The Only Eloquence

Oliver Cromwell was one day engaged in a warm argument with a lady upon oratory, in whioh she maintained that eloquence could only be aoquired by those who made it their study in early life and theirpracticeafterwards. The Lord Protector, on the contrary, maintained that there was no eloquenoe but that whioh sprung from the heart, since, when that was deeply interested in the attainment of an object, it never failed to supply a fluency and richness of expression which would, in comparison, render vapid the studied speeches of the most celebrated orators, This argument ended, as most arguments do, in the lady's tenanciously adhering to her side of the que&tion ; and the Protector saying he had no doubt he should one day mako her a convert to his opinión. Some days after, the lady was thrown into a state bordering on distraction by the unexpected arrest and imprisonment of her husband, who wasconducted to the tower as a traitor to the government - The agonized wife flew to the Protector, rushed through his guards, threw herself at his feet, and with the most pathetic eloquence pleaded for the life and innocence of her husband, Cromwell maintained a severe brow, until the petitioner, overpowered by the excess of her feelings and the energy with which she had expressed them, paused. His stern countenance tben relaxed into a smile, and, extending her an immediate liberation of her husband, he said, " I think all who have witnesssed this scène will vote on my side of the qusstion, that the eloquence of the heart alone has power to save."