ADVERTISEMENT
This collection took its rise from a wish which the compiler had sometimes felt, in hearing the praises of the celebrated orators of former times, to know what figure they would have made by the side of those of our own times, with whose productions we are better acquainted. For instance, in reading Burke, I should have been glad to have had the speeches of Lord Chatham at hand, to compare them; and I have had the same curiosity to know, whether Walpole had any thing like the dexterity and plausibility of Pitt. As there are probably other readers, who may have felt the same kind of curiosity, I thought I could not employ my time better than in attempting to gratify it. Besides, it is no more than a piece of justice due to the mighty dead. It is but right we should know what we owe to them, and how far we have improved upon, or fallen short of them. Who could not give almost any thing to have seen Garrick, and Betterton, and Quin? Our politicians are almost as short-lived a race as our players, ‘who strut and fret an hour upon the stage, and then are heard no more.’ The event, and the hero of the moment, engross all our attention, and in the vastness of our present views, we entirely overlook the past. Those celebrated men of the last age, the Walpoles, the Pulteneys, the Pelhams, the Harleys, the Townshends, and the Norths, who filled the columns of the newspapers with their speeches, and every pot-house with their fame, who were the mouthpieces of their party, nothing but perpetual smoke and bounce, incessant volley without let or intermission, who were the wisdom of the wise, and the strength of the strong, whose praises were inscribed on every window-shutter or brick-wall, or floated through the busy air, upborne by the shouts and huzzas of a giddy multitude,—all of them are now silent and forgotten; all that remains of them is consigned to oblivion in the musty records of Parliament, or lives only in the shadow of a name. I wished therefore to bring them on the stage once more, and drag them out of that obscurity, from which it is now impossible to redeem their fellow-actors. I was uneasy till I had made the monumental pile of octavos and folios, ‘wherein I saw them quietly inurned, open its ponderous and marble jaws,’ and ‘set the imprisoned wranglers free again.’ It is possible that some of that numerous race of orators, who have sprung up within the last ten years, to whom I should certainly have first paid my compliments, may not be satisfied with the space allotted them in these volumes. But I cannot help it. My object was to revive what was forgotten, and embody what was permanent; and not to echo the loquacious babblings of these accomplished persons, who, if all their words were written in a book, the world would not contain them. Besides, living speakers may, and are in the habit of printing their own speeches. Or even if this were not the case, there is no danger, while they have breath and lungs left, that they will ever suffer the public to be at a loss for daily specimens of their polished eloquence and profound wisdom.
There were some other objects to be attended to in making this collection, as well as the style of different speakers. I wished to make it a history, as far as I could, of the progress of the language, of the state of parties at different periods, of the most interesting debates, and in short, an abridged parliamentary history for the time. It was necessary that it should serve as a common-place book of all the principal topics, of the pros and cons of the different questions, that may be brought into dispute. If, however, this work has the effect which I intend it to have, it will rather serve to put a stop to that vice of much speaking, which is the fashion of the present day, by shewing our forward disputants how little new is to be said on any of these questions, than offer a temptation to their vanity to enrich themselves out of the spoils of others. I have also endeavoured to gratify the reader’s curiosity, by sometimes giving the speeches of men who were not celebrated for their eloquence, but for other things; as Cromwell, for example. If, therefore, any one expects to find nothing but eloquent speeches in these volumes, he will certainly be disappointed. A very small volume indeed, would contain all the recorded eloquence of both houses of parliament.
As to the notes and criticisms, which accompany the speeches, I am aware that they are too long and frequent for a work of this nature. If, however, the reader should not be of opinion that ‘the things themselves are neither new nor rare,’ he is at liberty to apply the next line of the satire to them,—he may naturally enough wonder, ‘how the devil they got there.’ The characters of Chatham, Burke, Fox, and Pitt, are those which are the most laboured. As to the first of these, I am not so certain. It was written in the heat of the first impression which his speeches made upon me: and perhaps the first impression is a fair test of the effect they must produce on those who heard them.—But farther I will not be answerable for it. As to the opinions I have expressed of the three last speakers, they are at least my settled opinions, and I believe I shall not easily change them. In the selections from Burke, I have followed the advice of friends in giving a whole speech, whereas I ought to have given only extracts.
For the bias which may sometimes appear in this work, I shall only apologize by referring the impartial reader to the different characters of Fox and Burke. These will, I think, shew, that whatever my prejudices may be, I am not much disposed to be blinded by them.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTES
King Charles I.—Came to the crown in 1625, and was beheaded in 1648. The following is his speech from the throne on meeting his first parliament. It contains nothing very remarkable, but may serve as a specimen of the stile that was in use at the time. The chief subject of the speech is the war with Spain, in which the country was then engaged. There is also an allusion to the plague, which at that time prevailed in London.
Sir Edward Coke, (Lord Chief Justice, and author of the Institutes,) was born in 1550, and died in 1634. He was removed from his office in 1616, and first joined the popular side in parliament in 1621. There is the same quaintness and pithiness in the other speeches which are given of this celebrated lawyer, that will be found in the following one. It is a little remarkable, that almost all the abuses of expenditure, and heads of œconomical reform, which were the objects of Mr. Burke’s famous bill, are here distinctly enumerated.
Sir Robert Cotton, (the famous Antiquary,) was born in 1570, and died 1631. He was made a baronet by James I. and was one of the opposition party in the time of his successor. The speech which follows was occasioned by some offence taken by the court at the severe reflections cast upon the duke of Buckingham in the house of commons. It is, as one might expect, learned, full of facts and authorities, containing matters which no doubt were thought to be of great weight and moment.
George Villiers, (Created Duke of Buckingham by James I.,) was born 1592, and was assassinated by Felton in 1628. It is said that he had originally but an indifferent education. Perhaps it was owing to this that there is more ease and vivacity, and less pedantry, in the stile of his speeches, than in those of most of his contemporaries. We can hardly account for it from his having been privately tutored by king James the First. The subject of the following speech was the war with Spain, and recovery of the Palatinate.