ings; three of Mr. CURRAN'S; Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH's famous speech for Peltier; four of Mr. CANNING's; and five of Lord BROUGHAM's, including his instructive discourse on the study of eloquence in the Greek orators. Some of the most finished letters of JUNIUS are given in their proper place, with remarks on his style as an admirable model of condensation, elegance, and force. In the first fifty pages will be found nearly all the celebrated speeches before the days of Lord Chatham, from Sir ROBERT WALPOLE, Lord CHESTERFIELD, Mr. PULTENEY, Lord BELHAVEN, Sir JOHN DIGBY, the Earl of STRAFFORD, and Sir JOHN ELIOT. The selections in this volume extend through a period of two hundred years, and embrace a very large proportion of the most powerful eloquence of Great Britain.

The following are the aids afforded for the study of these speeches:

(1.) A memoir of each orator, designed to show his early training in eloquence, the leading events of his public life, the peculiar cast of his genius, and the distinctive characteristics of his oratory. It ought to be said, in justice to the author, that these sketches were completed in every essential particular, long before the publication of Lord Brougham's work upon British Statesmen.

(2.) A historical introduction to each of the speeches, explaining minutely the circumstances of the case, the state of parties, and the exact point at issue, being intended to place the reader in the midst of the scene as an actual spectator of the contest. These introductions, with the memoirs just mentioned, form a slight but continuous thread of political history, embracing the most important topics discussed in the British Parliament for more than a century. (3.) An analysis of the longer speeches in side-notes, giving the divisions and subdivisions of thought, and thus enabling the reader to perceive at once the connection and bearing of the several parts.

(4.) A large body of explanatory notes, bringing out minuter facts. A few of these, on CHATHAM's early speeches, are from the Modern Orator, and also some definitions of law terms in two of ERSKINE'S, p. 637-83.

(5.) Critical notes, as specimens of the kind of analysis which the author has been accustomed to apply to the several parts of an oration, and which every student in oratory should be continually making out for himself.

(6.) Translations of the passages quoted from the ancient and foreign languages, with the poetry rendered into English verse. The passages are usually traced to their sources, and the train of thought given as it appears in the original, without a knowledge of which most quotations have but little force or beauty. For the same reason, the classical and other allusions are traced out and explained.

(7.) A concluding statement of the way in which the question was decided, with occasional remarks upon its merits, or the results produced by the decision.

Great compression has been used in preparing this volume, that all who are interested in the study of eloquence may be able to possess it. Each page contains the matter of three ordinary octavo pages in Pica type; and the whole work has in it one sixth more than Chapman's Select Speeches, or Willison's American Eloquence, in five octavo volumes each.

In conclusion, the author may be permitted to say, that while he has aimed to produce a volume worthy of lying at all times on the table of every one engaged in speaking or writing for the public, he has hoped it might prove peculiarly useful to men of his own profession; since nothing is more desirable, at the present day, than a larger infusion into our sacred eloquence of the freedom, boldness, and strength which distinguish our secular oratory. Sept. 1st, 1852.

CONTENTS.

REMARKS on the Character of the Duke of Bedford (by His parentage and connection with the stage, 399; early