The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction. Volume 17, No. 496, June 27, 1831

Of the eloquence and general character of Lord Brougham, we have the following excellent portraiture by a master-hand:⁶—

"Mr. Brougham is from the North of England, but he was educated in Edinburgh, and represents that school of politics and political economy in the house. He differs from Sir James Mackintosh in this, that he deals less in abstract principles, and more in individual details. He makes less use of general topics, and more of immediate facts. Sir James is better acquainted with the balance of an argument in old authors; Mr. Brougham with the balance of power in Europe. If the first is better versed in the progress of history, no man excels the last in a knowledge of the course of exchange. He is apprized of the exact state of our exports and imports, and scarce a ship clears out its cargo at Liverpool or Hull, but he has notice of the bill of lading. Our colonial policy, prison discipline, the state of the hulks, agricultural distress, commerce and manufactures, the bullion question, the Catholic Question, the Bourbons or the Inquisition, 'domestic treason, foreign levy,' nothing can come amiss to him—he is at home in the crooked mazes of rotten boroughs, is not baffled by Scotch law, and can follow the meaning of one of Mr. Canning's speeches. With so many resources, with such variety and solidity of information, Mr. Brougham is rather a powerful and alarming, than an effectual debater. In so many details (which he himself goes through with unwearied and unshrinking resolution) the spirit of the question is lost to others who have not the same voluntary power of attention or the same interest in hearing that he has in speaking; the original impulse that urged him forward is forgotten in so wide a field, in so interminable a career. If he can, others cannot carry all he knows in their heads at the same time; a rope of circumstantial evidence does not hold well together, nor drag the unwilling mind along with it (the willing mind hurries on before it, and grows impatient and absent)—he moves in an unmanageable procession of facts and proofs, instead of coming to the point at once—and his premises (so anxious is he to proceed on sure and ample grounds) overlay and block up his conclusion, so that you cannot arrive at it, or not till the first fury and shock of the onset is over. The ball, from the too great width of the calibre from which it is sent, and from striking against such a number of hard, projecting points, is almost spent before it reaches its destination. He keeps a ledger or a debtor-and-creditor account between the government and the country, posts so much actual crime, corruption, and injustice against so much contingent advantage or sluggish prejudice, and at the bottom of the page brings in the balance of indignation and contempt, where it is due. But people are not to be calculated into contempt or indignation on abstract grounds; for however they may submit to this process where their own interests are concerned, in what regards the public good we believe they must see and feel instinctively, or not at all. There is (it is to be lamented) a good deal of froth as well as strength in the popular spirit, which will not admit of being decanted or served out in formal driblets; nor will spleen (the soul of opposition) bear to be corked up in square patent bottles, and kept for future use!

"Mr. Brougham speaks in a loud and unmitigated tone of voice, sometimes almost approaching to a scream. He is fluent, rapid, vehement, full of his subject, with evidently a great deal to say, and very regardless of the manner of saying it. As a lawyer, he has not hitherto been remarkably successful. He is not profound in cases and reports, nor does he take much interest in the peculiar features of a particular cause, or show much adroitness in the management of it. He carries too much weight of metal for ordinary and petty occasions: he must have a pretty large question to discuss, and must make thorough-stitch work of it. Mr. Brougham writes almost, if not quite, as well as he speaks. In the midst of an election contest he comes out to address the populace, and goes back to his study to finish an article for the Edinburgh Review, sometimes indeed wedging three or four articles (in the shape of refaccimentos of his own pamphlets or speeches in parliament) into a single number. Such indeed is the activity of his mind that it appears to require neither repose, nor any other stimulus than a delight in its own exercise. He can turn his hand to any thing, but he cannot be idle. There are few intellectual accomplishments which he does not possess, and possess in a very high degree. He speaks French (and, we believe, several other modern languages) fluently: is a capital mathematician, and obtained an introduction to the celebrated Carnot in this latter character, when the conversation turned on squaring the circle, and not on the propriety of confining France within the natural boundary of the Rhine. Mr. Brougham is, in fact, a striking instance of the versatility and strength of the human mind, and also in one sense of the length of human life, if we make a good use of our time. There is room enough to crowd almost every art and science into it. If we pass 'no day without a line,' visit no place without the company of a book, we may with ease fill libraries or empty them of their contents. Those who complain of the shortness of life, let it slide by them without wishing to seize and make the most of its golden minutes. The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have. Mr. Brougham, among other means of strengthening and enlarging his views, has visited, we believe, most of the courts, and turned his attention to most of the constitutions of the continent. He is, no doubt, a very accomplished, active-minded, and admirable person."

