DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6915#0036
24
FINE ARTS OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.
or in the hall of his society. In such a course of life, nothing is remarkable,
except the conversation, which in Mr. Dunning abounded with wit in all its forms;
sometimes playful, and often severe. Of the exercise of this quality, both on his
opponents at the Bar, and on the Chief Justice, with whom political opposition
kept him on rather bad terms, many anecdotes remain, but they are either too
common, or too little authenticated to merit commemoration in this place.
Lord Ashburton owed no portion of his success to the advantages of appear-
ance, or to felicity of manner or of address; but when once his talents began to
operate, all other circumstances were forgotten. The meanness of his figure, the
ungracefulness of his action, and monotony of his voice, were all lost in the
rapidity of his conceptions, the fluency of his words, the flashes of his wit, and
the subtlety of his arguments. He is thus delineated by a recent writer, who
had means to know, and abilities to estimate the individual he undertook to
describe. " He was a man whose talents were so peculiar, and had such a
singular kind of brilliance, that they are not yet forgot at the Bar. They were
more remarkable for acuteness and wit, than for elegance and chasteness. The
combination of his words was so singular, and the tones of his discordant voice
so served in him to rivet the attention, that, as they always conveyed powers of
thinking eminently sharp and forcible, he was constantly listened to with
eagerness and admiration. His temper was generous, his spirits lively, and his
passions violent. The popular side which he took in politics increased his fame;
and he died, generally lamented, just as he had obtained the fond object of
his wishes."
FINE ARTS OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.
or in the hall of his society. In such a course of life, nothing is remarkable,
except the conversation, which in Mr. Dunning abounded with wit in all its forms;
sometimes playful, and often severe. Of the exercise of this quality, both on his
opponents at the Bar, and on the Chief Justice, with whom political opposition
kept him on rather bad terms, many anecdotes remain, but they are either too
common, or too little authenticated to merit commemoration in this place.
Lord Ashburton owed no portion of his success to the advantages of appear-
ance, or to felicity of manner or of address; but when once his talents began to
operate, all other circumstances were forgotten. The meanness of his figure, the
ungracefulness of his action, and monotony of his voice, were all lost in the
rapidity of his conceptions, the fluency of his words, the flashes of his wit, and
the subtlety of his arguments. He is thus delineated by a recent writer, who
had means to know, and abilities to estimate the individual he undertook to
describe. " He was a man whose talents were so peculiar, and had such a
singular kind of brilliance, that they are not yet forgot at the Bar. They were
more remarkable for acuteness and wit, than for elegance and chasteness. The
combination of his words was so singular, and the tones of his discordant voice
so served in him to rivet the attention, that, as they always conveyed powers of
thinking eminently sharp and forcible, he was constantly listened to with
eagerness and admiration. His temper was generous, his spirits lively, and his
passions violent. The popular side which he took in politics increased his fame;
and he died, generally lamented, just as he had obtained the fond object of
his wishes."