SELECTIONS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 SPEECHES AND WRITINGS x 
 
 OF / 
 
 b 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 HENRY, . 
 
 LORD BROUGHAM & VAUX, 
 
 LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 WITH A 
 
 BRIEF MEMOIR OF HIS LORDSHIP'S LIFE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY 
 
 M.DCCC.XXXII. 
 

 HENRY MORSE STEPHENS 
 
 TIIXINO, PRINTER, CHELSEA. 
 
O-C- 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Whether considered as specimens of lofty eloquence, or 
 as embodying the sentiments of one of the greatest men of 
 the present age, upon a variety of most interesting and 
 important topics, the following Selections (which were 
 originally commenced exclusively for the Editor's own 
 private use) cannot, it is thought, prove otherwise than 
 acceptable to the Public, especially as many of them are 
 taken from Pamphlets not easily to be obtained, or Works 
 not generally or conveniently accessible. 
 
 With respect to the prefatory Memoir, the Editor enter- 
 tains some confidence, that it will be found more com- 
 plete and accurate than any hitherto published; though, in 
 order to prevent misconception, he feels it his duty to state, 
 that, except as a public man, the illustrious subject of 
 it is entirely unknown to him. 
 
 Cambridge, June \st, 1832. 
 
 ^OftRftl 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Memoir of Lord Brougham 1 
 
 Postscript 48*, 49*, 50*, 51* 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Commons^ on 
 
 the African Slave Trade, June I5th, 1810 49 
 
 Extract from a Speech in Defence of John Drakard, 
 tried for a Seditious Libel, at the Lincolnshire 
 Assizes, March 13M, 1811 53 
 
 Extract from a Speech in the House of Commons, on 
 
 the Orders in Council, June IQth, 1812 U3 
 
 Extract fro7n a Speech in the House of Commons, on 
 
 the Education of the Poor, May Sth, 1818 .... G7 
 
 Extract from a Speech in the Castle Yard at Ap- 
 pleby, at the conclusion of the Westmoreland 
 Election, July Sd, 1818 71 
 
 Extract fiom a Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, upon 
 
 the Abuse of Charities. Qvo. 1818 74 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Lords y against 
 
 the Second Reading of the Bill for inflicting 
 
 Pains and Penalties mi Queen Caroline, 1820 . . 79 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in Defence of John Ambrose 
 Williams y charged with a Libel on the Clergy, at 
 the Assizes for the County of Durham, August 
 6th, 1822 85 
 
 Extract from a Speech in the House of Commons, on 
 moving an Address to the Crown, respecting the 
 Trial and Condemnation of Mr. Smith, a Mis- 
 sionary at Dcmarara, June 1st, 1824 101 
 
 Extract from a Speech in the House of Commons, on 
 
 the same subject, June 11th, 1824 104 
 
 Extracts from ** Practical Observations upon the 
 
 Education of the People.'' Qvo. 1825 .... 107 
 
 Extracts from a Discourse delivered to the Students of 
 the University of Glasgow, on his Installation as 
 Lord Rector, April Gth, 1825 Ill 
 
 Extracts from*' a Discourse of the Objects, Advantages, 
 
 and Pleasures of Scienve^ Qvo. 1827 .... 121 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Commons, on 
 the Address, in Answer to the King's S)}eech, on 
 the Opening of the Session, January 2Dth, 1828 147 
 
CONTENTS. Vli 
 
 Page. 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Commons ^ on 
 
 Moving an Address to the Crown, relative to the 
 
 state of the Law, February 1th, 1828 150 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Commons, in 
 mpport of the Repeal of the Test and Corporation 
 Acts, February 26th, 1Q2S 164 
 
 Extract from a Speech in the House of Commons, 
 
 relative to the Affairs of Portugal, June \st, 1829 168 
 
 Extract from a Speech in the House of Commons, on 
 the Introduction of the Local Court Bill, 
 April 29th, 1830 172 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Commons, 
 
 on Colonial Slavery, July VSth, 1830 182 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Lords, on the 
 Introduction of the Local Court Bill, December 
 2nd, 1830 198 
 
 Extract from a Speech at the Royal Academy Dinner, 
 
 April SOth, 1831 203 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Lords, in sup- 
 port of the Second Reading of the Reform Bill, 
 October 1th, 1831 205 
 
 Extracts from a Speech in the House of Lords, in 
 support of the Second Reading of the Reform 
 Bill, April V.Mh, 1832 248 
 
BRIEF MEMOIR, 
 
 ^c. 8fc, 
 
 The eminent person who is the subject of the 
 following Memoir is the eldest son of Henry 
 Brougham, Esq., of Scales Hall, in Cumber- 
 land, and Brougham, in Westmoreland, (in 
 which latter place the family were settled prior 
 to the Norman Invasion:)* by Eleanor, only 
 child of James Syme, D.D., and niece of 
 Dr. Robertson, the celebrated historian. f He 
 
 * Those desirous of further information relative to the 
 family, should consult Nicolson's and Burn's Westmore- 
 land and Cumberland, I. 393 ; and Hutchinson's Cumber- 
 land, I. 299. 
 
 f The late Mr. Brougham had six children, viz. Henry, 
 (Lord Brougham,) James, (successively M.P. for Tregony 
 
 B 
 
Z MEMOIR. 
 
 • 
 
 was born at Edinburgh, on the 19th of Sep- 
 tember, 1779, and received his education at 
 the High School of his native city, where his 
 subsequent acquirements lead us to assume he 
 was a most laborious and diligent student. 
 
 When little more than sixteen years of age, 
 he exhibited one of the most remarkable in- 
 stances of precocious intellect ever recorded: 
 by the composition of a paper, containing 
 a series of experiments and observations on 
 the inflection, reflection, and colours of light; 
 this paper he transmitted, through the hands 
 of Sir Charles Blagden, to the Royal Society, 
 in whose Transactions it was printed;* and in 
 the following year, a paper, containing further 
 experiments and observations on the same sub- 
 ject, was communicated by him to the Society, 
 and printed in their Transactions ;t where, 
 
 and Downton, and now for Winchelsea,) Peter, (who died 
 in 1800 at St. Salvadore, on his passage to the East Indies,) 
 John, (an eminent wine merchant, of Edinburgh, who died 
 at Boulogne in September, 1829,) William, (late Fellow of 
 Jesus College, Cambridge, now M.P. for Southwark, and 
 a Master in Chancery,) and Mary. 
 
 ♦ Philosophical Transactions, 1796, p. 227. 
 t Idem, 1797, p. 362. 
 
MEMOIR. d 
 
 in 1798, appeared from his pen, ** General 
 Theorems, chiefly Porisms in the higher Ge- 
 ometry."* These papers excited considerable 
 interest in the scientific world, (although the 
 extreme youth of their author does not seem 
 to have been generally known :) an article by 
 Professor Prevost, of Geneva, containing Re- 
 marks on the Optical Papers, appeared in the 
 Philosophical Transactions for 1798;t and 
 Mr. Brougham is said, at this early period of 
 his life, to have carried on a Latin correspon- 
 dence on scientific subjects with some of the 
 most distinguished philosophers of the Conti- 
 nent. 
 
 Whilst very young, he quitted Edinburgh, and 
 accompanied Mr. Stuart (now Lord Stuart de 
 Rothsay) in a tour through the northern parts 
 of Europe. On his return he was called to 
 the Scotch Bar ; and about the same time be- 
 came a Member of a celebrated Literary So- 
 ciety, called the Speculative Club, of which 
 Mr. Southey, the late Mr. Horner, Mr. Jeffery, 
 and the late Lord Kinnaird, were also dis- 
 tinguished Members. 
 
 * Philosophical Transactions, J 798, p. 378. 
 t Idem, 1798, p. 311. 
 
 R 2 
 
4 MEMOIR. 
 
 On the establishment of the Edinburgh 
 Review, in 1802, Mr. Brougham became one 
 of r^ the principal contributors to that popular 
 journal, in which he continued to write until 
 a very recent period ; and of which he is said, 
 for a short time, to have been the editor. 
 
 He acquired considerable celebrity by the 
 publication^ in 1803, of " An Enquiry into 
 the Colonial Policy of the European Powers." 
 This elaborate work, which is written in a 
 lively, perspicuous, and elegant style, abounds 
 in profound observations on modern politics 
 and international policy; contains several pas- 
 sages of great eloquence, and displays through- 
 out the deep thought, extraordinary acuteness, 
 and extensive information, for which the author 
 is so celebrated. It must, however, be al- 
 lowed, that certain passages in this work are 
 not altogether in accordance with his more 
 matured opinions respecting the important 
 subject of West Indian Slavery: if, however, 
 any justification, for an alteration so honour- 
 able to his feelings as a man, be wanting, 
 it may be found in the conduct of the planters 
 for the last twenty-five years, which has pro- 
 
MEMOIR. O 
 
 dtKJed a greater and more general change of 
 sentiment on the subject, than could other- 
 wise have been produced by all the exertions 
 of the most zealous opponents of slavery. 
 
 Mr. Brougham, having been called to the 
 Enghsh Bar by the Society of Lincoln's Inn, 
 about 1806 or 1807, removed from Edinburgh 
 to London, where his splendid talents seem to 
 have soon attracted attention ; since we find 
 him, as early as 1808, engaged in a case of 
 very considerable importance. Certain mer- 
 chants of London, Liverpool^ Manchester, &c., 
 having presented a petition to the House of 
 Commons, praying to be heard at the Bar of 
 the House, by their Counsel and Witnesses, 
 against the celebrated Orders in Council, re- 
 stricting the trade with America^ Mr. Brougham 
 was made choice of as their advocate ; and, 
 accordingly, on the 16th of March, 1808, he 
 appeared before that House^ of which he was 
 ultimately destined to be the chief ornament; 
 and having opened the case of the petitioners 
 in a concise address, he proceeded to the ex- 
 amination of his witnesses, which was not 
 completed till the 1st of April; when, and 
 
 B 3 
 
6 MEMOIR. 
 
 on the 6th of the same month, he again ad- 
 dressed the House with much ability and elo- 
 quence for above five hours. Although in 
 this instance unsuccessful, he acquired much 
 reputation by his exertions on the occasion; 
 and from this period, his practice, both in the 
 Court of King's Bench, and on the Northern 
 Circuit, began to increase. 
 
 Through the influence of the Earl of Dar- 
 lington, (now Marquis of Cleveland,) he, in 
 the beginning of 1810, obtained a seat in Par- 
 liament for the Borough of Camelford; in the 
 representation of which a vacancy had oc- 
 curred, by the accession of the present Marquis 
 of Lansdowne to the Peerage. His first 
 Speech, which was made on the 5th of March, 
 1810,* on the debate upon Mr. Whitbread's 
 motion, reprobating the Earl of Chatham's 
 private transmission to the King of his nar- 
 rative respecting the expedition to the Scheldt ; 
 has been usually considered to have disap- 
 pointed the expectations excited by the know- 
 ledge of his great talents : it was, however, 
 pertinent and perspicuous ; but being delivered 
 
 • Collection of Speeches in t/ie press. — Ridgway. 
 
I 
 
 MEMOIR. 7 
 
 in that unassuming manner, which all young 
 Members act prudently in adopting at the 
 commencement of their Parliamentary career, 
 it presented a striking contrast to the cha- 
 racteristic vehemence of the Speeches delivered 
 by him on occasions more favourable to the 
 display of his prodigious powers. It is right, 
 however, to state, that this Speech was, in 
 the course of the debate, alluded to by 
 Mr. Adam, in terms of great commendation. 
 
 On the 15th of June, he addressed the House, 
 in a Speech of great length and ability, on the 
 subject of the Slave Trade, which was then 
 carried on to a great extent by foreign na- 
 tions ; and after complaining of the inefficiency 
 of the Abolition Act, to prevent the subjects 
 of our own country from engaging in that in- 
 famous traffic in a clandestine and fraudulent 
 manner, he concluded, by moving an Address 
 to the Crown, beseeching His Majesty to 
 persevere in his efforts to induce foreign na- 
 tions to abandon the trade, and to give such 
 orders to the officers of the navy, as would 
 effectually check the commerce carried on by 
 British subjects, in contempt of the authority 
 
 B 4 
 
8 MEMOIR. 
 
 of Parliament : this Address was carried mm. 
 con. 
 
 In the Session of 1811, Mr. Brougham stre- 
 nuously opposed the passing of the Act for 
 preventing Gold Coin from being paid or ac- 
 cepted, for more than its current value; and 
 moved a string of Resolutions on the subject, 
 which were negatived without a division: he 
 also spoke in the debates relative to the ad- 
 ministration of justice in Trinidad, and the use 
 of flogging in the army. 
 
 In the course of the same year we find 
 Mr. Brougham engaged as Counsel for the 
 Messrs. Hunts, Proprietors of the Examiner, 
 against whom a criminal information had been 
 filed for an alleged libel, contained in an ar- 
 ticle, reprobating, in strong terms, the practice 
 of flogging adopted in our army ; and copied 
 into that paper from the Stamford News. His 
 Speech, on this occasion, elicited applause 
 from the Attorney General, and was charac- 
 terized by Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough 
 as ** a Speech of great abiUty, eloquence, and 
 manliness;'^ and notwithstanding his Lord- 
 
MEMOIR. y 
 
 ship's decisive opinion, as to the libellous na- 
 ture of the article in question, the jury re- 
 turned a verdict of " Not Guilty." He was, 
 also, specially retained at the Lincoln March 
 Assizes, in defence of John Drakard, the Pro- 
 prietor of the Stamford News, who was 
 charged with the publication of the original 
 article ; but, although his Speech in behalf 
 of this Gentleman, was characterized by even 
 greater ability than that in defence of the 
 Hunts, and was greeted with marks of ap- 
 plause, which, however indecorous and mis- 
 timed in a Court of Justice, shew its extra- 
 ordinary power; and notwithstanding the line 
 of defence adopted was precisely the same as 
 on the trial of the former case,— the result was 
 different, and the Crown obtained a verdict. 
 
 Mr. Brougham was a very frequent speaker 
 in the House of Commons during the long 
 Session of 1812, taking an active part in the 
 debates on Colonel M^'Mahon's Sinecure, the 
 King's Household Bill, the East India Com- 
 pany's Affairs, Corporal Punishments in the 
 Army, the Roman Catholic Claims, the Ma- 
 nagement of Lincoln and Lancaster Gaols, the 
 
10 MEMOIR 
 
 Negociations for a New Administration, and 
 the Preservation of the Public Peace Bill, 
 and greatly distinguished himself by his stre- 
 nuous opposition to the Leather Tax, which 
 the Ministry carried by a majority of eight 
 only : but his great efforts, during this Ses- 
 sion, were directed to procure the repeal of 
 the Orders in Council, against which he had 
 been heard at the Bar of the House in 1808. 
 On the 3d of March he moved the appoint- 
 ment of a Select Committee, to take into con- 
 sideration the state of Trade and Manufactures, 
 particularly with reference to these Orders in 
 Council, and the Licence Trade: this motion 
 was negatived by 216 against 144 : but on 
 the 28th of April, Lord Stanley succeeded 
 in obtaining a reference of the numerous peti- 
 tions presented on the subject, to a Com- 
 mittee of the whole House. In the proceed- 
 ings of this Committee, which sat for six 
 weeks, Mr. Brougham took a very conspicuous 
 part; and shortly after the conclusion of its 
 labours, viz. on the 16th of June, he, in a 
 long and masterly Speech, moved an Address 
 to the Prince Regent, praying him to repeal 
 or suspend the obnoxious Orders ; this Address 
 
I 
 
 MEMOIR. 11 
 
 was withdrawn, on an understanding with the 
 Ministry ; and on the 23d of the same month, 
 the Orders complained of, so far as regarded 
 America, were rescinded. 
 
 In the course of the same Session he dis- 
 played great talent and research in three se- 
 veral motions, made by him on the 21st of 
 January, 25th of February, and 2d of June, 
 with relation to the Droits of the Admiralty, 
 which he contended had been, for many years, 
 grossly misappropriated. 
 
 Mr. Brougham's Parliamentary conduct, es- 
 pecially his successful opposition to the Orders 
 in Council, (which had been most injurious 
 to the trading interest,) rendered him exceed- 
 ingly popular ; and, at the General Election, 
 he was invited to offer himself as a candi- 
 date for the representation of the large and 
 opulent town of Liverpool: the other candi- 
 dates were, Mr. Creevey, who stood on the 
 . Whig interest ; Mr. Canning, and General 
 Gascoyne, (one of the old Members,) who re- 
 ceived the support of the Tories. The election 
 commenced on the 8th of October, 1812, and 
 
12 MEMOIR. 
 
 continued till the 16th, when the numbers at 
 the final close of the poll were ; Canning, 
 1631; Gascoyne, 1532; Brougham, 1131; 
 and Creevey, 1068. In the early part of the 
 contest, it seemed probable that Mr. Brougham, 
 and Mr. Canning, would have been returned; 
 but a junction having been formed between 
 the friends of the latter Gentleman, and those 
 of General Gascoyne, the Tory party gained 
 an ascendancy, which soon rendered all fur- 
 ther opposition fruitless.* Mr. Brougham was 
 
 * In one of his Speeches at the Westmoreland Election, 
 in 1818, he thus alludes to this contest : " The last and 
 " the only tinie I had a contest, I was opposed to persons 
 ** of liberal feelings, and enlightened minds, men who 
 ** would have scorned to carry a point by clamour, or re- 
 " sort to tricks to overpower an adversary. To be op- 
 ** posed — as I was then — to a man like Mr. Canning, was 
 ** a high honour; to be defeated by him, was no disgrace. 
 ** He was a man who took no undue advantage of his op- 
 ** ponents — who conducted the contest fairly and houour- 
 *' ably, and who added to his triumph the praise that it 
 ** was won by laudable means. Opposed during a long 
 ** contest to this distinguished orator, a man of the greatest 
 " talents and most accomplished mind of the day ; no angry 
 ** feeling was produced, no reason for complaint was given 
 " on either side ; and as we met as friends at the beginning 
 ♦* of the Election, so we parted at the end, with mutual 
 ** thanks and congratulations on the munnor in which it had 
 '* been conducted." 
 
MEMOIR. 13 
 
 also nominated for the Inverkeithing district 
 of Scotch Boroughs ; but being likewise un- 
 successful there, he had no seat in Parliament 
 for nearly four years afterwards. 
 
 He seems now to have devoted himself exclu- 
 sively to the duties of his profession, in which 
 he was rapidly rising. He was especially em- 
 ployed to defend persons charged with political 
 offences. In December, 1812, he again de- 
 fended Messrs. Hunts, the Proprietors of the 
 Examiner, who were tried, and (through the ex- 
 traordinary summing up of Lord Ellenborough) 
 convicted of a libel, on the Prince Regent. 
 The bold, and uncom prising course, pursued 
 by Mr. Brougham on this occasion, in defence 
 of his clients, is said to have been the original 
 cause of that dislike, with which (if popular 
 report may be credited) he was afterwards 
 regarded by his late Majesty. 
 
 During the Parliamentary Session of 1816^ 
 Mr. Brougham (who had been again returned 
 to the House of Commons for Winchelsea, 
 another Borough in the patronage of the Earl of 
 Darlington,) took a prominent part in the dis- 
 
14 MEMOIR. 
 
 cussions relative to the repeal of the Property 
 Tax, the distressed state of the agricultural in- 
 terest, the Alien Bill, West Indian Slavery, the 
 financial affairs of the nation, &c. &c. ; and on 
 the 2d of April, after a Speech of some length, 
 in which he narrated a number of very curious 
 facts, illustrating the abuse of the power vested 
 in the Treasury Board to remit penalties, 
 inflicted for breach of the Revenue Laws, he 
 proposed certain resolutions, condemnatory of 
 the conduct of the Lords of the Treasury, with 
 reference to a particular case mentioned in his 
 Speech ; but these resolutions were negatived 
 by a large majority. On the 8th of May, he 
 obtained leave to introduce a Bill for better 
 securing the liberty of the press. This Bill 
 (which he was ultimately obliged to abandon) 
 was intended to abolish the power of exhibiting 
 ex officio informations for libel, or seditious words, 
 to take away the right of the Counsel for the 
 Crown to reply on trials for such offences, when 
 the Defendant had called no witnesses, and, 
 under certain regulations, to permit Defendants 
 to give evidence as to the truth of any libel, or 
 seditious words. 
 
MEMOIR. 15 
 
 In this Session, too, he commenced those 
 exertions with respect to education, which have 
 so eminently displayed his enlightened views, 
 and have entitled him to the lasting gratitude of 
 his fellow countrymen. On the 21st of May, 
 he succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a 
 Committee for enquiring into the education of 
 the lower orders in the Metropolis ; and on the 
 20th of June, he presented to the House the 
 Report of this Committee, by which it appeared 
 that no less than 120,000 children, in the 
 metropolis alone, were without the means of ^l^ 
 instruction. On this occasion, after alluding to 
 the flagrant abuses in several Charity Schools 
 in the country, he suggested the appointment 
 of a Commission of Inquiry, and expressed 
 his determination of again bringing the subject 
 before Parliament. 
 
 In the vacation of this year, Mr. Brougham 
 proceeded to the Continent, for the purpose of 
 having a conference on business of importance 
 with the Princess of Wales, who had, some 
 time previously, appointed him one of her legal 
 Advisers. With a view of extending his practi- 
 cal knowledge on the subject of education, he 
 
16 MEMOIR. 
 
 availed himself of this opportunity of visiting 
 the institution of Mr. Fellenberg, at Berne, in 
 Switzerland. Of this institution, (which con- 
 sists of '* a seminary for the education, and 
 *' moral and religious improvement of the poor; 
 *' an academy for the richer classes of society ; 
 *' an agricultural institution for a limited num- 
 '' ber of pupils ; and a manufactory of agricul- 
 '' tural implements;") and a similar one, at 
 Yverdun, conducted by Mr. Pestallozi, which 
 he also visited on this occasion — he afterwards 
 gave a detailed account before the Education 
 Committee of 1818. 
 
 On the 13th of March, 1817, Mr. Brougham, 
 in a Speech distinguished for its great power, 
 and liberal sentiments, and displaying, in a 
 striking manner, his extensive knowledge of all 
 topics connected with the trading and commer- 
 cial interests of the country^ proposed to the 
 House of Commons a series of resolutions, 
 attributing a great portion of the distress, then 
 so generally felt, to the severe pressure of taxa- 
 tion, under which the nation laboured ; and 
 expressive of the opinion of the House, that the 
 foreign policy pursued by the Ministry, had 
 
MEMOIR. 17 
 
 not been such as to obtain for the country 
 those commercial advantages^ which its influ- 
 ence in foreign courts fairly entitled the people 
 to expect : these resolutions were, however, 
 negatived by 118 to 63. On the 1 1th of July, 
 he again brought the state of the nation under 
 the consideration of the House, and proposed 
 an address to the Prince Regent^ condemning, 
 in forcible terms^ the foreign and domestic 
 policy of the Ministry, whose measures, the 
 address stated, had *' neither been calculated 
 ** to fulfil the hopes, to alleviate the suffer- 
 *' ings, nor to recover the affections of the 
 people." This address was negatived without a 
 division. 
 
 In the same Session, he obtained a renewal 
 of the Committee for enquiring into the state 
 of education among the lower orders of the 
 metropolis ; strenuously opposed the suspension 
 of the Habeas Corpus Act ; and took a part in 
 the debates on the address in answer to the 
 Prince Regent's Speech, Mr. Tierney's motion 
 for a Committee on the public expenditure, 
 Mr. Canning's Embassy to Lisbon, the Civil 
 Service Compensation Bill, &c. &c. 
 
is 
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 Mr. Brougham, in the Session of 1818, spoke 
 at some length against the Bill for indemnifying 
 Ministers, and on the discussions relative to the 
 Royal Dukes Marriages, the Tithe Law Amend- 
 ment Bill, the Repeal of the Septennial Act, 
 the Budget, and Parliamentary Reform. On 
 the 5th of March, he obtained the appointment 
 of a Select Committee, to enquire into the 
 education of the lower orders. This Com- 
 mittee, the labours of which were not (like those 
 of former Committees on the same subject) con- 
 fined to the metropolis, in the course of the 
 Session presented five reports, containing a 
 great body of the most valuable and interest- 
 ing matter; and Mr. Brougham introduced a 
 Bill, for the appointment of a Commission of 
 enquiry into the abuses of public charities, 
 which was passed, after being considerably 
 modified in the House of Lords, especially by 
 the introduction of a Clause, confining the in- 
 vestigations of the Commissioners to those 
 Charities only which were connected with 
 education, although this restriction was taken 
 off by an Act introduced by the Ministry in the 
 following Session. When the Commission 
 under this Act was issued, the public expressed 
 
MEMOItt. 19 
 
 great dissatisfaction that Mr, Brougham's name 
 had been omitted, since his indefatigable in- 
 dustry, and intimate acquaintance with every 
 thing connected with the objects of the Com- 
 mission, obviously rendered him the most pro- 
 per person to be appointed. In those times, 
 however, the qualifications of persons who 
 were nominated to official situations of this 
 nature, were but little regarded, political sen- 
 timents, and powerful connections, being al- 
 most exclusively considered. 
 
 At the General Election in 1818, Mr. 
 Brougham, at the request of a respectable 
 body of freeholders, offered himself as a Can- 
 didate for the County of Westmoreland, with 
 which his family had been so long connected ; 
 but the influence of the House of Lowther was 
 at that time so powerful in this County, that 
 notwithstanding his brilliant talents, and the 
 popularity he had acquired in his Parliamentary 
 career, he was unsuccessful. He, however, 
 avowed his determination of renewing the con- 
 test from time to time, until the independence 
 of the County should be fully established. At 
 the close of the Poll (which continued four 
 
 c 2 
 
20 MEMOIR. 
 
 (lays) the numbers were, Lord Lowther, 1211; 
 Colonel Lowther, 1157; Mr. Brougham, 889. 
 
 In September, 1818, he published '' a Letter 
 ** to Sir Samuel Romilly, upon the Abuse of 
 *' Charities; with an Appendix, containing 
 " Minutes of Evidence taken before the Edu- 
 ** cation Committee." This little work, of 
 which as many as ten editions were sold in a 
 few months, produced a powerful effect on the 
 public mind, which neither the arguments, nor 
 the virulence of the numerous opponents it 
 called forth, were able to diminish.* 
 
 Mr. Brougham's principal Speeches in the 
 House of Commons (to which he was again 
 returned for Winchelsea) during the Session of 
 1819, were delivered on the investigation of a 
 Complaint against the Custos Rotulorum of 
 Limerick, on certain proposed Resolutions rela- 
 tive to the Public Income and Expenditure, 
 and in defence of the Education Committees 
 
 • The principal Pamphlets published on the occasion are 
 enumerated in the Quarterly Review, No. 38, in which 
 there is a clever, though far from candid or fair, Review of 
 the Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly. 
 
MEMOIR. 21 
 
 from certain charges preferred against them by 
 Mr. (now Sir Robert) Peel : and in the short 
 but memorable Session of 1819-20, he stre- 
 nuously opposed the celebrated Six Acts, and 
 spoke at some length upon the Address in 
 reply to the Regent's Speech on opening the 
 Session, and on a Motion respecting Mr. Owen's 
 plan for ameliorating the condition of the poor. 
 
 At the General Election consequent upon 
 the death of George III., Mr. Brougham again 
 contested the County of Westmoreland ; but 
 was defeated after a seven days poll, by a 
 majority of 63, the numbers being at the con- 
 clusion of the Election, Lord Lowther, 1530; 
 Colonel Lowther, 1412; Mr. Brougham, 1349. 
 He, therefore, took his seat in the new Parlia- 
 ment for Winchelsea, for which he was re- 
 turned for the third time. 
 
 On the 5th of May, 1820, he moved a Reso- 
 lution in the House of Commons, declaratory 
 of the expediency of the House, with a view 
 to the settlement of the Civil List, taking into 
 consideration the Droits of the Crown, and 
 Admiralty, and other funds not usually deemed 
 
 c 3 
 
22 MEMOIR. 
 
 to be under the immediate controul of Parlia- 
 ment. This motion produced an animated de- 
 bate, at the close of which the Resolution was 
 negatived by 273 to 155. In the course of the 
 Session he also delivered a Speech on Agricul- 
 tural Distress, and obtained leave to bring in a 
 Bill for the better education of the poor, by the 
 establishment of parochial schools throughout 
 the kingdom ; but this measure, in consequence 
 of the opposition it met with, he ultimately 
 abandoned. 
 
 On the third day of Easter Term, he took his 
 seat within the Bar of the Court of King's 
 Bench, as Attorney General for the Queen ; 
 and in the beginning of June, proceeded to 
 St. Omers, at her Majesty's request, where, on 
 her behalf, he conducted the celebrated negocia- 
 tion with Lord Hutchinson. After her Majesty's 
 arrival in England, he was again employed on 
 her behalf, to meet the Duke of Wellington and 
 Lord Castlereagh on the part of the King, m 
 order to effect an arrangement of the differences 
 subsisting between their Majesties. He also, 
 in his place in the House of Commons, advo- 
 cated the Queen's cause, with great zeal and 
 
MEMOIR. 23 
 
 eloquence, on Lord Castlereagh's motion for a 
 Secret Committee, to consider certain papers 
 relative to her Majesty ; on Mr. Wilberforce's 
 motion for adjusting the differences in the 
 Royal Family ; and on every other occasion in 
 w^hich her Majesty's honour or interests were 
 concerned. 
 
 Upon the introduction into the House of 
 Lords of the far-famed Bill of Pains and Pe- 
 nalties, Mr. Brougham, as the Queen's princi- 
 pal Law Officer, on the 6th of June, addressed 
 their Lordships at considerable length respect- 
 ing the method of proceeding adopted against 
 her Majesty. On the 17th of August, he was 
 heard against the principle of the Bill ; on the 
 18th, in reply to the King's Attorney and Solicitor 
 General on that subject ; and on the 3d and 4th 
 of October, he addressed the House on the evi- 
 dence adduced in support of the Bill, in one 
 of the most masterly, eloquent, and effective 
 Speeches ever delivered in either House of 
 Parliament. 
 
 His Parliamentary exertions during the Ses- 
 sion of 1821, were almost exclusively confined 
 
 c 4 
 
24 MEMOIR. 
 
 to the various discussions which took place 
 relative to the Queen ; and on the 4th and 
 5th of July, he delivered an able and learned 
 argument before the Lords of the Privy Coun- 
 cil, in support of Her Majesty's claim to be 
 crowned with the King at the ensuing Coro- 
 nation, 
 
 On the nth of February, 1822, Mr. Broug- 
 ham, in an able, argumentative, and luminous 
 Speech of considerable length, moved a reso- 
 lution in the House of Commons, declaring it 
 to be the duty of that House to take into its 
 consideration the pressure of public burthens 
 upon all, but especially the agricultural classes, 
 and to effect such a reduction of taxation as 
 was suited to the change in the value of 
 money, and would afford an immediate relief 
 to the distresses of the country: this Resolu- 
 tion was negatived by 212 against 108. In 
 the course of the same Session, he spoke at 
 some length on the Address in reply to the 
 King's Speech, the State of Ireland, Agricul- 
 tural Distress, the Navy Estimates, the Salt Tax, 
 Naval and Military Pensions, &c. &c. ; and on 
 the 24th of June, moved a Resolution, ** that 
 
MEMOIR. 25 
 
 " the influence possessed by the Crown is un- 
 ** necessary for maintaining its constitutional 
 ** prerogatives, destructive of the independ- 
 ** ence of Parliament, and inconsistent with 
 "the well government of the realm;" this 
 resolution, however, was negatived on a di- 
 vision by 216 against 101. 
 
 Considerable sensation was excited by his 
 bold and powerful defence of Mr. Williams, the 
 proprietor of the Durham Chronicle, who was 
 tried at the Durham Summer Assizes of this 
 year, on a criminal information for a libel con- 
 tained in certain remarks inserted in his paper, 
 reflecting on the Clergy, for omitting to order 
 the bells of the several Churches in that City, 
 to toll on the death of her late Majesty. Mr. 
 Brougham's eloquent address was repeatedly 
 interrupted by the enthusiastic applause of the 
 crowded courts although the Jury, after above 
 five hours deliberation, returned a qualified 
 verdict against his cUent. 
 
 He delivered a most admirable Speech re- 
 specting the interference of the Holy Alliance 
 in the affairs of Spain, on the opening of the 
 
26 MEMOIR. 
 
 Session of 1823; during which he also took a 
 prominent part in the Debates on the nego- 
 ciations relative to Spain, Ex-Officio Informa- 
 tions in Ireland, Delays in the Court of Chan- 
 cery, Catholic Emancipation,* the Abolition 
 of Slavery, and the Scottish Law Commission 
 Bill ; and made a motion for referring a Petition 
 of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, complain- 
 ing of the Administration of the Law, to the 
 Grand Committee for Courts of Justice ; but 
 although this motion was supported by the 
 most powerful arguments, and its necessity 
 shewn by reference to numerous indisputable 
 facts, it was lost by a majority of 139 against 59. 
 
 Mr. Brougham, in conjunction with Dr. Birk- 
 beck, had a great share in the formation of the 
 London Mechanics Institution, which was esta- 
 
 • In the course of this Debate, Mr. Brougham charged 
 Mr. Canning with having exhibited " a specimen, the most 
 ** incredible specimen, of monstrous truckling, for the pur- 
 " pose of obtaining office, that the whole history of politi- 
 ** cal tergiversation could furnish." Upon which Mr. 
 Canning immediately rose, and declared the accusation to 
 be false ; and although called on by the Speaker to retract 
 his assertion, it was a long time before the parties were 
 brought to a satisfactory explanation. 
 
MEMOIR. 27 
 
 blished in the latter end of 1823 ; and shortly 
 afterwards published an excellent pamphlet for 
 the benefit of the Institution, entitled, ** Prac- 
 '' tical Observations upon the Education of the 
 " People, addressed to the working classes and 
 ** their employers." This work had a very 
 extensive sale, (having gone through at least 
 twenty editions,) and led to the establishment 
 of numerous Societies of the same nature in 
 other places. 
 
 During the Parliamentary Session of 1824, 
 he was one of the principal speakers in several 
 of the most important debates; particularly 
 those in the Address in reply to the Speech 
 from the Throne, on the Financial Affairs of 
 the country, on the Delays in and Ex- 
 pencess of the Court of Chancery, and on 
 Mr. Abercromby's Complaint against Lord 
 Chancellor Eldon. He also, on the 1st of June, 
 moved an Address to the King, respecting the 
 trial and condemnation of Mr. Smith, a Mis- 
 sionary at Demarara. This motion, which was 
 prefaced by a Speech of amazing power and 
 eloquence, produced an animated debate, which 
 lasted two nights; and although the Address 
 
28 MEMOIR. 
 
 was negatived in the House by a majority of 
 47, his exertions on this occasion added consi- 
 derably to his reputation and popularity ; the 
 opinion of a large and influential class of the 
 community being by no means in accordance 
 with the decision of the House on this subject, 
 which had, for some time previously^ attracted 
 the notice of the public in an extraordinary 
 degree. 
 
 In the early part of 1825, Mr. Brougham 
 was elected Lord Rector of the University of 
 Glasgow, by the casting vote of Sir James Mac- 
 intosh, having for a competitor no less illus- 
 trious an individual than Sir Walter Scott ; and 
 on the 5th of April, one of the largest public 
 dinners ever provided in Edinburgh, was given 
 at the Assembly Rooms of that city, to cele- 
 brate his arrival in Scotland, in order to be 
 installed in the before-mentioned office. The 
 chair was taken by Mr. Cockburn, a very emi- 
 nent member of the Scottish Bar, and now 
 Solicitor General for Scotland, who proposed 
 Mr. Brougham's health, in an eloquent and 
 appropriate speech ; in the course of which, 
 after alluding to his departure from Edinburgh, 
 
MEMOIR. 29 
 
 nearly twenty years previously, and his having in 
 that city first displayed those great natural and 
 highly cultivated and acquired powers, which 
 his friends then foresaw must inevitably place 
 him as the highest in any walk of ambition, to 
 which his duty or inclination should lead him. 
 He observed, that ** from that day to this, their 
 " accomplished friend had gone on in the dis- 
 *^ play of successive achievements, of such bril- 
 '' liancy, that the preceding one seemed so 
 '* great, that it was deemed impossible to be 
 " surpassed, until the succeeding one eclipsed 
 " it with its glory ; until, at last, he exhibited, 
 *^ in his pregnant history of mental progress, one 
 ''' of the noblest and most cheering spectacles 
 " which a free country could present in her 
 " annals — the spectacle of a young man going 
 " forth into public life, supported by his prin- 
 '* ciples and talents alone, and triumphing in 
 ^' their independent success. So advancing, 
 " too, without the advantages of a great private 
 *' fortune, or hereditary connections, but merely 
 "•' by innate worth — by a sagacious selection of 
 '* his objects, and the abilities with v^hich he 
 '' pursued and enforced them, acquiring, in this 
 ** pure and gratifying way, an influence over 
 '^ his countrymen, greater, far greater, than was 
 
30 MEMOIR. 
 
 '* ever obtained on any previous occasion, 
 " merely by the single aid of the intellectual 
 ** resources of a single man." 
 
