LORD ROSEBERY ON ORATORY TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2237, 14 January 1897, Page 30

LORD ROSEBERY ON ORATORY TO-DAY.

Rising after "one of the most brilliant, j and one of the most fascinating addresses " j that he has ever heard— a lecture at Edin- i bnrgb, by Mr Herbert Paul, on " Parliamen- j tary Oratory," Lord Rosebery gave in a { pleasant, discursive, impromptu speech, reminiscences of, and views of his own, concerning tribune and platform oratory :—: — Mr Paul attributed to Mr Gladstone the Baying that if a speech read well it mast be • a bad speeob. Mr Gladstone may have said ' It, but the person who first said it was Mr , JTox. Somebody said to Mr Fox, " Have you read So-and-so's speech ? It is an excellent \ f peech." " Does it read well ? " said Mr Fox, ' " because be sure if it doe's it is a very bad ' jspeech." — (Laughter.) Now, Mr Panl may : say that Mr Gladstone may have made that j remark in those words, bnt I will bring for,mid again, as in the oase of Mr Pitt, my ' ' Indireot proof; that Mr Fox said not " very " j bnt a word beginning with "d." — (Loud \ laughter.) And I am sure yon will agree ' with me that that puts Mr Gladstone's having said it out of the category of human possibilities. — (Renewed laughter.) HOW UNANIMITY WAS SEOUHED. Mr Paul alluded to' that most remarkable speech of Mr Gladstone on movie g the vote of credit in 1885, in which be procured 11 j millions sterling on a vote of credit for ! possibilities without » single speech being tnade in reply. I think that is one of the ■most remarkable achievements recorded in the House of Commons. I think it is one of the most important — I doubt if any speech, not merely by its magnificence, bnt by the fact of its being followed by a unanimous vote, ever produoed such an effect upon the ] Continent of Europs. — (Cheers.) It bad an j effect wholly for good and wholly for peace. —(Renewed cheers.) The fact of its being absolutely unopposed — the fact of this bappy result, I would rather say — was due to some extent to an accident. Lord Randolph Churchill, who then led the Fourth party, Wai away, taking a little refreshment.— (Laughter.) It was dinner time when Hr Gladstone ended — It was not whplly ' unnatural — and while be was at bis dinner Mr Gladstone sat down and the ♦debate collapsed. Lord Randolph always nomplained bitterly that the debate had nob ; B>een -maintained, and said that he should Certainly have entered the lists; and I do not think we need doubt he would have entered the lists if he had been in the House ; but jthat is an Incidental olrcumstance — a very bappy circumstance, I think, but an incidental one. ▲ SEQUEL TO MB GLADSTONE'S MOST EFFECTIVE SPEECH. But a still more enrious incident followed jihat speech, as showing tha effect of the transient effect of parliamentary oratory. Within six weeks of that speech being ■Sellvered and that unanimous effect being {produced the Government was turned out of bffioe. Ido not know what moral to draw from that.— (A laugh). It is perhaps a painful one if it be drawn at all, but as a member of that Government I remember the cirtoumstance very dearly, and I rather regret jthat Mr Paul should not have mentioned it and drawn the moral which I myself am finable to do. VOTES IN THE LOBDS INFLUENCED BY A «- SPEECH. I could add another instance, but not so ■olid a one, to the mfluence of a speech over Wotes. It was in the House of Lords when the Liberal Government was ill — (laughter) ji— when the Liberal Government was in — (renewed laughter) — Liberal Governments tore Bometimeß both — (loud laughter) — and a great Government measure was brought up peforethe House of Lords, and two peers of . tny acquaintance, who belonged to the came down to the House deterjknined, in spite of their being Tories, to vote jf or it. But a leading member of the Government rose and delivered from the Treasury ■ fcench so powerful a speech in its advocacy < ;bat when he sat down my two friend's | Jetermined to vote against the bill. — * JCLaoghter.) . That is cot a very satisfactory way of turning votes, but that is the only lolid concrete instance that I can tell of in ksrhioh in the House of Lords a spesch has influenced votes — (laughter and cheers) — at (least, it is tbe only one that I can call to mind. "THE SOLE END OF PABLIAMENTABY ELOQUENCE." . After all, is not this the real cractical Importance of parliamentary eloquence? [We talk of parliamentary eloquence as if it ijißß an ornamental study to be pursued for fica own sake, and we are apt, I think, a little tto forget that the object and sole end of eloquence is to persuade for what you believe to be a good oause. — ./Cheers.) I suppose there is one great instance of that, to whom Mr Paul only alluded passingly this evening because he •was not a great orator. He was the most effective orator of his time— l mean Mr Cobden. — (Cheera.) Mr Cobden sat down kfter one of Mr Bright's great speeches and rtaid with friendly frankness — a frankness £hat nobody but Mr Cobden would bave used i " Gentlemen, I do not deal in perora- 1 fclonß." But the effect of his speech was narrated in those words which Mr Paul has Quoted from Bright's speech at Bradford. Let me take another wonderful instance— it 'conies very r.pnr home to you — in ( whioh oratory, outMcte Parliament entirely, brought aboufra great ohange in-this country — I mean what is known as the Mid- Lothian campaign. — (Cheers.) Lord Beaoonsneld then nad a very strong Government. > When the general election came be ohose to adopt a policy of silence. He wrote, if I remember rightly, only a short letter to the Duke of Marlborough as an appeal to the electors, Gladstone, on the other eWe. assumed ft

