y followed the example of Pericles, Demosthenes, Lysias, Isocrates,
Hortensius, Cicero, Caesar, and every great orator of antiquity. Oratory
is essentially the accomplishment of antiquity: it was their most
efficient mode of communicating thought; it was their substitute for
printing.

I like a good debate; and, when a stripling, used sometimes to be
stifled in the Gallery, or enjoy the easier privileges of a member's
son. I like, I say, a good debate, and have no objection to a due
mixture of bores, which are a relief. I remember none of the giants of
former days; but I have heard Canning. He was a consummate rhetorician;
but there seemed to me a dash of commonplace in all that he said, and
frequent indications of the absence of an original mind. To the last,
he never got clear of 'Good God, sir!' and all the other hackneyed
ejaculations of his youthful debating clubs. The most commanding speaker
that I ever listened to is, I think, Sir Francis Burdett. I never heard
him in the House; but at an election. He was full of music, grace" and
dignity, even amid all the vulgar tumult; and, unlike all mob orators,
raised the taste of the populace to him, instead of lowering his own to
theirs. His colleague, Mr. Hobhouse, seemed to me ill qualified for a
demagogue, though he spoke with power. He is rather too elaborate, and
a little heavy, but fluent, and never weak. His thoughtful and
highly-cultivated mind maintains him under all circumstances; and his
breeding never deserts him. Sound sense comes recommended from his lips
by the language of a scholar and the urbanity of a gentleman.

Mr. Brougham, at present, reigns paramount in the House of Commons. I
think the lawyer has spoiled the statesman. He is said to have great
powers of sarcasm. From what I have observed there, I should think very
little ones would be quite sufficient. Many a sneer withers in those
walls, which would scarcely, I think, blight a currant-bush out of
them; and I have seen the House convulsed with raillery which, in other
society, would infallibly settle the rallier to be a bore beyond all
tolerance. Even an idiot can raise a smile. They are so good-natured, or
find it so dull. Mr. Canning's badinage was the most successful, though
I confess I have listened to few things more calculated to make a man
gloomy. But the House always ran riot, taking everything for granted,
and cracked their universal sides before he opened his mouth. The fault
of Mr. Brou