Those Who Speak Seem To Deliver Themselves With But Little, Perhaps
Not Always With Even A Decorous, Gravity.
All that is necessary is
to stand up in your place, take off your hat, turn to the Speaker
(To whom all the speeches are addressed), to hold your hat and stick
in one hand, and with the other to make any such motions as you
fancy necessary to accompany your speech.
If it happens that a member rises who is but a bad speaker, or if
what he says is generally deemed not sufficiently interesting, so
much noise is made, and such bursts of laughter are raised, that the
member who is speaking can scarcely distinguish his own words. This
must needs be a distressing situation; and it seems then to be
particularly laughable, when the Speaker in his chair, like a tutor
in a school, again and again endeavours to restore order, which he
does by calling out "To order, to order," apparently often without
much attention being paid to it.
On the contrary, when a favourite member, and one who speaks well
and to the purpose, rises, the most perfect silence reigns, and his
friends and admirers, one after another, make their approbation
known by calling out, "Hear him," which is often repeated by the
whole House at once; and in this way so much noise is often made
that the speaker is frequently interrupted by this same emphatic
"Hear him." Notwithstanding which, this calling out is always
regarded as a great encouragement; and I have often observed that
one who began with some diffidence, and even somewhat
inauspiciously, has in the end been so animated that he has spoken
with a torrent of eloquence.
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