There is no great Parliamentary orator in
England since Gladstone died. I once, a good many years ago,
studied the biographies of the men who belonged to that period
who were famous as great orators in Parliament or in Court,
to find, if I could, the secret of their power. With the
exception of Lord Erskine and of John Bright, I believe every
one of them trained himself by careful and constant translation
from Latin or Greek, and frequented a good debating society
in his youth.
Brougham trained himself for extemporaneous speaking in the
Speculative Society, the great theatre of debate for the University
of Edinburgh. He also improved his English style by translations
from the Greek, among which is his well-known version of the
"Oration on the Crown."
Canning's attention, while at Eton, was strongly turned to
extemporaneous speaking. They had a debating society, in
which the Marquis of Wellesley and Charles Earl Grey had been
trained before him, in which they had all the forms of the
House of Commons--Speaker, Treasury benches, and an Opposition.
Canning also was disciplined by the habit of translation.
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