delivering a judgement; his large cavernous eyes wide awake, his lips compressed, and his whole countenance in that intent stillness which instantly fixes the eye of the stranger. It is not uncommon for him to saunter into the court, throw himself down, and lean back against the table, while seeming to see nothing about him; and there is no knowing whether he will by-and-by go away, or whether he will rouse himself suddenly and stand up to address the judges. However it may turn out, it is amusing to see how the court will fill after the entrance of Webster, and empty when he has returned to the senate-chamber. In his pleading, as in his speaking in the senate, it is interesting to see one so dreamy and nonchalant roused into strange excitement. It is something to watch him moved with anxiety in the toil of intellectual conflict; to see his lips tremble, his nostrils expand, the perspiration start upon his brow; to hear his voice vary with emotion, and to trace the expression of laborious thought while he pauses, for minutes together, to consider his notes and decide upon the arrangement of his argument. In the senate his services are invaluable; he there displays industry, energy and sound-headedness. When speaking he manifests great earnestness; he seems to believe everything he says, and to convince his audience, not so much by an appeal to their passions as to their reasoning powers. He speaks, however, but seldom in Congress: when he does, it is generally on some constitutional question where his logical powers and legal knowledge are brought into play, and where his authority is considered as oracular by an assemblage of the first men in the country. Before entering on such an exercise he may be seen absent and thoughtful, making notes. When he rises his voice is moderate and his manner quiet, with the slightest possible mixture of embarrassment; his right hand rests upon his desk, and the left hangs by his side. Before his first head is finished, however, his voice has risen so as to fill the chamber and ring again, and he has fallen into his favourite attitude, with his left hand under his coattail, and his right in full action. At this moment the eye rests upon him as upon one under true inspiration, seeing the invisible and grasping the impalpable. When the vision has passed away the change is astonishing: he sits at his desk, writing letters or dreaming, so that he does not always discover when the senate is going to a division. Some one of his party has not seldom to jog his elbow, and tell him that his vote is wanted. Having thus given a brief sketch of Mr. Webster's political and personal career, and professional habits, we proceed to an examination of the characteristic features of his eloquence, as they are exhibited to us in the published specimens under notice. We may thence, and by the aid of some collateral considerations, be best enabled to judge of his claims as an orator, a statesman and a patriot. The variety of speeches and addresses contained in the volumes that stand first at the head of our article (the other work being merely a selection from them) may be divided into three main classes, the popular, the forensic and the parliamentary or congressional. But this division has reference only to the places where they were delivered: as regards the more immediate objects and purposes they were intended to serve, as well as their inherent properties, they may be distinguished into constitutional, financial and miscellaneous; from each of which we purpose to present the reader with passages in illustration of what previous remarks we are about to make. We know of no American writer or speaker whose language is more purely English, seldom or never dealing in expressions that may be denominated κατ' ἐξοχὴν Americanisms, his words flowing as from "a well of English undefiled." It is, moreover, of the most masculine strength and texture; everything is straightforward, clear, distinct and intelligible. Except as regards some of his earlier and more ambitious efforts, there is, in general, but little apparent hunting after far-fetched graces and meretricious adornments, rounding of periods, or anxious collocation of epithets; still, though there be occasional asperities, a seeming negligence in the choice of words, and certain indications of the want of a thoroughly refined taste, there is yet nothing to disgust or offend. No feebleness or obscurity marks his diction, which either flows on like the even course of a strong and clear current, or, as occasion may require, comes down with the weight and impetuosity of a cataract. His general style is different from that of either of his able contemporaries, Clay and Calhoun; inasmuch as it has not the classical and polished gracefulness of the one, nor the sententious brevity and rapid closeness of the other; nor, on the other hand, would it be easy to find in the whole compass of his speeches a single instance of those involved parenthetic clauses which so distinguish the oratorical effusions of Lord Brougham. Unlike at least in as far as his later productions are concerned the common run of American orators, who, as has been well observed, "live and move and have their being upon stilts," Mr. Webster, though he may occasionally mount, generally walks upon the ground with a manly and meaning stride. While he indulges less frequently than Everett in metaphor and simile, and in effort after effect, he exercises a rare judgement in the selection of those figures which are necessary to explain and illustrate his sentiments. Nevertheless, with correctness of judgement he unites a strong sensibility of mind and a prompt and lively imagination, and his metaphors are warm, glowing and descriptive. These seem, for the most part, to suggest themselves spontaneously, and, falling