Not essay rather, argued declamation,
Prepared, 'tis true, but always as oration.
A royal Eloquence, that paid, in state,
A ceremonious visit to debate.
As unlike Burke as mind could be to mind,
He took one view-the broadest sense could find-
Never forsook it from the first to last,
And on that venture all his treasure cast.
Just as each scene throughout a drama's plan
Unfolds the purpose which the first began,
His speaking dramatised one strong plain thought,
To fuller light by each link'd sentence brought,
A home-truth deck'd-where, led but by the star,
Burke, sailing on, discovered truths afar.
He triumph'd thus where learning fails the most,
Perplexed no college, but harangued a host-
Minds the most commonplace rejoiced to view
How much of knowledge went to things they knew.
From ground most near their own trite household walls,
His Lamp's kind Genius raised its magic halls.
Thus much in proof of his least-granted claim,
What rests is read!—who reads will guard his fame.
If in his writing far more than his speech
His zeal mislead us where his lore should teach,
Few can take part in England's stormy life,
Nor bound their scope to what may serve their strife:
Nay, even the calmest schoolman rears his torch
So that its shadow dims the adverse porch.
Measured by those himself admits as tall,
Or lifts on stilts if others deem them small,
The favour'd priesthood of that famous sect,
Which, leading many, keep themselves select-
And in their porphyry chamber, I admit,
Have rear'd their own blood-royalty of wit ;-
Compared, in short, with Whigs, his chosen race,
Where amongst them shall we assign his place?
In that rare gift-few gifts more rare in men-
The twofold eloquence of voice and pen,
effective qualities almost necessitates the sacrifice of other merits which are foreign to the oratorical school of composition, but which have their proper place in critical essay and judicial history. But this inquiry is scarcely for our generation. The conquests of so great a genius must receive the sanction of time, before the national jealousy will permit a close survey of their boundaries,
Brougham as a speaker has more strength and sweep,
Burke as a writer is more grave and deep;
But Brougham, as writer, less his strength has proved;
And Burke, as speaker, less his audience moved.
Nor Burke nor Brougham to Whigs we wholly cede,
For Brougham has stray'd from, Burke renounced their creed;
But this bright partisan was all their own,
His pomp of laurel in their soil was grown ;
To guard their strongholds he directs his toils,
And to their tombs he dedicates his spoils.
This given to party,-what to England, say,
Left to endure, when parties fade away ?—
To her young sons the model of a life,
Mild in its calm, majestic in its strife;
To her rich language blocks of purest ore,
To her grand blazon one proud quartering more!
Happy the man revered for plain good sense,
Perhaps the sole unenvied excellence!
Dulness his wisdom, wit his worth shall own,
The first ne'er puzzled, nor the last outshone;
Thus to his shore floats every vagrant waif,
And if but well born, England calls him "safe."
So Whig or Tory, each with pride installs
Archons in Ponsonbys and Percevals—
Leaders not brisk eno' to be unsteady,
Nor yet so slow but what they can be ready:
Such plain good sense, no sense could be more plain,
Seem'd crown'd in person during ALTHORPE's reign-
A reign as sovereign both o'er dunce and wit,
As Genius gave in right divine to Pitt.
But then that sense, if plain, was wondrous good-
Precious the grain, tho' common seem'd the wood.
And, too, that sense by Fancy so undeckt,
Took a strange grace from our own charm'd respect
For the mild image of benignant worth;
Honour as true as ever said to Earth,
'Confide;' inbred urbanity as mild
As e'er disarm'd the foe on which it smil'd,
Soothing all strife, yet yielding no belief-
These were the jewels in his crown of Chief.
Long may such gifts o'er verbal arts prevail,
For in their failing England's self shall fail.
A different woof, but still of English stuff,
As plain, as honest, much more hard and rough,
In BENTINCK, dignified a style uncouth,
Made pride seem spirit, and rude language truth.
All have their dross ;-thro' his there largely ran
The genuine metal of an earnest man;
One of those natures in which none suspect
The latent heat of heart and intellect,
Till in the atmosphere of common ire
At wrongs in common flashes out their fire,
The mass, expanding as the flames escape,
Takes from mere warmth new character, new shape.
Thus by no selfish anger roused to strife,
The whole Man rose transform'd from his old life;
The lounging member seldom in his place,
And then, with thoughts remote upon a race,
Stung into sympathy with others, blends
His life with theirs, and ease for ever ends.
Each task by which industrious toil supplies
What culture lacks or native bent denies,
Conscience itself imposes ;-in his creed,
Who shuns one labour is unfit to lead.
