His early ill health and inability to attend a public school, 551; his remarkable proficiency at home, ib.; goes to Cambridge at fourteen, ib.; his ambition from boyhood to be an orator, ib.; his training with that view at col. lege, 552; his mode of studying the classics, ib. ; his em. inence in the mathematics, ib.; his severe discipline in logic, 553; in mental science and political economy, ib. ; his early social habits, 554; comparison between him and Lord Chatham, 555; his call to the bar, ib.; his election to Parliament, 556; remarkable success of his maiden speech, ib.; joins the Whigs, ib.; his sarcasm ou Lords North and Germaine, 557; comes in with Lord Shelburne as Chancellor of the Exchequer at the age of twenty-three, ib.; his brilliant speech against Mr. Fox and the Coalitionists, 558; his felicitous quotation from Horace, 561; is driven out with Lord Shelburne by the Coalition, ib.; attacks Mr. Fox's East India Bill, 562; made Prime Minister at twenty-four, 563; Mr. Fox's efforts to drive him out, ib.; his energetic resist- ance, 564; extraordinary scene in the House, 565; his keen rebuke of General Conway, ib.; his ultimate tri- umph, 56; his East India Bill, ib.; motion for reform in Parliament, 569; plan of paying the public debt, 570; his admirable speech against the Slave Trade, ib.; war with France, 571; eloquent speech when his proposals of peace were rejected by the French, 575; speech of great compass and power when he refused to treat with Bonaparte, 576; resigns at the end of seventeen years, tb.; returns to power, 577; his death, ib.; per- SPEECH on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.. SPEECH on the Rupture of Negotiations with France. 593 SPEECH on Refusing to Negotiate with Bonaparte His birth at Edinburgh, 629; early education at Edin- SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH SPEECH in behalf of Peltier GEORGE CANNING.. 827 851 His birth in London, 851; descended from an Irish fam- SPEECH against Williams for the publication of Paine's SPEECH on Radical Reform His birth and parentage, 785; the family, though in low circumstances, remarkable for intellectual vigor, ib.; his early love of sport and wild adventure, ib.; is sent to school and to the university by a clergyman of the neighborhood, ib.; distinguished for his classical attain- ments and love of metaphysical inquiry, 786; studies law in London, ib.; his unwearied efforts to remove his defects and gain fluency as a public speaker, ib.; settles in Dublin and rises to early distinction, ib.; forms the Society of the Monks of the Screw, ib.; his celebra- ted address to Lord Avonmore respecting that Society, ET; enters the Irish House of Commons, ib.; his bold. nesa and eloquence during the State Trials, 787-8; Robert Emmett and Sarah Curran, 788; is appointed Master of the Rolls, ib.; his misfortunes and decline of health, 788-9; resigns his office, 789; his death, 886 Descended from one of the most ancient families of West- moreland, England, 886; born at Edinburgh, ib.; edu cated at the High School under Dr. Adam, ib.; rapidity of his mind from early life, ib.; enters the University of Edinburgh, ib.; distinguished for his mathematical attainments, ib.; early election to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, ib.; studies law, ib.; his training in extem- poraneous debate, ib.; publishes his work on Colonial Policy, ib.; removes to London and commences the practice of the law, 887; is a regular contributor to the Edinburgh Review, ib.; becomes a member of Parlia ment, ib.; subjects of his published speeches, ib.; char- acter of his oratory, 888; comparison between him and Mr. Canning, ib.; his attack upon Canning in 1823, when the latter gave him the lie, 889, 890. SELECT BRITISH ELOQUENCE. SIR JOHN ELIOT. JOHN ELIOT was descended from a family of great respectability in Cornwall, and was born on the 20th of April, 1590. After enjoying the best advantages for education which England could afford, and spending some years in foreign travel, he was elected to Parliament at the age of thirty-three, and became one of the most prominent members in the House of Commons under Charles I. The House embraced at this time, some of the ablest and most learned men of the age, such as Sir Edward Coke, John Hampden, Selden, St. John, Pym, &c. Among these, Sir John Eliot stood pre-eminent for the force and fervor of his eloquence. The general style of speaking at that day was weighty, grave, and sententious, but tinctured with the pedantry of the preceding reign, and destitute of that warmth of feeling which is essential to the character of a great orator. Eliot, Wentworth, and a few others were exceptions; and Eliot especially spoke at times with all the enthusiasm and vehemence of the early days of Greece and Rome. Hence he was appointed one of the managers of the House when the Duke of Buckingham was impeached in 1626, and had the part assigned him of making the closing argument against the Duke before the House of Lords. This he did with such energy and effect as to awaken