In childhood's sports, companions gay, Relics ye are of Eden's bowers, Fallen all beside the world of life, Ye fearless in your nests abide- For ye could draw the admiring gaze1 Alas! of thousand bosoms kind "Live for to-day; to-morrow's light BROTHERLY LOVE. No distance breaks the tie of blood; Oft, ere the common source be known, Move heart toward heart by sympathy. So is it with true Christian hearts; Of holiest brotherhood. Oh, might we all our lineage prove,— 1 Admiring gaze, &c.-See Matt. vi. 28-30. 53 HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM, 1778 THE history of this distinguished statesman, orator, scholar, and philanthro pist is so identified with the history of his country for the last fifty years, that it would be impossible to write his life without making the groundwork of it a history of the age in which he lived. "The public measures with which he is most closely identified are the advocacy of the manufacturing and commercial interests, as opposed to orders in council and other restrictions on trade; hostility to the continental combinations of the successors of Pitt, and their legiti mate offspring, the exhausting wars of the Holy Alliance; the vindication of Queen Caroline in the struggle with her libertine husband; the freedom of the press, attempted to be overawed by prosecutions for libels on the government and the church; the education of the middle and lower orders; religious toleration for dissenters and Catholics; reform in the civil and criminal law; Parliamentary reform; municipal reform; poor-laws reform; the abolition of the slave-trade and slavery; retrenchment in government expenditures; the inde pendence of the Canadian Legislature, and the repeal of the corn laws. What a catalogue have we here! Upon all these measures, each of which was an era in British history, Brougham has acted a leading and, upon many, a controlling part. His speeches upon most of them surpassed those of any other of their advocates, whether we consider the extent of the information displayed, the depth and energy of the reasoning, the scope and vigor of the style, the eloquence of the appeals to justice and humanity, or the majesty and splendor of the highest passages." Henry Brougham is the eldest son of Henry Brougham, Esq., of Brougham Hall, in Westmoreland, and was born in Edinburgh in 1778. He received the rudiments of his education at the high school in Edinburgh, then under the superintendence of Dr. Adam, and in 1795 entered the university, where he distinguished himself by the aptness and energy of mind he displayed in grasping any subject which he made the object of his studies. In 1802 he became one of the projectors and chief contributors of the Edinburgh Review, in conjunction with Mr. Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and others; and in 1803 published An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers, which at once drew the eyes of the public upon its author. After being called to the Scotch bar, he made a tour to the north of Europe, and on his return commenced practice in the Court of King's Bench, London. Here his reputation rose rapidly, and gained for him both popularity and emolument. He first entered Parliament in 1810, and here he found the appropriate field for his great abilities. In 1815 he introduced his own bill for the better education of the poor, and in 1818 succeeded in carrying it through a committee of the whole house, having supported it in a speech of great brilliancy and power. In 1820, on the commencement of the proceedings against Queen Caroline in the House of Lords, Mr. Brougham appeared as her attorney-general at the head of her legal defenders. His bearing on this occasion was such as almost to awe the accusers of his royal client; while his skilful cross-examination of the witnesses against her, and his masterly speech in her behalf, had such an effect that 1 Read the sixteenth chapter in Stanton's upon the life, services, and character of Lord Reforms and Reformers of Great Britain, Brougham. Lord Liverpool thought it advisable to abandon the prosecution. In June, 1824, he brought before Parliament the circumstances relative to the horrible treatment of the missionary Smith in Demerara, and continued to denounce slavery and the slave-trade, and to advocate the cause of emancipation, on every opportunity. In the early part of 1825 Mr. Brougham was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, in opposition to Sir Walter Scott, and, at the installation, delivered a finished and eloquent oration, which he had written during the bustle and fatigue of the Northern Circuit. The year 1827 is memorable for the establishment of the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," of which Mr. Brougham was president. He was its most active promoter, and composed for it the admirable Treatise on the Objects, Pleasures, and Advantages of Science,-its first publication. In this year, also, the London University was founded, and the name of Brougham will ever be associated with it as one of its originators. In 1829 he supported the Catholic Relief Bill, introduced by the Wellington administration; and at the general election of 1830 he was, in the most flattering manner, chosen for Yorkshire, where he had no influence whatever beyond that of his great public celebrity. The accession of Lord Grey's administration in November, 1830, was the signal for Mr. Brougham's appointment to the Lord Chancellorship, and his elevation to the peerage, by the title of Baron Brougham and Vaux, of Brougham in Westmoreland. He continued to discharge the duties of Lord Chancellor until the dissolution of the Melbourne cabinet in 1834, when he went out with the other ministers; and since that time he has industriously exerted his great abilities, both in and out of Parliament, in favor of such measures as are calculated to advance the best interests of society. As an orator, Lord Brougham has had few equals in or out of the senate, and no statesman of his time, except, perhaps, Sir William E. Gladstone, possessed the same versatility. His power of ready, rapid, and forcible diction was remarkable. But he has won a high reputation in other fields besides oratory. He has cultivated mathematical