gh.

The movers of resolutions and of amendments should, as a matter of
course, have the right of reply; a portion of the oral system that
would, I presume, survive all the advances towards printing direct.

There remains, however, one farther move, in itself as defensible, and
as much fraught with advantage as the two others. The resolution and the
amendments being in the hands of the members of a body, together with
the speeches in support of each, any member might be at liberty to send
in, also for circulation in print, whatever remarks would constitute his
speech in the debate, thereby making a still greater saving of the time
of the body. This would, no doubt, be felt as the greatest innovation of
all, being tantamount to the extinction of oral debate; there being then
nothing left but the replies of the movers. We need not, however, go the
length of compulsion; while a certain number would choose to print at
once, the others could still, if they chose, abide by the old plan of
oral address. One can easily surmise that these last would need to
justify their choice by conspicuous merit; an assembly, having in print
so many speeches already, would not be in a mood to listen to others of
indifferent quality.

[THE MAGIC OF ORATORY NOT DONE AWAY WITH.]

Such a wholesale transfer of living speech to the silent perusal of the
printed page, if seriously proposed in any assembly, would lead to a
vehement defence of the power of spoken oratory. We should be told of
the miraculous sway of the human voice, of the way that Whitfield
entranced Hume and emptied Franklin's purse; while, most certainly,
neither of these two would ever have perused one of his printed sermons.
And, if the reply were that Whitfield was not a legislator, we should be
met by the speeches of Wilberforce and Canning and Brougham upon slavery,
where the thrill of the living voice accelerated the conviction of the
audience. In speaking of the Homeric Assembly, Mr. Gladstone remarks, in
answer to Grote's argument to prove it a political nullity, that the
speakers were repeatedly cheered, and that the cheering of an audience
contributes to the decision.

Now, I am not insensible to the power of speech, nor to the
multitudinous waves of human feeling aroused in the encounters of
oratory before a large assembly. Apart from this excitement, it would
often be difficult to get people to go through the drudgery of public
meetings. Any plan that would abolish