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awkward individuals . The only quality he displays in a speech is clearness of intellect , developed in . that which somebody has said is the definition of Hcmse ° f Commons' talk— " elegant conversation . " He rarely ventures on a little eloquence : that the House of . Commons will not endure ; for it does not want to be excited—it wants to be guided ; it calculates—it does not feel . Clearly , then , people who want to succeed with the Commons must , as near as possible , adopt Mr . Disraeli ' s system . Take the next great men—Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell . Fancy a spirited despatch being calmly read to the Queen—and you gain an exact idea of Lord Palmerston ' s style of
speaking . The thoughts are cheered , tor . Lord Palmerston is intensely the Englishman , above party , and always talking from the national cue ; but the spirited sentences would have no chance but for the calm manner . Again , Lord John Russell is always for preserving his country—in ice . The frigid voice , the didactic tone , the reserved gesture—consisting of cat-like and cautiously placing his hand on the table , and slowly withdrawing it—are very repulsive to a stranger , who cannot understand how that cold nature got a leadership . But Lord John Russell is essentially a House of Commons' hero : deeply imbued with the tone of the place , bred up in all its knacks and mannerisms , and as an orator , in the House
of Commons' sense , keeping parties togetherhe still holds the first place . Lord John Russell is often truly eloquent , delivering fine " passages , " when the occasion demands an ascension above the dead routine : hut those who have admired such passages must not suppose that the manner corresponded to the vigorous idea . The melancholy of the manner , and the sad seriousness of the voice , but deepen as the thought expands ; and the heartiest cheering which he has ever enjoyed has not induced him to quicken his
speech by one syllable . Enter the House while Lord John is in the midst of a peroration , and you might think that some one was pronouncing a funeral Sloge , and that all the mourners were hooting him . There is the excitement visible in the House itself , but the excitement is not even apparently shared in by the speaker . So that when Mr . Patrick Somers , who was a very competent judge , said that the House of Commons Avas the best night-house in London , he meant only , as in other such places , for the audience , not for the performers .
The use of the term " debate" leads to a common misapprehension . It implies discussion ; and , properly speaking , there never is any discussion in the House of Commons . A " debate" is simply a series of speakers speaking for themselves , or for numbers , —offering advice to the whole . There are allusions here and there in these speeches to other speeches ; but there is litllo or no rcplicatory argument . There were debates once when there were giants in the House of Commons ; but those were days when then ; were n . lso dwarfs . Size is assimilated now .
There are no dull , gaitered , bovine , country gentlemen ; and what nominees for towns are left « 'ire active-minded keen fellows , who are matches 'or first ministers in mere logic . Between tho orator and the audience there is no great difference in intellect ; and all the speaking assumes that the audience ia too clover to need the elimination of obvious commonplaces , to endure flatuh'ut eloquence , or to bear with any pretentious tone of . superiority .
Take examples of failures , and learn by them . ' he bores of the House of Commons are us well known as the pets ; and it is very -remarkable , Ihal , the bores are acknowledged to be about the levereHt men going . The bore , jxtr excellence , whs kicked out at tho last election ; and it is a P'tv , for he Mas to bo studied , on the principle which rules the cooking of cucumbers . He wan a wonderful man—a man of genuine treniiiH . His I'K'inory was wax to receivo and marble to retain . . '' < 'icutenesH wan miraculously rapid . IIis honest y was beyond all question . lie could "peak glibl y—and for six hours at u time , if need Were . This man devoted himself to the ILouho of 1 onunons ; HucriHcing to it . splendid professional l »'<> specf . H ; and bold in that sacrifice , in the
con" <' 'iousness of ability , integrity , and noble intentioiiH , ] , <« concluded' that ho wan entitled to be a jX'i-Honage . Accordingly , lie attacked every « ub-. M'ct . II ,, WUH j n () V ( ,,. y dobate , on every coni"nttee . He moved for any _ returns . JI . oinl . ro-< lll « "ed any grievance . Mmtro here , Fuidro
there ! He speedily advanced into boredom , Put down , counted out , he retaliated ; he lectured the House , lie expostulated , he abused , he reviled . No men are ever misunderstood in the House of Commons . They said he was clever ; and if they had had time they would have taken a pleasure in his speaking . But they had no timethey did not require instruction or enlightenment from a man who stood aloof from parties , and speaking , therefore , only for himself , spoke for one no other M . P . cared one curse about . He had not patience or tact enough to study the
