single curate-so entirely rude and barbarous are they in Scotland; in such outer darkness do they sit, that they support no cathedrals, maintain no pluralists, suffer no non-residence; nay, the poor benighted creatures are ignorant even of tithes. Not a sheaf, or a lamb, or a pig, or the value of a plough-penny, do the hapless mortals render from year's end to year's end!* Piteous as their lot is, what makes it infinitely more touching, is to witness the return of good for evil in the demeanour of this wretched race. Under all this cruel neglect of their spiritual concerns, they are actually the most loyal, contented, moral, and religious people anywhere, perhaps, to be found in the world. Let us hope (many, indeed, there are, not far off, who will with unfeigned devotion pray) that his Majesty may return safe from the dangers of his excursion into such a country—an excursion most perilous to a certain portion of the Church, should his royal mind be infected with a taste for cheap establishments, a working clergy, and a pious congregation.

"But compassion for our brethren in the north has drawn me aside from my purpose, which was merely to remind you how preposterous it is, in a country of which the ecclesiastical polity is framed upon plans so discordant, and the religious tenets themselves are so various, to require any very measured expressions of men's opinions upon questions of Church government. And if there is any part of England in which an ample licence ought more especially to be admitted in handling such matters, I say without hesitation it is this very bishopric, where, in the nineteenth century, you live under a palatine prince, the Lord of Durham; where the endowment of the hierarchy-I may not call it enormous, but I trust I shall be permitted without offence to term it splendid; where the establishment I dare not whisper proves grinding to the people, but I will rather say is an incalculable, an inscrutable blessing-only it is prodigiously large—

* This, too, was not absolutely accurate. The Established Church of Scotland levies a yearly assessment for the building and repair of its churches, manses, &c.

showered down in a profusion somewhat overpowering, and laying the inhabitants under a load of obligation overwhelming by its weight. It is in Durham where the Church is endowed with a splendour and a power unknown in monkish times and popish countries, and the clergy swarm in every corner, an' it were the patrimony of St. Peter. It is here, where all manner of conflicts are at each moment inevitable between the people and the priests, that I feel myself warranted on their behalf and for their protection-for the sake of the Establishment, and as the discreet advocate of that Church and that clergy—for the defence of their very existence-to demand the most unrestrained discussion for their title and their actings under it. For them, in this age, to screen their conduct from investigation, is to stand self-convicted; to shrink from the discussion of their title, is to confess a flaw; he must be the most shallow, the most blind of mortals, who does not at once perceive that if that title is protected only by the strong arm of the law, it becomes not worth the parchment on which it is engrossed, or the wax that dangles to it for a seal.

"I have hitherto all along assumed that there is nothing impure in the practice under the system; I am admitting that every person engaged in its administration does every one act which he ought, and which the law expects him to do; I am supposing that up to this hour not one unworthy member has entered within its pale; I am even presuming that up to this moment not one of those individuals has stepped beyond the strict line of his sacred functions, or given the slightest offence or annoyance to any human being. I am taking it for granted that they all act the part of good shepherds, making the welfare of their flock their first care, and only occasionally bethinking them of shearing, in order to prevent the too luxuriant growth of the fleece proving an incumbrance, or to eradicate disease.

"If, however, these operations be so constant that the flock actually live under the knife; if the shepherds are so numerous, and employ so large a troop of the watchful and eager animals

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. 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

His

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, his perseverance obtained the appointment of two royal commissions— one 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