ordinary phrase; they suited the word to the matter, and if the thought was forcibly conveyed, they were satisfied to risk their reputation for "good taste," in the choice either of figure or term:-but they did not, like the celebrated collector before us, bottom their claim as orators upon the list of incidents we have enumerated; they mainly and manfully rested upon vigorous argument, orderly and acute examination-displaying profound knowledge of human nature, derived from recorded knowledge and personal observation-no words for words sake, like "Rich windows-that exclude the light; And passages that lead to-nothing:" -Not twenty phrases strung together, like gilt marriage rings in a jeweller's shop, emblematic of deception, both in use and fabrication-no balancing of periods to endless satiety, filling the ear and starving the mind-trying the excellence of every sentence, not by the solidity of its sense, but by that ingenious process by which a chamber-maid criticises a basin, first ringing it with her knuckle, and then rating its soundness by the sharpness of the jingle. Cicero said of the bawling orators, that "their weakness made them rise into clamour, as lame men get on horseback." So does the barrenness of this "celebrated orator," in reasoning and reflection, drive him to rely upon verbal glitter-and the translation of pilfered poetry into paltry prose. From this charlatanical and showman-like glibness of oratory, we turn with refreshed eagerness, to the true eloquence of Irishmen of genius-men who enlightened the most dreary topics by the lamp of learning, and the profoundest disquisition. Always natural and intelligible, they thoroughly understood the mind and feelings of their hearers, and with an irresistible force they convinced the understanding by argument, whilst they subdued the human heart by the splendour of genius. If, after what we have said, doubts yet remain of the correctness of our opinions, we can support them by proof approaching to the certainty of mathematics. Let any entertainer of doubts, with industry and inclination to solve them, take a speech, either of Burke, Grattan, Sheridan, Flood, Plunket, Curran or Bushe-let it be reduced to the plainest language which the united efforts of Greece and criticism can suggest, and "the result found" will be the most vigorous argument, and the most forcible and ingenious illustration, that the closest reasoner could devise on the given subject;-the "sapere est et principium et fons" will be, with them, found to be rigidly adhered to. Let the analyzer, in the same manner, examine a speech of " the celebrated Irish orator, Charles Phillips, Esq." delivered either on "a public" or "private occasion," no matter whether before or after dinner, and the mawkish deposit will be, weak argument, founded on old truths and the peace-disturbing base of popular passions, flippant sneers, and a saucy familiarity towards men and things to which he has always been an alien, from a marked inferiority both in situation and sense. The book before us pretends to have been collected, with a view to vindicate the "Irish school of Eloquence" from "the malignant prejudices of a northern critic," and to give "the impartial an opportunity of judging for themselves." It is dedicated, in a very affectionate letter, "To the Honourable Cæsar A. Rodney, late Attorney General of the United States of America, Commissioner to the Spanish Provinces, &c. &c." commencing "Dear Sir ;" and the reason for this fondness and favour is explained in the first page. Mr. Rodney, it appears, about four years previous, then an "utter stranger" to Mr. Phillips, wrote him a letter of encouragement, to "cheer his literary efforts." The modesty of Mr. Phillips, however, not wanting encouragement from any body-he had not the politeness to answer the letter: finding it now convenient to dedicate to somebody, and that somebody an American, his name is added for effect-and Mr. Rodney, it is presumed, is fully impressed with the magnitude of the favour. Herein is Ireland's aristocracy abused in "rare phrases ;"—thus: Our aristocracy, (the natural patrons of a nation's genius,) have been provincialized into the very worst kind of partizanship-into a struggle, not for honours or principles, but for the sordid emoluments, and rancorous exercise of official station. And this contention, branded as it is by every bad passion, presents no feature of agreement, save an upstart family conceit, a very stupid, and a very unfounded self appreciation. Between these precious factions, [What factions?] Ireland is partitioned; they scrutinize every probationer they tempt every profession. And if the adventurous candidate for honourable fame disdains to subscribe himself as a retainer for the one, or a brawler for the other, he is proscribed for sacrifice, by the conspiracy of both-denounced as a rebel by the slaves in place, and as an helot by the slaves of expectancy.' Such