TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE TALKING POWER.
Di some the dissolution of Parliament is expected, because the talking power is against Ministers : but, like all such monsters, the bugbear has no terrors if it be looked at steadfastly. Talking is a liability as well as a power; and those whom it draws out may expose themselves, as well as attack their adversaries. It is not the strength of the talkers that is the question, but what they have got to say, and who is at their back. The idea is like those which are born within the House of Commons and are peculiar to the mannerists of that school. " Eloquence " has often made itself Mt within the walls, and has visibly affected the division. Lord Iohn, Russell, Earl Grey, and a few others, talked " Parliamentary Reform," until Parliamentary Reform came ; Henry Brougham talked down the Orders in Council ; Wilberforce and his allies abolished the Slave-trade; Daniel Whittle Harvey's one speech seemed to inflict the fatal blow on a corrupt Pension-list ; Peel at once yielded to the " unadorned eloquence" and used it, which carried Corn-law repeal : and all, especially to those who took pride in sharing such tournaments of the tongue, seemed to be the maee effect of rhetorical prowess. Even O'Connell, who entered Parliament after the success of his measure, and carried no great bill of his own, but only helped a general policy, and who therefore looked more the mere impersonation of bigg talk, had at his back a legacy of real Irish wrongs, his " millions," and much English sympathy. As in the days of chivalry, the flavoured knights of those lists appeared to possess the ro- mantio power of fighting single-handed against desperate odds, and conquering. But in all these instances, and hundreds of others, how many influences contributed to the victory, besides speech, which was but the ultimate expression of the composite power? The speaker had a case, strong if not in its own merits and logic, in the sympathy of numbers. Behind Lord Grey and Lord dohn were the laborious writers who had worked facts deep into the sense of the people, until the popular journals which had kept up the strain became only the echoes of the po- pular chorus. There was the Sailor ling with his homely politics, and the Birmingham Bull Ring; and when Lord John alluded to " the whisper of a faction," the force of the phrase was found in the shout from the streets. Harvey only spoke out in plain lan- guage the shame of England; Peel undertook instructions which awaited any statesman with sagacity and business weight enough. And how many considerations even are there besides these, to give body to the words which stir " the House " I The Whipper-in has ascertained the dynamics of the votes, in-doors and out-of-doors; and the cheers whose echo lends point to the epigram, as the chord in the accompaniments lends tone to the leading note in the song, are the inarticulate commentary which makes half the eloquence of the speakers. It is these forces behind that impart weight ; but the speech seems "to carry the measure," and the craftsmen of the House flatter themselves into an over-estimate of what speeches can do.
The present position is the converse of this. Abstract the case, the public, and the voting-power, and what remains but a façade of rhetoric? Those very persons who threaten Ministers with the talking power opposed to them, protest against a dissolution on the score that it would "knock the brains out of Parliament,"—an aryumentum ad metum and an argumentum ad nriserieordiam which destroy each other. But what are brains without limbs or facts? The powers of a Gladstone to develop an argument, of a Graham to state a series of facts, of a Bright to voice the demand of a people out of doors, are undoubted. But in the present case we know the facts upon which these men could unite in a posture of obstruction ; we know that they have no banded constituency ; there is no completed case out of doors awaiting them as its coun- sel to state it for Parliamentary decision. They have no present- able position ; the plainest statement of a real case, possessing some foundation in facts, some priblio sympathy, would suffice to break up their ranks. If they can show that Ministers have pal- tered with the war, haVe wasted the hard-earned means of the people, have betrayed allies,—if they have facts to constitute scase, that would be their strength. Their talking power might then be
useful to set forth the facts ; bat the strength would still lie in the facts, and not in the talk. If they have no facts, then all the eloquence in the world would be answered by a very homely case, plainly stated by some calm and conscientious man of business, such Mt Mr. Baines.
There is a confession in the boast of this indeterminate Opposi- thm. The talking power is the grand reliance; but what is the llitfiin of ptiblicemen reduced to their talking functions? It
im- plies that they are dispossessed of everything but their elocution that they are great. It is a pretension which defeats itself. Vothing do we dislike so much in England as conspicuous failure; laid a man who can Make a speech of the Treasury-bench stamp and scale, with an incapacity to take the Treasury-beneh, is as fairly damned as an actor who plays Hamlet and Macbeth and cannot get an engagement. 'We dislike shams, even when those who get them up are in earnest and believe in their own acting. A company composed only of " stars," without subordi- nates, chorus, or audience, will not have a chance of suc- ceeding in its performances. They might condemn the conduct of those in possession ; but what proposal have they to make ? what but "a cry" have they to go to the country—at a time when the country is sick of any cries but its own ? The fear and dislike
with which their adherents handle their own threat of a dissolu- tion, shows that they have no confidence in making it answer their purpose; and it is probable that this fear will make the leaders cautious and the waverers tractable. "The talking power" is only talk, and the talkers know it.
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