Art. III. The Speeches of Charles Phillips, Esq. delivered 
at the Bar, and on various Public Occasions^ in Ireland and 
England, Edited by Himself. 8vo. pp. 220. London^ 
Longman 8c Co. 1817. 

liTn Phillips is a man of talents certainly ; but he is not 
-I'^-'- very docile ; and has not a very correct taste, we fear, in 
more things than in stvle. It is now about two years since wa 
called the attention of our readers to the attempts which wera 
then made to obtain from the English public, a confirmation 
of the partial judgment of his personal friends, and Irish ad* 
mirers. We referred reluctantly to the unworthy system of 
puffing which had been adopted for this purpose { we wera 
tttremely glad to be informed, soon after, that Mr Phillipa 
had no concern with it ; although it was a little unlucky that 
the very letter in which he dented the charge was prefiu:ed 
by a pan^yrick, which we rather think he could not have 
read without a blush, in a room alone. On that occasion^ 
2 



181T. Speeches ^ Mr I^OUps. S3 

we certainly expressed oor enxidus desire to pre?eDt the iiq- 
portation of this &lse eloqaenoe from the country of Grattan,' 
j3urke and Plunkett, ^ — and did what we could to make the 
prohibition effectual» by pointing out the manifold vices in 
which it abounded: Nor were we without some hopes, that 
the author himself might be reclaimed from the course in which 
the applauses of the rabble, or of iiis equally unwise friends, 
were betraying hiroi and defote his talents to the cultivation 
of genuine eloauence, under the discipline of sound taste. 
The volume before us, however, gives us no reason to believe 
that this reformation is at hand ; and we are very sorry for 
it : For, whatever he may think of it, we are sure that our 
admonitions proceeded from the most firiendly feelings. What 
prepossession, indeed, could we entertain that was not favours- 
able to Mr Phillips ? We highlv approved of his political opi-' 
oions, thou;;h a little exag^rated in the expression ; we admir- 
ed the independence of his conduct ; we saw in bim many of 
die highest qualities of an orator* But we perceived him to be 
surrounded by the worst of enemies, flatterers ; and as he has, 
in his humble sphere, committed the error so often fatal even to 
great men— mistaken flatterers for friends, and allowed his ear 
to be tickled by their praises, till he fancied every one his foe 
who spoke unpleasant truths, he has ^ne on, not perhaps from 
bad to worse, but in a repetition of the same kind of composi* 
tion — all the defects remaming, and the merits having lost the 
novelty by which they chiefly attracted notice. It would be a 
disgraceful sacrifice of truth to party feelings, wpre we to say 
less than we think upon this subject, because we sil^cerely agree 
in most of Mr Phillips's opinions. The sentiments of esteem 
which all we have heard of his political conduct teaches us to en- 
tertain for his character, and the jiood opinion we still have of 
his natural talents, make it impossible not to cherish, even after 
the publication of this volume, a fond hope that his eyes may 
yet be opened to the deplorable folly of cb using his critics a« 
nong friends blinded by partiality, or mobs incapacitated by 
ignorance — and of believing that the adverti^ments of the one, 
or the noise of t^ie other, can succeed in changing that eternal 
rule, still more applicable to oratory than poetry, that * sense 
IB the only source of excellence. ' 

• The reputation of the two former has long been beyond the rcacl^ 
of controversy or cavil ; — but of the last, it may not be altogetlier un- 
necessary to say, that we consider him as a model of <£aste el9r 
quence, reaching the highest per^tion of the art, and free fr^^ix 
ff&ry one of tb^ faults to which bis countrymen are so li^le^ 



5i Speeches qf Mr Phillips. Non 

In the publication before n8« we havet fint of all, to com* 

5>lain of the same system of puffing which. has, in Mr PbiUips'a 
brroer publications, given offence to every person of correct no* 
tions, and, more especially, to those who possessed any feelings of 
professional delicacy. A young barrister, printing his Speeches 
at publick meetings as well as in courts of law, at tavern din* 
ners, in various places both on the mainland and in islands in 
the Lakes, betokens a zeal for apphuse not very usual among 
members of that learned order. The title^age bears that these 
Sojeeches are < edited by himself* ' He dedicates them himself tor 
Mr Roscoe, — and then modestly steps aside for a moment, that 
his friend Mr Finlay (the same gentleman, we presume, who is 
praised largely in one of the Speeches) may come forward, and 
deliver, in the shape of a preface, a highly wrought pan^]nric 
of the orator, equally warm, indeed, with anv thing said by Quin- 
tilian of Cicero, though not in precisely the same style. This 
piece is entitled • Preface^ by John Finlay^ Esq. * Mr Finlay. 
treats his friend exactly as if he had already taken his place a<^ 
mong the English classics. * The Speeches of Phillips, ' says 
he, * are now, for the first time, offered to the world in an au- 
thentic form. ' The next sentence is written pretty much in the 
correct phraseology of * tlie Speeches of Phillips ' themselves. 
So far as his exertions have been hitherto developed^ his admir- 
ers, and they are innumerable, must admit that the text of this 
volume is an ackmrooledged re/erencej to which future criticism 
may fairly resort^ and from which his friends must deduce any 
title which the speaker may have ^fiz/^^f to the character of 
an orator. ' He then shows that he has borrowed also the 
correctness of metaphor which distinguishes Mr Phillips. * De- 
fects and detraction^ ' says he, * are as the spots and shadow 
which of necessity adhere and attach to every object of ho- 
nourable toil/ He afterwards boast?, that these Speeches 
are read in all the languages of Europe, ' at this moment s 
meaning, of course, in the foreign newspapers, where it is un- 
questionable that far worse compositions than Mr Phillips's are 
translated daily from the public papers of this country. The 
criticism to which they have been subjected, is next ascribed tp 
the influence of Government ; for Mr Finlay observes, * that Mr 
' Phillips's political principles have been a drawback on his re* 

