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    644 THE LEADER. [No. 432, Jtjey 3, 1858.

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    EXTEMPORE SPEAKING. The Art of Extempore...

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    THE DEFENCE OF OA.WNPORE. The Jhifunee o...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Missionary Adventures In Texas And Mexic...

    discontinue the dangerous contest . His answer has the true smack of An » lo-American Jack-Tar courtesy : —" You be d—d ; for what you pay ( one piastre ) , you may as well all go to h—11 . Fire !—fireman , you there ! more lard in the furnace ! " Their position now became fearful , when one of the passengers put an end to it by levelling a musket at the rival helmsman . The poor fellow dropped the wheel , and fell frightfully wounded . This book requires no further recommendation from us than the analysis here jjiven . Since the perusal of Livingstone ' s " Africa" have read no traveller ' s journal with more instruction and pleasure . It is eminently suggestive , too . We see a Texan bishop presiding over a vast diocese ,

    sheltered in an episcopal p-. ilace composed of " three wretched huts , " but overshadowed by fig-trees , bananas , rose-laurels , grenades , and citrons . His entire worldly riches are at one time comprised in the sum of twenty-five piastres , fifteen of which he contributes to the erection of Domenech ' s intended church . A Jew voluntarily offers five piastres , a Jewish lady of rank , who had just purchased a ball dress , feeing made acquainted with the Mission ' s poverty , presented it as a contribution for the same purpose . " I subsequently , " says the abbe \ " converted it into two beautiful white chasubles . " Noble example for Catholics , to see this Jewish lady foregoing all the pleasures of the ball , to aid a Catholic priest in his labour of charity !

    644 The Leader. [No. 432, Jtjey 3, 1858.

    644 THE LEADER . [ No . 432 , Jtjey 3 , 1858 .

    Extempore Speaking. The Art Of Extempore...

    EXTEMPORE SPEAKING . The Art of Extempore Speaking .-. Hints for the Tutyit , the Senate , and the Ear . By M . Bautain , Vicar-General , and Professor at the Sorbonne . & c . Translated from the French . Bosworth and Harrison . Thje want of a ^ system of oratory is no new one , nor can the Vicar-General claim originality in the attempt to supply it . The very preamble of Aristotle ' s bulky treatise recites , that " , to a certain extent , attempt as well to sift as to maintain an argument ; as well to defend themselves as to Impeach . Now , of the multitude , some do this at random ; others , by reason of practice , from habit ; but as it is possible either way , it is plain that the case will admit of our reducing these things to a system . " And low diligently he laboured to fill the void , which it would seem was , even

    in his time , acknowledged , is it not in the memory of those whose souls have been vexed with either the original or its Oxford translation from which we have extracted the preceding passage ? But hpw fruitless , again , have been that immortal treatise , as well as the " Brief " Thomas Hobbes —which alone is longer than NI . BauttuVs tract—is sufficiently shown by the inefficiency , as public speakers , even after considerable preparation , of the great majority of ; those who , attempting no higher flight than " eommuniaproprie dicere , " attract our sympathy when the note-book or sermoncase is mislaid , or the attack of the debater comes from an unexpected quarter-But a few days since , while dangling in the gilded halls of palaces , as the Chancellor of the Exchequer might peri p hrastically term listeiritig to some evidence in a now , alas ! pestilent parliamentary committee-room , it was

    our fate to interchange ideas upon the subject before the committee with a worthy knight of a certain shire . The honourable member was evidently well up in his subjects ; had not . only views , but sound ones , very far ahead of the tl loose ideas" and " vague impressions" which formed the staple of information upon it amongst members without-side the mysterious veil of office . We expressed natural surprise that this crystallized knowledge was allowed to slumber ; but , with rueful face , our friend assured us that , although he had taken great interest in the matter , and though from his age , character , and position he might hope for an attentive and considerate hearing , still , whenever the subject turned up , it was always in some such form that the prearranged scheme " of an oration he had carried for years in . his head , or , it may be , in liispocket , " would never fit in . " It was said , again , of a late member for a large borough constituency—and , we believe , most truly said—that he had not for years gone down to the House on a

