Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/35

 and their means of oppressing the body of the people were excessive. And so far, notwithstanding the loose language and inaccuracy of the orators, some information may be gathered from them which the historians do not furnish.

In regard to what has been said respecting the opinion that oratory can be taught, it may indeed be contended that to some extent—for instance, as regards the voice and action—oratory may be viewed as an acquired art. I will take two men whose power as orators was admitted to be great, Wedderburn and Erskine, both Scotchmen, and consequently both more or less under the disadvantage of a Scotch accent when addressing an English audience. Wedderburn had practised at the Scotch Bar, before he was called to the English Bar, and is said to have taken lessons in elocution from an actor; but I never heard that Erskine took any lessons to eradicate his Scotch accent, beyond the lessons he learnt in knocking about the world, when as a boy he passed three years in the Navy, and then from eighteen to twenty-one passed three years in the Army. The line of defence adopted by Erskine for his client prosecuted by the House of Commons for publishing the Rev. Mr. Logan's tract on Hastings's