Mr.
Shiel's speech in Kent was a fine oration; and the boobies who taunted
him for having got it by rote, were not aware that in doing so he only
wisely followed the example of Pericles, Demosthenes, Lysias, Isocrates,
Hortensius, Cicero, Caesar, and every great orator of antiquity. Oratory
is essentially the accomplishment of antiquity: it was their most
efficient mode of communicating thought; it was their substitute for
printing.
I like a good debate; and, when a stripling, used sometimes to be
stifled in the Gallery, or enjoy the easier privileges of a member's
son. I like, I say, a good debate, and have no objection to a due
mixture of bores, which are a relief. I remember none of the giants of
former days; but I have heard Canning. He was a consummate rhetorician;
but there seemed to me a dash of commonplace in all that he said, and
frequent indications of the absence of an original mind. To the last,
he never got clear of 'Good God, sir!' and all the other hackneyed
ejaculations of his youthful debating clubs. The most commanding speaker
that I ever listened to is, I think, Sir Francis Burdett.
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