    financial ni g ht without such a speech cut and dry as must have carried him on to the Treasury benches ; but it is no less the fact that this speech was never delivered , and the country has never gained the services of one of the most able of financiers . All those whom melancholy fate compels to sit for hours and hours in *• the gallery" at the unrequited task of manufacturing oratiuns , and loudest of all , perhaps , the Speaker himself , will bear witness that if the palmy days of British senatorial oratory are not past , or to come , they are to a certainty not present . Again , tlie general inferiority of our pulpit eloquence is so widely admitted to lessen the influence of ministers of the ICstablished Church , tlmfc we hear of professors of elocution , who not only lecture to large and attentive audiences in town and country , but find eager private pupils among sonic of the clergy , whoso means enable them to attempt the attainment of a gift which may be acquired by such as havo time , and will , and heart , aiul brains . Tor , as the lournoil author saya , in discouragement of mnemonics or artificial memory , —

    If your address bo the expression of an idea fraught with life , it will develop itself naturally , as plants germinate , as animals grow , through the sustained notion of n vital force , by an incessant organic operation , by tliu effusion of a living principle . It ought to issuo from tha depths of the soul , as the stream from its spring—ex abundantld cordia oa loquitur , out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speuketh . But a heart there must be ; and in tluit heart n fulness of fculiii " , manifesting itself by a plenitude of ideas , which will give in its turn plenitude of expression . The mouth speaks with ease when the heart is full ; but if it is empty , the head takes its office , and it is the head which has recourse tj these artificial means , for want of the inspiration which fails it .

    11 l'iunt oratores , nnecuntur poetic , " aiiith Quiiitilinn , whose , bulky Institutes of Oratory , by the way , are additional evidence of the labour , compnmtivcly still-born before the invention of printing , devoted to the systematizing of oratory and of thinking too ; and M . Bautain , tukhxr the mind of the pupil for granted , endeavours in the work before us to induce those to cultivate and develop the natural qualities necessary to improvisation who havo the good fortune to possess them ; and desires , above all , to point out tho signs by which any one may discover whcllicr he be capable of speaking in public , and how , in so doing , lie may succeed . For

    By the very fact of social organization , and springing out of its forms , there are constantly cases in which you may be called to speak in public , ou account of th position which you fill or the duties which you discharge . Thus , committees will constantly exist in which , are discussed state or municipal interests , and deliberative or boaTd-room resolutions are passed by a majority of votes . There will al-ways be council of state , general and borough councils , legislative assemblies , parliaments and committees of a hundred sorts . In the second place , there will always be tribunals where justice is dispensed , and where the interests of individuals in collision witl those of the public , or with , one another , have to be contended for before judges whom must seek to convince There will

    you or persuade . always be a system of public teaching to enlighten and train the people , -whether by the addresses of scientific men or of ministers of religion : the latter of whom , teaching in the name of the Almighty , must unremittingly remind men cf their last end , of the best means with which to meet it , making their earthly and transitoTy interest subordinate to their celestial and everlasting happiness . Here , then , we have four great fields in which men are daily called on to speak in public , in order there to discuss the gravest interests of society , of family , and of individuals , or else to unfold truths more or less lofty , often hard to comprehend or to admit , and the knowledge or conviction of which is of the highest moment to the welfare of society and persons .

    This elegant writer then treats at length of the qualifications for oratory , of tlie conception , preparation , and arrangement of a plan of intellectual and bodily preparation for speaking—although these be little in harmony with the idea of improvisation and of the discourse itself—with felicity and eloquence . ^ He opens his twentieth chapter on " the Beginning or Exordium , " wittily enough with the observation of the confidant in the comedy otLes Plaideui-s— "W \\ nt I know best is my opening "—and leads his reader gracefully along to the peroration in the twenty-fourth chapter , where we find a few sentences which must be so universally felt and acknowledged to be true , in fact , so old and stale , as some would say , yet withal so nicely put , that , if not for the amusement of the reader , at least for his possible benefit , we extract them : — If it is difficult to begin , when one extemporises ; it is still more difficult to finish — that is , to finish well . Most orators spoil their speeches by lengthiness , and prolixity is the principal disadvantage of extemporaneous speaking . In it , more than in any other , one wants time to be brief , and there is a perpetual risk of being carried away by the movement of " the thoughts or the expressions .

