New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-04-07
Mr.. BRIGHT.
mrs oRAToRY-HIs METHOD OF PREPARA-
T1oN-soME OF THE SECRETS OF HIS

SUCCESS
London, March ~.
Among many speeches Of Mr. Brights which l
have heard, one which is not the greatest has left
tbs deepest impression. 1t was delivered In octo-
Der. 1878, to his constituents Of Birmin CHAM he
had been very i'll for nearly three years, his hie
hal been IN danger, his reason threatened IL was
the cond illness of the kind he had had TO endure
Never Woodworking man, in one sense Oh tue
word hating and altogether negtecting the drndg-
err Of departmental business, ne neVeftaeiess pun
. great strain upon his mind The interest," ne
seok In G great question shook him to the centre
Wis nature was sympathe tic emotional passionate
To keep himself under control when deeply stlrreu
rost him great efforts He had moreover a meal"
s.ttve mind he brooded upon great subjects, and
tAoueht out. as few Englishmen do-for 10 is not
an English habit Of mind, or not the habit OF most
English statesmen-the principles which governed
!. case or on which policy was based The re
Hrious mood, too, was with him just as mucn
: political mood as anything else lie wrestia
With his subject in the watches of the night; win
mars and prayers perhaps; certainly with inc mose
strenuous thought Of which be was capable ana
With sense Of responsibility and anxious care
which never left him. Whenever he spoke ne
Nfted politics from a lower TO higher level.
An this told upon his strength. ln,the winter
Of 1870. then President Of the Board on lrade IN
Mr. Ghdstone's first administration, ne broke
down So critical was his condition that his doc
cor ordered him out Of London instantly Inc
doctor had been summoned in the morning. MT.
Bright went to Norwood the same AFTERNOON, anu
his voice was not again heard in public I'LL the
auttImn of 1879 He had resigned office and re-
sumed 10 again In August of that year, not IN MS
old post which demanded too much work, putin
The sinecure Of the CHARACTERISTIC OF the Ducny OF
Lancaster. In the October following ne once
more met his constituents, who meantime nao IT.
elected him without contest on his new accept
anee Of office. The desire to hear him was great
no ordinary hall; not the Town Hall of Birming-
ham, which is supposed to hold 1000 people ana
has been known to hold 6,o00-oould contain the
multitude of his friends and supporters. 1t was
arranged that he should speak in Bingley Hail.
kind of market g mere covered area where fifteen
thousand or twenty thousand persons might stand
and listen For all ordinary purposes II was as
III adapted rs the wsverly Market In Edinburgh
where Mr.. Gladstone tried his voice so sorely DIR.
Nights friends felt il TO be doubtful expert
ent with his health still less firm than OF DID, out
he was resolved to make it.
enough TO shake the most iron nerve, and it possi-
bly shook his When be came to speak his voice
was hardly his own: the emotion Of the moment
mastered him and u.s. He began in vibrating tones
with reference to his long illness and TO the gen.
erous forbearance of his constituents during the
four years Of his absence. There was nothing IN
the words he used which, as you read them, ex-
pIains the effect they produced, but before the Few
sentences on this subject were ended, many OF
these hard-faced hearers were in tears. behere
---ipdsed, think afterward heard Bright say
that so afraid was he Of breaking down with his
own emotion that he said less than he meant 70
say have read it this morning. So simple, 80
reserved, are the opening sentences that out 1or
nv memory Of the scene should almost say that
they ex pressed inadequatey what he wished his
constituents TO understand. They do not give up
their secret: they do not account for the uncon-
tsoIlable agitation which swept over that great
body Of men, There is nothing in the printed page
to suggest the pathos Of the speakers voice and
look. But read on TO the end, and this is the
end .,.
For me the final chapter is now writing 1t
may be already written; but for you, this great
constituency, you have perpetual youth and
perpetual future l pray Heaven that in the
years to come, when my voice is hushed, you may
20 influence the councils of your country by right
eous means for none other than righteous and
(roble ends"
The pathos of that would touch the coolest, and
20 read it on the morning Of B1ghts death turns
the pathos into tragedy. The final chapter was
fifteen years moro in writing; years filed like those
which had gone before with generous words ana
high aims: benefcent in example and in influence;
to- Sno .tpa
Many and many of the best known passages
in Brights speeches might be quoted as splendid
examples OF purity in diotion. 1t is not TO
rhetorical onamentation that they owe their
effect but to the absence of IL. No diction is
more perfeet none would be more impossible
20 initiate, il seems the natural expression of
the thought OF the speaker IL is, Of course, not
natural; it is the result Of immense pains Bright
made no secret Of his methods. He almost never
spoke offhand. He prepared carefully and used
notes freely. The framework Of the speech was
Put together ike o mosaic; passages were written
cut and committed TO memory. Mr.. Carl Schurz
will rscolkct hearing Bright himself discuss
aud explain his own method one night at dinner
Others were there whose authority in such matters
fas weight There was, ] think, no two opinions
Bright at any rate, thought no speech could
Be too fully wrought. out in the speakers. mind
in advance of delivery. He dwelt on the difficulty
Of devastating the written passages into the fabric
20 that none should find the joints, and he quoted
Bsoagham rs good instance Of an orator who
failed to conceal the art with which his speeches
were constructed.
Emerson says in the Preface Of his Parnassus"
thas he has sometimes inserted a poem for the
sake Of single line perhaps even for word.
There sre passages In Bright where single word
Is lesson IN oratory. Such is the famous one on
the Crimean War in the House OF Commons, when
- the winter Of 1855 news was anxioasly awaited
fzom the trenches before Sehastopol:
Many homes may be rendered desolate when
the next mail shall arrive. The angel Of death
kas been abroad throughout the land you may