ON THE PRESENT STATE OF PARLIAMENTARY ELOQUENCE
Many of Hazlitt’s numerous contributions to The London Magazine have been included in former volumes of the present edition. Of those printed in this volume, the essay ‘On the Spirit of Partisanship’ was reprinted in Sketches and Essays (1839), that ‘On Consistency of Opinion’ in Winterslow (1850). The remaining five are now republished for the first time.
Some interesting particulars about The London Magazine will be found in Mr. Bertram Dobell’s Sidelights on Charles Lamb (1903).
The essay ‘On the Present State of Parliamentary Eloquence’ is signed ‘T.’ and is No. IV. of the series entitled ‘Table Talk.’ Cf. the Bibliographical and Critical Notes to The Eloquence of the British Senate, vol. III. p. 389, to which this essay may be regarded as supplementary. Hazlitt had been a parliamentary reporter on The Morning Chronicle in 1813. The exact period does not seem to be ascertainable, but the present essay shows that he heard Plunket’s great speech on Catholic Emancipation (Feb. 25, 1813), and Sir James Mackintosh’s maiden speech (Dec. 14, 1813). With regard to Plunket’s speech there is a tradition that Hazlitt was so fascinated by it that he omitted to take any notes of it. See Memoirs, etc. (1867), I. 196. Most of the speakers here described are referred to more than once by Hazlitt elsewhere.
[464]. ‘Such a one,’ etc. The Letters of the younger Pliny, I. 20. [465]. ‘Domestic treason,’ etc. Cf. Macbeth, Act III. Sc. 2. [466]. ‘Make a wanton.’ Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2. [468]. ‘Plays round the head,’ etc. Pope, An Essay on Man, IV. 254. [469]. ‘Kindle them,’ etc. Comus, 794–5. [470]. ‘Ample scope,’ etc. Cf. Gray, The Bard, 51. [471]. ‘Would lengthen [stretch] out,’ etc. Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 1. [472]. ‘Grove nods to grove,’ etc. Pope, Moral Essays, IV. 117–8. Roubilliac. Louis François Roubiliac (1695–1762), many of whose monuments are in Westminster Abbey. His remark quoted by Hazlitt was made to Reynolds. See Northcote’s Life of Sir J. Reynolds, p. 44. Note 1. ‘It is a custom,’ etc. Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 4. Note 2. Mr. Phillips. Hazlitt presumably refers to Charles Phillips (1787?–1859), a florid Irish barrister, called to the English bar in 1821. Note 3. ‘Like Juno’s swans,’ etc. As You Like It, Act I. Sc. 3. [473]. Mr. Banks. Henry Bankes (1757–1834), M.P. for Corfe Castle (1780–1826). Mr. Charles Yorke. Charles Philip Yorke (1764–1834), who had been conspicuous in the stormy privilege debates of 1810. He was at this time M.P. for Liskeard. Mr. Secretary Peele. Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850), then Chief Secretary for Ireland and a strong opponent of Catholic Emancipation. ‘Without o’erflowing, full.’ Sir John Denham, Cooper’s Hill, 192. It was but indifferently reported, etc. As to Hazlitt’s own difficulty in reporting it, see ante, introductory note to the essay. [474]. ‘Come then, expressive silence,’ etc. Thomson, A Hymn, 118. Note 2. ‘That speech,’ etc. This famous saying is usually credited to Talleyrand, but Voltaire had said much the same thing (Dialogues, XIV. Le Chapon et la Poularde). Note 2. Isabey. Jean Baptiste Isabey’s (1767–1855) picture of The Congress of Vienna is at Windsor Castle. [475]. ‘In many a winding bout,’ etc. L’Allegro, 139–140. ‘But ’tis the fall,’ etc. Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, I. 144–5. [476]. ‘Out upon such half-faced fellowship.’ 1 Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 3. Summum jus, etc. Cicero, De Officiis, I. 10. [477]. ‘The punto,’ etc. Cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Sc. 3, and Act II. Sc. 1; and Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 4. ‘No further seek,’ etc. Misquoted from Gray’s Elegy, 125–6.