the effect this has produced in England-we know that the country pants and languishes for something like a Government. (renewed cheering.) And let not my right hon. and noble friends opposite flatter themselves that if-as no doubt we shall be--we are beaten on this division-that there will be the slightest alteration in the course which the great Conservative party have resolved to pursue. (reiterated cheering.) I tell them-that measure by measure- that step by step----that failure after failure, (cheers,) we will watch-we will check— we will controul the cabinet, (prolonged cheering,) we will support them, when (as they have often been,) they are glad of our support against their friends, (cheers): but no consideration shall restrain us from pursuing steadily the fixed line of duty which will be the immutable policy of the Conservative party, from obstructing your measures, from confounding your plans, (immense cheers,) from throwing out schemes as we believe prejudicial to the best interests of the empire. (renewed cheers.) We will thus watch and scrutinize measures, from the very commencement of the session to the close, (great cheering): we will leave to others the name, while we are content to wield, the authority of Government." (Deafening and long continued cheering.)

your

We insert this glowing, burning passage, with all the interruptions it received, because in no other way could we give an adequate idea of the electrical effect which the energetic eloquence, the impetuous rushing of the Stanley oration had upon the house. And so he proceeded onward to the end, darting forth climax after climax of such impassioned eloquence as this we have just quoted; heaping denunciation upon denunciation-taunt on taunt-charge on charge-pouring the stream of his indignant invectives, or his passionate appeals, over the whole field of home, foreign, and colonial policy-on the absurdities of open questions, with respect to great national interests-the corn-laws-the suffrage-the ballot-on the inconsistency or the vacillation, the feebleness of the Government on their weak opposition to Chartism-on their indecision as to colonial, their negligence as to foreign, administration; closing with an outburst which seemed to make the ministry quiver in their seats-and the lightning of his oratory followed by peal after peal of applauding thunder, which startled the dead midnight, and might have almost echoed through the Abbey.

Pale, nervous, and oppressed with conscious weakness, Lord Morpeth slowly, evidently reluctantly, rose to endeavour to stem the mighty torrent which had just dashed over the Cabinet. Discouraging -indeed hopeless, the attempt, while the sound of Stanley's eloquence yet lingered in their ears, and the shouts of charmed senators had not died from the walls. He moved the adjournment, and reserved himself for the following evening, when, fresh, cool, and collected, he had a more auspicious opportunity. The very reverse of his great rival, Lord Morpeth is not possessed of those ready and inexhaustible stores of oratory, which Stanley needs only the attack of an opponent worthy of him to pour forth. Lord Morpeth requires preparation. Lord Stanley's speech would have been, if possible, yet more tremendously effective, had he not been prevented, by the lateness of

the hour at which Macaulay had closed (one o'clock), from instantly following him. Lord Morpeth's orations are more pleasing than powerful; there is a nicety about his selection of terms, an accuracy in the balance of his antitheses, which betray study: his delivery, though marked with an air of frankness and boldness, has yet the tone of a recitation, and has a somewhat of formality no tittle of fire about it: his hits are good, but they were practised: he has not the ready skill of a master. His perorations are always excellent, often displaying great beauty of language; and then the excitement of the speech having imparted more of warmth and energy to his manner, his delivery is forcible, effective, and eloquent.

His speech was practical, temperate, and to the point. He followed Lord Stanley, topic after topic, with great spirit and effect: and his strokes are not the less effective, because always given with a good temper and a fairness which disarm resentment. This merit at least bis carefully prepared speech had, that it took up no theme on which it did not "tell well." His reference to the opinions expressed by the constituencies which had been recently appealed to in favour of the Government, was in a fine tone of eloquent triumph; and he was very felicitous in the terms he employed: indeed, this is one of his Lordship's best points,-he selects the most expressive, frequently the most picturesque language for descriptions, and often expresses a great deal by a single word, as when he spoke, of "a great suburban district "of the metropolis, the crowded manufacturies of Birmingham, the "classic capital of the north and noble sea-port in the south, even "the Ducal Borough of Newark:" an epithet which, as his Lordship rightly anticipated, elicited great applause (from his supporters). And there was an exulting boldness in the manner in which he declared, that if his opponents, "forgetful of that better part,' that yet was open to them, of mollifying the asperities, and softening the animosities of party dissensions; of promoting, in one word, the real interests of the empire, so far as the petty selfishness of party should prompt me— I have only to bid them, go on. Stir up or rather permit to be stirred up [another well studied, 'palpable hit,'] the fierce embers of departed intolerance, re-illume the fires of decaying bigotry: we shall put our confidence in the improved condition, in the increased intelligence, in the returning sense, of a disabused people."