 At his Installation, w^hich took place at Glas- 
 gow on the following day, Mr. Brougham de- 
 livered to the Students of that University a 
 most powerful inaugural discourse, which, al- 
 though one of the most exquisite and finished 
 orations ever composed, was entirely written 
 during the bustle and fatigue of the Northern 
 Circuit ! ! 
 
 The principal Parliamentary debates, during 
 the Session of 1825, in which he took a part, 
 were those on the Address in reply to the 
 King's Speech, the Catholic Claims, the Judges 
 Salaries, the suppression of the Catholic Asso- 
 ciation, the Duke of Cumberland's Annuity 
 Bill, the delays in the Court of Chancery, and 
 the expulsion of Mr. Shrewsbury, a Missionary, 
 from Barbadoes. He also introduced a Bill 
 (which was ultimately abandoned) for incor- 
 porating the London University, then recently 
 established, and in the foundation of which he 
 had a principal share. 
 
I 
 
 MEMOIR. 31 
 
 On the loth of May, 1826, Mr. Brougham 
 moved a Resolution, expressing the regret of 
 the House of Commons at the non-compliance 
 of the Colonists with the Resolutions respecting 
 the condition of the Slaves, passed by the 
 House in 1823, and declaring the intention of 
 the House to take into its most serious con- 
 sideration, in the next Session, such measures 
 as might appear to be necessary for giving 
 effect to those Resolutions. This motion v^as 
 negatived by 100 to 38. In the previous part 
 of the Session, he took a part in the several dis- 
 cussions relative to the Address on the King's 
 Speech, the Promissory Note Bill, the Court of 
 Chancery, the Corn Laws, the State of the 
 Nation, and the Bill for allowing Counsel to 
 address Juries on behalf of persons charged 
 with felony. 
 
 At the General Election, he again contested 
 the representation of Westmoreland, but with 
 even less success than on former occasions ; at 
 the close of the poll, which was kept open for 
 nine days, the numbers were. Lord Lowther, 
 2,097 ; Colonel Lowther, 2024 ; Mr. Brougham, 
 1378; he, therefore, took his seat in the new 
 
32 MEMOlll. 
 
 House of Commons for Winchelsea, being the 
 fourth time of his being returned for that 
 Borough. 
 
 In the beginning of 1827, he took a very 
 active interest in the formation of the Society 
 for diffusion of Useful Knowledge, the object of 
 which is ** by the periodical publication of 
 *' treatises, under the direction, and with the 
 " sanction of a Superintending Committee, to 
 ** impart useful information to all classes of the 
 " community, particularly to such as are unable 
 ** to avail themselves of experienced teachers." 
 Of this Committee, Mr. Brougham was ap- 
 pointed Chairman, v^hich situation he still con- 
 tinues to hold. The first work commenced 
 by this Society, was '* the Library of Useful 
 Knowledge ;" and the preliminary treatise, ** On 
 the Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of 
 Science," v^as written by Mr. Brougham, to 
 whose pen several other works published by 
 the Society, are generally attributed. 
 
 In the memorable debate, which took place 
 in the early part of the Session of 1827, relative 
 to the interference of this country in the affairs 
 
MEMOIR. 33 
 
 of Portugal, Mr. Brougham delivered an ad- 
 mirable Speech in support of the conduct of 
 Government with respect to that question ; and 
 on the formation of Mr. Canning s Administra- 
 tion, in May, 1827, he, for the first time during 
 his Parliamentary career, took his seat on the 
 Ministerial Benches, stating, that as Mr. Can- 
 ning had successfully established a system of 
 liberal and manly foreign policy, that Gentle- 
 man should, in the course of his administration, 
 have from him (Mr. B.)* " that which he had a 
 '* right, in point of consistency, to demand — a 
 ** cordial, zealous, and disinterested support." 
 — *' I have," said Mr. Brougham, in the course 
 of the discussions relative to the change of 
 Ministry, ** quitted a situation in this House, 
 *^ which, considering the influence of opinion 
 ** and feeling, was, in the highest degree, 
 ** grateful to me ; and in which I was sur- 
 " rounded, and (if it may be permitted to say 
 " so,) supported, by one of the largest, the 
 '' most important, the most honourable, and^ 
 " now I may say it, for I was privy to all their 
 *' councils, and my motives cannot be sus- 
 '^ pected, the most disinterested Opposition that 
 
 * Collection of Speeches (in the press.)— Rid gw^y. 
 D 
 
34 MEM OIK. 
 
 " ever sat within the walls of this House ; men 
 '* who supported what they deemed right, 
 *' though it kept them out of power, and con- 
 ** firmed their adversaries in office ; and who 
 '^ persevered in that course year after year, 
 ^' without a possible hope of benefit ever ac- 
 '* cruing to themselves. I have quitted that 
 '^ honourable and eminent situation, enough to 
 " gratify the ambition of the proudest of men, 
 / f '" on an express stipulation which utterly ex- 
 I ** eludes the possibility of my taking office. I 
 
 " have done so deliberately and advisedly. I 
 " shall be sufficiently gratified in watching the 
 " progress of those opinions to which I am 
 " attached, both as to our foreign and domestic 
 *' policy. When I say that I have not become 
 ** a party to any arrangements with regard to 
 " office, I wish it to be understood, however, 
 ** that the union which has taken place between 
 *' parties lately divided, will have my cordial 
 '* and uniform support. My taking office 
 " would have stood in the way of those arrange - 
 " ments, and I, therefore, at once, voluntarily, 
 ** and without waiting for a suggestion from 
 " any one, resigned all my claims to office. It 
 '* is unpleasant to be forced to dwell on mat- 
 
MEMOIR. 35 
 
 " ters that are wholly personal to one's self; 
 ** but, as has been most truly stated this night, 
 " the character of a public man belongs to his 
 *' country ; and to his country he ought not to 
 '^ be slow in furnishing the means of properly 
 *' estimating his motives." 
 
 The Address, in answer to the King's Speech, 
 the Newspaper Stamp Duties, the Grant to the 
 Duke and Duchess of Clarence, the Corn Laws, 
 the Catholic Claims, the Election Regulation 
 Bill, the disfranchisement of Penryn, the Trade 
 with India, the conduct of Lord Charles 
 Somerset at the Cape of Good Hope, the Court 
 of Chancery, the Budget, and West Indian 
 Slavery, were the principal other subjects on 
 which he spoke during this Session. 
 
 On the first day of Trinity Term, 1827, Mr. 
 Brougham (who had, on the Queen's death, 
 retired behind the Bar,) having received a 
 patent of precedence, again assumed the silk 
 gown, which, had professional merit been re- 
 garded by previous Administrations instead of 
 political support, he would have received long 
 
 before. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 MEMO III. 
 
 One of the most praiseworthy efforts of Mr. 
 Brougham's useful and brilliant Parliamentary 
 career, was made on the 7th of February, 1828, 
 when he concluded a Speech which occupied 
 above six hours in the delivery, and embraced an 
 immense variety of topics, relative to the consti- 
 tution and practice of our Courts of Justice, and 
 the state of the Law ; by moving an Address to 
 the King, for a Commission to inquire into the 
 defects occasioned by time, or otherwise, in the 
 laws of the realm. The debate on this motion 
 was adjourned to the 29th of the same month, 
 when the following Resolution, substituted by 
 Mr. Brougham, in lieu of that formerly pro- 
 posed, was unanimously agreed to : — '* That an 
 ** humble Address be presented to his Majesty, 
 " respectfully requesting that his Majesty may 
 ** be pleased to take such measures as may 
 ** seem most expedient for the purpose of 
 '* causing due inquiry to be made into the 
 '* origin, progress, and termination of actions in 
 ** the superior Courts of Common Law in this 
 ** country, and matters connected therewith ; 
 " and into the state of the law regarding the 
 ** transfer of real property." Amongst other 
 salutary legal Reforms which have been re- 
 
MEMOIR. 37 
 
 cently carried into effect, the increase in the 
 number of Judges, the abolition of the great 
 Sessions in Wales, the opening of the practice 
 in the Court of Exchequer, the abridgment and 
 simplification of pleadings in common actions, 
 the alterations in the times of holding the Law 
 Terms and Quarter Sessions, and the establish- 
 ment of uniform rules of practice in the three 
 superior Courts, owe their origin to this me- 
 morable motion. 
 
 In the course of the same Session, Mr. 
 Brougham spoke upon the debates respecting 
 the Address in reply to the Speech from the 
 Throne, the change in the Administration, the 
 repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, the 
 Slave Trade, delays in the Court of Chancery, 
 the disfranchisement of East Retford, the Stamp 
 Duties in India, the Catholic Claims, &c. ; 
 and in the Session of 1829, he spoke in sup- 
 port of the Catholic Relief Bill, introduced 
 by the Ministry, and explained the pro- 
 ceedings of the Commissioners appointed for 
 enquiring into public charities, in pursuance of 
 the Act introduced by him eleven years 
 previously, and who, it appeared, had then 
 
 d3 
 
38 MEMOIR. 
 
 investigated no less than 19,000 charities, 
 being more than half the number in the whole 
 kingdom. 
 
 The Marquis of Cleveland, the patron of the 
 Borough of Winchelsea, giving his support to 
 the Duke of Wellington's Administration, to 
 which Mr. Brougham was opposed; the latter 
 deemed it expedient to vacate his seat ; but in 
 the beginning of 1830, he was again brought 
 into Parliament for Knaresborough, a Borough 
 in the patronage of his Grace the Duke of 
 Devonshire. 
 
 During the Session of 1830, he introduced a 
 Bill for the establishment of Local Courts for 
 the administration of justice, in cases where 
 debts under £100., or damages under £50., 
 were sought to be recovered, proposing that the 
 experiment should be first tried in the Counties 
 of Kent, Durham, and Northumberland ; but 
 this Bill was not proceeded in. He also spoke 
 against the Vote by Ballot ; and on the 13th of 
 July, delivered a most impassioned Speech on 
 the subject of Colonial Slavery, concluded by 
 proposing a Resolution, pledging the House, 
 
MEMOIR. 39 
 
 early in the next Session, to '' take into its 
 " most serious consideration the state of 
 '* slavery in the Colonies of this country, with 
 *' the view of mitigating, and finally abolishing 
 *' the same ; and more especially with the view 
 '' of amending the administration of justice in 
 ** the said Colonies." After an animated dis- 
 cussioUj the Resolution was negatived by 56 
 against 27. 
 
 On the death of George the Fourth, Mr. 
 Brougham was invited, by a very large and 
 highly respectable body of Freeholders of 
 Yorkshire, to become a candidate for the repre- 
 sentation of that great and important County. 
 With this request he complied, and (together 
 with Viscount Morpeth, the Honourable Wil- 
 liam Duncombe, and Richard Bethell, Esq.) 
 was returned free of any expense, and almost 
 without opposition, since Mr. Stapylton, the 
 Tory Candidate, did not poll 100 votes during 
 the two days the contest lasted.* Altogether 
 
 * The following was the state of the poll at the close : — 
 
 Viscount Morpeth, 1,464; Mr. Brougham, 1,295 ; 
 
 Mr. Duncombe, 1,123 ; Mr. Bethell, 1,064; 
 
 Mr. Stapylton, 94. 
 
 D 4 
 
40 MEMOIR. 
 
 unconnected with the County, and totally un- 
 known to the Freeholders, except as a public 
 man, the election of Mr. Brougham, for this 
 extensive, populous, and opulent County, must 
 be considered as an event altogether unprece- 
 dented in the modern political history of the 
 country, and marks a new and improving era in 
 the annals of elections. That it added mate- 
 rially to his already extensive influence, there 
 can be little doubt ; he himself declared, " that 
 ** it would arm him with an extraordinary, and 
 ** vast, and important accession of power to 
 " serve the people of England ;"* and on a late 
 great occasion, he referred to the event, ** as the 
 *' highest honour of his life, the pride and ex- 
 " ultation of which could never be eradicated 
 " from his mind but by death, nor in the least 
 "degree allayed by any lapse of time — the 
 ** most splendid distinction which any subjects 
 ** could confer upon a fellow citizen."| 
 
 As an instance of his extraordinary industry 
 and energy, it may be here mentioned, that, 
 during his canvas for Yorkshire, he in one day 
 
 * Volume of Miscellaneous Speeches, 
 t Collection of Speeches. 
 
MEMOIR. 41 
 
 attended eight different public meetings of the 
 electors, delivered at each a powerful speech 
 of considerable length, and travelled over a 
 space of 120 miles : notwithstanding all this 
 exertion, he appeared on the following morn- 
 ing in the Assize Court of York, apparently as 
 little fatigued as if he had spent the preceding 
 day in chambers. 
 
 On the opening of the new Parliament, 
 Mr. Brougham gave notice of his intention, on 
 that day fortnight, to submit to the House a 
 proposition on the subject of Parliamentary 
 Reform. In consequence, however, of the 
 unsettled state of public affairs, arising from 
 the defeat of the Wellington Administration, 
 and the non-appointment of another Ministry, 
 he postponed this proposition to another day ; 
 but before the time appointed for its coming on, 
 he was made Lord Chancellor^ and took his seat 
 in that capacity in the House of Lords, on the 
 22d of November, 1830, on which day he was 
 created a Peer of Great Britain, by the title of 
 Baron Brougham and Vaux, of Brougham, in 
 the County of Westmoreland. This appoint- 
 ment gave great satisfaction throughout the 
 
42 MEMOIR. 
 
 country generally, though an absurd attempt 
 was made by a faction, in the House of Com- 
 mons, to represent his acceptance of office as 
 an abandonment of principle, and a sacrifice 
 of the interests of his constituents ; but the en- 
 thusiastic applause with which he was greeted, 
 when he shortly afterwards paid a visit to York, 
 demonstrated that the Freeholders of that 
 County concurred with his Lordship, in con- 
 sidering that his accession to power, ** far 
 '* from disabling him to discharge his duty to 
 ** his country — far from rendering his services 
 *' less efficient, but enlarged the sphere of his 
 ** utility, and held out the gratifying prospect, 
 ** that in serving his King, he should, at the 
 *' same time, be better able to serve his 
 '* country." 
 
 In the House of Lords, he introduced a Bill 
 for the establishment of Local Courts, similar 
 to that brought into the Commons in the pre- 
 ceding Session. He also introduced three 
 Bills for regulating the Court of Chancery, and 
 a Bill for establishing a Court of Bankruptcy ; 
 none of these, however, were passed, on account 
 of the dissolution; but the latter became a 
 
MEMOIK. 43 
 
 Law in the next Parliament, in which, on the 
 28th of September, 1831, he brought in a Bill 
 for the more expeditious administration of jus- 
 tice in the Court of Chancery ; the prorogation, 
 however, prevented this Bill from being pro- 
 ceeded with. On the 7th of October, he sup- 
 ported the second reading of the Reform Bill, 
 in a Speech of unrivalled brilliancy and force. 
 
 To enter into an examination of his Lordship's 
 performances of the varied duties attached to 
 the high and honourable situation which he 
 now fills, would be foreign to the purpose of 
 the present Memoir ; but we cannot help allud- 
 ing to his indefatigable labour in the business 
 of the Court of Chancery. In the last year, 
 he concluded his sittings on the 1st of Sep- 
 tember, having sat but two days longer than 
 Lord Eldon ; but by devoting more hours each 
 day to the business of his Court, he was ena- 
 bled, in the course of a few months, to decide 
 no less than 120 Appeals ; and instead of leav- 
 ing, as his predecessor had done, a large arrear 
 of causes, he had the gratification of saying, 
 that he had not left a single appeal unheard, 
 nor one petition unanswered. His beneficial 
 
44 MEMOIR. 
 
 exertions in this respect, together with his con- 
 stant regard to literary merit, in disposing of 
 the church and other preferment in his gift, 
 cannot excite too much admiration. 
 
 Lord Brougham is, beyond all doubt, a most 
 consummate master of every branch of oratory ; 
 but the distinguishing characteristic of his elo- 
 quence, is its great energy and irresistible 
 strength. His generous and noble sentiments, 
 his copious and nervous diction, the aptitude of 
 his illustrations, the earnest solemnity and 
 occasional vehemence of his manner, his bold 
 and dauntless bearing, the bitterness of his 
 irony, and the fierceness of his invective, pro- 
 duce the most powerful effects on the passions 
 of his auditors : his voice, without being particu- 
 larly loud, is surprisingly clear ; his enunciation, 
 though rapid, is distinct; and he expresses 
 himself with extraordinary fluency, and a total 
 absence of every thing in the least resembling 
 hesitation. We believe there are but few, even 
 of his most virulent political admirers, who will 
 not allow his conduct, as a Statesman, to have 
 been uniformly open, straight forward, and con- 
 sistent. His sentiments are liberal, and his 
 
MEMOIR. 45 
 
 views enlarged : he has ever proved himself the 
 foe of tyranny, corruption, injustice, and into- 
 lerance; the advocate of the oppressed, the 
 friend of humanity^ and the intrepid defender 
 of popular rights : his exertions to increase the 
 commercial prosperity of the country, to reform 
 and improve its institutions, and to diffuse the 
 advantages of education amongst all classes of 
 the community, have justly endeared him to 
 his fellow countrymen. Though esteeming war 
 as the great obstacle to the improvement of 
 mankind, yet has he never evinced the slightest 
 disposition to purchase the incalculable advan- 
 tages of peace at the cost of the honour and 
 dignity of the nation : and to him may we truly 
 apply the praise bestowed by Burke on an 
 eminent and enlightened Statesman of the last 
 century : *' In opposition, he respected the prin- 
 *' ciples of government; in administration, he 
 '' has provided for the liberties of the people, 
 ^* and employed his moments of power in realis- 
 ** ing every thing he professed in a popular 
 " situation." His intimate acquaintance with 
 the principles and history of our constitution 
 and legal polity, and his extensive knowledge 
 of the laws of other nations, entitle Lord 
 
40 MEMOIR. 
 
 Brougham, in our opinion, to no secondary 
 rank amongst lawyers : and although, perchance, 
 he may be excelled by some few members 
 of his profession, in knowledge of technicalities, 
 and details of practice, yet, if any deficiency in 
 this respect exist, it is, we conceive, more than 
 compensated for by his unceasing exertions 
 both in his legislative and judicial character, 
 to secure the great end and object of all our 
 legal institutions — the pure, and prompt, and 
 cheap, administration of justice. 
 
 We should, however, form but an imperfect 
 estimate of his Lordship's great talents, did we 
 consider him only as an orator, a statesman, or a 
 lawyer, or even as uniting, in his own person, 
 the highest excellencies of all those characters : 
 we must remember his varied and almost uni- 
 versal knowledge both of books and of the 
 worlds his extensive scientific acquirements, his 
 refined literary taste ; and, to become perfectly 
 acquainted with his distinguished merits, we 
 must not consider his prodigious talents and 
 surprising industry apart from the great ends 
 and noble objects to which they have been 
 directed : we must not forget that his wit, his 
 
MEMOIR. 47 
 
 eloquence^ and his knowledge, have ever been 
 devoted to the grand design of dispelling the 
 evils of misgovernment, bigotry, and ignorance, 
 enlightening the minds, adding to the happiness, 
 and improving, in every possible v^^ay, the moral 
 and political condition of mankind. 
 
 Those w^ho have had the honour of being 
 personally acquainted with his Lordship, re- 
 present him as a truly amiable man, a kind 
 and sincere friend, an agreeable companion, and 
 as discharging all his domestic duties in the most 
 exemplary and admirable manner. Lord Broug- 
 ham married, in 1819, Mary Anne, eldest 
 daughter of Thomas Eden, Esq. (brother of 
 Lords Auckland and Henley,) and relict of 
 John Spalding, Esq., by whom he has had two 
 daughters, viz. Sarah Eleanor, who died very 
 young ; and Eleanor Louisa, who is now in her 
 tenth year : in default of male issue, the title 
 will expire on his Lordship's death. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 48* 
 
 POSTSCRIPT 
 
 Since the foregoing Memoir was put to press, 
 events have occurred of which it is necessary 
 to make some mention in the present work, 
 although they are as yet fresh in the memory 
 of every one. 
 
 His Majesty's Ministers having, on the 7th of 
 May, been left in a minority on a division in 
 the Lords' Committee on the Reform Bill, Earl 
 Grey and Lord Brougham waited on the King, 
 and advised the creation of a sufficient number 
 of Peers to ensure the success of that great 
 National Measure : His Majesty declining to act 
 on this advice, the Cabinet felt it necessary to 
 tender their resignations, which were afterwards 
 accepted ; and on Saturday, the 12th of May, 
 Lord Brougham took leave of the Chancery 
 
49* POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Bar. After informing them that he should leave 
 no cause undecided, and a very trifling arrear in 
 the business of the Court, his Lordship dwelt 
 briefly on the improvements he had contem- 
 plated in our Equitable Judicature, and the 
 beneficial results they were likely to have pro- 
 duced. He then, in a very impressive manner, 
 and under considerable emotion, concluded in 
 these words. ** Upon quitting this Court, I 
 should, in ordinary circumstances, feel nothing 
 but the pain of parting with those to whom my 
 kind and respectful thanks are so justly due, 
 for the unvaried respect and kindness which I 
 have experienced from them. But, in my volun- 
 tary retirement from hence, which is only 
 painful as it causes this separation, I am sup- 
 ported by the principles which have directed 
 the course I pursue. I am more than supported. 
 The personal feelings to which I have adverted, 
 are lost in those which now compel me, I trust, 
 without any undue sense of pride, to regard the 
 abandonment of power at the command of pub- 
 lic duty, not as misfortune, but glory." 
 
 The Duke of Wellington (to whom His Ma- 
 jesty had consigned the task of composing a 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 50* 
 
 new administration,) being, however, unable to 
 form a Cabinet, which had the slightest chance 
 of obtaining the support of the House of Com- 
 mons, or of being satisfactory to the country at 
 large ; a communication was, in the beginning 
 of the following week, made by the King to Earl 
 Grey, which, (as it rendered the success of the 
 Reform Bill no longer doubtful,) induced that 
 Nobleman and his Colleagues to remain in 
 office, to the great joy of the whole nation, which 
 had, by his Lordship's resignation, been plunged 
 into a state of excitement altogether unpa- 
 ralleled in the history of this country. 
 
 In consequence of the above arrangement, 
 Lord Brougham has resumed his seat on the 
 Woolsack under circumstances which have, if 
 possible, augmented the respect and esteem 
 with which he is so universally regarded, his 
 contemplated retirement having afforded an 
 additional proof of his unbending integrity, and 
 ardent devotion to the cause of the people. 
 
 It is said, that when the Cabinet tendered 
 their resignations to the King, His Majesty en- 
 deavoured to detach Lord Brougham from his Col- 
 
51* POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 leagues by intimating his desire that his Lord- 
 ship should continue to hold the Great Seal. 
 This was, in all probability, designed as a com- 
 pliment; though we cannot but think the King 
 must have been strangely ignorant of his Lord- 
 ship's character, if he supposed that office and 
 power had sufficient charms to induce him to 
 consent to an abandonment of principle, which 
 must at once, and for ever, have sullied the high 
 renown acquired by his noble exertions in the 
 cause of liberty. 
 
 June lit, 1832. 
 
SPEECHES, 
 
 Sfc. 8rc. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, 
 
 JUNE 15th, 1810, 
 
 It is now three years since this abominable 
 traffic has ceased to be sanctioned by the law 
 of the land ; and, I thank God, I may therefore 
 now indulge in expressing feelings towards it, 
 which delicacy, rather to the law than the traf- 
 fic, might, before that period, have rendered it 
 proper to suppress. After a long and most 
 unaccountable silence of the law on this head 
 which seemed to protect, by permitting, or at 
 least by not prohibiting the traffic, it has now 
 spoken out, and the veil which it had appeared 
 to interpose being now withdrawn, it is fit to 
 let our indignation fall on those who still dare 
 
50 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 to trade in human flesh, not merely for the frauds 
 of common smugglers, but for engaging in 
 crimes of the deepest die ; in crimes always 
 most iniquitous, even when not illegal; but 
 which are now as contrary to law as they have 
 ever been to honesty and justice. I must pro- 
 test loudly against the abuse of language, 
 which allows such men to call themselves tra- 
 ders or merchants. It is not commerce, but 
 crime, that they are driving. I too well know, 
 and too highly respect, that most honourable 
 and useful pursuit, that commerce, whose pro- 
 vince it is to humanize and pacify the world — 
 so alien in its nature to violence and fraud — so 
 formed to flourish in peace and in honesty — so 
 inseparably connected with freedom, and 
 goodwill, and fair dealing, I deem too highly 
 of it to endure that its name should, by a 
 strange perversion, be prostituted to the use of 
 men who live by treachery, rapine, torture, and 
 murder! and are habitually practising the worst 
 of crimes, for the basest of purposes — when I 
 said murder, I spoke literally and advisedly. 
 I meant to use no figurative phrase ; and I know 
 I was guilty of no exaggeration. I was speak- 
 ing of the worst form of that crime. For ordi- 
 nary murders there may even be some excuse. 
 Revenge may have arisen from the excess of 
 feelings honourable in themselves. A murder 
 
SLAVE TRADE. 51 
 
 of hatred, or cruelty, or mere blood-thirstiness, 
 can only be imputed to a deprivation of reason. 
 But here we have to do with cool, deliberate, 
 mercenary murder ; nay v^orse than this ; for 
 the ruffians who go on the highway, or the 
 pirates who infest the seas, at least expose their 
 persons ; and, by their courage, throw a kind of 
 false glare over their crimes. But these 
 wretches durst not do this ; they employ others 
 as base as themselves, only that they are less 
 cowardly; they set on men to rob and kill, in 
 whose spoils they are willing to share, though 
 not in their dangers. — Traders, or merchants, 
 do they presume to call themselves! and in 
 cities like London and Liverpool, the very crea- 
 tions of honest trade? I, at length, will give 
 them the right name, and call them cowardly 
 suborners of piracy and mercenary murder. 
 
 What has the Divine Legislator said on this 
 subject? There is a most false and unfounded 
 notion, that the sacred writings are silent upon 
 it; I shall prove the contrary. "Whosoever" 
 (says the scripture) *' stealeth a man, and sell- 
 ** eth him, or in whose hands he shall be found, 
 *' shall surely be put to death." And what is 
 our gloss or application on this divine text? 
 
 e2 
 
52 SLAVE TRADE. 
 
 " Whosoever" (says the English law) ** stealeth 
 *' a man, and tortureth him, and killeth him, or 
 ** selleth him into slavery for all the days of 
 " his life, shall surely — pay twenty pounds."-— 
 I trust that this grievous incongruity will at 
 length be done away. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH, 
 
 IN 
 
 DEFENCE OF JOHN DRAKARD, 
 
 TRIED FOR 
 
 A SEDITIOUS LIBEL, 
 
 AT 
 
 THE LINCOLNSHIRE ASSIZES, 
 MARCH Uth, 1811. 
 
 I INTREAT you to reflect on the publication 
 which is charged in the indictment with being 
 libellous ; and which has been commented upon 
 by the Gentleman opposite me ;* and I beg you 
 to recal to mind the comments he has made upon 
 it. He has told you it has a tendency, and 
 must have been published with an intention, to 
 excite mutiny and disaffection in our army, by 
 drawing a contrast, unfavourable to our ser- 
 vice, when compared with the French ; and 
 that it will induce the soldiers to join the 
 standard of France, and to rebel against their 
 officers ; and, lastly, that it will prevent per- 
 sons from entering into the service. Can Sir 
 Robert Wilson, Gentlemen, can General Stewart, 
 
 * Mr. N. G. Clarke, Counsel for the prosecution. 
 e3 
 
54 TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 
 
 or can the gallant veteran officer, whose very 
 expressions the writer has used — by any stretch 
 of fancy, be conceived to have been actuated by 
 such intentions ? Were they such madmen, 
 as to have desired to alienate their men from 
 their officers, and to disincline others from 
 entering into the army of which they were com- 
 manders, and to which they were the firmest 
 friends ; to disincline men towards the defence 
 of their own country, and lead them to wish for 
 a foreign and a French yoke ? Can you stretch 
 your fancy to the thought of imputing to them 
 such motives as these ? You see the opinions 
 they have given to the world. With what 
 arguments, and with what glowing — I will even 
 say violent — language they have expressed 
 themselves. And shall it be said that this 
 Defendant, who uses language not so strong, 
 has published a work which has that fatal ten- 
 dency, or that he was actuated by so infernal 
 an intention? An intention which in these 
 officers would argue downright madness — but 
 an intention which, in the author of this publi- 
 cation, would show him fit only for the society 
 of demons ! Unless you are convinced, not 
 only that what is innocent at Westminster is 
 libellous here — but that what is commendable 
 in these officers is diabolical in the Defendant— 
 you cannot sentence him to a dungeon for doing 
 
TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 55 
 
 that which has obtained the favour of the 
 Sovereign, and the gratitude of the country for 
 those distinguished men. 
 
 I have heard so much about invidious topics, 
 about dangerous subjects of discussion ; I have 
 seen so much twisting of expression to give 
 them a tendency to produce disaffection, and I 
 know not what besides, in the people of this 
 country — that I am utterly at a loss to conceive 
 any one subject — whether it be relative to mili- 
 tary discipline, or to civil polity — that is not 
 liable to the same objection. I will put my de- 
 fence on this ground. If any one of those 
 subjects which are commonly discussed in this 
 country, and particularly of those relative to 
 the army, can be handled in a way to pre- 
 vent expressions from being twisted by inge- 
 nuity, or conceived by some to have a tendency 
 to produce discontent — if any mode of treat- 
 ing such subjects can be pointed out to me, 
 in which we shall be safe, allowing the argu- 
 ment of my learned friend to be just, I will 
 give up this case, and confess that the inten- 
 tion of the Defendant was that which is im- 
 puted to him. Is there, to take an obvious 
 instance, a subject more common-place than 
 that of the miserable defect which now exists 
 in the Commissariat of our army ? I only select 
 
 £ 4 
 
56 TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 
 
 this, because it comes first to my thoughts. 
 Has it not always happened that in the unfor- 
 tunate necessity of a retreat, all mouths have 
 resounded with the ill conduct of the Commis- 
 sariat ? Has it not been said, in the hearing of 
 the army and of the country, that the distresses 
 of our troops on a retreat were increased by 
 their want of food, occasioned by the inade- 
 quacy of our Commissariat ? But we have not 
 only been in the habit of blaming particular 
 instances of neglect — we have also taken upon 
 ourselves to blame the system itself. Nay, we 
 have gone further, we have placed our Com- 
 missariat in comparison with that of France, 
 and we have openly and loudly given the pre- 
 ference to the enemy. And why may not the 
 Defendant do the same with reference to another 
 point of military discipline ? Can you fancy a 
 subject more dangerous, or which is more likely 
 to occasion rebellion, than that of provision, if 
 you tell the soldier that, through the neglect of 
 his Government, he runs the risk of being 
 starved, while in the same breath you add that 
 Buonaparte's troops are well supplied, through 
 the attention which he pays to this most im- 
 portant branch of a General's duty ? Yet, Gen- 
 tlemen, no one has ever been censured — nor 
 has it been said that it was his intention to ex- 
 cite confusion — because he has condemned that 
 
TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 57 
 
 part of our military system which relates to pro- 
 viding the soldiers with food. 
 
 In truth, we must submit to these discussions, 
 if we would have any discussion at all. Strong 
 expressions may, indeed, be pointed out here 
 and there in a publication on such topics, and 
 one may be more strong than another. When he 
 is heated, a man will express himself strongly. 
 And am I to be told, that, in discussing a sub- 
 ject which interests all men, no man is to ex- 
 press himself with force ? Is it the inflamma- 
 tory tendency of this publication, or is it, in 
 one word, the eloquence with which the writer 
 has treated his discussion, that has excited the 
 present prosecution ? If he had treated his 
 subject dully, coldly, stupidly, he might have 
 gone on to the end of time; he would never have 
 heard a breath of censure, seen a line of in- 
 formation, or produced an atom of effect. If 
 warmth is not to be pardoned in discussing 
 such topics, to what are the feelings of men to 
 be confined ? 
 
 I shall, perhaps, hear — confine yourself to 
 such subjects as do not affect the feelings — to 
 matters that are alike indiff'erent to all men — go 
 to arithmetic — take abstract points of law — 
 '* tear passion to tatters" upon questions in 
 
58 TRIAL OF DRAKAED. 
 
 addition and subtraction — ^be as warm as you 
 please on special pleading — there is a time suf- 
 ficient for the workings of the heart — but be- 
 ware of what interests all mankind, more espe- 
 cially your own countrymen ; touch not the fate 
 and fortune of the British Army. Beware of 
 those subjects which concern the men who 
 advance but to cover themselves with victory, 
 and who retire but to gain yet greater fame by 
 their patient endurance ; men who then re- 
 turn to their homes, covered with laurels, to re- 
 ceive the punishment of the lash, which you in- 
 flict on the meanest and most unnatural of 
 malefactors ! Let us hear nothing of the 
 ** charnel houses" of the West Indies, as Sir 
 Robert Wilson calls them, that yawn to receive 
 the conquerors of Corunna ! Beware of touch- 
 ing on these points ; beware of every thing that 
 would animate every heart ; that would make 
 the very stones re-echo your sound, and awaken 
 stocks to listen to you. You must not treat 
 such subjects at all, or else you must do it 
 coolly, allowing yourselves to glow by some 
 scale, of which my learned friend is no doubt 
 in possession ; you must keep to a line, which 
 is so fine, that no eye but his can perceive it. 
 
 This may not be — this must not be ! While 
 we continue to live in England it may not be — 
 
TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 59 
 
 while we remain unsubdued by that egregious 
 tyrant, who persecutes all freedom with a ran- 
 cour, which only oppressors can know — that 
 tyrant, against whom the distinguished officers, 
 whose works I have quoted, have waged a noble 
 and an efficient resistance — and against whom 
 this Defendant, in his humbler sphere, has been 
 zealous in his opposition : — that tyrant, whose 
 last and most highly prized victory is, that 
 which he has gained over the liberty of discus- 
 sion. Yet, Gentlemen, while that tyrant en- 
 slaves his own subjects, and turns them loose 
 to enslave others, no man under his sway dare 
 attempt to do more than calmly and tempe- 
 rately to discuss his measures. Writers in his 
 dominions must guage their productions, ac- 
 cording to the standard established by my 
 learned friend — they must measure their ar- 
 gument according to his rule — and regulate the 
 warmth of their language to a certain defined 
 temperature. When they treat of the tyrant's 
 ambitious and oppressive policy — when they 
 treat of the rigours of his military conscription, 
 they must keep to the line which has been this 
 day marked out in this Court. Should they go 
 beyond that line — should they engage in their 
 subject with an honest zeal, and treat it with a 
 force likely to gain conviction — that is to say, 
 should they treat it after the manner of the 
 
60 TRIAL OF DIIAKARD. 
 
 writer of this composition which is now before 
 you — they may lay their account with being 
 dragged forth to be shot without a trial, like 
 the unhappy bookseller of Nuremberg, or with 
 being led in mockery to a Court ; and, after the 
 forms of a judical investigation are gone through, 
 consigned by the decision of the Judges to years 
 of imprisonment. 
 
 And yet, Gentlemen, there is some excuse 
 for Buonaparte, when he acts in this manner. 
 His government, as he well- knows, is bot- 
 tomed in injustice and cruelty. If you search 
 and lay bare its foundation, you must neces- 
 sarily shake it to its centre — its safety consists 
 in silence and obscurity ! Above all, is it es- 
 sential to its power, that the cruelty of his mili- 
 tary system should not be attacked, for on it 
 does he rest his greatness ? The writer, there- 
 fore, who should treat, in a nervous style, of the 
 rigour of his conscription, could expect nothing 
 but severe punishment. 
 
 But happily. Gentlemen, things in this 
 country are a little different. Our constitution 
 is bottomed in law and in justice, and in the 
 great and deep foundation of universal liberty ! 
 It may, therefore, claim inquiry. Our establish- 
 ments thrive in open day — they even thrive, 
 
TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 61 
 
 surrounded and assailed by the clamour of 
 faction. Our rulers may continue to discharge 
 their several duties, and to regulate the affairs 
 of the State, while their ears are dinned with 
 tumult. They have nothing to fear from the 
 inquiries of men. Let the public discuss, so 
 much the better. Even uproar. Gentlemen, is 
 wholesome in England, while a whisper is fatal 
 in France ! 
 
