and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain." The reputation of his oratory is mostly a tradition, but that is of wild enthusiasm whenever he appeared. Without the discretion of Adams he was hailed with applause by a populace itself often indiscreet and inconsistent.

His five-hour speech against taxation without representation, delivered in the council chamber of the old town hall in Boston, was a masterly performance, making him famous as the bold and brilliant advocate of colonial rights. No summary or abstract of this speech can do justice to the whole, which can be estimated only by reading in its integrity. Even then how much is lost, as in the case of so many other great orators, in the lack of their presence and of the occasion which inspired. them, and which they in turn made memorable. Instead of an extract from his speeches a condensed letter of his on the subject of large preparation previous to special study may be more useful in these days of specialism :

"I shall always lament that I did not take a year or two further for more general inquiries in the arts and sciences before I sat down to the laborious study of the law. Early and premature rushing into practice has blasted the hopes of many students of the profession. Those who avail themselves of the ripeness of their judgment make swifter progress than they who hasten to their life work unprepared."

Among the colonial orators of New England must be reckoned FISHER AMES, a native of Massachusetts, and graduate of Harvard at the age of sixteen. Assiduous in his study of the Latin and English classics he came

to the practice of forensic oratory with much the same preparation that fitted the parliamentary orators of Great Britain for their wonderful achievements. His political essays first made his great abilities generally known, containing as they did lessons of practical wisdom conveyed in an energetic and animated style. These brought him into intimate relations with the federal school and helped him to a seat in the convention which ratified the constitution of 1788, where he made himself conspicuous by his zeal and eloquence.

A member of Congress during both of Washington's administrations he then made a fine reputation for readiness in debate and for the splendor of his speeches. At the close of one of these a member of the opposition moved an adjournment of the House, on the ground that it was not in a mood calm enough to dwell on the question under the excitement of his oratory. Massachusetts showed its appreciation of his eloquence by appointing him to deliver the eulogy on the death of Washington, and Harvard College, in recognition of his varied attainments, chose him as its president, an office which his declining health prevented him from accepting. He will always hold a place in the history of oratorical literature by reason of the general excellence of his style, although it is marked a little too strongly at times with an exuberance of imagination. At the same time it should be said that the printed speech conveys but a small portion of that power which belonged to the living speaker, the tradition of whose influence on the hearts and minds of men far outweighs the evidence of it which remains after a century of silence. He belonged to a great age and

was preeminent in a time when the construction of a new order of government was going on, when men had little in the experience of the past to guide their counsels, and when the present was full of differences and apprehensions and the future administration of affairs an untried experiment. How well they builded and with what wis dom a hundred and twenty years of American history

has shown.

It is time to turn from the progress of revolutionary sentiments in New England to the development of the same feeling in the South, as revealed by the oratory of the period there. The first name to command attention is that of PATRICK HENRY, an orator by nature, dealing with an uncritical people, and leaving traditions of an eloquence of marvelous power. Certainly no part of his fame is due to the meagre opportunities of education which were afforded him, or to his improvement of them, scanty as they were. A few months of such advantages as were offered in a colonial school of the poorest sort, a smattering of the classics, and less mathematics constituted the sum of his youthful instruction. But this was less attractive to him than the sports of stream and woodland. In a business enterprise he was no more successful. The country store was rather a place for anecdote and discussion than for profitable trade, and penury soon stared him in the face. As a wild venture he entered upon the profession of the law after six weeks' preparation and without a very remarkable proficiency in its first principles, as may be inferred from the promise he was obliged to give his examiners that he would apply himself to further study. However

he vindicated his right to a place at the colonial bar by his famous argument in the notable Parsons' case, for which he had been retained as a mere form in a cause that had been as good as abandoned. After an awkward beginning which made his friends hang their heads for shame he suddenly rallied, his confusion passed away, a mysterious and almost supernatural change came over him. Spectators said afterward that the hitherto unknown young advocate made their blood run cold with his terrible invective, and the jury, retiring for only a moment, brought in a verdict in favor of his clients. A motion for a new trial was overruled, and "the man of the people" was caught up and borne out of the courthouse on the shoulders of a delighted multitude.

There was no lack of business or gain after this first effort. He had found his place and he made the most of it. Industry and energy characterized his labor. In the details of his work he suffered from defective study, "but in jury trials where his wonderful powers of oratory could be brought to bear upon the motives and emotions of men he far exceeded all his contemporaries. Over juries he exercised a magnetic fascination which took their reason captive and decided the result without reference to the merits of the case."

At the period now under contemplation an orator of the first rank at the bar would not long keep out of the deliberative assembly. Accordingly Henry is found in the Virginia House of Burgesses in the spring of 1765, when England was attempting to force the Stamp Act upon the colonies. The character of the assembly was determined by the two-fold sentiment of loyalty to the

mother-country on the one hand and of colonial free dom on the other. The great majority were wealthy planters who were attached to England by a thousand ties of kindred blood, ancestral pride, and social alliance. They repelled the thought of separation and put off the evil day. To cut loose from Great Britain seemed like casting away their heritage of civil liberty and the established order of church and state. Accordingly they went on devising compromises and protesting and petitioning the Crown to respect their rights.

It was this conservative and loyal body which Patrick Henry threw into commotion by introducing resolutions which were deemed treasonable and incendiary. Written hastily on the fly-leaf of an old law-book they startled the staid burgesses with their unwonted tone. It was not that of renewed protest or petition. It was the declaration rather that the representatives of the people had "the exclusive right and power to lay taxes and imposts upon the inhabitants of the colony," and that "therefore the Stamp Act and all acts affecting the rights of the American colonies were unconstitutional and void.” Such resolutions produced their legitimate effect. Stung into sudden and bitter hostility the House directed their invectives against the youthful member of the democracy. Patriotic aristocrats heard the resolutions with rising astonishment and treated them with a storm of opposition. Threats were uttered against their author and abuse heaped upon him. The debate that ensued was called "most bloody" by Jefferson. It was in the midst of it that Henry uttered the famous sentence, "Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the