these men would have been restored to employment, and the county to tranquillity.  It is, perhaps, not yet too late, and is surely worth the trial.  It can never be too late to employ force in such circumstances.  I believe your Lordship does not coincide with me entirely on this subject, and most cheerfully and sincerely shall I submit to your superior judgment and experience, and take some other line of argument against the bill, or be silent altogether, should you deem it more advisable.  Condemning, as every one must condemn, the conduct of these wretches, I believe in the existence of grievances which call rather for pity than punishment.  I have the honour to be, with great respect, my Lord, your Lordship’s

     “Most obedient and obliged servant,

     “BYRON.

     “P.S.  I am a little apprehensive that your Lordship will think me
     too lenient towards these men, and half a framebreaker myself.”

* * * * *

It would have been, no doubt, the ambition of Lord Byron to acquire distinction as well in oratory as in poesy; but Nature seems to set herself against pluralities in fame.  He had prepared himself for this debate,—­as most of the best orators have done, in their first essays,—­not only by composing, but writing down, the whole of his speech beforehand.  The reception he met with was flattering; some of the noble speakers on his own side complimented him very warmly; and that he was himself highly pleased with his success, appears from the annexed account of Mr. Dallas, which gives a lively notion of his boyish elation on the occasion.

“When he left the great chamber, I went and met him in the passage; he was glowing with success, and much agitated.  I had an umbrella in my right hand, not expecting that he would put out his hand to me;—­in my haste to take it when offered, I had advanced my left hand—­’What!’ said he, ‘give your friend your left hand upon such an occasion?’ I showed the cause, and immediately changing the umbrella to the other hand, I gave him my right hand, which he shook and pressed warmly.  He was greatly elated, and repeated some of the compliments which had been paid him, and mentioned one or two of the peers who had desired to be introduced to him.  He concluded with saying, that he had, by his speech, given me the best advertisement for Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.”

The speech itself, as given by Mr. Dallas from the noble speaker’s own manuscript, is pointed and vigorous; and the same sort of interest that is felt in reading the poetry of a Burke, may be gratified, perhaps, by a few specimens of the oratory of a Byron.  In the very opening of his speech, he thus introduces himself by the melancholy avowal, that in that assembly of his brother nobles he stood almost a stranger.

“As a person in some degree connected with the suffering county, though a stranger not only to this House in general, but to almost every individual whose attention I presume to solicit, I must claim some portion of your Lordships’ indulgence.”