DANIEL WEBSTER'S SPEECHES--HIS PATRIOTIC SERVICE IN FORMULATING THE ASHBURTON TREATY--PRENTISS'S DEFENCE OF THE RIGHT OF MISSISSIPPI TO REPRESENTATION--THE EFFECT OF HIS ELOQUENCE ON A MURDERER--HIS PLEA FOR MERCY TO A CLIENT--WEBSTER WINS AN APPARENTLY HOPELESS CASE--INGERSOLL'S REVIEW OF THE CAREER OF NAPOLEON--HON. ISAAC N. PHILLIPS'S EULOGY UPON ABRAHAM LINCOLN--SENATOR INGALLS'S TRIBUTE TO A COLLEAGUE--A SINGLE ELOQUENT SENTENCE FROM EDWARD EVERETT-- SPEECH OF NOMINATION FOR WILLIAM J. BRYAN--MR. BRYAN'S ELOQUENCE --CLOSING SENTENCES OF HIS "PRINCE OF PEACE." One of the must cultured and entertaining gentlemen I have ever known was the late Gardner Hubbard. His last years were spent quietly in Washington, but earlier in life he was an active member of the Massachusetts bar. In my conversations with him he related many interesting incidents of Daniel Webster, with whom he was well acquainted. In the early professional life of Hubbard, Mr. Webster was still at the bar; his speech for the prosecution in the memorable Knapp murder trial has been read with profound interest by three generations of lawyers. As a powerful and eloquent discussion of circumstantial evidence, in all its phases, it scarcely has a parallel; quotations from it have found their way into all languages. How startling his description of the stealthy tread of the assassin upon his victim! We seem to stand in the very presence of murder itself: "Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim and on all beneath his roof. A healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet, and the first sound slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace. The assassin enters through the window, already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment. With noiseless foot he paces the lonely hall, half lighted by the moon; he winds up the ascent of the stairs, and reaches to door of the chamber .... The face of the innocent sleeper is turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, show him where to strike. The fatal blow is given, and the victim passes, without a struggle, from the repose of sleep to the repose of death. The deed is done. He retreats, retraces his steps to the window, passes out through it as he came in, and escapes. He has done the murder. No eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. The secret is his own, and it is safe." The speech throughout shows Webster to have been the perfect master of the human heart,--of its manifold and mysterious workings. What picture could be more vivid than this?