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can bestow. I have long thought that it was the duty of every man, unmoved either by bad report or by good report, to use all the means which he possessed for the purpose of advancing the well-being of his fellow-creatures; and I know not any mode by which I can so effectually advance that well-being as by endeavouring to improve the criminal laws of our country."

We should weaken the force of these simple but earnest remarks by adding any comment. No one can rise from the study of Romilly's life without a conviction that he was animated by motives of the highest and purest benevolence; that he was absolutely free from all stain of selfishness; and that his sole ambition was that true and honourable one- -to be of some service to the State, some good to his fellow-creatures, and to assist, loyally and energetically, in promoting the principles of justice, truth, and enlightenment.

[The foregoing sketch is founded upon the biography, by Mr. Paton, prefixed to Sir Samuel Romilly's "Speeches in the House of Commons," 2 vols. 8vo, 1820; and Sir Samuel Romilly's "Memoirs of His Own Life," edited by his sons, in 3 vols., 1840. We have referred also to Roscoe's "Eminent British Lawyers," Miss Martineau's "History of England for Thirty Years after the Peace," and other authorities.]

Henry, Lord Brougham.

HAVE now to deal with one of the most disappointing and perplexing characters in the long gallery of English worthies,-a man who, with great capacity and great acquirements, never achieved anything permanently great; whose abundant and splendid promise never ripened into full performance,-Henry, Lord Brougham. Notwithstanding the brilliancy of his career, and the conspicuous figure he made among his contemporaries, I have ever ranked him in the melancholy category of "Men who have Failed;" and I feel that, however useful the preceding biographies may prove in the way of encouragement and example, the life of Lord Brougham cannot be less useful in the way of warning as a warning, let us say, against wasting our powers or abusing our opportunities. Few men have had richer natural gifts. He was a clear and prompt thinker, a powerful orator, a fluent writer. There was scarcely anything he could not do and do well. that a great speaker attains so considerable a position as a man of letters, yet this good fortune was reserved for Brougham. A clever, rather than a profound lawyer, he gained the highest prize of his profession-the Lord Chancellorship of England. As a scientific investigator

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he was rash and empirical, yet on some points his investigations were marked by ability and crowned with success. Still, on the whole, he was "a failure," and chiefly because he gave up to many pursuits the powers which should have been devoted to two or three. A man of brilliant talents, he was without the moderation, the calmness, the sweet repose, and the patience which belong to the higher genius. So he outlived his own fame, and made no lasting mark in literature, science, or politics. He expended his energy in such a vast number of channels, that it dribbled away into shallows and stagnant pools. Miss Martineau has happily said that, when we think of Lord Brougham, the oft-quoted apologue which the Duchess of Orleans applied to her son, the regent, involuntarily occurs to the mind. He was one on whom, in his cradle, the beneficent fairies had lavished every intellectual grace, but a single malignant spirit rendered them all unavailing by adding the fatal ingredient of waywardness. And she relates an anecdote of much significance. Lord Brougham, she says, was at his château at Cannes, when the daguerreotype process, the precursor of photography, was introduced there; and an accomplished neighbour proposed to take a view of the château, with a group of guests in the balcony. The artist explained the necessity of complete immobility, and asked his lordship and friends to keep still only for "five seconds." His lordship vehemently promised that he would not stir. Alas! he moved too soon, and the consequence was, where Lord Brougham should have been, a blurr. So stands the daguerreotype view to this hour. "There is something," remarks Miss Martineau, "very typical in this. In the picture of our century, as taken from the life by history, this very man

should have been a central figure; but now, owing to his want of steadfastness, there will be for ever a blur where Brougham should have been." His restless ambition, his uneasy egotism, his want of consistency, and deliberateness, and moderation these were the faults that marred the career of Henry, Lord Brougham.

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Henry Brougham came of a respectable and ancient family in the north of England. At the time of his birth his father, who had married Miss Syme, the niece of Robertson the historian, was residing in St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, where Henry Brougham was born on the 19th of September, 1778. His mother, a woman of rare accomplishments and fine character, was his first. instructor; but at an early age he was sent to the High School of Edinburgh. His remarkable talents were precociously manifested; his thirst after knowledge seemed insatiable, and in classics, modern languages, and mathematics he attained a considerable proficiency. He became dux of his school when he was only thirteen, and in the following year left school with the reputation of a " prodigy." Entering the University of Edinburgh in 1792, he attended almost all the classes, exercising with great success his unconquerable energies and splendid abilities. was only eighteen when, in 1795, he sent to the Royal Society of London a paper entitled, "Experiments and Observations on the Inflexion, Reflexion, and Colours of Light." Next year he communicated to the same body a paper entitled, "Further Experiments and Observations on the Affections and Properties of Light;" and, in 1798, a mathematical paper, "General Theorems, chiefly Prisms." The views in these were immature and imperfect, and expressed with too much confidence; but they were remarkable as coming from a young man

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under twenty, and the two optical papers were considered by Professor Prevost, of Geneva, of sufficient importance to merit an elaborate examination.

While engaged in these scientific exercises, he found time to attend the debates of the "Speculative Society,' where Francis Horner and Lord Henry Petty (afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne) were among his contemporaries. Here he cultivated his talents for public speaking, astonishing his hearers by his copiousness, pungency, and readiness, and also devoted himself assiduously to the practice of composition. Even these occupations failed to exhaust his superabundant vivacity; and after an evening spent in literary and philosophical investigation, he would sally forth into the streets of Edinburgh to ring bells and smash lamps, and twist off bell-pulls and knockers.*

* "One autumn, by way of seeing what was in Scotland considered 'fashionable life,' he went to the meeting of the Caledonian Hunt, which was held at Dumfries. According to the prevailing custom, all orders and degrees dined at a table d'hôte, and after dinner all sorts of bets were laid. Brougham offered a wager against the whole company that none of them would write down in a sealed packet the manner in which he meant to travel to the races, which were to take place a few miles from Dumfries the next day. As many as chose to accept his challenge wrote down their conjectures, which were sealed up along with his actual purpose. When the packets were opened it was found that he would go in a sedan-chair, which none of them had thought of. Accordingly, he made his progress to the races carried in that way, and accompanied by an immense crowd. After dinner he renewed the bet against all who chose to take it, and when the packets were opened he was equally successful. He had written down that he would go in a post-chaise and pair, all the persons who had accepted the bet having written down the strangest and most absurd modes of conveyance they could devise."-Lord Campbell, "Lives of Lord Lyndhurst and Brougham," pp. 230, 231.

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