in others that I could mention, it was difficult not to think of the lecturer at his desk, addressing an audience of inferior mental calibre to the speaker; and when even the most famous of physicians advanced to the table, one almost expected to see him open the brass-bound box and extract a chemical retort from its recesses for purposes of demonstration.
The Episcopal Bench.The bench of Bishops has in its time contributed much to the eloquence, as well as to the appearance and dignity of the Upper House. During the last half century its most noted orator was Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and Winchester, whose eloquence was of a very high order and, like his character, suggested the great ecclesiastical statesman rather than the divine. He leaped into fame by a speech on the Corn Laws in June, 1846, of which his biographer says that it ought to have been heard rather than read. I never had the good fortune to listen to Dr. Wilberforce. But I recall the terse and powerful speaking of Bishop Magee, who combined reasoning with sarcasm, and scholarship with humour, and whose best speech was delivered on the second reading of the Bill for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869. Bishop Creighton of London—a most ingenious and witty speaker at a dinner-table—might, had he lived, have become a power in debate. The present Archbishop of York (Dr. Lang) is the master of a scholarly and impressive style. But the ecclesiastic who, of all others, seemed to me in his speeches and person to embody most effectively the grave persuasiveness, the august authority, and the spiritual elevation of the Episcopal Bench, was Archbishop Tait.
The Parliamentary manner.In studying the records of the speakers of the time, I find a phrase in constant use which excites a legitimate curiosity. It is said of So-and-so that he had the Parliamentary manner. This is an attribute that would appear to be quite independent of oratory or even of considerable powers of speech, because it is frequently applied to men who had neither; although on the other hand it may