is the unmeaning declamation of this amateurin eloquence, who seeks to fix his want of success in life upon the faults of others, instead of the manifold deficiencies which he exhibits in him-self. He then, of course, praises America, and in a style that bears a like relation to common sense, as gilt gingerbread does to wholesome food; and ends with recommending his book to be "the manual of young Americans." A preface follows, in which Mr. Phillips shows himself as uninformed on the subject of eloquence, as he is reported to be of the elementary principles of law: and in order to elucidate the cardinal sins of his oratory, we present him to our readers in his own words, which, to us, plainly account for his insane style, and are the last which we can afford to quote from the original composition. The grand mistake into which our modern critics have fallen, upon the subject of eloquence, has been in subjecting to the same rules the essay composed to be read, and the speech arranged to be delivered. No two things in the world can be more opposite. What might appear extravagant in the one is chaste in the other; and the allusion studiously suited to inflame the delirium of a crowd, must appear wild and rhapsodical in the seclusion of the closet. The scene, the surrounding objects, the materials to be worked, the end to be obtained, and the means to be used, are all different. The reader, in the silence of retirement, sees nothing but his book, and may pause for observation at the close of every period. The hearer, on the contrary, all eye and ear, hurried away by the rapidity of his feelings, and heated by the sympathy of his associates, has no time to criticise the evanescent image, which, delighting him at the moment, may owe its whole success to the tone in which it is uttered, or the gesture that accompanies it. The critic, therefore, who analyzes a speech, ought not, in my mind, to require so much a permanent effect, as a momentary attainment. If the object of the orator be answered, his task is ended; and it can detract nothing from his merit to say, he has triumphed by means which the cooler judgment cannot sanction. His instrument may be the most fantastic or extravagant-he may terrify by a phantom-delude by a sophism, or mislead by an airy and unsubstantial meteor: the question is not, were they intimidating, visionary, and delusive, but were they such as might achieve his victory. This may not square with the rules and ordinances by which, according to closest criticism, perfection is to be adjusted; but true genius rejects their application.' Is it possible that Mr. Phillips could have read his own "Specimens of Irish Eloquence"-understood them-valued themand yet deliberately expose upon paper so rank a rhapsody as this? We,in America, cannot believe that men, whose ears have received energetic, healthy, and manly reasoning, from Grattan, Curran, Plunket, and Bushe, would suffer their intellects to be abused or influenced by the mountebank practices here commended. By following such a recipe, a speech might be compounded to induce returning disease on a subject of lunacy— but never to work conviction on reasonable beings. Whatever faults Mr. Phillips has, both as a writer and orator-as a collector of specimens of his nation's fame in eloquence, he has our praise-our sincere thanks. Many of the speeches which he has preserved in this pleasing and valuable collection, lived only in our knowledge, as that such things were. The reporting of speeches is a comparatively recent art; and such men as neglected their fame, by omitting to superintend the publication of their own speeches, must be con tent to be but imperfectly known to after times. Flood, Curran, Burgh and Sheridan, flung their fame around, careless of its preservation. Sheridan, though borne down with the sharpest pecuniary distress, refused an offer of one thousand guineas for a correct report of his speech on the Begum charge. Burke, on the contrary, revised his speeches with the closest care, and in each succeeding edition, burnished that which had escaped polish in the former. The specimens given of Burke, are his conciliation speech, in full, and a few short extracts from his letters on political subjects, and his speeches on India questions--all which are well known and justly appreciated. His description of the cruelties of Debi Sing, we insert; because the speech from which it is taken is not to be found in Mr. Burke's works. Perhaps it would be impossible to select from all his mighty efforts, any instance in which his great judgment as an orator stands so markedly forward as in the following.The facts detailed of the tortures inflicted on the Indian peasantry, guilty of concealing food for their present subsistence, were so horrid, that no intensity of language, or force of invective, could exasperate the relation. We accordingly find Mr. Burke detailing them with simplicity, minuteness and awe. My