* putation ; and the dispraise of tjiese Speeches has been a dis- 

* countable quantity for the promotion of placemen, and the 

* procurement pf place. * As, however, he was probably aware^ 
thatto^had not so negotiated our paper, he must needs find another 
reason for the opinions expressea in the Edinburgh Review, upon* 
the Speech in the case of Guthrie v. Sterne ( No. L.) It seems we* 



1817. Species of Mr Philip 5S 

took for * the basis of the criticism,, an unauthorized and inooi^ 

* i^ect publication of a single forensic exertion in the ordinary 
^ routine of professional business. ' No^, we have a strong sus* 

?lcion that tnis unauthorized publication was printed from Mr 
hillipa'a own handwriting : At all events, it bore manifest proofs 
of having been corrected, or rather written by him ; and, if any 
fiirther evidence were wanting, the book before us contains it ; 
for it contains that Speech, almost word for word as in the edi- 
tion reviewed by us; the only alterations being a word here 
and there, probably typographical errors in the former 4edition« ^' 
Nor is it less unfair to represent that Speech as an ordinary 
ttSosion 4 one of a great number daily made in the course of a 
barrister's practice. Mr Finlay roust know, thai it was a most 
elaborate effort of a person who had little or no practice, and 
who probably made no other speech of any kind for some time 
before and a!uer it was deliver€^d• Indeed it happens, whimsi-* 
cilly enough, that this is the very speech selected by our judi- 
cious panegyrist a few pages further on, as the best instance of 
Mr Phillips's reasoning powers, and skilful selection of topics* 

One word more, before leaving the Prtlace, upon the stand- 
ard of criticism erected by Mr Finlay in rhetorical matters* 

* To juries and public assemblies ' says he * alone the following 
^ speeches have oeen addressed ; and it is by ascertaining their 

* enecton these assemblies or juries, that the merit of the exer^ 

* tion should in justice be measured. 

* But there seems a general and prevalent mistake among our 

* critics on this judgment They seem to think that the taste 

* of the individual is the standard by which the value of orato* 

* ly should be decided. We do not consider oratory a mere 

* matter of taste : it is a given means for the procurement of a 

* ^iven end ; and the fitness of its means to the attainment of 

* Its end should be in chief the measure of its merit $— of this fit-. 
^ ness success ought to be evidence.' {p. xi.xiL) And then he prd-^ 
ceeds to boast of Mr Phillips's success in a case where he obtained 
large damages, and to assert also that he has * procured a larger 

* number of readers through the world than ever resorted to the 
^ productions of any man of these countries, ' (meaning, by thia 

* It is worthy of remark, however, that the sentence about * an . 
artery torn from the heart-strings, ' is omftted in the present edition. 
But does Mr Finlay mean to say, that Mr I^iiUips never spoke of such 
an artery ? We can have no doubt that the original edition was cor- 
rect in this particular ; and that the words are now left out, because 
they were laughed at. What printer, indeed, could have inserted 
lliem? 



M leeches qf Mr PiiUifsl i^w. 

plaral, the coqntry of Ireland, as we find elsewhere.) Now, as 
to this last assertioni it is so ridiculous an assumption of fact, 
that we really wonder how even the secret vanitv of any man's own 
heart could raakeit in the choicest moment oi self-complacency^ 
Do Messrs Fiqlay and Phillips verily and indeed believe, that 
more nations rear their compositions, than are to be found read- 
ing the vilest cfTudons of our newspaper writers and our hust- 
ings orators ? But we are more anxious to protest against the 
new canon of criticism which these gendemen would introduise; 
and which, if adopted, must at once put an end to ail classical 
€lo(]uence. Success ik ith a jury or a mob, it seems, i% the cri-' 
lerion of good oratory. Now, we venture to assort, that no 
worse test can be conceived ; for every one who knows any thing 
of those audiences, but especially in Ireland, is aware that they 
are liable to be led away by the glare of the worst stj^le of speaks 
ing, — although we have no manner of doubt, that the purest 
and most chaste oratory, if adapted to the occasion, would al^ 
wavs insure a still greater success even with the multitude. 

The preface concludes with the following expressions, which 
ive cite in support of the censure reluctantly passed on Mr Phil- 
lips, for want of delicacy. They are not indeed written by him- 
self; but he gets a friend to write them, and does not scruple 
to publish them. We really thought that the old practice of 
introducing an author with a flourish of recommendatory verses 
had been wholly exploded — and even in former days we think it 
was never apphed to prose compositions. * 

' Unaided by the advanta^ of fortune or alliance ; under the 
frown of political power and the interested detraction of professional 

E lousy, confining the exercise of that talent which he derives from 
God to the honour, and succour, and protection of his creatures 
— this interesting and highly-giftecl young man runs his course like a 
giant, pro^ring and to prosper ; — ^in the court as a flaming sword,' 
leading ana Ifghting the injured to their own ; and in the public as-' 
sembly exposing her wrpng^s — exacting her rights-— conquering en- 
vy — trampling olii corruption — beloved by his country — esteemed by 
a world — enjoying and descrying an unexamplcfd fame^-and actively 



* Mr Phillips pa3rs back his friend's panegyrick almost in ready 
money. The extract in the text praising the author of the book, is 
irom the end of the preface. The second page of the book thua: 
speaks of the author of the preface. ' One whose patriotism has al- 
* ready rendered hlui familiar to every heart in Ireland ; a man, who, 
^ conquering every disadvantage, and spurning every di^culty, haa 
< poured around our misfortunes the splendour of an intellect that at 
\ once in^diates and consumes them. p. 2. 



