TRICKS OF ORATORS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1437, 29 August 1884, Page 2

TRICKS OF ORATORS.

Great orators have not scrupled to use the arts of the actor to produce their effects. Lord Brougham, while protesting against the rejection of the ; Keform Bill by the House of Lords, cried out, " I implore you upon my knees !" kneeling before them on the " woolsack " upon which the Lord ' Chancellor sits when presiding in the House of Lords. > Sheridan, having finished his famous ; speech in the trial of Warren Hastings, sank back apparently fainting in the arms of his friends. L Edmund Burke, at the end of a Bpeech upon the atrocities which might i be expected from the French in case i of an invasion, drew forth an enormous < two-edged dagger, and exclaiming, " This is the weapon which will be I pointed at your throats and mine 1" ' dashed it on the floor with a tragic < gesture. s Shortly afterwards Lords Cairns, - speaking against Burke (who was suspected of having amassed his wealth i dishonestly), exclaimed, •' And this is the weapon which is used with fatal effect against yon and me !" dragging i out with Burkes gesture, a five pound note. As every one looked to see him • dash it on the floor, he quietly folded i it and put it in his pocket. i One of the most noted criminal lawyers now in this country, while plead- ' ing the cause of his client, i&. invariably 1 so overcome by his innocence and wrongs that his voice fails, he chokes, ' lie sobs, and is forced to sit down to i recover himself. •• I should think, Mr D : ," said Judge M to him lately, •' that the jury would understand your iittle drama by this time." i " Ah, your lordship forgets," said i D , his eyes twinkling, " that it is always a new jury before whom I play." Prince Bismarck has a profound contempt not only for such tricks of oratory, but for oratory itself "It is but the gloss that hides truth," he said lately. " Your eloquent fellow is like the woman who has a naturally I fine figure and who screws it into stays and covers it with tasteless finery." There is & juste milliett between the Prince's theory and Burkes practice which young men would do well to find.