entirely the dramatic element of
legislation would have small chance of being adopted. It is only when
the painful side of debate comes into predominance, that we willingly
forego some of its pleasures: the intolerable weariness, the close air,
the late nights, must be counted along with the occasional thrills of
delirious excitement. But as far as regards our great legislative
bodies, it will be easy to show that there would still exist, in other
forms, an ample scope for living oratory to make up for the deadness
that would fall upon the chief assembly.

A friend of mine once went to Roebuck to ask his attention to some point
coming up in the House of Commons, and offered him a paper to read.
Roebuck said, "I will not read, but I will hear". This well illustrates
one of the favourable aspects of speech. People with time on their hands
prefer being instructed by the living voice; the exertion is less, and
the enlivening tones of a speaker impart an extraneous interest, to
which we have to add the sympathy of the surrounding multitude. The
early stages of instruction must be conducted _viva voce_; it is a late
acquirement to be able to extract information from a printed page. Yet
circumstances arise when the advantage of the printed page predominates.
The more frequent experience in approaching public men is to be told,
that they will not listen but will read. An hour's address can be read
in ten minutes: it is not impossible, therefore, to master a
Parliamentary debate in one-tenth of the time occupied in the delivery.

A passing remark is enough to point out the revolution that would take
place in Parliamentary reporting, and in the diffusion of political
instruction through the press, by the system of printing the speeches
direct. The full importance of this result will be more apparent in a
little. There has been much talk of late about the desirability of a
more perfect system of reporting, with a view to the preservation of the
debates. Yet it may be very much doubted, whether the House of Commons
would ever incur the expense of making up for the defects of newspaper
reporting, by providing short-hand writers to take down every word, with
a view to printing in full.

* * * * *

[SECONDING EXTENDED TO A PLURALITY OF BACKERS.]

[PROPORTIONING OF BACKERS.]

Before completing the survey of possible improvements in deliberative
procedure, I propose to extend the employment of anothe