IS IV. Speeches of Mr PtiUips. 6t 

lemploying Uie gumnier of his life in gathering honours for his name, 
and garlancU for his grave ! ' p. xiv. 

Of the ten Speeches contained in this Tolutney five were deli^ 
^piered at dinners and other public roeetincs, and fiv^ in courts 
of justice ;-^But the style of all is exactly the same j and indeed, 
ib^re is nothing more to be remarked in Mr Phillips's composi* 
tinns, than their surprising uniformity. It almost amounts tq 
repetition ; it is so very perfect apd exact, that you can alwayif 
tell beforehand bow he is to go on when he haa begun with a 
topic He proceeds as if he worked by a particular receipt, me* 
chankally | and the worst of it is, that he uses the same receipt 
whatever be his object. The perfection of oratory, he seems tq 
think^ consists in pouring out, without any selection, a multi^ 
tnde of images, in language always epigrammatic, whether the 
ideas it conveys be so or noU The object which ought to be i[| 
view is perpetually sacrificed to what is no doubt the real pur- 
pose pf all these 8peeches**the saying something gai^dy or strike 
ing $ and Mr Phillips has but one way of saying it^ We may 
open the book at random. Thus, of the. Pope be says, 

* Placed at the very pinnacle of human elevation, surrounded by 
the pomp of the Vatican and the splendours of the Court, pouring thq 
mandates of Christ from the throne of the Ci£SARS, nations were 
his subjects, kings were his companions, religion was his handmaid ; 
he went forth gorgeous with the accumulated dignity of ages, every 
)uiee bending, and every eye blessing the prince of one world and the 
prophet of another. Have we not seen him, in one moment, his crown 
crumbled, hjs sceptre a reed^ his throne a shadow, his home a dua** 
^eon V p. i2, 28, 

Oir Buonapa^rte-*- 

* The goal of other men's speed wa? his starting-post ; crowns 
were his play-things, thrones his footstool ; he strode from victory te 
victory ; hii path was / a plane of continued elevations. ' p. 84>. 

Oi Ferdinaml'^ • 

* A wretch of ev^n worse than proverbial princely ingratitude ; 
who filled his dungeons, and fed his rack with the heroic remnant 
that braved war, and famine, and massacre beneath his banners ; who 
rewarded patriotism with the prison, fidelity witli the torture, heroism 
with the scaffold, and piety with the Inquisition ; whose royalty wa^ 
published by the signature of his death-warrants, and whose reh'gioi^ 
evaporated in the embroidering of petticoats Jbr the Blessed Virgin I * 
p. 85. 

Of a bigot generally, we are told that he is 
— < a wretch, whom no philosophy can humanize, no charity soften, 
no religion reclaim, no miracle convert ; a monster, who, red with the 
fires of hell, and bending under the crimes of earth, erects his mur-< 
derous divinity upon a throne of skulls, and would gladly feed, even 
^th a brother's bloody the c^miibal appetite of his rejected altar, ' p. 30. 



M Speeches (f Mr Phillips. NoV. 

Of Bigotry— that 

* She has no head, and cannot think ; she has no heart, and can* 
toot feel ; when she moves, it is in wrath ; when she paiiaes, it is a* 
mid ruin ; her prayers are curses, her conunuoion is death, her yen* 
geance is eternity, her decalogue is written in the blood of her vic- 
tims ; and if she stoops for a moment from her infernal flight, it 14 
upon some kindred rock, to whet her vulture fang for keener rapine^ 
and rcplume her wing for a mwe sanguinary desolation ! * p. 54. 

Again, of Bigotry (we believei but are not certain), in the 
same speech^^- 

— -' in form a fury, and in act a demon, her heart festered with tha 
fires of hell, her hands clotted with the gore of earth, withering alike 
in her repose and in her progress— her path apparent by the print of 
blood, and her pause denoted by the expanse of desolation. ' p. 59* 

Of a Catholic sending his son to the wars — 

' Suppose he sends his son, the hope of his pride and the wealth of 
bis heart, into the army ; the child justifies his parental anticipation 1 
ke is moral in liis habits, he is strict in his discipline, he is daring in 
the field, and temperate at the board, and patient in the camp ; the 
first in the charge, the last in the retreat : With an hand to achieve, 
and an head to guide, and a temper to conciliate, he combines the 
skill of Wellington with the clemency of Cassar and the courage of 
Turenne. ' p. 64, 

Of ditto sending ditto to the bar^-** 

* He has spent his nights at the lamp, and his days in the forum ; 
the rose has withered from his cheek mid the drudgery of form ; the 
apirit has fiunted in his heart mid the analysis of crime ; he has fore- 
gone the pleasures of his youth, and the associates of his heart, and 
sUl the, fairy enchantments in which fancy may have wrapped him. 
Alas ( for what P^Thoii^ genius flashed nrom his eye, and eloquence 
rolled from his lips ; though he spoke with the tongue of Tully, and 
lU'gued with the learning of Coke. * &c. p. 64. 

It is. the less necessary to multiply instances, because every 
passage which we may extract in the course of these observationa 
is sure to exemplify the same thing. 

