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opportunity which you did not create, and can never restore.

"Hereafter, when these things shall be history, your age of thraldom and poverty, your sudden resurrection, commercial redress, and miraculous armament, shall the historian stop at liberty, and observe-that here the principal men among us fell into mimic trances of gratitude-they were awed by a weak ministry, and bribed by an empty treasury-and when liberty was within their grasp, and the temple opened her folding doors, and the arms of the people clanged, and the zeal of the nation urged and encouraged them on, that they fell down, and were prostituted at the threshold.

"I might, as a constituent, come to your bar, and demand my liberty. I do call upon you, by the laws of the land and their violation, by the instruction of eighteen counties, by the arms, inspiration, and providence of the present moment, tell us the rule by which we shall go,-assert the law of Ireland, declare the liberty of the land.

"I will not be answered by a public lie, in the shape of an amendment; neither, speak ing for the subjects' freedom, am I to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but to breathe, in this our island, in common with my fellow-subjects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition, unless it be the ambition to break your chain, and contemplate your glory. I never will be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags; he may be naked, he shall not be in iron; and I do see the time is at hand, the spirit is gone forth, the declaration is planted; and though great men should apostatize, yet the cause will live; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet,

but survive him.

"I shall move you, "That the King's most excellent Majesty, and the Lords and Commons of Ireland, are the only power competent to make laws to bind Ireland."

The eloquence of Curran, who possessed exhaustless wit and humour, and the natural adjunct of the latter, pathos, is chiefly forensic; but though far inferior to that of Plunket in logic, as to that of Grattan in splendour and fire, his speech in defence of Hamilton Rowan (which is modelled on the Pro Milo of Cicero) contains, perhaps, the most finished oratorical passage in modern eloquence. It is equal to the finest of Cicero, both in the elevation of its tone and the rhetórical perfection of its harmony :—

"I put it to your oaths: Do you think that a blessing of that kind, that a victory obtained over bigotry and oppression should have a stigma cast upon it, by an ignominious sentence upon men bold and honest enough to propose that measure? to propose the redeeming of religion from the abuses of the church; the reclaiming of three millions of men from bondage; and giving liberty to all who had a right to demand it? Giving, I say, in the so much censured words of the paper, giving UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION? I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery-the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of the chains that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of Universal Emancipation."

The question how far a speaker is to trust to improvisation, is one, of course, involved in the self-knowledge of the orator himself. Judging from the examples of eloquence which have been conserved, and traditional acdent, that while the greatest speeches counts of effects produced, it is evigreatest bursts have been improvised; have been studiously prepared the a fact obvious indeed, and illustrated by the long line of orators from Demosthenes to Burke, from Chatham to Mirabeau. The following eloquent passage, from Dupin's Inaugural Address, delivered before the French Academy in 1834, is worth inserting, as it sets forth the merits and demerits of improvisation, which, however, as we have said, must be a matter for individual consideration :—

grands exemples! Nos orateurs politiques les "Invoquons de grands souvenirs et de plus renommés, Mirabeau, Barnave, de Serre, le général Foy, n'ont-ils pas prouvé

que celui qui s'abandonne au milieu de ces circonstances ardentes à tous les hasards de l'improvisation, trouve quelquefois, dans l'embarras même de sa situation, des secours inespérés ?

"Quoique non préparé sur les mots, s'il connaît bien les choses, s'il sent vivement,

s'il est soutenu par la conscience du bien, au milieu même de tant d'isolement dans ce trouble incessamment apporté au développement de sa pensée par les interruptions les plus vives et les clameurs parfois les plus insenées-dans ces tourment de toutes ses facultés, il lui arrivera de rencontrer des tours, des expressions, des hardiesses qui ne viendraient pas trouver une homme

moins fortement excité.

"Ce que perdront le style et la belle ordonnance, l'orateur le regagnera du côté de l'action, de cette action oratoire à laquelle les anciens accordaient les trois premiers rangs. Sa main ne tiendra pas un cahier; son œil ne sera pas fixé sur son écriture, il retrouvera l'arme du regard; son esprit ne sera pas livré aux incertitudes de la mémoire; libre dans son allure comme ces cavaliers Numides qui montaient crû et sans frein, il luttera corps à corps avec son auditoire;

maître de retenir ou de laisser aller son dis

cours, de glisser sur ce qui commencerait à déplaire comme d'insister sur ce qui aura fait sensation; et, s'il est bien inspiré, son succès dépassera l'effet des discours les plus étudiés! Alors éclateront ces vives sympathies, ces retours électriques de l'assemblée sur l'orateur, qui l'avertiront qu'il a conquis les votes, et que la majorité vient à lui!"

