Henry Reeve

“ No feeling in life was more deeply rooted in the heart of Lord Brougham than his intense affection and veneration for his admirable mother. He repaid her early care and judicious guidance by the most ardent and unvarying demotion. He will ingly laid all the triumphs of his career at her feet ; and she lived to see him attain the proudest heights of fame and power. ”

“ Amongst the difficulties the new premier and the Whig party had to encounter and to surmount, none was greater than that arising from the position, the attitude, and the talents of Mr Brougham. He was not the leader of any party ; he had no personal following in the House of Com mons ; he was distrusted by the Whigs, who looked up to Lord Althorp as their chief ; he was dreaded alike by friends and foes ; but there stood, in solitary might, the formidable member for the county of York, armed with invincible eloquence, and backed by the suffrages of the people. ”

“ On the ground of expediency, it is contended by the supporters of the Declaration of Paris, that Great Britain is, of all countries in the world, that which has most to gain by it, because she is not only the greatest naval power, but the power which has the largest number of merchant vessels and the largest amount of property afloat on the seas, and liable to attack. The primary advantage of the Declaration no doubt accrues to neutrals, as it secures to them a larger carrying trade in time of war, and exempts them from the seizure of enemy s goods in neutral ships. ”

“ We shall not attempt in this notice of his life to follow the innumerable incidents of his long and varied career, or to enumerate the speeches and writings which he threw off like sparks on every imaginable occasion. Our object is rather to convey to the reader a just impression of the man, as he appeared to those who knew him as he was, and who still recall the transcendent effects of his energy. Lord Brougham has been unfortunate in his biographers. ”

“ Hence, if a belligerent were now to violate the rules of the Declaration, he would have to encounter the opposition of all neutral states, and would speedily find them arrayed on the side of the enemy. But in the event of war, Great Britain is the state most exposed, by reason of the magnitude of her maritime trade, to the depredations of hostile cruisers ; the injury done is to be measured by the amount of the shipping and property exposed to it ; and a single cruiser of a small state may cause enormous losses to the commerce of a great power, as was seen in the American civil war. ”

“ Sometimes he would crouch in his chair, muffled in his wig and robes, like a man asleep ; at other times he would burst into restless activity, writing letters, working problems, interrupting counsel, Mortal offence he gave to Sugden, then the leader of the Equity bar, who detested his person and despised his law. But upon the whole Brougham was a just and able judge ”

“ It has taken half a century to workout the plans of these early law reformers, and the last year or two have given us a national system of education and a new judicature with an entirely new form of procedure. But not the less glorious and valuable were the services of those who first engaged in these great tasks. Nothing exasperated the Tory party more than the select committee which sat, with Mr Brougham in the chair, in 1816 and the three following years, to investigate the slate of education of the poor in the metropolis. ”

“ A stranger by birth to that great province, and without an acre of land in it, he, by his talents, eloquence, public services, and love of freedom alone, triumphed over the proud Yorkshire families, and took his seat in the House of Commons with a power no Englishman of this age has possessed. The Parliament met in November. Brougham s first act was to move for leave to bring in a bill to amend the representation of the people ; but before the debate came on the Government was defeated on another question; the duke resigned, and Earl Grey was commanded by William IV. to form an administration. ”

“ This victory over the court and the ministry raised Henry Brougham at once to the pinnacle of fame. He shared the triumph of the queen. His portrait was in every shop window. A piece of plate was presented to him, paid for by a penny subscription of peasants and mechanics. With his wonted disinterestedness in money matters, he refused to accept a sum of 4000 which the queen herself placed at his disposal. He took no more than the usual fees of counsel, while his salary as Her Majesty s attorney-general re mained unpaid, arid was discharged by the Treasury after her death. ”

“ He wanted that moral elevation which inspires confidence and respect, and which is even more essential than genius to the highest achievements and the most lasting fame. At times his eccentricity rose to the verge of insanity, as if the reins by which he guided his fiery temper had slipped from his hand. ”

