to the Ballot, and Universal Suffrage, on the other he has advocated the great cause of popular education, as the ultimate panacea for all the evils to be feared from the extension of popular influence.

It

The legal knowledge of Lord Brougham has been questioned, nay positively denied by the members of the profession whose abuses he desired to reform. was even said, that while his elevation to the Chancellorship was the unjustifiable act of a party to serve party purposes, it was at the same time desirable to Mr. Brougham in a pecuniary point of view, from a falling off in his professional practice, caused by his hostility to those abuses. Now, although this is a question really of more interest to lawyers, than to the public in general, and one which might therefore, under other circumstances, be left to their decision, yet there was an animus at the time among this class of men, that rendered them not disinterested judges. Their opinion therefore must be taken with a qualification, as well on the score of particular immediate drawbacks, as on the score of their general professional prejudices. Lord Brougham respected too much the broad principles of justice, and he too little regarded the technicalities of law, to be agreeable to that body. He had a faculty too, for giving speedy judgments, and a determination to prevent unnecessary expenses, that were particularly disagreeable to men imbued with a conscientious desire that justice should not be prejudiced by an unprecedented and informal haste in its dispensation, or by a reduction of the number of its advocates. The new Lord Chancellor, too, thought that when one or two intelligent and talented barristers had been engaged at a large expense, and had well stated the case of their client, it was quite unnecessary that the same ground should be again gone over by juniors, whose arguments marred, more than they helped, the interests of their employers. When, therefore, his Lordship either put them down, or was droned into a short nap, while the industrious advocate was earning his unnecessary fee, it was of course a specimen of the arrogance of an upstart wholly unacquainted with Chancery Law," or " of an eccentricity bordering on insanity, and wholly unfitting its exhibitor for the high and responsible situation he held." Posterity will do justice to Lord Brougham in this respect. It will be felt to have been impossible that a man of such vast acquirements, who had been so successful in his profession, and who had, in all other branches of knowledge, evinced such clearness of intellect, could have been the inefficient lawyer his detractors have represented him to be.

There is yet another great department of mind in which Lord Brougham has proved his excellence-that of physical science. With the great principles of all the sciences, his public works show him to be familiar. He does not profess to be a Discoverer, in chemistry or any other. His treatise on the Objects, Pleasures, and.Advantages of Science is admirable, as a bird's eye view of the subject, while at the same time it is an enticing stimulant to study. The work on Natural Theology necessarily touches upon the physical sciences, and their connexion with the great mechanism of nature, The geometrical and optical papers, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, when their author was only fifteen years of age, show at least a firm groundwork of scientific knowledge. And if it be said that Lord Brougham's scientific attainments are superficial only, we would say that knowledge of detail does not of itself make a man competent. The principles of all sciences are a sine qua non.

Lord Brougham is eminently a clear headed man; and he is distinguished for his argumentative powers. Through many years of public life, during which we have

watched him, we never yet saw him at fault, on even the most intricate question. He has peculiarly the faculty of analysis; and more than any man we ever knew, that of keeping in his own mind a comprehensive view of the whole bearings of a question, even while running at large into the minutest details ; no man detects the fallacy of an opponent's argument more easily; nor can any man be more skilful in concocting a fallacy to suit a temporary purpose. His intellectual superiority to the pro's and con's of every question is such, that he is never confused, even by the most unlooked for interruptions. We have known him, in the midst of a most intricate argument, to de drawn aside by a temporary interruption, to pursue the idea thus aroused for five or ten minutes, and yet to return, instantaneously, and without the slightest embarrasment, to the point at which he broke off. He himself tells us that he is frequently preparing the following sentence while delivering the preceding one. No man, too, knows better than Lord Brougham where the exception should come in aid of the usefulness of the rule.

