THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1907. THE DECLINE OF ORATORY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8488, 16 July 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1907. THE DECLINE OF ORATORY.

That oratory has declined in the House of Commons since the days of Pitt and Sheridan has often been remarked. Now we have Mr H. W. Lucy saying that in his thirty years' experience he has noticed a great change. There are many able men in the present Parliament, but there is not one who poses as an orator. There have been several factors in bringing about this change. The greatest is, perhaps, the increasing pressure of business. There is no time for set speeches of two hours, except by Ministers in introducing policy measures. Iu the old days hundreds of Members were content to sit enraptured by the eloquence of eight or ten. Now, with special wires feeding local papers, many Members feel it incumbent on them to talk, about measures of importance. "In these prosaic days," says Mr Lucy, "a Member, however eminent, rising with evident intent of delivering a set oration, would first be stared at, then left to discourse to himself, tha Speaker, and an admiring family circle in the Ladies' Galley." Gladstone was the last of the great orators, and even he, towards the end of his career, was influenced by the new style. Bright was, in Mr Lucy's opinion, even greater than Gladstone as an orator. To sincerity and conviction he added airy graces of speech, and Nature had gifted him with one of the most wonderful voices that ever rang through the classic chamber. Mr Lucy likens it to a peal of bells. A single bell could not produce the varied tones

in which Bright suited his voice to his theme. For Disraeli, as an orator, the Liberal journalist has not much praise. He lacked two necessary qualities, earnestness and conviction. When he affected to be roused to righteous indignation he was more amusing than impressive. As a matter of fact he was often dull, and there were, in Mr Lucy's time, few things duller than a long speech from Disraeli. His forte was the coining of brilliant phrases generally personal in their bearing, and when these flashed forth he delighted the House. These, laboriously constructed in the seclusion of his study, were carefully dropped in the most effective place, and those who did not know him imagined they were minted on the spot.