the keenest resentment of the Court; so that two days after he was called out of the House, as if to receive a message from the King, and was instantly seized and hurried, off by water to the Tower. The Commons, on hearing of this breach of privilege, were thrown into violent commotion. The cry "Rise!" "Rise!" was heard from every part of the hall. They did immediately adjourn, and met again only to record their resolution, "Not to do any more business until they were righted in their privileges." This decisive measure brought the government to a stand, and reduced them to the humiliating necessity of releasing Sir John Eliot, and also Sir Dudley Diggs, another of the managers who had been arrested on the same occasion. Eliot and his companion returned in triumph to the House, which voted that "they had not exceeded the commission intrusted to them." In consequence of this defeat, and the backwardness of the Commons to grant the supplies demanded, Charles soon after dissolved Parliament, and determined to raise money by "forced loans." Great numbers resisted this imposition, and among them Eliot and Hampden, who, with seventy-six others of the gentry, were thrown into prison for refusing to surrender their property to the Crown; while hundreds of inferior rank were impressed into the army or navy by way of punishment. The King found, however, that with all this violence he could not raise the necessary supplies, and was compelled to call another Parliament within eight months. Eliot, Hampden, and many others who had been lying under arrest, were elected members of the new House of Commons while thus confined in prison, and were released only a few days before the meeting of Parliament. A These violent invasions of the rights of property and person, naturally came up for consideration at an early period of the session. The Commons, as the result of their discussions, framed, on the 27th of May, 1628, that second Great Charter of the liberties of England, the PETITION OF RIGHT; so called because drawn up, in the humble spirit of the day, in the form of a petition to the King, but having, when ratified by his concurrence, all the authority of a fundamental law of the kingdom. This document was prepared by Sir Edward Coke at the age of eighty-three, and was one of the last public acts of that distinguished lawyer. It provided, that no loan or tax might be levied but by consent of Parliament; that no man might be imprisoned but by legal process; that soldiers might not be quartered on people contrary to their wills; and that no commissions be granted for executing martial law. On the 2d of June, Charles returned an evasive answer, in which he endeavored to satisfy the Commons without giving a legal and binding assent to the petition. The next day, Sir John Eliot made the following speech. It breathes throughout, that spirit of affection and reverence for the King's person which was still felt by both houses of Parliament. It does not dwell, therefore, on those recent acts of arbitrary power in which the King might be supposed to have reluctantly concurred; and the fact is a striking one, that Eliot does not even allude to his late cruel imprisonment, a decisive proof that he was not actuated by a spirit of personal resentment. The entire speech was directed against the royal Favorite, the Duke of Buckingham. Its object was, to expose his flagrant misconduct during the preceding ten years, under the reign of James as well as Charles; and to show that through his duplicity, incompetency, and rash counsels, the honor of the kingdom had been betrayed, its allies sacrificed, its treasures wasted, and those necessities of the King created which gave rise to the arbitrary acts referred to in the Petition of Right. The facts which Eliot adduces in proof, are very briefly mentioned, or barely alluded to, because they were fresh in the minds of all, and had created a burning sense of wrong and dishonor throughout the whole kingdom. They will be explained in brief notes appended to the speech; but, to feel their full force, the reader must go back to the history of the times, and place himself in the midst of the scene. There is in this speech, a union of dignity and fervor which is highly characteristic of the man. "His mind," says Lord Nugent, was deeply imbued with a love of philosophy and a confidence in religion which gave a lofty tone to his eloquence." His fervor, acting on a clear and powerful understanding, gives him a simplicity, directness, and continuity of thought, a rapidity of progress, and a vehemence of appeal, which will remind the reader of the style of Demosthenes. His whole soul is occupied with the subject. He seizes upon the strong points of his case with such absorbing interest, that all those secondary and collateral trains of thought with which a speaker like Burke, amplifies and adorns the discussion, are rejected as unworthy of the stern severity of the occasion. The eloquence lies wholly in the thought; and the entire bareness of the expression, the absence of all ornament, adds to