"My dear," said Mrs. Mountjoy, one morning at breakfast, as her eye glanced at the advertisement of one of these great masters, in the columns of the Times, "if you think it would be of use to you to take lessons from this accomplished gentleman, only let me know. You cannot have a more favourable opportunity than the present for improving yourself in this way. It will be a great pleasure to me to incur that or any other expense, necessary for your success in life."

Mr. Medlicott owned that he felt strongly disposed to place himself for a while under the instruction of Professor Chatterton, and a day did not pass without a syllabus having been obtained of that distinguished gentleman's course of lectures.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SCHOOL OF RHETORIO.

THE general card or prospectus of Professor Chatterton (whose School of Elocution, as it was termed, was held in Leicester Square), announced the intended delivery of four courses of lectures during the London season, on the theory and practice of public speaking, in its several leading applications to the senate, the bar, the pulpit, and miscellaneous purposes, such as county meetings, public dinners, vestries, mobs, weddings, and demonstrations generally.

That of the

There was a particular syllabus for each course. lectures on pulpit eloquence was as follows. The reader will please to imagine the enthusiastic Mr. Medlicott and the buxom Mrs. Mountjoy, reading it together at the tea-table, with all the gravity becoming the subject.

"Lecture 1. Importance of the Lungs, Throat, and Tongue to Public Speakers in general, and to Clergymen in particular, of all persuasions. Oratory an art, especially Pulpit oratory - Encouragements to the study of it-Easy acquisition of, in twelve lessons. Idea of a perfect sermon. -Professor will endeavour to embody it in a Specimen of his own Composition. -Strictures on Taylor, South, Barrow, and Tillotson - Their several defects criticised. The Lecture will conclude with a Speculation on the effect Demosthenes would have produced had he adopted the Profession of the Church.

"Lecture 2. General principles of Pronunciation

Emotion

Special Rules

-

Sentiment. Vital Im- Manner.- Origin and De

for the reading-desk and Pulpit - Solemnity- Unction-DignityAction, Action, Action - Passionportance of Earnestness of Look - Voicerivation of the word Pulpit- the Pulpit a stage — the Preacher 'to hold the mirror up to nature.'

Lecture 3. Rhetorical Artifices - Adaptation to Sacred purposes Use of the Hands and Arms- the Eyes-the Eyebrows-PausesStarts Points - Transitions-Tones, Intoning, and Intonation. - Distinctions to be observed in Churches, Cathedrals, Chapels, and Conventicles-Drawling, whining-a digression on nasal eloquence. Lecture will conclude with a rehearsal by the Professor of one of Mr. Irving's Sermons, in the course of which he will introduce some Criticisms on the Unknown Tongue, and Remarks on Jargon in general, in connexion with the study of Rhetoric.

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Lecture 4. Rules and directions of Particular and Critical Occasions Preaching in the Chapel Royal - before Archbishops and Bishops in the presence of the Lord Chancellor - Rhetorical Incense - Pleasing Personalities, &c.

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Lecture 5. Charity Sermons - the emotion of Pity-'If you have tears, prepare to shed them now' - Charitable Statistics difficult to handle-how to reconcile Petticoats with Pathos, and extract eloquence from Slate-pencils. The Professor will illustrate his precepts by delivering a Speech of Mr. Hume's, in the character of a Minister of the Kirk.

"Lecture 6. Miscellaneous hints and suggestions- In tenui gloria— Coughing, its management - capable of being made effective in the Pulpit-Pulpit-lozenges, prepared by Professor Chatterton, and strongly recommended to the Clergy. Remarks on the Snuff-box-Dissuasives from Snuff in general -Sneezing not as manageable as coughing, with a view to Oratorical effect. Peroration, embodying all the previous principles, with the results of the Professor's experience, in a sermon on Peace and Good-will, supposed to be preached before the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England, assembled in Convocation."

"Well, indeed," said Mrs. Mountjoy, "that does seem to be a very excellent and judicious course of lectures, and I cannot doubt but it must be highly improving to attend them."

"The Professor," said Reuben, "has certainly shown his judgment in the choice of the subject to preach on before Convocation. But we are not quite done with the bill of fare: here is an N. B. at the bottom, and a postscript after that again."

'

"A Supplementary Lecture will be given by Madame Chatterton, on the Dress and Address of a Clergyman. - The Looking-Glass, its importance-Canonical Drapery-the Hair- Wigs Attention to the Teeth Use of the Handkerchief in the Pulpit-Cambric- Cambrai - Archbishop Fénélon-Scents, Rings, &c. &c. Tickets Half-a-Guinea.

"P. S. Professor and Madame Chatterton will give Private Lessons ou all the above topics adapted to the use of gentlemen of the Church of Rome, or disposed to embrace its Doctrines. The Professor having lately

returned from the States of the Church, has had the honour of importing into England sundry interesting novelties in Theatrical Devotion, including several cases of Relics in admirable preservation, and undoubtedly genuine. He begs also to recommend his Tract on the all-important subject of Holy Histrionics, dedicated, with permission, to the Lord Bishop of

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Surplices, Crucifixes, Rosaries, and Disciplines (the use of them), Gratis, during the Course."

Reuben was not surprised to find that Mr. Chatterton had some years previously been a player of some note, at several of the minor theatres. Of course, he was only the better qualified to teach what Mr. Medlicett wanted to learn-the artistic management of the voice, the play of the hands, the bearing of the body; in short, all the external part of oratory, which is, no doubt, in a great measure, an histrionic art-a truth which may help to account for the concurrent decline of eloquence and the drama of late years in England.

