lity in the country, than any political addresses had done since
1832. The new luminary rose so suddenly to the zenith, and cast so
unexpected a light that everybody was dazzled; and though many
dissented, and some attacked him bitterly, few ventured to meet him
in argument on the ground he had selected. The effect of these
speeches of 1866 can hardly be understood by any one who reads them
to-day unless he knows how commonplace and "practical," that is to
say, averse to general reasonings and historical illustrations,
the character of parliamentary debating was becoming even in Lowe's
time. It is still more practical and still less ornate in our own
day.

The House of Commons then contained, and has indeed usually contained
(though some Houses are much better than others), many capable
lawyers, capable men of business, capable country gentlemen; many men
able to express themselves with clearness, fluency, and that sort of
temperate good sense which Englishmen especially value. Few,
however, were able to produce finished rhetoric; still fewer had a
range of thought and knowledge extending much beyond the ordinary
education of a gentleman and the ordinary ideas of a politician;
and the assembly was one so intolerant of rhetoric, and so much
inclined to treat, as unpractical, facts and arguments drawn from
recondite sources, that even those who possessed out-of-the-way
learning were disposed, and rightly so, to use it sparingly. In
Robert Lowe, however, a remarkable rhetorical and dialectical power
was combined with a command of branches of historical, literary, and
economic knowledge so unfamiliar to the average member as to have
for him all the charm of novelty. The rhetoric was sometimes too
elaborate. The political philosophy was not always sound. But the
rhetoric was so polished that none could fail to enjoy it; and the
political philosophy was put in so terse, bright, and pointed a form
that it made the ordinary country gentleman fancy himself a
philosopher while he listened to it in the House or repeated it to
his friends at the club. The speeches, which, though directed
against a particular measure, constituted an indictment of democratic
government in general, had the advantages of expressing what many
felt but few had ventured to say, and of being delivered from one side
of the House and cheered by the other side. No position gives a
debater in the House of Commons such a vantage ground for securing
attention.