Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, in his valuable work, _The History of Party_
(vol. iii, p. 66.), gives an admirable sketch of the life of Edmund Burke.
Speaking of his early career, and of the various designs which he formed
for his future course, we are told that "at _Macklin's Debating Society_ he
made the first essay of his powers of oratory."
Mr. Cunningham, in his _Handbook for London_, speaks of Macklin delivering
Lectures on Elocution at Pewterer's Hall (p. 394.), and of his residence in
Tavistock Row, Covent Garden (p. 484.); but he does not mention _Macklin's
Debating Society_. I imagine that by this "Debating Society" is meant an
_Ordinary and School of Criticism_, which that eminent actor established in
the year 1754, in the Piazza, Covent Garden. Mr. W. Cooke, in his _Life of
Macklin_, 1806, p. 199., says--
"What induced him [Macklin] to quit the stage in the full vigour of
fame and constitution, was one of those schemes which he had long
previously indulged himself in, of suddenly making his fortune by the
establishment of a tavern and coffee-house in the Piazza, Covent
Garden; to which he afterwards added a school of oratory, upon a plan
hitherto unknown in England, founded upon the Greek, Roman, French, and
Italian Societies, under the title of _The British Inquisition_."
The first part of this plan (the public ordinary) was opened on the 11th of
March, 1754; and an amusing account of its operations may be found in
Angelo's _Pic Nic_, p. 32. The second part of "Macklin's mad plan," as it
was then termed, "The British Inquisition," commenced proceedings on the
21st of November in the same year; and here, according to the first
advertisement, "such subjects in Arts, Sciences, Literature, Criticism,
Philosophy, History, Politics, and Morality, as shall be found useful and
entertaining to society, will be lectured upon and freely debated."