Lord Brougham married, in 1816, Mary Anne, relict of John Slade, Esq., of Hill street, Berkeley-square; by whom he has one daughter. Lady Brougham's maiden name was Eden: she is nearly related to the Auckland and Handley families. At her marriage with Mr. Slade, in 1808, she was accounted an extremely beautiful young woman; and she was still possessed of great personal charms at the period of her second union. Lady Brougham had by her former marriage a son, who inherits his father's estate, and is an. officer in the army, and a daughter. Lady Brougham brought no property to her husband but her jointure of £1,500 a-year, and the house No. 5, Hill-street.

Lord Brougham was born in 1779, and is, consequently, in his fifty-second year.

INDEX

ANECDOTE GALLERY, 35-358-378

COSMOPOLITE, THE, 282-299-405

EMBELLISHED ARTICLES IN EACH NUMBER,

FINE ARTS, 158-265-278-300-363

GATHERER IN EACH NUMBER,

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SHAKSPEARE, 136

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 104-140-154-206-246-292-367-372-424

NATURALIST, THE, 22-46, 70, 116-250-348-387-406-423

NOTES OF A READER, 13-23-105-118-133-158-171-219-261-314-328-361-389-408

NOVELIST, THE, 71-228-323-420

OLD POETS, 103-284

ORIGINAL ARTICLES IN EACH NUMBER,

RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS, 19-60-117-162-227

SELECT BIOGRAPHY, 99-121-344

SELECTOR, AND NOTICES OF NEW WORKS, 26-42-55-73-125-149-164-189-203-213-234-247-279-301-307-325-365-382-393-411-425

SPIRIT OF THE ANNUALS, 6

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY, 52-182-255-294-312-351-368-375-428

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS, 10-20-36-56-77-108-122-137-155-169-184-198-217-236-251-267-285-297-316-332-349-364-379-397-409-430

