t of them. Now I do
_not_ admire Mr. Wilberforce's speaking; it is nothing but a flow of
words--'words, words, alone.'

"I doubt greatly if the English have any eloquence, properly so called;
and am inclined to think that the Irish _had_ a great deal, and that the
French _will_ have, and have had in Mirabeau. Lord Chatham and Burke are
the nearest approaches to orators in England. I don't know what Erskine
may have been at the bar, but in the House I wish him at the bar once
more. Lauderdale is shrill, and Scotch, and acute.

"But amongst all these, good, bad, and indifferent, I never heard the
speech which was not too long for the auditors, and not very
intelligible, except here and there. The whole thing is a grand
deception, and as tedious and tiresome as may be to those who must be
often present. I heard Sheridan only once, and that briefly, but I liked
his voice, his manner, and his wit: and he is the only one of them I
ever wished to hear at greater length.

"The impression of Parliament upon me was, that its members are not
formidable as _speakers_, but very much so as an _audience_; because in
so numerous a body there may be little eloquence, (after all, there were
but _two_ thorough orators in all antiquity, and I suspect still _fewer_
in modern times,) but there must be a leaven of thought and good sense
sufficient to make them _know_ what is right, though they can't express
it nobly.

"Horne Tooke and Roscoe both are said to have declared that they left
Parliament with a higher opinion of its aggregate integrity and
abilities than that with which they entered it. The general amount of
both in most Parliaments is probably about the same, as also the number
of _speakers_ and their talent. I except _orators_, of course, because
they are things of ages, and not of septennial or triennial re-unions.
Neither House ever struck me with more awe or respect than the same
number of Turks in a divan, or of Methodists in a barn, would have done.
Whatever diffidence or nervousness I felt (and I felt both, in a great
degree) arose from the number rather than the quality of the assemblage,
and the thought rather of the _public without_ than the persons
within,--knowing (as all know) that Cicero himself, and probably the
Messiah, could never have altered the vote of a single lord of the
bedchamber, or bishop. I thought _our_ House dull, but the other
animating enough upon great days.

"I have heard that when Grattan mad