Thus, victim of his own remorseless zeal,
Life, overwound, snapt sudden at the wheel,
And the same grief which England gives the brave
Slain at their post, did homage to his grave.
To me there's something bordering on the great
In him who labours-not for self:-the State,
In its caprice, may give him no reward;
Perhaps he bores, and is not born a lord.
The House may cough-his voice no coughs can drown; Reports cut short-no Press can cut him down.
Still he toils on-for what? To be of use,
To prune a tax, or weed up an abuse.
Each hour for rest, for home, for health to grudge,
Unpaid, a servant, and unthank'd, a drudge ;
And his work done, sink fameless in the tomb :
Such men have worth-nine such might make a Hume!
Tho' Bar and Senate are so near akin, Our Senate's ear great Lawyers seldom win. In truth, St Stephen grudges every knight The spurs he earns in other fields of fight.
ERSKINE too femininely vain of fame;
WETHERELL?-too rabid ; SCARLETT ?—much too tame.
In fine, a lawyer's copiousness is such,
Each has a something for the House too much.
Exceptions are; rough DUNNING split the ear,
Wedg'd in his logic, and tore forth a cheer.
Bland MURRAY ruled their Lordships with a sway
Scarce less than Lyndhurst's lofty sense to-day.
Hush'd were the benches when, with careless ease,
With accents matchless for melodious keys,
With words the choicest, that seem'd strung by chance,
COCKBURN's frank mind reveal'd its large expanse.
Still WHITESIDE's genius charms both foes and friends,
So headlong force with sparkling fancy blends;
As torrents flash the more their rush descends.
Still when CAIRNS rises, tho' at dawn of day,
The sleepers wake, and feel rejoiced to stay,
As his clear reasonings in light strength arise
Like Doric shafts admitting lucent skies.
But these are living, and their statues wait
Yet for the pedestal Walhalla's gate
Opes only for the Dead !-What hand unknown
Shall carve for Brougham's vast image the grand throne ?
-Who heard and can forget
Mellifluous FOLLETT? Yet I hear him—yet,
Plaintive and softly deep, his tones enthral
Reason and heart; in later days, of all,
The Master of Persuasion. Sterner arms
He wielded not; his weapons were like charms.
Nor wit, nor passion, nor embellish'd phrase,
Nor jests that stab, nor fancies that amaze;
But ere three words were spoken, to your soul
The irresistible enchanter stole.
One sovereign gift was his-he ruled by it;
'Twas that which gave autocracy to Pitt
A quick electric sympathy which ran
Thro' the whole audience forth from the whole man ;
He seem'd in all to place an equal trust,
Justice his aim,-what Englishman not just?
The ennobling spirit in himself appeal'd
To that true nobleness which, oft conceal'd,
Still in our Senate represents our race,
And is the guardian genius of the place.
Few, who at ease their Members' speeches read,
Guess the hard life of members who succeed;
Pass by the waste of youthful golden days,
And the dread failure of the first essays-
Grant that the earlier steeps and sloughs are past,
And Fame's broad highway stretches smooth at last ;
Grant the success, and now behold the pains :
Eleven to three--Committee upon Drains !
From three to five-self-commune and a chop;
From five to dawn, a bill to pass or stop;
Which, stopt or pass'd, leaves England much the same.
Alas for genius staked in such a game!
When as 'the guerdon' in the grasp appears,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears."
Farewell, fine humorist, finer reasoner still,
Lively as Luttrell, logical as Mill,
Lamented BULLER; just as each new hour
Knit thy stray forces into steadfast power,
Death shut thy progress from admiring eyes,
And gave thy soul's completion to the skies;
More richly gifted, tho' to him denied
Ev'n thine imperfect honours, WINTHROP* died;
Died-scarce a promise of his youth redeem'd,
And never youth more bright in promise seem'd.
Granta beheld him with such loving eyes
Lift the light lance that struck at every prize;
What the last news?-the medal Praed has won ;
What the last joke?-Praed's epigram or pun;
And every week that club-room, famous then,†
Where striplings settled questions spoilt by men,
When grand MACAULAY sate triumphant down,
Heard PRAED's reply, and long'd to halve the crown.
Yet in St Stephen's this bright creature fail'd—
Yes, but o'er failure had he not prevail'd,
If his that scope in time which victory needs?
Fame is a race, he who runs on succeeds.
True in all contests-in the Senate's most ;
There but small way till half a life is lost :
Long years a name the Public scarcely knows,
From roots occult unnoticed grows and grows,
+ The Union Debating Society of Cambridge.
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