As it is a rule with Mr Phillips that every sentence must look 
like an epigram ; that point and antithesis must for ever appear 
in the words, though none may exist in the meaning ; we are 
fatigued to death with the alternations of * this ' and * that ' — 
* the one * and ^ the other ; ' — with jingling and alliteration — with 
words perverted to significations wholly foreign to their real 
meaning, by the figure commonly called slip-slop, and of which 
Mrs Malaprop was so bright an example, nntil some of our 
joijimalists threw her into the shade $ — ^and lastly, and very ge^ 
jierally, with the figure of pure nonsense. Thus, take for % 
tpecioiea of alliteration—^ a miserable maniac in the £ontenlw 



IS 17. Seeches ^ Mr PMUpu at 

m&aX of his cnpdvity \ * unless, peradventurei you rather choose 
* the period approaching, when, if penalty docs not pause in the 
pursuit, patience will turn fbor^ on the pursuer ; ' (p. 77.)— in 
which is to be noted also the genuine nonsense of penalty chas* 
ing patience, and patience turning and attacking penalty ; — non- 
sense, in part owing to the love of jingle, and in part to the rage 
for imagery. The following description of hia countrymen is 
intended to be very highly finished i and, if much working 
makes a highly wrou^t passage, it assuredly may be sodeemeol 
< I think I know my countrymen ; they cannot help being grate* 
fill for a benefit ; and there is no country on the ewrth where one 
would be conferred with more characteristic benevolence. They are^ 
emphatically, the schoolboys of the heart — ^a people of sympathy ; 
their acts spring instinctively from their passions ; oy nature ardent, 
by instinct brave, by inheritance generous. The children of impulse, 
they cannot avoid their virtues ; and to be other than noble, they 
must not only be unnatural but unnational. Put my panegyric tor 
the test. Enter the hovel of the Irish peasant, I do not say you will 
find the frugality of the Scotch, the comfort of the English, or the 
fantastic decorations of the French cottager ; but I do say, within! 
those wretched bazaars of mud and misery, you will find sensibility 
tile most affecting, politeness the most natural, hospitality the most 
grateful, merit the most unconscious :— their look is eloquence, their 
smile is love, their retort is wit, their remark is wisdom — not a wis« 
dom borrowed from the dead, but that with, which nature has het* 
self inspired them ; an acute observance of the passing scene, and a 
deep insight into the motives of its agents. Try to deceive them, 
and see with what shrewdness they will detect ; try to outwit them, 
and see with what humour they will elude ; attack them with argu- 
ment, and you will stand amazed at the strength of their expression, 
the rapidity of their ideas, and the energy of their gesture ! In 
short, God seems to have formed our country like our people: he 
has thrown round the one its wild, magnificent, decorated rudeness ; 
he has infused into the other the simplicity of genius and the seeds 
of virtue : he says audibly to us, " Give them cultivation. '* p. 14, 15* 

The very first sentence contains a signal specimen of Mr 
Phillips's constant figure, saying what he plainly does tiot mean 
to say, in order to appear pointed in his form of expression. 
What can the gratitude ot the receiver have to do with the 
• characteristic benevolence * of the giver ? In the next sen» 
fence of four lines, the same idea is repeated four times ; and 
then, in the same sentence, comes a notable instance of false 
antithesis, where the point is only in the collocation of th^ 
words — * by nature ardent — by instinct brave j ** as if nature 
and inslvut were not in this case precisely the Eame thing, 
and ardour and bravery very near akin ;— * by inheritance 
generous, * is ahnost a repetition ; at any rate, inheritame^ 



#0 S^khes of Mr PkilUps. Nor. 

here, can mean nothing bot nature. lo the next 8eDtenoe» 
the tense is again sacnfioed to the point. ^ Not only tui- 
nahtralf but unmUumaL % ' tot the conclusion from what pre* 
cedes ie, that wmatural and unnational are here the same. We 
•ay nothing of the figu res * schoolboys of the heart *— -and 
^ children of impulse ; ' but why is an Irish hovel| a * baauuxr 
of mud and misery ' i Baaaar means a market And why^ but 
for the cliak, are nmd and misery coupled together ? — Then fok* 
low an a^parenily distinctive enumeration of diflTer^t qnalitiesi 
with a superlative to each i but it turns out| when we look into 
them) that the qualities are nearly the samCf and that the epi- 
ihets are affixed at random, being intended to look like charac- 
teristic additions ; whereas they mi^ht t>e shuffled and distri- 
buted anew, without any material iniury to the sense. The 
k>ok and smile* the retort and remarks are liable to the same 
observation. * An acute observance^' is slip-slop $ — observ- 
ance is never used for observation. Neither do we elude those 
who are trying to outmt us» but to catch, or entrap us;—* 
still less do we elude b^ means of humour. What can be th^ 
meaning of rudaieu being decorated and wUi? The one epi^ 
tbet is a pleonasm, the other a contradiction. It would not be 
much more absurd to^peak of an old, new novelty. The paral- 
lel atteaspted between the country and the people, is a complete 
faihm i for the onfy point of resemblance is the rudeness,- which 
h praised as the merit of the one, and, by the conclusion of the 
•ratence^ is allowed to be the defect of the other. Yet this pas- 
sage is, as the reader will presentlv see, far more correct and 
chaste than most of Mr Phillips's nne writing. Nor have we, 
in the forcing remarks, dwelt upon its principal vice ; the 
strained, amcted, and childish manner in which every thing is 
conceived, as well as expressed, — ^so that there is nothing like na* 
ture and simplicitv, or plain manly sense, to be trac^ either 
in the thought or the diction. 