SKETCH BOOK, 52-101-183-215-293-343

TOPOGRAPHER, THE, 5-18-61-153-201-310-414

Abernethy, the late Mr., 397

Academy, The Silent, 4

Actor, How to roast, 287

Ada, Lines to, 374

Addison, Death of, 419

Æolian Harp, Sonnet to, 404

Æolophon, the, 52

Al Amin at Chess, 36

Album, Character of a good one, 355

Albion, Origin of, 306

Alison, Archibald, his Autograph, 145

Ambiton, Simple, 340

Ampthill House described, 353

America, First English Colony in, 55

Anatomical Subjects, 432

Anatomy of Society, 249

Ancestry, 224-425

André, Major, Account of, 184

Anglo-Saxon History, 301

Anson, Lord, 144

Antiquarian Scraps, 99

Apsley House, Origin of, 192

Arcana of Science for 1831, 312

Arch Poetry, 79

Architecture of Birds, 279

Ariosto, Relics of, 193

Arquà, Petrarch's House at, 1

Arun, Sonnet to the, 227

Arundel House, Strand, 67

Ascot-place Grotto, 225

Atherton, a Tale, 393

Auberge on the Grimsel, 41

Autocrat's Prayer, the, 236

Autographs of Eminent Persons, 145-264

Bacchanalian Song, 122

Bad Company, 13

Bail, Origin of, 61

Baillie, Joanna, her Autograph, 145

Bald Eagle, the, 387-406

Ballot, the Greek, 19

Bampton Lectures, White's, 426

Bankrupts in 1829, 24

Bathos and Pathos, 31

Battle of the Cats, 251

Batty's, Colonel, Views of Edinburgh, 300

Beauty and Slander, by Harrington, 103

Beer Houses, Number of, 263

Beggar Woman of Locarno, 293

Billington, Mrs., 364

Birds, Architecture of, 279

Changing colour, 250

Economy of, 105

Birth-day Prayer, 319

Black Books, Ancient, 227

Blackwood's Christmas Carol, 22

Blue Beard, the Original, 391

Blunders, Ludicrous, 272

Boi, the Syracusan at Chess, 36

Bonaparte and the Koran, 379

Bondsman's Feast, a tale, 126

Boroughs, Three, 369

Borrowing Days, the, 213

Bostock, Dr., his improvements in Ink, 182

Boy, Story of a, 70

Bramber, Borough of, 369

Bray Church described, 209

Brighton, 14

Bristol Channel, Voyage up, 61

Britannia, Origin of, 276

British Institution, the, 158

Brougham, Lord, his Autograph, 145

Bruce at Turnbury, 16

Bull-baiting in Suffolk, 246

at Great Grimsby, 104

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 10

Burial in the Desert, 169

Burning Alive, 133

Burns, the Poet, 134

Byron, Lord, Moore's Life of,

Augusta, Lines to, 81

Character of, 14, 109

Clare, Lord, 93

Detached Thoughts, 92

and Sir H. Davy, 91

Diary of, 93

and the Greeks, 95

and Guiccioli, 86

Journal in Switzerland, 26

Memoirs of, 91

Parsimony of, 90

Portrait of, 96

and Lady Byron, 29

Letters to Mr. Moore, 84, 91

Letter to Mr. Murray, 43

Poetical Gems by, 44

and Porson, 86

Prophecy of, 31

and Pope, 92

at Pisa, 93

and Shelley, 28

Sensibility of, 81

at Venice, 82, 83, 84

with Mr. Moore, 89

Execution at, 86

Palace at, 113

Visit to Arquà, 1

Cabinet Atlas, the, 330

Calculating Notes—Paganini, 364

Calendar, Antiquities of, 23

of the Church of England, 314

Cambrian Superstitions, 206

Canning, Mr., Character of, 118

Canterbury, Lines on viewing, 180

Care, by Constable, 285

Castellan's Sermon on Francis I., 304

Cats, Battle of the, 251

Chair of Ariosto, 193

Chalmers, Thomas, his Autograph, 145

Charles I., Epitaph on, 192

Charlotte, Princess, the late, 358

Charter of William I., 112

Charming Fellow, 432

Chemistry, Popular, 173

, Wonders of, 55

Cheroot, the, 69

Cheshire Enchanter, the, 98

Chess, Anecdotes of, 36

Chestnuts in Florence, 144

Chichester Cross described, 17

Childe Harold at Venice, 114

Chinese Ingenuity, 303

Cholera Morbus, the, 389

Christian's Magazine, the, 378

Christianity, Influence of, 302

Christmas Carol, 22

Christmas Tree in Germany, 154

Cigar-smoking, Effects of, 349

Clarence, Duke of, Origin of, 68

Clonmel, the late Lord, 351

Coach-company, a Sketch, 52

Coals, Mechanical Power of, 45, 55

Cobblers' Arms, Origin of, 372

Cockcrow, Origin of, 24

Cockfighting, Origin of, 23

Coinage, the New, 356

Combustion, Phenomena of, 175

Comets and Women, 192

Companion to the Almanac, 24

Compunctious Visitings, 352

Cooling Wine, Mistake in, 294

Copper Works in Wales, 5

Corfe Castle and Edward II., 291

described, 242

Corfe Castle, Visit to, 260

Costa Ferme, Scene on, 56

County Collections, 18

Covent Garden and Strand Crosses, 66

Cowley's House at Chertsey, 168

Cowslips, a Sonnet, 387

Cream, Why on Milk, 295

Croesus, a Sketch, 373

Cross the Prompter, 239

Cross-dialling, 393

Crotchet Castle, Letters from, 234

Cruelty to Animals, 172

Crystallization, Phenomena of, 174

Cunningham, Allan, 135

, his Autograph, 145

Cuttle Fish, the, 423

Czartoryski, Character of, 425

Damned Author, 328

Dancing Fish, 29

Davy, the late Sir Humphry, 63

Dawlish's Hole, an incident, 101

Day, Ancient Divisions of, 61

Dead Hand, the, 63

Death, Reflections on, 314

Death-beds of Great Men, 419

Devil among the Printers, 112

Dialling, 392

Dignified Reproof, 431

Dirge, 58, 140

Disagreeables, 430

Disappearance, Extraordinary, 304

Ditty by Queen Elizabeth, 117

Doncaster, Christ Church, 49

Dot-and-carry-one-town, letters from, 236

Dramatic Annual, the, 328

Dream Girl, the, a Tale, 189

Dreams by Whispering, 226

Duel, the, a Serious Ballad, 8

Duelling Customs, 135

Duelling in France, 286

Dunmow Flitch, Applicants for, 212

Dunwich, Borough of, 369

Dunstan's, St., Fleet-street, 99

Dyers, the two, 48

Early Rising, 36

Echoes, Remarkable, 221

Ei, the Word, 418

Electioneering Advice, 352

Electricity, Phenomena of, 175

Elfin Triumphant Song, 217

Elizabeth, Queen, her Portrait, 237

Elizabeth, Queen, her Prayer Book, 379

Elizabeth, Princess' Cottage at Windsor, 97

Emperor's Rout, the, 43

Enghien, (Due d'), murder of, 35

English Language, the, 240

Epigrams and Puns, 64

Epitaphs, 31, 48, 64, 208, 220, 223, 224, 240, 256, 320, 361, 400, 416

Equivoque, Royal, 158

Esterhazy, Young Princess, 63

Ettrick Shepherd, the, 134

Executions, Public, 133

Exeter Hall, Strand, 401

Fairy Favours, a Sketch, 183, 215

Fairy Song, 226

Fairies, city of, 215

Fairy Rings, 207

Fame, Lines on, 285

Family Poetry, 297