THE IMPERIAL MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1831. MEMOIR OF THE RIGHT HON. HENRY, BARON BROUGHAM AND VAUX, LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN. (With a Portrait.) EXTRAORDINARY times produce extraordinary men; and some characters, whose names are prominent in the history of nations, appear to have been expressly fitted for the periods in which they lived. Our own records furnish abundant instances in illustration of the remark; but we need go no farther, for the proof, than the passing season, now teeming with wonders, and bringing forward "spirits fit for the toilsome business of their days." Among the personages who thus attract the attention, not of England only, but, it may fairly be asserted, of the whole world, the name of BROUGHAM shines pre-eminently conspicuous: Micat inter omnes Julium sidus, velut inter ignes The family of Brougham is said, in some recent publications, to have possessed a manor and lordship of that name in Westmoreland, antecedent to the Conquest. Though this is traditionary and doubtful, it seems pretty certain that the castle of Brougham is as old as the reign of king John; and that the manor-house, contiguous to it, remained in the possession of the family till the time of James the First, when the estate was sold; and the heir-male settled at Scales, in the neighbouring county of Cumberland. After the Restoration, the manor was repurchased by John Brougham, of Scales, who entailed it upon his nephew, from whom it descended to Henry Brougham, the father of the Chancellor. The estate, however, was considerably curtailed, at the period of its restoration to the family; and, in consequence, the possessors of Brougham Hall, though boasting an ancient lineage, and even a dormant claim to baronial honours, were reduced to the rank of the lower order of gentry. But whatever depression there might be in regard to property, there was none in point of reputation or talent. One Henry Brougham, in the middle of the last century, became a coadjutor of Dr. John Campbell, Dr. Birch, and other literary characters of eminence, in the compilation of that great work, the Biographia Britannica. What degree of affinity he bore to the subject of this memoir, we have not the means of ascertaining; but that he was a member of the family, cannot be doubted. Henry, the father of Lord Brougham, was educated at the University of Edinburgh; and, during his attendance there, lodged, as is customary for students in that seat of learning, at a boarding-house on Castle Hill, kept by the widow of a Scotch clergyman. This lady, who, we have heard, was sister to Dr. Robertson the historian, had an only daughter, between whom and Henry Brougham there arose a mutual attachment, which, while the lovers were yet young, was cemented by the bond of marriage. The first-fruit of 2D. SERIES, NO. 11.-VOL. I. 3 Q 155.-VOL. XIII. this union was a son, born at Edinburgh, and baptized there by the name of Henry, in the year 1779. Three other sons were the offspring of this marriage: John, who became an eminent wine merchant in Edinburgh, and died about two years since, at Boulogne; James, a barrister; and William, master in chancery, and one of the members in the present Parliament, for the borough of Southwark. Henry Brougham, the father, died at Edinburgh, on the 18th of February, 1810; but his widow is still living at the family mansion in Westmoreland, which has latterly been greatly improved, and the estate enlarged, by the present possessor. 1 Henry and his three brothers received their education at the High School of Edinburgh, under Dr. Alexander Adam, with whom the eldest became a special favourite. At the age of fifteen, Henry was entered a student of the University, where he applied to the mathematics so assi duously, that, before he had attained his seventeenth year, an essay by him, "On the Flection and Reflection of Light," was deemed worthy of insertion in the Philosophical Transactions. It is true, the hypothesis advanced in this paper was attacked by two able mathematicians, M. Prevost, of Geneva, and Dr. Young, of London; but, whatever may be thought of the dispute, there can be but one opinion of the extraordinary talent developed in the juvenile philosopher, who ventured to investigate the most subtile question in the science of optics. The communication on the velocity of light was followed shortly after by some geometrical proposi tions, with the solutions, which were stated to be new discoveries and im provements of the ancient analysis. The claim to novelty was clearly disproved; but this did not by any means lessen the merit of the young mathematician, who had, by his sole application, come to the same conclusion as Cotes, Maclaurin, and Emerson, all of whom preceded him in these abstruse and laborious calculations. The wonder is, how Mr. Brougham's learned preceptor, John Playfair, and the mathematical committee of the Royal Society, could have taken those speculations for discoveries, which had been known to the scientific world, some before, and others after, the death of Newton. This was a proof of the observation made by Mr. Brougham himself, at a later period, that the more certain sciences have been much neglected in these days. But, though in the above mentioned cases it cannot be said the author was entitled to the rare merit of being a discoverer, his claim to the title of inventor in mathematics has been substantiated, by his speculations upon algebraical prisms, and those connected with the higher geometry, one of which, on the properties of the conic hyperbola, and the relations of the harmonical line to curves of different orders, is a master-piece of mathematical reasoning. For these contributions to the stock of science, Mr. Brougham, on the third of March, 1803, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; but his formal admission did not take place till the spring of the following year. Meanwhile, he plied his studies with indefatigable diligence, as a candidate for the honours of the bar in Scotland, to which he was called in due course, about the same time with his two friends, Jeffrey and Horner. This was an important era in the history of Mr. Brougham; for, though he had already obtained celebrity as a young man of profound abilities, it was confined within a comparatively small circle of such as were judges of his scientific acquirements. He now began to be known beyond that limited sphere, and the versatility of his genius to be generally admired by the publication of "An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers." This work appeared in 1803, and at once stamped the author's reputation on a firm basis, as a political philosopher, MEMOIR OF BARON BROUGHAM AND VAUX. 491 and an elegant writer. It was in this year, also, that Mr. Brougham formed one of the triumvirate who founded the Edinburgh Review; his coadjutors being Jeffrey, the ostensible editor, and Francis Horner. The history of this literary phenomenon, which, at its first appearance, spread terror among the various tribes of authors, from the Tweed to the Thames, would furnish another instance of "great events from little