We have already noticed Mr Phillips's love of imagery | and 
all the greatest sins against good taste, to which this passion 
leads its victims, are to be found committed by him in every part 
of his work. Confusion of metaphor— ^i^travagance or violence, 
frequently exciting even disgustr— absolute nonsense, and the de« 
feet of meaning, so nearly akin to it. Thus, speaking of * th^ 
f Burkes, Barrys and Goldsmiths, ' he says, ^ tney wreathed the 
* immortal shamrock round the brow or painting, poetry and 
^ eLqueoce. ' Of some poor children, he observes, (hat thev 
jnay have * a soul swelling with the energies, and damped with 
' ine patent of the Deity ; ' whereby it appears that this learned 
jpcrsoa confounds the letters patent witn the seal appended t^ 



1817, Speeches qf Mr PMOipu et 

tbem. He addsy of the same soni, that it might ' bksSf adorrtf 

* mmorUdixey and ennMe empires { ' an anticlimax not often ex-- 
ceeded, and into which Mr rbillipt is clearly Ied| by his deter- 
mination always to use Four or more words to express the same 
idea. Again, of Mr Corran — * When thrones were crumbledi 

* and dynasties forgotten, be might stand the landmark of hia 
< count^s genius^ rearing himself amid regal ruins and national 

* dissolution, a mental mramid in the solitude cf time^ beneath 
' whose shade things might moulder, and round whose summil 

* eternity must /rfay.* (p. 17.) Surely the writer of this nevet 
saw a pyramid, or heard of the meanmg of a landmark ; bur» 
when he talks about the solitude of time, and the playing of 
eternity, we cannot even conjecture his meaning. Then, wnat 
shall we say <^f such exclamations as this frantic parody upon th^ 
Scriptui 



e — * Oh. Preiudice, where is Hty reason ? Oh, Bigotry^ 

* where is thy blush i* (p. 12.) Or of this other, • Gospel of 

* Heaven \ vS thb tby herald ? God of the universe \ is this thy 

* handmaid ? Christian of the Ascendancy ! ' &c. (p. 59.) 0^ 
again, * Shades of Heroic Millions, the* are thy achievements I 

* Monster of Legitimacv, this is thy consummation I '-^where* 
unto the printer has added, somewhat maliciously, three sevSral 
marks of admiration, (p. 87«)' In one short sentence (p. 67) 
we have * God's apostle a court^appendage '-^^ Ctod himself m 

* court-purveyor '— * Omnipotence a menial '-^and * ikemitj 

* a pander, ' (whatever that may denote)*-beside several terrestrial 
figures. But in one oration (O'Mulhui 9. M^Korkill), Mr Phik 
lips exceeds himself; and we doubt not it is the peculiar favour^ 
ite of Mr Finlay and himself. To give an adequate notion of 
the sfiejidour of imagery which marks this finished specimen of 
modem eloquence almost from the beginning to the end, we 
must cite Dearly the whole of it, lh>m the very exordium ill 
which we find something nan constat what * poured upon th6 
< patriot by the venom ofa venal turpitude ; ' and are rather un« 
expectedlv introduced into a place described as * the charnel* 

* house Of crime — the sepulchre where corruption sits enthron- 

* ed upon the merit it nas murdered. * But we fear our cold 
understandings are incapable of appreciating the beauties of this 
style. Let, uien, a few specimens be presented to the reader i 
and if his imagination is naturally so ardent as to confound toge- 
ther aO distinctions among ideas, or if, like those to whom some of 
the Speeches were probably addressed, he happens at the moment 
to have procured that voluntary ccmfosion of the brain which may 
be superinduced by a simple process, he may be delighted with 
what follows. The venal writers of Ireland are thus depicted-— 

— < Ae worst foes of Government, under pretence of giving it as^. 



Bi Speeches of Mr Phillips. Nov. 

0Btance ; the deadliest enemies to the Irish name, under the mock« 
ery c^ supporting its character ; the most licentious, irreligious, illi- 
terate banditti, that ever polluted the fair fields of literature, under 
the spoliated banner of the press. Bloated with the public spoil, 
and blooded in the chase of character, no abilities can arrest, no 
piety can awe; no misfortune affect, no benevolence conciliate them; 
the reputation of the living, and the memory of the dead, are equally 
plundered in their desolating progress ; even the awful sepulchre af* 
fords not an asylum to their selected victim. Human Hyenas! 
they will rush into the sacred receptacle of death, gorging their rave» 
nous and brutal rapine^ amid the memorials of our last infirmity ! * 
p. 124. 

Of the Liberty of the Press-^* a theme which I i^proach with 
mingled sensations of awe, and agony, and admiration. Considering 
all that we too fatally have seen — all that, perhaps, too fearfully we 
may have cause to apprehend, I feel myself cling to that residuary 
safeguard, with an affection no temptations can seduce, with a suspi- 
cion no anodyne can lull, with a fortitude that peril but infuriates. 
In the direful retrospect of experimental despotism, and the hideous 
prospect of its possible re-animation, I clasp it with the desperation 
of a widowed female, who, in the desolation of her house, ana the de- 
struction of her household, hurries the last of her offsprinr^ through 
the flames, at once the relic of her joy, the depository of her wealUi, 
and the remembrancer of her happiness. It is the duty of us all to 
guard strictly this inestimable privilege— a privilege which can never 
be destroyed, save by the licentiousness of those who wilfully abuse 