the effect, because there is nothing interposed to break the force of the blow. The antique air of the style heightens the interest of the speech; and will recommend it particularly to those who have learned to relish the varied construction and racy English of our early writers. SPEECH OF SIR JOHN ELIOT ON THE PETITION OF RIGHT, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MR. SPEAKER, We sit here as the great | authority of books? Look on the collections of Council of the King, and in that capacity, it is the Committee for Religion; there is too clear an See there the commission procured our duty to take into consideration the state and evidence. affairs of the kingdom, and when there is occa- for composition with the papists of the North! sion, to give a true representation of them by Mark the proceedings thereupon, and you will way of counsel and advice, with what we con- find them to little less amounting than a toleration in effect: the slight payments, and the easiceive necessary or expedient to be done. ness of them, will likewise show the favor that is intended. Will you have proofs of men? Witness the hopes, witness the presumptions, witness the reports of all the papists generally. Ob of officers, the confidence in secretaries to employments in this kingdom, in Ireland, and elsewhere. These will all show that it hath too great a certainty. And to this add but the incontrovertible evidence of that All-powerful Hand, which we have felt so sorely, that gave it full assurance; for as the heavens oppose themselves to our impiety, so it is we that first opposed the heavens.1 In this consideration, I confess many a sad thought hath affrighted me, and that not only in respect of our dangers from abroad (which yet I know are great, as they have been often prest and dilated to us), but in respect of our disor-serve the dispositions of commanders, the trust ders here at home, which do enforce those dangers, and by which they are occasioned. For I believe I shall make it clear to you, that both at first, the cause of these dangers were our disorders, and our disorders now are yet our greatest dangers that not so much the potency of our enemies as the weakness of ourselves, doth threaten us: so that the saying of one of the Fathers non tam potentià sua may be assumed by us, ""not so much by their quam negligentià nostrà," Our want of true power as by our neglect." devotion to heaven-our insincerity and doubling in religion—our want of councils-our precipitate actions-the insufficiency or unfaithfulness of our generals abroad-the ignorance or corruption of our ministers at home-the impov-quences they draw with them. erishing of the sovereign-the oppression and depression of the subject-the exhausting of our treasures- the waste of our provisions-consumption of our ships-destruction of our men 66 these make the advantage to our enemies, not the reputation of their arms; and if in these there be not reformation, we need no foes abroad: Time itself will ruin us. To show this more fully, I believe you will all hold it necessary that what I say, should not seem an aspersion on the state or imputation on the government, as I have known such motions misinterpreted. But far is this from me to propose, who have none but clear thoughts of the excellency of the King; nor can I have other ends but the advancement of his Majesty's glory. I shall desire a little of your patience extraordinary, as I lay open the particulars, which I shall do with what brevity I may, answerable to the importance of the cause and the necessity now upon us; yet with such respect and observation to the time, as I hope it shall not be thought troublesome. I. For the first, then, our insincerity and doubling in religion, is the greatest and most dangerous disorder of all others. This hath never been unpunished; and of this we have many strong examples of all states and in all times to awe us. Will you have What testimony doth it want? II. For the second, our want of councils, that great disorder in a state under which there can not be stability. If effects may show their causes (as they are often a perfect demonstration of them), our misfortunes, our disasters, serve to If reason be alprove our deficiencies in council, and the conse lowed in this dark age, the judgment of depend- 1 The gun-powder plot for blowing up both houses of Parliament, and extirpating the Protestant religion at a single stroke, was still fresh in the minds of all. It is not, therefore, surprising, at a period when correct views of religious liberty were as yet unknown in England, that any remissness in executing the laws against Catholics, was regarded with great jealousy by Eliot and his friends, especially as the mother of Buckingham was of that communion. 2 Frederick V., the Elector Palatine, who married "the beautiful Elizabeth," sister of Charles I., had been attacked on religious grounds by a union of Catholic states in Germany, with Austria at their head, stripped of the Palatinate, and driven as an exile into Holland, with his wife and child. ΑΓ |