Show ORATORY AND LAWYERS Lord Russell of Klllowen the Chief Justice In an address before the Irish Literary society on John Phllpot Curran Insisted that the value of oratory ora-tory to n lawyer is overrated He thinks It Is I not an Important vehicle for argument and for enunciation and enforcement of great principles he thinks that most men who have considered I sidered the subject have decided that l ICs of speech could never attain to r their great momentum and power until I un-til founded upon a substratum of carefully care-fully acquired knowledge and upon I solid argument he thinks the gift of speech Is of slight use before juries I I 1 and o no use with Judges Further I he nys there Is a popular dlsposl l lion to distrust the man who makes too i great adisplay of his gIfts 11 of speech A when ho macs n address This Is I why the leaders of tho bar today aro not great oratora but rather men with a carefully acquired knowledge which they are able to present logically i to the Judge or jury they would convince I con-vince We do not see how that would In tho least affect a man like John Phllpot Currnn beruuse what he used wits oratory and not SL mere gift of speech He used that something which beguiled be-guiled men like music which carried his own Impulsive countrymen off their feet and real oratory has a wonderful I effect even with the most serious Judges A half dozen words in Web sters speech In the Dartsmouth college col-lege case brought tears to the eyes of every Judge on the bench and it affected af-fected their reason Just that far because be-cause the decision they gave was not founded on absolute cold law Unconsciously Un-consciously to them some of the sympathy sym-pathy In Websters soul had taken i 1 possession of them and It materialized I Jn the decision and Websters eloquence elo-quence waa nothing asa lawyer before a jury to compare with Currans The eloquence of Webster was the thought behind his momentous words the eloquence elo-quence of Curran was thc enchantment which ho gave to men In the thoughts which his words awakened in whiI hll their own minds and which for the time being I absolutely swayed and controlled A gift I of speech a gift I of words after it passes beyond the point of hesitation counts for nothing except what tho thoughts behind the words carry with them Real oratory Is that something I which affects men often beyond their Judgments and beyond tho Instruction even of a court Aaron Burr could do this just by the force of hIs Intellect and not In the way he pronounced his words When Chief Justice Marshall was asked by u young lawyer how long an argument before n court should be the answer was It depends upon tho man Burr can In can twenty minutes so tangle up a Jury that It tnkea mo forty minutes to a straighten It out |