BIRKENHEAD & BURKE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 21

BIRKENHEAD & BURKE

(By "Ajax.")

■ Tn-the .Eoscoe Lecture on-oratory .Vhieh Lord BirJcenhead delivered to the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society,-the lecturer and the subject ■were in. one respect admirably mated. Oratory,-, as the lecturer pointed out, is very much at a discount in this prosy, hustled, matter-of-fact, self-con-scious age, -but nobody would deny thathe is one of the few genuine practitioners of the art to-day and that in hi? hands it r still remains a -weapon of great brilliance and power % When»tthe, : General Election of 1923 Lord /rtricenhead and Mr. Lloyd George took tne-platform as.the champions of Protection,; and Free Trade respectively, it was. generally recognised that perhaps the only two front-rank men in politics to whom the title of orator could not be denied were pitted against one another. If then an- orator is ?the proper man to deal with oratory the Roscoe lecturer^ of 1926 made a good choice of a But there is a fallacy in this unless the term "to ideal with" is clearly defined. It does not follow, that because an orator is the best man to orate upon oratory, he is'therefore the best man to, write about it; andthe test ;of a lecture is more in the. substance and literary form of it than in the elocution.

' That a lecture delivered by Lord Bir-' Icenhcad Trent very well may be taken for granted. That his hearers carried away with them anything of much greater value than a general sense of satisfaction may be doubted. That those who are merely able to. read his Eoscoe lecture will, if the 3* columns of extracts cited by "Public Opinion" from what it calls "excellent report" of the ''Liverpool Post" are typical, fail to' be impressed ■by it,, is beyond a doubt: By his recent excursions into a aort of glorified journalism—the writ-ing-up of famous trials, famous Judges, and the like—Lord Birkenhead is reputed to' have earned fat fees almost comparable to those .. of Mr. Horatio Bdttomley. In. both, cases the size of the fee was determined by considerations having nothing to do with the intrinsic value of the composition. Such v/as the magic of Bottomley's name that lis signature sufficed to put a fabulous price on the clumsy botch work of a "ghost" and to get it eager, readers. Lord- Birkenhead employed a ','devil" instead:of a ghost and did the writing himself,'. But this Boscoo lecture bears no trace of the industry of the "devil," ao skill in-the setting, and no novelty in. the criticism... Plain, familiar, com jnon-plaee stuff is served up in a style /that never rises high enough to be unsuitable. ,

"There is one glory of the sjin," says St. Paul; "and: another glory of the moon." Lord Brikenhead sets' out to illustrate the. analogous truth that there is one glory of the speaker and another glory of the writerj-but he does so .much more effectively by-the contrast between the Sormal brilliance of: his platform style and tho tamencss of his lecture than, by the example which ho himself adduces. Both in speech and in writing, he says, rhetoric of the.highest quality "' he ■ developed, but it -was-not the same art. The best-known illustration of that distinction was perhaps to be found in the well-known speeches of Burke in the House of One could read them to-, day with as much admiration as they : excited .among his contemporaries. Yet the House of Commons invariably made a point of leaving when the orator was seen to-be advancing with the evident determination of offering up _ one of those treasures. That I which/; one could read in the study . with sustained admiration 'was not ; ' necessarily that to which when delivered one would listen, with equal pleasure. : The-suggestion that Burke was an inspired writer, but an uninspired speaker and.that he bored the.House of CoiniWons by declaiming pamphlets which should have been-sent to the printer instead is a ridiculous travesty of readily accessible facts for which there is no excuse whatever. Lord Birkenhead carries-exaggeration so far indeed as to affirm without qualification that "the , House of Commons invariably mado a point of leaving" when Burke rose 'to epeak. If Lord Birkenhead ;had treated the facts in his briefs with equal contempt he could surely never have become one of the shining lights of the'

Butke's. disqualifications: as a Parliamentary .orator are well known His voice,'especially.when it was raised, was, as Puller B aid of his own, • harsh, and untenable"; his gestures lacked grace; he of ten spoke over the heads of his hearers;.he: often spoke too long—hke those of Fox and Chatham his " speeches sometimes extended to threehoursj he was far too easily provoked; ,he,-was out of sympathy with a majority of the House, especially towards the doso of his life; he was constantly lacking in tact and sometimes in taste; he was an"lrish adventurer", and never got rid of his Irish brogue; and ho wore a little bobwig with curls. It is a long list of defects, in which from the standpoint of English aristocracy "in the 18th Century the last three were perhaps the worst. But to deny Burke the title, of-agreat orator on account of these handicaps and any others that might bo added would bo as absurd as to deny, that Beethoven was a great musician because he was deaf. In each ease the greater the handicaps, the more marvellous must have been the powers that conquered in spite of them.

If Lord Birkenbead's investigations lad even' carried him as far as a perusat of the most accessible of standard authorities he could not,have blundered, so grossly.. In the "Dictionary of National Biography,'' for instance, he might have read the Bey. W. Hunt's /description of Burke at his best.