iU No, IT IS MOT IN THE ARROGANCE OF POWER ; NO, IT IS NOT , 
IN THE ARTIFICES OF LAW; NO, IT IS NOT IN THE FATUITY OV 
PRINCES; NOy IT IS NOT IN THE VENALITY OF PARLIAMENTS, TO 
CRUSH THIS MIGHTY, THIS MAJESTIC PRIVILEGE: — REVILEp, IT 
WILL REMONSTRATE ; MURDERED, IT WILL REVIVE ; BURIED, IT 
WILL RE-ASCEND ; THE VERY ATTEMPT AT ITS OPPRESSION WILL 
PROVE THE TRUTH OF ITS IMMORTALITY, AI^D THE ATOM THAT 
PRESUMED TO SPURN, WILL FADE AWAY BEFORE THE TRUMPET 
OF ITS RETRIBUTION ! ' p. 134, 135. 

Now, that Messrs Finlapr and Phillips deem this a very fine 
passage, we infer from their having printed the latter half of it 
m large Roman characters. Then follows a picture of him who 
abuses the Liberty of the Press. 

* Oh, I would hold such a monster, so protected, so sanctified, 
and so sinning, as I would some demon, who, going forth consecrat- 
ed, in the name of the Deity, the book of life on his lips, and the 
dajlger of death beneath his robe, awaits the sigh of piety, as the 
aigt^ of plunder, and unveins the heartVblood of coiiiiding adora- 
tion ! ' p. 1S5. 

Again, ^ in every line he licks the sores, and pampers th« 
^ pestilence of authority. ' (p. 136.) Let any maa dedar^to 



1817. Speeches of Mr PiiUq>s. e$ 

us the meaning of whnt follows, and we will not call him Dovhs. 

* Without it, gold has no value, birth no distinction^ station no 
dignity, beauty no chamiy age no reverence ; or, should I not rather 
fiay, without it every treasure impoverishes, every grace deforms, e- 
very dignity degrades, and all the arts, the decorations, and accom- 
plishmaats of life, stand, like the beacon-blaze upon a rock, warning 
the world that its approach is, danger^— that its contact is death? Th« 
wretch without it is under an eternal quarantine ; — no friend to greet 
-—no home to harbour him. The voyage of his life becomes a joy- 
less peril ; and in the midst of all ambition can achieve, or avarice 
amass, or rapacity plunder, he tosses on the surge — a buoyant pesti* 
knee!' p. 1S8. 

Anti a^ain — 
^ Oh divine, oh delightful legacy of a spotless reputation ! Rich 
is the inheritance it leaves ; pious Uie example it testifies ; pure, pre- 
cious, and imperishable, the hope which it inspires ! Can you con- 
ceive a more atrocious injury than to filch from its possessor thia 
inestimable benefit — to rob society of its charm, and solitude of 
its solace ; not only to outlaw life, but to attaint death, converting 
the very grave, the refuge of the sufferer, into the gate of infamy and 
4>f shame?' p. 139. 

Aid thi n of Calumny^- 

* The reptile Calumny is ever on the watch. From the &8cina- 
tion of its eye no activity can escape ; from the venom of its fang 
no sanity can recover. It has no enjoyment but crime ; it has no 
prey but virtue ; it has no interval from the restlessness of its malice^ 
save when, bloated with Its victims, it grovels to disgorge them at 
the withered shrine, where envy idolizes her own infirmities. Under 
jMich a visitation, how dreadful would be the destiny of the virtuous 
4md the good, if the providence of our constitution had not given 
you the power, as, I trust, you will have the principle, to bruise the 
head of the serpent, and crush and crumble the altar of its idolatry I ' 
p. 140. 

And the plaintiff on the record is thus described— 
' In the midst of slander, and suffering, and severities unexaraj^led^ 
he has had no thought, but, that as his enemies evinced how malice 
could persecute, he should exemplify how religion could endure ; 
.that if his piety failed to affect the oppressor, his patience might at 
least avail to K>rtify the afflicted. He was as the rock of Scripture 
before the face of Infidelity. The rain of the deluge had fallen — it 
only smoothed his asperities : the wind of tlie tempest beat— -it onlj 
blanched his brow : the rod, not of prophecy, but of persecution, 
smote him ; and the desert, glittering with the Gospel dew, became 
a miracle of the faith it would have tempted ! . We roust picture to 
ourselves a young man, partly by the self-denial of parental love, 
partly by the' energies of personiU exertion, struggling into a pro- 
iession, where, by the pious ex^cise of his talents, he may make the 
fame, the wealth, the flatteries of this world, so many angel her^ds 



M Speeches of Mr PhUUpu Not. 

^ Alike to him tbe varieties of season or the vidssitudes of war« 
fare. One sovereign image monopolizes his sensibilities. Does the 
storm rage? the Widow Wilkins outsighs the whirlwind. Is the 
Ocean calm ? its mirror shows him the lovely Widow Wilkins. Is 
the battle won ? he thins his laurel that the Widow Wilkins may in- 
terweave her m3rrtles. Does the broadside thunder ? he invokes the 
Widow Wilkins ! 

'< A stoeet Utile Cherub she sits up aloft 

To keep watch for the life 'of poor Peter ! ' p. 185« 
And he gives an elaborate adaptation of Alley Croker in the 
same style. We really cannot give any more specimens of this 
production. But the vulgar story, so badly as well as flippantly 
told of Mr Fox, in p. 50, and which we will venture to assert 
has no earthly foundation, except in the iest-book it was taken 
from, where we dare say it was at least told comparatively weU^ 
surpasses any thing else in this volumey for low and unsnccess* 
ful attempt at humour. 