This passage is a fair specimen of Lord Morpeth's style; the whole "hit" of the last sentence lies in the word-evidently carefully collated-"disabused:" and so it ever is with him. He makes good strokes, if he has time to get them ready: and then they never fail, as in this instance was the case-always reserving as he does his strength for a peroration, to draw down great applause from those, the chord of whose feelings he has thus, with nice care, precisely struck.

The debate was now carried on with all the heat and acrimonious virulence of a last struggle, by combatants not possessing any claims to particular admiration, till O'Connell, having dealt out his customary, and now wearying, hundred-times repeated tale of " 'fighting men, and "justice to Ireland;" at about midnight, SIR ROBERT amidst the deep, the breathlessly-silent interest of a House, every side

of which presented dense masses of anxious countenances-rose to speak; and the full, calm, melodious voice of the great Conservative statesman was heard in tones of temperate, though earnest appeal to the understandings, the impartiality of the audience. On his brow was visible a deeper weight of anxiety, his opening sentences announcing a larger, a more important field than that of a mere contest for power. Once more let us resort to our battle-field imagery. We thought of the steady, the firm, collected movement of vast masses of veteran infantry, battalion after battalion, slowly and with measured tread, passing over the ground, and at last forming into one grand, unbroken line, to bear down, in imposing majesty, with a simultaneous and overwhelming charge upon the foe.

Sentence after sentence rolled, with solemn, yet mellifluous emphasis, along. Train after train of close reasoning, earnest expostulation, relieved, diversified-but not for a moment interrupted-on the contrary, enforced and enhanced-by the aptest illustrations, clothed in the happiest language, enlivened now and then by a rich vein of elegant and polished satire, and often ennobled by an unostentatious— and for that reason more effective-burst of natural eloquence.

What could possibly be richer in all that gives elevation to sarcasm, and dignity to humour, by making both subservient to the furtherance of a great argument; what in the whole annals of Parliamentary eloquence could be found more exquisitely amusing, and at the same time more poignantly severe, than the parallel the Rt. Hon. baronet drew between the unhappy Dido and the unfortunate Cabinet Minister who "told his constituents, from the proud keep of Windsor," that he entered the Government with a view of furthering the objects of the Ballot and Extended Suffrage, to which that Government was strongly opposed? What a delightful appropriateness there was in the paraphrase of the classic speech, which he put into the mouth of the disappointed Edinburgh constituency, when they found no effects from the high-promising alliance

"When told that, forsooth, these great constitutional questions are to be open questions,' will they not reproach the right hon. gent. with having deluded and deceived them? If too classical to vent their upbraidings in plain prose, may they not borrow the language of the forsaken Queen

'Nusquam tuta fides. ?'

"Nay, may they not continue the quotation

"Here you are in office-where are your pledges now? Is there to be no fruits of our mutual love. no offspring of our soft affection? no small measure stamped with the image of your paternity, and bearing on it lineaments of your parental features? What! you can coquet with us-you entered the cause with us;-is your reply now

to be

Non hæc in fœdera veni?'

No Ballot Bill? no Suffrage Bill?

'Si quis mihi parvulus aulâ

Luderet Æneas qui te tantum ore referret

Non equidem omnino capta ac deserta viderer.'"

No language can describe the peals of merriment excited by this happiest of classical allusions, marked as it was by a fine mock pathos of tone and manner. And then how splendid was the continuation of Lord John Russell's figure of "heaving the anchor of the constitution, while the signs of storm are blackening the horizon." (Vide Stroud Letter.)

