It had been ten years since these three Britons had first appeared on Firing Line--in that case, as panelists when they were all three still at Cambridge. They have jointly and severally appeared many times since as panelists or guest interrogators; it was thought this time to invite them as guests in their own right. They come through splendidly, in a spirited examination of the differences between British and American public-affairs television and political debate (with an account of, among much else, how Enoch Powell had finally broken the barrier of silence against him on British TV), the adversary tradition in debating, and the merits of public speakers from Edmund Burke to Richard Nixon. One sample: WFB: "Are you supposed to memorize your speech [in the House of Commons]?" HMH: "You're supposed to speak impromptu." WFB: "Well, the great orations of Churchill--as a matter of fact, he did memorize them; but a number... For instance, the speeches of Burke were certainly not impromptu, were they?" RE: "He always emptied the House of Commons. He was known as the dinner

bell. He was not a successful parliamentary orator. Lord North was the parliamentary genius of his age, which is why he preserved his majority so long in the face of the rebellion in the Americas; and so was Walpole before him. That was a knockabout House of Commons, impromptu style."