Aftvr the idea which the foregoing pages must have conveyed 
of Mr Phillips's judgment, it can hardly appear wonderful that 
we should now mention, as amongst the most prominent of hi^ 
faults, an injudicious choice of his topics, and a manner of 
handling them which generally sacrifices the sense to tbe sound* 
In fact, he never appears for a moment to have in view the ob» 
ject which alone he ought constantly to aim at, conviction or 

Eersuasion. To strike— to dazzle — is his perpetual effort; to 
ring forward the speaker, and let the subject fare as it may, i$ 
the manifest purpose, not only of every Speech, but of all the 

E articular passages. To be sure, the kind of speaking in which 
e seems chiefly to have practised, leads naturally enough to 
this grand defect. When a gentleman is called upon after din- 
ner for a speech, he is expected to entertain the company pretty 
much as if he were asked to sing a son^. There is too often^ 
upon such occasions, a want of any precise point towards which 
his eloquence can be directed $ and, at all events, it is displayed 
to a friendly audience, and hardly ever in faro contention. But 
never was there any instance of oratory brought so exactly down 
to the level of mere display amusement (except, perhaps, in tbe 
ludicrous associates of Clubs) as at the * Dinner on Dinas Isl- 
and in the Lake of Killarney, ' — for there, it is plain, that speech- 
making must have been introduced, like pipes or songs, for no 
other purpose than to pass the evening. Yet even here there 
was a style more peculiarly ill adapted to the occasion than any 
Other $ — ^and, that the orator hit it, the following sentences may 

testify. 

* I appeal to History ! Tell me, thou reverend chronicler of the 
grave, can all the illusions of ambition realized, can all the wealth of 

«n univenal commerce; can aU the achieveiKienu of successful he< 



1817. Spee^es of Mr Phillips. 67 

roism, or all the establUhments of this world's wisdom, secure to em- 
pire the permanency of Its possessions? Alas, Troy tliought so 
once ; yet the land of Priam lives only in song ! Thebes thought so 
once; yet her hundred gates have crumbled, and her very tombs are 
but as the dust they were vainly intended to commemorate! So 
tiiought Pahnyra — ^where is she ? So thought Persepolis, and now — 
* Yon waste, where roaming lions howl, 
Yon aisle, where moans the gray-eyed owl, 
Shows the proud Persian's great abode, 
Where sceptred once, an earthly god, 
His power-clad arm controlled each hapjMer dime, 
Where sports the warbMngmuse, and fancy soars sublime. ^ 
So thought the countries of Demosthenes and the Spartan ; — yet Le* 
opidas is trampled by the timid slave, and Athens insulted by the 
servile, mindless, and enervate Ottoman! In his hurried march. 
Time has but looked at thdr imagined immortality ; and all its vani- 
ties, from the palace to the tomb, have, with their ruins, erased the 
very iiq>retsioa of his footsteps ! ' p. 40, 41. 

But the raismanagement appears far greater upon occasions 
where a particular point was to be steadily kept in view ; and 
we should seleoCy as a specinen of this, the manner in which he 
handles his topics, in a Speech which, from internal evidence^ 
we have no doubt he prefers to all the rest— that for 0*Mullan. 
It is not very easy to collect the circumstances of the case, from 
the laboured, vague, figurative declamation in which it is open- 
ed ; but, as far as we can get a glimpse of it, the action was 
brought for a libel in a newspaper against a Catholic priest, ac- 
cusing him of an assault upon his bishop and the recorder, in 
bis own chapel i whereas, at the time when it was alleged to 
have been committed, he was absent in Dublin, obtaining sub^ 
scriptions for a charity school. Now, to state the cause of his 
absence was highly proper ; and there would have been nothing 
extravagant in adding a single sentence in commendadon ex 
the object of his journey. But this would not satisfy the 
insatiable love of display which rules in this advocate. H^ 
straightway enters into the subject of Iklucation, as if he had 
been delivering a lecture upon it. 

^ I need not descant upon the great general advantage, or to this 
country the peculiarly patriotic consequences, which the success q£ 
such a plan must have produced. No doubt, you have all personally 
consid^ed — no doubt, you have all personally experienced^ that of 
all the blessrogs which it has pleased Providence to allow us to culti- 
vate, there is not one which breathes a purer fragrance, or bears an 
heavenlier aspect than education. It is a companion which no mis- 
fortunes can depress, no clime destroy, no enemv alienate, no despo- 
tion enslave ; at home a friend, abroad an introduction; in solitude m 

Z2 



6S Speeches of Mr PhiUipz. Nov. 

solace, in society an ornament; — it chastens vice, it guides virtue, it 
gives at once a grace and government to genius. Without it, what is 
, man? A splendid slave! a reasoning savage, vacillating between the 
dignity of an intelligence derived from God, and the degradation of 
, passions participated with brutes ; and, in the accident of their alter- 
.nate ascendancy, shuddering at the terrors of an hereafter, or em- 
bracing the horrid hope of annihilation. What b this wondrous world 
of his residence? 

A mighty maze, and all without a plan— 
a dark and desolate and dreary cavern, without wealth, or ornament 
or order. But light up withm it the torch of knowledge, and how 
wondrous the transition ! The seasons change, the atmosphere breathes, 
the landscape lives, earth unfolds its fruits, ocean rolls in its magnifi- 
cence, the heavens display their constellated canopy, and the grand 
animated spectacle of nature rises revealed before him, its varietiea 
regulated, and its mysteries resolved. ' p. 131, 132. 

