Works of Henry Lord Brougham, Volumen4,Parte2

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Página 122 - ... to be grossly ludicrous, — that is, the more effective the wit becomes. But though all this is perfectly true, it is equally certain that danger attends such courses with the common run of plain men. Hence all lawyers versed in the practice of Nisi Prius, are well aware of the risk they run by being witty, or ingenious and fanciful before a jury ; unless their object be to reduce the damages in an absurd case, by what is called laughing it out of court ; and you can almost tell, at a great...
Página 171 - ... which it was to work, or the strength and the weight and the friction of the parts of which it was to be made. When he propounded, as the best way of extricating us from our financial embarrassments, that the capital of the country should be taxed 700 or 800 millions, and the debt at once paid off, and defended this scheme upon the twofold ground, that what a debtor owes is always to be deducted from his property and regarded as belonging to his creditors, and that the expense of managing the...
Página 332 - I shall say the less of him, because his near relation to you makes you more particularly acquainted with his merits. But I should appear little acquainted with them, or little sensible of them, if I could utter his name on this occasion without expressing my esteem for his character.
Página 56 - By these dogmas he abided through his whole life, with a steadfastness, and even to a sacrifice of power, which sets at defiance all attempts to question their perfect sincerity. Such as he was when he left Oxford, such he continued above sixty years after, to the close of his long and prosperous life; — the enemy of all reform, the champion of the throne and the altar, and confounding every abuse that surrounded the one, or grew up within the precincts of the other, with the institutions themselves...
Página 154 - In his political opinions, this great commander was liberal and free, ever preferring the humane and enlightened side ; and though loyally attached to the constitution of his country, yet careless what offence he might give to existing rulers by the unrestrained openness of his sentiments upon public affairs. Accordingly, he was even less a favourite with George III. and his court, than his great master, whose party was always opposed to that narrow-minded and bigoted prince. It is truly painful...
Página 75 - ... admirable in itself, and as certain of being new to the audience. But in this saying there was considerably more wit than truth. The Doctor's speech was sure to contain materials not for one, but for half a dozen speeches ; and a person might with great advantage listen to it, in order to use those materials, in part, afterwards, as indeed many did, both in Parliament and at the Bar where he practised, make an effort to attend to him, how difficult soever, in order to hear all that could be said...
Página 56 - ... of sovereignty ! With all these apparent discrepancies between Lord Eldon's outward and inward man, nothing could be more incorrect than to represent him as tainted with hypocrisy, in the ordinary sense of the word. He had imbibed from his youth, and in the orthodox bowers which Isis waters, the dogmas of the Tory creed in all their purity and rigour. By these dogmas he abided through his whole life, with a steadfastness and even at a sacrifice of power, which sets at defiance all attempts to...
Página 23 - Princess, and a stranger should be subjected to treatment the most cruel and unmanly, should then be driven from the shelter of her husband's roof, should be surrounded by spies and false witnesses, and, having been charged with a capital offence — nay, with high treason — should be tried behind her back, with the most able counsel to attend on behalf of her persecutor and accuser, without a human being present on her behalf, so much as to cross-examine a witness, or even to take a note of the...
Página 6 - ... or ruffle his repose. His natural abilities, too, were far above mediocrity ; he was quick, lively, gifted with a retentive memory, and even with a ready wit — endowed with an exquisite ear for music, and a justness of eye, that fitted him to attain refined taste in the arts — possessing, too, a nice sense of the ludicrous, which made his relish for humour sufficiently acute, and bestowed upon him the powers of an accomplished mimic. The graces of his person and his manners need not be noted,...
Página 461 - ... the superstructure. And here the defect, so often to be deplored in contemplating the history of modern oratory, attains its very height. Meagre as are the materials by which we can aim at forming to ourselves some idea of the eloquence of most men who flourished before our own day ; scanty as are the remains even of the speakers who figured during the Seven Years' War, and the earlier part of the American contest ; when we go back to the administration of Walpole, we find those vestiges to be...

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