CHAP.
IX.

of Real Property, and all Lord Tenterden's Acts, and almost all the Law Reform Acts passed for the last thirty years. A.D. 1856. One man reclaimed a portion of the stolen goods-asserting himself to be the author of the bill for permitting parties in a civil cause to be witnesses-but the rest of the body plundered remained quiescent, and the newspapers placed Brougham as a law-giver above Solon, Justinian, or Napoleon the Great. This volume was dedicated to Brougham himself ―with his "kind permission "--but let us hope that when he kindly gave the permission he was unacquainted with its

A.D. 1857

contents.

For years he had been President of the Law Amendment Society-which he worked as a literary engine by its organ the Law Review.' This Society being comparatively obscure, he panted for a wider field of usefulness, and was gratified by the establishment of the Social Science Society, which embraced among its members Lord John Russell and many other distinguished politicians and authors; which was divided into sections for the consideration of all subjects connected with social improvement, comprehending jurisprudence; and which was to hold aggregate meetings once a year in some great provincial town for lectures and debates. The first meeting was at Birmingham, and here Brougham acquired immense renown. Like Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream,' he was eager to play all the parts himself. He assigned the Law of Bankruptcy to Lord John Russell, but he retained for himself National Education, the Abolition of Slavery, the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and the Advancement of Science. For a week together he extemporised on these topics to crowded and admiring audiences, and at this dead season of the year the editors of all the newspapers in the kingdom were delighted to fill their columns with his harangues.

These exercitations and plaudits had a very salutary effect both on his mind and body. From the languor of rural life he had fallen into a state of deep depression, and his family were most seriously alarmed. Several common friends who came to me from visiting him at Brougham Hall declared that he never appeared till dinner was announced; that he

sat silent at table, hardly tasting any food, and that he left them abruptly before the ladies had withdrawn. When I returned to London in the beginning of November, I found him in high health and spirits-delighted with his sociological achievements.

CHAP.

IX.

The following year (1858) the Society met at Liverpool, A.D. 1858. and President Brougham again, for a week, pleased himself and the multitude as much as before-again having Lord John Russell to play second fiddle to him.

In the autumn of this year Brougham likewise obtained prodigious newspaper applause for an oration he delivered on Newton at the inauguration of a statue of the great philosopher erected at the place of his birth. I really believe that the oration was very well prepared for the occasion, although it can have no permanent interest.

The generation of journalists whom Brougham, when Chancellor, flattered and disappointed, and who long had their revenge upon him by systematically extenuating his merits and exaggerating his faults, has passed away, and the public are now disposed to give credit to his own assertions respecting himself-that he has ever been consistent in his principles and disinterested in his conduct, and that since he resigned the Great Seal, never wishing to engage in party strife, he has patriotically devoted himself to the improvement of our laws and institutions. If he were to die while this impression remains upon the public mind, I should not be surprised if he were to be buried in Westminster Abbey, the two Houses of Parliament attending his funeral.

When Parliament met in the beginning of February in A.D. 1859. the present year (1859) Brougham, as usual, came from Cannes to be present, and he made several judicious and useful speeches upon the wickedness of France and Austria in going to war without any casus belli, and on the importance of the entente cordiale between England and France being preserved. To show his impartiality, he lavished his advice both upon the opposition and the ministers. He strongly remonstrated with Lord Palmerston and Lord Clarendon against their visit to the Emperor Louis Napoleon at Compiègne, and he pointed out to Lord Malmesbury, the Foreign

IX..

CHAP. Secretary, how the negotiations should be conducted with the continental powers for the preservation of peace. He was A.D. 1859. disposed to take Lord Derby's Government under his pro

tection; but, his suggestions not being very submissively received, and tired of hearing appeals in the House of Lords, where Lord Kingsdown's opinion now always prevails, about the middle of March he suddenly started for his château in Provence, where he now is. He intimated his intention to return to London immediately after Easter, but if he should do so he will find that Parliament has been dissolved, and that the energies of the nation are absorbed in a general election. Before he went he declared himself very emphatically to be against any further organic change in our representative system, and I think he may be considered the leader of the anti-reformers; for the present ministers, although Tories in their hearts, being so weak, dare not venture to profess or to act upon Tory principles.

I here stop for the present. My memoir cannot be considered complete without some further account of his writings; an estimate of his character; and a survey of the influence he has exercised upon the times in which he lived.

POSTSCRIPT BY THE EDITOR.

THE summary of Lord Brougham's character which my father had intended to add was never written. I find only a few scattered memoranda in his handwriting of the heads under which it was probably to be divided, as :-" Mental qualities: vigour, elasticity, activity of mind, memory, power of application, power of reasoning." "Moral qualities : amiable in private life, good brother, fond father, obliging, jealous. Ruin of Brougham: his insatiable appetite for present applause, desire to astonish, and to obtain credit for more learning, knowledge, and talent, than he possessed." "Literature." "Authorship." "Education, Slavery, and Charities." "His character as Speaker of the House of Lords." "His judgments." "His marriage;—death of his daughter." "His friendships: Jeffrey, Horner, Sydney Smith, Mackintosh-all broken-Romilly an exception-and DenOne memorandum refers to a " character of Brougham in the Life of Romilly." The following is the passage alluded to:-" March 20, 1816. . . . . Brougham is a man of the most splendid talents and the most extensive acquirements, and he has used the ample means which he possesses most usefully for mankind. It would be difficult to overrate the services which he has rendered the cause of the slaves in the West Indies, or that of the friends to the extension of knowledge and education among the poor, or to praise too highly his endeavours to serve the oppressed inhabitants of Poland. How much is it to be lamented that his want of judgment and of prudence should prevent his great talents, and such good intentions, from being as great a blessing to mankind as they ought to be."*

man."

...

* Life of Romilly,' vol. iii., p. 237. In a codicil to Sir S. Romilly's will, dated October, 1818 (to which also one of my father's memoranda refers), after leaving his papers on Criminal Law to Mr. Whishaw, he adds: “If it were not to suit him to undertake such a task, perhaps my friend Mr. Brougham, who finds time for anything that has a tendency to the advancement of human happiness, would be able, notwithstanding his numerous occupations, to perform this office of friendship."

Lord Brougham's life was prolonged for nine years from the date at which this Memoir stops, a few weeks after which my father was himself appointed Chancellor. During the two years that he held the Great Seal perfect peace and amity reigned between him and Lord Brougham, and they were sitting together hearing appeals in the House of Lords on the last day on which my father presided there, and the last but one of his life-Friday, the 21st of June, 1861. This was alluded to by Lord Brougham in a speech which he made on the Monday following in the House of Lords, warmly bearing his testimony to "the great judicial talents" of his noble and learned friend who had so suddenly been removed from the midst of them.

During his remaining years Lord Brougham retired more and more from political strife, and devoted his energy and activity to the Association for the Promotion of Social Science. He was elected President at the annual meetings of this Society which were held successively at Glasgow, Dublin, London, Edinburgh, York, and Sheffield, and at all these places he delivered long addresses. His strength, however, was gradually declining, and the last gathering of the Association which he attended was at Manchester, in 1866.

He continued his practice of migrating for a part of every year to Cannes. He spent his last winter at his favourite Château Eleanor Louise, and there he died on the 7th of May, 1868, in his 90th year.