The eloquence which could master such an audience was of a new ...

The eloquence which could master such an audience was of a new kind.

The great rhetorical tradition which begins with Halifax and runs through Pitt to Canning, sent up an expiring flash in Macaulay.

The modern manner was less declamatory and more closely reasoned: we might call it more conversational if we remember that conversation still kept some of the amplitude of an earlier day.' Speeches were very long, but the contentions over the currency and the fiscal system had created a new style, of which Huskisson was the first exponent, Peel the most specious master, and which Mr Gladstone wielded

like a Tenth Muse:

knowledge of the facts and an apt handling of figures was now the surest proof of capacity, and among the most memorable feats

of Victorian oratory

are speeches on finance. The career of Ewart (son of Mr Gladstone's godfather) is typical.

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