causes. The mode of criticism now adopted was altogether without a precedent. Instead of analyzing the works that were brought under inspection, the reviewers entered into the general subject, for the purpose of delivering their opinions upon it in dilated disquisitions, which, for the most part, were written with great ability, though they had nothing to do with the book selected as the packhorse to convey the commodity to the public. But this was not the most objectionable characteristic of the northern luminary. It commenced, and was carried on, in a spirit of hostility against all the writers of the age, who happened not to enjoy the favour of being known to the critics, or their friends. Hence arose a loud cry of complaint on all sides, and several men of genius and learning retaliated upon the secret tribunal of Edinburgh, for its cruelty and injustice. Lord Byron stung the junto, in a satire that will be read when the Review shall have ceased to exist. Anacreon Moore, with less reason than the noble poet, called the editor into the field, which, however, fortunately was not stained with blood on this occasion. Of ink, torrents were spilt in this war of retaliation; but the reviewers had an advantage over their adversaries, in the extensive and increasing sale of their journal, while the insulated answers were, for the most part, ephemeral, little read, and soon disappeared. The personalities in which the Edinburgh Review indulged, injurious as they were to moral feeling, and often to individual character, served to promote its circulation, in an age, and among a people, peculiarly marked by that itch of curiosity for which the Athenians of old were distinguished. But we must here leave the Review, and its other projectors, to follow the immediate subject of the present article. Mr. Brougham, having completely established his reputation, in the capital of Scotland, as an advocate, might have looked, and with assurance of success, to the honour of a seat in the High Court of Justiciary, with, as usual, the nominal rank of a lord for life. He was employed in several important causes, and, amongst the rest, as counsel for Lady Essex Ker, in the great contest respecting the ducal title and estates of Roxburgh. This, and some other causes, brought him necessarily to plead before the House of Lords, where he was much noticed for his elocution and legal knowledge. A new and richer field was now opened to his view, and one presenting higher prospects for his ambition than even that in which he had already secured a certainty of permanent profit and future distinctions. Mr. Brougham, and his inseparable companion, Mr. Horner, resolved to unite their interests, and try their strength in the English courts, as they had done in those of Scotland. A call to the bar followed; and while Mr. Horner adopted the Chancery practice, for which he was well fitted, and where he might have risen to the seat which his friend now fills, had Providence spared his valuable life, Mr. Brougham entered the arena of the King's Bench, to elbow his way amid a host of competitors. At the same time he chose the northern circuit, as offering a fairer prospect of profit; and, although he had the disadvantage of coping, first, with Mr. now Justice Park, and, next, with Mr. Scarlett, his gleanings were far from being inconsiderable, even in the early stage of his legal itinerancy Still, in threading his course through the labyrinthine paths of the law, the great object of his ambition was a seat in parliament. Here his old schoolmate, Horner, anticipated him, through his intimacy with Lord Henry Petty, now Marquis of Lansdowne, who procured for him a nomination to the borough of Wendover, and afterwards to that of St. Mawes, both in the Grenville interest. Mr. Brougham was mortified at what he considered neglect; yet he continued attached to the Whigs, and published on that side, but anonymously, "An Inquiry into the State of the Nation," which produced a strong effect, and ran through several editions. Such talents were no longer to be left to the confined limits of Westminster Hall; and the historian, who at some distant period shall undertake a retrospective survey of these eventful days, will have to record, with grave reflections, that Henry Brougham first entered Parliament for the borough of Camelford, as the nominee of the house of Russell. ༄་།རྩྭ v", One of the first acts of his political life, as a member of the legislature, was, the bringing in a bill making the slave trade, by whomsoever practised, felony; and subjecting the persons carrying it on, to the punishment of transportation for fourteen years. The bill passed through both houses in 1811, and received the royal assent. In the following year, Mr. Brougham endeavoured, but not with the same success, to take from the crown the droits of admiralty, as being a fund, in its present state, contrary to the constitution, and full of danger to the rights and privileges of the people. In the same session, he called the attention of the house to the subject of the orders in council, which, he said, were the cause of the distresses and embarrassments which then prevailed throughout the kingdom. He concluded an able speech, with moving for a committee of inquiry. The only novelty in the discussion was that of Mr. Canning's supporting the motion; notwithstanding which, it was lost by a great majority. The agitation of the question, however, had a good effect; for, though ministers would not yield to their opponents in the house, they soon after conceded to them, by revoking the obnoxious orders in the cabinet. The next measure of Mr. Brougham, at the close of the session, was also of a triumphant nature, and tended greatly to the spreading of his reputation among the people at large. One of the articles in the ministerial annual scheme of finance, was a tax upon leather. This oppressive impost, Mr. Brougham assailed by so many clear statements and powerful arguments, that, on a division, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, having only a majority of eight in his favour, abandoned the obnoxious tax altogether. With this session, Parliament ended; and Mr. Brougham, having been encouraged to offer himself as a candidate for Liverpool, in opposition to Mr. Canning, did so, but failed; as he subsequently did, in his attempt to get returned for the Inverkeithing district of boroughs. After a seclusion of about two years, or more, Mr. Brougham again appeared on the opposition bench, as member for the close borough of Winchelsea. It might, however, have been said, that he now came forth as a giant refreshed; for, to follow his progress from this period, would far exceed the powers of an ordinary observer. At the very opening of the session, on the first of February, 1816, he severely condemned the speech from the throne, which spoke of the flourishing condition of our " commerce, revenues, and finances," when a general stagnation of trade was felt-when shops were every where empty-tradesmen's books were filled with debts, not one per cent. of which would be recovered. Alluding to the slave-trade still carried on by Spain, Mr. Brougham said, he hoped |