and physical science with success, and has ventured upon the domain of metaphysics and even of theology. His miscellaneous writings are of great extent and upon an almost incredible variety of subjects, though many of them are of an ephemeral character rather than permanent additions to literature.2 Lord Brougham still continues (1866) to take a warm interest in legal and social reform. When not engaged in Parliament, he resides, for the benefit of his health, chiefly at Cannes, in the south of France.3 1 "His speeches unquestionably stand in the very first rank of oratorical masterpieces. They contain individual passages of eloquence, rhetoric, debate, logic, equal to any thing; besides condensed qualities of information brought powerfully to bear upon particular subjects, and a mass of masculine sense, variegated by sharp flings of sarcasm, and illustrated by a display of wit, and seasoned by tart peculiarities of temper and language, which render them, in their collected form, one of the richest legacies which the genius of oratory ever bequeathed to the unborn time."-GILFILLAN's Literary Portraits. 2 His works, as collected by himself, in ten volumes octavo, 1857, contain the following:Vol. I. Lives of Men of Science in the Time of George the Third; II. Lives of Men of Letters; III., IV., V. Eminent Statesmen; VI. Natural Theology; VII. Rhetorical and Literary Addresses; VIII. Rhetorical and Political Dissertations; IX., X. Speeches on Social and Political Subjects. To these may be added Contributions to the Edinburgh Review, three volumes, Glasgow, 1856. 3 It is deeply to be regretted that the brilliant reputation which Lord Brougham won in middle life, as the champion of Freedom and of human rights as opposed to the giant crime of slavery, should be overclouded in his de THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON-THE SCHOOLMASTER. Let it not be supposed that I am inclined to exaggerate. 1 entertain no fear of slavery being introduced by the power of the sword. It would require a stronger-it would demand & more powerful man even than the Duke of Wellington 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 great 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 defeat his utmost efforts. Therefore I am perfectly convinced that 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 country heard with dismay that "The soldier was abroad." That is not the case now. Let the soldier be abroad; in the present age he can do nothing. There is another person abroad, a less important person in the eyes of some, an insignificant person, whose labors have tended to produce this state of things. The schoolmaster is abroad! And I trust more to him, armed with his primer, than I do to the soldier in full military array, for upholding and extending the liberties of his country. "MAN OVER MEN HE MADE NOT LORD."-MILTON. 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 allow an appeal from the British public to such communities as those in which the Smiths and the Grimsdalls are persecuted to death for teaching the gospel to the negroes, and the Mosses holden in affectionate respect for torture and murder; 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. I deny the right,-I acknowledge not the property. The prin clining years. In our great struggle with the as President of the Social Science Association, slaveholders' rebellion in the years '62, 63, he made a savage attack upon the Federal and '64, Lord Brougham evidently sympathized Government and people? *** Now that he with the rebels, and gave them the weight of is asked to speak upon the noblest and most his influence. At a large anti-slavery meeting familiar of his wonted themes,-the crime of held in London, May 22, 1863, he excused him- holding property in human beings,-he pre self from fulfilling his engagement to be pre-fers silence to the violation of neutrality. sent and take the chair, on the plea that he should appear to be departing from that strict neutrality which every Englishman ought to maintain with regard to the events that are taking place in America." Says the London Morning Star of the next Monday, "Why did he not think of that sooner, when, Poor Lord Brougham! That the tongue that once thundered against the despots and slave traffickers of all lands, denouncing as a 'wild and guilty fantasy' the audacious chimera that man can hold property in man, should now be sheathed in silence!" -t. iples, the feelings, of our common nature rise in rebellion against Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, he sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of aws that sanction such a crime! There is a law above all the nactments of human codes, the same throughout the world,he same in all times, such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages and opened to one world he sources of power, wealth, and knowledge; to another, all inutterable woes: such as it is at this day. It is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law inchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they will 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 old 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, 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 assemblies beware; let the government at home beware; let the Parliament beware! The same country is once more awake,-awake to the condition of negro slavery; the same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the same cloud is gathering that annihilated 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.-From his Speech in July, 1830. HAPPY EFFECTS OF EDUCATION. The tendency of knowledge is, and the tendency of its diffusion undoubtedly is, to improve the habits of the people, to better their principles, and to amend all that which we call their characters; for there are a host of principles and feelings which go together to make up what we call, in the common acceptation of the words, the human character. How does this diffusion operate? To increase habits of reflection, to enlarge the sphere of the mind, to render it more capable of receiving pleasurable emotions and of taking an interest in other and in higher and better matters than mere sensual gratification. It tends to im |