The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-14


rank high. We are not sure that any
Certainly when we consider the small
area of that island We will have to 90
back to that marvellous little country,
Greece, for a counterpart. What COR
responding number Of square miles has
been so productive in men or eloquence
as Ireland? What country in a. CEN
tary gave birth to SO many rare ora-
tors. say. beginning at A. D. I73o.
We have no purpose or desire to
magnify the performances Of Irishmen
in the splendid field of true oratory.
But running owe in our mind the
names Of those illIstrious men Of Irish
birth and lineage with whose produc-
tons We have some knowledge, we are
astonished at the magniicence and ex-
tent Of the array. Not having by US
any encyclopedia of Biography" to
which to refer, our enumeration of
famous orators must be necessarily in
| complete. We will glance rapidly 1T
| some names hoping it nay incite others
to a wider, completer survey than we
Il mere give IL. LIE IOll VI lHS iiiIiioI
tails" can be easily supplemented by a
| diligent student. Here we will men
| ton only those of worldwide reputa-
ton, and in glancing at poetry the
enumeration will be very brief.
Ireland has great cause to be proud
have rivalled their fellows and encir-
| cled the brow of their lovely country
with a rich aureola. What age or
cline or country can lay claim to so
much of that wondrous power, that
impetuous, daring imaginative and i'm
passioned force that breaks over every
barrier which a severe or conservative
criticism creates. and at will controls
the hearts and thoughts of men, arous
ing the passions or awakening their
tears-that marvellous gift of thought
which finds in words of intensest mean
ing. or in language so flowing, SO pa
thetic, so soothing, so tropical that it
falls upon the charmed ear like the
melody of "murmuring waters, or like
| flakes of feathered snow" or like the
\ soft winds of summer making music in
the sky-that true. charming, thrilling,
noble. overpowering eloquence, that
according to the north's greatest ora
tor. Daniel Webster, comes out like
the out-breaking of a fountain from the
earth. or the bursting forth of volcanic
fires with spontaneous, original, native
force" We grant that it is an elo-
| quence that is not so precise, so order
ly, so regular as the highly finished,
but somewhat unimaginative orations
| Of the greatest Athenian, Demosthenes.
| We grant that it is an ~eloquence that
is not so artistically ornate-that is not
| so completely guarded by the orderly
dykes of a rigorous and formal rhetoric,
as for instance the graceful, resonant
| periods of the great Roman, Cicero;
but then it is SO rich, so impassioned,
so gorgeous. SO manly, so lofty, so de-
| fant. so glowing with a sincere, con-
Stunning patriotism-is so much more
ebullient and broad and abundant and
dashing and c~orruscating than n elo-
quence that Athenian lips or Roman
tongue ever uttered. If you doubt only
! read.
Above all Irish orators above all Eng
lish or American orators, above ali ora
tors either ancient or modern, a. we
hold and have long held, in splendor Of
imagination, in o%pulence of rhetoric,
in compass of mind. in richness and
fertility Of illustration, in variety and
beauty of decoration, in philosophical
grasp and penetration, in amplitude Of
resources. in profundity Of research,
and in completeness of MS intellectual
furniture, stands Edmund Burke-and
was he not an Irishman? He is the one
great orator whose mental statue has
grown in magnitude with time in h
estimate of able statesmen and pro-
found students of English history. He
seems greater in 1901, than he appear
ed to his fellow men about him.. Even
so acute and great a critic as William
Hazlitt. in his estimates in the TWEEN
ties of the last century did not crown
him as he deserved and failed to give
him the exalted place he now holds
above all eighteenth century statesmen
and orators.
wv ANOAN go SPANN ~ oAN
q%uibbling. that Sir Philip Francis was
the author of 'Junius." master Of one
of the most consummate controversial
styles. a writer of great vigor, brillian-
cy. and at times Of high, commanding
e~loquence; wose corrosive irony n
biting wit and burning invective have
hardly been surpassed-and was he not
an Irishman? |
Richard Brinsley Sheridan. at whose !
birth. as the great poet, Lord Byron, |
said nature broke the die in mould
ing him." who wrote certainly some of
the best English comedies of the last
two hundred years. whose speeches
were pronounced to be Of the highest
order of excellence by such thoroughly
competent judges as Charles James
Fox and william Windham, great and