lords, I am here obliged to offer some apology for the horrid scenes I am about to open. Permit me to make the same apology to your lordships, that was made by Mr. Patterson-a man with whose name I wish mine to be handed down to posterity. His apology is this--and it is mine--that the punishments inflicted upon the ryots of Rumpore and of Dinagepore, were, in many instances, of such a nature, that I would rather wish to draw a veil over them, than shock your feelings by a detail. But it is necessary for the substantial ends of justice and humanity, and for the honour of government, that they should be exposed, that they should be recorded, and handed down to after ages let this be my apology. My lords, when the people had been stript of every thing, it was, in some cases, suspected, and justly, that they had hid some share of the grain. Their bodies were then applied to the fiercest mode of torture, which was this: they began with winding cords about their fingers, till the flesh on each hand clung and was actually incorporated. Then they hammered wedges of wood and iron between those fingers, until they crushed and maimed those poor, honest, and laborious hands, which were never lifted up to their mouths but with a scanty supply of provision. My lords, these acts of unparalleled cruelty, began with the poor ryots; but if they began there, there they did not stop. The heads of the villages, the leading yeomen of the country, respectable for their virtues, respectable for their age, were tied together, two and two, the unoffending and helpless, thrown across a bar, upon which they were hung with their feet uppermost, and there beat with bamboo canes on the soles of those feet, until the nails started from their toes, and then with the cudgels of their blind fury these poor wretches were afterwards beat about the head, until the blood gushed out at : their mouth, nose, and ears. My lords, they did not stop here. Bamboos, wangees, rattans, canes, common whips, and scourges, were not sufficient. They found a tree in the country which bears strong and sharp thorns-not satisfied with those other cruelties, they scourged them with these. Not satisfied with this, but searching every thing through the deepest parts of nature, where she seems to have forgot her usual benevolence, they found a poisonous plant, a deadly caustic, that inflames the part that is bruised, and often occasions death. This they applied to those wounds. My lords, we know that there are men (for so we are made) whom bodily pains cannot subdue. The mind of some men strengthens in proportion as the body suffers. But people who can bear up against their own tortures, cannot bear up against those of their children and their friends. To add, therefore, to their sufferings, the innocent children were brought forth, and cruelly scourged before the faces of their parents. They frequently bound the father and the son, face to face, arm to arm, body to body, and then flogged till the skin was torn from the flesh and thus they had the devilish satisfaction of knowing, that every blow must wound the body or the mind; for if one escaped the son, his sensibility was wounded by the knowledge he had that the blow had fallen upon his father; the same torture was felt by the father, when he knew that every blow that missed him had fallen upon his unfortunate son. My lords, this was not, this was not all! The treatment of the females cannot be described. Virgins that were kept from the sight of the sun, were dragged into the public court-that court which was intended to be a refuge against all oppression-and there, in the presence of day, their delicacies were offended, and their persons cruelly violated, by the basest of mankind. It did not end there: the wives of the men of the country only suffered less by this: they lost their honour in the bottom of the most cruel dungeons, in which they were confined. They were then dragged out naked, and in that situation exposed to public view, and scourged before all the people. My lords, here is my authority-for otherwise you will not believe it possible. My lords, what will you feel when I tell you, that they put the nipples of the women into the cleft notches of sharp bamboos, and tore them from their bodies. What modesty in all nations most carefully conceals, these monsters revealed to view, and consumed by burning tortures, and cruel slow fires! My lords, I am ashamed to open it-horrid to tell! these internal fiends, these monstrous tools of this monster, Debi Sing, in defiance of every thing divine or human, planted death in the source of life!'--pp. 63, 64. As an opposite instance of the skill and power of this wonderful orator, we extract his description of the devastation of the Carnatic, by Hyder Ali. Here the only materials to work up were war, and its incidents. "His inspiring and immortal eloquence"* never surpassed it. The latter part, which touches *2 Erskine's Speeches, 338. |