while granting that in a democratic age a seat in one chamber may mean power and in the other comparative extinction, there seems to be no reason for believing that eloquence itself need be affected by the translation. Though the range of influence may be restricted, the quality of the art need not decline.
The two styles.Disraeli in an enigmatic passage in the " Young Duke," said that there were two distinct styles of speaking required by the two Chambers. "I intend," he added, "in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both. In the Lower House 'Don Juan' may perhaps be our model, in the Upper House 'Paradise Lost.' " His own House of Commons speeches had certainly much of the licence of the former parallel. But greatly as I respect the House of Peers, I have never heard anything in it, even from Lord Beaconsfield, that remotely resembled "Paradise Lost."
Parliamentary career of lawyers.It would be interesting to pursue the study of the rival methods of eloquence in Parliament and at the Bar, and to inquire how far forensic triumph has been the prelude to Parliamentary success. With every election more and more lawyers enter the House of Commons; as someone said, they are usually birds of passage there, on their way to some more permanent resting-place; but they are very much to the fore in debate; important and lucrative offices are open exclusively to them, and, as the careers of Mr. Asquith and Sir E. Carson have shown, the prizes of political leadership are within their grasp. There seems to be a general impression that lawyers are not generally successful or popular in the House of Commons, and that the abilities which may have won fame in cross-examining witnesses or winning verdicts from juries are not those suited to Parliamentary debate. This is a generalisation which instances might be found to support. Erskine, who was incomparable in the Law Courts, was a comparative failure in the House of Commons. In our own days Sir Charles Russell never achieved in the House anything approaching the triumphs which rarely failed