“ No man ever commanded with more effect the applause of listening senates, or could better rouse the depths of popular enthusiasm. His boundless command of language, his audacity, his memory stored with every sort of knowledge, his animal spirits and social powers, gave him the lead everywhere, and he was not slow to take advantage of his splendid talents and acquirements in every mode of life. ”

“ To these arguments it is said in reply that the British envoy at Paris had full powers to pledge the faith of the Crown, with the concurrence of the Cabinet, and that if Parliament disapproved his conduct, it ought to have been pressed to a division at the time, and not when Great Britain has enjoyed the benefit of the Declaration, as a neutral, for twenty years. It is a part of the prerogative of the Crown to fix our international relations, and to determine the conditions of maritime warfare. ”

“ On the 22d November 1830 the great seal was delivered to him by the king, and he took his seat on the Woolsack that evening as speaker of the House of Lords, being still a commoner. On the following day, after he had sat to hear a Scotch appeal, the patent of his peerage as Baron Brougham and Vaux was brought down. The Lord chancellor then quitted the woolsack, robed, and was introduced as a baron by the Marquis Wellesley and Lord Durham.
The mind of man can conceive nothing more vivid and more various than the chancellorship of Lord Brougham. ”

“ In 1825 the first steps were taken, under the auspices of Brougham, for the establishment of a university in London, absolutely free from all religious or sectarian distinctions, a scheme which has grown and ripened in half a century into no unworthy rival of the other universities of northern and southern Britain. In 1827 Brougham contributed to found the " Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," an S. D. U. K. association which gave an immense impulsion to sound popular literature. Its first publication was an essay on the " Pleasures and Advantages of Science," written by himself. ”

“ The power of a naval state to inflict serious injury on an enemy by the interruption of her trade is therefore by the nature of things greatly diminished, and the same remark applies to commercial blockades. To England all foreign commodities must be brought by sea. and England is more dependent than any other country on foreign trade for the raw material of her manufactures, and even for the food of her inhabi tants. It is therefore the paramount interest of England to keep open all the channels of trade, as much as possible, both in peace and war ”

“ The most fitting and binding expression of international law (which cannot assume the form of positive law by sovereign enact ment) is to be found in instruments recording in solemn form the consent of all civilized nations. ”

“ As early as 1792 he founded a debating society of a very juvenile character, to which several persons afterwards distinguished in life belonged. This society, however, sub sequently merged in the " Speculative Society," which had a hall and library of its own in the college. Here Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Murray, and Moncreiff tried their early powers, and gave the promise of that eloquence which eventually placed them all in Parliament or on the bench of justice. ”

“ An immense organization had been formed, more especially by the Quakers and other non conformists, to bring the whole force of public opinion, awakened by the call of humanity and justice, to bear upon the horrors of a system which was still defended by the West India interest and the Government. ”

“ It was considered imprudent and impossible that a man so gifted and so popular as Brougham hail now become should remain out of Parliament, and by the influence of Lord Holland, the duke of Bedford was induced to return him to the House of Commons for the borough of Camelford. ”

“ The activity of Lord Brougham s pen was only second to the volubility of his tongue. He carried on a vast and incessant correspondence of incredible extent. For thirty years he contributed largely to the Edinburgh JRevieiv, and lie continued to write in that journal even after he held the great seal. The best of his writings, entitled " Sketches of the Statesmen of the time of George III., "first appeared in the Review. These were followed by the " Lives of Men of Letters and Science " of the same period. ”

“ But if you are living abroad, surrounded by the base spies and tools who will always be planted about you, ready to invent and swear as they may be directed, who can pretend to say what may happen ? I declare, I do not see how a proposition hostile to your Royal Highness s marriage could be resisted if you continued living abroad." How completely these predictions were fulfilled is sufficiently known. Brougham appears to have had but little correspondence with the princess during her residence in Italy. ”