    It sometimes happens , unfortunately , that you are barely into your subject when you should end ; and then , with a confused feeling Of all that you have omitted , and a sense of what you might still say , you are anxious to recover lost ground in some degree , and you begin some new development when you ought to be concluding . This tardy and 'unseasonable yet crude after-growth has the very worst effect upon the audience , which , already fatigued , becomes impatient and listens no longer . TJi « speaker loses his words and his trouble , and everything he adds by way of elucidating or corroborating what he has said , spoils what has gone before , destroying the impression of it . He repeats himself unconsciously , and those who still listen to him follow him with uneasiness , as men watch from shore , a bark which seeks to make port and cannot . It is a less evil to turn short round and finish abruptly than thus to tack incessantly without advancing . For tlie greatest of a speaker ' s * misfortunes is that he should bore . The bored hearer becomes almost an enemy . An unseasonable or awkward speaker inflicts a downright torture on those who are compelled to hear him , a torture that may amount to sickness or a nervous paroxysm . Such is the state into which a too lengthy discourse , and , abo"ve all , a never-ending peroration , plunge the audience . It is easy to calculate the dispositions it inspires and the fruit it produces .

    Sometimes—and I humbly confess that I here speak from experience— the orator is still more unfortunate , if that were possible . He wants to finish , and no longer knows how , like a man who seeks to quit a house in danger , and finds all the doors shut ; he runs right and left to discover an escape , and strikes against dead walls . Meanwhile , time pressed , and the impatience of the public betrays itself by a repressed disturb ' ante , some rising to go away , some moving on their seats , while a confused hum ascends towards the speaker—a too certain token that he is no longer attended to , and that he is speaking to the air , which fact only increases hia agitation and perplexity . At last , as everything has an end in this world , he reaches liis conclusion after some fashion or other , and war-weary , either by catching hold of the commonplace wind-up about eternal life , should he be preaching , or , under other circumstances , by some panting period which liQ 8 the air of expressing a feeling or a thought , and which in nine cases out of ten fills tlio ear with sonorous and empty words . And thus the poor orator who could do better , and who is conscious that he has done ill , retires with lowly mien , much confused , and vowing , though rather late , that they shall not catch him in that way any more .

    Alas ! yet again , perhaps , shall thoy so catch " him , even after the most laborious preparation ; for there is nothing so fitful as eloquence . It needs but an omission , a distraction , to break tho thread of ideas and launch you into void or darkness , and then you grope in a forest , or rather struggle amid a chaos . It is a true oratorical discomfiture and rout . Header , if ever thou hast floundered in the Maelstrom of a suspended peroration , or gone astray after a Jnck-a-liuitern idea in the wood of tb + gy conclusions , de to . fahttla narratur—the voice from the Sorbonne may profit tliee . Wo cannot conclude our brief notice without a word of praise for the translator .

    The Defence Of Oa.Wnpore. The Jhifunee O...

    THE DEFENCE OF OA . WNPORE . The Jhifunee of Cuwnjwre . By Liout .-Colonel John Adyc , C . B ., Royal Artillery-Longman and Co . It will be remembered—although tho tremendous dimensions of the Indian intulligi'ncKj and tlie rapidity of communication now-u-days cause sivd confusion in civilian recollections of facts connected with the war—that the tloro of the llcdsm was censured gravely by certain Indian correspondents for his arrangements while in charge of Cawnporc from tlie 26 th to the ' 20 th of November last during the absence of Sir Colin Campbell , then fin route

    for the relief of Luuknow . A great number of the public hastened , us a matter of course , to pull down the popular idol , whose position , as a pet of the aristocracy , indued , served materially to whet tliu tooth of envy nud the sharp sword of detraction . It wjih assumed somewhat hastily tlmt tlio tfciiieral wus in disgrace with Sir Colin . Tins granted , it , followed that he viud lmvo been grievously to blame ; and tikis again granted , he buenme a dreadful example of fnvouriLiam , and tlie wickedness of those who appoint Micro niecutein to responsible eoininnnds . In time , Iiowever , the Coiiiiiiander-in Cliici in Indiu stops out of his way to thank hia subordinate , and repair , as he

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 3, 1858, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03071858/page/20/