Lord Brougham's eloquence, however, is that which most distinguishes him from his contemporaries. Learning may be acquired; the habit of reasoning may be induced by constant dialectic contest; but eloquence is the gift of nature, possessed by no man who is not imbued with sentiments of an enlarged benevolence. Lord Brougham's eloquence is unlike that of any man we ever heard speak. It savours of the peculiar constitution of his mind. It is eminently adapted for educated men. Lord Brougham was never intended for a demagogue; for he never condescends to the low art of pandering to the populace. His speeches are specimens of what we would call argumentative eloquence; and the only defect we can point out in them arises from his fertility of illustration. The extraordinary information he possesses has induced the habit of drawing too largely upon it; and he is apt to be led aside from the straight road of his argument, to elucidate some minor disputed point, which his knowledge of detail enables him to clear up. But the argumentative style of which we speak is almost peculiar to himself. There is a ripeness, a fruitfulness, in his mind, that places him above the fetters of ordinary speakers, while reasoning on the question at issue. Such men, from the difficulty of clearing their heads for the contest, too often present a mere fleshless skeleton, as it were, very convincing to the judgment, no doubt, but wholly powerless over the feelings; so that no lasting impression is produced on the mind by such speeches. But Lord Brougham, from his being a master in argument, is free to purse his bent in illustration, aud thus conjures up a whole picture that dwells on the mind, and is remembered for its effect on the feelings or the imagination, even by men whose levity or dullness precluded their being fixed by the argument. The very structure of his sentences is more adapted for this kind of speaking than any other. They sometimes appear involved, to an ordinary mind, from their length, and the abundance of illustration and explanation which they embrace but the extraordinary vigour with which the delivery is kept up, and the liveliness of fancy or of humour that flashes at every turn of the thought, dispel the temporary cloud long before they are brought to a close.

In irony and in sarcasm, Lord Brougham stands unrivalled among the public men of the day. His irony is positively terrible. The unhappy victim of its serpent-like art remains in utter unconsciousness of its near approach-rapt, may be, in admiration of the eloquent out-burst that precedes it. Slowly, silently, it stcals upon him: he feels its hot breath: in a moment it has clutched him: the folds of" that enormous asp" are winding round: they press him closer, closer: he

gasps he writhes: one struggle at hardy independence is unawailling :--and he sinks powerless, if not annihilated, in the gigantic grasp! Then comes the sting -the biting sarcasm; and he who, but a few moments before, had gloried amidst the triumphant cheers of his party, in the display of an eloquence or an argument he fondly thought enduring, is utterly at the mercy of his foe; the very marrow and vitality of his fallacy is sucked out, and nothing but the lifeless frame is left behind.

Let it not be supposed, however, that this irony is always ill-natured ;—far from it. Only on very great occasions is the powerful castigation administered. In proportion to the talent and weight of the opponent, is the severity of the lashing. On other occasions, where dullness or prejudice only have to be ridiculed, a goodhumoured, somewhat contemptuous strain of depreciatory irony is resorted to, akin to the punishment of extreme tickling practised by the orientals. Woe to the foolhardy bigot who may interrupt the development of an argument, or mar the effect of a too bold illustration, by rising "to order!" The nursey practice of "snubing" is a trifle to the knock-down blow that he gets. Don Quixote and the wind-mill were an apter illustration. He retires from the momentary conflict utterly discomfited, cheered only by the reflection that he has been prostrated by one who disregards all the laws of heaven or man-a mighty enchanter who has got his irresistible power by some strange process quite unknown to him, that plodding son of earth.

That this exuberant power of ridicule led Lord Brougham, while Lord Chancellor, into some excess of its use, cannot be denied, although a ready excuse can be found in the circumstances of his situation. He might be held to be the representative of liberal principles in a place where almost the name of Liberal had, till then, been proscribed; and the animosity towards the new Chancellor, evinced by many noble peers, was calculated to draw forth reprisals. The eccentricities, too, of men of genius are of such value that they may well be said to alone for themselves.

But the same excitement that produced these, also produced on occasions, an enthusiasm in Lord Brougham's eloquence quite unprecedented. During the discussions on the Reform Bill, he seemed to identify himself with the measure; and we question whether, even at the epoch of the Queen's trial, he delivered himself in a manner so expressive of his ardent sympathy with the cause which he had embraced. His peroration on the second reading of the Reform Bill is a proof of the strong excitement under which he laboured. The eyes of the nation were upon him and his colleagues. Indeed, it required that powerful impulse to induce a man, in a country where enthusiasm is looked at as something to be ashamed of, to express himself so strongly as he does in the following passage;

But,

'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 cannot look without dismay at the rejection of the measure. grievous as may be the consequences of a temporary defeat, temporary it can only be; for its ultimate and speedy success is certain. Nothing now can 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 that 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