There is, perhaps, no finer manifestation of the power of the human mind than that of an orator, launched unexpectedly on the ocean of improvisation, struggling onwards toward his object; extemporizing thought after thought; now apparently overwhelmed in a storm of interruption, yet rising stronger from opposition; now suddenly collecting his ideas in an interval of applause, battling with and conquering both himself and

his audience, and mounting triumphantly billow after billow, until at last he reaches his desired goal together with his auditory.

To inform, to please, to excite the feelings, such, according to Cicero, are the three objects of the orator. But from this category he omits its ultimate end, persuasion-the power of convincing. The art of the highest eloquence may be said chiefly to consist in satisfying the understanding and reason, and exciting the imagination and passions, to persuade and exalt, and impel. These essentials. also, he requires :- Knowledge of human nature, of himself, of his subject, and his audiences. He must be clear and attractive in his statements; lucid in the arrangement and sequence of his arguments; impassioned in his address to the passions, all whose springs and effects he has studied. An oration must have its lights and shades, its levels and heights, its harmonious intermixture of the clear and commonplace, the animated, the striking, and emotive-all tending to the special object in view, all effectively intermingled. Its ornaments (chiefly adapted to the level portions) must be introduced with chaste and consistent severity of taste, and have the appearance of following the subject with involuntary illustrative naturalness, rather than assuming an attractive prominence over it—such illuminations must illustrate, not divert. Speaking throughout with preconsidered prospective directness te the point, the orator must rise from the foundation of reason to sentiment, imagination, and passion, and must unite thought with emotion, and, so to speak, creating a storm with the passions of his own soul, hurry those of his audience along with him.

IN days when these islands were ruled by the early Georges, the education of no young gentleman was considered complete till he had achieved the feat indicated by the title of this paper, i.e., paid a visit to the courts and capitals of the European Powers. Taking the ranks and the dispositions of the tourists into account, there was a great variety in the mode of adding the finishing touch to the work of our schools and universities. The son of the influential nobleman had his introduction to the Court of this or that Grand Duke or King, and was present on grand ceremonial occasions, at great dinners, and huge drinking-bouts, and at boar and stag hunts. If he was disposed to acquire advanced notions in the art of governing people with the least trouble to, and the greatest advantage of, the governing party, he had the finest facilities afforded him by the Metterniches and the Pombals of the age. If born with a foible for self-indulgence, he would probably discover some varieties of vice, as yet uncultivated, at the Court of St. James's.

Tourists with less pretension would find greater or less welcome into the good () society of country or city, and according as wisdom or folly ruled, would turn their opportunities to account by visits to galleries, libraries, public institutions, and learned men, or abuse their privileges by frequenting gambling-houses, and cultivating the society of men and women of evil lives. A bad feature in the custom was the doing of the Grand Tour, in many instances, before Lord Altamont or the Honourable John Smith had thoroughly completed their college course. If the travelling tutor did his duty as a man of conscience, he insisted on his idly-disposed pupil devoting some hours per diem to study, and wrote to his honoured patron in England an unvarnished narrative of his unsatisfactory progress, and how he spent many more hours at the Spielhaus, the Gasthaus, and a worse Haus still, than at prayer and study. In this state of things the inter-relations of

pupil and tutor would be far from agreeable; but even that would be preferable to connivance or participation on the part of the philosopher and friend. On the whole, it would require study and experience to settle the balance of good and evil resulting from the institution of the Grand Tour.

That youngsters were sent abroad in this fashion may be gathered from many contemporary authorities; but we will send our readers no farther than to the Spectator of 28th April, 1712, where Mr. Philip Homebred enlarges on the custom, and protests against it :

"I cannot but believe that this humour of carrying a boy to travel, upon pretence of learning men and things, carries on it a particular stamp of folly.

Nothing is more frequent than to take a lad from grammar and taw, and under the tuition of some poor scholar, who is willing

to be banished for £30 a-year and a little victuals, send him crying and snivelling into foreign countries. He spends his time in staring and gaping at an infinite number of strange things, quite unprepared to comprehend the reasons and meaning of them, whilst he should be laying the solid foundations of knowledge in his mind, and furnishing it with just rules to direct his future progress in life, under some skilful master."

