THE SCHOOL OF REFORM,
AS ACTED BY MR. JONES, OF COVENT GARDEN THEATRE, AND HIS GROWN PUPILS.
MR. JONES tile actor is the great Parliamentary Reformer of the present day. The lessons he has given to many public men have
had a decided effect upon their speeches. Many members and other orators, formerly remarked for a peculiar shilly-shally, stam- mering mode of expressing their sentiments, now come forward and in a straightforward manner deliver themselves of their opi- nions,—much to the astonishment of many whom they had pre- viously pained by their hesitation and want of distinctness and decision. It may appear something of a farce that a comedian
should affect this great change: but Nature is impartial as well as bountiful, and it is certain that Mr. JONES has qualifications
which some of the highest personages of the realist would be
glad to share with him. Of the great changes Mr. JONES has effected, we are acquainted with one remarkable instance. A can-
didate presented himself before a body of constituents ill a remote but populous district : he had claims upon their attention of no ordinary kind ; he was an ardent friend of the people; he was a man of business, and of various and extensive information—but hark ! he speaks—never were men more disappointed ! the senti- ments he delivered were lost, but, to use his own words, there was plenty "of contortion, grimace, bawling, squalling, bubbling-,
squeaking and provincialism." Respect for his character caused the whole of this noisy olio to be taken in good part, but he was not elected. Well, he went to the JONES, the Isocrates of modern
times : another election came on—and behold the change ! sen- tence flowed smoothly after sentence; the voice seemed changed —it was in fact attuned; emphasis was correctly placed ; judicious pauses were introduced; vehemence was only employed at the proper winding-up of the feelings ; in short, when that extraordi- nary sound issued from the animal bestrode by Balaam, on a re- markable occasion, it was not a subject of greater wonder.
We only wish there were ten JONESES instead of one; and that members of Parliament should be compelled, in lieu of the oath of allegiance, to produce a certificate of having been thoroughly "reformed by one of them, before the representative was allowed to "get upon his legs." At present they attempt to catch the
Speaker's ear, as FERGUS O'CONNOR tried to catch the Speaker's eye by wearing a red coat—if it be true, as LOCKE's blind man said, that the sound of a trumpet is like a piece of scarlet cloth.
It is rather, however, the bagpipes, instead of the trumpet, that most of our members play on the floor of the House; and the effect of this peculiar collection of sounds upon the nerves, all know who have read SHAKSPEARE.
Previous page
