Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

judges it is to be hoped that the passions will be weak; with public assemblies it is to be hoped that reasoning will be strong; but although the imagination may, in the first case, be unemployed, in the second it cannot be dispensed with; for if the advocate of virtue avoids to address the feelings of a mixed assembly, whether it be a jury or a political meeting, he has no security that their feeling, and their bad feelings, may not be brought into action against him; he surrenders to his enemy the strongest of his weapons, and by a species of irrational generosity contrives to ensure his own defeat in the conflict. To juries and public assemblies alone the following speeches have been addressed; and it is by ascertaining their effect on these assemblies or juries, that the merit of the exertion should in justice be measured.

But there seems a general and prevalent mistake among our critics on this judgment. They seem to think that the taste of the individual is the standard by

which the value of oratory should be decided. We do not consider oratory a mere matter of taste; it is a given means for the procurement of a given end; and the fitness of its means to the attainment of its end should be in chief the measure of its merit-of this fitness success ought to be the evidence. The preacher who can melt his congregation into tears, and excel others in

his struggle to convert the superfluities of the opulent into a treasury for the wretched;-the advocate who procures the largest compensation from juries on their oaths for injuries which they try; the man who, like Mr. Phillips, can be accused (if ever any man was so accused, except himself) by grave lawyers, and before grave judges, of having procured a verdict from twelve sagacious and most respectable special jurors by fascination; of having, by the fascination of his eloquence, blinded them to that duty which they were sworn to observe:-the man who can be accused of this on oath and the fascination of whose speaking is made a ground work, though an unsuccessful one, for setting aside a verdict;—he may be wrong and ignorant in his study and practice of oratory; but, with all his errors and ignorance, it must be admitted, that he has in some manner stumbled on the shortest way for attaining the end of oratory—that is, giving the most forceful direction to human action and determination in particular instances. His eloquence may be a novelty, but it is beyond example successful; and its success and novelty may be another explanation for the hostility that assails. It may be matter of taste, but it certainly would not be matter of judgment or prudence in Mr. Phillips to depart from a course which has proved most successful, and which has procured for him within the last

year a larger number of readers through the world than ever in the same time resorted to the productions of any man of these countries. His youth carries with it not only much excuse, but much promise of future improvement; and doubtless he will not neglect to apply the fruits of study and the lights of experience to each succeeding exertion. But his manner is his own, and every man's own manner is his best manner; and so long as it works with this unexampled success, he should be slow to adopt the suggestions of his enemies, although he should be sedulous in adopting all legitimate improvement. To that very exuberance of imagination, we do not hesitate to ascribe much of his success; whilst, therefore, he consents to control it, let him be careful lest he clip his wings: nor is the strength of this faculty an argument, although it has been made an argument, against the strength of his reasoning powers; for let us strip these speeches of every thing, whose derivation could be, by any construction, assigned to his fancy; let us apply this rule to his judicial and political exertions—for instance, to the speech on Guthrie and Sterne, and the late one to the gentlemen of Liverpool-let their topics be translated into plain, dull language, and then we would ask, what collection of topics could be more judicious, better arranged, or classed in a more lucid and consecutive order by the

most tiresome wisdom of the sagest arguer at the bar? Is there not abundance to satisfy the judgment, even if there were nothing to sway the feelings, or gratify the imagination? How preposterous, then, the futile endeavour to undervalue the solidity of the ground-work, by withdrawing attention to the beauty of the ornament; or to maintain the deficiency of strength in the base, merely because there appears so much splendour in the structure.

Unaided by the advantages of fortune or alliance, under the frown of political power and the interested detraction of professional jealousy, confining the exercise of that talent which he derives from his God to the honour, and succour, and protection of his creatures— this interesting and highly gifted young man runs his course like a giant, prospering and to prosper;-in the court as a flaming sword, leading and lighting the injured to their own; and in the public assembly exposing her wrongs-exacting her rights-conquering en. vy-trampling on corruption-beloved by his country -esteemed by a world-enjoying and deserving an unexampled fame-and actively employing the summer of his life in gathering honours for his name, and garlands for his grave!

A SPEECH

DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC DINNER, GIVEN TO

MR. FINLAY,

BY THE ROMAN CATHOLICS

OF THE TOWN AND COUNTY OF SLIGO.

I THINK, Sir, you will agree with me, that the most experienced speaker, might justly tremble in addressing you, after the display you have just witnessed. What, then, must I feel, who never before addressed a public audience? However, it would be but an unworthy affectation in me, were I to conceal from you, the emotions with which I am agitated by this kindness The exaggerated estimate which other countries have made of the few services so young a man could render, has, I hope, inspired me with the sentiments it ought; but here, I do confess to you, I feel no ordinary sensation-here, where every object springs some new association, and the loveliest objects, mellowed as they are by time, rise painted on the eye of memory-here, where the light of heaven first blessed my infant view, and nature breathed into my infant heart, that ardour for my, country which nothing but death can chillhere, where the scenes of my childhood remind me, how innocent I was, and the grave of my fathers ad

A

« PreviousContinue »