I wish, sir, you would make people understand, that travel is really the last step to be taken in the institution of youth, and to set out with it is to begin where they should end.

"The true end of visiting foreign parts is to look into their customs and policies, and observe in what particulars they excel, or come short of our own,-to unlearn some odd peculiarities in our manners, and wear off such awkward stiffnesses and affectations in our behaviour, as may have been contracted from constantly associating with one nation of men, by a more free, general, and mixed conversation. But how can any one of these advantages be attained by one who is a stranger to the customs and policies of his native country, and has not fixed in his mind the first principles of manners and behaviour? To endeavour it is to build a gaudy structure without any foundation; or, if I may be allowed the expression, to work a rich embroidery upon a cobweb.

"Another end of travelling, which deserves to be considered, is the improving

(of) our taste in the best authors of antiquity, by seeing the places where they lived, and of which they wrote,-to compare the natural face of the country with the descriptions they have given us, and observe how well the picture agrees with the original. This must certainly be a most charming exercise to the mind that is rightly turned for it; besides that, it may, in a good measure, be made subservient to morals, if the person is capable of drawing just conclusions concerning the uncertainty of human things from the ruinous alterations time and barbarity have brought upon so many palaces, cities, and whole countries, which make the most illustrious figures in history. And this may be not a little improved by examining every little spot of ground that we find celebrated as the scene of some famous action, or retaining any footsteps of a Cato, Cicero, or Brutus, or some such great virtuous man. A nearer view of any such particular, though really little and trifling in itself, may serve the more powerfully to warm the generous mind to an emulation of their virtues, and a greater ardency of ambition to imitate their bright examples, if it comes duly tempered and prepared for the impression. But this I think you will hardly believe those to be, who are so far from entering into the sense or spirit of the ancients, that they don't yet understand their own language with any degree of

exactness.

My Lord Chesterfield, who once helped us, Irish, to a practical bull, by setting up a Phoenix near the Viceregal Lodge, because its name sounded like the Irish one of the neighbouring well-Finn Uiscé (fairwater), would be far from subscribing to these common-sense remarks. His son, Philip Dormer Stanhope, having acquired the ordinary amount of scholarship, obtained (without the trouble of asking) full permission to join in the pleasures of the youthful society into which he might be thrown, with the view of acquiring gentlemanly ease and address. If he successfully cultivated the society of married ladies, whose Hymeneal bonds were worn lightly but gracefully, it was so much clear gain in the eyes of his indulgent parent. They would assist in those indispensable rites to the Graces, which the bland old Pagan was ever recommending, and which the young gentleman (to his credit be it spoken!) so perseveringly neglected.

When the distressed tradesman beheld the honoured and wealthy Earl

of Chesterfield luxuriously drive by in his chariot, he might naturally ask why should he be possessed of so much worldly happiness, and he be afflicted with sickness in his family, incessant toil and care, and fears of It would be becoming bankrupt.

well if he could be invisibly present when the poor old gentleman, afflicted with gout and deafness, and sorrow for the death of this treasured son, heard the news that he had been secretly married for some years before children were now looking to him for his death, and that his widow and support. Ah, if he had, with due regard to grace and gentlemanly deportment, caused some dozen of ladies of high rank to forget their sworn duty to God and their wedded lords!

but to marry in bourgeois fashion, nurse squalling children, and afterwards teach them their prayers and catechism-and all this to come between the wind and the nobleman, from whose letters Daniel Fenning, Philomath, would, in after times, extract the Principles of Politeness" for the behoof of English, Irish, and Scotch vulgarians!—Õh, it was a degradation "most tolerable, and not to be endured."

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But it is time to commence our excursion. As the travelling facilities from a hundred to a hundred and thirty years since were not so great as in this present year of grace, unless Neptune and Eolus happen to be in good-humour, our young traveller, his travelling tutor (let us hope he has in prospect more than £30 ayear and his food), and we, may, perhaps, toss on the German Ocean the best part of three days and three nights before we come in sight of Middleburgh or Helvoetsluys.

Before entering on the land of dykes, windmills, and canals, let us pay a flying visit to Brussels, where the Archduchess rules the battleground of Europe, and holds court for her puissant brother at Vienna.

While proceeding in the Passageboat from Bruges to Ghent, on the way to Brussels, our tutor and ward fare royally with the other passengers ladies and gentlemen. All seem disposed to contribute to the general comfort, but when the bills come to be discharged, our Englishmen find that they have to pay their quota for the rather liberal measure of wine