XIX 



country the famous and commanding public speaker, either in par- 

 liament or even at the bar, and the great writer, have met in the 

 same person. Bolingbroke, Burke, and Macaulay (the unrivalled 

 comedies of Sheridan, the State Papers and exquisite political satires 

 of Canning are hardly in point) stand perhaps alone. If all the 

 writings of Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Erskine, Peel, had been suppressed, 

 the world would have suffered no great loss. Macaulay had no 

 thought of resting his fame on his parliamentary speeches ; he would 

 willingly have left them to the rarely visited cemetery of the parlia- 

 mentary history. He was placed under compulsion by the act of a 

 piratical bookseller, who printed many of them (insinuating that he 

 did so by authority) bristling with blunders, bad English, loose argu- 

 ment, errors and mistakes about events and persons, everything most 

 abhorrent to Macaulay's taste and judgement. He was under the 

 necessity of publishing a more trustworthy edition. We confess 

 some gratitude for this bad act of the unprincipled Curll of our days, 

 for some of these speeches appear to us oratorical compositions of the 

 highest order. By all accounts Macaulay's delivery was far too 

 rapid to be impressive ; it wanted also variety and flexibility of in- 

 tonation. Even the most practised reporters panted after him in 

 vain; how much more the slower intellects of country gentlemen and 

 the mass of the House ! This, however, only heightens our astonish- 

 ment that speeches so full, so profoundly meditated, yet with so 

 much freedom, with no appearance of being got by heart, with such 

 prodigality of illustration and allusion, should be poured forth with 

 such unhesitating flow, with such bewildering quickness of utterance. 

 To read them with delight and profit, we read them rather slowly ; 

 we can hardly conceive that they were spoken less deliberately. It 

 maybe questioned, and has been questioned, whether Macaulay was, or 

 could have become, a masterly debater. This accomplishment, except 

 in rare examples, is acquired only by long use and practice. When 

 Macaulay entered the House, the first places were filled by men of 

 established influence and much parliamentary training. Even if he 

 had felt called upon to make himself more prominent, it may be 

 doubted whether he could have sufficiently curbed his impetuous 

 energy, or checked his torrent of words. He would have found it 

 difficult to assume the stately, prudent, reserved, compressed reply ; 

 he might have torn his adversaries' arguments to shreds, but he 