We cannot now make room for any more ; bat the orator 
proceeds a great deal further in much the same strain ; com- 
paring education to the cross which appeared to ^ the hesi« 

* tating Constantino ; ' — asserting, that * if man will folUm its 
' precepts purely, * (the precepts of education), be shall have 
vtctorv in tnis world, and the * portals of omnipotence will open 

* for his admission; '—and ascribing, at some length, the rise of 
Athens, Rome, and Sparta, to its influence. He then goes on 
to state, that * the blessings of education are peculiarly appli- 
' cable to the Irish i ' — and this brings in one of his choice 
morsels upon the character of that people, which, when we 
begin to cite, our renders will recognise pretty much as those 
of the Vicar of Wakefield do the man who talked about San- 
eoniathan, Manetho, and Berosus, — * lively, ardent, intelli- 
' gent and sensitive; nearly all their acts spring from ira- 

* pulse, ' and so forth ;— exactly to the tune of a passage al- 
ready quoted from another speech, until we arrive at a strange 
consequence, which, it seems, * this principle' (of being sub- 
ject to impulse) produces ; — V it leads victory captive at her 
^ (Ireland's) car, and holds echo mute at her eloquence ; mak- 

* ing a national monopoly of fa9ie, % and, as it were, attempt- ^ 

* ing to naturalize the achievements of the universe*' He then 
passes to another topic, quite foreign to the course of hb argu- 
ment and declamation, but which he says is * connected with 

* the subject of the trial, ' — the Liberty of the Press ; and he 
gives nearly two pages of rant upon this ; — part of them we have 
already extracted. The general sermon upon Reputation and 



X All we are anxious about is to see the monopoly strictly -en- 
forced, and that there never may arise any competition for such fame 
in this country. 



iei7. Speeches of Mr PhilUps. 69 

Calamny, of which we have also given a specimen, comes next ;— » 
and b as applicable to the case of O'Mullan, as to that of any o- ' 
ther plaintiff in an action for slander and Kbe), and not one de- 
gree more so. 

We havei both now and in the former article upon Mr Phil- 
ips, expressed our reluctance at performing the harsh task ' 
which our duty imposed upon us. We not only approve gene- 
railv of his conduct, (excepting always the intolerable flippancy 
of nis sneers at Mr Grattan, and the absurd attempts to make 
the Catholics believe that all parties are alike hostile to their 
cause), but we consider him to be a young man whose errors 
are those of bad taste, and who might have excelled, had he 
not listened to friends and mobs. He shows no defect of ta^ 
lents ; on the contrary, there are many passages in the volumes 
before us which display a natural genius for oratory. The fol- 
lowing we give as an example of his powers, with much more 
pleasure than we have felt in citing the instances of their great 
abuse and perversion. 

* Your friendship has been to him (the Irish Catholic) worse than 
hostflity; he feels its embrace but by the pressure of his fetters! I 
am only amazed he is not more violent. He fills your exchequer, he 
fights your battles, he feeds your clergy from whom he derives no be- 
nefit ; he shares your burdens, he shares your perils, he shares eveiy 
thing except your privileges— <:an you voonder he is xdolentf No mat- 
ter what his merit, no matter what his claims, no matter what his ser- 
vices ; he sees himself a nominal subject, and a real slave ; and his 
children, the heirs perhaps of his toils, perhi^>s of his talents, certain- 
ly of his disqualificationa— cow you wonder he is videntf He sees ' 
every pret^ided obstacle to his emancipation vanished ; Catholic ' 
£un^ your ally, the Bourbon on the throne, the Emperor a cap- 
tive, the Pope a firiend, the aspersions on his &ith disproved by his 
all^iance to you, against, alternately, every Catholic potentate in 
Christendom; and he feels himself branded with hereditary degrada- - 
tion— can you xoondery then, that he is violent^ He petitioned hum* ' 
hlv; his tameness was construed into a proof of apathy. He petition- 
ed boldly; his remonstrance was considered as an impudent audacity. 
He petitioned in peace; he was told it was not the time. He petition- 
ed in war; he was told it was not the time. A strange interval, a 
prodigy in politics, a pause between peace and war, which appeared 
to be just made for him, arose ; I allude to the period between the 
retreat of Louis and the restoration of Buonaparte ; he petitioned 
then, and he was told it was not the time. ' p. 80, 81. 

Is it even now too late to reform ? The criticism which ought 
to make him pause, and question the soundness of the taste he 
has hitherto been guided by, may possibly have no other effect 
than to irritate him^ and make him pursue bi$ present errors 
jnore pertinaciously . That it should have the effect of disheart* 



7a SpetAn 0f Mr mn^ Nov. 

rtiiiiff hm^ w€ iaitB to bt lugUj iiprofc ib l e i fiir nmljr the 
ConmlisriM wfaicb Hm dirtotcd thk poUicatioo n a ph&t of no 
»i4;kly cfowtli* If be tekei as be oagbc wbet hm ben said, sol 
RMTd V Djr tt*f but bf all tboae whose jadgitfent any man of tense 
woukl ifiio«f and applirs himself to the correction of bis kma- 
mersble defects ; It be Icaros to think of his Hibject i to regard 
ths Mmfte always, even in ornamental passages ; to speak plainly 
and rationally i to use figures only where they come naturally 
1Pi atul then to use them as not abusing tbem — we will venture 
to proniite him very considerable success in the arduous pursuit 
(»f oratorical renown.