How Mr Bright Prepared his Speeches.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 383, 10 July 1889, Page 6

How Mr Bright Prepared his Speeches.

In the May number of the " Contemporary Review " Dr. Dale gives some interesting illustrations of tho method in which fche late Mr Bright prepared his speeches. When Mr Bright had a great speech to make he brooded over it ; but ~ did not do his preparation at his desk or in solitude only. As arguments and illustrations occurred to him he liked to try their effect by talking them over with his friends ; and when he was at home, if nobody else was within reach, he talked them over with his gardener. Then ho propared tho notes to use in speaking. Of these he said, in a letter which has been published before, " I do not write my facts or my arguments, but make notes on two or three or four slips of note paper, giving the lino of ax-gument, and the facts as they occur to my mind, and I leave the words to come at call when I am speaking. There are occasionally short passages which for accuracy I may write down : as sometimes also — almost invariably — the concluding words or sentences may be written." This statement left it doubtful how much the preparation amounted to, and how far tho notes formed the framework of the speech. jJr. Dale is ablo to clear these questions up by publishing fac-similes of two slips of Mr Bright's speech in the Birmingham Town Hall on the 12th January, 1878. The speech was of the usual length, about an hour or an hour and live minutes ; the notes used were written on five half-sheets of paper ; and when he Bat down, says Dr. Dale, "I asked him to give them tome, and he was good enough to comply with my request." The sheets reproduced in fac simile are the first and the last, and they illustrate two points in Mr Bright's method. The first sheet contains 130 words many of them scored underneath, and Dr. Dale reproduces on the opposite page a part of tho printed report of the actual speech. This report contains some 680 words, which correspond to and are the expansion of 65 written words, or exactly the first half of Mr Bright's slip of notes. The first nine words on the first slip formed the basis of 127 spoken words, Further down is written, "Public mind fed with falsehoods and drunk with passion." In the speech he said, "At that time the public mind was filled witL falsehoods, and it was in a state which one might describe by saying that it became almost drunk with pa3sion." The last sheet illustrates Mr Bright's method of writing down poetical quotations, and tho concluding words or sentences of his speech. His manuscript reads, ' Of the past the poet has written— Religion, Freedom, Vengeance, what you will Are words enough to raise mankind to kill Sonio cunning phrase by faction caught' and spread That guilt may reign, and wolves and worms be fed." The quotation was introduced by the words, " Some poet— l forget who it is— has said." Aiter the quotation the note runs on "Some cunning phrase— as the old hobgoblin, the balance of power, or the new terror, the danger to British interests." In the speech Mr Bright repeated the third line of the quotation, "'Some cunning/ phrase by faction caught and spread,' like the cunning phrase of the 'balance of power,' which has been described as a ghastly phantom which the Government of this country has been pursuing for two centuries, and has never yet overtaken. Somo cunning phrase like that we hear of now, of ' British interests.'" The great orator, it will be noticed, followed his notes without slavishly adhering to them. The concluding words of this speech were in the notes — "This noble hall. This vast gathering represents the countless population around in a resolve that the sanguinary record of the past shall be closed, and that our annals shall be in- | scribed with the blessod message of mercy i and of peace." This final sentence was, like others, expanded by the kindled feeling of the orator, for fche report of the speech concludes— "l am delighted to see this grand meeting in this noble hall. This building is consecrated to peace and freedom. You are here in your thousands, representing the countless multitudes outside. May we not to-night join our voices in this resolution that, so far as we are concerned, the sanguinary record of fche history of our country shall be closed, and that we will open a new page, in which shall henceforth be inscribed the blessed message of mercy and peace ?"

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