As a debater in the House of Commons, his speeches were logical and argumentative: if they did not often abound in the graces of metaphor, or sparkle with the brilliancy of wit, they were always animated, elegant, and classical.

Older men wept tears of joy as they listened and murmured, "The country is safethank God!" Ably assisting him, though she deferred charmingly to him, in all things, was his charming young wife, herself an able speaker and debater who had once considered herself a suffragette, but who was now entirely absorbed in her beautiful home and her brilliant husband.

Had he died at the age of forty-three, his name would probably not have descended to our times, except as a leading citizen, a good lawyer, and powerful debater.

That position was shared by Charles James Fox, who ultimately supplanted his master as the leader of his party; not because Burke declined in wisdom or energy, but because Fox had more skill as a debater, more popular sympathies, and more influential friends.

He was not, however, an orator, although he subsequently became a great debater.

It was his persistent advocacy of parliamentary reform which had made him prominent and famous, and it was his ability as a debater which kept him at the head of his party.

Peel was a great administrator and a great debater.

He was prominent in securing the passage of a bill which removed the seat of government to Springfield, and was regarded as a good debater.

In these famous debates between the leaders, Lincoln proved himself quite the equal of his antagonist, who was already famous as a trained and prompt debater.

As a youth he attempted everything, being of a pertinacious and inquiring mind, and he was also a great debater and student of Dante; and, taking to sculpture, he was one of those who, as we shall see in a later chapter, competed for the commission for the Baptistery gates.

A noted debater, he made frequent use of the device of attacking the weakness of the other man's speech, rather than the weakness of the other man's argument.

Sir James Mackintosh is an accomplished debater, rather than a powerful orator: he is distinguished more as a man of wonderful and variable talent than as a man of commanding intellect.

With so many resources, with such variety and solidity of information, Mr. Brougham is rather a powerful and alarming, than an effectual debater.

There is Mr. Webster, and Mr. Clay, and Mr. Calhoun, and a no-way inferior, Mr. Preston, the famous debater in the South Carolina troubles, and Mr. Benj.

A prolific writer and a shrewd debater, Whiston played no small part in the general leavening of opinion.

Indeed we should sooner expect a great original work on political science, such a work, for example, as the Wealth of Nations, from an apothecary in a country town, or from a minister in the Hebrides, than from a statesman who, ever since he was one-and-twenty, had been a distinguished debater in the House of Commons.

He was while in Parliament, though not quite an orator, and still less a debater, the most brilliant rhetorician of the House.

He had the repute at the time of being the leading political debater in the country.

The world became full of easy-mannered, graceful, gracefully-dressed, conversationally dexterous, finally shallow Wedderburns, Bishops Wedderburn, Wedderburn M.P.'s, Professors Wedderburn, Wedderburn landlords, all with finger-bowl shibboleths and epigrammatic cities of refuge from a sturdy debater.

He is no debater, but appears in conversation, as occasion rises, in two distinct characters, one of which I admire and fear, and the other love.

A master of epigram and a brilliant debater, he really led his party.

CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM, a Scotch divine, born in Hamilton, well read in the Reformation and Puritan theology, a vigorous defender of Scottish orthodoxy, and a stanch upholder of the independence of the Church of State control; was a powerful debater, and a host in any controversy in which he embarked (1805-1861).

His speeches were always controversial, but he was an admirable debater.

He wanted a man who would defend the Government before the Chambers with courage and ability; Bismarck, who had gained his reputation as a debater, was the only man for the post.

We have hitherto seen Bismarck in the character of party leader, Parliamentary debater, a keen and accomplished diplomatist; now he comes before us in a new rôle, that of creative statesman; he adopts it with the same ease and complete mastery with which he had borne himself in the earlier stages of his career.