 But you must take it with you, in deciding 
 on the merits of this publication, that it is not 
 upon our military system that the Defendant 
 has passed his reflections — it is not our military 
 system that he condemns. His exertions are 
 directed to remove a single flaw which exists 
 on the surface of that system — a speck of rot- 
 tenness which mars its beauty, and is destruc- 
 tive of its strength. Our military system he 
 admires in common with us all; he animadverts 
 upon a taint and not upon its essence — upon a 
 blot which disfigures it, and not upon a part of 
 its structure. He wishes you to remove an 
 excrescence, which may be pulled away without 
 loosening the foundation, and the rest will ap- 
 pear the fairer, and remain so much sounder 
 and safe. 
 
 You are now, Gentlemen, to say, by your 
 
62 TRIAL OF DRAKARD. 
 
 verdict, whether the mere reading of this pub- 
 lication — taking all its parts together— not cast- 
 ing aside its limitations and qualifications — 
 but taking it as it appears in this paper — you 
 are now to say, whether the mere perusal of it 
 in this shape, is likely to produce those effects 
 which have been described by the counsel for 
 the prosecution — effects which have never yet 
 been produced by the infliction of the punish- 
 ment itself. This consideration. Gentlemen, 
 seems to deserve your very particular attention. 
 If you can say aye to this, you will then bring 
 your verdict against the Defendant — and not 
 only against him, but against me, his Advocate, 
 who have spoken to you much more freely than 
 he has done — and against those gallant officers 
 who have so ably condemned the practice which 
 he condemns — and against the country which 
 loudly demands an attention to its best interests 
 — and against the stability of the British Con- 
 stitution. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 JUNE 16th, 1812. 
 
 Never did we stand so high since we were a 
 nation, in point of military character. We have 
 it in abundance^ and even to spare. This un- 
 happy and seemingly interminable war, lavish 
 as it has been in treasure, still more profuse 
 of blood, and barren of real advantage^ has at 
 least been equally lavish of glory; its feats have 
 not merely sustained the warlike fame of the na- 
 tion, which would have been much ; they have 
 done what seemed barely possible ; they have 
 greatly exalted it ; they have covered our arms 
 with immortal renown. Then, I say, use this 
 glory, use this proud height on which we now 
 stand, for the purpose of peace and conciliation 
 with America. Let this and its incalculable 
 benefits be the advantage which we reap from 
 the war in Europe ; for the fame of that war 
 
64 ORDERS IN COUNCIL. 
 
 enables us safely to take it ; — and who, I de- 
 mand, give the most disgraceful counsels — they 
 who tell you we are in military character but 
 of yesterday — we have yet a name to win — we 
 stand on doubtful ground — we dare not do as 
 we list, for fear of being thought afraid — we 
 cannot, without loss of name, stoop to pacify 
 our American kinsmen. — Or I, who say we are 
 a great, a proud, a warlike people — we have 
 fought every where, and conquered wherever 
 we fought — our character is eternally fixed — it 
 stands too firm to be shaken — and on the faith 
 of it we may do towards America, safely for our 
 honour^ that which we know our interests re- 
 quire! This perpetual jealousy of America! 
 Good God ! I cannot with temper ask on what 
 it rests ! It drives me to a passion to think of 
 it. Jealousy of America ! I should as soon 
 think of being jealous of the tradesmen who 
 supply me with necessaries, or the clients who 
 entrust their suits to my patronage. Jealousy 
 of America ! whose armies are yet at the plough, 
 or making, since your policy has willed it so, 
 awkward (though . improving) attempts at the 
 loom — whose assembled navies could not lay 
 siege to an English sloop of war : jealousy of a 
 power which is necessarily peaceful as well as 
 weak, but which, if it had all the ambition of 
 France and her armies to back it, and all the 
 
ORDERS IX COUNCIL. G5 
 
 navy of England to boot; nay, had it the lust 
 of conquest which marks your enemy, and your 
 own armies, as well as navies, to gratify it, is 
 placed at so vast a distance as to be perfectly 
 harmless ! And this is the nation, of which, for 
 our honour's sake, we are desired to cherish a 
 perpetual jealousy, for the ruin of our best 
 interests ! 
 
 I trust that no such phantom of the brain 
 will scare us from the path of our duty. The 
 advice which I tender is not the same which 
 has at all times been offered to this country. 
 There is one memorable aera in our history, 
 when other uses were made of our triumphs 
 from those which I recommend. By the Treaty 
 of Utrecht, which the execrations of ages have 
 left inadequately censured, we were content to 
 obtain, as the whole price of Ramilies and Blen- 
 heim, an additional share of the accursed Slave 
 Trade. I give you other counsels. I would 
 have you employ the glory which you have won 
 at Talavera and Corunna, in restoring your 
 commerce to its lawful, open, honest course ; 
 and rescue it from the mean and hateful chan- 
 nels in which it has lately been confined. And 
 if any thoughtless boaster in America, or else- 
 where, should vaunt, that you had yielded 
 
 p 
 
66 ORDERS IX COUNCIL. 
 
 through fear, I would not bid him wait until 
 some new achievement of our arms put him to 
 silence, but I would counsel you in silence to 
 disregard him. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE POOR, 
 
 MAY StK 1818. 
 
 It is impossible for me to close these remarks 
 without expressing the extraordinary gratifica- 
 tion which I feel, in observing how amply the 
 poor of this country have, in all ages, been en- 
 dowed by the pious munificence of individuals. 
 It is with unspeakable delight that I contem- 
 plate the rich gifts that have been bestowed — 
 the honest zeal displayed, by private persons, 
 for the benefit of their fellow creatures. When 
 we inquire from whence proceeded those mag- 
 nificent endowments, we generally find that it 
 is not from the public policy, nor the bounty of 
 those, who, in their day, possessing princely 
 revenues, were anxious to devote a portion of 
 them for the benefit of mankind — not from 
 those, who, having amassed vast fortunes by 
 public employment, were desirous to repay, in 
 
 F 2 
 
G8 EDUCATION 
 
 charity, a little of what they had thus levied 
 upon the State. It is far more frequently some 
 obscure personage — some tradesman of humble 
 birth — who, grateful for the education which 
 had enabled him to acquire his wealth through 
 honest industry, turned a portion of it from the 
 claims of nearer connexions, to enable other 
 helpless creatures, in circumstances like his 
 own, to meet the struggles he himself has under- 
 gone. In the history of this country, public or 
 domestic, I know of no feature more touching 
 than this, unless, perhaps, it be the yet more 
 affecting sight of those, who, every day, before 
 our eyes, are seen devoting their fortunes, their 
 time, their labour, their health, to offices of 
 benevolence and mercy. How many persons 
 do I myself know, to whom it is only necessary 
 to say — there are men without employment 
 — children uneducated — sufferers in prison — 
 victims of disease — wretches pining in want — 
 and straightway they will abandon all other 
 pursuits, as if they themselves had not large 
 families to provide for; and toil for days, and for 
 nights, stolen from their own most necessary 
 avocations, to feed the hungry, clothe the 
 naked, and shed upon the children of the poor 
 that inestimable blessing of education, which 
 alone gave themselves the wish, and the power 
 to relieve their fellow men ! I survey this pic- 
 
OF THE POOR. 69 
 
 ture with inexpressible pleasure, and the rather 
 because it is a glory peculiar to England. She 
 has the more cause to be proud of it, that it is 
 the legitimate fruit of her free Constitution. 
 Where tyrants bear sway, palaces may arise to 
 lodge the poor ; and hospitals may be the most 
 magnificent oraments of the seat of power. 
 But, though fair to the eye, and useful to some 
 classes, their foundations are laid in the suffer- 
 ings of others. They are supported, not by 
 private beneficence, which renders a pleasure to 
 the giver, as well as a comfort to him who re- 
 ceives ; but by the hard won earnings of the 
 poor, wrung from their wants, and, frequently, 
 by the preposterous imposts laid upon their 
 vices. While the rulers of any people withhold 
 from them the enjoyment of their most sacred 
 rights — a voice in the management of their own 
 affairs, they must continue strangers to those 
 noble sentiments — that honest elevation of pur- 
 pose, which distinguishes freemen^ teaches them 
 to look beyond the sphere of personal interest, 
 makes their hearts beat high, and stretches out 
 their arms for the glory and the advantage of 
 their country. There is no more degrading 
 effect of despotism, than that it limits the 
 charitable feelings of our nature, rendering men 
 suspicious and selfish, and forgetful that they 
 have a country. Happily for England, she has 
 
 f3 
 
70 EDUCATION. 
 
 still a people capable of higher things ; but I 
 have been led away from my purpose, which 
 was only to express my admiration of those 
 humane individuals^ whose conduct I have so 
 long witnessed — of whom, if I have spoken very 
 warmly — it is because I feel much more for 
 them than I can describe — and whose deserts 
 are, indeed, far, far above any praise that lan- 
 guage can bestow. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 CASTLE YARD, AT APPLEBY, 
 
 A.T THE CONCLUSION OF 
 
 THE WESTMORELAND ELECTION, 
 
 JULY 3d, 1818. 
 
 The result of this day's contest has filled differ- 
 ent persons with opposite feelings. Good men, 
 who see, in the state of the poll, the cause of 
 independence defeated; and the usurpation of 
 your rights perpetuated ; mourn over it. Wicked 
 men see in it the disunion of the county pro- 
 longed ; and please the malignity of their nature 
 with a long prospect of struggle, and distur- 
 bance. The minions of corruption shout at the 
 temporary failure, as a respite given to that 
 system by which they are upheld, and in which 
 they riot and fatten. Wise men, alone, see the 
 result in its proper light ; as a great blow given 
 to oppression, and as a foretaste of certain vic- 
 tory, which nothing but imprudence can frus- 
 trate; and which firmness and perseverance 
 must ultimately ensure. There are some weak 
 
 F 4 
 
72 WESTMORELAND ELECTION. 
 
 r intellects, who, instead of looking at the justice 
 of a cause, suffer themselves to be carried away 
 by the event, and these men may despond ; but 
 men of wisdom regard its merits more than its 
 temporary success — they resolve to exert them- 
 selves for it with confidence in the issue — they ask 
 only, does it deserve to succeed ; and then leave 
 the event to Providence, looking for the reward 
 j of their exertions in their own breasts, and care- 
 l less of what passes without. The short sight- 
 ed and fickle men, who are the sport of events, 
 unable to bear good fortune with moderation, 
 ^ cannot support adversity with firmness, but are 
 as timid and dejected by the one, as they are 
 domineering and insolent in the other. While 
 the sky was overcast, while the day was in sus- 
 pense, while the danger existed, they durst not 
 declare themselves — they sailed under false 
 ensigns — they were afraid to show their colours 
 — they hid themselves in holes and corners, 
 and you might be in the presence of a multitude 
 of them, without being able to see, hear, or feel 
 them ; while they shrunk from observation ; 
 conscious that they were not respected, and 
 that they ought to be despised ; but when the 
 storm was over, when they saw that the danger 
 was passed, and that their safety was secured; 
 then they came forth as has been seen to day 
 from their hiding places, like swarms of despi- 
 
WESTMORELAND ELECTION. 73 
 
 cable vermin ; scattering about their filth, and 
 slime ; and the face of the earth was, I cannot 
 say peopled, but bespattered with the venom- 
 ous reptiles. Then their cowardly voices were 
 raised, to utter the cry of short-sighted inso- 
 lence, and to hail not a final triumph, but a 
 short respite from the fate that awaits them. 
 Such a cry, it is the duty of you, the independ- 
 ent Freeholders, to despise, like the croaking 
 of a reptile — to despise them as they deserve to 
 be despised, and as they despise themselves: 
 but you ought to go one step further — these 
 reptiles are contemptible ; but you should bear 
 in mind, that they are likewise noxious, and 
 steps should be taken, which, in any future 
 struggle, must secure the independence of the 
 county against their efforts. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY, 
 
 UPON 
 
 THE ABUSE OF CHARITIES. 
 
 8vo. 1818. 
 
 I TAKE it to be a principle which will admit 
 of no contradiction, that the existence of any 
 permanent fund for the support of the poor — the 
 appropriation of any revenue, however raised, 
 which must peremptorily be expended in main- 
 taining such, as have no other means of sub- 
 sistence — has, upon the whole, a direct tendency 
 to increase their numbers. It produces this 
 effect in two ways — by discouraging industry, 
 foresight, economy — and by encouraging impro- 
 vident marriages; nor is the former operation 
 more certain than the latter. It is equally clear 
 that this increase will always exceed the pro- 
 portion which the revenues in question can 
 maintain.* To the class of funds directly pro- 
 
 * ** Languescet industria, intendetur socordia, si nullusex 
 *' se metus aut spes, et securi omnes aliena subsidia expec- 
 " tabunt, sibi ignavi, nobis graves."— Tacit. 
 
CHARITIES. 75 
 
 ductive of paupers, belong all revenues of alms 
 houses, hospitals, and schools, where children 
 are supported, as well as educated ; all yearly 
 sums to be given away to mendicants, or poor 
 families; regular donations of religious houses 
 in Catholic countries ; the portion of the tythes 
 in this country which went to maintain the poor 
 before the statutory provision was made ; and, 
 finally, and above all, that provision itself.* 
 But charitable funds will prove harmless, (and 
 may be, moreover, beneficial), exactly in propor- 
 tion as their application is limited to combi- 
 nations of circumstances out of the ordinary 
 course of calculation, and not likely to be taken 
 into account by the labouring classes, in the 
 estimate which they form of their future means 
 of gaining a livelihood. Thus, they may safely 
 be appropriated to the support of persons dis- 
 abled from working, by accident, or incurable 
 malady, as the blind and the maimed ; and we 
 may even extend the rule to hospitals generally, 
 for the cure of diseases ; nor can orphan hos- 
 pitals be excepted, upon the whole ; for al- 
 though, certainly^ the dread of leaving a family 
 
 * The Poor Rates come clearly within this description as 
 now raised and applied ; for though they do not exist pre- 
 viously to the demand on the part of the persons claiming 
 relief, the mode of calling them into existence, and the right 
 to do so, is known, and that has the same effect. 
 
76 CHARITIES. 
 
 in want, is one check to improvident marriages ; 
 yet the loss of both parents is not an event 
 likely to be contemplated. In like manner, 
 although the existence of a certain provision for 
 old age, independent of individual saving, comes 
 within the description of the mischief; it is, 
 nevertheless, far less detrimental than the exist- 
 ence of an equal fund, for maintaining young 
 persons, and, more especially, for supporting 
 children. Keeping these remarks in our view, 
 let us add to them the consideration, that, as 
 the Poor Laws have been administered, the 
 character of the labouring classes has suffered 
 a material injury, from which it ought by all 
 means to be restored ; and we shall come to 
 the conclusion, that the application of charitable 
 funds, to purposes of education merely, will be 
 the best means of expending them on a large 
 scale ; and that, next to this, such donations 
 are to be preferred, as directly encourage inde- 
 pendence ; for example, a provision for the old 
 age of persons who never received alms in any 
 shape ; and for defraying the first cost of erect- 
 ing Saving Banks. The employment of these 
 resources in helping industry by the supply of 
 tools, is a more doubtful application of them, 
 but far more harmless than the methods gene- 
 rally in use. Perhaps, after the uses now men- 
 tioned, no expenditure of eleemosynary revenues 
 
CHARITIES. 77 
 
 can be devised more safe^ than reserving them 
 rigorously for periods of extraordinary distress ; 
 and then bestowing them upon persons above 
 the lowest classes^ so as to prevent the ruin of 
 housholders. 
 
 I am very far, however, from asserting, that 
 any such strict limitation of the charitable 
 funds already existing ought to be attempted. 
 I only state the principle upon which the Legis- 
 lature should proceed, wherever it is justified in 
 interfering. What circumstances may authorize 
 that interference, cannot be, with any advantage 
 to the subject^ described in general terms. But 
 that no rights are in reality infringed by taking 
 a fund destined to support the poor, in a way 
 likely to increase their numbers, and using it so 
 as to perform some act of charity, without in- 
 creasing the numbers of charitable objects, 
 seems abundantly evident. No man can be 
 supposed to have desired the existence of 
 paupers; every donor assumed that, indepen- 
 dently of his bounty, there were such needy 
 persons in being, and he intended to relieve 
 them. Could he have foreseen that an altera- 
 tion in the form of his gift must reduce their 
 numbers, he would have adopted it. In like 
 manner, the poor are not, with reference to this 
 point, an existing body of persons, like the 
 
78 
 
 CHARITIES. 
 
 Church, or any other Corporation, who have 
 rights of property. They form a class into 
 which no man enters voluntarily ; and whatever 
 restricts their numbers, by diminishing poverty, 
 benefits the community. So that no violation 
 of property will be committed, by using any 
 fund given to the poor, in a manner different 
 from its original destination, provided the result 
 were infallibly to lessen their numbers, and still 
 to employ it in works of charity. We both ac- 
 curately and conveniently speak of the poor, as 
 a body having rights, when we complain of 
 those who have misapplied their property, by 
 converting it to their own use. But the class 
 of paupers cannot, with any correctness of 
 speech, be said to be defrauded by an act which 
 keeps others from entering into it. This injury 
 can only be done to persons who were mani- 
 festly never in the donor's view, persons volun- 
 tarily making themselves paupers, to take ad- 
 vantage of the gift. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 AGAINST THE SECOND READING OF 
 
 THE BILL FOR INFLICTING 
 
 PAINS AND PENALTIES 
 
 ON 
 
 QUEEN CAROLINE, 
 
 1820. 
 
 See, my Lords, the unhappy fate of this illus- 
 trious woman ! It has been her lot always to 
 lose her surest stay^ her best protector, when 
 the clangers most thickened around her ; and, 
 by a coincidence almost miraculous, there has 
 hardly been one of her defenders withdrawn 
 from her, that his loss has not been the signal of 
 an attack upon her existence. Mr. Pitt was 
 her earliest defender and friend in this country. 
 He died in 1806 ; and but a few weeks after- 
 wards, the first inquiry into the conduct of Her 
 Royal Highness began. He left her a legacy 
 to Mr. Perceval, her firm, dauntless, most able 
 advocate. And, no sooner had the hand of an 
 
80 queen's trial. 
 
 assassin laid Mr. Perceval low, than she felt the 
 calamity of his death, in the renewal of the 
 attacks which his gallantry, his skill, and his 
 invariable constancy, had discomfited. Mr. 
 Whitbread then undertook her defence ; and 
 when that catastrophe happened, which all 
 good men lament, without any distinction of 
 party or sect, again commenced the distant 
 grumbling of the storm ; for it then, happily, 
 was never allowed to approach her, because 
 her daughter stood her friend, and there were 
 who worshipped the rising sun. But, when she 
 lost that amiable and beloved daughter, all 
 which might have been expected here — all 
 which might have been dreaded by her if she 
 had not been innocent — all she did dread — be- 
 cause, who, innocent or guilty, loves persecu- 
 tion ; who delights in trial, when character and 
 honour are safe ? All was, at once, allowed 
 to burst upon her head; and the operations 
 commenced by the Milan Commission. And, 
 my Lords, as if there were no possibility of the 
 Queen losing her protector, without some most 
 important act being played in this drama 
 against her, the day which saw the venerable 
 remains of our revered Sovereign consigned to 
 the tomb — of that Sovereign, who, from the first 
 outset of the Princess in English life, had been 
 her constant and steady defender — that same 
 
queen's trial. 81 
 
 sun ushered the ringleader of the band of per- 
 jured witnesses into the palace of his illustrious 
 successor. Why, my Lords, do I mention 
 these things ? Not for the sake of making so 
 trite a remark, as that trading politicians are 
 selfish — that spite is twin-brother to ingrati- 
 tude — that nothing will bind base natures — that 
 favours conferred, and the duty of gratitude neg- 
 lected, only make those natures the more malig- 
 nant. My Lords, the topic would be trite and 
 general, and I should be ashamed to trouble 
 your Lordships with it ; but I say this once 
 more, in order to express my deep sense of the 
 unworthiness with which I now succeed such 
 powerful defenders, and my alarm, lest my 
 exertions should fail to do what theirs, had they 
 been living, must have accomplished. 
 
 Such then, my Lords, is this case. And 
 again let me call on your Lordships, even at 
 the risk of repetition, never to dismiss for a 
 moment from your minds the two great points 
 upon which I rest my attack upon the evidence ; 
 — first, that they have not proved the facts by 
 the good witnesses who were within their reach, 
 whom they have no shadow of pretext for not 
 calling; — and, secondly, that the witnesses 
 whom they have ventured to call, are every one 
 
82 queen's trial. 
 
 of them injured in their credit. How, I again 
 ask, my Lords, is a plot ever to be discovered, 
 except by the means of these two principles? 
 Nay^ there are instances in which plots have 
 been discovered, through the medium of the 
 second principle, when the first had happened 
 to fail. When venerable witnesses have been 
 seen to be brought forward — when persons 
 above all suspicion have lent themselves for a 
 season to impure plans — when nothing seemed 
 possible — when no resource for the guiltless 
 seemed open — they have almost providentially 
 escaped from the snare by the second of these 
 two principles ; by the evidence breaking down 
 where it was not expected to be sifted ; by a 
 weak point being found, where no pains from 
 not foreseeing the attack had been made to 
 support it. Your Lordships recollect that great 
 passage — I say great, for it is poetically just 
 and eloquent — in the Sacred Writings, when 
 the Elders had joined themselves, two of them 
 in a plot which had appeared to have suc- 
 ceeded, *' for that," as the Scriptures say, ** they 
 ** had hardened their hearts, and had turned 
 ** away their eyes, that they might not look at 
 ** Heaven, and that they might do the purposes 
 ** of unjust judgments." But they, though 
 giving a clear, consistent, uncontradicted story, 
 were disappointed, and their victim was rescued 
 
queen's trial. 83 
 
 from their gripe, by the trifling circumstance of 
 a contradiction about a mastich tree. Let not 
 man call those contradictions, or those false- 
 hoods which false witnesses swear to from need- 
 less falsehood, such as Sacchi, about his chang- 
 ing his name ; or such as Demont, about her 
 letters; or such as Majocchi, about the banker's 
 clerk, or such as all the others belonging to the 
 other witnesses, not going to the main body 
 of the case, but to the main body of the credit 
 of the witnesses — let not man rashly and blindly 
 call those accidents — they are dispensations of 
 that Providence, which wills not that the guilty 
 should triumph, and which favourably protects 
 the innocent. 
 
 Such, my Lords, is this case now before you ! 
 Such is the evidence in support of this measure 
 — inadequate to prove a debt — impotent to de- 
 prive of any civil right — ^ridiculous to convict of 
 the lowest offence — scandalous if brought for- 
 ward to support a charge of the highest nature 
 which the law knows — monstrous to ruin the 
 honour of an English Queen ! What shall I say^ ^ 
 then, if this is their case — if this is the species 
 of proof by which an act of judicial legislature, 
 an ex post facto law, is sought to be passed against 
 this defenceless woman ! My Lords, I pray 
 
 G 2 
 
84 queen's trial. 
 
 your Lordships to pause. You are standing on 
 the brink of a precipice. It will go forth, your 
 judgment if it goes against the Queen ; but it 
 will be the only judgment you ever will pro- 
 nounce, which will fail in its object, and return 
 upon those who give it. My Lords, from the 
 horrors of this catastrophe — save the country — 
 safe yourselves from this situation. Rescue that 
 country, of which you are the ornaments, but in 
 which you could flourish no longer when severed 
 from the people, than the blossom when cut 
 off from the root and stem of the tree — save that 
 country, that you may continue to adorn it — 
 save the Crown, which is in jeopardy — the aris- 
 tocracy, which is shaken — the altar, which 
 never more can stand secure amongst the shocks 
 that shall rend its kindred throne. You have 
 said, my Lords, you have willed — the Church 
 and the King have willed — that the Queen 
 should be deprived of its solemn service. She 
 has, indeed, instead of that solemnity, the heart- 
 felt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers 
 of mine. But I do here pour forth my suppli- 
 cations at the Throne of Mercy, that that mercy 
 may be poured down upon the people of this 
 country, in a larger measure than the merits of 
 its rulers may deserve, and that your hearts 
 may be turned to justice. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN DEFENCE OF 
 
 JOHN AMBROSE WILLIAMS, 
 
 CHARGED WITH 
 
 A LIBEL ON THE CLERGY, 
 
 AT 
 
 THE ASSIZES FOR THE COUNTY OF DURHAM, 
 AUGUST mh, 1822. 
 
 My Learned Friend* has asked if the Defend- 
 ant knows that the Church is established by 
 law ? He knows it, and so do I. The Church 
 is established by law, as the civil Government — 
 as all the institutions of the country are esta- 
 blished by law — as all the offices under the 
 Crown are established by law, and all who fill 
 them are by the law protected. It is not more 
 established, nor more protected, than those in- 
 stitutions, officers, and office bearers, each of 
 which is recognized and favoured by the law as 
 much as the Church; but I never yet have 
 heard, and I trust I never shall ; least of all do 
 
 • Mr. (now Sir James) Scarlett, Attorney General of the 
 Lord Bishop of Durham. 
 
 G 3 
 
86 
 
 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS, 
 
 I expect in the lesson which your verdict this 
 day will read^ to hear, that those officers and 
 office bearers, and all those institutions^ sacred 
 and secular, and the conduct of all, whether 
 laymen or priests, who administer them, are not 
 the fair subject of open, untrammelled, manly, 
 zealous, and even vehement discussion, as long 
 as this country pretends to liberty, and prides 
 herself on the possession of a free press. 
 
 In the publication before you, the Defendant 
 has not attempted to dispute the high character 
 of the Church ; on that establishment, or its 
 members generally, he has not endeavoured to 
 fix any stigma. Those topics, then, are foreign 
 to the present inquiry, and I have no interest in 
 discussing them ; yet, after what has fallen from 
 my Learned Friend, it is fitting that I should 
 claim for this Defendant, and for all others, the 
 right to question, freely to question, not only 
 the conduct of the Ministers of the Established 
 Church, but even the foundations of the Church 
 itself. It is, indeed, unnecessary for my present 
 purpose, because I shall demonstrate that the 
 paper before you does not touch upon those 
 points; but unnecessary though it be, as my 
 Learned Friend has defied me, I will follow him 
 to the field, and say, that if there is any one 
 of the institutions of the country which, more 
 
TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 87 
 
 emphatically than all the rest, justifies us in 
 arguing strongly, feeling powerfully^ and ex- 
 pressing our sentiments with vehemence, it is 
 that branch of the State which, because it is 
 sacred, because it bears connexion with higher 
 principles than any involved in the mere ma- 
 nagement of worldly concerns, for that very rea- 
 son, entwines itself with deeper feelings^ and 
 must needs be discussed, if discussed at all, 
 with more warmth and zeal than any other part 
 of our system is fitted to rouse. But if any 
 hierarchy in all the world is bound on every 
 principle of consistency, if any Church should 
 be forward not only to suffer but provoke dis- 
 cussion, to stand upon that title and challenge 
 the most unreserved enquiry, it is the Protes- 
 tant Church of England ; first, because she has 
 nothing to dread from it ; secondly, because she 
 is the very creature of free enquiry — the off*- 
 spring of repeated revolutions — and the most 
 reformed of the reformed Churches of Europe. 
 But, surely, if "there is any one corner of Pro- 
 testant Europe where men ought not to be rigor- 
 ously judged in Ecclesiastical controversy — 
 where a large allowance should be made for the 
 conflict of irreconcileable opinions — where the 
 harshness of jarring tenets should be patiently 
 borne, and strong, or even violent language, be 
 not too narrowly watched — it is this very realm, 
 
 g4 
 
88 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 in which we live under three different Ecclesi- 
 astical orders, and owe allegiance to a Sovereign, 
 who, in one of his kingdoms, is the head of the 
 Church, acknowledged as such by all men; 
 while, in another, neither he, nor any earthly 
 being, is allowed to assume that name — a realm 
 composed of three great divisions, in one of 
 which Prelacy is favoured by law and approved 
 in practice by an Episcopalian people ; while, in 
 another, it is protected, indeed, by law, but 
 abjured in practice by a nation of sectaries. Ca- 
 tholic and Presbyterian ; and, in a third, it is 
 abhorred alike by law and in practice, repu- 
 diated by the whole institutions, scorned and 
 detested by the whole inhabitants. 
 
 If there is any part of England in which an 
 ample licence ought more especially to be ad- 
 mitted in handling such matters, I say, without 
 hesitation, it is this very Bishopric, where, in the 
 19th 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 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; show- 
 
TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 89 
 
 ered down in a profusion somewhat overpower- 
 ing; 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 Patri- 
 mony of St. Peter — it is here where all manner 
 of conflicts are at each moment inevitable be- 
 tween 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 exist- 
 ence — to demand the most unrestrained discus- 
 sion of 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 ad- 
 ministration does every one act which he ought. 
 
90 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 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 occasion- 
 ally bethinking them of shearing, in order to 
 prevent the too luxuriant growth of the fleece 
 proving an incumbrance, or to eradicate disease. 
 If, however, those 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 disadvan- 
 tageous comparisons between the wolf without, 
 and the shepherd within the fold ? It cannot 
 be helped ; it is in the nature of things that suf- 
 fering should beget complaint; but for those 
 who have caused the pain to complain of the 
 
TRIAL OP WILLIAMS. 91 
 
 outcry and seek to punish it — ^for those who 
 have goaded to scourge and to gag, is the mean- 
 est 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 complaints against 
 abuses in the establishment and delinquency in 
 its members ; and in this prosecution they have 
 displayed that folly in its supreme degree. 
 
 ** We know not whether any actual orders 
 *' were issued to prevent this customary sign of 
 ** mourning; but the omission plainly indicates 
 ** the kind of spirit which predominates among 
 " our clergy. Yet these men profess to be fol- 
 '* lowers of Jesus Christ, to walk in his footsteps, 
 *' to teach his precepts, to inculcate his spirit, to 
 ** promote harmony, charity, and christian love! 
 " Out upon such hypocrisy!" 
 
 That you may understand the meaning of this 
 passage, it is necessary for me to set before you 
 the picture my Learned Friend was pleased to 
 draw of the Clergy of the Diocese of Durham, 
 and I shall recal it to your minds almost in his 
 own words. According to him, they stand in a 
 peculiarly unfortunate situation; they are, in 
 truth, the most injured of men. They all, it 
 
92 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 seems, entertained the same generous sentiments 
 with the rest of their countrymen, though they 
 did not express them in the old, free, English 
 manner, by openly condemning the proceedings 
 against the late Queen ; and after the course of 
 unexampled injustice against which she victo- 
 riously struggled, had been followed by the need- 
 less infliction of inhuman torture, to undermine 
 a frame whose spirit no open hostility could 
 daunt, and extinguish the life so long embittered 
 by the same foul arts — after that great Princess 
 had ceased to harrass her enemies (if I may be 
 allowed thus to speak, applying, as they did, 
 by the perversion of all language, those names 
 to the victim which belong to the tormentor) — 
 after her glorious but unhappy life had closed, 
 and that Princely head was at last laid low by 
 death, which, living, all oppression had only the 
 more illustriously exalted — the venerable the 
 Clergy of Durham, I am now told for the first 
 time, though less forward in giving vent to their 
 feelings than the rest of their fellow-citizens — 
 though not so vehement in their indignation at 
 the matchless and unmanly persecution of the 
 Queen, — though not so unbridled in their joy at 
 her immortal triumph, nor so loud in their la- 
 mentation over her mournful and untimely end — 
 did, nevertheless, in reality, all the while deeply 
 sympathise with her sufferings, in the bottom of 
 
TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 93 
 
 their reverend hearts ! When all the resources 
 of the most ingenious cruelty hurried her to a 
 fate without parallel — if not so clamorous, they 
 did not feel the least of all the members of the 
 community — their grief was in truth too deep 
 for utterance — sorrow clung round their bosoms, 
 weighed upon their tongues, stifled every sound, 
 and when all the rest of mankind, of all sects 
 and of all nations, freely gave vent to the feel- 
 ings of our common nature, their silence, the 
 contrast which they displayed to the rest of 
 their species, proceeded from the greater depth 
 of their afiliction ; they said the less because 
 they felt the more ! — Oh ! talk of hypocrisy 
 after this ! Most consummate of all the hypo- 
 crites ! After instructing your chosen, official 
 advocate, to stand forward with such a defence 
 — such an exposition of your motives — to dare 
 utter the word hypocrisy, and complain of those 
 who charged you with it ! This is, indeed, to 
 insult common sense, and outrage the feelings 
 of the whole human race ! If you were hypo- 
 crites before, you were downright, frank, honest 
 hypocrites to what you have now made your- 
 selves — and, surely, for all you have ever done, 
 or ever been charged with, your worst enemies 
 must be satiated with the humiliation of this 
 day, its just atonement, and ample retribution ! 
 
94 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 ^ Judging before hand, no doubt, any one must 
 have expected the Durham Clergy, of all men, 
 to feel exactly as they are now, for the first 
 time, ascertained to have felt. They are Chris- 
 tians ; outwardly at least, they profess the 
 gospel of charity and peace ; they beheld op- 
 pression in its foulest shape ; malignity and all 
 uncharitableness putting on their most hideous 
 forms ; measures pursued to gratify prejudices 
 in a particular quarter, in defiance of the wishes 
 of the people, and the declared opinions of the 
 soundset judges of each party ; and all with the 
 certain tendency to plunge the nation in civil 
 discord. If for a moment they had been led 
 away, by a dislike of cruelty and of civil war, 
 to express displeasure at such perilous doings, 
 no man would have charged them with political 
 meddling; and when they beheld truth and 
 innocence triumph over power, they might, as 
 Christian Ministers, calling to mind the original 
 of their own Church, have indulged, without 
 offence, in some little appearance of gladness ; 
 a calm, placid satisfaction, on so happy an 
 event, would not have been unbecoming their 
 sacred station. When they found that her suf- 
 ferings were to have no end ; that new pains 
 were inflicted in revenge for her escape from 
 destruction, and new tortures devised to ex- 
 haust the vital powers of her, whom open, law- 
 
TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 96 
 
 less violence had failed to subdue — we might 
 have expected some slight manifestation of dis- 
 proval from holy men, who, professing to incul- 
 cate loving-kindness, tender mercy, and good 
 will to all, offer up their daily prayers for those 
 who are desolate and oppressed. When at last 
 the scene closed, and there was an end of that 
 persecution which death alone could stay ; but 
 when not even her unhappy fate could glut the 
 revenge of her enemies ; and they who had 
 harassed her to death now exhausted their 
 malice in reviling the memory of their victim ; 
 if among them had been found, during her life, 
 some miscreant under the garb of a Priest, 
 who, to pay his court to power, had joined in 
 trampling upon the defenceless ; even such a 
 one, bare he the form of a man, with a man^s 
 heart throbbing in his bosom, might have felt 
 even his fawning, sordid, calculating malignity 
 assuaged by the hand of death ; even he might 
 have left the tomb to close upon the sufferings 
 of his victim. All probability certainly favoured 
 the supposition, that the Clergy of Durham 
 would not take part against the injured, because 
 the oppressor was powerful ; and that the pros- 
 pect of emolument would not make them wit- 
 ness, with dry eyes and hardened hearts, the 
 close of a life which they had contributed to 
 embitter and destroy. But I am compelled to 
 
96 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 say that their whole conduct has falsified those 
 expectations. They sided openly, strenuously, 
 forwardly, officiously with power, in the oppres- 
 sion of a woman, whose wrongs, this day, they, 
 for the first time, pretend to bewail in their 
 attempt to cozen you out of a verdict, behind 
 which they may skulk from the enquiring eyes 
 of the people. Silent, and subdued in their 
 tone as they were, on the demise of the un- 
 happy Queen, they could make every bell in all 
 their chimes peal when gain was to be expected 
 by flattering present greatness. Then they 
 could send up addresses, flock to public meet- 
 ings, and fill the press with their libels, and 
 make the pulpit wring with their sycophancy, 
 filling up to the brim the measure of their adu- 
 lation to the reigning Monarch, Head of the 
 Church and Dispenser of its Patronage. 
 
 In this contrast originated the Defendant's 
 feelings, and hence the strictures which form 
 the subject of these proceedings. I say the 
 publication refers exclusively to the Clergy of 
 this city and its suburbs, and especially to 
 such parts of that Clergy as were concerned in 
 the act of disrespect towards her late Majesty, 
 which forms the subject of the alleged libel ; 
 but I deny that it has any reference whatever 
 to the rest of the Clergy, or evinces any designs 
 
Till AL OF WILLIAMS. 97 
 
 hostile either to the stability of the Church, or 
 the general character and conduct of its Mi- 
 nisters. 
 
