that attend them (some of them, too, with a cross of the fox, or even the wolf, in their breed), can it be wondered at if the poor creatures thus fleeced, and hunted, and barked at, and snapped at, and from time to time worried, should now and then bleat, dream of preferring the rot to the shears, and draw invidious, possibly disadvantageous, comparisons between the wolf without, and the shepherd within the fold? It cannot be helped ; it is in the nature of things that suffering should beget complaint; but for those who have caused the pain to complain of the outcry, and seek to punish it—for those who have goaded, to scourge and to gag—is the meanest of all injustice. It is, moreover, the most pitiful folly for the clergy to think of retaining their power, privileges, and enormous wealth, without allowing free vent for complaint against abuses in the Establishment and delinquency in its members; and in this prosecution they have displayed that folly in its supreme degree."

Doubts have often been cast upon Brougham's sincerity; and it is too true that he was led by his restless ambition and his impetuosity of temper into the advocacy of many measures and the support of many opinions in which he had no real faith. But certain subjects there were on which his convictions were sound, fixed, and lasting. Such were law reform, the abolition of slavery, the extension of education, and the better administration of public charities. These he made his own, and championed vigorously and strenuously in and out of season. His educational schemes were crude, ill-digested, and not not always practicable, but at least they had what was then the singular merit of contemplating the education of the whole people. To this great principle he was unalterably faithful throughout his public career; and no plan, or project, or measure which aimed, directly or indirectly, at the diffusion of knowledge ever failed to command his hearty support. The Education Act of 1874 was the necessary and natural consummation of the educational movement which Brougham initiated in 1806, and sustained in 1820. And his noble labours in this direction may surely be allowed in some degree to counterbalance his many failings and occasional deviations from the path of political rectitude. As the founder of the London University—for such he was in effect, if not in name—and the source, and mainstay, and vitality of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, he has claims upon our gratitude which his inconsistency, and egotism, and irritability of character must not make us forget. We know that with his vast powers he might have done much more—might have set his mark upon our legislature and literature, as he has done upon our political history; but this knowledge must not prevent us from recognising the good he did do.

Continuing our biographical summary, we must briefly advert to his quarrel with Canning, in the session of 1823. In the course of debate, Canning had observed that, in the then state of Parliament and the country, it seemed to him impossible to form a Ministry which should agree upon the Catholic and “other burning questions,” so as to be able to carry on the business of the country. This remark was construed as an admission that he considered the cause of the Catholics hopeless; though he had not said, nor did he mean, that it was necessary that, in order to carry them, the whole Ministry should be in their favour. On the 17th of April, on the occasion of a petition in support of their claims being presented, a hot discussion took place, in which Mr. Tierney charged Canning with the ruin of the Catholic hopes, because he had taken office without making Emancipation an essential condition. Other speakers followed with language even more violently personal, and at last Brougham poured out one of his copious and vehement invectives. Canning sat with flashing eye, quivering nostrils, and flushed cheeks, compelling himself to be silent, until Brougham dropped the words, “monstrous truckling,” and “political tergiversation.” Then, springing to his feet, he exclaimed, “I rise to say that is false.” For some seconds the House was still; even the Speaker seemed paralysed. On recovering himself, he said, in a low tone, that the expression used by Mr. Canning was in violation of the laws and customs of the House, and he hoped it would be retracted. The Minister refused to withdraw the “sentiment," and Mr. Brougham would not explain away his imputation. After much angry discussion, the difficulty was solved by Brougham's consenting to declare that his charge referred to Mr. Canning's political, and not his private character.

This incident was forgotten by Brougham when Canning became Prime Minister, and the latter received his hearty and persistent support. It was a disinterested support, for he declined the office of Chief Baron of the Exchequer. After Canning's death he maintained a steady opposition to the Wellington Government, while not desisting from his labours as a reformer. In 1828, bis perseverance obtained the appointment of two royal commissionsone to inquire into the mode of procedure in the common law courts, and the other into the condition of the law of real property

Both led to large and real improvements in our juridical institutions. About this time, differing in political views from its patron, the Earl of Darlington, he resigned his seat for Winchelsea, but was immediately returned for Knaresborough, through the

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