sons of thunder gathered together in one place; and in perusing the records of their addresses we shall always find that the worthiest in art, as well as in purpose, are those which speak for human liberty, and against the counsels and machinations of its enemies. No more patriotic men have lived than were Pitt, Burke and Fox; yet they were the most powerful and persistent champions of their kin across the sea, who were suffering from maladministration of the principles which had made England free, and from betrayal, by members of the government, of trusts and promises whose preservation was vital to any kind of political prosperity. The great attack of Sheridan upon Warren Hastings, again, was a plea against injustice and tyranny in India : and such outbursts as that of Curran for liberty of the press, and of Grattan in behalf of the rights of his down-trodden countrymen, indicate how at all points and in all circumstances the power of oratory was put forth in vindication of the emancipation of man. From these stirring and heroic days we come through the portals of the nineteenth century to our own epoch. We find William Pitt contending against the ominous power of Napoleon, and the marvellous Irishman, Daniel O'Connell, pleading with matchless power for justice to men of the Catholic faith. The speech of Robert Emmet against the unrighteous sentence passed against his life is one of the most stirring protests ever heard from human lips against the iniquity and the blindness of despotism. Meanwhile, in the field, little cultivated hitherto, of letters and the humanities, men like Brougham and Derby were rivalling the performances of the old Greek Isocrates; Newman, by his exquisite discourses, kept alive the traditions of religious appeal; and Lytton spoke convincingly in the cause of education. But about the middle of the century a handful of men, most prominent among whom were Palmerston, Bright, Disraeli and Gladstone, appeared in the arena, and the echo of their accents is still in our ears to-day. Palmerston was the man of the world in politics, and his addresses are chiefly in the line of expediency, compromise, or what modern argot would characterize as bluff. But Bright was a strict political moralist; Disraeli was the statesman of imagination and far-reaching ambition; and Gladstone, whose grand figure, growing constantly greater through the vicissitudes of his long life, is probably second to none of the leading orators of England, and certainly inferior to none in zeal for justice and right. With his name we may fitly close these introductory remarks; and after all none can speak for the orators so well as they speak for themselves. Julian Stawi 1 |