in naturally with a mighty and ready flow of thought, impart an unaffected beauty and grandeur to the general strain of the discourse. As one of the distinguishing properties of Mr. Webster's eloquence is impassioned earnestness; as he seems always fully persuaded himself of whatever he is submitting or recommending to others, so his language corresponds to his sentiments, which are his own; and hence in him we have the "vera voces ab imo pectore," the unassumed utterance of the heart and head. In common with the generality of American orators, Mr. Webster is not always free from one great defect, namely, lengthiness (to use one of their own words), occasioned oftentimes by repetitions. We must admit that in speaking this is not always a fault;-the same thought requires to be presented, perhaps, in different views; as the hearers can gather it only from the mouth of the speaker, and have not the advantage, as in reading, of turning back again, and of dwelling on what they do not fully comprehend. To a certain extent it may, therefore, be permitted to a public speaker to pass and repass the same topics in review before his audience; but we are mistaken if Mr. Webster does not occasionally transVOL. XIII.-No. XXVI. 2 M gress the proper limit. While we consider him justly liable to this charge, we acquit him however of the other prominent defect in the style of his countrymen,-an inflated, meaningless grandiloquence; in no sense indeed, that we are aware of, can the lines of Molière, applicable to many, be justly applied to him, as ......un parleur étrange, et qui trouve toujours L'art de ne vous rien dire avec de grands discours. Several American writers, as well as orators, seem as if they never could say enough upon a subject. A favourite figure with them is pleonasm or redundancy. Authors of good taste are careful to avoid it. The present generation of American writers would do well to follow the example of Franklin in this respect, as well as in his repose and simplicity. It was said of Cicero, that his earlier productions displayed his peculiar defect, a florid diffuseness, to a greater extent than his subsequent compositions; so may it be alleged of Mr. Webster, that the first of the two volumes before us (between the first speech in which and the last in the second there is an interval of fifteen years) exhibits him as somewhat exposed to the like censure," ut tumidiorem et Asianum, et redundantem, et in repetitionibus nimium." The second volume, containing his later productions, affords, in our opinion, the best specimen of his actual powers. He there manifests less of the amplifying manner, and more of the Demosthenean vigour, compression and cogency of argumentation. It is difficult to draw the line between the requisite degree of diffuseness and conciseness in eloquence of any kind; it must generally be determined by the nature of the audience, the occasion, and the subject. The measure of indulgence in either of these qualities, cæteris paribus, is commonly the cri terion whereby the character of an orator is sought to be judged, and the rank to be assigned to him determined. Trying Mr. Webster by this standard, from his more recent efforts, we should say that he occupies a mean between Demosthenes and Burke, concentrating many of the choicest attributes of both. He is certainly less concise, but equally earnest and patriotic, and more logical, than the former; per haps not more declamatory on the whole, and less artificial than the latter. In him is exhibited much of the natural fervour and uncompromising vehemence of the one, with less of the conventional feebleness, occasional coarseness and rhetorical parade of the other. Moreover, there are certain points of resemblance between him and the Grecian prototype, in regard both to the subject of a considerable portion of his later speeches, and the demonstration of the warmth of public spirit which that subject was calculated to elicit. The Philip of Demosthenes is the General Jackson of Webster. The ancient orator continually warned his countrymen against the territorial encroachments, the meditated violation of their liberties by the common and contiguous enemy; the modern speaker fearlessly denounces the infractions, real or supposed, by the late President, of the provisions and spirit of the American constitution. The most ardent zeal for the national good, which animated the one, appears no less conspicuous in the other. This is not a mere fanciful parallel. No less than eight of Mr. Webster's most luminous, animated and effective speeches in the last volume are employed more or less on this theme, and three of them are directly so, and transcendently powerful. They are principally on the financial controversy then agitated, commencing with the argument in answer to the President's veto of the Bank bill in 1832, and ending with the overwhelming refutation of the Protest in 1834. The logical endowments of Mr. Webster's mind are of the first order; in proof of this, though their exercise is ably manifested throughout, we need only refer the reader to those speeches more particularly devoted to the exposition of constitutional law. In these, as in his forensic arguments, he usually adopts a distinct and clear method, and, with some exceptions, the order and arrangement of his reasonings are such as could not well be improved. His first aim ever is to bring conviction to the understanding of his audience; and this he does by stating the most appropriate arguments for the occasion, with the greatest force and perspicuity. This done, and everything being presented in a full and clear light to the hearer, the higher efforts of interesting and persuading are called into requisition. In these attempts however he does not always keep clear of affectation. This is pre-emi |