59

LETTER XXXIV.

TO THE SAME.

I HAVE already described Mr Jeffrey's appear. ance to you so often, that I need not say any thing in addition here, although it is in the Parliament-House certainly that his features assume their most powerful expression, and that, upon the whole, the exterior of this remarkable man is seen to the greatest advantage. When not pleading in one or other of the Courts, or before the Ordinary, he may commonly be seen standing in some corner, entertaining or entertained by such wit as suits the atmosphere of the place; but it is seldom that his occupations permit him to remain long in any such position. Ever and anon his lively conversation is interrupted by some undertaker-faced Solicitor, or perhaps by some hot bustling Exquisite-clerk, who comes to announce the opening of some new debate,

at which the presence of Mr Jeffrey is necessary; and away he darts like lightning to the indicated region, cleaving his way through the surrounding crowd with irresistible alacrity,-the more clumsy or more grave doer that had set him in motion, vainly puffing and elbowing to keep close in his wake. A few seconds have scarcely elapsed, till you hear the sharp, shrill, but deep-toned trumpet of his voice, lifting itself in some far-off corner, high over the discordant Babel that intervenes-period following period in one unbroken chain of sound, as if its links had had no beginning, and were to have no end.

I have told you in a former letter, that his pronunciation is wretched-it is a mixture of provincial English, with undignified Scotch, altogether snappish and offensive, and which would be quite sufficient to render the elocution of a more ordinary man utterly disgusting; but the flow of his eloquence is so overpoweringly rapid, so unweariedly energetic, so entirely unlike every other man's mode of speaking, that the pronunciation of the particular words is quite lost to one's view, in the midst of that continual effort which is required, in order to make the understanding, even the ear of the lis-,

tener, keep pace with the glowing velocity of the declamation. His words come more profusely than words ever came before, and yet it seems as if they were quite unable to follow, passibus equis, the still more amazing speed of his thought. You sit, while minute follows minute uncounted and unheeded, in a state of painful excitation, as if you were in a room overlighted with gas, or close under the crash of a whole pealing orchestra.

This astonishing fluency and vivacity, if possessed by a person of very inferior talents, might for a little be sufficient to create an illusion in his favour; and I have heard that such things have been. But the more you can overcome the effect of Mr Jeffrey's dazzling rapidity, and concentrate your attention on the ideas embodied with such supernatural facility, the greater will be your admiration. It is impossible to conceive the existence of a more fertile, teeming intellect. The flood of his illustration seems to be at all times rioting up to the very brim-yet he commands and restrains it with equal strength and skill; or, if it does boil over for a moment, it spreads such a richness all around, that it is impossible to find fault with its extravagance. Surely never was such a luxuriant "copia fan

di," united with so much terseness of thought, and brilliancy of imagination, and managed with so much unconscious, almost instinctive ease. If he be not the most delightful, he is certainly by far the most wonderful of speakers.

Like Cranstoun, this splendid rhetorician was many years at the Bar, before his success was at all proportioned to his talents. The reputation enjoyed by his Review, was both a friendly and a hostile thing to him as a barrister; for it excited universal attention to him whenever he made any appearance at the Bar, and yet it prevented many people from soliciting him to undertake the conduct of their cases, by inspiring a sort of fear, that his other, and more delightful, and better-rewarded pursuits, might perhaps prevent him from doing full justice to matters of every-day character-the paltry disputes of traders, and the mean tricks of attornies. this, however, has been long since got over, and Jeffrey is now higher than almost any of his brethren, in his general character of an advocate, and decidedly above them all in more than one particular department of practice. The same powers which have enabled him to seize with so firm a grasp the opinion of the public, in regard to matters of taste and literature, give him, above

All

cerer.

all, sway unrivalled over the minds of a jury. There cannot be a finer display of ingenuity, than his mode of addressing a set of plain conscientious men, whom it is his business to bamboozle. He does not indeed call up, as some have dared to do, the majesty of sleeping passions, to overawe the trembling indecision of judgment. The magic he wields is not of the high cast, which makes the subject of its working the conscious, yet willing slave of the sorHis is a more cunning, but quite as ef fectual a species of tempting. He flatters the vanity of men, by making them believe, that the best proof of their own superiority will be their coming to the conclusion which he has proposed; and they submit with servile stupidity, at the very moment that they are pluming themselves on displaying the boldness and independence of adventurous intellect. In criminal trials, and in the newly-established Jury Court for civil cases, Mr Jeffrey is now completely lord of the ascendant; at least, he has only "one brother near the throne."