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Uniform with British Orations


    AMERICAN ORATIONS, to illustrate American Political
      History, edited, with introductions, by ALEXANDER
      JOHNSTON, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political
      Economy in the College of New Jersey. 3 vols., 16 mo,
      $3.75.

    PROSE MASTERPIECES FROM MODERN ESSAYISTS, comprising
      single specimen essays from IRVING, LEIGH HUNT, LAMB,
      DE QUINCEY, LANDOR, SYDNEY SMITH, THACKERAY, EMERSON,
      ARNOLD, MORLEY, HELPS, KINGSLEY, RUSKIN, LOWELL,
      CARLYLE, MACAULAY, FROUDE, FREEMAN, GLADSTONE,
      NEWMAN, LESLIE STEPHEN. 3 vols., 16 mo, bevelled
      boards, $3.75 and $4.50.


    G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON




    REPRESENTATIVE
    BRITISH ORATIONS

    WITH
    INTRODUCTIONS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

    BY
    CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS.

    _Videtisne quantum munus sit oratoris historia?_
                              —CICERO, _DeOratore_, ii, 15


                                 ✩✩✩


    NEW YORK & LONDON
    G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
    The Knickerbocker Press
    1884




    COPYRIGHT
    G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
    1884.


    Press of
    G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
    New York




CONTENTS.


                                                                    PAGE
    GEORGE CANNING                                                     1

    GEORGE CANNING                                                    13
        ON THE POLICY OF GRANTING AID TO PORTUGAL WHEN INVADED
          BY SPAIN; HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 12, 1826.

    LORD MACAULAY                                                     50

    LORD MACAULAY                                                     62
        ON THE REFORM BILL OF 1832; HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH
          2, 1831.

    RICHARD COBDEN                                                    95

    RICHARD COBDEN                                                   109
        ON THE EFFECTS OF PROTECTION ON THE AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS
          OF THE COUNTRY; HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 13, 1845.

    JOHN BRIGHT                                                      155

    JOHN BRIGHT                                                      159
        ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ENGLAND; DELIVERED AT A BANQUET
          GIVEN IN HONOR OF MR. BRIGHT, AT BIRMINGHAM,
          OCTOBER 29, 1858.

    LORD BEACONSFIELD                                                204

    LORD BEACONSFIELD                                                216
        ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY; DELIVERED
          AT MANCHESTER, APRIL 3, 1872.

    WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE                                          277

    WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE                                          287
        ON DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS; DELIVERED AT WEST
          CALDER, NOVEMBER 27, 1879.




GEORGE CANNING.


The subject of this sketch was born in London in 1770. When he was only
one year old, the death of his father threw the responsibility of his
training and education upon his mother. Dependent upon her own energies
for the support of herself and her child, she at first established
a small school in London, and a little later fitted herself for the
stage, where she achieved considerable success.

As soon as George entered school, he began to show remarkable
proficiency in the study of Latin and Greek, as well as in English
literature. Mr. Stapleton, his biographer, tells us that when still
a child, young Canning was incidentally called upon to recite some
verses, when he began with one of the poems of Gray, and did not stop
or falter till he repeated the contents of the entire volume. At the
age of fifteen he went to Eton, where he was at once recognized as a
boy of surpassing abilities and attainments. In the following year
some of his school-fellows joined him