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■ T directly oontrary policy, and nobody oan i doubt that one oause by whioh an enormous [ parliamentary majority was pulled down at 1 that election and an enormous parliamentary '■* majority on the other side was built up was 1 due wholly and entirely — so far as wholly . ! and entirely oan be applied to a general , eleotion and its causes' — to the oratory of Mr ', Gladstone on that occasion. — (Cheers.) On t the other hand, in the United Spates we ; have just seen an opposite result. Tbe :«J victorious candidate for the Presidency shrouded himself in silence, and we are calculating by the hundreds and the thousands and the millions the number of words that the defeated candidate uttered in the course of his campaign. — (Laughter.) You cannot always, then, draw an inference even | from that; but my point is this, that parliai mentary eloquence, whether it be exalted or ! whether it be merely plain and forcible, 1b | only of the slightest value so long as it is used as a weapon in the canae that, the nser believes to be good. — (Cheers.) " WE WANT A GREAT DEAL LESS " OF PARLIAMENTARY ORATOBT. What Parliament has not always seen is ) that undue consideration is sometimes ' given.— (Cheers.) I sometimes - believe, I . sometimes bring myself to think, that some of thone who are swaddled and brought up ! in Parliament, and who spend long periods of life in Parliament, are apt to forget ' this great elementary trntb, and tbat • they would not mind a session which was absolutely barren of results as long as tbe speeches had been good and , copious, and as long as the debating had i remained at tbe high standard of tbe beat I traditions of tbe House of Commons. — ' (Laughter and cheers.) Surely that is all wrong. — Cheers.) Ido not say we do not want better parliamentary oratory, bat we want a good deal less of it. — (Oheert.) If we could attain tbe standard to which Mr Paul calls our attention we should not deem | oratory always a waste of time. But to have j parliamentary time — so precious for many 1 ! purposes— devoured by the speeches wbich ; have so little to recommend them except > their length is a trial of patience to the > lovers of all free institutions. — (Cheers.) • You bave not mentioned the speaker of , whom I sometimes think with the fondest i admiration of all. — (Laughter.) Sir Joshua ■ Reynolds ended his addresses at the Royal : ; Academy by saying that he wished to i j end his discourses with the name of Michael . Angelo. I, if I want a sentence to sit down ; on — (laughter) — will sit down on this : that ' I regard with honour, with admiration, and : with constant envy, tbe memory of singlespeeoh Hamilton.— (Lacphtar and cheers.) HONOUR WHERB_HOVOUR IS DUB. In the course of his lecture, Mr Paul paid a tribute to the reporter : " Not the least important part of the history of parliamentary oratory wss the history and progress of parliamentary reporting. How much did public speakers owe to the reporter ! How l many halting periods had the reporters assisted ; how manyungrammatical sentences had they brought from chaos to cosmos 1 — (Laughter.) The real development of parliamentary reporting might, be placed between the elder and the younger Pitt,"