Neither, if he chose to hold forth on
the perfectibility of human reason, or on the
relation of mind to matter in the abstract,
need he dread any worse punishment than
the loud dissent or the tranquil sleep of his
auditors. The laws were framed to catch the
eloquence of every member; or rather to
allow any number of hobbies to be ridden by
any number of members who were disposed
for a ride.

The early days of the club were sad times.
Young gentlemen, with all the wish to make
speeches of interminable length, only kept
themselves decently on their legs for five
minutes. In those green days of the germinating
orators, their rhetoric was so bound
up in the bud, that it could not at first
burst forth into flower. They burned with
the cacoëthes, without having the vis loquendi.
They had plenty to say, but could not say it.
They boasted of hosts of ideas, but want of
practice denied them the use of words.
The consequence was that the law of primogeniture
was reviewed in its effects, from
the Conquest up to the year 1850, in
ten minutes: a republican young man " obtained
possession of the floor " at a quarter
to eight o'clock, and proved to his own entire
satisfaction that no head that had ever worn
a crown had ever betrayed one sign of the
commonest human virtue, before the clock
had struck the hour. Although great confidence
existed as to the latent talent of
the members, and their capacity to deal
with every vital question; yet after the experience
of a few evenings, the fact that practice
was wanted by the majority present, became
undoubted. The two or three members
who possessed greater fluency than the rest
were soon promoted to leaderships, and then
the disposition of parties became manifest.
The Budding Chathams soon found that they
had a Liberal Party, a Moderate Party, and
a Tory Party. For each party a leader was
found; and then the usual business of a debating
club began in earnest. Young gentlemen
of eighteen, with crimson blushes, stammered
out towards the close of the debate
that they felt great reluctance " in giving a
silent vote on so important a question; " men
who in the ordinary concerns of life were
Harry and Tom, to each other became mutually
"my honourable friend." " Mr. Chairman"
had often not attained his majority,
and very often not his years of discretion;
law students were referred to as " the learned
gentleman who had just sat down; " and one
or two clerks connected with manufacturing
firms were known to the Budding Chathams
as " distinguished partisans of the Manchester
School."

As time wore on, and practice wore away
the bashfulness of unskilful members, instead
of a couple of dozen speeches per night, one
evening was often too short for two or three.
The buds of eloquence burst into such expansive
flower, that discretion never told them
when to stop. Like Baron Munchausen's
frozen trumpet when it thawed, all the pent-up
music of their minds' utterance burst forth.
Various men adopted various styles of speaking,
and had their acknowledged peculiarities.
Mr. Pattens was the honourable member who
divided every question he touched into three
heads: Mr. Walkingame Cocker was the statistical
genius of the club, and could tell off
the number of committals in England, Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland, for every year since
1815. Then there was the satirical speaker,
who was always listened to with profound
attention. He had a reputation for reply.
Throughout the evening he would listen to
the speeches of all the heavy men; and then,
just as the chairman was about to "call upon
the honourable opener for his reply," he
would rise " to offer a few remarks on one or
two points where gross blunders had been
made by previous speakers. He disclaimed
all personality, and it was far from being his
wish to offend any honourable member; but
he must say that he had never heard a speech
more characterised by flippancy and an audacious
disregard of facts, than that which he
had just been called upon to hear. If the
honourable gentleman who preceded him had
been as accurate in his grammar as he had
been ponderous in his facts, the club would
have been more indebted to him; and had
the honourable opener shown a little less confidence,
and a greater familiarity with the
subject he had professed to expound, the
honourable members present would have been
better able to arrive at a fair decision upon
the merits of the case before them."

Still, despite the not unusual tendency to
loquacity, the Budding Chathams managed
on " field-days " to despatch a wonderful
amount of public business; and showed, as
to mere rapidity, an example worthy of imitation
in another place.

Statesmen have been discussing the excellences
of Free Trade and Protective systems
for years; the Budding Chathams opened the
question at eight o'clock one evening, and recorded
their firm opinion upon it before midnight.
The Catholic titular claims, which have
worried us for months, were negatived by the
young Chathams in four hours, stoppages
(viz., " Hear, hear, hear! " " Question, Question!"
"Name, Name! " " Chair! " &c.)
included. So much for the speed with which
the confidence of two-and-twenty deals with
vital political dogmas. These elements, mixed
up with a large number of Budding Chathams
who observed a discreet silence on all occasions,
and voted with the best speakers, constituted
a club similar in aim to thousands
which exist in different parts of England.

Instituted to afford practice in public speaking
to a number of young men, the club was
highly successful in this object; but how far
it strengthened and concentrated the reasoning
faculties of " honourable members," is a
question which would be an edifying subject