Sybil, for it conveys a wise and wholesome moral. She now appears at your gal e, and offers you mildly the volume-the precious volume of 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 cannot do without her wares-you call her back; again she comes, but with diminished treasures; the leaves of her book are in part torn away by lawless hands-in part defaced with characters of blood. But the prophetic maid has risen in her demands :-it is Parliament by the year-it is vote by the ballot,-it is suffrage to 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 woolsack. What may follow your course of obstinacy, if persisted in, I cannot take upon myself 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 bighest judicature in the realm; you sit here as judges, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, without appeals. It is a judge's first duty, never to pronounce sentence, in the most trifling case, without a hearing. Will you make this an exception? Are you really prepared to determine, but not to hear, the mighty cause upon which a nation's hopes and fears hang? You are. Then beware of your decision! Rouse not, I beseech you, a peace-loving, but a resolute people; alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire. As your friend, as the friend of my order, as the friend of my country, as the faithful servant of my sovereign, I counsel you to assist, with your uttermost efforts, in preserving the peace, and upholding and perpetuating the constitution. Therefore I pray and exhort you not to reject this measure. By all you hold most dear,—by all the ties which bind every one of us to our common country-I solemnly adjure you,-1 implore you,—yes, on my bended knees, I supplicate you, reject not this bill!”

A quality of Lord Brougham's mind, that is almost as extraordinary as his extent of information, is its singular activity. His energies never seem to flageven for an instant; he does not seem to know what it is to be fatigued, or jaded. Some such faculty as this, indeed, the vastness and universality of his acquirements called for, in order to make the weight endurable to himself, and to bear him up during his long career of political activity and excitement. Accordingly, labours that would go far to upset the reason, or destroy the powers, of ordinary men, seem to produce no more effect on him, than do the hot sands and swift pace of the desert on the dromedary. Activity, strife, intellectual contest-these are the elements of his existence, and of his success.

Take the routine of a day, for instance. In his early life he has been known to attend, in his place in Court, on Circuit, at an early hour in the morning. After having successfully pleaded the cause of his client, he drives off to the bustings, and delivers, at different places, eloquent and spirited speeches to the electors. He then sits down in the retirement of his closet to pen an address to the Glasgow students, perhaps, or an elaborate article in the Edinburgh Review.

The active labours of the day are closed with preparation for the court business of the following morning; and then, in place of retiring to rest, as ordinary men would, after such exertions, he spends the night in abstruse study, or in social intercourse with some friend from whom he has been long separated. Yet he would be seen, as early as eight on the following morning, actively engaged in the Court, in defence of some unfortunate object of government persecution; astonishing the auditory, and his fellow lawyers no less, with the freshness and power of his eloquence.

A fair contrast with this history of a day, in early life, would be that of one at a more advanced period; say, in the year 1832. A watchful observer might see the new Lord Chancellor seated in the Court over which he presided, from an early hour in the morning until the afternoon, listening to the arguments of Counsel, and mastering the points of cases with a grasp of mind that enabled him give those speedy and unembarrassed judgments that have so injured him with the profession. If he followed his course, he would see him, soon after the opening of the House of Lords, addressing their Lordships on some intricate question of law, with an acuteness that drew down approbation even from his opponents, or, on some all-engrossing political topic, casting firebrands into the camp of the enemy, and awakening them from the complacent repose of conviction to the hot contest with more active and inquiring intellects. Then, in an hour or so, he might follow him to the Mechanics' Institution, and hear an able and stimulating discourse on education, admirably adapted to the peculiar capacity of his auditors; and, towards ten perhaps, at a Literary and Scientific Institution in Marylebone, the same Proteus-like intellect might be found expounding the intricacies of physical science with a never tiring and elastic power. Yet, during all those multitudinous exertions, time would be found for the composition of a discourse on Natural Theology, that bears no marks of haste or excitement of mind, but presents as calm a face as though it had been the laborious production of a contemplative philosopher.

It would be a great mistake that would suppose the man who has thus multiplied the objects of his exertion to be of necessity superficial; superficial, that is, in the sense of shallowness or ignorance. Ordinary minds are bound by fetters, no doubt. Custom has rendered the pursuit of more than one idea all but impossible to them, and the vulgar adage of "Jack of all trades, master of none," applies to them in full force. But it must be remembered that a public man like Lord Brougham, who has chosen his peculiar sphere of action, and who prefers the being of general utility to the scholar-like pursuit of any one branch of science exclusively, is not bound to present credentials of full and perfect mastership, such as are required from the professor of a University. His pursuit of facts must of necessity be for the purpose of illustrating general principles in political or moral science; and where more than a certain amount of knowledge is not laid claim to, the absence of more is no imputation.

To conclude, Lord Brougham is certainly one of the most extraordinary men of his age. He is thoroughly individualized as regards his talents and all that constitutes idiosyncratic difference, even while he is identified with the political and moral advancement of the people. During all the agitations of a period almost unparalleled even in our stormy history, he has remained untainted by the influence of party spirit. That he has entered, and hotly too, into almost every question, of any moment, that has come before the Legislature during many