Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/82

68 midst of a city-full of modernmost buildings, as if to show by contrast how far they have departed from the architectural taste and science of the old masters of Pericles' day. The Madeleine in Paris and the Girard College in Philadelphia are the only buildings I ever saw with which this hall may be compared; indeed, the three are copies of the same original—the Temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. Its interior structure and aspect are noble and grand, well fitted for the great voices of public opinion and the voices tuned to gentler melodies. For it is not only a public building, but a public institution in itself. It is a great educational agency for the enlightenment of the masses. It has played a great part in forming the public spirit and character of Birmingham. Here the population have met, almost en masse, from year to year, and been moved and moulded by eloquent orators who seemed to draw new power from the platform on which they stood. Indeed, if any man has any eloquence in his soul, the scene presented on some of these occasions must draw it forth. I have witnessed many of these during the last twenty years, and have always thought that they must present the most inspiring spectacle to the speaker The scene from the platform when John Bright is shaking the very walls with his eloquence is grand almost to sublimity. The