 Gentlemen, you have to-day a great task com- 
 mitted to your hands. This is not the age, the 
 spirit of the times is not such, as to make it safe 
 either for the country, or for the Government, or 
 for the Church itself, to veil its mysteries in 
 secrecy ; to plant in the porch of the temple a 
 prosecutor brandishing his flaming sword, the 
 process of the law, to prevent the prying eyes 
 of mankind from wandering over the structure. 
 These are times when men will enquire ; and the 
 day most fatal to the Established Church, the 
 blackest that ever dawned upon its Ministers, 
 will be that which consigns this Defendant, 
 for these remarks, to the horrors of a gaol, 
 which its false friends, the chosen objects of 
 such lavish favour, have far more richly de- 
 served. I agree with my Learned Friend, that 
 the Church of England has nothing to dread 
 from external violence. Built upon a rock, and 
 lifting its head towards another world, it aspires 
 to an imperishable existence, and defies any 
 force that may rage from without. But let it 
 beware of the corruption engendered within and 
 beneath its massive walls ; and let all its well- 
 
 H 
 
98 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 wishers, all who, whether for religious or poli- 
 tical interests, desire its lasting stability, beware 
 how they give encouragement, by giving shelter, 
 to the vermin bred in that corruption, who 
 *' stink and sting'' against the hand that would 
 brush the rottenness away. My Learned Friend 
 has sympathised with the Priesthood, and inno- 
 cently enough lamented that they p ossess not 
 the power of defending themselves through the 
 public press. Let him be consoled ; they are 
 not so very defenceless ; they are not so entirely 
 destitute of the aid of the press as through him 
 they have represented themselves to be. They 
 have largely used that press (I wish I could say 
 *' as not abusing it,") and against some persons 
 very near me; I mean especially against the 
 Defendant, whom they have scurrilously and 
 foully libelled through that great vehicle of 
 public instruction, over which, for the first time, 
 among the other novelties of the day, I now 
 hear they have no controul. Not that they 
 wound deeply or injure much ; but that is no 
 fault of theirs; without hurting, they give trou- 
 ble and discomfort. The insect brought into 
 life by corruption, and nestled in filth — I mean 
 the dirt-fly — though its flight be lowly and its 
 sting puny, can swarm and buz, and irritate the 
 skin and offend the nostril, and altogether give 
 nearly as much annoyance as the wasp, whose 
 
TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 99 
 
 nobler nature it aspires to emulate. These 
 reverend slanderers — these pious back- biters 
 — devoid of force to w^ield the sv^^ord, snatch the 
 dagger ; and destitute of wit to point or to barb 
 jt, and make it rankle in the w^ound, steep it in 
 venom, to make it fester in the scratch. The 
 much venerated personages, whose harmless and 
 unprotected state is now deplored, have been 
 the wholesale dealers in calumny, as well as the 
 largest consumers of the base article, — the espe- 
 cial promoters of that vile traffic of late the dis- 
 grace of the country — both furnishing a con- 
 stant demand for the slanders by which the 
 press is polluted, and prostituting themselves to 
 pander for the appetites of others : and now 
 they come to demand protection from retalia- 
 tion, and shelter from just exposure; and to 
 screen themselves, would have you prohibit all 
 scrutiny of the abuses by which they exists and 
 the mal-practices by which they disgrace their 
 calling. After abusing and well-nigh dismant- 
 ling for their own despicable purposes the great 
 engine of instruction, they would have you 
 annihilate all that they have left of it, to secure 
 their escape. They have the incredible assur- 
 ance to expect that an English Jury will con- 
 spire with them in this wicked design. They 
 expect in vain ! If all existing institutions and 
 all public functionaries must henceforth be 
 
 H 2 
 
100 TRIAL OF WILLIAMS. 
 
 sacred from question among the people ; if, at 
 length, the free press of this country, and^ with 
 it, the freedom itself, is to be destroyed, at least 
 let not the heavy blow fall from your hands. 
 Leave it to some profligate tyrant ; leave it to a 
 mercenary and effeminate Parliament ; a hire- 
 ling army, degraded by the lash, and the readier 
 instrument for enslaving its country ; leave it to 
 a pampered House of Lords ; a venal House of 
 Commons; some vulgar minion, servant of all 
 work to an insolent Court ; some unprincipled 
 soldier, unknown, thank God ! in our times, 
 combining the talents of a usurper with the 
 fame of a captain; leave to such desperate 
 hands, and such fit tools, so horrid a work! 
 But you, an English Jury, parent of the press, 
 yet supported by it, and doomed to perish the 
 instant its health and strength are gone — lift not 
 you against it an unnatural hand. Prove to us 
 that our rights are safe in your keeping ; but 
 maintain, above all things, the stability of our 
 institutions, by well guarding their corner-stone. 
 Defend the Church from her worst enemies, who, 
 to hide their own misdeeds, would veil her solid 
 foundations in darkness ; and proclaim to them, 
 by your verdict of acquittal, that henceforward, 
 as heretofore, all the recesses of the sanctuary 
 must be visited by the continual light of day, 
 and by that light all its abuses be explored ! 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON MOVING 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO THE CROWN, 
 
 RESPECTING 
 
 THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION 
 
 OF MR. SMITH, 
 
 A MISSIONARY AT DEMERARA, 
 JUNE 1st, 1824. 
 
 The frame of West Indian Society, that mon- 
 strous birth of the accursed Slave Trade, is so 
 feeble in itself, and, at the same time, sur- 
 rounded with such perils from without, that 
 barely to support it demands the most temperate 
 judgment, the steadiest and the most skilful 
 hand ; and with all our discretion, and firm- 
 ness, and dexterity, its continued existence 
 seems little less than a miracle. The necessary 
 hazards, to which, by its very constitution, it is 
 hourly exposed, are sufficient, one should think, 
 to satiate the most greedy appetite for diffi- 
 culties, to quench the most chivalrous passion 
 
 H 3 
 

 \\ 102 MISSIONARY SMITH. 
 
 V, for dangers. Enough, that a handful of Slave 
 V owners are scattered among myriads of Slaves. 
 Enough, that in their nearest neighbourhood, a 
 commonw^ealth of those Slaves is now seated 
 triumphant upon the ruined tyranny of their 
 slaughtered masters. Enough, that exposed to 
 this frightful enemy from within and without, 
 the Planters are cut off from all help by the 
 ocean. But to odds so fearful, these deluded 
 men must needs add new perils, absolutely 
 overwhelming. By a bond which nature has 
 drawn with her own hand, and both hemi- 
 spheres have witnessed, they find leagued 
 against them every shade of the African race, 
 every description of those swarthy hordes, from 
 the peaceful Eboe, to the fiery Koromantyn. 
 And they must now combine in the same hatred 
 the Christians of the old world with the Pagans 
 of the new. Barely able to restrain the natural 
 love of freedom, they must mingle it with the 
 enthusiasm of religion, — vainly imagining, that 
 spiritual thraldom will make personal subjection 
 more bearable ; — wildly hoping to bridle the 
 strongest of the passions in union and in excess, 
 — the desire of liberty irritated by despair, and 
 the fervour of religious zeal by persecution, 
 exasperated to phrensy. But I call upon Par- 
 liament to rescue the West Indies from the 
 horrors of such a policy ; to deliver those mis- 
 
MISSIONARY SMITH. 103 
 
 guided men from their own hands. I call upon 
 you to interpose while it is yet time to save the 
 West Indies ; first of all the negroes, the most 
 numerous class of our fellow subjects, and en- 
 titled, beyond every other, to our care, by a 
 claim which honourable minds will most readily 
 admit — their countless wrongs, borne with such 
 forbearance — such meekness — while the most 
 dreadful retaliation was within their grasp; 
 next, their masters, whose short-sighted violence 
 is, indeed, hurtful to their Slaves, but to them- 
 selves is fraught with fearful and speedy destruc- 
 tion, if you do not at once make your voice 
 heard, and your authority felt, where both have 
 been so long despised. 
 
 11 4 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON THE DEBATE RESPECTING THE 
 
 TRIAL OF MISSIONARY SMITH, 
 
 JUNE llth, 1824. 
 
 The motion conveys a censure, I admit; but, 
 in my humble opinion, a temperate and a miti- 
 gated censure. The law has been broken; 
 justice has been outraged. Whoso believes not 
 in this, let him not vote for the motion. But 
 whosoever believes that a gross breach of the 
 law has been committed ; that a flagrant viola- 
 tion of justice has been perpetrated ! is it asking 
 too much at the hands of that man, to demand 
 that he honestly speak his mind, and record 
 his sentiments by his vote ? In former times, 
 this House of Parliament has not scrupled to 
 express, in words far more stringent than any 
 you are now required to adopt, its sense of pro- 
 ceedings, displaying the triumph of oppression 
 over the law. When there came before the 
 Legislature, a case remarkable in itself; for its 
 
MISSIONARY SMITH . 105 
 
 consequences yet more momentous ; resembling 
 the present in many points ; to the very letter, 
 in some things, resembling it — I mean, the trial 
 of Sidney — did our illustrious predecessors, 
 within these walls, shrink back from the honest 
 and manly declaration of their opinion, in words 
 suited to the occasion, and screen themselves 
 behind such tender phrases as are resorted to, — 
 *' Don't be too violent — pray be civil — do be 
 " gentle, there has only been a man murdered, 
 ** nothing more — a total breach of all law, to be 
 ** sure ; an utter contempt, no doubt, of jus- 
 ** tice, and every thing like it, in form as well 
 *' as in substance; but that's all: surely then 
 *' you will be meek, and patient^ and forbear- 
 '* ing, as were the Demerara Judges to this 
 '* poor Missionary ; against whom, if somewhat 
 " was done, a great deal more was meditated 
 ** than they durst openly perpetrate ; but who 
 ** being condemned to die, in despite of law 
 *' and evidence, was only put to death by slow 
 "and wanton severity!" In those days, no 
 such language was holden. On that memo- 
 rable occasion, plain terms were not deemed 
 too strong, when severe truth was to be recorded. 
 The word ** murder" was used, because the deed 
 of blood had been done. The word '* murder" 
 was not reckoned too uncourtly, in a place 
 where decorum is studied somewhat more scru- 
 
106 TRIAL OF SMITH. 
 
 pulously than even here. On the journals of 
 the other House, stands the appointment of 
 Lords Committees, " to inquire of the advisers 
 '' and prosecutors of the murder of Lord Rus- 
 *' sell and Colonel Sidney :'* and their Lord- 
 ships made a Report, upon w^hich the statute is 
 passed to reverse those execrable attainders. 
 
EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 " PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE." 
 
 8vo. 1825. 
 
 Why should not political, as well as all other 
 works, be published in a cheap form, and in 
 numbers ? That history, the nature of the Con- 
 stitution, the doctrines of political economy, 
 may safely be disseminated in this shape, no 
 man now-a-days will be hardy enough to deny. 
 Popular tracts, indeed, on the latter subject, 
 ought to be much more extensively circulated 
 for the good of the working classes as well as of 
 their superiors. The interests of both are deeply 
 concerned in sounder views being taught them ; 
 I can hardly imagine, for example, a greater 
 service being rendered to the men, than ex- 
 pounding to them the true principles and mutual 
 relations of population and wages; and both 
 they and their masters will assuredly experience 
 the effects of the prevailing ignorance upon 
 
108 EDUCATION OF 
 
 such questions, as soon as any interruption shall 
 happen in the commercial prosperity of the 
 country, if, indeed, the present course of things, 
 daily tending to lower wages as well as profits, 
 and set the two classes in opposition to each 
 other, shall not of itself bring on a crisis. To 
 allow, or rather to induce the people to take 
 part in these discussions, is, therefore, not 
 merely safe, but most wholesome for the com- 
 munity, and yet, some points connected with 
 them, are matter of pretty warm contention in 
 the present times ; but these may be freely 
 handled, it seems, with safety ; indeed, unless 
 they are so handled, such subjects cannot be 
 discussed at all. Why then may not every 
 topic of politics, party as well as general, be 
 treated of in cheap publications ? It is highly 
 useful to the community, that the true prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution, ecclesiastical and 
 civil, should be well understood by every man 
 who lives under it. The great interests of civil 
 and religious liberty are mightily promoted by 
 such wholesome instruction ; but the good order 
 of society gains to the full as much by it. The 
 peace of the country, and the stability of the 
 government, could not be more effectually 
 secured than by the universal diffusion of this 
 kind of knowledge. The abuses which through 
 time have crept into the practice of the Consti- 
 
THE PEOPLE. 109 
 
 tution, the errors committed in its administra- 
 tion, and the improvement which a change of 
 circumstances require^ even in its principles, 
 may most fitly be expounded in the same 
 manner. And if any man, or set of men, deny 
 the existence of such abuses, see no error in the 
 conduct of those who administer the govern- 
 ment, and regard all innovation upon its prin- 
 ciples as pernicious, they may propagate their 
 doctrines through the like channels. Cheap 
 works being furnished, the choice of them may 
 be left to the readers. Assuredly a country 
 which tolerates every kind, even the most un- 
 measured of daily and weekly discussion in the 
 newspapers, can have nothing to dread from the 
 diffusion of political doctrines in a form less 
 desultory, and more likely to make them be both 
 well weighed at the time, and reserved for 
 repeated perusal. It cannot be denied, that 
 the habit of cursory reading, engendered by 
 finding all subjects discussed in publications, 
 which how great soever their merits may be, 
 no one looks at a second time, is unfavourable 
 to the acquisition of solid and permanent in- 
 formation. 
 
 Happily, the time is past and gone, when 
 bigots could persuade mankind that the lights 
 
110 EDUCATION. 
 
 of philosophy were to be extinguished as dan- 
 gerous to religion ; and when tyrants could 
 proscribe the instructors of the people as ene- 
 mies to their power. It is preposterous to 
 imagine, that the enlargement of our acquaint- 
 ance with the laws which regulate the universe, 
 can dispose to unbelief. It may be a cure for 
 superstition — for intolerance it will be the most 
 certain cure ; but a pure and true religion has 
 nothing to fear from the greatest expansion 
 which the understanding can receive by the 
 study either of matter or of mind. The more 
 widely science is diffused, the better will the 
 Author of all things be known, and the less 
 will the people be *' tossed to and fro by the 
 ** sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, where-^ 
 '* by they lie in wait to deceive." To tyrants, 
 indeed, and bad rulers, the progress of know- 
 ledge among the mass of mankind is a just 
 object of terror ; it is fatal to them and their 
 designs ; they know this by unerring instinct, 
 and unceasingly they dread the light. But 
 they will find it more easy to curse than to 
 extinguish. It is spreading, in spite of them, 
 even in those countries where arbitrary power 
 deems itself most secure ; and in England, any 
 attempt to check its progress would only bring 
 about the sudden destruction of him who should 
 be insane enough to make it. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE STUDENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, 
 
 ON HIS 
 
 INSTALLATION AS LORD RECTOR, 
 APRIL 6th, 1825. 
 
 I fef:l very sensibly, that if I shall now urge 
 you, by general exhortations, to be instant in 
 the pursuit of the learning, which, in all its 
 branches^ flourishes under the kindly shelter 
 of these roofs, I may weary you with the unpro- 
 fitable repetition of a thrice told tale ; and if I 
 presume to ofler my advice touching the con- 
 duct of your studies, I may seem to trespass 
 upon the province of those venerable persons, 
 under whose care you have the singular happi- 
 ness to be placed. But I would, nevertheless, 
 expose myself to either charge, for the sake 
 of joining my voice with theirs, in anxiously 
 intreating you to believe how incomparably the 
 present season is verily, and indeed the most 
 
112 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 precious of your whole lives. It is not the less 
 true, because it has been oftentimes said^ that 
 the period of youth is by far the best fitted 
 for the improvement of the mind, and the re- 
 tirement of a College, almost exclusively, 
 adapted to much study. At your enviable age, 
 every thing has the lively interest of novelty 
 and freshness ; attention is perpetually shar- 
 pened by curiosity ; and the memory is tenaci- 
 ous of the deep impressions it thus receives, to a 
 degree unknown in after life ; while the dis- 
 tracting cares of the world, or its beguiling 
 pleasures, cross not the threshold of those calm 
 retreats ; its distant noise and bustle are faintly 
 heard, making the shelter you enjoy more grate- 
 ful ; and the struggles of anxious mortals em- 
 barked upon that troublous sea, are viewed 
 from an eminence, the security of which is ren- 
 dered more sweet by the prospect of the scene 
 below. Yet, a little while, and you too will 
 be plunged into those waters of bitterness ; and 
 will cast an eye of regret, as now I do, upon 
 the peaceful regions you have quitted for ever. 
 Such is your lot as members of society ; but it 
 will be your own fault if you look back on this 
 place with repentance or with shame ; and be 
 well assured that, whatever time — ay, every 
 hour you squander here on unprofitable idling, 
 will then rise up against you, and be paid for 
 
At GLASGOW. 113 
 
 by years of bitter but unavailing regret. Study 
 then, I beseech you, so to store your minds 
 with the exquisite learning of former ages, that 
 you may always possess, within yourselves, 
 sources of rational and refined enjoyment, which 
 will enable you to set at nought the grosser 
 pleasures of sense, whereof other men are 
 slaves ; and so imbue yourselves with the sound 
 philosophy of later days, forming yourselves to 
 the virtuous habits which are its legitimate 
 offspring, that you may walk unhurt through 
 the trials which await you, and may look down 
 upon the ignorance and error that surround you, 
 not with lofty and supercilious contempt, as 
 the sages of old times, but with the vehement 
 desire of enlightening those who wander in 
 darkness, and who are by so much the more 
 endeared to us, by how much they want our 
 assistance. 
 
 In exhorting you deeply to meditate on the 
 beauties of our old English authors, the poets, 
 the moralists, and perhaps more than all these, 
 the preachers of the Augustan age of English 
 letters, do not imagine that I would pass over 
 their great defects, when compared with the 
 renowned standards of severe taste in ancient 
 times. Addison may have been pure and ele- 
 
114 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE 
 
 gant; Dryden, airy and nervous; Taylor, witty 
 and fanciful ; Hooker, weighty and various ; but 
 none of them united force with beauty — the 
 perfection of matter with the most refined and 
 chastened style; and to one charge all, even 
 the most faultless, are exposed — the offence 
 unknown in ancient times, but the besetting sin 
 of later days — they always overdid — never 
 knowing or feeling when they had done enough. 
 In nothing, not even in beauty of collocation 
 and harmony of rhythm^ is the vast superio- 
 rity of the chaste, vigorous, manly style of 
 the Greek orators and writers more conspicu- 
 ous than in the abstinent use of their prodigious 
 faculties of expression. A single phrase — some- 
 times a word — and the work is done — the de- 
 sired impression is made, as it were, with one 
 stroke, there being nothing superfluous inter- 
 posed to weaken the blow, or break its fall. 
 The commanding idea is singled out ; it is made 
 to stand forward ; all auxiliaries are rejected ; 
 as the Emperor Napoleon selected one point in 
 the heart of his adversary's strength, and brought 
 all his power to bear upon that, careless of the 
 other points which he was sure to carry, if he 
 won the centre, as sure to have carried in vain 
 if he left the centre unsubdued. Far, other- 
 wise, do modern writers make their onset ; they 
 resemble rather those campaigners who fit out 
 
AT GLASGOW. 115 
 
 twenty little expeditions at a time, to be a 
 laughing stock if they fail, and useless if they 
 succeed ; or if they do attack in the right place, 
 so divide their forces, from the dread of leaving 
 any one point unassailed, that they can make 
 no sensible impression, where alone it avails 
 them to be felt. It seems the principle of such 
 authors never to leave any thing unsaid, that 
 can be said on any one topic ; to run down 
 every idea they start ; to let nothing pass ; and 
 leave nothing to the reader, but harass him 
 with anticipating every thing that could possi- 
 bly strike his mind. 
 
 It is but reciting the ordinary praises of the 
 art of persuasion, to remind you how sacred 
 truths may be most ardently promulgated at 
 the altar — the cause of oppressed innocence 
 be most powerfully defended — the march of 
 wicked rulers be most triumphantly resisted — 
 defiance the most terrible be hurled at the 
 oppressor's head. In great convulsions of public 
 affairs, or in bringing about salutary changes, 
 every one confesses how important an ally elo- 
 quence must be. But in peaceful times, when 
 the progress of events is slow and even as the 
 silent and unheeded pace of time, and the jars 
 of a mighty tumult in foreign and domestic 
 
 I 2 
 
116 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE 
 
 concerns, can no longer be heard, then too she 
 flourishes — protectress of liberty — patroness of 
 improvement — guardian of all the blessings that 
 can be showered upon the mass of human kind ; 
 nor is her form ever seen but on ground conse- 
 crated to free institutions. " Pacis comes 
 ** otiique socia, et jam bene constitutae rei- 
 '* publicae alumna eloquentia." To me, calmly 
 revolving these things, such pursuits seem far 
 more noble objects of ambition, than any upon 
 which the vulgar herd of busy men lavish pro- 
 digal their restless exertions. To diffuse useful 
 information — to further intellectual refinement, 
 sure forerunner of moral improvement — to hasten 
 the coming of that bright day, when the dawn 
 of general knowledge shall chase away the lazy, 
 lingering mists, even from the base of the great 
 social pyramid ; — this^ indeed, is a high calling, 
 in which the most splendid talents and consum- 
 mate virtue may well press onward, eager to 
 bear a part. I know that I speak in a place, 
 consecrated, by the pious wisdom of ancient 
 times^ to the instruction of but a select portion 
 of the community. Yet from this classic 
 ground have gone forth those, whose genius, not 
 their ancestry, ennobled them ; whose incredi- 
 ble merits have opened to all ranks the temple 
 of science ; whose illustrious example has 
 made the humblest zealous to climb steeps no 
 
AT GLASGOW. 117 
 
 longer inaccessible, and enter the unfolded 
 gates, burning in the sun. I speak in that city, 
 where Black having once taught, and Watt 
 learned, the grand experiment was afterwards 
 made in our day, and with entire success, to 
 demonstrate that the highest intellectual cul- 
 tivation is perfectly compatible with the daily 
 cares and toils of working men ; to show, by 
 thousands of living examples, that a keen relish 
 for the most sublime truths of science, belongs 
 alike to every class of mankind. 
 
 Real knowledge never promoted either tur- 
 bulence or unbelief; but its progress is the 
 forerunner of liberality and enlightened tolera- 
 tion. Whoso dreads these, let him tremble; 
 for he may be well assured that their day is at 
 length come, and must put to flight the evil 
 spirit of tyranny and persecution, which haunted 
 the long night now gone down the sky. As 
 men will no longer suffer themselves to be led 
 blindfolded in ignorance^ so will they no more 
 yield to the vile principle of judging and treat- 
 ing their fellow creatures, not according to the 
 intrinsic merit of their actions, but according to 
 the accidental and involuntary coincidence of 
 their opinions. The Great Truth has finally 
 gone forth to all the ends of the earth, That 
 
 I 3 
 
118 inaugural discourse 
 
 Man shall no more render account 
 TO Man for his belief, over which he 
 HAS himself NO CONTROUL. Henccforward, 
 nothing shall prevail upon us to praise or to 
 blame any one for that which he can no more 
 change than he can the hue of his skin, or the 
 height of his stature. Henceforward, treating 
 with entire respect those who conscientiously 
 differ from ourselves, the only practical effect of 
 the difference will be, to make us enlighten 
 the ignorance, on one side, or the other from 
 which it springs, by instructing them if it be 
 theirs ; ourselves if it be our own, to the end 
 that the only kind of unanimity may be pro- 
 duced, which is desirable among rational beings 
 — the agreement proceeding from full convic- 
 tion, after the freest discussion. Far, then, very 
 far, from the universal spread of knowledge 
 being the object of just apprehension to those 
 who watch over the peace of the country, or 
 have a deep interest in the permanence of her 
 institutions, its sure effect will be the removal 
 of the only dangers that threaten the public 
 tranquillity, and the addition of all that is want- 
 ing to confirm her internal strength. 
 
 Let me indulge in the hope, that among the 
 illustrious youths, whom this ancient kingdom. 
 
AT GLASGOW. 119 
 
 famed alike for its nobility and its learning, has 
 produced to continue her fame through after 
 ages, possibly among those I now address, there 
 may be found some one — I ask no more — willing 
 to give a bright example to other nations^ in a 
 path yet untrodden, by taking the lead of his 
 fellow citizens — ^not in frivolous amusements, 
 nor in the degrading pursuits of the ambitious 
 vulgar — but in the truly noble task of enlighten- 
 ing the mass of his countrymen, and of leaving 
 his own name no longer encircled, as hereto- 
 fore, with barbaric splendour, or attached to 
 courtly gewgaws, but illustrated by the honours 
 most worthy of our rational nature — coupled 
 with the diffusion of knowledge — and grate- 
 fully pronounced through all ages by millions, 
 whom his wise beneficence has rescued from 
 ignorance and vice. To him I will say, ''' Ho- 
 " mines ad Deos nulli re propius accedunt quam 
 '' salutem hominibus dando : nihil habet nee 
 ** fortuna tua majus quam ut possis, nee natura 
 " tua melius quam ut velis servare quamplu- 
 ** rimos." This is the true mark for the aim of 
 all, who either prize the enjoyment of pure hap- 
 piness, or set a right value upon a pure and 
 unsullied renown. And if the benefactors of 
 mankind, when they rest from their pious 
 labours, shall be permitted to enjoy hereafter as 
 an appropriate reward of their virtue, the privi- 
 
 I 4 
 
120 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 lege of looking down upon the blessings with 
 which their toils and sufferings have clothed the 
 scene of their former existence ; do not vainly 
 imagine that, in a state of exalted purity and 
 wisdom, the founders of mighty dynasties, the 
 conquerors of new empires, or the more vulgar 
 crowd of evil-doers, who have sacrificed to their 
 own aggrandisement the good of their fellow 
 creatures, will be gratified by contemplating 
 the monuments of their inglorious fame — theirs 
 will be the delight — theirs the triumph — who 
 can trace the remote effects of their enlightened 
 benevolence in the improved condition of their 
 species, and exult in the reflection, that the 
 prodigious change they now survey, with eyes 
 that age and sorrow can make dim no more — of 
 knowledge become power — virtue sharing in 
 the dominion — ^superstition trampled under foot 
 — tyranny driven from the world — are the fruits, 
 precious though costly, and though late reaped, 
 yet long enduring, of all the hardships and all 
 the hazards they encountered here below 1 
 
EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 " A DISCOURSE OF THE 
 
 OBJECTS, ADVANTAGES, 
 
 AND 
 
 PLEASURES OF SCIENCE." 
 
 8vo. 1827. 
 
 It may easily be demonstrated, that there is an 
 advantage in learning, both for the usefulness 
 and the pleasure of it. There is something 
 positively agreeable to all men, to all at least 
 whose nature is not most grovelling and base, 
 in gaining knowledge for its own sake. When 
 you see any thing for the first time, you at once 
 derive some gratification from the sight being 
 new ; your attention is awakened, and you de- 
 sire to know more about it. If it is a piece of 
 workmanship, as an instrument, a machine of 
 any kind, you wish to know how it is made ; 
 how it works ; and what use it is of. If it is an 
 animal, you desire to know where it comes 
 from; how it lives; what are its dispositions, 
 and, generally, its nature and habits. This 
 desire is felt, too, without at all considering that 
 
122 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 the machine or the animal may ever be of the 
 least use to yourself practically ; for, in all pro- 
 bability, you may never see them again. But 
 you have a curiosity to learn all about them, 
 because they are new and unknown. You ac- 
 cordingly make inquiries ; you feel a gratifica- 
 tion in getting answers to your questions, that 
 is, in receiving information^ and in knowing 
 more, — in being better informed than you were 
 before. If you ever happen again so see the 
 same instrument or animal, you find it agreeable 
 to recollect having seen it formerly, and to think 
 that you know something about it. If you see 
 another instrument or animal, in some respects 
 like, but differing in other particulars, you find 
 it pleasing to compare them together, and to 
 note in what they agree, and in what they 
 differ. Now, all this kind of gratification is of 
 a pure and disinterested nature, and has no 
 reference to any of the common purposes of 
 life ; yet it is a pleasure — an enjoyment. You are 
 nothing the richer for it ; you do not gratify your 
 palate or any other bodily appetite ; and yet it 
 is so pleasing, that you would give something 
 out of your pocket to obtain it, and would forego 
 some bodily enjoyment for its sake. The plea- 
 sure derived from Science is exactly of the like 
 nature, or, rather^ it is the very same. For what 
 has just been referred to is, in fact. Science, 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 123 
 
 which in its most comprehensive sense only 
 means Knowledge, and in its ordinary sense 
 means Knowledge reduced to a System; that is, 
 arranged in a regular order, so as to be conve- 
 niently taught, easily remembered, and readily 
 applied. 
 
 The practical uses of any science or branch 
 of knowledge are undoubtedly of the highest 
 importance ; and there is hardly any man who 
 may not gain some positive advantage in his 
 worldly wealth and comforts, by increasing his 
 stock of information. But there is also a plea- 
 sure in seeing the uses to which knowledge 
 may be applied, wholly independent of the 
 share we ourselves may have in those practical 
 benefits. It is pleasing to examine the nature 
 of a new instrument, or the habits of an un- 
 known animal, without considering whether or 
 not they may ever be of use to ourselves or to 
 any body. It is another gratification to extend 
 our inquiries, and find that the instrument or 
 animal is useful to man, even although we have 
 no chance ourselves of ever benefiting by the 
 information : as, to find that the natives of some 
 distant country employ the animal in travelling : 
 — nay, though we have no desire of benefiting 
 by the knowledge ; as for example, to find that 
 the instrument is useful in performing some 
 
124 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 dangerous surgical operation. The mere grati- 
 fication of curiosity ; the knowing more to-day 
 than we knew yesterday; the understanding 
 clearly what before seemed obscure and puz- 
 zling; the contemplation of general truths, and 
 the comparing together of different things, — is 
 an agreeable occupation of the mind ; and, be- 
 side the present enjoyment, elevates the facul- 
 ties above low pursuits, purifies and refines the 
 passions, and helps our reason to assuage their 
 violence. 
 
 Man is composed of two parts, body and 
 mind, connected indeed together, but wholly 
 different from one another. The nature of the 
 union — the part of our outward and visible 
 frame in which it is peculiarly formed — or 
 whether the soul be indeed connected or not 
 with any particular portion of the body, so as 
 to reside there — are points as yet wholly hid 
 from our knowledge, and which are likely to 
 remain for ever concealed. But this we know, 
 as certainly as we can know any truth, that 
 there is such a thing as the mind ; and that we 
 have, at the least, as good proof of its existence, 
 independent of the body, as we have of the 
 existence of the body itself. Each has its 
 uses, and each has its peculiar gratifications. 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 125 
 
 The bounty of Providence has given us outward 
 senses to be employed^, and has furnished the 
 means of gratifying them in various kind, and 
 in ample measure. As long as we only taste 
 those pleasures, according to the rules of pru- 
 dence and of our duty, that is, in moderation 
 for our own sakes^ and in harmlessness towards 
 our neighbours, we fulfil rather than thwart the 
 purpose of our being. But the same bountiful 
 Providence has endowed us with the higher 
 nature also — with understandings as well as 
 with senses — with faculties that are of a more 
 exalted order, and admit of more refined 
 enjoyments, than any the bodily frame can 
 minister ; and by pursuing such gratifications, 
 rather than those of mere sense, we fulfil the 
 most exalted ends of our creation, and obtain 
 both a present and a future reward. These 
 things are often said, but they are not, therefore, 
 the less true, or the less worthy of deep atten- 
 tion. Let us mark their practical application 
 to the occupations and enjoyments of all 
 branches of society, beginning with those who 
 form the great bulk of every community, the 
 working classes, by what names soever their 
 vocations may be called — professions, arts, 
 trades, handicrafts, or common labour. 
 
 The first object of every man who has to 
 
126 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 depend upon his own exertions, must needs be 
 to provide for his daily wants. This is a high 
 and important office ; it deserves his utmost at- 
 tention ; it includes some of his most sacred du- 
 ties, both to himself, his kindred, and his country ; 
 and, although, in performing this task, he is 
 only influenced by a regard to his own interest, 
 or by his necessities, yet it is an employment 
 which renders him truly the best benefactor 
 of the community to which he belongs. All 
 other pursuits must give way to this ; the hours 
 which he devotes to learning must be after he 
 has done his work ; his independence, without 
 which he is not fit to be called a man, requires 
 first of all that he should have ensured for him- 
 self, and those dependent on him, a comfortable 
 subsistence, before he can have a right to taste 
 any indulgence, either of his senses or of his 
 mind ; and the more he learns — the greater 
 progress he makes in the sciences— the more 
 will he value that independence, and the more 
 will he prize the industry, the habits of regular 
 labour, whereby he is enabled to secure so prime 
 a blessing. 
 
 In one view, it is true, the progress which he 
 makes in science may help his ordinary exer- 
 tions, the main business of every man's life. 
 There is hardly any trade or occupation in 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIP^NCE. 127 
 
 which useful lessons may not be learnt by 
 studying one science or another. The neces- 
 sity of science to the more liberal professions is 
 self evident; little less manifest is the use to 
 their members of extending their knowledge 
 beyond the branches of study with which their 
 several pursuits are more peculiarly conversant. 
 But the other departments of industry derive 
 hardly less benefit from the same source. To 
 how many kinds of workmen must a knowledge 
 of Mechanical Philosophy prove useful ! To 
 how many others does Chemistry prove almost 
 necessary ! Every one must with a glance per- 
 ceive, that to engineers, watch-makers, instru- 
 ment makers, bleachers, and dyers, those sci- 
 ences are most useful, if not necessary. But 
 carpenters and masons are surely likely to do 
 their work better for knowing how to measure, 
 which Practical Mathematics teaches them, and 
 how to estimate the strength of timber, of walls, 
 and of arches, which they learn from Practical 
 Mechanics ; and they who work in various 
 metals are certain to be the more skilful in their 
 trades for knowing the nature of those sub- 
 stances^ and their relations to both heat and 
 other metals, and to the airs and liquids they 
 come in contact with. Nay, the farm-ser- 
 vant, or day-labourer, whether in his master's 
 employ, or tending the concerns of his own 
 
128 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 cottage, must derive great practical benefit, must 
 be both a better servant, and a more thrifty, 
 and, therefore, comfortable cottager, for know- 
 ing something of the nature of soils and manures, 
 which Chemistry teaches, and something of the 
 habits of animals, and the qualities and growth 
 of plants, which he learns from Natural History 
 and Chemistry together. In truth, though a 
 man be neither mechanic nor peasant, but only 
 one, having a pot to boil, he is sure to learn 
 from science lessons which will enable him to 
 cook his morsel better, save his fuel, and both 
 vary his dish and improve it. The art of good 
 and cheap cookery is intimately connected with 
 the principles of chemical philosophy, and has 
 received much, and will yet receive more, im- 
 provement from their application. Nor is it 
 enough to say, that philosophers may discover 
 all that is wanted, and may invent practical 
 methods, which it is sufficient for the working 
 man to learn by rote, without knowing the 
 principles. He never will work so well if he is 
 ignorant of the principles ; and for a plain rea- 
 son : — if he only learn his lesson by rote, the 
 least change of circumstances puts him out. 
 Be the method ever so general, cases will 
 always arise in which it must be varied, in order 
 to apply; and if the workman only knows the 
 rule without knowing the reason, he must be at 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 129 
 
 fault the moment he is required to make any 
 new application of it. This, then, is the Jirst 
 use of learning the principles of science : it 
 makes men more skilful, expert, and useful in 
 the particular kinds of work by which they are 
 to earn their bread, and by which they are to 
 make it go far and taste well when earned. 
 
