Henry Vincent - Oratorial Virtuosity and Appearance

Oratorial Virtuosity and Appearance

Vincent was an accomplished public orator, passionate but logical and a clear, concise speaker with energy and drive. He was able to convince men and women from all walks of life to agree with his message. It was said of him that he was 'much below the middle size. His person however was extremely graceful, and he appeared on the platform to much advantage. With a fine, mellow flexible voice, a florid complexion and, excepting in intervals of passion, a most winning expression, he had only to present himself in order to win all hearts over to his side'. Furthermore, 'his attitude was perhaps the most easy and graceful of any popular orator of the time. For fluency of speech he rivalled all his contemporaries, few of whom were anxious to stand beside him on the platform. His rare powers of imitation irresistibly drew peals of laughter from the gravest audience. His versatility, which enabled him to change from grave to gay and vice versa and to assume a dozen various characters in almost as many minutes, was one of the secrets of his success. With the fair sex his slight handsome figure, the merry twinkle of his eye, his incomparable mimicry, his passionate bursts of enthusiasm, the rich music of his voice, and above all, his appeals for the elevation of woman rendered him a universal favourite and the Democrats of both sexes regarded him as the young Demosthenes of English Democracy'. So eulogised RC Gammage in his account of 'The History of The Chartist Movement' in 1859.