followed by the p.audits of the
audience, he jumped upon one of the
seats and raising himself to his fullest
height, shouted out with the voice of a
stentor, That's my thunder! That's
my thunder!' The roars of laughter
which followed, and in which Broug-
ham himself, the Denis of the moment,
was compelled to join, battles all de-
scription. His speech was no longer to
be thought of, except in so far as it had
elected the ready wit of Canning.
Temple Bar.
LAS soon as we got on to the gang
L