quently in public, are not incompatible, we have recently seen in illustrious examples; if the circumstances which have just been mentioned were more attended to, and if young men of abilities took the pains to discipline their habits, these talents would probably be more frequently found united. It should be observed, that the style of public debate in the British parliament has of late approached to the manner of speaking in conversation, and has less of that stilted and pompous mode of declamation, by which haranguing was formerly distinguished. In times of public difficulty and danger, when real business must be done, and questions of immediate moment are to be decided, people have not time to stand by, and see a sophist twist a rope of sand; they have no leisure to let an orator "show all his paces, not a step advance;" those only who speak to the purpose will be listened to; those who can compress into a small compass their arguments will be most secure of attention; and if they speak with force and brilliancy, they will be sure to produce that effect, which is the ultimate object of oratory. All these considerations support the opinion, that conversation is excellent practice for a public speaker.

Beside cultivating the acquaintance of the enlightened and polished inhabitants of the capital cities of the British empire, a young statesman should, in travelling through the country, talk to all classes of people. One of the most eloquent and well-informed writers of the last century, who published various political and economical tracts, used to make it his constant practice in travelling to converse in stage coaches, at inns, and in farm-houses, with all descrip

tions of people, to draw out and compare their opinions on public business, and on those points of agricultural and commercial knowledge in which they were interested. Even from what are called vulgar errours perhaps much may be learned ; if these have lasted long, it is probable they have some foundation, or they would have yielded to experience; and to the test of experience all the theories of political economists must ultimately be brought.

When the traveller goes to the continent, he will pursue the same plan upon a more enlarged scale. When he visits foreign courts, he must endeavour to become acquainted with the most distinguished characters, and to gather from them all that can be learned relative to their respective countries. There are many floating opinions, as Bacon calls them, which are not collected in books, and which can be gathered only from tradition and conversation. These, and the result of the individual experience and favourite maxims of statesmen, are what the traveller should treasure up in his memory. As to statistical inquiries, the answers to these are perhaps best obtained from books, the authors of which have taken pains to inform themselves accurately on particular points, and feel their credit pledged for the truth of their assertions. Ministers and courtiers, and the generality even of well-informed people, are apt, from a mistaken patriotism, to exaggerate in speaking to a foreigner of the resources of their country; to refute or verify their assertions, would require a greater length of time, and more extensive means of observation, than the residence of a few months in any country can afford. It would perhaps be possible, by comparing the various information given by different persons,

to make out such an algebra as would solve these difficulties. But without expecting to gain exact knowledge from general conversation, there is always, especially in foreign countries, something to be learned from it worthy the attention of a political and philosophical observer. Lord Chesterfield should be forgiven some of his manifold sins for one single piece of good advice, which he repeats many times in his letters to his son- -“In whatever company you are, and whatever is going "forward, attend to it; do not indulge in habits of absence, "whether real or affected."

After having thus endeavoured to fill the mind with all the variety of useful and ornamental knowledge, which observation and books can afford, nothing remains to be acquired, but the best mode of producing in public these intellectual treasures with taste and discretion. If an orator detail and explain so as to show a doubt of the understanding or the information of his auditors, they revenge themselves by disliking his manner; if, on the contrary, he overrate their learning, or their quickness of comprehension, and if under this mistake he introduce allusions to recondite subjects, or if his style be so elliptical as not sufficiently to suggest the intermediate ideas, his audience must be wearied by unsuccessful attempts to follow or reach his meaning, and, to excuse themselves, they will tax the auditor with pedantry and affectation. A public speaker then has a difficult and delicate task to determine what ideas are sufficiently familiar to afford proper subjects of allusion, and what are stale and common; much taste and judgment are requisite even to introduce allusions gracefully. Awkward orators preface their similes with the

formal words like or as. These are fit only for the pomp of poetry; in prose, they displease and alarm by suggesting the ideas of prepared rhetoric and formidable amplification. In the art of allusion Burke excels. As he is an orator, whose writings are in every one's hands, he may be again referred to for an illustration:-" A man," says Burke, "should ap"proach to the faults of the state as to the wounds of a "father, with pious awe and trembling solicitude. By this "wise prejudice, we are taught to look with horrour on those "children of their country, who are prompt rashly to hack "that aged parent in pieces, and put him into the kettle of ' magicians, in hopes that by their poisonous weeds, and "wild incantations, they may regenerate the paternal con"stitution, and renovate their father's life."

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How differently would this allusion have appeared, if it had been ushered in with—As in ancient times, in the days of Medea and Jason.-How tiresome we should have thought it, if the author had, with schoolboy flourishes, told us the whole history of these heroic personages! Without even mentioning their names, Burke brings them sufficiently to our recollection. Agrippina, at the funeral of Germanicus, forbore in the procession to produce his image among those of his ancestors; Yet," says the historian, "it was the more present to every "mind."

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Those, who have been in the habit of attending to parliamentary debate, must recollect examples of men of talents, with all the advantages of literature and foreign travel, who have failed as public speakers, and have been exposed to ridi

cule merely from an ill judged display of their continental knowledge, from want of the prudent power of suppressing half to increase the value of the whole. On the contrary, among the most able and popular of modern orators, we may observe many distinguished examples of that prudent reticence, which is necessary to felicity of allusion; that care, as well as happiness, which is essential to the perfection of eloquence.

Eloquence, however, is but an instrument, the value of which must be estimated by the use to which it is applied. In this country no public man, however able or eloquent, can act alone either in opposition or in ministry, nor can he carry important measures by his individual parliamentary exertions. He must join or head some set, some body of men, and his opinion in trivial matters must frequently be yielded to that of his coadjutors,

In trivial things 'tis folly to be wise.

A great statesman must show amenity and candour, as well as firmness and integrity: the ascendancy he acquires over the minds of others should arise from the supériority of his intellect, not from the pertinacity of his will. If he be unaccommodating, he will stand alone; and whatever may be his talents, they can give him but a painful and ill endured preeminence. One solitary example may be cited against this principle-the exception must be admitted. And when such another meteor “lightens upon our system," when an orator of such irresistible power, when a statesman of such unblemished integrity as Lord Chatham again rises in Britain, with