men he wanted to master ; and the result was , that with all his capacity , he was the most signal failure , in proportion to the pretension , ever recorded . He had trusted to good speaking—to the readiness that delighted debating societies ; and he foxxnd that good speaking was the last article in the list of weapons necessary in a coup de main on the House of Commons . In another way , there is a signal illustration to be referred to of the inefficiency of the mere orator to gain a position in such an assembly . Such was the great bore in the Parliament from 1841 to 1846 . He was , perhaps ,
the finest speaker ever heard . As an elocutionist I never heard his equal ; and it was universally admitted that he was an accomplished , clever man . He talked , perhaps—delighting in his own voice , and in his smooth , elegant sentences , somewhat too frequently and too long ; but all that he said , was to the point , and was well said . Yet when he spoke , the House emptied itself , and if he talked for three hours , not three lines appeared in the newspapers . Why ? I asked a
member once ; and the answer was , "Because he spoke so well . " He was only an elocutionist ; he was not of a party , speaking that which would be followed up ; and abstract essays were , of course , despised . This * gentleman is now in his proper sphere . As a journalist , he may have financial reasons to know he never is read ; but , at least , he has the gratification of seeing 312 columns of abstract cleverness put into print during the year . Printers devils never count out .
The moral is to be pursued through other notorious failures . The two most brilliant Irishmen of the day are Mr . Whiteside and Mr . G . Moore . Both are poets , wits , and scholars ; both are consummately fine speakers . Mr . Whiteside ' s celebrated state-trial speech in defence of his political opponent O'Connell , stands conspicuous among the great speeches of the Irish bar—as the greatest . Yet the failure of Mr . Whiteside in the
House of Commons was most overwhelmingand most deservedly . Fresh from the contentions of the native arena , he imported his polemical zeal into the Senate , where there is at least a philosophic contempt for sectarian squabbles : and in his first sentence he made one-third of the House of Commons his enemies for life . Think of a man making way in the British House of Commons by violently assaulting a large section of it ! From the first moment he was condemned ,
and has never recovered the defeat . His powerful style , his graceful turn of thought , the neatness of his illustrations , and the solid grasp oi his argument—in a word , the finished oratoryare recognised andadmired . But even the Inglises take part with tho Keoghs when Inglises and Keoghs have sat together in one assembly . A section was insulted—tho whole were offended . Talking fro in tho very opposite tribune , Mr . Moore commits precisely tin ; same fault—with some others . Ho is so full of talent that he has
no room for tact . Too clever to repress a sarcasm , he talks at the Irish papers and not at tho . House , and consequently never makes way in the . House . Besides this defect in tone— greatly exasperated during the fever of tho Keclosiastical Titles' Bill — Mr . Mooro errs in another respect . He repudiates the knack of tho House of Commons , and in elaborate , ornate , polished , brilliant—and is not listened to . The Jlouse- laughs at his epigrams , not because tho preparation of the externpore is detected , but because the manner demands
attention and announces conceit ; . In Ireland it is said , by the different parties , that tho . IVloorns and Whitesidos are failures in the . English House of Commons because they have " the brogue . " This is a blunder exposed by every day ' s experience . Mr . White-side does not speak with ho much of an Irish brogue as the Ouke of Argylo speaks with a ( Scotch brogue ; and th « burr ol Lord Brougham was once the terror of London drawing-rooms . These second-rate Irishmen of to-day forgot the Irishmen who have succeeded
in the House of Commons . Burke ' s brogue was notorious ; Grattan was national in his accent ; and Plunkett never learned the trick of talking what the Dublin exquisites called " English . Every singularity is to be avoided , perhaps , for comfort ; and in that sense , a strong , distinctive accent is to be regarded as a personal defect . But it is only a personal defect , and House of Commons records tell how little such disadvantages
count against tact and perseverance—meaning physique . An obliquity in moral character tells so little against a bold and useful man , in actual life , and especially in the life of the Senate , that it is possible a statesman who stammered would be endured if he only brought in good budgets and practical bills . Mr . Disraeli overcame the obstacles of race and creed , and reached the mastery of the most Christian House of
Commons ; and surely an Irishman though with a brogue , might lead the English House of Commons , if his serviceable qualities brought him into prominence . There is an " Albino " among you , gentlemen , whom I believe to be a great man , and of whom I predict , much as he may be stared at , that he will be one of the first men in England—if he will notice my examples , and bring his cleverness down to the working
range . There are further examples and further arguments to be dealt with : and , in reality , the House of Commons is only to be comprehended by an examination of the peculiarities of its heroes .
