The British Essayists: The Connoisseur

IT has hitherto been imagined, that though we have equalled, if not surpassed, the ancients in other liberal arts, we have not yet been able to arrive at that height of eloquence, which was possessed in so amazing a manner by the Grecian and Roman orators. Whether this has been owing to any peculiar organization of our tongues, or whether it has proceeded from our national love of taciturnity, I shall not take upon me to determine: but I will now venture to affirm, that the present times might furnish us with a more surprising number of fine speakers, than have been set down by Tully in his treatise De Claris Oratoribus. Foreigners can no longer object to us, that the northern

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coldness of our climate has (as it were) pursed up our lips, and that we are afraid to open our mouths: The charm is at length dissolved; and our people, who before affected the gravity and silence of the Spaniards, have adopted and naturalized the volubility of speech, as well as the gay manners, of the French.

This change has been brought about by the public. spirited attempts of those elevated geniuses, who have instituted certain schools for the cultivation of elo. quence in all it's branches. Hence it is, that instead of languid discourses from the pulpit, several tabernacles and meeting-houses have been set up, where lay-preachers may display all the powers of oratory in sighs and groans, and emulate a Whitfield or a Wesley in all the figures of rhetoric. And not only the enthusiast has his conventicles, but even the free-thinker boasts his societies, where he may hold forth against religion in tropes, metaphors, and similies. The declamations weekly thundered out at Clare-market, and the subtle argumentations at the Robin Hood, I have formerly celebrated: It now remains to pay my respects to the Martin Luther of the age, (as he frequently calls himself) the great orator Macklin; who, by declaiming himself, and opening a school for the disputations of others, has joined both the above plans together, and formed the British Inquisition. Here, whatever concerns the world of taste and literature, is debated: Our rakes and bloods, who had been used to frequent Covent Garden merely for the sake of whoring and drinking, now resort thither for reason and argument; and the piazza begins to vie with the ancient portico, where Socrates disputed.

But what pleases me most in Mr. Macklin's in. stitution is, that he has allowed the tongues of my fair country-women their full play. Their natural talents for oratory are so excellent and numerous, that it seems more owing to the envy than prudence of the

other sex, that they should be denied the opportunity of exerting them. The remarkable tendency in our politest ladies, " to talk, though they have nothing to say," and the torrent of eloquence, that pours (on the most trivial occasions) from the lips of those females, called scolds, give abundant proofs of that command of words, and flow of eloquence, which so few men have been able to attain. Again, if action is the life and soul of an oration, how many advantages have the ladies in this particular? The waving of a snowy arm, artfully shaded with the enchanting slope of a double ruffle, would have twenty times the force of the stiff see-saw of a male orator: and when they come to the most animated parts of the oration, which demand uncommon warmth and agitation, we should be vanquished by the heaving breast, and all those other charms, which the modern dress is so well calculated to display.

Since the ladies are thus undeniably endued with these and many other accomplishments for oratory, that no place should hitherto have been opened for their exerting them, is almost unaccountable. The lower order of females have, indeed, long ago instituted an academy of this kind at the other end of the town, where oysters and eloquence are in equal perfection: but the politer part of the female world have hitherto had no further opportunity of exercising their abilities, than the common occasions which a new cap or petenlair, the tea or the card-table, have afforded them. I am therefore heartily glad, that a plan is at length put in execution, which will encou rage their propensity to talking, and enlarge their topics of conversation: but I would more particularly recommend it to all ladies of a clamorous disposition, to attend at Macklin's; that the impetuous stream of eloquence, which, for want of another vent, has long

been poured on their servants or husbands, may now be carried off by another more agreeable channel.

I could not have thought it possible, that this undertaking would have subsisted two nights, without setting all the female tongues from St. James's to Temple-Bar in motion. But the ladies have hitherto been dumb; and female eloquence seems as unlikely to display itself in public as ever. Whether their modesty will not permit them to open their mouths in the unhallowed air of Covent-Garden, I know not: but I am rather inclined to think, that the questions proposed have not been sufficiently calculated for the female part of the assembly. They might perhaps be tempted to debate," whether Fanny Murray or Lady were the properest to lead the fashion;" "to what lengths a lady might proceed without the loss of her reputation;" or "whether the beautifying lotion or the royal washball were the most excellent cosmetics." It might also be expected, in complai sance to the fair sex, that the Inquisitor should now and then read a dissertation on natural and artificial beauty; in which he might (with that softness and delicacy peculiar to himself) analyse a lady's face, and give examples of the ogle, the simper, the smile, the Tanguish, the dimple, &c. with a word or two on the use and benefit of paint.

But these points I shall leave to Mr. Macklin's consideration: In the mean time, as it is not in my power to oblige the public with a lady's speech, I shall fill up the remainder of my paper with an oration, which my correspondent is desirous should appear in print, though he had not sufficient confidence to deliver it at the Inquisition.

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