Speeches, Parliamentary and Miscellaneous

THE popular voice places Mr. Macaulay in the very first rank of contemporary speakers. Those who are prepared to admit a distinction between the most distinguished and successful of untrained speakers and the confessed orators, include him, without hesitation, in the latter class. If they form their judgment merely from reading his speeches as reported in the papers, certainly they have ample ground for presuming that he must be a man of no ordinary eloquence; for he scarcely ever rises but to pour a flood of light upon the subject under discussion, which he handles with a masterly skill that brings out all the available points, and sets them off with such a grace of illustration, such a depth and readiness of historical knowledge, as are equalled by no other living orator. His speeches, indeed, looked at apart from all immediate political considerations, are admirable compositions, which may be read and read again with pleasure and profit, long after the party feelings of the moment have subsided; and in this point of view they seem to be regarded by the general public. An equal interest and admiration are felt by that comparatively small and exclusive section who form the audience in the House of Commons. When it gets whispered about that Mr. Macaulay is likely to speak on a particular question, the intelligence acts like a talisman on the members. Those who may not take sufficient interest in the current business to be present in the House, may be seen hovering in its precincts, in the lobbies, in the library, or at Bellamy's, lest they should be out of the way at the right moment, and so lose a great intellectual treat; and it is no sooner known that the cause of all this interest has actually begun to speak, than the House becomes, as if by magic, as much crowded as when

*The following essay on Mr. Macaulay's oratorical powers is extracted, by permission, from Mr. Francis's "Orators of the Age."

the leader for the time being is on his legs. So general an interest in one who has not rendered himself important or conspicuous by any of the more ordinary or vulgar means of obtaining political distinction, or of exciting the popular mind, is of itself proof enough that he must possess very extraordinary claims. In this interest and admiration we most cordially concur.

Although indebted to the nomination system for his first admission to Parliament, having first sat for the Marquess of Lansdowne's borough of Calne before the Reform Bill, yet Mr. Macaulay is in no way indebted to any Whig family connexion for the start this gave him at the very outset of the race. Still less is he, or has he ever been, in that state of political servitude which might otherwise account for his rapid advance to the highest offices in the gift of an exclusive aristocratic party. He has boldly asserted the most ultraliberal, almost democratic opinions, always tempered by the refinement of a highly cultivated and well-constituted mind, but still independent and uncompromising. It is to his parliamentary talents that he is almost exclusively indebted for his advancement, and in this respect he stands almost alone among his contemporaries. It is because he is a distinguished orator-an orator developing, perhaps, into a statesman—that he has attained the rank of PrivyCouncillor and Cabinet Minister. To other great men of the day the ability to address assemblies of their fellow-men with skill and effect has been a powerful agent of their political success; but in their cases it has been auxiliary only, not, as in the instance of Mr. Macaulay, the sole means of coping with established reputations. They each and all had either birth, social position, or the advantage derived from professional triumphs at the bar, as an introduction to the notice of those who from time to time have been the dispensers of honour and the nominators to office.

The high political rank held by Mr. Macaulay, then, secured as it has been by no subserviency to the aristocracy on the one hand, nor any attempts to build power on democratic influence on the other, is a singular instance of the elasticity of our institutions, and of the opportunity afforded in the practical working of the Constitution to men of talent and conduct, of raising themselves to the highest positions in the State. Looked at with reference to the relative constitution of society in England and France, the elevation of Mr. Macaulay, by means so legitimate, is to be regarded as an infinitely greater triumph of mind over aristocratic exclusiveness, than the

prime-ministership of M. Thiers or of M. Guizot, however dazzling or flattering to literary pride, achieved, as each was, in a greater or less degree, amidst disorganisation of society following a revolution. Mr. Macaulay's position, too, is of importance, not merely as regards the past, but also with a view to the future. Events seem pointing to a period when the aristocratic influence will be exercised less directly and generally over the representative system and in the Legislature. If it is ever destined to be superseded by the commercial or even the popular influence, how desirable it is that constituencies so tending should choose for their representatives not the mere pledged advocates of rival "interests," or those coarser demagogues who live by pampering the worst appetites of the partially instructed, but men of well-trained minds, initiated in the business of government, and far surpassing their accidental competitors in those external arts and graces of the political adventurer, for which, strange to say, the least educated audiences display the keenest relish, while, by so doing, they mark their own just appreciation. The success achieved by Mr. Macaulay-more remarkable and significant that it was in opposition to the prejudices and remonstrances of some of the older members of the Whig party-opens the door to a new and an increasing class of public men, who would devote themselves to politics as the business of their lives, as others give themselves up to science or to the regular professions; who from the very nature and origin of their influence would find favour with popular constituencies, as anxious as the aristocrats were under the old system to secure talented and well-trained expositors of their wishes and opinions, so that they might become a real and active power in the State, and not merely puppets in the hands of intriguing and ambitious statesmen. It is a significant fact, as connected with this theory, that Mr. Macaulay should be the representative of the second metropolitan constituency in the empire.

The character of Mr. Macaulay's mind, as developed in his various speeches and acknowledged writings, eminently qualified him for the part he has already taken in the political history of his time, and that which he seems destined still to act. It is obvious that a man whom, speaking relatively, one may, without offence, call an adventurera title, which, it will be seen, is not in his case meant as a reproach, but rather as by comparison an honour-it is obvious that such a man must have some very peculiar qualities of mind, so to have overcome or disarmed the most jealous aristocratic prejudices, at the same

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Speeches, Parliamentary and Miscellaneous, Volume 1