CHAPTER XII.

LORD BROUGHAM.

Henry Brougham was born at Edinburgh in 1779. At the High School of that city he received the rudiments of his education. While there, he made rapid progress in acquiring an extensive knowledge of the various branches of science and general literature. He was eager in the pursuit of his studies-in obtaining information on almost every subject embraced within the range of human investigation; hence, as an eminent critic remarks, "he has brought into his speeches a wider range of collateral thought than any of our orators, except Burke."

Entering the University of Edinburgh at the age of sixteen, he soon gained the highest distinction for his attainments in mathematical studies. His knowledge of science was, indeed, extraordinary for one so young. Before he was seventeen years of age, his essay on the "Flection and Reflection of Light" appeared, which was inserted in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions.

Having finished his college course, Mr. Brougham commenced the study of the law, as a profession. He was soon called to the bar, and began his practice with great success, in Edinburgh. Besides attending to his professional businsss, he devoted a large portion of his time to literature, history, and politics. He has written and published more than most of the English orators; and his writings are highly esteemed, especially for the excellent

reformatory sentiments with which they abound. Lord Brougham is one of the greatest political reformers that ever sat in Parliament. He has labored hard to eradicate some of the evils existing in the English government; and success has, in many instances, crowned his exertions.

His first work, entitled The Colonial i olicy of the European Powers, was published in 1803; and his volume on the State of the Nation appeared after his removal to London. His speeches in four octavo volumes are very highly valued for their bold assertion of the rights of the people; for their exhibition of the abuses existing in the administration of the British government; and for their eloquent appeals in behalf of Law and Parliamentary Reform. In advocating his principles, Lord Brougham met with decided opposition from the enemies of reform. In a passage of extreme beauty, which is well worthy of insertion here, he shows what has been the fate of the reformer in all ages of the world:

"I have heard it said that, when one lifts up his voice against things that are, and wishes for a change, he is raising a clamor against existing institutions, a clamor against our venerable establishments, a clamor against the law of the land; but this is no clamor against the one or the other, it is a clamor against the abuse of them all. It is a clamor raised against the grievances that are felt. Mr. Burke, who was no friend to popular excitement,who was no ready tool of agitation, no hot-headed enemy of existing establishments, no under-valuer of the wisdom of our ancestors, no scoffer against institutions as they are,- has said, and it deserves to be fixed, in letters of gold, over the hall of every assembly which calls itself a legislative body,- WHERE THere is abuse, thERE OUGHT TO

BE CLAMOR; BECAUSE IT IS BETTER TO HAVE OUR SLUMBER BROKEN BY THE FIRE-BELL, THAN TO PERISH, AMIDST the flamES, IN OUR BED.' I have been told, by some who have little objection

to the clamor, that I am a timid and a mock reformer; and by others, if I go on firmly and steadily, and do not allow myself to be driven aside by either one outcry or another, and care for neither, that it is a rash and dangerous innovation which I propound; and that I am taking, for the subject of my reckless experiments, things which are the objects of all men's veneration. I disregard the one as much as I disregard the other of these charges

'False honor charms, and lying slander scares,
Whom, but the false, and faulty?'

"It has been the lot of all men, in all ages, who have aspired at the honor of guiding, instructing, or mending mankind, to have their paths beset by every persecution from adversaries, by every misconstruction from friends; no quarter from the one,- no charitable construction from the other! To be misconstrued, misrepresented, borne down, till it was in vain to bear down any longer, has been their fate. But truth will survive, and calumny has its day. I say that, if this be the fate of the reformer,— if he be the object of misrepresentation,- may not an inference be drawn favorable to myself? Taunted by the enemies of reform as being too rash, by the over-zealous friends of reform as being too slow or too cold, there is every reason for presuming that I have chosen the right course. A reformer must proceed steadily in his career; not misled, on the one hand, by panegyric, nor discouraged by slander, on the other. He wants no praise. I would rather say, Woe to him when all men speak well of him!' I shall go on in the course which I have laid down for myself; pursuing the foot-steps of those who have gone before us, who have left us their instructions and success, their instructions to guide our walk, and their success to cheer our spirits."

Another of the finest passages of his eloquence is con

tained in his great speech on Parliamentary Reform, delivered in the House of Lords, October 7, 1831. When Earl Grey came in as Prime Minister in 1830, the Reform Bill was brought forward; after it had reached the House of Lords on the 31st of October, 1831, Brougham took up the subject, and answered the arguments of his opponents in one of the most powerful speeches ever made. "He began in a mild and conciliatory manner, unwilling to injure his cause by the harshness in which he too commonly indulged, and answered a part of the arguments in a strain of good-humored wit and pleasantry which has rarely been surpassed. But after repeated interruptions, some of them obviously designed to put him down, he changed his tone, and spoke for nearly three hours more with a keenness of rebuke, a force of argument, and a boldness of declamation which secured him a respectful hearing, and extorted the confession from his adversary, Lord Lyndhurst, that a more powerful speech of the kind had never been delivered in the House of Lords."

Showing the danger of delay, in the peroration of this speech, he summoned all his energies and broke forth in a strain of the loftiest declamation, attracting the admiration of his friends, and exciting the fear of his enemies by the power of his arguments and the vehemence of his eloquence.

"My Lords, I do not disguise the intense solicitude which I feel for the event of this debate, because I know full well that the peace of the country is involved in the issue. I can not look without dismay at the rejection of the measure. But grievous as may be the consequences of a temporary defeat- temporary it can only be; for its ultimate, and even speedy success, is certain. Nothing can now stop it. Do not suffer yourselves to be persuaded that even if the present ministers were driven from the helm, any one could steer you through the troubles which

surround you without reform. But our successors would take up the task in circumstances far less auspicious. Under them, you would be fain to grant a bill, compared with which the one we now proffer you is moderate indeed. Hear the parable of the Sibyl; for it conveys a wise and wholesome moral. She now appears at your gate, and offers you mildly the volumes-the precious volumesof wisdom and peace. The price she asks is reasonable; to restore the franchise, which, without any bargain, you ought voluntarily to give; you refuse her terms - her moderate terms-she darkens the porch no longer. But soon, for you can not do without her wares, you call her back; again she comes, but with diminished treasures; the leaves of the book are in part torn away by lawless hands-in part defaced with characters of blood. But the prophetic maid had risen in her demands it is Parliaments by the year-it is vote by the ballot-it is suffrage by the million! From this you turn away indignant, and for the second time she departs. Beware of her third coming; for the treasure you must have; and what price she may next demand, who shall tell? It may even be the mace which rests upon that wool-sack. What may follow your course of obstinacy, if persisted in, I can not take upon me to predict, nor do I wish to conjecture. But this I know full well, that, as sure as man is mortal, and to err is human, justice deferred enhances the price at which you must purchase safety and peace; nor can you expect to gather in another crop than they did who went before you, if you persevere in their utterly abominable husbandry, of sowing injustice and reaping rebellion.

"But among the awful considerations that now bow down my mind, there is one which stands pre-eminent above the rest. You are the highest judicature in the realm; you sit here as judges, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, without appeal. It is a judge's first duty