"The noble Lord has taken into his vessel an able-bodied seaman, whose only aim will be to heave the anchor; and the result will be, that, the noble Lord anxious to retain the anchor, and his right hon. colleague to raise it, neither will perfectly succeed; and thus the vessel of the state, with an imperfect holding, and yet unable, in open sea-room, to encounter the perils of the sea, will drag dishonourably down, till it founders on the muddy, sandy shoal of 'progressive Reform'"-might not the Right Hon. Baronet have added, " or wrecked on the rock of revolution?" Then how luminous and clear his financial expositions. How able his exhibition of the folly of the socalled "moral agitation" of assembling thousands, and talking to them of "arms and force." How indignantly eloquent his rebuke of the encouragement of Owenist obscenities by a careless government. How talented and superior the brief glance he directed to our foreign relations. But the glory of the oration was the manly, the frank, the unequivocal declaration of his political opinions and intentions. What cheering-aye, and on both sides too, for manliness is yet a characteristic that Englishmen will admire-followed the noble declarations, uttered in spirited and elevated tones ·"Whatever may be the consequences of declaring my principles of public policy, I would rather incur them all than conciliate the support of a single member, by withholding my honest opinions, or by pretending acquiescence in sentiments I do not entertain." And one after the other of all the disputed questions of the day—Privilege, Poorlaws, Corn-laws, Reform act, Catholic Emancipation-he distinctly, in perspicuous and statesmanlike language, avows his decided opinions. On this last topic, the declarations he made of the sacrifices he had risked, and the losses he had incurred, were most powerfully affecting, both to orator and listeners.

And then the close-it possessed the noblest characteristics of eloquence, elevation of sentiment, simplicity--yet power of expression, aided by a delivery, calm, solemn, and dignified. Those who heard it, will never forget his utterance of the finishing sentences:-" I shall above all retain the satisfaction and distinction of co-operation with that illustrious man, by whose right hand I have stood in the great conflicts which have been fought within the last twelve years; who now, with intellect unimpaired by advancing years, is proving that the same qualities which raised him to the highest pitch of military renown, fortitude, perseverance, simplicity of mind, the love of question, the zeal 'to do his duty'-qualities how rare in their separate excellences, how wonderful in their combination!-can still secure to him in civil life, and as a statesman, a reputation not inferior to that which he has achieved as a warrior and a negotiator. Supported by that confidence, and supported also, as I believe, by the confidence of a great portion of those great classes of the community who influ

ence the general mind-the Church, the manufacturer, the yeomanry, the merchants; I cannot believe that my opinions are incapable of being carried into execution in the practical art of administration. Having this confidence and co-operation, I shall at least be enabled to place an effectual check upon every downward movement: I shall be enabled effectually to assist you when you are right, and refuse improper concessions: and if you are wrong, and make those concessions, I shall be enabled to oppose impediments, which you will call obstructions, but which I shall view as salutary guarantees against the conversion of this free and limited monarchy into an unqualified and unmitigated democracy."

Oh, the cheers that followed this speech, they will reverberate through the empire!

The Debate virtually was over. Lord John Russell, indeed, attempted a reply; but who, at three o'clock in the morning, and after a four nights' discussion, could be eloquent? Certainly not his Lordship. Nevertheless, he continued till near five, labouring with great industry, and undoubtedly great talent, to destroy the effect of THE speech.

The DIVISION the Nation knows.

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.

THE silver moon was beaming
In the starry-mantled sky;
The wanton winds lay dreaming
In their airy halls on high.

I gazed above-around me,
On the calm and silent night;
Some magic spell hath bound me
To those glittering isles of light.

Thence heavenly music stealing
On my glad and listening ears,
Entranced each joyful feeling-
'Twas the music of the spheres.
'Twas Nature's glorious minstrelsy
In the planets bright and fair,
Which roll in ceaseless harmony
In the boundless void of air.

T. T. L.

W. F. C.