The Professor, who was attired in decent black, as became a teacher of the clergy, made no secret of his former calling, but on the contrary put it prominently forward among his qualifications; and in truth nobody but a player of considerable skill could have maintained not only his own gravity, but that of his disciples, through a course of instructions in which there was so much real and almost unavoidable imposture.

"Church, chapel, or conventicle ?"-with the bow of the old trade, and the solemn tone of the new one, was the Professor's first inquiry, when Mr. Medlicott intimated his wish to put himself under his tuition for the clerical portion of the lectures.

"The Established Church," was of course the reply.

"High or Low-Cambridge or Oxford ?" inquired the Professor.

Reuben answered with a smile, which led Professor Chatterton into an explanation of the necessity he was under of making separate classes of his pupils, from the two universities. Reuben was astounded: he had never before heard of the new school of divinity at Oxford, which was then, indeed, only in its infancy. "Ah," said the Professor, "it is very little known as yet, but the world will hear enough of it by-and-by. My Oxford class is not numerous, but it is steadily increasing, and contains my most diligent and promising pupils. There is Mr. N- -n, Mr. Wd, Mr. St. John Crozier, Mr. Cyprian Palmer, Lord Henry Holyrood,-very promising young men, all of them, I assure you."

"I am happy to hear there is likely to be such a harvest of eloquent preachers," said Reuben.

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Well," said the Professor, "my Oxford pupils don't attend to that so much as to-what shall I call it?-the-I don't like to use the word pantomimic; you know what I mean-the pageant -the drama-but perhaps you have seen my tract on Holy Histrionics,' dedicated by permission to the Lord Bishop of Reuben was more and more amazed, and inquired the name of this new Oxonian sect.

"Tractarians," said the ci-devant comedian. "Perhaps I may flatter myself that the title of my little work, originally suggested the name."

"It seems to bear a strong family likeness to Popery, all this," said Reuben. "I now see the meaning of some words in your prospectus which at first I did not understand belonging to the Church of Rome, or disposed to embrace it."

The Professor showed an anxiety to distinguish between the system of his Oxford pupils and flat Popery, but perceiving that he made no great impression on Reuben, he changed the subject, declaring that he made it a rule not to interfere with the doctrines of the gentlemen who honoured him with their attendance: he did not pretend to teach divinity-that, of course, had its importance he was prepared to give lessons to gentlemen of all persuasions, without distinction; if a Mufti, or a dancing Dervish, came to his school, he would not refuse to give him the benefit of his instructions.

Mr. Medlicott thought the views of the Professor just and reasonable, and the lectures commenced the following day.

Mr. Chatterton filled up the outlines of his syllabus with great ingenuity and spirit. As might have been expected, he treated learning, argument, and things of that sort, as matters of secondary importance; and some of his hearers, Reuben among others, more than doubted whether his specimen of a perfect discourse was equal to a sermon of Barrow or Massillon. But he declaimed with energy, and laid down many rules which speakers in general would do well to observe, mixed with others which not one man in a hundred could possibly attempt to follow, without making himself supremely ridiculous. Reuben speedily discovered (particularly in the second and third lectures) the source of many of the affectations which he had seen practised in some of the metropolitan pulpits. Indeed, he remarked two young clergymen on the front benches,-one was Mr. Araby, the author of

Melancthon, in twenty books-who were already beginning to be talked of as eloquent preachers; and he did not fail to observe, also, that they redoubled their attention to the lecturer when he came to give his instructions for special occasions, such as preaching before a bishop, or in presence of the Lord Chancellor. Reuben, however, though the most disinterested of the class, was soon more intent than any one else upon the subject of the lectures, and made his enthusiasm so conspicuous that the Professor was excessively flattered, and at length invited him to occupy a chair in the most distinguished position in the room. This led to private conversations when the lecture was over, and one of these conversations ended in Reuben inviting the Professor to dinner in Burlington Gardens. Primrose, De Tabley, and Winning dined with the widow the same evening, and Reuben yielded the pas to the Professor, who, finding himself very comfortable, made himself very agreeable, and had the judgment to refrain from giving his model sermon, diverting the company nearly as well with admirable imitations of Dowton, Liston, and Matthews. As the wine produced its effects, Chatterton began to talk at large of his profession, and to disclose many of its arcana, about which Winning and Hyacinth were very curious, Winning being particularly anxious to find out what members of the bar frequented the school of oratory in Leicester-square. It soon ap

peared that the lectures were the smallest part of Mr. Chatterton's professional engagements; he gave private instructions, also, to clergymen, lawyers, senators, and even to simple squires, who, though not in parliament, were called on to second resolutions at county meetings, or propose healths at dinners.

"I should have thought," said Winning, "that the chief embarrassment of a squire would be to find the speech itself."

The Professor shrugged his shoulders, and intimated that he did a little occasionally himself in the speech-making line for the squirearchy.

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"Eloquence is not to be had out of buckskin," said Winning, any more than a silk purse-you know the saying."

"Bucksin," said the Professor, "cuts a wonderful figure whenever the church is supposed in danger, as some think it is just now. A squire's lungs are made of the same material as his breeches, and it's as easy to shout No Popery!' as to cry "Tally-ho!' A dozen repetitions, at short intervals, of the phrase 'No Popery,' with any stuff you please to fill up the crevices, make a capital speech for a "fine old English gentleman" in the