Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

one man or body of men (less than the whole Legislature), but by certain laws, to which he has virtually given his consent, which are open to him to examine, which are not beyond his ability to understand.

Let us not, then, degenerate from the glorious example of our ancestors. Those iron barons (for so I may call them when compared with the silken barons of modern days) were the guardians of the people; yet their virtues, my lords, were never engaged in a question of such importance as the present. A breach has been made in the constitution the battlements are dismantled -- the citadel is open to the first invader the walls totter the constitution is not tenable. What remains, then, but for us to stand foremost in the breach, and repair it, or perish in it?

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

My lords, this is not merely the cold opinion of my understanding, but the glowing expression of what I feel. It is my heart that speaks. I know I speak warmly, my lords, but this warmth shall neither betray my argument nor my temper. The kingdom is in a flame. As mediators between a king and people, is it not our duty to represent to him the true condition and temper of his subjects? It is a duty which no particular respects should hinder us from performing; and whenever his Majesty shall demand our advice, it will then be our duty to inquire more minutely into the cause of the present discontents. Whenever that inquiry shall come on, I pledge myself to the House to prove that, since the first institution of the House of Commons, not a single precedent can be produced to justify their late proceedings.

There is one ambition at least, which I ever will acknowledge, which I will not renounce but with my life. It is the ambition of delivering to my posterity those rights of freedom which I have received from my ancestors. I am not now pleading the cause of the individual, but of every freeholder of England.

EDMUND BURKE

Edmund Burke (1730-1797) was a man of eminent scholarship. His preparation for college was made at a Quaker academy near Dublin. At the age of fourteen

he entered Trinity College,

Dublin, where he remained six years, receiving both the bachelor's and the master's degrees. He was especially fond of the classics, and committed to memory large parts of Virgil and Horace. Of the English classics he was most fond of Milton and Shakespeare. He was also a constant reader of the Bible, having gained his taste for its pages through the director of the Quaker school, "under whose eye, he says, "I read the Bible

morning, noon, and night; and have ever since been a happier and better man for such reading." This accounts. in great measure for the imagery and illustration, almost oriental in character, which pervade his discourses.

His later studies in literature were devoted mainly to poetry, oratory, history, and philosophy. Milton was his delight because of his "richness of language, boundless learning, and scriptural grandeur of conception." Bacon was his

favorite philosopher, and his knowledge of other subjects was widely extended. Possessed of a genius for application, a thirst for learning, and a prodigious memory, his knowledge was well-nigh universal, for he became the best scholar of his day.

After leaving college he devoted himself for a time to the study of law. This proved distasteful to him and he gave it up for a literary career. Five years he spent in travel and in the society of eminent men.

In order to gain vocabulary and expressive diction he wrote regularly. Even during his college course he contributed to periodicals and translated a part of one of Virgil's poems into verse.

after

Demosthenes was his favorite orator, though his style in years resembled more nearly that of Cicero. As a conversationist he had no superior. Samuel Johnson, noted for his gifts in conversation, says of Burke: "His stream of talk was perpetual, and he does not talk with any desire for distinction, but because his mind is full. Take him up where you please, he is ready to meet you." This gift of language and expression was his greatest asset when he came to make public addresses.

Physically Burke was not robust. He was ungainly, tall, awkward, and of a severe countenance. Personally he was not prepossessing. His gestures lacked ease, his body was not well poised. He wore glasses, and it was not easy for him to hold with his look the interest and attention of an audience.

His style was less simple and direct than that of any of his great contemporaries. Not content with plain unadorned argument, he elaborated with figures of speech and excursions of fancy and imagery which tired the mind by its minuteness and subtlety. It is said that there are more metaphors in a page of his speeches than in all of Webster's. While he lacked

the simple, business-like, compressed argument of Webster or Fox, yet "his whole composition," says Rogers, "glitters and sparkles with a rich profusion of moral reflection." There is no greater master of metaphor, and notwithstanding the copiousness and magnificence of his imagination and expression, the great merit of his discourse lies in the fact that it is unified in design and arrangement and is saturated with thought. Goodrich declares that "no one ever poured forth such a flood of thought; so many original combinations of inventive genius; so much knowledge of men and the working of political systems; so many just remarks on the relation of government to the manners, the spirit, and even the prejudice of a people; so many wise maxims, so many beautiful effusions of lofty and generous sentiment; such exuberant stories of illustration, ornament, and apt allusion; all intermingled with the liveliest sallies of wit or the boldest flights of a sublime imagination.”

Burke was not remarkable for his powers of delivery. His voice was light and high-pitched, harsh during the calmer portions of his speeches and hoarse in the more earnest parts, rising often to a shriek. He spoke rapidly and vehemently and there was a very noticeable brogue in his speaking. Earnestness was the most striking and most effective element in his oratory.

The influence of his speech was greater when read than when heard. Mathews says on this point, that “instead of seizing the strong points in a case by throwing away intermediate thoughts and striking at the heart of his theme, he stopped to philosophize and to instruct his hearers," often becoming tedious to members of the House. In the words of Goldsmith, he

went on refining

And thought of convincing
While they thought of dining.

On this account he was called the "dinner bell of the House of Commons," for when he rose to speak many of the members left their seats. Even so distinguished a man as Lord Erskine had to confess that he crept out on all fours behind the benches during Burke's speech on "Conciliation with America"; a speech which, after having read and reread it, he declared to be the most remarkable discourse ever made in Commons. It was Burke's sustained luxuriance and magnificence which drove the people away. In fact, many of his speeches were elaborate political lectures. "The exuberance of his fancy was prejudicial to him. Men are apt to doubt the solidity of a structure that is covered with flowers." Fox says on this point: "It injures his reputation; it casts a veil over his wisdom. Reduce his language, withdraw his images, and you will find that he is more wise than eloquent."

While he was reverenced as a prophet during the earlier years of his parliamentary career, he lost influence and friends when he took so bold a stand against the French Revolution. His enemies began a systematic policy of insult to silence him, by coughing, laughing, and sarcastic cheering. Once when he rose to speak with a bundle of papers in his hand, a member sprang to his feet and said, "I hope the honorable gentleman does not mean to read that large bundle of papers and bore us with a long speech." This so angered the irritable Burke that he rushed out of the House.

What shall be said of the place in history of this manysided man? Intellectually he was one of the giants of history. Rufus Choate calls Burke "the fourth Englishman,” ranking him with Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton. He was political prophet "whose predictions," says Lord Brougham, have been more than fulfilled." In him were combined the poet and the philosopher, and he was more wise as a philosopher than as a legislator. Strong in his convictions, he had

९९

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »