x)

COBDEN’S ORATORICAL QUALITIES, i953

Stment, Cobden had the oratorical art of presenting it in _184L
the Way that made its admission to the understanding of a Zr 87.
Ute fagy and undenied. He always seemed to have
Rady exactly the right degree of allowance for the difficulty
ith which men follow a speech, as compared with the ease
of following the same argument on a printed page which
they nay con and ponder until their apprehension is com-Plete,
 Then men were attracted by his mental alacrity, by
‘ho Instant readiness with which he turned round to grapple
¥ith & new objection, Prompt and confident, he was never
a loss, ang he never hesitated. This is what Mr. Disraeli
Meant, When he spoke of Cobden’s “sauciness.” It had
¥ Sxcellong effect, because everybody knew that it sprang,
= from levity or presumption, but from a free mastery of
hi Subject,
th If ip One sense the Corn Laws did not seem a promising
or for a popular agitation, they were excellently fitted
& bring out Cobden’s peculiar strength, for they dealt with
oo Matter and demonstrable inferences, and this was the
= Where Cobden’s powers naturally exercised them.
vos, In such an appeal to sentiment and popular
pe sion 8% the contemporary agitation of O’Connell for
el, he could have played no leading part! Where
% tWledgyg and logic were the proper instruments, Cobden
“a Master,
perms masses of material for the case poured every
Col to the offices of the League. All the day long
hing den Was talking with men who had something to tell
hing Correspondents from every quarter of the land plied
the With information. Yet he was never overwhelmed by
For lume of the stream. He was incessantly on the alert
% a Usefi] fact, a telling illustration, a new fallacy to expose.
*Xterougly did he move through the ever-growing piles
* Boe Mr, MoGnrthy’s History of Our Own Times. i. 340. $48.