The issue of a cause rarely depends upon a speech and is but seldom even affected by it. But there is never a cause contested, the result of which is t mainly dependent upon the skill with which the advocate conducts his cross-examination. This is the conclusion arrived at by one of England's greatest advocates at the close of a long and eventful career at the Bar. It was written some fifty years ago and at a time when oratory in public trials was at its height. It is even more true at the present time, when what was once commonly reputed a great speech is seldom heard in our courts, -because the modern methods of practising our profession have had a tendency to discourage court oratory and the development of orators. The old-fashioned orators who were wont to grasp the thunderbolt are w less in favor than formerly. With our modern jurymen the arts of oratory, - law-papers on fire, as Lord Brougham's speeches used to be called, -though still enjoyed as impassioned literary efforts, have become almost useless as persuasive arguments or as a summing up as they are w called.