 But another use of such knowledge to 
 handicraftsmen, is equally obvious : it gives 
 every man a chance, according to his natural 
 talents, of becoming an improver of the art he 
 works at, and even a discoverer in the sciences 
 connected with it. He is daily handling the 
 tools and materials with which new experi- 
 ments are to be made ; and daily witnessing 
 the operations of nature, whether in the motions 
 and pressures of bodies, or in their chemical 
 actions on each other. All opportunities of 
 making experiments must be unimproved, all 
 appearances must pass unobserved, if he has no 
 knowledge of the principles ; but with this 
 knowledge he is more likely than another person 
 to strike out something new, which may be 
 useful in art, or curious or interesting in sci- 
 ence. Very few great discoveries have been 
 made by chance and by ignorant persons, much 
 fewer than is generally supposed. It is com- 
 monly told of the steam-engine, that an idle 
 boy being employed to stop and open a valve, 
 
 K 
 
130 ODJKCTS, Sec, OF SCIENCE. 
 
 saw that he could save himself the trouble of 
 attending and watching it, by fixing a plug 
 upon a part of the machine which came to the 
 place at the proper times, in consequence of 
 the general movement. This is possible, no 
 doubt ; though nothing very certain is known 
 respecting the origin of the story ; but improve- 
 ments of any value are very seldom indeed so 
 easily found out, and hardly another instance 
 can be named of important discoveries so purely 
 accidental. They are generally made by per- 
 sons of competent knowledge, and who are in 
 search of them. The improvements of the 
 steam-engine, by Watt, resulted from the most 
 learned investigation of mathematical, mecha- 
 nical, and chemical truths. Arkwright devoted 
 many years, five at the least, to his invention of 
 spinning jennies, and he was a man perfectly 
 conversant in every thing that relates to the 
 construction of machinery : he had minutely 
 examined it, and knew the effects of each part, 
 though he had not received any thing like a 
 scientific education. If he had, we should, in 
 all probability, have been indebted to him for 
 scientific discoveries, as well as practical im- 
 provements. The most beautiful and useful in- 
 vention of late times, the Safety-lamp, was the 
 reward of a series of philosophical experiments, 
 made by one thoroughly skilled in every branch 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 131 
 
 of chemical science. The new process of Re- 
 fining Sugar, by which more money has been 
 made in a shorter time, and with less risk and 
 trouble, than was ever, perhaps, gained from an 
 invention, was discovered by a most accom- 
 plished chemist,* and was the fruit of a long 
 course of experiments, in the progress of which, 
 known philosophical principles were constantly 
 applied, and one or two new principles ascer- 
 tained. But in so far as chance has any thing 
 to do with discovery, surely it is worth the 
 while of those who are constantly working in 
 particular employments to obtain the knowledge 
 required, because their chances are greater than 
 other people's of so applying that knowledge 
 as to hit upon new and useful ideas : they are 
 always in the way of perceiving what is want- 
 ing, or what is amiss in the old methods ; and 
 they have a better chance of making the im- 
 provements. In a word, to use a common ex- 
 pression, they are in the way of good luck ; and 
 if they possess the requisite information, they 
 can take advantage of it when it comes to them. 
 This, then, is the second great use of learning 
 the sciences, it enables men to make improve- 
 ments in the arts, and discoveries in philosophy, 
 which may directly benefit themselves and 
 mankind. 
 
 * Edward Howard, brother of the Duke of Norfolk. 
 K 2 
 
132 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Now, these are the practical advantages of 
 learning ; but the third benefit is, when rightly 
 considered, just as practical as the other two — 
 the pleasure derived from mere knowledge, 
 without any view to our own bodily enjoy- 
 ments : and this applies to all classes, the idle 
 as well as the industrious ; if, indeed, it be not 
 peculiarly applicable to those who enjoy the in- 
 estimable blessing of having time at their com- 
 mand. Every man is by nature endowed with 
 the power of gaining knowledge ; and the taste 
 for it, the capacity to be pleased with it, forms 
 equally a part of the natural constitution of his 
 mind. It is his own fault, or the fault of his 
 education, if he derives no gratification from it. 
 There is a satisfaction in knowing what others 
 know — in not being more ignorant than those 
 we live with : there is a satisfaction in knowing 
 what others do not know — in being more in- 
 formed than they are. But this is quite inde- 
 pendent of the pure pleasure of knowledge — of 
 gratifying a curiosity implanted in us by Pro- 
 vidence, to lead us towards the better under- 
 standing of the universe in which our lot is cast, 
 and the nature wherewithal we are clothed. 
 That every man is capable of being delighted 
 with extending his information upon matters of 
 science will be evident from a few plain con- 
 siderations. 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 133 
 
 Reflect how many parts of the reading, even 
 of persons ignorant of all sciences, refer to mat- 
 ters wholly unconnected with any interest or 
 advantage to be derived from the knowledge 
 acquired. Every one is amused with reading a 
 story : a romance may divert some, and a fairy 
 tale may entertain others : but no benefit be- 
 yond the amusement is derived from this source : 
 the imagination is gratified ; and we willingly 
 spend a good deal of time and a little money in 
 this gratification, rather than in resting after 
 fatigue, or in any other bodily indulgence. So 
 we read a newspaper, without any view to the 
 advantage we are to gain from learning the 
 news, but because it interests and amuses us to 
 know what is passing. One object, no doubt, 
 is to become acquainted with matters relating 
 to the welfare of the country ; but we also read 
 the occurrences which do little or not at all 
 regard the public interests, and we take a plea- 
 sure in reading them. Accidents, adventures, 
 anecdotes, crimes, and a variety of other things 
 amuse us, independent of the information re- 
 specting public affairs, in which we feel inte- 
 rested as citizens of the state, or as members of 
 a particular body. It is of little importance to 
 inquire how and why these things excite our 
 attention, and wherefore the reading about them 
 is a pleasure : the fact is certain ; and it proves 
 
 K 3 
 
134 OBJECTS, &c. OF science:. 
 
 clearly that there is a positive enjoyment in 
 knowing what we did not know before : and 
 this pleasure is greatly increased when the in- 
 formation is such as excites our surprise, wonder, 
 or admiration. Most persons who take delight 
 in reading tales of ghosts, which they know to 
 be false, and feel all the while to be silly in the 
 extreme, are merely gratified, or rather occu- 
 pied, with the strong emotions of horror excited 
 by the momentary belief, for it can only last an 
 instant. Such reading is a degrading waste of 
 precious time, and has even a bad effect upon 
 the feelings and the judgment.* But true sto- 
 ries of horrid crimes, as murders, and pitiable 
 misfortunes, as shipwrecks, are not much more 
 instructive. It may be better to read these than 
 to sit yawning and idle — much better than to sit 
 drinking or gaming, which, when carried to the 
 least excess, are crimes in themselves, and the 
 fruitful parents of many more. But this is 
 nearly as much as can be said for such vain and 
 
 • Childrens^ Books have, at all times, been made upon 
 the pernicious plan of exciting wonder, generally horror, at 
 whatever risk. The folly and misery occasioned by this 
 error, it would be difficult to estimate. The time may 
 come when it will be felt and understood. At present, 
 the inveterate habits of parents and nurses prevent children 
 from benefitting by the excellent lessons of Mrs. Barbauld 
 and Miss Edgeworth. 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 135 
 
 unprofitable reading. If it be a pleasure to gra- 
 tify curiosity, to know what we were ignorant 
 of, to have our feelings of wonder called forth, 
 how pure a delight of this very kind does Natu- 
 ral Science hold out to its Students ! Recollect 
 some of the extraordinary discoveries of Mecha- 
 nical Philosophy. How wonderful are the laws 
 that regulate the motions of fluids ! Is there 
 any thing in all the idle books of tales and hor- 
 rors more truly astonishing than the fact, that a 
 few pounds of water may, by mere pressure, 
 without any machinery — ^by merely being placed 
 in a particular way, produce an irresistible 
 force ? What can be more strange, than that an 
 ounce weight should balance hundreds of 
 pounds, by the intervention of a few bars of 
 thin iron? Observe the extraordinary truths 
 which Optical Science discloses. Can any 
 thing surprise us more, than to find that the 
 colour of white is a mixture of all others — that 
 red, and blue, and green, and all the rest, merely 
 by being blended in certain proportions, form 
 what we had fancied rather to be no colour at 
 all, than all colours together? Chemistry is 
 not behind in its wonders. That the diamond 
 should be made of the same material with coal ; 
 that water should be chiefly composed of an 
 inflammable substance: that acids should be, 
 for the most part, formed of different kinds of 
 
 k4 
 
136 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 air, and that one of those acids, whose strength 
 can dissolve almost any of the metals, should 
 consist of the self-same ingredients with the 
 common air we breathe ; that salts should be of 
 a metallic nature, and composed, in great part, 
 of metals, fluid like quicksilver, but lighter than 
 water, and which, without any heating, take 
 fire upon being exposed to the air, and by burn- 
 ing form the substance so abounding in salt- 
 petre and in the ashes of burnt wood : — these, 
 surely, are things to excite the wonder of any 
 reflecting mind — nay, of any one but little ac- 
 customed to reflect. And yet these are trifling 
 when compared to the prodigies which Astro- 
 nomy opens to our view : the enormous masses 
 of the heavenly bodies ; their immense dis- 
 tances ; their countless numbers, and their mo- 
 tions, whose swiftness mocks the uttermost 
 eflbrts of the imagination. 
 
 Akin to this pleasure of contemplating new 
 and extraordinary truths, is the gratification of 
 a more learned curiosity, by tracing resem- 
 blances and relations between things which, to 
 common apprehension, seem widely different. 
 Mathematical science, to thinking minds, affords 
 this pleasure in a high degree. It is agreeable 
 to know that the three angles of every triangle, 
 whatever be its size, howsoever its sides may 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 137 
 
 be inclined to each other, are always, of neces- 
 sity, when taken together, the same in amount : 
 that any regular kind of figure whatever, upon 
 the one side of a right-angled triangle, is equal 
 to the two figures of the same kind upon the 
 two other sides, whatever be the size of the tri- 
 angle : that the properties of an oval curve are 
 extremely similar to those of a curve, which 
 appears the least like it of any, consisting of 
 two branches of infinite extent, with their backs 
 turned to each other. To trace such unex- 
 pected resemblances is, indeed, the object of all 
 philosophy ; and experimental science, in par- 
 ticular, is occupied with such investigations, 
 giving us general views, and enabling us to ex- 
 plain the appearances of nature, that is, to show 
 how one appearance is connected with another. 
 But we are now considering only the gratifica- 
 tion derived from learning these things. 
 
 It is surely a satisfaction, for instance, to 
 know that the same thing, or motion, or what- 
 ever it is, which causes the sensation of heat, 
 causes also fluidity, and expands bodies in all 
 directions; that electricity, the hght which is 
 seen on the back of a cat when slightly rubbed 
 on a frosty evening, is the very same matter 
 with the lightning of the clouds; — that plants 
 breathe like ourselves, but differently by day 
 
138 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 and by night ; — that the air which burns in our 
 lamps enables a balloon to mount, and causes 
 the globules of the dust of plants to rise, float 
 through the air, and continue their race ; — in a 
 word, is the immediate cause of vegetation. 
 Nothing can at first view appear less like, or 
 less likely to be caused by the same thing, than 
 the processes of burning and of breathing, — the 
 rust of metals and burning, — an acid and rust, 
 — the influence of a plant on the air it grows in 
 by night, and of an animal on the same air at 
 any time, nay, and of a body burning in that 
 air; and yet all these are the same operation. 
 It is an undeniable fact, that the very same 
 thing which makes the fire burn, makes metals 
 rust, forms acids, and enables plants and ani- 
 mals to breathe ; that these operations, so un- 
 like to common eyes, when examined by the 
 light of science, are the same, — the rusting of 
 metals, — the formation of acids, the burning of 
 inflammable bodies, — the breathing of animals, 
 and the growth of plants by night. To know 
 this is a positive gratification. Is it not pleasing 
 to find the same substance in various situations 
 extremely unlike each other; — to meet with 
 fixed air as the produce of burning, of breathing, 
 and of vegetation ; — to find that it is the choke- 
 damp of mines, the bad air in the grotto at 
 Naples, the cause of death in neglecting brewers' 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 139 
 
 vats, and of the brisk and acid flavour of Seltzer 
 and other mineral springs? Nothing can be 
 less like than the working of a vast steam- 
 engine, of the old construction, and the craw- 
 ling of a fly upon the window. Yet we find 
 that these two operations are performed by the 
 same means, the weight of the atmosphere, and 
 that a sea-horse climbs the ice-hills by no other 
 power. Can any thing be more strange to con- 
 template ? Is there in all the fairy-tales that 
 ever were fancied, any thing more calculated to 
 arrest the attention and to occupy and to gratify 
 the mind, than this most unexpected resem- 
 blance between things so unlike, to the eyes of 
 ordinary beholders? What more pleasing occu- 
 pation than to see uncovered and bared before 
 our eyes, the very instrument and the process 
 by which Nature works ? Then we raise our 
 views to the structures of the heavens ; and are 
 again gratified with tracing accurate but most 
 unexpected resemblances. Is it not in the 
 highest degree interesting to find, that the 
 power which keeps this earth in its shape, and 
 in its path, wheeling upon its axis and round 
 the sun, extends over all the other worlds that 
 compose the universe, and gives to each its pro- 
 per place and motion ; that this same power 
 keeps the moon in her path round our earth, 
 and our earth in its path round the sun^ and 
 
140 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 each planet in its path ; that the same power 
 causes the tides upon our globe, and the pecu- 
 liar form of the globe itself; and that, after all, 
 it is the same power which makes a stone fall to 
 the ground ? To learn these things, and to 
 reflect upon them, occupies the faculties, fills 
 the mind, and produces certain as well as pure 
 gratification. 
 
 But if the knowledge of the doctrines un- 
 folded by science is pleasing, so is the being 
 able to trace the steps by which those doctrines 
 are investigated, and their truth demonstrated : 
 indeed, you cannot be said, in any sense of the 
 word, to have learnt them, or to know them, if 
 you have not so studied them as to perceive 
 how they are proved. Without this you never 
 can expect to remember them long, or to un- 
 derstand them accurately; and that would of 
 itself be reason enough for examining closely the 
 grounds they rest on. But there is the highest 
 gratification of all, in being able to see distinctly 
 those grounds, so as to be satisfied that a belief 
 in the doctrines is well founded. Hence to fol- 
 low a demonstration of a grand mathematical 
 truth — to perceive how clearly and how inevi- 
 tably one step succeeds another, and how the 
 whole steps lead to the conclusion — to observe 
 how certainly and unerringly the reasoning goes 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 141 
 
 on from things perfectly self-evident, and by 
 the smallest addition at each step, every one 
 being as easily taken after the one before as 
 the first step of all was, and yet the result 
 being something not only far from self-evi- 
 dentj but so general and strange, that you can 
 hardly believe it to be true, and are only con- 
 vinced of it by going over the whole reasoning 
 — this operation of the understanding, to those 
 who so exercise themselves, always affords 
 the highest delight. The contemplation of ex- 
 perimental enquiries, and the examination of 
 reasoning founded upon the facts which our 
 experiments and observations disclose, is ano- 
 ther fruitful source of enjoyment, and no other 
 means can be devised for either imprinting the 
 results upon our memory, or enabling us really 
 to enjoy the whole pleasures of science. They 
 who found the study of some branches dry and 
 tedious at the first, have generally become more 
 and more interested as they went on ; each dif- 
 ficulty overcome gives an additional relish to the 
 pursuit, and makes us feel, as it were, that we 
 have by our work and labour established a right 
 of property in the subject. Let any man pass 
 an evening in vacant idleness, or even in read- 
 ing some silly tale, and compare the state of his 
 mind when he goes to sleep, or gets up next 
 morning with its state some other day when he 
 
142 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 has passed a few hours in going through the 
 proofs, by facts and reasoning, of some of the 
 great doctrines in Natural Science, learning 
 truths wholly new to him, and satisfying him- 
 self by careful examination of the grounds on 
 which known truths rest, so as to be not only 
 acquainted with the doctrines themselves, but 
 able to show why he believes them, and to prove 
 before others that they are true ; — he will find 
 as great a difference as can exist in the same 
 being, — the difference between looking back 
 upon time unprofitably wasted, and time spent 
 in self-improvement : he will feel himself in the 
 one case listless and dissatisfied, in the other 
 comfortable and happy : in the one case, if he 
 do not appear to himself humbled, at least he 
 will not have earned any claim to his own re- 
 spect; in the other case, he will enjoy a proud 
 consciousness of having, by his own exertions, 
 become a wiser and tiierefore a more exalted 
 creature. 
 
 To pass our time in the study of the sciences, 
 in learning what others have discovered, and in 
 extending the bounds of human knowledge, has, 
 in all ages, been reckoned the most dignified 
 and happy of human occupations ; and the 
 name of Philosopher, or Lover of Wisdom, is 
 given to those who lead such a life. But it is 
 
OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 143 
 
 by no means necessary that a man should do 
 nothing else than study known truths, and ex- 
 plore new, in order to earn this high title. 
 Some of the greatest Philosophers, in all ages, 
 have been engaged in the pursuits of active life ; 
 and an assiduous devotion of the bulk of our 
 time to the work which our condition requires, 
 is an important duty, and indicates the posses- 
 sion of practical wisdom. This, however, does 
 by no means hinder us from applying the rest 
 of our time, beside what nature requires for 
 meals and rest, to the study of science ; and he 
 who, in whatever station his lot may be cast, 
 works his day's work, and improves his mind 
 in the evening, as well as he who, placed above 
 such necessity, prefers the refined and elevating 
 pleasures of knowledge, to the low gratification 
 of the senses, richly deserves the name of a 
 True Philosopher. 
 
 One of the most delightful treats which 
 science affords us is the knowledge of the ex- 
 traordinary powers with which the human mind 
 is endowed. No man, until he has studied 
 philosophy, can have a just idea of the great 
 things for which Providence has fitted his un- 
 derstanding — the extraordinary disproportion 
 which there is between his natural strength, 
 and the powers of his mind, and the force he 
 
144 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 derives from them. When we survey the mar- 
 vellous truths of Astronomy, we are first of all 
 lost in the feeling of immense space, and of the 
 comparative insignificance of this globe and its 
 inhabitants. But there soon arises a sense of 
 gratification and of new wonder, at perceiving 
 how so insignificant a creature has been able 
 to reach such a knowledge of the unbounded 
 system of the universe — to penetrate, as it 
 were, through all space, and become familiar 
 with the laws of nature at distances so enor- 
 mous as baffle our imagination — to be able to 
 say, not merely that the Sun has 329,630 times 
 the quantity of matter which our globe has, 
 Jupiter 308f(7, and Saturn 93J times ; but that 
 a pound of lead weighs at the Sun 22 lbs. 1 5 ozs. 
 16 dwts. 8 grs. and f of a grain ! at Jupiter 2 lbs. 
 1 oz. 19 dwts. 1 gr.H ; and at Saturn 1 lb. 
 3 ozs. 8 dwts. 20 grs. ^ part of a grain ! And 
 what is far more wonderful, to discover the laws 
 by which the whole of this vast system is held 
 together, and maintained through countless ages 
 in perfect security and order. It is surely no 
 mean reward of our labour to become ac- 
 quainted with the prodigious genius of those 
 who have almost exalted the nature of man 
 above its destined sphere, when, admitted to a 
 fellowship with these loftier minds, we discover 
 how it comes to pass that, by universal consent, 
 
OBJF.CTS, Sec. OF SCIESCF.. 145 
 
 they hold a station apart, rising over all the 
 Great Teachers of mankind, and spoken of 
 reverently, as if Newfon and Laplace w^ere 
 not the names of mortal men. 
 
 The highest of all our gratifications in the 
 contemplations of science remains : we are 
 raised by them to an understanding of the in- 
 finite w^isdom and goodness which the Creator 
 has displayed in his works. Not a step can we 
 take in any direction, without perceiving the 
 most extraordinary traces of design; and the 
 skill everywhere conspicuous, is calculated, in 
 so vast a proportion of instances^ to promote the 
 happiness of living creatures, and especially of 
 our own kind, that we can feel no hesitation in 
 concluding that, if we knew the whole scheme 
 of Providence, every part would be found in 
 harmony with a plan of absolute benevolence. 
 Independently, however, of this most consoling 
 inference, the delight is inexpressible of being 
 able to follow, as it were, with our eyes, the 
 marvellous works of the Great Architect of 
 Nature — to trace the unbounded power and ex- 
 quisite skill which are exhibited in the most 
 minute, as well as the mightiest parts of his 
 system. The pleasure derived from this study 
 is unceasing, and so various, that it never tires 
 the appetite. But it is unlike the low gratifi- 
 
 L 
 
146 OBJECTS, &C. OF SCIENCE. 
 
 cations of sense in another respect : while those 
 hurt the health, debase the understanding, and 
 corrupt the feelings, this elevates and refines 
 our nature, teaching us to look upon all earthly 
 objects as insignificant and below our notice, 
 except the pursuit of knowledge and the culti- 
 vation of virtue ; and giving a dignity and im- 
 portance to the enjoyment of life, which the 
 frivolous and the grovelling cannot even com- 
 prehend. 
 
 Let us, then, conclude, that the Pleasures of 
 Science go hand in hand with the solid benefits 
 derived from it ; that they tend, unlike other 
 gratifications, not only to make our lives more 
 agreeable, but better ; and that a rational 
 being is bound, by every motive of interest and 
 of duty, to direct his mind towards pursuits 
 which are found to be the sure path of Virtue as 
 well as of happiness. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ADDRESS IN ANSWER TO THE 
 KING'S SPEECH, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE OPENING OF THE SESSION, 
 JANUARY 29th, 1828. 
 
 Against one paragraph of this Address I am 
 most anxious to record at once my unqualified 
 dissent; having at the same time the fullest 
 and firmest conviction, that that dissent will be 
 re-echoed from one end of the kingdom to the 
 other. I mean to allude to the manner in 
 vsrhich the late glorious, brilliant, decisive, and 
 immortal achievement at Navarino was des- 
 cribed, as being a matter to be lamented. 
 This is the first time I ever saw men anxious to 
 come forward and refuse credit where it had 
 been called for, and set at nought the most 
 splendid achievement of their arms. It has 
 been reserved for some of the men of these times 
 
 l2 
 
148 king's speech, 1828. 
 
 to triumph and be afraid — to conquer and to 
 repine — to fight, as heroes did, the contest of 
 freedom, and still to tremble like slaves — to act 
 gloriously and repine bitterly — to win by brave 
 men the battle of liberty in the east, and in the 
 west to pluck from the valiant brow the laurels 
 which it had so nobly earned, and plant the 
 cypress in their stead, because the conqueror 
 had fought for religion and liberty. I hail as a 
 bad omen the designation of a great naval 
 achievement as an ** untoward event.'' 
 
 I have no fear of slavery being introduced 
 into this country by the power of the sword. 
 It will take a stronger, it will demand a more 
 powerful man even than the Duke of Welling- 
 ton to effect such an object. The Noble Duke 
 may take the army, he may take the navy, he 
 may take the mitre, he may take the gr^at seal 
 — I will make the Noble Duke a present of 
 them all. Let him come on with his whole 
 force, sword in hand, against the constitution, 
 and the energies of the people of this country 
 will not only beat him, but laugh at his efforts. 
 Therefore I am perfectly satisfied there will be 
 no unconstitutional attack on the liberties of the 
 people. These are not the times for such an 
 attempt. There have been periods when the 
 
khstg's speech, 1828. 149 
 
 country heard with dismay that ''the soldier 
 was abroad.'* That is not the case now. Let 
 the soldier be ever so much abroad in the pre- 
 sent age, he can do nothing. There is another 
 person abroad — a less important person — in the 
 eyes of some an insignificant person — whose 
 labours have tended to produce this state of 
 things. The schoolmaster is abroad ; and I trust 
 more to the schoolmaster armed with his primer, 
 than I do to the soldier in full military array, 
 for upholding and extending the liberties of my 
 country. I think the appointment of the Duke 
 of Wellington is bad, in a constitutional point 
 of view; but as to violence being, in conse- 
 quence, directed against the liberties of the 
 country, the fear of such an event I look upon 
 as futile and groundless. 
 
 l3 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THB 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 ON MOVING AN 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE CROWN 
 
 RELATIVE TO 
 
 THE STATE OF THE LAW. 
 
 FEBRUARY 7th, 1828. 
 
 If we view the whole establishments of the 
 country — the Government by the King, and 
 the other Estates of the Realm, — ^the entire 
 system of Administration, whether civil or mili- 
 tary, — the vast establishments of land and of 
 naval force by which the State is defended, — 
 our foreign negotiations, intended to preserve 
 peace with the world, — our domestic arrange- 
 ments, necessary to make the Government re- 
 spected by the people, — or our fiscal regula- 
 tions, by which the expense of the whole is to be 
 supported, — all shrink into nothing, when com- 
 pared with the pure, and prompt, and cheap 
 Administration of Justice throughout the com- 
 munity. I will, indeed, make no such com- 
 
STATE OF THE LAW. 151 
 
 parison ; I will not put in contrast things so 
 inseparably connected; for all the establish- 
 ments formed by our ancestors, and supported 
 by their descendants, were invented, and are 
 chiefly maintained, in order that justice may 
 be duly administered between man and man. 
 And, in my mind, he was guilty of no error, — 
 he was chargeable with no exaggeration, — he 
 was betrayed by his fancy into no metaphor, 
 who once said, that all we see about us. King, — 
 Lords, and Commons, the whole machinery of 
 the State, all the apparatus of the system, and 
 its varied workings, end in simply bringing 
 twelve good men into a box. Such — the ad- 
 ministration of justice — is the cause of the 
 establishment of Government — such is the use 
 of Government: it is this purpose which can 
 alone justify restraints on natural liberty — it is 
 this only which can excuse constant interference 
 with the rights and property of men. 
 
 The great object of every Government, in 
 selecting the Judges of the land, should be to 
 obtain the most skilful and learned men in their 
 profession, and, at the same time, the men 
 whose character gives the best security for the 
 pure and impartial administration of justice. 
 I almost feel ashamed. Sir, to have troubled 
 
 l4 
 
152 STATE OF THE LAW^ 
 
 you with such a truism ; but the House will pre- 
 sently see the application I am about to make of 
 it. Sorry am I to say that our system of judicial 
 promotion sins in both these particulars. Go- 
 vernment ought to fill the Bench with men taken 
 from among the most learned lawyers and most 
 accomplished advocates — men who have both 
 knowledge of the depth of jurisprudence, and 
 sagacity to apply it — men who from experience, 
 as leading advocates, possess the power of 
 taking large and enlightened views of questions, 
 and of promptly seizing the bearings of a case. 
 There cannot be a greater error than theirs who 
 fancy that an able advocate makes a bad judge ; 
 all experience is against it. The best judges 
 in my time, with the exception of the present 
 Lord Chief Justice,* than whom no man can 
 discharge his office more excellently and effici- 
 ently, have all of them been previously distin- 
 guished in the profession as advocates. But not 
 only should the choice be unconfined by the 
 legal acquirements and professional habits of the 
 practitioner ; there ought not to be, in choosing 
 Judges from the bar, any exclusion or restriction. 
 He alone ought to be selected, in whom talent^ 
 and integrity, and experience, most abound, and 
 are best united. The office of Judge is of so 
 important and responsible a nature, that one 
 
 * Lord Tenterden. 
 
STATE OF THE LAM'. 163 
 
 should suppose the members of Government 
 would naturally require that they should be at 
 liberty to make their selection from the whole 
 field of the profession — that they would them- 
 selves claim to have the whole field open to 
 their choice. Who could believe that a Minis- 
 try would not eagerly seek to have all men 
 before them, when their object must be to 
 choose the most able and accomplished. But 
 although this is obvious and undeniable, and 
 although the extension of the Minister's search 
 cannot fail to be attended with the highest pub- 
 lic advantage, as well as the greatest relief to 
 him in performing his trust, is it the case that 
 any such general and uncontrouled choice is 
 exercised? Is all the field really open? Are 
 there no portions of the domain excluded from 
 the selector's authority ? True, no law prevents 
 such a search for capacity and worth ! True, the 
 doors of Westminster Hall stand open to the 
 Minister ! He may enter those gates, and choose 
 the ablest and the best man there, be his talent 
 what it may, be his character what it may, be 
 his party what it may ; no man to whom the 
 offer is made^ will refuse to be a Judge. But 
 there is a custom above the law — a custom in 
 my mind, " more honoured in the breach than 
 the observance," that party as well as merit 
 must be studied in these appointments. One 
 
154 STATE OF THE LAW. 
 
 half of the Bar is thus excluded from the com- 
 petition ; for no man can be a Judge who is not 
 of a particular party. Unless he be the known 
 adherent of a certain system of government, — 
 unless his party happen to be the party connec- 
 ted with the crown, or allied with the Ministry 
 of the day, there is no chance for him ; that 
 man is surely excluded. Men must be on one 
 side of the great political question to become 
 judges ; and no one may hope to fill that digni- 
 fied ofiice, unless he belongs to the side on which 
 courtly favour shines; his seat on the bench 
 must depend, generally speaking, on his support- 
 ing the leading principles of the existing 
 Administration. 
 
 « « « « « 
 
 How can I, or any one conversant with the 
 practice of the law, adequately express the 
 benefits of having a cheap redress for petty 
 wrongs, when we daily witness the evils of the 
 opposite system ! How often have I been able 
 to trace bankruptcies and insolvencies to some 
 law suit, about ten or fifteen pounds, the costs 
 of which have mounted up to large sums, and 
 been the beginning of embarrassment! Nay, 
 how often have we seen men in the situation 
 described by Dean Swift, who represents Gul- 
 liver's father as ruined by gaining a Chancery 
 suit, with costs ! 
 
STATE OF THE LAW. 155 
 
 After Mr. Justice Blackstone had written his 
 beautiful, and, in part, profound Commentaries, 
 there occurred a case, which he published him- 
 self in his Reports, and which must, I conclude, 
 have happened after the panegyrics were com- 
 posed. I marvel much, however, that, when a 
 subsequent edition of his Commentaries appear- 
 ed, he did not correct the error into which he 
 must then have been convinced, that he had 
 been betrayed by his excessive admiration for 
 the forms and technicalities of our common 
 law. The case, as reported by himself, was in 
 substance this : a gentleman of the name of 
 Robinson, in Yorkshire, was minded to try the 
 resources of the law in an action of trespass 
 against some poor men, who lived near him. 
 In the course of it, reference was made to the 
 Master, to report by whose fault the pleadings 
 in the action had extended to a most enormous 
 and unprecedented length. The Master re- 
 ported, that in the declaration there were five 
 counts; that twenty-seven several pleas of 
 justification were pleaded by the defendants, 
 which, with replications, traverses, new assign- 
 ments, and other monuments of pleading, 
 amounted at length to a paper book of near 
 two thousand sheets. He was of opinion, that 
 the fault lay principally in the length and intri- 
 cacy of the declaration, the action being only 
 
15G STATE OF J'HE LAW. 
 
 brought to try whether the freeholders and copy- 
 holders of the Manor, whereof Robinson was 
 Lord, were entitled to common in a ground called 
 the inclosure. He likewise reported, that the 
 declaration was so catching, by ringing changes 
 upon the several defendants, and the several 
 names of the ground, that it was necessary to 
 guard every loop-hole ; which made their pleas 
 so various and so long, especially as Mr. Ro- 
 binson had declared, that he had drawn the 
 declaration in this manner ** on purpose to catch 
 the defendants, and that he would scourge them 
 with a rod of iron." The Court was very indig- 
 nant at this abuse of the technicalities of the 
 law, and the book, says Mr. Robinson, appeared 
 in ptvpria persona, to shew cause against this 
 report, " no other Council caring to be employ- 
 ed for him." The Court ordered Mr. Sergeant 
 Hewitt, and Mr. Winn, to settle an issue, which 
 they did in a quarter of an hour, and in the 
 space of a quarter sheet of paper, instead of two 
 thousand folios. Talk of scourging with a rod 
 of iron ! Why should he think of it ? The lash 
 of parchment, which is applied to all suitors in 
 our Courts of Law — that flapper, which keeps 
 them awake to the course of justice, by the 
 expense and anxiety it inflicts, — that truly 
 parental corrector of human errors, manufac- 
 tured in the engines of practice and pleading, 
 
STATE OF THE LAW. 157 
 
 which, pretending to enlighten, serve only to 
 keep the court and the suitors in the dark as to 
 what they are conflicting about, and oftentimes 
 teach them nothing certain, but that they are 
 ruined, and cannot tell how : this parchment 
 lash was a far more safe as well as powerful 
 scourge for the rich and crafty lawyer, and a far 
 more deadly one for his poor and simple antago- 
 nists, than any rod of iron which he could have 
 forged in all Colebrookdale ! 
 
 Speaking from experience, and experience 
 alone, as a practical lawyer, I must aver, that I 
 consider the method of Juries a most whole- 
 some, wise, and almost perfect invention, for 
 the purposes of judicial inquiry. In the first 
 place, it controuls the Judge, who might, not 
 only in political cases, have a prejudice against 
 one party, or a leaning towards another ; but 
 might also, in cases not avowedly political, 
 where some chord of political feeling is unex- 
 pectedly struck, if left supreme, shew a bias 
 respecting suitors, or, what is detrimental to 
 justice, their council or attornies. In the second 
 place, it supplies that knowledge of the world, 
 and that sympathy with its tastes and feelings, 
 which Judges seldom possess, and which, from 
 their habits and station in society^ it is not 
 
15B STATE OF THE LAW. 
 
 decent that they should possess, in a large mea- 
 sure, upon all subjects. In the third place, 
 what individual can so well weigh conflicting 
 evidence, as twelve men, indifferently chosen 
 from the middle classes of the community, of 
 various habits, characters, prejudices, and abi- 
 lity ? The number and variety of the persons 
 is eminently calculated to secure a sound con- 
 clusion upon the opposing evidence of witnesses 
 or of circumstances. Lastly, what individual 
 can so well assess the amount of damages which 
 a Plaintiff ought to recover for any injury he 
 has received ? How can a Judge decide half 
 so well as an intelligent Jury, whether he 
 should recover as a compensation for an assault, 
 fifty pounds or a hundred pounds damages, for 
 the seduction of his wife or daughter, fifteen 
 hundred or two thousand, or five thousand 
 pounds damages? The system is above all 
 praise, it looks well in theory, and works well in 
 practice. 
 
 The great stream of time is perpetually flow- 
 ing on ; all things around us are in ceaseless 
 motion ; and we vainly imagine to preserve our 
 relative position among them, by getting out of 
 the current and standing stock still on the mar- 
 gin. The stately vessel we belong to glides 
 
STATE OF THE LAW. 159 
 
 down ; our bark is attached to it ; we might 
 '* pursue the triumph and partake the gale ;" 
 but, worse than the fool who stares, expecting 
 the current to flow down and run out, we ex- 
 claim — stop the boat ! — and would tear it away 
 to strand it, for the sake of preserving its con- 
 nexion with the vessel. All the changes that 
 are hourly and gently going on in spite of us, 
 and all those which we ought to make, that 
 violent severances of settled relations may not 
 be effected, far from exciting murmurs of dis- 
 content, ought to be gladly hailed as dispensa- 
 tions of a bountiful Providence, instead of 
 filling us with a thoughtless and preposterous 
 alarm. 
 
 I must, once more, press upon the attention of 
 the House the necessity of taking a general 
 view of the whole system in whatever inquiries 
 may be instituted. Partial legislation on such 
 a subject is pregnant with mischief. Timid 
 men, but still more blind than they are timid, 
 recommend taking a single branch at a time, 
 and imagine that they are consulting the safety 
 of the mass. It is the very reverse of safe. 
 In the body of the law all the members are 
 closely connected ; you cannot touch one with- 
 out affecting the rest ; and if your eye is con- 
 
160 STATE OF THE LAM'. 
 
 fined to the one you deal with, you cannot tell 
 what others may be injured, and how. Even a 
 manifest imperfection may not be removed 
 without great risk when it is not in some insu- 
 lated part ; for it oftentimes happens that, by 
 long use, a defect has given rise to some new 
 arrangement far beyond itself, and not to be 
 disturbed with impunity. The topical reformer, 
 who confines his care to one flaw, may thus do 
 as much injury as a surgeon who should set 
 himself about violently reducing a luxation of 
 long standing, where nature had partially reme- 
 died the evil by forming a false joint, or should 
 cut away some visceral excrescence in which a 
 new system of circulation and other action was 
 going on. Depend upon it, the general refor- 
 mation of such a mechanism as our law, is not 
 only the most effectual, but the only safe course. 
 This, in truth, alone deserves the name of either 
 a rational or a temperate reform. 
 
 After a long interval of various fortune, and 
 filled with vast events, but marked from age to 
 age by a steady course of improvement, we are 
 again called to the grand labour of surveying 
 and amending our Laws. For this task, it well 
 becomes us to begird ourselves, as the honest re- 
 presentatives of the people. Dispatch and 
 
STATE OF THE LAW. 161 
 
 vigour are imperiously demanded; but that 
 deliberation, too, must not be lost sight of, 
 which so mighty an enterprize requires. When 
 we shall have done the work, we may fairly 
 challenge the utmost approval of our constitu- 
 ents, for in none other have they so deep a 
 stake. 
 
