much nearer to the consummation of his hopes. Never was Ministry so
thoroughly weak and so wretchedly unfortunate. The whole burden of
defending it rested in the House of Commons upon the shoulders of the
Attorney-General, and the feebleness of the Government was all the more
painful from the manifest strength of the great master of sarcasm and
invective, their unflinching opponent, growing in favor throughout the
country, merciless in his attack at all times, but terrific in his
onslaughts upon a foe worthy of his hatred, and capable of defense.
Imagination cannot linger upon a finer picture than is presented in the
persons of these mighty combatants; nor is the effect diminished by the
fact that of their great achievements little remains beyond the bare
tradition. We know that by a word, a gesture, a glance of his eagle eye,
Pitt awed the House of Commons, and chilled it into death-like silence.
We have heard how like a torrent his unpremeditated and impassioned
oratory rushed into the hearts of men, expelling rooted convictions, and
whatever else possessed them at the moment; how readily he spoke on all
emergencies, how daring were his strange digressions, how apposite his
illustrations, how magnificent and chivalric the form and structure of
his thoughts--how madly spirit-stirring his high and stern appeals. We
have read of the proud bearing of the austere yet gentle commoner, to
whom it was a matter of sublime indifference whether in a debate he rose
late or early, first or last, and who ever contented himself with simply
following the current, and obeying the fine instinct of his own rapt
mind, regardless of the speakers who had gone before, or were about to
follow him. We have pictured to ourselves the commanding countenance, the
characteristic action, the patrician manner that belonged to William Pitt
as exclusively as his own wild and wayward genius; but records are
wanting to establish all that we feel and know. Fragments of Pitt's
oratory only have reached us, and of these but few can be pronounced
wholly authentic. What that oratory must have been we learn from its
effects. More is not vouchsafed us. What remains to us of Murray's
speeches in Parliament is equally meager and unsatisfactory, but we may
judge of his power by reflecting upon the character of the assailant with
whom he successfully wrestled. There must surely have been wonderful
capability of argument, vast knowledge, a faculty of persuasion
irr