His manner and style of public speaking was an incident in the Prince of Wales' career which exercised considerable influence upon his personal popularity. The pronounced factors in his style were not oratory, gestures, or brilliancy. Plain in matter and manner the speeches always were; full of meat and substance they frequently were; neat and effective they were generally considered. Mr. Gladstone once went further than this description would seem to warrant when he declared that there were few speakers whom he listened to with more pleasure. "His speeches are invariably marvels of conciseness, graceful expression and clear elocution". His voice was a good one, clear and distinct and well-trained. Nervous in his younger days and accustomed to learn the speeches off for delivery, he gradually changed with age and experience into the delivery of _impromptu_ after-dinner remarks and speeches which did not show traces of the midnight oil or earnest preparation--although often full of facts and incidents about the immense variety of subjects with which he had to deal. Intimately connected with these characteristics of his was the unquestioned ability to judge human nature. This quality enabled the Prince to play his difficult part so well as he did, to keep him in touch with all classes and the masses, to cultivate all the varied elements of a changing national life, and to be as much at home amongst business men as at the Royal Academy--amongst the aristocracy of London as with the farmers of Norfolk. He was ever a good judge of the people around him and, perhaps, no man in modern life was so well and faithfully served. His memory for names and faces was extraordinary and would remind Canadians of the unique faculty in this connection possessed by the late Sir John Macdonald. He always hated affectation and toadyism and liked sincerity and simplicity. Marie Corelli, writing in 1897, used the following expressive words: "To entertain the Prince do little; for he is clever enough to entertain himself privately with the folly and humbug of those he sees around him, without actually sharing in the petty comedy. He is a keen observer and must derive infinite gratification from his constant study of men and manners, which is sufficiently deep and searching to fit him for the occupation of even the throne of England. I say 'even', for at present, till time's great hourglass turns, it is the grandest throne in the world".