 The course is clear before us ; the race is 
 glorious to run. You have the power of send- 
 ing your name down through all times, illus- 
 trated by deeds of higher fame, and more useful 
 import, than ever were done within these walls. 
 You saw the greatest warrior of the age — con- 
 queror of Italy — humbler of Germany — terror 
 of the north — saw him account all his matchless 
 victories poor, compared with the triumph you 
 are now in a condition to win — saw him con- 
 temn the fickleness of fortune, while, in despite 
 of her, he could pronounce his memorable boast, 
 *' I shall go down to posterity with the Code in 
 ** my hand !" You have vanquished him in the 
 field ; strive now to rival him in the sacred arts 
 of peace ! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom 
 in arms you overcame ! The lustre of the Re- 
 gency will be eclipsed by the more solid and 
 enduring splendour of the Reign. The praise 
 which false courtiers feigned for our Edwards 
 and Harrys, the Justinians of their day, will be 
 
1^2 STATE OF THE LAW. 
 
 the just tribute of the wise and the good to 
 that Monarch under whose sway so mighty an 
 undertaking shall be accomplished. Of a truth, 
 sceptres are most chiefly to be envied for that 
 they bestow the power of thus conquering and 
 ruling thus. It was the boast of Augustus — it 
 formed part of the glare in which the perfidies 
 of his earlier years were lost — that he found 
 Rome of brick, and left it of marble ; a praise 
 not unworthy a great Prince, and to which the 
 present reign has its claims also. But how 
 much nobler will be our Sovereign's boast, when 
 he shall have it to say, that he found law dear, 
 and left it cheap ; found it a sealed book — left 
 it a living letter ; found it the patrimony of the 
 rich — left it the inheritance of the poor ; found 
 it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression 
 — left it the staff of honesty and the shield of 
 innocence ! To me, much reflecting on these 
 things, it has always seemed a worthier honour 
 to be the instrument of making you bestir youf- 
 selves in this high matter, than to enjoy all that 
 office can bestow— office, of which the patron- 
 age would be an irksome incumbrance, the 
 emoluments superfluous to one content with the 
 rest of his industrious fellow-citizens, that his 
 own hands minister to his wants; and as for 
 the power supposed to follow it — I have lived 
 near half a century, and I have learned that 
 
STATE OF THE LAW. 163 
 
 power and place may be severed. But one 
 power I do prize : that of being the advocate of 
 my countrymen here, and their fellow labourer 
 elsewhere, in those things which concern the 
 best interests of mankind. That power I know 
 full well, no government can give — ^no change 
 take away ! 
 
 M 2 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 IN 
 
 t 
 
 SUPPORT OF THE REPEAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS, 
 
 FEBRUARY 26th, 1828. 
 
 The Honourable Baronet* says, ** I do not like 
 '* to talk so slightingly of — I do not like to dis- 
 ** parage — the wisdom of our ancestors." Far 
 be it from me, Sir, to disparage the praise thus 
 bestowed by the Honourable Baronet on ** the 
 wisdom of our ancestors." The phrase, how- 
 ever, I consider to have been one of the most 
 fruitful sources of mischief to the country ; but 
 I must inform the Honourable Baronet, that 
 that phrase had been disparaged long before 
 the existence of the Test and Corporation Acts 
 — not by ridicule, but by sound argument — not 
 
 • Sir Robert H. Inglis. 
 
TEST ACT 
 
 165 
 
 by the sneers of the senseless, but by tiie 
 soundest wisdom, the greatest knowledge, the 
 highest intellect, that England ever produced. 
 I commend the phrase to the mitigated censure 
 of the Honourable Baronet. For it was a Lord 
 High Chancellor of England — a person of the 
 name of Bacon, or some such name — a name, 
 perhaps, which has no respect in the eyes of 
 the Honourable Baronet — who first stamped the 
 seal of disparagement on the phrase which the 
 Honourable Baronet brings forward this evening 
 " to fright the House from its propriety." He 
 it was. Sir, who first reprobated the eternally — 
 recurring praises of the ** wisdom of our ances- 
 tors." He it was, who laughed at the phrase 
 ** experience of past ages." '* In truth," said he, 
 *' if not a contradiction in terms, it is the gros- 
 ** sest abuse of language : for it proceeds upon 
 '* this basis, that the world was older and wiser 
 " when it was younger, than it now is, when 
 ** every youth knows more than the grey hairs 
 ** of former times." 
 
 We have been told, Sir, that the imposing 
 the Sacrament as a test has been long in exist- 
 ence ; and we have often been asked, *' What 
 does it signify?" This question has been 
 repeated, Sir, this evening; and it has been 
 
 M 3 
 
166 TEST ACT. 
 
 answered — unanswerably answered by my 
 Honourable Friend below me^* and by the Ho- 
 nourable Gentleman who spoke so ably in the 
 early part of the evening.^ '^ What does it sig- 
 nify V Why, Sir, I say it signifies every thing. 
 First and foremost it signifies a great deal to the 
 Church itself: and here I speak as a Church- 
 man — as a member of the Christian Church 
 established in England — founded on the doc- 
 trines of the Scripture, patronised by the State, 
 and confirmed by statute, as well as by com- 
 mon law. I would ask every man — parti- 
 cularly every serious man, who has made religion 
 an object of his contemplation, and who values 
 it a rush, whether there could, by possibility, be 
 devised a greater impropriety — a more polluting, 
 more degrading, indecency and impiety, than 
 to make the Sacrament a custom of the Consti- 
 tution, and the test of office — it is the most holy 
 rite of our religion — of the purest religion upon 
 earth — of a religion which, above all others, 
 that all time had seen dawn upon man, was 
 most abhorrent of secular ties, — most alien from 
 fleshly purposes— of a pecularly mild character; 
 and which, from its beginning, though other 
 religions allowed mankind to share with other 
 Gods, had forbad contamination with such 
 Gods, and fleshly lusts, and the worship of 
 
 * Mr. Fergusson. f Mr. Wilbrahara. 
 
TEST ACT. 167 
 
 Mammon — this religion, the purest of all reli- 
 gions, and this rite, the most holy rite of that 
 religion was, by this statute, degraded and pol- 
 luted, by being made the passport to the place 
 of a common game-keeper. Is not this enough 
 — is not this sufficient — to make us all say, that 
 it ought to exist no longer ? Does not this fact 
 cast upon those who maintain the necesHty of 
 continuing this act in force, the onus of show- 
 ing — not by talking to us about the wisdom of 
 our ancestors, of the law, of the State, of tythes^ 
 of the clergy, but by sound argument — the 
 necessity, the absolute necessity, for the safety 
 of the Church, as part and parcel of the safety 
 of the State, that this precise form should be 
 upheld. 
 
 M 4 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 RELATIVE TO 
 
 THE AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL, 
 
 JUNE Ut, 1829. 
 
 With respect to the character and conduct of 
 the man who now rules the destinies of Por- 
 tugal, I am unwilling to detain the House by 
 any observations of mine on his enormities : I 
 leave his conduct exposed to the fearful reflec- 
 tions of my Right Honourable Friend.* We 
 are not, I agree, to be governed in our conduct 
 by the character of this individual, odious as it 
 is. Though I believe the whole conduct of the 
 man to be detestable, though he deserves not to 
 be mentioned in comparison with any modern 
 petty despots, but rather to be classed with the 
 prodigious monsters of antiquity, Dom Miguel is 
 still the de facto Monarch of Portugal : — the 
 more is the pity. As long as he confines him- 
 self to Portugal^ however, we may sincerely 
 
 * Sir James Macintosh. 
 
AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL. 169 
 
 wish that there may be a speedy term to his 
 degrading tyranny, — however, we may offer up 
 our prayers that the days of his frightful cruelty 
 may be numbered, and a speedy end be put to 
 his reign of terror and bloodshed, — still we have 
 no right to interfere ; it is more than ever in- 
 cumbent on us to keep England free from any 
 danger of being involved in foreign hostilities — a 
 duty second only to that of preserving peace at 
 home. Therefore, so long as Dom Miguel re- 
 mains in his own country, — except that we 
 should hold him a usurper, and refuse to ac- 
 knowledge him as the legitimate governor of 
 that country, — beyond that I care not ; but let 
 him beware of going beyond the limits of Por- 
 tugal ; for if he exceeds them, he makes it im- 
 perative upon me to inquire into his title — I am 
 bound to examine it — I am bound to investigate 
 the right he claims of governing Portugal. He 
 has done so ; he has exceeded his limits ; he 
 has blockaded Terceira, and there he is no more 
 a King, de facto; there Donna Maria is not only 
 the Sovereign de jure, but de facto also ; there 
 Dom Miguel, that foul pretender and usurper, is 
 not only not a King, but he is not a usurper 
 de facto; his usurpation is confined within cer- 
 tain limits — in Portugal it wore a tangible shape, 
 in Terceira he is a traitor and a conspirator. In 
 Donna Maria the fact and the right coincide ; 
 
170 AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL. 
 
 she is the rightful and the actual Sovereign of 
 Terceira. Why, then, should I not be suf- 
 fered to go to Terceira ? Because Dom Miguel 
 does not like me to go there. Thus, Dom 
 Miguel establishes a paper blockade^ for it is 
 nothing more ; therefore we acknowledge the 
 blockade, and not only so, but we co-operate 
 with him. Is this, or is it not neutrality? Is 
 this acting up to that sacred law which we pro- 
 fess to follow, and which is the corner-stone of 
 that peace which it gave me pleasure to hear so 
 praised, not by my Right Honourable Friend 
 merely, but by the Right Honourable Gentle- 
 man opposite* — which is not only consistent 
 with the real interests of the country, but which 
 it is our first, and paramount, and sacred duty 
 to preserve inviolate ? Peace, at all times, is 
 the dearest object of my heart, but it is doubly 
 and trebly dear at the present moment, when 
 we are suffering under the effects of a war of a 
 quarter of a century ; — when we are smarting 
 and bleeding at every pore (I may say so with- 
 out a figure), it becomes the first and bounden 
 duty of the Government, and ought to be an 
 object nearest its heart, that nothing should be 
 done, or said, or whispered in the ear, or even 
 dreamed of, that might put that peace to risk. 
 Happy am I to hear that we have become more 
 
 • Sir Robert Peel. 
 
AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL. 171 
 
 sensible of the blessings of peace ; that the 
 ardour of military glory, and the thirst of fame, 
 that curse of nations, especially amongst our 
 neighbours who have been greater admirers of 
 it, and greater sufferers from its effects than 
 even ourselves, no longer govern our policy : 
 most heartily do I rejoice at hearing this mania 
 stigmatized as it has been this night. 
 
 Though many may think that the crimes of 
 Dom Miguel, and the sufferings of his unhappy 
 subjects, give us a right to interfere with his 
 government, and to tear him down from that 
 height which by his crimes he has ascended, 
 yet, however anxious might be my wish to see 
 that tyranny put an end to, I should be the last 
 man to counsel stirring one step for the purpose 
 of obtaining an object, which, though greatly to 
 be desired, can only justly, can only safely, can 
 only lawfully be accomplished by those who 
 live under his government. I would counsel, 
 strictly and rigorously, non-interference, with 
 reference even to Dom Miguel, not that I hate 
 his tyranny less, but that I love peace and its 
 principles more. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THB 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LOCAL COURT BILL, 
 
 APRIL 29th, 1830. 
 
 If it were asserted there was any country in 
 which a man, in order to recover a debt of £6. 
 or £7., must begin by expending* £60. or £70., 
 — ^where, at the outset, to use a common ex- 
 pression, he had to run the risk of throwing so 
 much good money after bad, — it would at once 
 be said, that whatever other benefits, or advan- 
 tages that country enjoyed, at least it was not 
 fortunate in its system of law. But, if it were 
 added, that in addition to spending £60. or £70., 
 a man must endure great difficulties, anxiety, 
 and uncertainty, infinite bandying to and fro, 
 and moving about from province to province, 
 and from court to court, before he could obtain 
 judgment, then our envy of the country where 
 
LOCAL COURT BILL. 173 
 
 such administration of the law and legal institu- 
 tions existed, would be still further diminished. 
 If to this information^ it were added, that in the 
 same country, after having spent £60. or £70., 
 the adversary of the creditor would have the 
 power of keeping all his property out of his 
 way, so that, after all his expense, all his delay, 
 and all his anxiety, it would still be doubtful 
 whether he could obtain a single farthing of his 
 debt; if, furthermore, it were stated, that in the 
 same country, if the debtor were solvent and 
 willing to pay what the law required from his 
 hands, the creditor would receive, it is true, his 
 original claim of £6. or £7., but not the whole 
 £60. or £70. which he had expended in costs 
 to recover it, by about £20., — so that, on the 
 balance, he would be some £13. or £ 14. out of 
 pocket by success, over and above the amount 
 of the debt which he recovered, after being 
 exposed to a variety of plagues and the annoy- 
 ance of these proceedings; — if we were told of 
 such a case, would not the natural enquiry be 
 ** whether it was possible that such a country 
 existed ? " Sir, the individual to whom this 
 strange information was given, if he supposed 
 it possible that such a country existed^ would at 
 least pronounce it to be one of the most barba- 
 rous and unenlightened in the world. That it 
 must be a poor country, he would think quite 
 
174 LOCAL COURT BILL. 
 
 obvious — and equally obvious, that it must be 
 of no commercial power — of no extent of capital 
 — of no density of population, because those 
 circumstances would necessarily produce, from 
 hour to hour, transactions, involving important 
 and valuable interests. Nevertheless, I need 
 not remind the House — for every man who hears 
 me, or does not hear me, must be aware (many 
 to their cost) of the fact — that such a country, 
 so unfortunately circumstanced, is no other than 
 that in which I now speak — England. 
 
 I propose to add to the power of the Judge, 
 the right of calhng the parties, if they please, 
 before him ; that is, if one is desirous of it, and 
 the other has no objection. That they should 
 go before him — that it should be compulsory to 
 receive his opinion — that he should act as Judge 
 of conciliation, and endeavour to reconcile their 
 differences. I will explain, in one moment, why 
 I regard this measure as desirable, and by no 
 means impracticable, and I can assure the 
 House, that the suggestions which I have offer- 
 ed, are founded strictly on practical experience. 
 When a man goes into court, in many cases, 
 no person is more likely to be led into error as 
 to the probable termination of the cause, than 
 the party interested. In almost all instances 
 
LOCAL COURT BILL. 175 
 
 he is more or less misled by the advice he 
 receives. I do not say that gentlemen of the 
 bar give opinions that an action is maintainable, 
 when they knov^ that it is not. God forbid ! I 
 believe that there is no set of men less apt to do 
 so. I believe they are more apt to dissuade — to 
 throw cold water upon law — and to give doubt- 
 ful opinions and discouraging advice. I say 
 this is the common course of the profession. I 
 say that in ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 
 dred it is so. I need hardly say, it has hap- 
 pened to all respectable men. I need hardly 
 say, when it happens not, a man is scarcely 
 respectable. But great as my feeling is for the 
 profession — strongly prepossessed as I am of its 
 high honour, of its great integrity — of all those 
 qualities which entitle it to respect — and much 
 as I hope that the exceptions are rare — yet I 
 will not say, that there are no exceptions, even 
 in that profession to which I have the honour 
 to belong. 
 
 I will not take upon myself to say, that it is 
 an impossibility to find a man at the bar, who 
 will give an opinion to encourage, when he 
 ought not to encourage, — still less will I take 
 upon myself to deny, that there are always to 
 be found men, in the other branches of the pro- 
 fession, who will go to that man to get his opi- 
 
176 LOCAL COURT BILL. 
 
 nion, and who, if they cannot get that opinion, 
 will substitute their own for it ; and tell their 
 client, that he is sure to gain that which they 
 ought to know, there is every probability he 
 will lose. But this I do know — that every day 
 we have men come before counsel^ previous to 
 going into court ; a consultation is holden, and 
 men lift up their hands^ and throw up their 
 eyes, and say, who could have advised such an 
 action; and upon other occasions, on the part 
 of the defendant ; it is said, — " how could you 
 go on so long with it ?" The reason is neither 
 more nor less than this — that no sooner have 
 they read the case, than, without any further 
 consultation together, each man comes into the 
 Consulting-Room, with his mind made up, that 
 they have not the shadow of a case, and the 
 poor client is allowed to go into a court only to 
 be ruined. This happens every day, and it 
 happens often enough, to make one wish that it 
 never happened at all. There are cases where 
 the advice of the counsel is kept back from the 
 client — where the opinion is obtained on a false 
 statement of facts ; and in all these cases, the 
 man the most ignorant of the chance of success, 
 or failure, is the unfortunate client — dragged 
 into a court of justice. I do not say he is 
 always dragged — he is sometimes coaxed, and 
 they who ought to put him on his guard, mis- 
 
LOCAL COURT J3ILL. 177 
 
 lead and urge him on, and he finds too late, 
 that he has been deceived and ruined. The 
 men who do so ignorantly, — and they are not a 
 few, — are not so culpable as they, who do so 
 knowingly and willingly. Even my respect for 
 that branch of the profession to which I allude 
 — I mean solicitors and attorneys — will not 
 allow me to deny that I have frequently seen 
 instances^ in both classes of such cases, pro- 
 duced more frequently by the ignorance of the 
 attorney^ than by a knowledge that his client 
 must lose. In these cases, if you could separate 
 the client from the attorney and the counsel, 
 and get him aside, and tell him, that if he goes 
 on with his suit, he must be disappointed and 
 defeated ; I am sanguine enough to expect that 
 the ruin which often happens, would be saved 
 to the unfortunate and ill-advised clients. 
 
 This system which I have submitted to the 
 House, I trust respectfully, founded as it is upon 
 experience, would produce the best results. I 
 have hopes, and I think they are not visionary 
 hopes, that great benefit would accrue to par- 
 ties from having conversation with an individual 
 of great knowledge and undoubted respectability. 
 Whether, not merely that part of the subject 
 which relates to conciliation and arbitration, by 
 public appointed arbitrators, but the whole sub- 
 ject of affording the means of obtaining cheap 
 
178 LOCAL COURT BILL. 
 
 justice, will be approved of by the legislature, 
 I know not — but this I know, that those who 
 reject it are imperatively called upon by the 
 state of the case, to point out another remedy. 
 I care not for the name. If you reform the 
 County Courts, it will only hamper you with 
 certain forms, and with certain inconveniences, 
 which had much better be got rid of, for no- 
 thing is so useless as preserving the shadow 
 when the substance is gone — it only harrasses 
 and vexes. But call it by what name you will, 
 the subject of this measure is imperatively re- 
 quired. The exigencies of suitors will no longer 
 allow us to withold it from them : of this I am 
 as much persuaded as that T am in existence, or 
 that I am standing here, addressing this House. 
 The people have a right to justice — they are 
 crying out for it — they distrust the government 
 for want of it — they distrust all plans of reform, 
 whether legal or political reform ; and so long 
 as they feel this want, will they continue to do so. 
 
 I have heard it said, when one lifts up his 
 voice against things as they are, and wishes for 
 a change, that he is raising a clamour against 
 existing institutions, a clamour against our vene- 
 rable establishments, a clamour against the law 
 of the land ; but this is no clamour against the 
 one, or the other. It is a clamour against 
 
LOCAL COURT BILL. 179 
 
 abuses. It is a clamour raised against the 
 grievances that are felt. Mr. Burke, who was 
 no friend to popular clamour, who was no ready 
 hot-headed enemy of existing establishments, 
 no undervaluer of the wisdom of our ancestors, 
 no scoffer against institutions as they are, has 
 said, and it deserves to be fixed in letters of 
 gold over the hall of every assembly which calls 
 itself a legislative assembly. '* Where there is 
 ** abuse, there ought to be clamour, because it is 
 '' better to have our slumbers broken by the 
 ** fire-bell, than to perish in the flames in our 
 '* bed." I have been told by some, who have 
 little objection to the clamour, that I am a timid 
 and a mock reformer ; and by others, if I go on 
 firmly and steadily, and do not allow myself to 
 be drawn aside by either one outcry or another, 
 and care for neither, that I am a rash and 
 daring innovator, and that I am taking, for the 
 subject of my reckless experiments, things which 
 are the objects of all men's veneration. I dis- 
 regard the one as much as the other of these 
 charges. I know the path of a reformer is not 
 easy ; honourable it may be, it may conduct to 
 honour, but it is obstructed by the secret work- 
 ings of coadjutors, and above all it is beset by 
 the base slanders of those, who, I venture to 
 say, some of them at least, know better than 
 others the falsehood of the charges which they 
 
 n2 
 
180 LOCAL COURT BILL. 
 
 bring against me. But I have not proceeded 
 in this course rapidly, hastily, or rashly, for I 
 have actually lived to see myself charged with 
 being in name a reformer, but, in truth, in league 
 w^ith the abusers of Reform, in secret and cor- 
 rupt league with those who batten on these 
 abuses. 
 
 It has been asserted that I have so acted, in 
 order to obtain high professional advancement, 
 — I, who have refused the highest judical func- 
 tions, — I, who at the very time these slanders 
 were propagated, was in the act of preventing 
 this proposition from being made to me — upon 
 political principles — upon public principle, as 
 well as upon personal feelings. Did I regard 
 the slander ? Was I stung with such false op- 
 probrium ? or did I change my colour, or faulter 
 in my course ; or did I quicken my course ? 
 Not I, indeed — 
 
 False honour charms and lying slander scares 
 Whom, but the false and paltry ? 
 
 It has been the lot of all men, in all ages, 
 who have aspired at the honour of improving, 
 instructing, or mending mankind, to have their 
 paths beset by every persecution from adver- 
 saries, — by every misconstruction from friends ; 
 
LOCAL COURT BILL. 181 
 
 no quarter from the one, — no charitable con- 
 struction from the other ; — to be misconstrued, 
 misrepresented, borne down, — till it was in vain 
 to bear down any longer. But truth will sur- 
 vive, and calumny has its day. Sir, I say, that 
 if this be the fate of the reformer, — if he be the 
 object of misrepresentation, — must not an in- 
 ference be drawn favourable to myself? Taunted 
 by the enemies of reform, as being too rash ; 
 by the friends of reform, with being too slow or 
 too cold ; there is every reason for presuming 
 that the course I have chosen is right. A re- 
 former must proceed in his career, — not misled 
 on the one hand by panegyric, nor discouraged 
 by slander on the other. He needs no praise. 
 I would rather say — " Woe to him when all 
 men speak well of him." I shall go on in the 
 course which I have laid down for myself; pur- 
 suing the footsteps of those who have gone 
 before us, who have left us their instructions 
 and success, — their instructions to guide, and 
 their success to cheer us. 
 
 N 3 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 ON 
 
 COLONIAL SLAVERY, 
 
 JULY nth, 1830 
 
 After the question of Colonial Slavery has for 
 so many years been familiar to the House, and 
 I fear still more familiar to the country, I would 
 fain hope that I may dispense with the irksome 
 task of dragging you through its details, from 
 their multiplicity so overwhelming, from their 
 miserable nature so afflicting. But I am aware 
 that in the threshold of the scene, and to scare 
 me from entering upon it, there stands the 
 phantom of Colonial Independence, resisting 
 parliamentary interference, fatiguing the ear 
 with the thrice-told tale of their ignorance who 
 see from afar off, and pointing to the fatal issue 
 of the American war. There needs but one 
 steady glance to brush all such spectres away. 
 That the Colonial Legislatures have rights — 
 that their privileges are to be respected — that 
 their province is not to be lightly invaded — that 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERY. 183 
 
 the Parliament of the mother country is not 
 without necessity to trench on their independ- 
 ence — no man more than myself is willing to 
 allow. But when those local assemblies utterly 
 neglect their first duties — when we see them 
 from the circumstances of their situation pre- 
 vented from acting — struggling in these tram- 
 mels for an independent existence — exhausted 
 in the effort to stand alone, and to move one 
 step wholly unable — when at any rate we wait 
 for years, and perceive that they advance not 
 by a hair's breadth, either because they cannot, 
 or because they dare not, or because they will 
 not — then to contend that we should not inter- 
 fere — that we should fail in our duty because 
 they do not theirs — nay, that we have no right 
 to act, because they have no power or inclina- 
 tion to obey us, would be not an argument, but 
 an abomination, a gross insult to Parliament, a 
 mockery of our privileges — for I trust that we 
 too have some left — a shameful abandonment 
 of our duty, and a portentous novelty in the 
 history of Parliament, the plantations, and the 
 country. 
 
 Talk not of the American contest, and the 
 triumph of the colonists! Who that has read 
 the sad history of that event (and I believe 
 among the patriarchs of this cause whom I now 
 
 N 4 
 
184 COLONIAL SLAVERY. 
 
 address there are some who can remember that 
 disgrace of our councils and our arms) will say, 
 that either the Americans triumphed or we 
 quailed on one inch of the ground upon which 
 the present controversy stands ? Ignorance the 
 most gross, or inattention the most heedless^, 
 can alone explain, but cannot at all justify the 
 use of such a topic. Be it remembered, and to 
 set at rest the point of right, I shall say no 
 more— let it not once be forgotten that the 
 supremacy of the mother country never for an 
 instant was surrendered at any period of that 
 calamitous struggle. Nay, in the whole course 
 of it, a question of her supremacy never once 
 was raised ; the whole dispute was rigorously 
 confined to the power of taxing. All that] we 
 gave up, as we said voluntarily, as the Ame- 
 ricans more truly said by compulsion, was the 
 power to tax ; and by the very act which sur- 
 rendered this power, we solemnly, deliberately, 
 and unequivocally reasserted the right of the 
 Parliament to give laws to the plantations in all 
 other respects whatever. Thus speaks the 
 record of history, and the record of our statute 
 book. But were both history and the laws 
 silent, there is a fact so plain and striking, that 
 it would of itself be quite sufficient to establish 
 the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy. I 
 believe it may safely be affirmed, that on neither 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERY. 185 
 
 side of the water was there a man more dis- 
 tinguished for steady devotion to the cause of 
 colonial independence, or who made his name 
 more renowned by firm resistance to the claims 
 of the mother country, than Mr. Burke. He 
 was, in truth, throughout that memorable strug- 
 gle, the great leader in Parliament against the 
 infatuated Ministry, whose councils ended in 
 severing the empire ; and far from abating in 
 his opposition as the contest advanced, he 
 sacrificed to those principles the favour of his 
 constituents, and was obliged to withdraw from 
 the representation of Bristol, which till then he 
 had held. His speech, on that occasion, re- 
 affirms the doctrines of American independence. 
 But neither then nor at any other time did he 
 ever think of denying the general legislative 
 supremacy of Parliament ; he only questioned 
 the right of taxing the unrepresented colonies. 
 But another fact must at once carry conviction 
 to every mind. During the heat of the contro- 
 versy, he employed himself in framing a code 
 for the government of our sugar colonies. It 
 was a bill to be passed into a law by the legis- 
 lature of the mother country ; and it has for- 
 tunately been preserved among his invaluable 
 papers. There is no minute detail into which 
 its provisions do not enter. The rights of the 
 slave, the duties of the master, the obligation to 
 
186 COLONIAL SLAVERY. 
 
 feed and clothe, the restriction of the power of 
 coercion and punishment, all that concerns mar- 
 riage and education, and religious instruction* 
 all that relates to the hours of labour and rest, 
 every thing is minutely provided for, with an 
 abundance of regulation which might be well 
 deemed excessive, were not the subject that 
 unnatural state of things which subjects man to 
 the dominion of his fellow creatures, and which 
 can only be rendered tolerable by the most pro- 
 fuse enactment of checks and controuls. This 
 measure of most ample interference was de- 
 vised by the most illustrious champion of colo- 
 nial rights, the most jealous watchman of Eng- 
 lish encroachments. With his own hand he 
 sketched the bold outline ; with his own hand 
 he filled up its details ; with his own hand, long 
 after the American contest had terminated, after 
 the controversy on Negro freedom had begun, 
 and when his own principles touching the Slave 
 Trade and Slavery had bent before certain West 
 India prejudices, communicated by the party of 
 the planters in Paris, with whom he made com- 
 mon cause on revolutionary politics, — even 
 then, instead of rejecting all idea of interfe- 
 rence with the rights of the colonial assemblies, 
 he delivered over his plan of a slave code to 
 Mr. Dundas, the Secretary for the Colonies, for 
 the patronage and adoption of Mr. Pitt and 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERY. 187 
 
 himself. I offer this fact as a striking proof 
 that it is worse than a jest^ it is an unpardon- 
 able delusion, to fancy that there ever has ex- 
 isted a doubt of the right of Parliament to give 
 the colonies laws. 
 
 But I am told, that granting the right to be 
 ours, we ought to shrink from the exercise of it 
 when it would lead to an encroachment upon 
 the sacred rights of property. I desire the 
 House to mark the short and plain issue to 
 which I am willing to bring this matter. 
 I believe there is no man, either in or out of 
 the profession to which I have the honour of 
 belonging, and which, over all others, in- 
 culcates upon its children an habitual vene- 
 ration for civil rights, less disposed than I am, 
 lightly to value those rights, or rashly to in- 
 culcate a disregard of them. But that re- 
 nowned profession has taught me another 
 lesson also; it has imprinted on my mind the 
 doctrine, which all men, the learned, and the 
 unlearned, feel to be congenial with the human 
 mind, and to gather strength with its growth — r 
 that law, above and prior to all the laws of 
 human law-givers, for it is the law of God — 
 that there are some things which cannot be 
 holden in property,, and above every thing else, 
 that man can have no property in his fellow- 
 
188 COLONIAL SLAVERY. 
 
 creature. But I willingly avoid those heights 
 of moral arguments, where, if we go in search 
 of first principles, we see eternal fogs reign, and 
 ** find no end in wandering mazes lost.*' I had 
 rather seek the humbler regions, and approach 
 the level plain where all men see clear, where 
 their judgments agree, and common feelings knit 
 their hearts together ; and standing on that gene- 
 ral level, I ask, what is the right which one 
 man claims over the person of another, as if he 
 were a chattel, and one of the beasts which 
 perish? Is this that kind of property which 
 claims universal respect, and is clothed in the 
 hearts of all with a sanctity which makes it in- 
 violable ? I resist the claim ; I deny the title : 
 as a Lawyer, I demur to the declaration of the 
 right ; as a man, I set up a law superior in point 
 of antiquity, higher in point of authority than 
 any which men have framed — the law of nature ; 
 and if you appeal from that, I set up the law 
 of the Christian dispensation, which holds all 
 men equal, and commands that you treat every 
 man as a brother! Talk to me not of such 
 monstrous pretensions being decreed by Acts 
 of Parliament, and recognized by treaties ! Go 
 back a quarter of a century to a kindred con- 
 test, when a long and painful struggle ended 
 in an immortal triumph. The selfsame argu- 
 ments were urged in defence of the Slave 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERY. 189 
 
 Trade. Its vindication was rested upon the 
 rights of property, as established by Laws and 
 by Treaties; the right to trade in men was 
 held to be as clear then, as the right to hold 
 men in property is held to be clear now. For 
 twenty-five years, I am ashamed to repeat for 
 twenty-five years, to the lasting disgrace of the 
 Parliment, the African Slave traffic was thus 
 defended; and that which it was then main- 
 tained every one had a right to do, is now 
 denounced by our laws as piracy, and whoso 
 doeth it shall be hanged as a felon. 
 
 There cannot be a more appalling picture 
 presented to the reflecting mind, than that of a 
 people decreasing in numbers. To him who 
 can look beyond the abstract numbers, whose 
 eye is not confined to the mere tables and re- 
 turns of population, but ranges over the mise- 
 ries of which such a diminution is the infallible 
 symptom; it offers a view of all the forms of 
 wretchedness, suffering in every shape, priva- 
 tions in unlimited measure — whatever is most 
 contrary to the nature of human beings, most 
 alien to their habits, most averse to their hap- 
 piness and comfort — all beginning in slavery, 
 the state most unnatural to man ; consummated 
 through various channels in his degradation, and 
 
190 COLONIAL SLAVERY. 
 
 leading to one common end, the grave. Show me 
 but the simple fact, that the people in any 
 country are regularly decreasing, so as in half 
 a century to be extinct ; and I want no other 
 evidence that their lot is that of the bitterest 
 wretchedness; nor will any other facts con- 
 vince me, that their general condition can be 
 favourable or mild. 
 
 T cannot here withhold from the House the 
 testimony of the protector of slaves, to the hap- 
 piness of their condition. ^* I cannot," says 
 that judicious officer, ** refrain from remarking 
 on the contented appearance of the Negroes ; 
 and, from the opportunites of judging which I 
 have, I think that generally they have every 
 reason to be so/' I would not have this pro- 
 tector placed in the condition of the very hap- 
 piest of this contented tribe, whose numbers 
 are hourly lessening, and whose lives are spent 
 in committing crime and in receiving punish- 
 ments. No, not for a day would I punish his 
 error in judgment, by condemning him to taste 
 the comforts which he describes, as they are 
 enjoyed by the very luckiest of those placed 
 under his protection. But such testimony is 
 not peculiar to this officer. Long before his 
 protectorate commenced, before he even came 
 
COLONIAL SLAVEliV. 191 
 
 into this world of slavery and bliss, of bondage 
 and contentment, the like opinion had been 
 pronounced in favour of West Indian felicity. 
 
 I hold in my hand the evidence of Lord Rod- 
 ney, who swore before the Privy Council that 
 he never saw an instance of cruel treatment ; — 
 that in all the islands, '* and," said his Lordship, 
 ** I know them all," the Negroes were better 
 off in cloathing, lodging, and food, than the 
 poor at home, and were never in any case at all 
 overworked. Admiral Barrington, rising in 
 ardour of expression as he advanced in know- 
 ledge, declares that he has often wished himself 
 in the condition of the slaves. Neither would I 
 take the gallant admiral at his rash word, sanc- 
 tioned though it be by an oath. I would not 
 punish his temerity so severely as to consign 
 him to a station, compared with which he would 
 in four and twenty hours have become recon- 
 ciled to the hardest fare on the most crazy bark 
 that ever rocked on the most perilous wave ; or 
 even to the lot which our English seamen are 
 the least inured to — the most disastrous combat 
 that ever lowered his flag in discomfiture and 
 disgrace. But these officers confined not their 
 testimony to the condition of slavery ; they 
 cast its panoply around the Slave Trade itself. 
 They were just as liberal in behalf of the Guinea- 
 
192 COLONIAL SLAVKRV. 
 
 man, as of those whom his toils were destined 
 to enrich. They gave just as Arcadian a pic- 
 ture of the slaver's deck and hold, ^s of the en- 
 viable fields whither she was fraught with a 
 cargo of happy creatures, designed by their feli- 
 citous destiny to become what are called the 
 cultivators of those romantic regions. ** The 
 slaves on board are comfortably lodged," says 
 one gallant officer, ** in rooms fitted up for 
 them." ** They are amused with instruments of 
 music : when tired of music, they then go to 
 games of chance." Let the inhabitants or the 
 frequenters of our club houses hear this and 
 envy — those " famous wits," to whom St. 
 James's purlieus are *^ native or hospitable:" let 
 them cast a longing look on the superior felicity 
 of their sable brethren on the middle passage. 
 They toil not, neither do they spin, yet have 
 they found for them all earthly indulgencies : 
 food and raiment for nothing ; music to charm 
 the sense ; and when sated with such enjoyment, 
 the mind seeks a change, games of chance are 
 kindly provided by boon traffic to stimulate the 
 lazy appetite. '* The slaves," adds the admiral, 
 *' are indulged in all their little humours." 
 Whether one of these caprices might be to have 
 themselves tied up from time to time, and lace- 
 rated with a scourge, he has omitted to mention. 
 ** He had frequently," he says, ** seen them 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERV. 193 
 
 and as happy as any of the crew, it being the 
 interest of the officers and nien to make them so." 
 But it is Admiral Evans who puts the finishing 
 stroke to this fairy picture. ^' The arrival of a 
 Guineaman," he says^ " is known in the West 
 Indies by the dancing and singing of the Negroes 
 on board." It is thus that these cargoes of merry 
 happy creatures, torn from their families, their 
 native fields, and their cottages, celebrate their 
 reaching the land of promise, and that their com- 
 ing is distinguished from the dismal landing of 
 free English seamen, out of West India traders, 
 or other receptacles of cruelty and wretched- 
 ness ! 
 
 There is a country in which the Slave Trade 
 still flourishes in most portentous vigour, although 
 denounced by the law, and visited with infamous 
 punishment : — the dominions of the Monarch 
 who calls himself '' Most Christian," and re- 
 fuses the only measure that can put such whole- 
 sale iniquity down. There it must thrive, as 
 long as groundless national jealousies prevent 
 the right of search from being mutually con- 
 ceded. Let us hope that so foul a stain on the 
 character of so great a nation will soon be 
 wiped away ; that the people who now take the 
 lead of all others in the march of liberty, will 
 
 o 
 
194 COLONIAL SLAVERY. 
 
 cast far from their camp this unclean thing, by 
 all lovers of freedom most abhorred. I have 
 heard with amazement some thoughtless men 
 say, that the French cannot enjoy liberty, be- 
 cause they are unused to it. I protest before 
 God, I could point to no nation more worthy of 
 freedom, or which knew better how to use it, 
 how to gain it, how to defend it. I turn with 
 a grateful heart to contemplate the glorious 
 spectacle now exhibited in France, of patriotism, 
 of undaunted devotion to liberty, of firm, yet 
 temperate resistance to arbitrary power. It is 
 animating to every beholder ; it is encouraging 
 to all freemen in every part of the world. I 
 earnestly hope that it may not be lost on the 
 Bourbon Monarch and his Councillors ; for the 
 sake of France and of England, for the sake of 
 peace; for the sake of the Bourbon Princes 
 themselves, I pray that they may be wise in 
 time, and yield to the wish, the determination 
 of their people. I pray that bending before the 
 coming breeze, the gathering storm may not 
 sweep them away ! But of one thing I would 
 warn that devoted race ; let them not flatter 
 themselves that by trampling upon liberty in 
 France, they can escape either the abhorrence 
 of man, or the Divine wrath for the execrable 
 traffic in Slaves, carried on under their flag, 
 and flourishing under their sway in America. 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERY. 195 
 
 I will tell their ghostly Councillors, in the lan- 
 guage of a book with which they ought to be 
 familiar, — '' Behold, obedience is better than 
 sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of 
 rams." To what should they lend an ear? To 
 the commands of a God who loves mercy, and 
 will punish injustice, and abhors blood, and will 
 surely avenge it upon their heads ; nothing the 
 less because their patronage of slavery, in 
 distant climes^ is matched by their hatred of 
 liberty at home. 
 