; Tall and vigorous, of dignified deportment, with massive brow and - stern expression, he had an air of ■ command. His voice was of great . compass; hia words came fast, but his thoughts seemed almost to overcome oven his powers of utterance. Invective, sarcasm, metaphor, and ' argument followed-hard after one ' another; his powers of description ■were gorgeous, his scorn was sublime, and in the midst of a dißcussibn of some matter of ephemeral importance came enunciations of political wisdoci whteh are for all time, and which illustrate the opinion that he was "Bacon alone excepted, the greatest political thinker who has ever devoted himself to the practice' of English politics" (Buckle, "Civi- ' Jisation in England," c. vii). Although he spoke with an Irish accent, with awkward action, and in a harsh tone, his "imperial fancy" and com- - manding eloquence excited universal . admiration. No parliamentary orator has ever moved his audience as he now and again did.

The speech to which Mr. Hunt makes particular reference viva* .called by ptoiace Walpole'"tbe chef d'oeuvre'*

of Burke'g orations. It was delivered on the 6th February, :1778, in protest against the employment of Indians in the American ■ War. The Indians were to be .paid for the. scalps they brought in, but were pledged not to scalp men, women, or children alive. ;The!:invitation, said .'Burke, was "just as if, in. a Tiot on Tower Hill, thei,keeper of.the wild/, beasts had turned them loose, but adding: "My gentle 'lions, my sentimental wolve3, my .tender-hearted hyaenas,, go forth but take . care not to hurt men, wbnjßiiJ or children. ;.. I My {-report, whichappears.to.be based, in part at any rate, on Walpole, proceeds:; —, ■■■'..'. • ,He then, grew, serious; and as the fonner;part had excitedthe "warmest and most-continued burst of laughter, even from' Lord North, Bigby, and Hhe ; Ministers.-• themselves, so he drew ■ snehv a pathetic picture of the cruelties of the/King's; army .... that; he drew; ■■iron.-'.tears down Batre's' cheek; v ..-Another member, Governor Johnstone, thought it fortunate -for-.the two noble lords (North..and- Germaine): that there were-no'st'rangers present,; or thcirenthusiasm and .'; indignation would ha^eeicit'ed the.people to-tear them to pieces 6n their way home from the House. Sir-George Savile considered this speech .."the ; greatest triumph- of elbijuence within memory. '' :O^t-Burke's;speech on Fox's-East India Bill (Ist- December, 1783), Prior, his ibipgrapherY says . that ''in vigour, in ingenuity, and in that forcible yet expansive grasp.with which he usually fastens ■ on. .W subject, (it) seemed to leaved the;'energies of other men far behind:"; ■'-, Prior- also quotes the opinion of ;an unnamed .contemporary that this speech obf Burkes .was "perhaps the most beautiful, sublime, and finished composition his studies and his labours.had'produced." Regarding Burkes share, in'the. impeachment of Warren Hastings (178S) space, will only permit::aie,-tossay that ,itt- a term described, by. Erskine: as: "shaking the walls,: which' : surrounded .. them with anathemas; 1 of .superhuman eloquence" —a: term; ■which,in eluded Fox, Sheridan,-; and Windham—Burke was by uni--verbal .consent the: first; .that his reply, which took,. nine .days tto deliver, and is :.called feyvMacaulay- "one of the finest... that; ever-was >(sic) made in Parliament^" , was : •so powerful that Mrs;, Sheridan fainted and Mrs. Siddons did,, the-same or .very nearly so; and that ipr a. brief spell even the defendant .himself wasj converted by the eloquence --his accuser.'

J For half ■an hour, said Hastings, TlookedJ up ..at tha orator in a " reverie ■of wonder; and dtfring that space. I actually Kfelt myself the most culpable- : man on earth. ■ But, so| far as,l'know, the most detailed;^ description of'! one of Burkes triumphs v was the work of a foreign critic. The subject :w,as the French .Revolution,, and the date apparently 17P2. The Due de Levis, .'who was present, says, that' when .Burko depicted '' the misfortunes, of ■ the ..Royal Family and the- humiliation,-of'/the daughter of the Caesars."- "every eye was bathed in tears." .-■■■.■ /Mr. Bufke-.thcn, by, au easy transition, passed,on to tho ; exposition of those absurd attempts of inexperi--1 enoed men to establish a chimerical liberty;, nor did he,.spare tho petulant vanity, of upstarts in their pretended ilovc-;for equality. .The truth of these striking and animated pictures: made the whole House pass in an inslant from. the tenderest emotions of feeling, to bursts of laugh- ,. ter; never was the .electric power of eloquence more imperiously felt; this extraordinary -man seemed to raise - and quell /'the passions of his auditors with as much case, and as rapi'" 1 idly, as a. skilful musician passes in- ! to- the .various,^modulations of his | harpsichord, I h/avo witnessed many, | too many, political assemblages and striking scenes, where eloquence performed a noble ..part, but ,the whole /of ■■. theih ■ appear insipid when compared, .with -this amazing, effort.

. The' versatile but shallow and ill-in-formed: ';■.*t •of . Lord Birkcnhead was surelyl'better* employed in white-wash-ing -Lord. Jeffreys than in, the endeavour to .-persuade us that the man who was credited (by a competent contemporary critic with . "the greatest triumph of eloquence■ within • memory,'' who -could move the- House of ,' to- cheers and : to rapt silence, to'laughter and to tears in the course of a single speech, and whose oloqucncV'once 'brought Mrs. Siddons to;,the; fainting point and an innocent defendant to a temporary belief iii-his own guilt, could not speak.