“ The Peel ministry, prematurely and rashly summoned to power, was of no long duration, and Brougham naturally took an active part in overthrowing it. Lord Melbourne was called upon in April 1835 to reconstruct the Whig Govern ment with his former colleagues. But, formidable as he might be as an opponent, the Whigs had learned by ex perience that Brougham was even more dangerous to them as an ally, and with one accord they resolved that he should not hold the great seal or any other office. ”

“ The next in descent was the second marshal (1718-1804) , who commanded the French armies in the Seven Years War, for which he was created a prince of the empire, and though subsequently disgraced and exiled by the intrigues of the Conde"s, he was recalled in 1789 by Louis XVI. to the office of com- mander-in-chief. To stem the tide of the Revolution was impossible. The marshal speedily fell from power, emi grated to Germany, refused the solicitation of Napoleon to return to France, and died at Miinster in 1804. ”

“ Since the establish ment of a general system of railroads, the greater part of the trade of all the states of continental Europe can be carried on by land, either by direct communication or through neutral ports. ”

“ The death of Lord Castlereagh in 1822, and the advance ment of Canning to the office of Foreign Secretary, materi ally changed the character of Lord Liverpool s Govern ment. Canning and Brougham sat on opposite benches the one a follower of Pitt, the other of Fox ; and they were constantly pitted against each other. Sometimes their rhetorical conflicts assumed an intense violence, as when Brougham accused the minister of " the most monstrous truckling for the purpose of obtaining office that the whole history of political tergiversation could furnish." ”

“ He sat in the Constituent Assembly, constantly voting on the Liberal side. He served as chief of the staff to the Republican army on the Rhine ; but, like many other champions of the Revolution, he was denounced, arrested, dragged to Paris, and executed on the 27th June 1794. The parting injunction he left to his son, Victor de Broglie, the subject of this notice, then a boy nine years old, was ever to remain faithful to the cause of liberty, even though it were ungrateful and unjust. ”

“ BROUGHAM, Henry, first Lord Brougham and Vaux, man of letters, man of science, advocate, orator, statesman, and Lord High Chancellor of England, was born at Edinburgh on the 19th September 1778, and died at Cannes in France on the 7th May 18G8. During a great portion of a life extended to the unwonted term of ninety years, but espe cially in the third and fourth decades of the present century, from 1820 to 1840, no Englishman in any civil career played so conspicuous a part in public affairs or enjoyed so wide a fame as Henry Brougham. ”

“ Carlton House will be attacked ; troops will be called out ; blood will be shed ; and whatever be the result, it will be known that your running away was the cause of this mischief. You would never get over it." This remonstrance prevailed, and the princess returned to Carlton House with her uncle the duke of York at five in the morning. This anecdote is so graphically told by Lord Brougham in several places that we preserve it. ”

“ Both by study and by practice, then, oratory was his chief art, and he con tinued through life to cultivate it with the enthusiasm of an actor, who never entirely attains to the fulfilment of his own ideal. ”

“ I shall die," said he, a "penitent Christian and an im penitent Liberal." His literary works, though few of them have been published, were rewarded by a seat in the French Academy, and he was also a member of another branch of the French Institute, the Academy of Moral and Political Science. ”

“ Although till 1808 Brougham had no practice at the English bar, he had argued some Scotch appeals in the House of Lords and some prize cases at the " Cock-pit." He had acquired some knowledge of international law, and some experience of the prize courts. This circumstance probably led to his being retained as counsel for the Liverpool merchants who had petitioned both Houses of Parliament against the Orders in Council, framed in retalia- tion for the Berlin and Milan decrees. ”

“ On the day following the resigna tion of the Government, he reluctantly consented, in low and angry tones, to postpone for one week his motion on parliamentary reform. The attorney-generalship was offered to him by Lord Grey ; it was indignantly rejected. Brougham himself affirms that he desired to be master of the rolls, which would have secured him a large income for life, and left him free to sit in the House of Commons. ”