An Original Dissertation On Public Speaking.

the proximity of a magazine , the Mayor solemnly informed the meeting that if they 7 didn ' t mind what they were , about they would all be blowed into Eternity . The high falutin language used at some of the Town Council meetings in the North

, and which I have seen accurately reported by a wag of au editor , is something wonderful to read , and must be even more wonderful to listen to .

The crudeness of most extempore discourses must he patent to everybody , and nowhere is it more observable than in the House of Commons . Those who are unaccustomed to attend the House , little know how much they are indebted to the Parliamentary reporters for the speeches they read afterwards in the

newspapers . Last year I visited the House when the Civil Service Franchise Bill was coming on , and the House was talked out at one o ' clock in the morning by a Volunteer Colonel , who hummed and haa'd every minutebut who would get

, up to speak at every possible moment , on every possible question , whether he knew anything or nothing about it ; some friends of the Fenian cause , one or two of whom spoke admirably by the way ; a young lordling who chaffed the

Opposition in a pleasant easy horsey style , and one or two others who addressed the House as if they had no arms or legs , so inanimate and impressive were their gestures . Shall I say I was disappointed ? I think

I may , and yet members have been known to complain that they were not properly reported . Heaven be praised , the reporters knowbetter .

The best punishment I can conceive for some of these ambitious extempore speakers , would be to threaten to report them , verbatim—and do it . Well , how to remedy all this ? Elocution should be taught at our Universities . Cambridge does something in this way now ,

I think , inasmuch as lectures on elocution , by Professor D'Orsay are given there , only no one is obliged to attend them . Before a clergyman is ordained , it should be as necessary that he should pass an examination in elocution as in Divinity . At , our public institutions it should

be a regular part of education , and at our schools , whether public or private . Amongst our Dissenting brethren we know that their ministers are frequently fluent platform speakers and powerful preachers , simply , because under the

voluntary system , their congregations would not tolerate them were they otherwise . AVhy should there not be lay-preachers too ? Men who are specially gifted as speakers , and yet perhaps not able to enter the Church as ministersand who would

, possibly be incapable of becoming good parish priests , would g ladly give their gifts to the glory of God , and be instrumental in saving many souls alive , who knows , but have no opportunity afforded them in the Church of their fathers . Such men ,

and there are not a few in these days , —earnest , good , devout and learned laymen , —have been lost to the Church , and welcomed , in Dissent , —because the one would not receive them , and the . other would . I know there are some who think such

ideas radical , if not revolutionary—but they are by no means new-fangled , believe me . In the year 1555 , a Air . Tavernier , of Bresley , in Norfolk , had a special license , signed by Edward VI ., authorising him to preach in any place of his Majesty ' s dominions ,

though he was a layman , and he is said to have preached before the King at Court , wearing a velvet bonnet or round cap , a damask gown , and a gold chain round his neck .

In the reign of Queen Mary he appeared at St . Mary ' s , Oxford , with a sword by his side and a gold chain about his neck , and preached to the scholars , beginning in these words : " Arriving at the Mount of St . . Mary's , where I . now stand , I have brought you some fine biscuits baked in

the oven of charity , carefully conserved for the chickens of the Church . " This sort of style , especially the alliterative part of it , was much admired in those days even by the most accomplished of scholars , and was long after in great favour

with speakers aud hearers . At the time that Mr . Tavernier first received commission as a preacher , good preaching was so very scarce , that not only the King ' s chaplains were obliged to make circuit round the country to ins met the people , and to