Thus, sure of being a senator, I dare say you do not propose to be one of the ’pedarii senatores, et pedibus ire in sententiam; for, as the House of Commons is the theatre where you must make your fortune and figure in the world, you must resolve to be an actor, and not a ‘persona muta’, which is just equivalent to a candle snuffer upon other theatres.  Whoever does not shine there, is obscure, insignificant and contemptible; and you cannot conceive how easy it is for a man of half your sense and knowledge to shine there if he pleases.  The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy.—­Take of common sense ’quantum sufcit’, add a little application to the rules and orders of the House, throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness, and elegance of style.  Take it for granted, that by far the greatest part of mankind do neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface.  All have senses to be gratified, very few have reason to be applied to.  Graceful utterance and action please their eyes, elegant diction tickles their ears; but strong reason would be thrown away upon them.  I am not only persuaded by theory, but convinced by my experience, that (supposing a certain degree of common sense) what is called a good speaker is as much a mechanic as a good shoemaker; and that the two trades are equally to be learned by the same degree of application.  Therefore, for God’s sake, let this trade be the principal object of your thoughts; never lose sight of it.  Attend minutely to your style, whatever language you speak or write in; seek for the best words, and think of the best turns.  Whenever you doubt of the propriety or elegance of any word, search the dictionary or some good author for it, or inquire of somebody, who is master of that language; and, in a little time, propriety and elegance of diction will become so habitual to you, that they will cost you no more trouble.  As I have laid this down to be mechanical and attainable by whoever will take the necessary pains, there will be no great vanity in my saying, that I saw the importance of the object so early, and attended to it so young, that it would now cost me more trouble to speak or write ungrammatically, vulgarly, and inelegantly, than ever it did to avoid doing so.  The late Lord Bolingbroke, without the least trouble, talked all day long, full as elegantly as he wrote.  Why?  Not by a peculiar gift from heaven; but, as he has often told me himself, by an early and constant attention to his style.  The present Solicitor-General, Murray,—­[Created Lord Mansfield in the year 1756.]—­has less law than many lawyers, but has more practice than any; merely upon account of his eloquence, of which he has a never-failing stream.  I remember so long ago as when I was at Cambridge, whenever I read pieces of eloquence (and indeed they were my chief study) whether ancient or modern, I