Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Notes Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_, bold text in =equals signs=. Footnotes use letters within brackets and will be found following the paragraphs that refer to them. Endnotes use numbers within brackets and will be found after the last chapter of the book. BRITISH ORATIONS A selection of the more important and representative political addresses of the past two centuries, with biographical notes, critical comment, political, oratorical, and literary estimate. Edited by Charles K. Adams, President of the University of Wisconsin. With an additional volume edited by John Alden. Four volumes, each complete in itself and sold separately. Each, 12°, gilt top, $1.25. The orators included are: Sir John Eliot, John Pym, Lord Chatham, Edmund Burke, Charles J. Fox, Sir James Mackintosh, Lord Erskine, George Canning, Lord Macaulay, Richard Cobden, John Bright, Lord Beaconsfield, William Ewart Gladstone, Lord Mansfield, Daniel O’Connell, Lord Palmerston, Robert Lowe, Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Rosebery. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK & LONDON REPRESENTATIVE BRITISH ORATIONS WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES BY JOHN ALDEN _Videtisne quantum munus sit oratoris historia?_ --CICERO, _De Oratore_, ii, 15 ✩✩✩✩ G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press COPYRIGHT, 1900 BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS The Knickerbocker Press, New Rochelle, N. Y. PREFACE. In preparing this--the fourth volume of _Representative British Orations_--a work which, in its three-volume form, has met with a large acceptance from the public, the editor has been embarrassed by fulness rather than lack of material. Indeed, in its former shape, the book fairly justified its title: it was representative rather than exhaustive of the subject. From the rich field of possible material the editor has selected specimens of oratory diverse enough in style and occasion, but each, it is hoped, typical of the general trend of the period covered (1813–1898),--of the change from the passionate, partisan forensics of O’Connell to the calm emphasis of Lord Rosebery. Helps to the study of this period have naturally been many; but the editor must not fail to acknowledge his constant indebtedness to the brilliant and invaluable “History of Our Own Times” of Mr. Justin McCarthy, and in a lesser degree to Mr. Fyffe’s “Modern Europe.” To Charles Gorham Marrett, Esq., he wishes to record his personal obligations. J. A. PORTLAND, ME. _October, 1899._ CONTENTS.