Excerpt from Parliamentary Portraits: Or Sketches of the Public Character of Some of the Most Distinguished Speakers of the House of Commons In turning our' thoughts to the composition and proceedings of a great popular assembly, all whoseftransactions appear at least to be conducted through the medium of speech, it is impossible not to be struck with the dearth of dexterity and excellence in the manage ment of the chief instrument of its operations. Wvhat should we say of the main army of a military nation which had not attained com mon precision in the use of fire-arms; or, to descend lewer, of a company of watchmen, who, like Dogberry's followers, should think it belongs to a watch to Something to this efi'ect, however, may be predicated of the conclave who meet at Westminster to talk for the public good. The spirit of our con stitution directs, and its ostensible practice complies with that direction, that all public measures shall be proposed and canvassed in the representative council of the people. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.