The state into which Victorian debating has lapsed is amply demonstrated by the last debate, and others. Never has the standard fallen so low.

Admitted that formal debate is unsatisfactory as a means of arriving at truth. In debate an opinion is black and white, right or wrong. No compromise is the anvil clanged by all speakers, positive and negative. Emotional thinking, crooked arguments, are the passwords to success. Hence, it would appear that the value of debating practice is not in correct information or valid opinion, but in the exercise it affords to students who intend entering the so-called learned professions. The past success of our Society in this aim is made clear by the number of stalwarts who have risen to the bench and made names for themselves amongst that parasite class whose business it is to give a happy colouring to opinions not their own.