 I trust that at length the time is come, when 
 Parliament will no longer bear to be told, that 
 Slave-owners are the best lawgivers on Slavery ; 
 no longer suffer our voice to roll across the 
 Atlantic in empty warnings, and fruitless orders. 
 Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property 
 of the planter in his Slaves. 1 deny the right — 
 I acknowledge not the property. The prin- 
 ciples, the feelings of our common nature rise in 
 rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the 
 understanding or to the heart, the sentence is 
 the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me 
 of laws that sanction such a claim ! There is a 
 law above all the enactments of human 
 codes — the same throughout the world, the 
 same in all times — such as it was before the 
 
 o 2 
 
19G COLONIAL SLAVERY. 
 
 daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of 
 ages, and opened to one world the sources of 
 power, wealth, and knowledge ; to another, all 
 unutterable woes ;-— such it is at this day: it is 
 the law written by the finger of God on the 
 heart of man ; and by that law, unchangeable 
 and eternal, while men despise frauds and loathe 
 rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with 
 indignation the wild and guilty fantasy, that 
 man can hold property in man ! In vain you 
 appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. 
 The covenants of the Almighty, whether the 
 old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy 
 pretensions. To those laws did they of hold 
 refer, who maintained the African Trade. Such 
 treaties did they cite, and not untruly ; for by 
 one shameful compact you bartered the glories 
 of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in 
 despite of law, and of treaty, that infernal traffic 
 is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death 
 like other pirates. How came this change to 
 pass? Not, assuredly, by Parliament leading 
 the way ; but the country at length awoke ; the 
 indignation of the people was kindled ; it 
 descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and 
 scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, 
 then, let the planters beware — let their As- 
 semblies beware — let the Government at home 
 beware — let the Parliament beware I The 
 
COLONIAL SLAVERY. 197 
 
 same country is once more awake — awake to 
 the condition of Negro Slavery ; the same in- 
 dignation kindles in the bosom of the same 
 people ; the same cloud is gathering that an- 
 nihilated the Slave Trade ; and if it shall 
 descend again, they on whom its crash may 
 fall, will not be destroyed before I have warned 
 them ; but I pray that their destruction may 
 turn away from us the more terrible judgments 
 of God! 
 
 o 3 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LOCAL COURT BILL, 
 
 DECEMBER 2d, 18S0. 
 
 I DEEM it a duty of the highest importance, 
 that the Government should take care that the 
 laws be loved and respected. I know, too, 
 there are times and seasons when a change, 
 however slight, in those laws, constitutes no part 
 of the duty of the Government. Such I deem 
 seasons of foreign war, periods of domestic dis- 
 tress and commotion, casting a cloud over the 
 prospects of the country, and, above all, times 
 in which intestine commotions concentrate all 
 public care on the means of preserving tranquil- 
 lity. But when tranquillity prevails abroad, as, 
 thank God, it does now; and when, and I 
 thank Heaven, I can say so, there is every rea- 
 son to pronounce the disturbances which dis- 
 
LOCAL COURT BILL. 199 
 
 grace some parts of this country, but as a pass- 
 ing cloud, over the fair face of our general pros- 
 perity, and when men's minds have been, as 
 they have of late years, so influenced, and di- 
 rected, and echoed by the great organs of the 
 public voice, as to be lifted up with one loud 
 and unanimous acclaim for law reform ; when 
 all these so unequivocally conspire towards the 
 one object, it appears to me, much revolving on 
 these matters, that this is the appropriate time, 
 and this the appointed season for us all, my 
 Lords, to join in undertaking the great work. 
 And if all times of general tranquillity are fitting 
 for such an undertaking as that I now propose 
 to you, and if this be the appropriate time, and 
 this the appointed season ; I say that this week, 
 nay, that this very day is more especially so. 
 Unhappily, owing to the temper which the dis- 
 turbances that disfigure certain parts of the 
 country too clearly evince, it has been found 
 necessary, by His Majesty's Ministers, to pro- 
 vide extraordinary measures with a view to have 
 the laws obeyed. Within a few days from the 
 time I am now addressing your Lordships, the 
 sword of justice shall be unsheathed, to smite, 
 if it be necessary, with a firm and vigorous hand^ 
 the rebel against the law. My Lords, it is the 
 duty, the great office, the high function of the 
 Government, it is the King's most sacred duty, 
 
 o 4 
 
200 LOCAL COURT BILL. 
 
 it is all our deepest interests, that the law should 
 be obeyed. It is the no less sacred, and high, 
 and paramountly important duty of your Lord- 
 ships, as legislators, to take care that the laws 
 be loved ; and when the Government resolve, 
 on their part, in their executive capacity, with 
 a determination from which no threat shall make 
 them swerve, no supineness can make them 
 slumber, to faithfully perform their duty to 
 themselves^ to their King, and, if possible, still 
 more faithfully to the King's people, by enforc- 
 ing the laws, as the greatest mercy to the de- 
 luded offenders against them, let me pray your 
 Lordships on the other hand, in your capacity 
 as lawgivers, in this most fitting moment, on this 
 most graceful occasion, to take care, by making 
 the laws better^, that you make them the more 
 loved. I counsel you to leave no means unbe- 
 fitting your high station, to let no pride of place 
 prevent your earnestly attempting this great 
 work. And let neither your station nor pride 
 be offended when I tell you, that a feeling has 
 gone abroad of disrespect towards both Houses 
 of Parliament, which, fortunately, both Houses 
 have it yet in their power to allay. The ties 
 which should bind the several orders in the 
 State to each other, particularly the people to 
 their Parliament, should be, as they have been 
 often compared, like those of domestic union; 
 
LOCAL COURT BILL, 201 
 
 and, if unhappily, to continue the simile, there 
 should arise domestic jars between the two par- 
 ties, possessing so deep and intimate a common 
 interest, if one party should be temporarily alie- 
 nated, I would not counsel you to practise un- 
 worthy artifices to remove that alienation, far 
 less would I counsel you to condescend to mere- 
 tricious blandishments, to allure those who stood 
 aloof from you. No, I should say, ** maintain 
 ** your own rights, preserve your own dignity, 
 ** but take care and do your duty to yourselves 
 ** and the alienated party, by improving their 
 ** condition, and removing all just grounds of 
 ** complaint." Trust me, my Lords, the road to 
 duty, the door of reconcilement, is open to you ; 
 and it will be exclusively your own faults if 
 again the language of disrespect is addressed to 
 you from any portion of the King's subjects. 
 What, I repeat to you, the people want, and 
 love, is cheap justice. What they hate and rail 
 against is, expensive, and tardy, and uncertain 
 litigation. And can there be a duty at once 
 more pleasing and more befitting your high sta- 
 tions, one, too, the exercise of which is just now 
 of such all-importance to the integrity of the 
 institutions of the country in Church and State, 
 than when you, on the one hand^ show the 
 people that you are firmly resolved to resist 
 lawless aggression ; that, on the other, you are 
 
202 LOCAL COURT BILL. 
 
 willing listeners to their complaints, readily 
 sympathize with their wants ; and that by 
 amending the laws, and by so doing the better 
 preserve them, and make them the better worth 
 preserving, you satisfy the people with respect 
 to the institutions they are living under, and 
 thus conduce to render them more worthy of 
 their love and confidence. By doing this, and 
 that too, this night, this moment, you will do 
 more towards allaying the ferment of the public 
 mind, than all that the declamation of the great- 
 est orator could devise, or the sagest lawgiver 
 frame, or the most conciliatory Government 
 adopt, more towards preserving unimpaired all 
 the institutions of the country to your latest 
 posterity, more towards connecting your high 
 names with after ages by the noblest tie — that 
 of the rights and liberties and happiness of a 
 great people. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH 
 
 ROYAL ACADEMY DINNER, 
 
 Of the Fine Arts what has not been said, — 
 what panegyrics not pronounced, hundreds, 
 almost thousands of years ago, by the most elo- 
 quent of tongues ! That they are the ornament 
 of prosperous fortune, and the solace of adverse, 
 give a zest to our daily toil, and watch with us 
 through the sleepless night, enliven the solitude 
 of the country, and tranquillize the bustle and 
 turmoil of the town — all this is true, but it is 
 not the whole truth. All this they do, and 
 much m.ore. The Fine Arts are great improvers 
 of mankind ; they are living sources of refine- 
 ment — the offspring, indeed, of civilization ; 
 but like her of Greece, whose piety they have 
 so often commemorated, nourishing the parent 
 from whom their existence was derived, — soften- 
 ing and humanizing the characters of men — as- 
 suaging the fierceness of the wilder passions ; 
 substituting calm and harmless enjoyment for 
 more perilous excitement — maintaining the in- 
 
204 ROYAL ACADEMY DINNER. 
 
 nocent intercourse of nations^ and affording one 
 more pledge of peace, their great patroness and 
 protectress, as she is, of all that is most precious 
 and most excellent among men. It becomes 
 us all, then, most diligently to foster them. It 
 is the duty of the Government — it is the interest 
 of the country. No station is so exalted, no 
 fortune so splendid, as not to derive lustre from 
 bestovi^ing such patronage ; no lot so obscure as 
 not to participate in the benefits they diffuse. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 IN SUPPORT OF 
 
 THE SECOND READING 
 
 OP 
 
 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 A NOBLE Lord, a friend of mine, whose honesty 
 and frankness stamps all he says with still 
 greater value than it derives from mere talent,* 
 would have you believe that all the Petitions, 
 under which your table now groans, are, indeed, 
 for Reform, but not for this Bill, which he 
 actually says the people dislike. Now is not 
 this a droll way for the people to act, if we 
 are to take my Noble Friend's statement as 
 true ? First of all, it is an odd time they have 
 taken to petition for Reform, if they do not 
 like this Bill. I should say, that if they petition 
 for Reform, whilst this particular measure is 
 passing through the House, it is a proof that 
 
 * Lord Wharncliffe. 
 
206 THE REFOIIM BILL. 
 
 the Bill contains the Reform they want. Surely, 
 when I see the good men of this country — the 
 intelligent and industrious classes of the com- 
 munity — now coming forward, not by thousands 
 but by hundreds of thousands, I can infer no- 
 thing from their conduct, but that this is the 
 Bill, and the only Bill, for which they petition ? 
 But if they really want some Reform other than 
 the Bill proposes, is it not still more unaccoun- 
 table that they should one and all petition, not 
 for that other Reform, but for this very mea- 
 sure ? The proposition of my Noble Friend is, 
 that they love Reform in general, but hate this 
 particular plan ; and the proof of it is this, that 
 their Petitions all pray earnestly for this parti- 
 cular plan, and say not a word of general Re- 
 form. Highly as I prize the integrity of my 
 Noble Friend, — much as I may admire his good 
 sense on other occasions, — I must say, that on 
 this occasion I descry not his better judgment, 
 and I estimate how far he is a safe guide either 
 as a witness to facts, or as a judge of measures, 
 by his success in the present instance ; in either 
 capacity, I cannot hesitate in recommending 
 your Lordships not to follow him. As a witness 
 to facts, never was failure more complete. The 
 Bill, said he, has no friends anywhere ; and he 
 mentioned Bond-street as one of his walks, 
 where he could not enter a shop without find- 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 207 
 
 ing its enemies abound. No sooner had Bond- 
 street escaped his lips than up comes a Petition 
 to your Lordships from nearly all its shop- 
 keepers, affirming that their sentiments have 
 been misrepresented, for they are all champions 
 of the Bill. My Noble Friend then says, '' Oh, 
 ** I did not mean the shopkeepers of Bond- 
 " street in particular ; I might have said any 
 ** other street, as St. James^s, equally." No 
 sooner does that unfortunate declaration get 
 abroad, than the shopkeepers of St. James's- 
 street are up in arms, and forth comes a Peti- 
 tion similar to that from Bond-street. My 
 Noble Friend is descried moving through Re- 
 gent-street, and away scamper all the inhabi- 
 tants, fancying that he is in quest of Anti-Re- 
 formers — sign a requisition to the church- 
 v^ardens — and the householders, one and all, 
 declare themselves friendly to the Bill. Whither 
 shall he go — what street shall he enter — in what 
 alley shall he take refuge — since the inhabitants 
 of every street, and lane, and alley, feel it neces- 
 sary, in self-defence, to become signers and 
 petitioners as soon as he makes his appearance 
 among them ? If, harrassed by Reformers on 
 land, my Noble Friend goes down to the water, 
 the thousand Reformers greet him, whose Peti- 
 tion (Lambeth) I this day presented to your 
 Lordships. If he were to get into a hackney- 
 
208 THE REFORM BILT. 
 
 coach, the very coachmen and their attendants 
 would feel it their duty to assemble and peti- 
 tion. Wherever there is a street, an alley, a 
 passage, nay, a river, a wherry, or a hackney- 
 coach, these, because inhabited, become for- 
 bidden and tabooed to my Noble Friend. I 
 may meet him, not on *' the accustomed hill," 
 for Hay>hill, though short, has some houses on 
 its slope, but on the south side of Berkeley- 
 square, wandering ** remote, unfriended, me- 
 '* lancholy, slow," — for there he finds a street 
 without a single inhabitant, and, therefore, with- 
 out a single friend of the Bill. If, in despair, 
 he shall flee from the town to seek the solitude 
 of the country, still will he be pursued by cries 
 of ^^ Petition, petition! The Bill, the Bill!" 
 His flight will be through villages placarded 
 with " The Bill" — his repose at inns holden by 
 landlords, who will present him with the Bill ; 
 he will be served by Reformers in the guise of 
 waiters — pay tribute at gates where Petitions 
 lay for signing — and plunge into his own do- 
 mains to be overwhelmed with the Sheffield 
 Petition, signed by 10,400 friends of the Bill. 
 
 " Me miserable ! whither shall I fly 
 
 " Infinite wrath and infinite despair? 
 
 ** Which way I fly Reform— myself Reform !*' ' 
 
 for this is the most serious part of the whole, — 
 
1'IIK KFFOR-M HILL. 209 
 
 my Noble Friend is himself, after all, a Re- 
 former. I mention this to show that he is not 
 more a safe guide on matters of opinion than on 
 matters of fact. He is a Reformer — he is not 
 even a bit-by-bit Reformer — not even a gradual 
 Reformer — but that v^hich at any other time 
 than the present would be called a wholesale 
 and even a radical Reformer. He deems that 
 no shadowy unsubstantial Reform — that nothing 
 but an effectual remedy of acknowledged abuses, 
 will satisfy the people of England and Scot- 
 land ; and this is a fact to which I entreat the 
 earnest and unremitting attention of every man 
 who wishes to know what guides are safe to 
 follow on this subject. Many now follow men 
 who say that Reform is necessary, and yet ob- 
 ject to this Bill as being too large ; that is, too 
 efficient. This may be very incorrect; but it 
 is worse ; it is mixed up with a gross delusion, 
 which can never deceive the country ; for I will 
 now say, once for all, that every one argument 
 which has been urged by those leaders is as 
 good against moderate Reform as it is against 
 this Bill. Not a single reason they give, not a 
 topic they handle, not an illustration they resort 
 to, not a figure of speech they use, not even a 
 flower they fling about, that does not prove or 
 illustrate the position of ''No Refoi^m.'' All 
 their speeches, from beginning to end, are rail- 
 
 p 
 
210 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 ing against the smallest as against the greatest 
 change, and yet all the while they call them- 
 selves Reformers ! Are they then safe guides for 
 any man who is prepared to allow any Reform, 
 however moderate, of any abuse, however 
 glaring ? 
 
 # « « ^ « 
 
 I am challenged to prove that the present sys- 
 tem, as regards the elective franchise, is not the 
 ancient Parliamentary Constitution of the coun- 
 try — upon pain, says my Noble and Learned 
 Friend,* of judgment going against me if I re- 
 main silent. My Lords, I will not keep silence, 
 neither will I answer in my own person, but I 
 will refer you to a higher authority, the highest 
 known in the law, and in its best days, when 
 the greatest lawyers were the greatest patriots. 
 Here is the memorable report of the Committee 
 of the Commons, in 1623-4, of which Com- 
 mittee Mr. Sergeant Glanville was the Chair- 
 man, of which Report he was the author. 
 Among its Members were the most celebrated 
 names in the law — Coke, and Selden, and Finch, 
 and Noy, afterwards Attorney-General, and of 
 known monarchical principles. The first Reso- 
 lution is this : — 
 
 * There being no certain custom, nor pre- 
 ♦ Lord Wynford 
 
thj: rf:i<okm bill. 21 1 
 
 *' scription, who should be electors, and who 
 *' not, we must have recourse to common right, 
 "- which, to this purpose, was held to be, that 
 ^^ more than the freeholders only ought to have 
 *' voices in the election ; namely, all men, inha- 
 ** bitants, householders, rasiants within the 
 ** borough." 
 
 What then becomes of the doctrine that our 
 Bill is a mere innovation — that by the old law 
 of England, inhabitant householders had no 
 right to vote — that owners of burgage tenements, 
 and freemen of corporations, have in all times 
 exclusively had the franchise? Burgage tenants, 
 it is true, of old had the right, but in the way I 
 have already described — not as now, the nomi- 
 nal and fictitious holders for an hour merely for 
 election purposes, but the owners of each — the 
 real and actual proprietors of the tenement. 
 Freemen never had it at all, till they usurped 
 upon the inhabitants^ and thrust them out. But 
 every householder voted in the towns without 
 regard to value, as before the 8th of Henry VI. 
 every freeholder voted without regard to value 
 in the counties — not merely £10. householders, 
 as we propose to restrict the right, but the 
 holder of a house worth a shilling, as much as 
 he whose house was worth a thousand pounds. 
 But I have been appealed to ; and I will take 
 
 p 2 
 
212 rni; rkform nirr.. 
 
 upon me to affirm, that if the Crown were to 
 issue a writ to the Sheriff, commanding him to 
 send his precept to Birmingham or Manchester, 
 requiring those towns to send burgesses to Par- 
 liament, the votes oi all inhabitant householders 
 must needs be taken, according to the exigency 
 of the writ and precept — the right of voting at 
 common law, and independent of any usurpa- 
 tion upon it, belonging to every resident house- 
 holder. Are, then, the King's Ministers inno- 
 vators — revol utionists — wild projectors — idle 
 dreamers of dreams and feigners of fancies — 
 when they restore the ancient common law 
 right — but not in its ancient common law ex- 
 tent, ibr they limit, fix, and contract it ? They 
 add a qualification off 10. to restrain it, as our 
 forefathers, in the fifteenth century, restrained 
 the county franchise by the freehold qualifica- 
 tion. 
 
 But then we hear much against the qualifica- 
 tion adopted — that is, the particular sum fixed 
 upon — and the Noble Earl* thinks it will only 
 give us a set of constituents busied in gaining 
 their daily bread, and having no time to study, 
 and instruct themselves on State affairs. My 
 Noble Friend, f too, who lives near Birmingham, 
 and may therefore be supposed to know his own 
 
 ♦ The Earl of Harrowby. f Earl of Dudley. 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 213 
 
 neighbours better than we can, sneers at the 
 statesmen of Birmingham and at the philosophers 
 of Manchester. He will live — I tell him, he will 
 live to learn a lesson of practical wisdom from 
 the statesmen of Birmingham, and a lesson of 
 forbearance from the philosophers of Manchester. 
 My Noble Friend was ill-advised, when he 
 thought of displaying his talent for sarcasm upon 
 120,000 people in the one place, and 180,000 
 in the other. He did little, by such exhibitions, 
 towards gaining a stock of credit for the order 
 he belongs to — little towards conciliating for the 
 aristocracy which he adorns, by pointing his 
 little epigrams against such mighty masses of 
 the people. Instead of meeting their exemplary 
 moderation, their respectful demeanour, their 
 affectionate attachment, their humble confi- 
 dence, evinced in every one of the petitions, 
 wherewithal they have in myriads approached 
 the House, with a return of kindness — of cour- 
 tesy — even of common civility : — he has thought 
 it becoming and discreet to draw himself up in 
 the pride of hexameter and pentameter verse, — 
 skill in classic authors, — the knack of turning 
 fine sentences, — and to look down with derision 
 upon the knowledge of his unrepresented fellow- 
 countrymen in the weightier matters of practical 
 legislation. For myself, I too know where they 
 are defective ; I have no desire ever to hear 
 
 p 3 
 
214 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 them read a Latin line, or hit off in the mother 
 tongue any epigram, whether in prose or in 
 numerous verse. In these qualities they and I 
 freely yield the palm to others. I, as their 
 representative, yield it. — I once stood as such 
 elsewhere^ because they had none of their own; 
 and though a Noble Earl* thinks they suffer no- 
 thing by the want, I can tell him they did se- 
 verely suffer in the greatest mercantile question 
 of the day, the Orders in Council, when they 
 were fain to have a professional advocate for their 
 representative, and were only thus allowed to 
 make known their complaints to Parliament. 
 Again representing them here, for them I bow to 
 my Noble Friend's immeasurable superiority in 
 all things, classical or critical. In book lore — in 
 purity of diction — in correct prosody — even in 
 elegance of personal demeanour, I and they in 
 his presence hide, as well we may, our dimi- 
 nished heads. But to say that I will take my 
 Noble Friend's judgment on any grave practical 
 subject, — on any thing touching the great inte- 
 rests of our commercial country, — or any of those 
 manly questions which engage the statesman, the 
 philosopher in practice : — to say that I could ever 
 dream of putting the Noble Earl's opinions, aye, 
 or his knowledge, in any comparison with the 
 bold, rational, judicious, reflecting, natural, and 
 
 * The Earl of Harrowby. 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 215 
 
 because natural the trustworthy opinions of those 
 honest men, who always give their strong natural 
 sense of fair play, having no affectations to warp 
 their judgment — to dream of any such compa- 
 rison as this, would be, on my part, a flattery, 
 far too gross for any courtesy — or a blindness 
 which no habits of friendship could excuse ! 
 
 If there is the mob, there is the people also. 
 I speak now of the middle classes — of those 
 hundreds of thousands of respectable persons — 
 the most numerous, and by far the most wealthy 
 order in the community ; for if all your Lord- 
 ships' castles, manors, rights of warren, and 
 rights of chase, with all your broad acres, were 
 brought to the hammer, and sold at fifty years 
 purchase, the price would fly up and kick the 
 beam^ when counterpoised by the vast and solid 
 riches of those middle classes, who are also the 
 genuine depositaries of sober, rational, intel- 
 ligent, and honest English feeling. Unable 
 though they be to round a period, or point an 
 epigram, they are solid, right judging men, and, 
 above all, not given to change. If they have a 
 fault, it is that error on the right side, a sus- 
 picion of state quacks — a dogged love of existing 
 institutions — a perfect contempt of all political 
 nostrums. They will neither be led astray by 
 
 p 4 
 
216 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 false reasoning, nor deluded by impudent flat- 
 tery; but so neither will they be scared by clas- 
 sical quotations, or brow-beaten by fine sen- 
 tences; and as for an epigram, they care as 
 little for it as they do for a cannon ball. Grave 
 — intelligent — rational — fond of thinking for 
 themselves — they consider a subject long before 
 they make up their minds on it ; and the opi- 
 nions they are thus slow to form, they are not 
 
 swift to abandon. 
 
 ***** 
 
 They who are constantly taunting us with 
 subverting the system of the representation, 
 and substituting a parliamentary constitution 
 unknown in earlier times, must be told that we 
 are making no change — that we are not pulling 
 down, but building up — or, at the utmost, 
 adapting the representation to the altered state 
 of the community. The system which was 
 hardly fitted for the fourteenth century, cannot 
 surely be adapted to the nineteenth. The in- 
 novations of time, of which our detractors take 
 no account, are reckoned upon by all sound 
 statesmen ; and in referring to them^ my Noble 
 Friend* has only followed in the footsteps of 
 the most illustrious of philosophers. ** Stick 
 ** to your ancient parliamentary system," it is 
 said ; ** make no alteration ; keep it exactly 
 ♦ The Earl of Radnor. 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 217 
 
 *' such as it was in the time of Harry the Third, 
 *' when the two Houses first sat in separate 
 ** chambers, and such as it has to this day con- 
 **tinued!'* This is the ignorant cry; this the 
 very shibboleth of the party. But I have join- 
 ed an issue with our antagonists upon the fact ; 
 and I have given the evidence of Selden, of 
 Glanville, of Coke, of Noy, and of Prynne, 
 proving to demonstration that the original right 
 of voting has been subjected to great and hurt- 
 ful changes, — that the exclusive franchise of 
 freemen is an usurpation upon householders, — 
 and that our measure is a restoration of the 
 rights thus usurped upon. I have shown that 
 the Ministers are only occupied in the duty of 
 repairing what is decayed, not in the work of 
 destruction, or of violent change. Your Lord- 
 ships were recently assembled at the great so- 
 lemnity of the Coronation. Do you call to mind 
 the language of the Primate, and in which the 
 Monarch swore, when the Sword of kingly 
 estate was delivered into his hands ? '* Restore 
 " the things that are gone into decay ; maintain 
 *' that which is restored ; purify and reform 
 ** what is amiss ; confirm that which is in good 
 " order !" His Sacred Majesty well remembers 
 his solemn vow, to restore the constitution, 
 and to reform the abuses time has introduced ; 
 and I, too, feel the duty imposed on me, of 
 
218 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 keeping fresh in the recollection of the Prince, 
 whom it is my pride and my boast to serve, the 
 parts of our system which fall within the scope 
 of his vow. But if he has sworn to restore the 
 decayed, so has he also sworn to maintain that 
 which is restored, and to confirm that which 
 wants no repairing ; and what sacrifice soever 
 may be required to maintain and to confirm, 
 that sacrifice I am ready to make, opposing 
 myself, with my Sovereign, to the surge that 
 may dash over me, and saying to it, " Hitherto 
 ** shalt thou come; here shall thy waves be 
 '* staid." For while that Sovereign tells the 
 enemies of all change, *' I have sworn to restore!'' 
 so will he tell them who look for change only, 
 ** I have also sworn to maintain !" 
 
 " Stand by the whole of the old constitu- 
 tion !" is the cry of our enemies. I have dis- 
 posed of the issue of fact, and shown that what 
 we attack is any thing but the old constitution. 
 But suppose, for argument's sake, the question 
 had been decided against us — that Selden, Coke, 
 Noy, Glanville, Prynne, were all wrong — that 
 their doctrine and mine was a mere illusion^ 
 and rotten boroughs the ancient order of things 
 — that it was a fundamental principle of the old 
 constitution to have Members without consti- 
 tuents, boroughs without Members, and a repre- 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 219 
 
 sentative Parliament without electors. Suppose 
 this to be the nature of the old and much ad- 
 mired and more bepraised Government of Eng- 
 land. All this I will assume for the sake of the 
 argument, and I solicit the attention of the 
 Noble Lords who maintain that argument, while 
 I show them its utter absurdity. Since the 
 early times of which they speak^ has there been 
 no change in the very nature of a seat in Par- 
 liament? Is there no difference between our 
 days and those when the electors eschewed the 
 right of voting, and a seat in Parliament, as well 
 as the elective franchise, was esteemed a bur- 
 then ? Will the same principles apply to that 
 age and to others, when all the people of the 
 three kingdoms are more eager for the power of 
 voting than for any other earthly possession ; and 
 the chance of sitting in the House of Commons 
 is become the object of all men's wishes ? Even 
 as late as the union of the crowns, we have 
 instances of Informations filed in the courts of 
 law to compel Parliament men to attend their 
 duty, or punish them for the neglect — so ill was 
 privilege then understood. But somewhat ear- 
 lier, we find boroughs petitioning to be relieved 
 from the expense of sending Members, and 
 Members supported by their constituents as 
 long as they continued their attendance. Is it 
 not clear that the Parliamentary law applicable 
 
220 THE IlKFORM BILL. 
 
 to that State of things cannot be applied to the 
 present circumstances, without in some res- 
 pects making a violent revolution ? But so it is 
 in the progress of all those changes which time 
 is perpetually working in the condition of 
 human affairs. They are really the authors of 
 change, who resist the alterations which are re- 
 quired to adjust the system, and adapt it to new 
 circumstances ; — who forcibly arrest the progress 
 of one portion amidst the general advancement. 
 Take, as an illustration, the state of our jurispru- 
 dence. The old law ordained that a debtor's 
 property should be taken in execution. But 
 in early times there were no public funds, 
 no paper securities, no accounts at Bankers ; 
 land and goods formed the property of all ; and 
 those were allowed to be taken in satisfaction 
 of debts. The law, therefore, which only said 
 let land and goods be taken, excluded the re- 
 course against stock and credits, although it 
 plainly meant that all the property should be 
 liable, and would clearly have attached stock 
 and credits, had they then been known. But 
 when nine-tenths of the property of our richest 
 men consist of stock and credits, to exempt 
 these under pretence of standing by the old law, 
 is manifestly altering the substance for the sake 
 of adhering to the letter ; and substituting for 
 the old law, that all the debtor's property should 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 221 
 
 be liable, a new and totally different law, that 
 a small part only of his property should be lia- 
 ble. Yet in no part of our system has there 
 been a greater change than in the estimated 
 value attached to the franchise, and to a seat in 
 Parliament, from the times when one class of 
 the community anxiously shunned the cost of 
 electing^ and another as cautiously avoided 
 being returned, to those when both classes are 
 alike anxious to obtain these privileges. Then, 
 can any reasonable man argue, that the same 
 law should be applied to two states of things 
 so diametrically opposite? Thus much I 
 thought fit to say, in order to guard your Lord- 
 ships against a favourite topic, one sedulously 
 urged by the adversaries of Reform, who lead 
 men astray by constantly harping upon the 
 string of change, innovation, and revolution. 
 
 But it is said, and this is a still more favourite 
 argument, the system works well. How does 
 it work well ? Has it any pretensions to the 
 character of working well ? What say you to a 
 town of 5 or 6000 inhabitants, not one of whom 
 has any more to do with the choice of its repre- 
 sentatives than any of your Lordships sitting 
 round that table — indeed, a great deal less — for 
 I see my Noble Friend* is there ? It works well, 
 
 * The Duke of Devonshire. 
 
222 THE REFORM ^ILL. 
 
 does it ? How works well ? It would work 
 well for the Noble Duke, if he chose to carry 
 his votes to market ! Higher rank, indeed, he 
 could not purchase, than he has ; but he has 
 many connexions, and he might gain a title for 
 every one that bears his name. But he has 
 always acted in a manner far more worthy of 
 his own high character, and of the illustrious 
 race of patriots from whom he descends, the 
 founders of our liberties, and of the throne 
 which our Sovereign's exalted house fills ; and 
 his family have deemed that name a more pre- 
 cious inheritance than any title for which it 
 could be exchanged. But let us see how the 
 system works for the borough itself, and its 
 thousands of honest, industrious inhabitants. 
 My Lords, I once had the fortune to represent 
 it for a few weeks ; at the time when I received 
 the highest honour of my life, the pride and 
 exultation of which can never be eradicated 
 from my mind but by death, nor in the least 
 degree allayed by any lapse of time — the most 
 splendid distinction which any subjects can 
 confer upon a fellow citizen — to be freely 
 elected for Yorkshire, upon public grounds, and 
 being unconnected with the county. From 
 having been at the borough the day of the election, 
 I can give your Lordships some idea how well 
 the system works there. You may be returned 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 223 
 
 for the place, but it is at your peril that you 
 show yourself among the inhabitants. There is 
 a sort of polling ; that is, five or six of my 
 Noble Friend's tenants ride over from another 
 part of the country — receive their burgage qua- 
 lifications — vote, as the enemies of the Bill call 
 it, ** in right of property," that is of the Duke's 
 property — render up their title deeds — dine, 
 and return home before night. Being detained 
 in court at York longer than I had expected on 
 the day of this elective proceeding, I arrived 
 too late for the chairing, and therefore did not 
 assist at that awful solemnity. Seeing a gentle- 
 man with a black patch, somewhere about the 
 size of a Sergeant's coif, I expressed my regret 
 at his apparent ailment; he said, *'It is for a 
 *' blow I had the honour to receive in represent- 
 *' ing you at the ceremony." Certainly no con- 
 stituent ever owed more to his representative 
 than I to mine : but the blow was severe, and 
 might well have proved fatal. I understand 
 this is the common lot of the Members, as my 
 Noble Friend,* who once sat for the place, I 
 believe, knows; though there is some variety, 
 as he is aware, in the mode of proceeding, the 
 convenient neighbourhood of a river with a rocky 
 channel sometimes suggesting operations of 
 another kind. I am very far, of course, from 
 ♦ The Earl of Tankerville. 
 
224 THE KEFOH.AI BILT. 
 
 approving such marks of public indignation ; but 
 I am equally far from wondering that it should 
 seek a vent ; for I confess that if the thousands 
 of persons whom the well working of the pre- 
 sent system insults with the farce of the 
 Knaresborough election (and whom the Bill 
 restores to their rights) were to bear so cruel a 
 mockery with patience, 1 should deem them 
 degraded indeed. 
 
 It works well, does it? For whom? For the 
 Constitution? No such thing. For Borough 
 proprietors it works well, who can sell seats, or 
 traffic in influence, and pocket the gains. Upon 
 the constitution it is the foulest stain, and eats 
 into its very core. 
 
 It works well ? For the people of England? 
 For the people, of whom the many excluded 
 electors are parcel, and for whom alone the few 
 actual electors ought to exercise their franchise 
 as a trust ? No such thing. As long as a Mem- 
 ber of Parliament really represents any body of 
 his countrymen, be they freeholders, or copy- 
 holders, or leaseholders — as long as he repre- 
 sents the householders in any considerable town 
 — and is in either way deputed to watch over 
 the interests of a portion of the community, and 
 is always answerable to those who delegate 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 225 
 
 him — so long has he a participation in the inte- 
 rests of the whole State, whereof his consti- 
 tuents form a portion ; so long may he justly 
 act as representing the whole community, hav- 
 ing, with his particular electors, only a general 
 coincidence of views upon national questions, 
 and a rigorous coincidence where their special 
 interests are concerned. But if he is delegated 
 by a single man, and not by a county or town, 
 he does not represent the people of England ; 
 he is a jobber sent to Parliament, to do his own 
 or his patron's work. But then we are told, 
 and with singular exultation, how many great 
 men have found their way into the House of 
 Commons by this channel. My Lords, are we, 
 because the only road to a place is unclean, not 
 to travel it? If I cannot get into Parliament, 
 where I may render the State good service, by 
 any other means, I will go that way, defiling 
 myself as little as I can, either by the filth of 
 the passage, or the indifferent company I may 
 travel with. I won't bribe ; I won't job, to get 
 in ; but if it be the only path open, I will use it 
 for the public good. But those who indulge in 
 this argument about great men securing seats, 
 do not, I remark, take any account of the far 
 greater numbers of very little men who thus find 
 their way into Parliament, to do all manner of 
 public mischief. A few are, no doubt, inde- 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE REFOIIM BILL. 
 
 pendent ; but many are as docile, as disciplined 
 in the evolutions of debate, as any troops the 
 Noble Duke* had at Waterloo. One Borough 
 proprietor is well remembered, who would dis- 
 play his forces, command them in person, carry 
 them over from one flank to the other, or draw 
 them off altogether, and send them to take the 
 field against the larks at Dunstable, that he 
 might testify his displeasure. When conflicting 
 bodies are pretty nearly matched^ the evolutions 
 of such a corps decide the fate of the day. The 
 Noble Duke remembers how doubtful even the 
 event of Waterloo might have been, had Grouchy 
 come up in time. Accordingly, the fortunate 
 leader of that Parliamentary force raised him- 
 self to an Earldom and two Lord Lieutenancies, 
 and obtained titles and blue ribands for others 
 of his family, who now fill most respectable sta- 
 tions in this House. 
 