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. n mar . m jekmio-A curtain number of French political refugees , including some of the most , illustrious names in the proscriptions ol ' December , have taken refuge in Jersey , under shelter ( as they imagine ) of the JJrilish ( lag . Their conduct , is retiring and reserved , in no sense of a nature to compromise ( . he ( jioverninent whoso protection 'hey claim and whoso laws they respectfully observe . lint the proximity of , Jersey to Franco gives umbrage to the prosenber ; and that the author of Nupolvon- the . . LI I lie should be living and
breathing within a few leagues of the enthusiastic , lionapartist population of Cherbourg , disturbs the slumbers of the Klysee . Accordingly , ( bo French ( Joverniiiont , applies to Downing-street , or , in oilier words , !\ 1 . Loins lionaparlo invites his intimate personal friend , Lord Mulmesbury , to snt . a watch upon these exiles , and if bo dare not deny them broad and water , at . least to add Hie vexation ol " espionage to tho bitterness of exile . A prompt compliance
with this request appears to have been promised and , so far as the Foreign Ollice is concerned , carried out . Orders arc sent to the authorities in . Jersey ( o '' furnish a . census of the refugees" iu the island , their names , addresses , habits of life , Ac ; ., in due : policn form , after tho fashion ol" tlio Hue da , l (' , ri ( S ( ttc » t . The Lieuloiiant- ( Governor of -Jersey cannot choose but conform l . o his instructions , but . an unexpected resistance prosentH itself . Wo read in tho Daily Nci /! S :
" Tho constable * of . Jersey have been urged not to furnish to tho Ijioiitoiiaiit- ( Governor u census of I he refugees of 1 . 1 m inland , as ( hey have been ordered lo do , and the refugeoH have boon urged by tho newspapers of tho island not , to submit to inquisitorial proceedings , us ( bey lira < i violation , of tho island r / V / /// . v ami pr ' uulcifcs . The Lieutenant-( Governor , however , is not considered blameablo in tho matter , as it is believed lie is only acting in accordance with instructions from the Hritish < jovorimient . " Now , these refugees , wo may charitably suppose , liavo adopted Jersey as a residence , not . ho much for its proximity to France ( though who shall accuse that neiitimenl
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AN ARISTOCRACY TOR THE DIGGINGS . "Volunteers of the metropolitan police are invited to enter a special corps destined for Australia , where the passion of gold-digging has thinned the ranks of the European police . Will sjven-and-sispenco a day be sufficient " nexus" to hold "tho Peelers" to their duty ? It is barely more than a shepherd ' s wages ; and the shepherd over men might expect better pay . The nexus , however , is buckled tighter by a penalty of fifty pounds , which may be supposed to go towards an emigration fund for the metropolitan division of police . That fifty pounds fund may be called the metropolitan police bridge to Australia .
It may be expected that each policeman may not do much more than give a brief lesson in that graceful execution of duties which is so engagingly exhibited in tho streets of London ; and that after that short existence in oilice , ho will retire to the diggings ; where ; his whole training and deportment will form an excellent staple lor an aristocracy of El Dorado . Unquestionably ( hat is tho legitimate apotheosis of tho policeman ; and many a futuru family of Australia will bo proud to trace its descent , t < i those blue-coated oilieers who arrived from England in tho year 1853 .
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September 25 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . ^ gg _
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1852, page 923, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1953/page/15/
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