1 827.] The Four Nations. 287 



to form at least one portion of his subject, is the eloquence of the Four 

 Nations, as displayed in the chapel of St. Stephens ; because, amid abun- 

 dance of chaff, it is presumed that one may find there the choicest wheat 

 of each. Go then to that great mansion of words, cast your eyes around 

 the benches, and though you may not be acquainted with the name of a 

 single individual, you will find, ere yet a tongue be loosed, no difficulty 

 in apportioning each mass of the wisdom to the country to which it 

 belongs. Wherever you observe a man sitting cool and collected, and pre- 

 pared to enjoy in himself his speech or his vote, with all his muscles un- 

 ruffled, and all his limbs at their ease, you may be sure that that man is a 

 real representative of merry England. When you find a figure half- 

 doubled up, with its hands delved into its pockets, and its eyes stealing 

 slowly and cautiously towards every crevice, you may bo just as sure that 

 here there is afac simile of the Land of Cakes. When, again, you find 

 a short, burly figure, with its arms folded, its features relaxed, and its 

 muzzle turned upward, gazing upon the vacuity towards the ceiling, be 

 certain that that figure is a Welchman. Yet, again, if any one be fidget- 

 ting, twisting its arms to this side or to that, looking every way, and no 

 way long, and alternately rolling and unrolling its face as it were, there 

 cannot be the least doubt that that is an Irishman. Even in their phy- 

 siognomy there is something which you cannot mistake. There is always, 

 even in the most querulous Englishman, a taciturnity of face a placid 

 satisfaction with himself, which is quite alien to the others. There is in 

 the Scotsman a lowering of the head, a lengthening of the visage, and a 

 watchman-like steal of the eye, which are just as peculiar; there is an. 

 indescribable heat and love of the table about the Welchman, which 

 cannot undeceive yon ; and, the most accomplished Irishman has a cast of 

 face, which fails not to put you in mind of a shilelah or a row. 



Thus they are in their external lineaments, and you may judge of their 

 active powers just as you would do of the flame and heat of so many different 

 species of coal, by attending to the form and gloss of the surface. But 

 when an animating subject kindles .them up, and they blaze in turn, then 

 you come to know them as well by the varied brilliance of the flame, as 

 you do by their different tendencies to produce smoke. It would be unfair, 

 however, to form a judgment from the more elevated characters which be- 

 long wholly, or partially, to'any of the nations ; because none of them can 

 be a type of the general character 'of the nation. Canning, for instance, 

 though he inherits all .the better qualities of the English character, has 

 something superadded which properly belongs to.no one people, or rather, 

 which is above what can be predicated of the common nature of men. 

 His characteristic is out of, or rather above, every-day humanity, and is 

 not, therefore, available as a standard. Nearly the same may be said of 

 Brougham : the first lines, both of his character and his eloquence, are 

 perhaps just as much Scotch as those of Canning are English ; but then so 

 much more has been added as to raise him above fair comparison. Eloquent 

 and commanding Welchrnen, there is none in the House ; and transcendent 

 geniuses from the principality visit the world like angels ; neither is there 

 any one who can be taken as a specimen of the Welch character. Plun- 

 kett, again, is radically Irish : but he is refined from those peculiarities 

 which are most characteristic of the disposition and the eloquence of his 

 countrymen. 



But, in like manner, as it would be unfair to judge of the national cha- 

 racter from the stars of the House, so would it also be unfair to judge from 