 The system, we are told, works well — be- 
 cause, notwithstanding the manner of its elec- 
 tion, the House of Commons sometimes concurs 
 immediately in opinion with the people; and, 
 in the long run, is seldom found to counteract 
 it. Yet sometimes, and on several of the most 
 momentous questions, the run has, indeed, been 
 a very long one. The Slave Trade continued to 
 
 • The Duke of AVellington. 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 227 
 
 be the signal disgrace of the country, the unut- 
 terable opprobrium of the English name, for 
 many years after it had been denounced in Par- 
 liament, and condemned by the people all in 
 one voice. Think you, this foul stain could have 
 so long survived, in a Reformed Parliament, the 
 prodigious eloquence of my venerable friend, 
 Mr. Wilberforce, and the unanimous reproba- 
 tion of the country ? The American war might 
 have been commenced, and even for a year or 
 two persevered in ; for though most unnatural, 
 it was, at first, not unpopular. But could it have 
 lasted beyond 1778, had the voice of the people 
 been heard in their own House ? The French 
 war, which in those days I used to think a far 
 more natural contest, having, in my youth, 
 leant to the alarmist party, might possibly have 
 continued some years. But if the representa- 
 tion of the country had been reformed, there can 
 be no reason to doubt that the sound views of 
 the Noble Earl,* and the immortal eloquence of 
 my Right Hon. Friend,t whose great spirit, now 
 freed from the coil of this world, may be per- 
 mitted to look down complacent upon the near 
 accomplishment of his patriotic desires, would 
 have been very differently listened to in a Par- 
 liament, unbiassed by selfish interests , and of 
 one thing I am as certain as that I stand here — 
 
 * Earl Grey. f Mr. Fox. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 that ruinous warfare never could have lasted a 
 day beyond the arrival of Buonaparte's letter in 
 1800. 
 
 But still, it is said, public opinion finds its way 
 more speedily into Parliament upon great and 
 interesting emergencies. How does it so ? By 
 a mode contrary to the whole principles of re- 
 presentative Government, — by sudden, direct, 
 and dangerous impulses. The fundamental prin- 
 ciple of our Constitution, the great political dis- 
 covery of modern times — that, indeed, which 
 enables a State to combine extent with liberty, — 
 the system of representation, consists altogether 
 in the perfect delegation by the people, of their 
 rights, and the care of their interests, to those 
 who are to deliberate and to act for them. It is 
 not a delegation which shall make the repre- 
 sentative a mere organ of the passing will, or 
 momentary opinion, of his constituents. — 1 am 
 aware, my Lords, that in pursuing this impor- 
 tant topic, I may lay myself open to uncandid 
 inference, touching the present state of the 
 country ; but I feel sure no such advantage will 
 be taken, for my whole argument upon the 
 national enthusiasm of Reform rests upon the 
 known fact, that it is the growth of half a cen- 
 tury, and not of a few months ; and', according 
 to the soundest views of representative legisla- 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 229 
 
 tion there ought to be a general coincidence 
 between the conduct of the delegate, and the 
 sentiments of the electors. Now, when the 
 public voice, for want of a regular and legitimate 
 organ, makes itself, from time to time, heard 
 within the walls of Parliament, it is by a direct 
 interposition of the people, not in the way of a 
 delegated trust, to make the laws — and every 
 such occasion presents, in truth, an instance 
 where the defects of our elective system intro- 
 duced a recurrence to the old and barbarous 
 schemes of Government, known in the tribes 
 and centuries of Rome, or the assemblies of 
 Attica. It is a poor compensation for the faults 
 of a system, which suffers a cruel grievance to 
 exist, or a ruinous war to last twenty or thirty 
 years, after the public opinion has condemned it, 
 that some occasions arise when the excess of the 
 abuse brings about a violent remedy„or some 
 revolutionary shock, threatening the destruction 
 of the whole. 
 
 But it works well ! Then why does the table 
 groan with the Petitions against it, of all that 
 people, for whose interests there is any use in it 
 working at all ? Why did the country, at the 
 last election, without exception, wherever they 
 had the franchise, return members commissioned 
 to complain of it, and amend it? Why were its 
 
 Q 3 
 
230 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 own produce, the men chosen under it, found 
 voting against it by unexampled majorities? Of 
 eighty-two English county members, seventy- 
 six have pronounced sentence upon it, and they 
 are joined by all the representatives of cities 
 and of great towns. 
 
 It works well ! Whence, then, the phenome- 
 non of Political Unions, — of the people every- 
 where forming themselves into Associations to 
 put down a system, which you say^ well serves 
 their interests? Whence the congregating of 
 150,000 men in one place, the whole adult 
 male population of two or three counties, to 
 speak the language of discontent, and refuse 
 the payment of taxes? I am one who never 
 have either used the language 'of intimidation, 
 or will ever suffer it to be used towards me ; 
 but I also am one who regard those indications 
 with unspeakable anxiety. With all respect 
 for those assemblages, and for the honesty of 
 the opinions they entertain, I feel myself bound 
 to declare, as an honest man, as a Minister of 
 the Crown, as a Magistrate, nay, as standing, 
 by virtue of my office, at the head of the magis- 
 tracy, that a resolution not to pay the King's 
 taxes is unlawful. When I contemplate the 
 fact, I am assured, that not above a few thou- 
 sands of those nearest the chairman could know 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 231 
 
 for what it was they held up their hands. At 
 the same time, there is too much reason to think 
 that the rest would have acted as they did, had 
 they heard of all that passed. My hope and 
 trust is^ that these men, and their leaders, will 
 maturely re-consider the subject. There are no 
 bounds to the application of such a power ; the 
 difficulty of counteracting it is extreme ; and as 
 it may be exerted on whatever question has the 
 leading interest, and every question in succes- 
 sion is felt as of exclusive importance, the use 
 of the power I am alluding to, really threatens 
 to resolve all Government, and even society 
 itself, into its elements. I know the risk I run 
 of giving offence by what I am saying. To me, 
 accused of worshipping the democracy, here is 
 indeed a tempting occasion, if in that charge 
 there were the shadow of truth. Before the 
 great idol, the Juggernaut, with his 150,000 
 priests, I might prostrate myself advantageously. 
 But I am bound to do my duty, and speak the 
 truth ; of such an assembly I cannot approve ; 
 even its numbers obstruct discussion, and tend to 
 put the peace in danger, — coupled with such a 
 combination against payment of taxes, it is ille- 
 gal ; it is intolerable under any form of Govern- 
 ment ; and as a sincere well-wisher to the 
 people themselves, and devoted to the cause 
 which brought them together, I feel solicitous, on 
 
 Q 4 
 
232 THE REFORM DILI. 
 
 every account, to bring such proceedings to an 
 end. 
 
 But, my Lords, it is for us to ponder these 
 thing-s well ; they are material facts in our pre- 
 sent inquiry. Under a system of real represen- 
 tation, in a country where the people possessed 
 the only safe and legitimate channel for making 
 known their wishes and their complaints, a Par- 
 liament of their own choosing, such combina- 
 tions would be useless. Indeed, they must 
 always be mere bi^utum fulmen, unless where 
 they are very general ; and where they are gene- 
 ral, they both indicate the universality of the 
 grievance, and the determination to have redress. 
 Where no safety-valve is provided for popular 
 discontent, to prevent an explosion that may 
 shiver the machine in pieces — where the peo- 
 ple — and by the people, I repeat, I mean the 
 middle classes, the wealth and intelligence of 
 the country, the glory of the British name — 
 where this most important order of the commu- 
 nity are without a regular and systematic com- 
 munication with the Legislature — where they 
 are denied the Constitution which is their birth- 
 right, and refused a voice in naming those who 
 are to make the laws they must obey — impose 
 the taxes they must pay, — and control, without 
 appeal, their persons as well as properties — 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 233 
 
 where they feel the load of such grievances, and 
 feel too the power they possess, moral, intellec- 
 tual, and, let me add, without the imputation of 
 a threat, physical — then, and only then, are 
 their combinations formidable; when they are 
 armed by their wrongs, far more formidable than 
 any physical force — then, and only then, they 
 become invincible. 
 
 Do you ask, what, in these circumstances, we 
 ought to do ? I answer, simply our duty. If 
 there were no such combinations in existence — 
 no symptom of popular excitement — if not a 
 man had lifted up his voice against the existing 
 system, we should be bound to seek and to 
 seize any means of furthering the best interests 
 of the people, with kindness, with considera- 
 tion, with the firmness, certainly, but with the 
 prudence also of statesmen. How much more 
 are we bound to conciliate a great nation, 
 anxiously panting for their rights — to hear re- 
 spectfully their prayers — to entertain the mea- 
 sure of their choice with an honest inclination 
 to do it justice; and if, while we approve its 
 principle, we yet dislike some of its details, and 
 deem them susceptible of modification, surely 
 we ought, at any rate, not to reject their prayers 
 for it with insult. God forbid we should so 
 treat the people's desire ; but I do fear, that a 
 
234 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 determination is taken not to entertain it with 
 calmness and impartiality. 
 
 I am asked what great practical benefits are 
 to be expected from this measure ? And is it 
 no benefit to have the Government strike its 
 roots into the hearts of the people ? Is it no 
 benefit to have a calm and deliberative, but a 
 real organ of the public opinion, by which its 
 course may be known, and its influence exerted 
 upon State affairs, regularly and temperately, 
 instead of acting convulsively^ and as it were 
 by starts and shocks? I will only appeal to 
 one advantage, which is as certain to result 
 from this salutary improvement of our system, 
 as it is certain that I am addressing your Lord- 
 ships. A Noble Earl* inveighed strongly against 
 the licentiousness of the press ; complained 
 of its insolence; and asserted that there was 
 no tyranny more intolerable than that which 
 its conductors now exercised. It is most true, 
 that the press has great influence, but equally 
 true^ that it derives this influence from express- 
 ing, more or less correctly, the opinion of the 
 country. Let it run counter to the prevail- 
 ing course, and its power is at an end. But I will 
 also admit that, going in the same general direc- 
 * The Earl of Winchilsea. 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 235 
 
 tion with public opinion, the press is oftentimes 
 armed with too much power, in particular in- 
 stances ; and such power is always liable to be 
 abused. But I will tell the Noble Earl upon 
 what foundation this overgrown power is built. 
 The press is now the only organ of public opi- 
 nion : this title it assumes ; but it is not by 
 usurpation ; it is rendered legitimate by the 
 defects of your Parliamentary constitution ; it 
 is erected upon the ruins of real representation. 
 The periodical press is the rival of the House of 
 Commons; and it is, and it will be, the suc- 
 cessful rival, as long as that House does not re- 
 present the people- — but not one day longer. If 
 ever I felt confident in any prediction, it is in 
 this, that the restoration of Parliament to its 
 legitimate office of representing truly the public 
 opinion will overthrow the tyranny of which 
 Noble Lords are so ready to complain, who, by 
 keeping out the lawful sovereign, in truth, sup- 
 port the usurper. It is you who have placed 
 this unlawful authority on a rock : pass the 
 Bill, it is built on a quicksand. Let but the 
 country have a full and free representation, and 
 to that will men look for the expression of public 
 opinion, and the press will no more be able to 
 dictate, as now, when none else can speak the 
 sense of the people. Will its influence wholly 
 cease? God forbid! Its just influence will 
 
236 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 continue, but confined within safe and proper 
 bounds. It will continue — long may it con- 
 tinue — to watch the conduct of public men — to 
 watch the proceedings even of a reformed Le- 
 gislature — to watch the people themselves — a 
 safe, an innoxious, a useful instrument, to en- 
 lighten and improve mankind ! But its over- 
 grown power — its assumption to speak in the 
 name of the nation — its pretension to dictate 
 and to command, will cease with the abuses 
 and defects upon which alone it is founded, and 
 will be swept away, together with the other 
 creatures of the same abuses, which now " fright 
 '* our isle from its propriety." 
 
 Those portentous appearances, the growth of 
 later times, those figures that stalk abroad, of 
 unknown stature and strange form — unions and 
 leagues, and musterings of men in myriads, and 
 conspiracies against the Exchequer — whence do 
 they spring, and how come they to haunt our 
 shores ? What power engendered these uncouth 
 shapes — what multiplied the monstrous births 
 till they people the land ? Trust me, the same 
 power which called into frightful existence, and 
 armed with resistless force, the Irish Volunteers 
 of 1782 — the same power which rent in twain 
 your empire, and conjured up thirteen Repub- 
 lics — the same power which created the Catho- 
 
I 
 
 THE REFORM BILL. 237 
 
 lie Association, and gave it Ireland for a por- 
 tion. What power is that? Justice denied — 
 rights withheld — wrongs perpetrated — the force 
 which common injuries lends to millions — the 
 wickedness of using the sacred trust of Govern- 
 ment as a means of indulging private caprice — 
 the idiotcy of treating Englishmen like the 
 children of the South Sea Islands — the phrenzy 
 of believing, or making believe, that the adults 
 of the nineteenth century can be led like 
 children, or driven like barbarians ! This it is 
 that has conjured up the strange sights at which 
 we now stand aghast ! And shall we persist in 
 the fatal error of combatting the giant progeny, 
 instead of extirpating the execrable parent? 
 Good God ! Will men never learn wisdom 
 even from their own experience ? Will they 
 never believe, till it be too late, that the surest 
 way to prevent immoderate desires being formed, 
 aye, and unjust demands enforced, is to grant, 
 in due season, the moderate requests of justice ? 
 
 You stand, my Lords, on the brink of a great 
 event — you are in the crisis of a whole nation's 
 hopes and fears. An awful importance hangs 
 over your decision. Pause, ere you plunge ! 
 There may not be any retreat ! It behoves 
 you to shape your conduct by the mighty occa- 
 sion. They tell you not to be afraid of per- 
 
238 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 sonal consequences in discharging your duty. 
 I too would ask you to banish all fears; but, 
 above all, that most mischievous, most de- 
 spicable fear, — the fear of being thought afraid. 
 If you won't take counsel from me, take ex- 
 ample from the statesmanlike conduct of the 
 Noble Duke,* while you also look back, as you 
 may, with satisfaction upon your own. He was 
 told, and you were told, that the impatience of 
 Ireland for equality of civil rights was partial, 
 the clamour transient, likely to pass away with 
 its temporary occasion, and that yielding to it 
 would be conceding to intimidation. I recol- 
 lect hearing this topic urged within this Hall in 
 July, 1828; less regularly I heard it than I 
 have now done, for I belonged not to your num- 
 ber — but I heard it urged in the self-same terms. 
 The burthen of the cry was — It is no time for 
 concession ; the people are turbulent^ and the 
 Association dangerous. That summer passed, 
 and the ferment subsided not. Autumn came, 
 and brought not the precious fruit of peace, — on 
 the contrary, all Ireland was convulsed with the 
 unprecedented conflict which returned the great 
 chief of the Catholics to sit in a Protestant 
 Parliament. Winter bound the earth in chains ; 
 but it controlled not the popular fury, whose 
 surge, more deafening than the tempest, lashed 
 
 • The Duke of Wellington. 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 239 
 
 the frail bulwarks of law founded upon injustice. 
 Spring came — but no etherial mildness was its 
 harbinger, or followed in its train, — the Catho- 
 lics became stronger by every month's delay, 
 displayed a deadlier resolution, and proclaimed 
 their wrongs in a tone of louder defiance than 
 before. And what course did you, at this mo- 
 ment of greatest excitement, and peril, and 
 menace, deem it most fitting to pursue ? Eight 
 months before you had been told how unworthy 
 it would be to yield when men clamoured and 
 threatened. No change had happened in the 
 interval, save that the clamours were become 
 far more deafening, and the threats, beyond 
 comparison, more overbearing. What, never- 
 theless, did your Lordships do ? Your duty — 
 for you despised the cuckoo-note of the season, 
 '* not be intimidated." You granted all that 
 the Irish demanded, and you saved your coun- 
 try. Was there in April a single argument 
 advanced, which had not held good in July ? 
 None, absolutely none, except the new height 
 to which the dangers of longer delay had risen, 
 and the increased vehemence with which justice 
 was demanded — and yet the appeal to your 
 pride, which had prevailed in July, was in vain 
 made in April, and you wisely and patriotically 
 granted what was asked, and ran the risk of 
 being supposed to yield through fear. 
 
240 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 But the history of the Catholic Claims con- 
 veys another important lesson. Though in right, 
 and policy, and justice, the measure of relief 
 could not be too ample, half as much as was 
 received with little gratitude, when so late 
 wrung from you, would have been hailed twenty 
 years before with delight ; and even the July 
 preceding, the measure would have been re- 
 ceived as a boon freely given, which, I fear, was 
 taken with but sullen satisfaction in April, as a 
 right long withheld. Yet, blessed be God, the 
 debt of justice, though tardily, was at length 
 paid, and the Noble Duke won by it civic 
 honours which rival his warlike achievements 
 in lasting brightness — than which there can be 
 no higher praise. What, if he had still listened 
 to the topics of intimidation and inconsistency 
 which had scared his predecessors? He might 
 have proved his obstinacy, and Ireland would 
 have been the sacrifice. 
 
 Apply now this lesson of recent history, — I 
 may say of our own experience, to the measure 
 before us. We stand in a truly critical position. 
 If we reject the Bill, through fear of being 
 thought to be intimidated, we may lead the life 
 of retirement and quiet, but the hearts of the 
 millions of our fellow-citizens are gone for ever; 
 their affections are estranged ; we, and our order, 
 
THE REFORM JJILL. 241 
 
 and its privileges, are the objects of the people's 
 hatred, as the only obstacles which stand be- 
 tween them and the gratification of their most 
 passionate desire. The whole body of the 
 Aristocracy must expect to share this fate, and 
 be exposed to feelings such as these. For I 
 hear it constantly said, that the Bill is rejected 
 by all the Aristocracy. Favour, and a good 
 number of supporters, our adversaries allow it 
 has among the people ; the Ministers, too, are 
 for it ; but the Aristocracy, say they, is strenu- 
 ously opposed to it. I broadly deny this silly, 
 thoughtless assertion. What! My Lords, the 
 Aristocracy set themselves in a mass against the 
 people — they who sprang from the people — are 
 inseparably connected with the people — are 
 supported by the people— are the natural chiefs 
 of the people? They set themselves against the 
 people, for whom Peers are ennobled — Bishops 
 consecrated — Kings anointed — the people, to 
 serve whom Parliament itself has an existence, 
 and the Monarchy and all its institutions are 
 constituted, and without whom none of them 
 could exist for an hour? The assertion of unre- 
 flecting men is too monstrous to be endured — 
 as a Member of this House, I deny it with 
 indignation. 1 repel it with scorn, as a calumny 
 upon us all, And yet are there those who even 
 within these walls speak of the Bill, augmenting 
 
 R 
 
242 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 SO much the strength of the democracy, as to 
 endanger the other orders of the State ; and so 
 they charge its authors with promoting anarchy 
 and rapine. Why, my Lords, have its authors 
 nothing to fear from democratic spoliation ? The 
 fact is, that there are Members of the present 
 Cabinet, who possess, one or two of them alone, 
 far more property than any two administrations 
 within my recollection ; and all of them have 
 ample wealth. I need hardly say, I include not 
 myself, who have little or none. But even of 
 myself I will say, that whatever I have depends 
 on the stability of existing institutions; and it is 
 as dear to me as the princely possessions of any 
 amongst you. Permit me to say, that, in be- 
 coming a Member of your House, I staked my 
 all on the aristocratic institutions of the State. 
 I abandoned certain wealth, a large income, 
 and much real power in the State^ for an office 
 of great trouble, heavy responsibility, and very 
 uncertain duration. I say, I gave up substan- 
 tial power for the shadow of it, and for distinc- 
 tion depending upon accident. I quitted the 
 elevated station of Representative for Yorkshire, 
 and a leading Member of the Commons. I de- 
 scended from a position quite lofty enough to 
 gratify any man's ambition ; and my lot became 
 bound up in the stability of this House. Then, 
 have I not a right to throw myself on your 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 243 
 
 justice, and to desire that you will not put in 
 jeopardy all I have now left? 
 
 But the populace only, the rabble, the igno- 
 ble vulgar, are for the Bill ? Then what is the 
 Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England? 
 What the Duke of Devonshire? What the 
 Duke of Bedford? (Cries of Order from the 
 Opposition.) I am aware it is irregular in any 
 Noble Lord that is a friend to the measure ; its 
 adversaries are patiently suffered to call Peers 
 even by their christian and surnames. Then I 
 shall be as regular as they were, and ask, does 
 my friend John Russell, my friend William 
 Cavendish, my friend Harry Vane, belong to 
 the mob, or to the Aristocracy ? Have they no 
 possessions? Are they modern names? Are 
 they wanting in Norman blood, or whatever 
 else you pride yourselves on ? The idea is too 
 ludicrous to be seriously refuted ; — that the Bill 
 is only a favourite with the democracy, is a de- 
 lusion so wild as to point a man's destiny to- 
 wards St. Luke's. Yet many, both here and 
 elsewhere, by dint of constantly repeating the 
 same cry, or hearing it repeated, have almost 
 made themselves believe that none of the nobi- 
 lity are for the measure. A Noble Friend of 
 mine has had the curiosity to examine the List 
 of Peers, opposing and supporting it, with re- 
 
 11 2 
 
244 THE REFORM lifLL. 
 
 spect to the dates of their creation, and the 
 result is somewhat remarkable. A large major- 
 ity of the Peers, created before Mr. Pitt's time, 
 are for the Bill; the bulk of those against it are of 
 recent creation ; and if you divide the whole into 
 two classes, those ennobled before the reign of 
 George III. and those since, of the former, tifty- 
 six are friends, and only twenty-one enemies, 
 of the Reform. So much for the vain and saucy 
 boast, that the real nobility of the country are 
 against Reform. I have dwelt upon this matter 
 more than its intrinsic importance deserves, only 
 through my desire to set right the fact, and to 
 vindicate the ancient Aristocracy from a most 
 groundless imputation. 
 
 My Lords, I do not disguise the intense soli- 
 citude 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. Icannot look 
 without dismay at the rejection of the measure. 
 But grievous as may be the consequences of a 
 temporary defeat — temporary it can only be ; 
 for its ultimate, and even speedy, success is cer- 
 tain. Nothing can now 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 sue- 
 
THE REFORM BELL. 245 
 
 cessors 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 gate^ and offers you mildly the volumes 
 — the precious volumes — 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 lon- 
 ger. But soon, for you cannot do without her 
 wares, you call her back ; again she comes, but 
 with diminished treasures; the leaves of the 
 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 by 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 Wool- 
 sack. What may follow your course of obsti- 
 nacy, if persisted in, I cannot take upon me to 
 predict, nor do I wish to conjecture. But this 
 I know full well, that as sure as man is mortal, 
 
 R 3 
 
246 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 and to err is human, justice deferred, en- 
 hances 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 abomi- 
 nable 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 highest judicature in the realm; you sit 
 here as judges, and decide all causes, civil 
 and criminal, without appeal. It is a judge's 
 first duty never to pronounce sentence, in the 
 most trifling case, without hearing. Will you 
 make this the exception ? Are you really pre- 
 pared to determine, but not to hear, the mighty 
 cause upon which a nation's hopes and fears 
 hang? You are. Then beware of your deci- 
 sion ! Rouse not, I beseech you, a peace-lov- 
 ing, 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 I exhort you not to reject 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 247 
 
 this measure. By all you hold most dear, — ^by 
 all the ties that bind every one of us to our com- 
 mon order and our common country, I solemnly 
 adjure you, — I warn you^ — I implore you, — 
 yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you — 
 Reject not this Bill ! 
 
 k4 
 
EXTRACTS FROM A SPEECH 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 IN SUPPORT OF 
 
 THE SECOND READING 
 
 OF 
 
 THE REFORM BILL, 
 
 APRIL Uth, 1832. 
 
 It is said, that if you examine the returns of 
 any place, you will find the householders of 
 £10. greatly more numerous than those of £20. 
 — meaning by £ 10. householders those who hold 
 houses of from £10. to £20. annual value, 
 and by £20. householders, those of £20. and 
 upwards. I think that, generally speaking, 
 you will find more houses of £ 20. and upwards, 
 than below that amount. It must not be sup- 
 posed, that that large class of houses between 
 £10. and £20. are merely £10. houses. You 
 must not take a minimum, and erect it into a 
 maximum ; therefore, to say that the inhabitants 
 of the small tenements of £10. will overwhelm 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 249 
 
 the richer classes who occupy those of £20., 
 £30., £40., £50., and £100. value, is an asser- 
 tion unsupported by any arguments or facts. 
 Take, as an instance, the town of Warwick ; — 
 it has 300 voters who inhabit houses of £ 10. and 
 upwards, but under £20. ; and about 215 who 
 hold houses of £20. and upwards; the smaller 
 are, therefore, in the proportion to the larger 
 tenements as three to two. But of these £ 10. 
 houses, perhaps 100 or 150 are houses of the 
 value of £ 14., £ 15., and from that up to £20., 
 therefore, the highest of the smaller houses ap- 
 proach very near to the lowest of the larger 
 houses. I cannot, therefore, see how the £ 10. 
 householders will overwhelm those of the higher 
 classes, or how the representation will, by such 
 means, be thrown into the hands of men of little 
 or no property. The £ 10. householders do not 
 form a distinct class of voters, for nothing can 
 be more obvious, than that they blend into those 
 of a larger description, almost by imperceptible 
 gradations. 
 
 Noble Lords are accustomed to take their 
 ideas of £ 10. houses, from what they see of 
 that class in a great town. I would recommend 
 them to go into one of those towns on which 
 this franchise is to be conferred. They will 
 find, that it is not the common day-labourer 
 
250 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 that can afford to give £ 10. a year for his house: 
 is it possible for the man who is earning 10^., 
 12*., 13.9., or 14.?., a week, to afford to pay 
 3*. 10^. of it for his weekly house-rent? Such 
 a man will occupy a much inferior tenement. 
 The persons paying that rent will be men in the 
 situation of respectable shopkeepers and trades- 
 men, overseers in some manufactory, or foremen, 
 at least ; persons respectable in every point of 
 view, with reference to their station; and do 
 you think that there is such a difference in point 
 of communication, connexion, and influence, 
 between the tenants of these different houses, 
 that the man who occupies a house of from £20. 
 to £30. a year, struts by his poorer neighbour, 
 who is the holder of only a£13., £14., or even 
 a £10. house? Has he no communication at all 
 with him ? Has he no connexion, no habits of 
 society with him ? In a word, has he no means 
 of making his opinions known, or of using his 
 influence to urge those opinions which superior 
 wealth gives a man ? He will have that inter- 
 course ; the richer man will have the opportu- 
 nity of making his sentiments known to his 
 poorer neighbour ; while the practical effect will 
 be, in many cases, to give him that influence 
 which superiority, — not only in point of circum- 
 stances, but of character and education,— will 
 always enable a man to exert over his less weal- 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 251 
 
 thy neighbours. For, my Lords, is it not in this 
 that the influence of the richer over the inferior 
 classes, consists — in the influence which is exer- 
 cised by a person of learning and information ? 
 But, my Lords, I confess that I feel no alarm in 
 contemplating the possibility of a case in which 
 no influence whatever can be exerted, and which 
 would leave all and every one of those persons 
 to exercise their own judgment in the choice 
 of their representatives. 
 
 It is the interest of the poorer, as well as of 
 the higher classes, that there should be a good 
 Government in the country, — that efficient repre- 
 sentatives should be chosen, — that men should 
 be sent to Parliament to watch over the institu- 
 tions of the country ; and it is no less the inte- 
 rest of the lowest of those classes that there 
 should be peace and prosperity in the country, 
 and that the stability of its institutions should 
 be carefully and vigilantly watched. 
 
 My Lords, I will not now enter into the 
 question whether the rich man or the poor man 
 has the greatest interest in the preservation of 
 tranquillity ; but it is sufficient for me that the 
 poor man loses his all, and that he is the first 
 who will suffer in a convulsion long before acts 
 of spoliation take place, sufficient to ruin the 
 
252 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 rich man, — public calamity, the want of bread, 
 and all the evils that follow in the train of a con- 
 vulsed state of the country, would be sure to 
 press with the most grinding effect upon the 
 humbler classes. Your Lordships might suffer 
 if every man were frantic enough to dream of 
 unsettling the established institutions of his 
 country, and to introduce confusion into this 
 empire ; but who would suffer first, and most 
 severely? — who but the humbler classes, not 
 excepting the day-labourer, the artizan, and the 
 agricultural labourers? But the men who would 
 suffer most of all^ are those individuals of the 
 middle, — aye, even to the humbler portion of 
 the middle class, — to whom this measure pro- 
 poses to give the franchise. Why, then, my 
 Lords, be afraid to trust those classes ? — why be 
 afraid that such a Parliament as they would re- 
 turn would dream of unsettling the Constitution 
 of the country? — why not trust those classes 
 who are, at least, as worthy of trust as those 
 whom you trust now? — why not admit those 
 whose interests and feelings, it must be allowed, 
 are most adverse to any violent change? Sup- 
 pose, my Lords, that there exists a worse por- 
 tion of the people (and I entreat your Lordships' 
 attention to this point), — suppose the existence 
 of any such portion, bent upon mischievous de- 
 signs, — the populace we may call them, — men 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 253 
 
 over whom you have no hold, — men who have 
 no stake in the country, — men tossed about by 
 every gale of opinion, — men to whom agitation 
 is described as natural — the supporters of those 
 opinions about which so much alarm has been 
 expressed, — if there be a body of men of this 
 sort in the country, I ask whether any one thing 
 can be conceived more effectual towards reclaim- 
 ing them, and bringing them back to a sense of 
 their duty to their country and to a right view 
 of their own interests, than the course which 
 this measure pursues ? for it affords an opportu- 
 nity of reclaiming these misguided individuals, 
 by placing among them persons capable of con- 
 trolling them by their influence, and of gaining 
 them over, by their advice, to the interests 
 of both, — men not very far above themselves, 
 but renting small £ 10. houses ; and by giving 
 them an interest in the preservation of the insti- 
 tutions of the country. 
 
 Hitherto, patronage has been carried to such 
 an extent, that no honest Ministry can possibly 
 carry on the Government. That has been one 
 of the charges brought against the existing sys- 
 tem; but when you have a reformed Parlia- 
 ment, Ministers will not, with such patronage 
 existing, be able to carry Government on at all. 
 
2.54 
 
 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 I have no expectation that a reformed House of 
 Commons will bear down the official patronage 
 of the Crown, which is essential to its efficiency, 
 and which the public service requires. But I 
 am quite sure it will do one thing — it would be 
 unfortunate if it did not, — it will not allow 
 patronage even to the most moderate amount to 
 exist merely as patronage, and for the purpose 
 of patronage, and in order to enable a Govern- 
 ment to carry on the affairs of the country, 
 which, without that patronage, could not steadily 
 pursue its course. But, my Lords, it will never- 
 theless affi^rd a ready and energetic support to a 
 Government wisely and honestly intent on doing 
 its duty to this country. Beyond what is neces- 
 sary for that purpose, no support will be given ; 
 but Government must stand on its own merits 
 alone, and the merits of its measures ; and must 
 not trust to the influence arising from mere pa- 
 tronage, any more than it can trust to the influ- 
 ence of nomination boroughs. My Lords, many 
 things may be looked forward to from these 
 changes, and many things may be ascribed to 
 reform which are not altogether to be ascribed 
 to it. I verily believe, as Parliament is at pre- 
 sent constituted, that for years and years to 
 come, difficulties will be found all but insur- 
 mountable for any Government to overcome; 
 but reform the Parliament, and I am convinced 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 255 
 
 it will give its best support to an honest, a fair, 
 and a liberal policy, as — I will not say is dic- 
 tated by caprice or even by the feelings of the 
 people, — but such a policy as shall carry along 
 with it the opinions of all the rational part of 
 society, whom I believe in my conscience to be 
 an overwhelming majority of all ranks and classes 
 of his Majesty's subjects, extending even to the 
 very humblest. 
 
 When education has made such progress as 
 it has done, and when I look to the further pro- 
 gress it may reasonably be anticipated to make 
 in a few years, I can trust with implicit, with 
 chearful, with increasing, daily increasing, and 
 I will add, with exulting confidence, in the plain, 
 good sense, the rational, consistent, regular, and 
 peaceful opinions and wishes of the majority of 
 the people. It is proper that there should be 
 some restriction in the right of voting, for the 
 purpose of avoiding the evils which will always 
 attach to too numerous assemblies of the people, 
 and for the purpose of preventing too vast an ex- 
 pense at elections, and the mischief which would 
 arise from not drawing any line at all ; but it 
 is not from any distrust that I have of even those 
 classes to whom this measure does not give the 
 elective franchise, that I assent to this restric- 
 tion; for I am sure, if you will remove the great 
 
256 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 and obvious grievance of our time, and of times 
 long past, owing to the state of the represen- 
 tation, — if you destroy the system of nomination, 
 you will restore yourselves to a place in the 
 affections of the people, which the existence of 
 that grievance has caused you to lose : — that is 
 the great and capital grievance of all: — once 
 remove it, and I, for one, entertain not the slight- 
 est apprehension from the power and conduct 
 of even those who are below the humblest class 
 to whom the franchise will, by this Bill, be 
 given. 
 
 Upon this occasion much has been said as 
 to the consequences of rejecting this measure. 
 I will not dwell upon that view of the subject, 
 because I wish to avoid saying any thing that 
 can, even by the most ingenious perversion, be 
 construed into the language of intimidation. But, 
 my Lords, I only beg and entreat you not to 
 lose this opportunity of improving (I will not 
 say of regaining, because that would imply loss) 
 your place in the affections of your fellow-coun- 
 trymen. If their confidence in you, — if their 
 love and respect for you, should unfortunately 
 have been shaken, I think not only wisdom, 
 prudence, and good feeling, but a due regard to 
 the peace and security of the kingdom, — a due 
 regard to the interests of all classes, and to your 
 
THE REFORM BILL. 257 
 
 own dignity, ought strongly to incline you to 
 lean to that course which is as certain^ — as abso- 
 lutely certain, — not only to regain all you have 
 lost, if you have lost any thing, but to raise you 
 higher than you ever were in the affection, es- 
 teem, and respect of the people. Of my fears 
 for an adverse events — of my fears of what may 
 possibly happen, I shall say nothing, — I mean 
 only this, — that no one event is more to be 
 dreaded, — for the security of all our establish- 
 ments, — for the security of all our institutions, 
 — than a growing alienation of the public mind 
 from the legislative body of this country. Above 
 all, we should avoid the widening of any breach, 
 the increase of any distance, by which we are 
 now separated from the great bulk of the people. 
 
 My Lords, we have heard of other plans of 
 reform which have been brought forward, as it 
 has been rightly said, too late. I confess, I look 
 upon these plans with all but suspicion, when I 
 consider the time and occasion of bringing them 
 forth, — their not having been broached during 
 the time which has elapsed, since the 8th or 9th 
 of October last up to the present day, — their 
 having met with so little countenance from 
 either side of the House; — all this tends very 
 greatly to excite my distrust as to the beneficial 
 effects which these plans would produce if 
 
258 THE REFORM BILL. 
 
 adopted. I think the Noble Duke* may, to 
 use the expression of my Noble Friend's-)- quo- 
 tation, go into the country — 
 
 Secretaqiie gestans 
 
 dona ducum — ~ 
 
 and will in vain obtain for it even the smallest 
 portion of such acceptation and such gratitude 
 as will tend to soothe the irritation or calm the 
 anxious solicitude of the people upon this ques- 
 tion. 
 
 A Right Reverend Prelate has said, that the 
 anxiety for this measure is nearly gone by, 
 though it has not entirely subsided. Do not, 
 my Lords, imagine such to be the case — do not 
 let any man among you deceive himself: the 
 anxiety has not nearly subsided, — it has not 
 nearly gone by, — it exists as strongly and as 
 intensely as ever, with this difference only — 
 that it has stood the test of disappointment and 
 long delay, and, as was justly observed during 
 the debate, of the '* hope deferred, that maketh 
 the heart sick/' It is, I say, as strong and as 
 intense as ever ; and you may rely on it, that 
 from one end of this land to the other, the peo- 
 ple, — the intelligent, the thinking, the rational, 
 
 * The Duke of Buckingham. 
 t The Earl of Carnarvon. 
 
THE REFORM BILL, 259 
 
 the honest people, and that, too, not merely of 
 this metropolis, but of every town, village, and 
 hamlet in England, and, if possible, still more 
 in Scotland, are waiting, in breathless suspense, 
 the event of this night's discussion. I hope and 
 trust, my Lords, — I confidently hope, — nay, I 
 fully expect, that your decision will be such as 
 to diffuse universal joy throughout the country, 
 and terminate that painful suspense which this 
 Bill has so long occasioned. Should such, my 
 Lords, be the result of your votes this night, 
 greater than ever will be the affection, gratitude, 
 and respect which the people will bear towards 
 you. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Tilling, Printer, Chelsea. 
 
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