Edgefield Advertiser

ELOQUENCE OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

All accounts, however, concur in representing the effects of his eloquence to have been prodigious. The spirit and vehemence which animated his greater passages, their perfect application to the subject matter of debate, the appositeness of his invective to the individual assailed, the boldness of the feats which he ventured upon, the grandeur of the ideas which he unfolded, the heart-stirring nature of his appeals, are all confessed by the united testimony of all his contemporaries, and the fragments which remain bear out to a considerable extent such representations; nor are we likely to be misled by those fragments for the more striking passages were certainly the ones least likely to be either forgotten or fabricated. To these mighty attractions was added the imposing, the animating, the commanding power of the countenance singularly expressive; an eye so piercing that hardly any one could stand its glare: and a manner altogether singularly striking, original, and characteristic, not withstanding a peculiarly defective and even awkward action. Latterly indeed, his infirmities precluded all action; and he is described as standing in the House of Lords, leaning upon his crutch, and speaking for ten minutes together in an undertone of voice, scarcely audible but, raising his notes to one of his grand bursts of invective or exclamation. But, in his earlier time, his whole manner is represented as having been beyond conception, animated and imposing. Indeed, the things which he effected by it principally, or at least have made it possible to attempt, almost exceeded belief.— Some of these sallies are, indeed, examples of that approach made to the ludicrous by the sublime, which has been charged upon him as a prevailing fault, and represented under the name of Charlatanerie—a favorite phrase with his adversaries, as in later times has been with the ignorant undervaluers of Lord Erskine. It is related, that once in the H. of Commons he began a speech with the words, "sugar, Mr. Speaker"—and then, observing a smile to prevail in the audience; he paused, looked fiercely round, and, with a loud voice, rising in its notes and swelling into vehement anger, he is said to have pronounced again the word "sugar!" three times, and having thus quelled the house, and extinguished every appearance of levity or laughter, turned round and disdainfully asked, "who will laugh at sugar now?" We have this anecdote upon good authority: that it was believed by those who had the best means of knowing Lord Chatham, is certain; and this of itself, shows their sense of the extraordinary powers of his manner, and the reach of his audacity in trusting to those powers—Edinburgh Review.