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1874 was the necessary and natural consummation of the edeational movement which Brougham initiated

1806, and sustained in 1820. And his noble labours this direction may surely be allowed in some degree counterbalance his many failings and occasional viations from the path of political rectitude. As the Side of the London University-for such he was in

Eat in name and the source, and mainstay, and vitality of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful eige, he has cams upon our gratitude which his

ty, and egotism, and iritability of character mst not make us forget. We now that with his vast be might have done much more might have set pon our legislature and literature, as he has political history; but this knowledge must from recognising the good he did do.

Fatinuing our lographical summary, we must briefly eat to his quoted with Canning in the session of 1993 In the copse of debate, Canning had observed

in the then state of Parliament and the country, Sahin impossible to form a Ministry which will see upon the Catholic and other burning to be able to carry on the business of Mis remark was construed as an admission sidered the cause of the Catholics hopeless; h he had not sail, nor did he mean, that it was oder to carry them, the whole Ministry

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 1828, hi verance obtained the appointme one to inquire into the law courts, and the o

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influence of the Duke of Devonshire. In 1829 he gave his strenuous assistance to the Government in carrying the great measure of Catholic Emancipation, of which he had been an advocate ever since his first appearance in Parliament. When, after the accession of William IV., the struggle began for a reform of the House of Commons, so that it might more fully represent the interests, feelings, and opinions of the people, he took up the question with his customary vehemence. At the dissolution of Parliament he boldly contested the county of York against Mr Stuart Wortley, who stood in the interest of the great landholders; and, in spite of a thousand difficulties, carried his election triumphantly.* He had no sooner taken his seat in the House than he gave notice in the Commons of his intention to bring forward, in a fortnight, the question of parliamentary reform; but before the fortnight had elapsed, the Wellington Government was a thing of the past; and Earl Grey, the Whig leader, was engaged in forming an administration.

Of that administration it was inevitable that Brougham should be a member, but it was a surprise to everybody when it was found that the office selected for him, or rather, the office he had selected, and upon which he insisted, was that of Lord Chancellor.

"It was amusing," says a contemporary historian, "to see how that announcement was everywhere received with a laugh; in most cases with a laugh which he would not have objected to,

* This was the high-water mark of Brougham's career; thenceforward he gradually declined. I think the success was too much for his excitable nature, and intensified his temper of jealousy and irritability, his restless and insatiable vanity. From this time he lost more and more of his never very large measure of self-control.

-a laugh of mingled surprise, exultation, and amusement. The anti-reformers laughed scornfully, dwelling upon certain declarations of his against taking office, and upon his incompetency as an equity lawyer-facts which he would not himself have disputed, but which his party thought should be put aside by the pressure of the time. To his worshippers, there was something comic in the thought of his vitality fixed down upon the woolsack, under the compression of the Chancellor's wig. Some expected a world of amusement in seeing how he got on in a position so new-how the wild and mercurial Harry Brougham would comport himself among the peers, and as the head of the law. Some expected from him the realisation of all that he had declared ought to be done by men in power, and as the first and most certain boon, a scheme of national education, which he would carry with all the power of his office and his pledged political character. Others sighed while they smiled-sighed to give up the popular member for Yorkshire, and found that his country had had the best of him."*

This was indeed true.t Never was any man more discredited by the difference between promise and performance than Henry Brougham, and never was a popular hero more quickly dethroned from his place in the affections of the people.

Brougham became Lord Chancellor, and, as a matter

* It was the feeling of his mother. When Parliament adjourned, Brougham took a journey to Brougham Hall, in Westmoreland, to visit her, and ask her blessing on a Lord Chancellor. The good old lady was still in the full enjoyment of all her rare faculties. While she reciprocated her son's warm affection, and was proud of his genius and services, and the glorious position he had attained, she could not help saying to him, "My dear Harry, I would rather have embraced the member for Yorkshire; but God Almighty bless you!"

+ H. Martineau, "History of the Peace," ii. 410.

of course, received a peerage with the title of Baron Brougham and Vaux.

Parliamentary reform and Chancery reform engaged the attention of the active Chancellor when he escaped from the laborious duties of his court, and in the debates of the Upper House and the councils of the Cabinet his irrepressible energy soon secured him a prominent position.

The famous Reform Bill was introduced into the House of Commons, on the 2nd of March, by Lord John Russell. I need not dwell on the sweeping nature of its provisions; on the dismay and wrath it excited in the breasts of Tory borough-mongers and the privileged classes generally; or the enthusiasm it awakened among the great body of the people. In the Lower House it was fiercely opposed, and, on the occasion of the second reading, ministers were defeated by a majority of eight. On the following day the Opposition declined to go into committee on the Ordnance Estimates, which virtually amounted to a refusal of the supplies. Ministers offered their resignations; the king refused to accept them. They then demanded a dissolution of the new Parliament. To this the king not unnaturally objected; but on fresh representations from Lord Grey he yielded. He would go instantly, he would go that moment, and dissolve Parliament by his own voice (22nd April.) "As soon as the royal carriages could be got ready," said his ministers. "Never mind the carriages; send for a hackney coach,” replied his Majesty; and the saying spread over the kingdom, and greatly enhanced the popularity of the "Sailor King."

At the gate Lord Durham, the Lord Privy Seal, found but one carriage waiting-the Lord Chancellor's. He gave

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