Educational reforms around the year 1800 also had their effects on the subject that went by the name of 'Rhetoric'. They did not however spell the end of rhetoric itself. On the contrary, the political and social circles active around 1800 and the frequently unduly roseate aura surrounding political oratory in revolutionary France and the art of public speaking in the British parliament led to a quickening of public debate on the potential for good and evil bound up with political eloquence. The study traces this debate in detail and pays equal attention to the practice and the arenas of public discourse in Germany: the pulpit, the lectern and the theatre.