THE

FREE SPEAKER:

A NEW COLLECTION OF

PIECES FOR DECLAMATION

ORIGINAL AS WELL AS SELECTED,

INTENDED AS A

COMPANION TO "THE HUNDRED DIALOGUES."

BY

WILLIAM BENTLEY FOWLE.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,

AT HIS SCHOOL-ROOMS,

No. 611 WASHINGTON STREET.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

MARIA ANTOINETTE FOWLE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

PREFACE.

THE title of this volume furnishes the best reason for its publication. The School Speakers hitherto published have been, to a great extent, reprints of old pieces; but this professes to contain such pieces only as are not known to have been published in any text-book for schools.

Besides its NOVELTY, another peculiar feature is its FREEDOM. Wherever a suitable specimen of eloquence has been found, it has been used, and, as there has been little eloquence of late years, except in connection with the great humane or reformatory questions of the age, the proportion of this class of pieces is not small.

The difficulty experienced by the Author in carrying out his plan of inserting only new pieces, compelled him, as in the case of his HUNDRED DIALOGUES, to resort, very reluctantly, to his own pen, and he can only hope that this necessity will not only excuse the apparent presumption, but, in some measure, avert severe criticism.