The following passage from the peroration of a speech in the House of Commons, in 1830, on Negro Slavery, will recall to the reader the memorable burst of eloquence by Curran on a similar theme:

"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 principles, 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 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 in the heart of man by the finger of his Maker; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they will reject the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold property in man! In vain you appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations; the covenants of the Almighty, whether of the old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy pretensions "

That there is a dash of charlatanry in many of Brougham's displays, is doubtless true, as it is true of all such monsters of power; but as an advocate, he has, in his peculiar line, very few superiors. For a time it was a fashion with men who could not conceive of the possibility of excellence in more than one department of knowledge, to sneer at him as "no lawyer"; but the fact that, in spite of his swift dispatch of business, hardly one of his chancery decisions was reversed on appeal to the House of Lords, shows that his place in the most jealous and exacting of professions was fairly won. Less versed than many of his rivals in the technicalities of his craft, yet in quick, keen insight into the bearings of a cause, in indomitable pluck in the most adverse circumstances, in promptness in meeting a sudden emergency, in the skilful worming out of latent facts, in impromptu adroitness in veiling defective evidence with rhetorical drapery, in sarcastic irony and "damnable iteration" of invective

when required against a witness or a prosecutor, he was unsurpassed. His speech in defense of Queen Caroline, in the House of Lords, is admitted, with all its faults, to have been a masterpiece of dialectical and rhetorical skill. The rank and sex of his client, the malignant and brutal tyranny of her husband, George IV, the intense interest felt by the nation in the result, the exalted character of the tribunal, the great array of hostile talent, learning and eloquence,― all conspired, on this occasion, to call forth all the advocate's powers. We can give no analysis or extracts from this great speech, the most striking passages of which are familiar to all students of modern forensic eloquence. The power with which the evidence. for the bill was shattered; the skill with which the testimony of Majocchi, the non mi ricordo Majocchi,- of Demont, "the Machiavel of waiting-maids," and of Cucchi, with that unmatched physiognomy, those gloating eyes, that sniffing nose, that lecherous mouth,"- was probed, dissected, and destroyed; the defiant courage with which he pronounced the King "the ringleader of the band of perjured witnesses,”—have never been surpassed, if matched, in modern forensic oratory. Hardly inferior, perhaps fully equal, to the last-mentioned oratorical effort, was that made by Brougham in defense of Ambrose Williams. When Queen Caroline died in August, 1821, the bells in nearly all the churches of England were tolled in respect to her memory, those of Durham only remaining silent. Upon this silence, Mr. Williams, the editor of a newspaper at Durham, commented with some severity, and was thereupon indicted for a libel against "the clergy residing in and near the city of Durham." The pith of the libel was contained in the following passages:

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"In this Episcopal city, containing six churches independently of the cathedral, not a single bell announced the departure of the magnanimous spirit of the most injured of Queens, the most persecuted of women. Thus the brutal enmity of those who embittered her mortal existence pursues her in her shroud. 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 followers 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!"

The prosecution was conducted by Mr. Scarlett, who, in his opening speech contended that the silence of the bells might have been intended as a mark of respect,— that the clergy were not so loud in their grief as others, because, perhaps, they were more sincere, and sympathized too deeply with the Queen's fate to give an open expression to their sorrow. Brougham, who led the defense, saw at once the fearful blunder, and " pounced upon it as the falcon pounces upon its prey":

"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 recall 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 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 her glorious but unhappy life had closed, 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 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 lamentations over her mournful and untimely end, did, nevertheless, in reality, all the while, deeply sympathize in her sufferings, in the bottom of 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 feelings of our common nature, THEIR silence, the contrast which THEY displayed to the rest of their species, proceeded from the greater depth of their affliction; they said the less because they felt the more! Oh! talk of hypocrisy after this! Most consummate of all the hypocrites! 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 hypocrites before, you were downright, frank, honest hypocrites to what you have now made yourselves, 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!"

In his opening speech Mr. Scarlett had expressed his regret that the clergy had not the power of defending themselves through the public press. To this Brougham replied that they had, in fact, largely used it, and “scurrilously and foully libelled" the defendant:

"Not that they wound deeply or injure much; but that is no fault of theirs: without hurting, they give trouble and discomfort. The insect brought into life by corruption, and nestled in filth, though its flight be lowly and its sting puny, can swarm and buzz and irritate the skin and offend the nostril, and altogether give us nearly as much annoyance as the wasp, whose nobler nature it aspires to emulate. These reverend slanderers,― these pious backbiters, devoid of force to wield the sword, snatch the dagger; and destitute of wit to point or to barb it, and make it rankle in the wound, steep it in venom to make it fester in the scratch."

To give an adequate account of Brougham in a few passages is like trying to compress the Amazon into a tea-cup. In one session of Parliament he made two hundred and thirty speeches, of which he says in an epitaph which he wrote upon himself,

"Here, reader, turn your weeping eyes,

My fate a useful moral teaches;

The hole in which my body lies,

Would not contain one-half my speeches."

In this, as in many other things, he was an exception to the ordinary and recognized laws of success; and, as one contemplates his marvellous and meteoric career, he is tempted, in spite of its brilliancy, even in spite of his magnificent achievements in behalf of liberty, education, and charity, to exclaim: "Non equidem invideo, miror magis."

CHAPTER X.

POLITICAL ORATORS: IRISH.

G

REATER as a thinker than Chatham or Fox, but in

ferior as an orator, was EDMUND BURKE, who, in the variety and extent of his powers, surpassed every other orator of ancient or modern times. He was what he called Charles Townshend, "a prodigy," and ranks not merely with the eloquent speakers of the world, but with the Bacons, Newtons, and Shakspeares. His speeches and pamphlets are saturated with thought; they absolutely swarm, like an ant-hill, with ideas, and, in their teeming profusion, remind one of the "myriad - minded" author of Hamlet. To the broadest sweep of intellect, he added the most surprising subtlety, and his almost oriental imagination was fed by a vast and varied knowledge,- the stores of a memory that held everything in its grasp. The only man who, according to Adam Smith, at once comprehended the total revolution the latter proposed in political economy, he was at the same time the best judge of a picture that Sir Joshua Reynolds ever knew; and while his knowledge was thus boundless, his vocabulary was as extensive as his knowledge. Probably no orator ever lived on whose lips language was more plastic and ductile. The materials of his style were gathered from the accumulated spoils of many tongues and of all ages; and it has been said that even the technicalities and appro