New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-06-29

to-day done with the great inheritance
which Mr. Bright bequeathed to them
AS to his oratory, there is little or
nothing to compare il with till Won 90
oack TO the Greeks He had their
method their simplicity their indiffer-
ence 20 what in these DAYS is called
| ana Tor the most part wrongly called.
rhetoric The student OF oratory NAV
search his speeches for the real secret
Of the effect they produced. he will not
find H. He will find many secondary
causes. the sparing use OF adjectives.
the absence Of the superlative except
the superldtive OF passion, the choice
OF words carried to the point where the
word used seems. and often is. the in
evitable word, the only word that could
( be used; the faultless structure Of the
/ sentence; the ordered progression of
the thought, the argument. the appeal.
All the machinery Of the orator was
81 his command and was used as only
a master can use it, OF all. he made
! an imaginative use. But | go back 10
Froude's definition Of cleverness, or Of
art as means 81 influence on the
mind
u will define il" said Froude. in
single word, sincerity"
Bright himself tells us that at the
beginning Of his career he found
sentence in Milton which fixed itself
in his nina
Yet true eloquence find to he none
but the serious and hearty love Of
truth"
Ana he says:
Il have endeavored so far as have
had the opportunities Of speaking 10
abide by that wise and weighty saying
] am not conscious that have cve-
used an argument which I did not be
lieve 10 be sound or have stated any
| thing as fact which did not believe
TO he true"
In oratory as IN everything else he
believed the homcly old saving that
honesty is the best policy to be p true
saying II was the roch on which all
the rest was built
Mr.. Trevelyan quotes LORD Salisbury:
He was the greatest master Of Eng
lish oratory that this generation has
produced or may say several genera
tions back. J have met mon VINO have
heard Pitt and Fox. and in whose judg-
ment their cloquence At its best was
inferior 10 the finest efforts Of John
Bright
There was no better judge than Lord
Salisbury. nor do I doubt that pos
, terity. in so far as II is entitled 10 an
opinion, will be Of his opinion. But the
posthumous rcnown Of the orator. as
Of the actor. depends largely on tradi-
ton. Few people read speeches, few
/ speeches arc readable: and the impress
sion they make on the reader is very
| imperfect and often misleading test as
compared with the impression they
made on those who heard them. The
sustained magnifccncc Of Mr.. Brights
diction in the great passages can he
felt in reading. but in parts Of his
most deeply the splendor consists in
simplicity. There is the opening Of tho
speech 10 his constituents in 1919 on
his recovery from his second Illness,
thanking them for their indulgence and
svmpathy. 7 heard il. Never before nor
since have ! seen a great assembly
stirred By such q passion as tnen.
/ There were sobs and half-suppressed
cries and tears. ! have read this cA-
ordfuu many times since, but IL defes
ANALYSIS. and 10 no reading will it yield
M its mystery. II is seldom quoted.
II does not. like so many Of his great
passages, lend itself 70 quotation 10
/ have been present as 1t was spoken
was lesson Of which the memory VIII
never die. There are. however, scores
of noble deliverances which the "orId
/ l,op.s ~ heart and will never tire ot
rcpcating. in which coming generations
Of eager youth may hear everything
/ but the voice Of the orator.
The attempt often made TO establish
paraIlel or some sort Of likeness ne
tween the oratory Of Bright and the
orator,. Of Gladstone always seemed 10
me futile The similarities are te"'
the contrasts innumerable. Mr.. CLAD
stone Of course. often made use OF the
moroI and more often Of the religious
| appeal but he was never at ms pest
,, in that form OF dialectic. The processes
Of his moral consciousness were 100
! cor,nIicated for the normal intelligence.
t1o was q casuist Of the first order
srrersubtle in drawing distinctions I'M
nerceptible TO most Of his hearers
| There could be little in common be-
tveen a mind Of that type and a nature
ike Rright's. Yet Brights admirIns
devotion 10 him through long years
took no account Of these divergences'
The truth is. Mr.. Gladstone abounded
,n the gifts in which Mr.. Bright was
deficient. and it is natural to every
bodv 10 overrate qualities he does
not himself possess. Mr.. GLADSTONE
only half repaid his friends loyalty
and after the breach Of 1886 had no
moro liberation for Mr.. Bright than he
had for Lord Harrington or for MI
! Cham berlain. OF for any OF that group