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the
ornaments; but severed from whom, you can no more live than the
blossom that is severed from the root and tree on which it grows. Save
the country, that you may continue to adorn it--save the crown, which
is threatened with irreparable injury--save the aristocracy, which is
surrounded with danger--save the altar, which is no longer safe when
its kindred throne is shaken. You see that when the church and the
throne would allow of no church solemnity in behalf of the Queen, the
heartfelt prayers of the people rose to heaven for her protection. I pray
heaven for her; and I here pour forth my fervent supplications at the
throne of mercy, that mercies may descend on the people of this
country richer than their rulers have deserved; and that your hearts may
be turned to justice."
The result need scarcely be alluded to. Men of all parties, however
discordant might be their opinions upon the point at issue,
acknowledged and admired the intrepidity and splendid talents of Mr.
Brougham on this memorable occasion.
Brilliant as has been the parliamentary career of Mr. Brougham from
this period, our limits will allow us only to advert to a few of its
brightest epochs. Whether advocating the rights and liberties, and a
spirit of social improvement, at home, or aiding the progress of liberal
opinion abroad, we find Mr. Brougham exercising the same
uncompromising integrity and patriotic zeal. Spain, in 1823, became a
fitting subject for his masterly eloquence. His remarks on the French
government, on April 14, in the House of Commons, on the
consideration of the policy observed by Great Britain in the affairs of

France and Spain, will not soon be forgotten: "I do not," said Mr.
Brougham, "identify the people of France with their government; for I
believe that every wish of the French nation is in unison with those
sentiments which animate the Spaniards. Neither does the army concur
in this aggression; for the army alike detests the work of tyranny,
plunder, cant, and hypocrisy. The war is not commenced because the
people or the army require it, but because three or four French
emigrants have obtained possession of power. It is for such miserable
objects as these that the Spaniards are to be punished, because they
have dared to vindicate their rights as a free and independent people. I
hope to God that the Spaniards may succeed in the noble and righteous
cause in which they are engaged."
In 1824, (June 1), we find Mr. Brougham in the House of Commons,
moving an address to the King, relative to the proceedings at Demerara
against Smith, the missionary; but, after a debate of two days, the
motion was negatived.[2]
During the period of Mr. Canning's ministry, his liberality gained Mr.
Brougham's support: this is the only instance of Mr. Brougham's not
being opposed to the minister of the day; and, observes a political
writer, "he has been as much above the task of drudging for a party as
drudging for a ministry."
The year 1828 is a memorable one in Mr. Brougham's parliamentary
life. Early in the session, upon the debate of the battle of Navarino, we
find him expressing his readiness to support the ministry as long as the
members who composed it showed a determination to retrench the
expenditure of the country, to improve its domestic arrangements, and
to adopt a truly British system of foreign policy. It was on this occasion
that Mr. Brougham used the expression which has since become so
familiar--"The schoolmaster is abroad." On Feb. 7, Mr. Brougham
brought forward a motion on the State of the Law, in an elaborate
speech of six hours delivery. The debate was adjourned to February 29,
when Mr. Brougham's motion, in an amended shape, was put and
agreed to, requesting the King to cause "due inquiry to be made into the
origin, progress, and termination of actions in the superior courts of
common law in this country;" and "into the state of the law regarding
the transfer of real property." Even the heads of this speech would
occupy one of our pages. A passage much quoted at the time of its

publication is a good specimen of Mr. Brougham's forcible style of
illustration: "He was guilty of no error--he was chargeable with no
exaggeration--he was betrayed by his fancy into no metaphor, who
once said, that all we can see about us, King, Lords, and Commons, the
whole machinery of the State, all the apparatus of the system and its
varied workings, end simply in bringing twelve good men into a box."
In the same month, Mr. Brougham spoke at great length in support of
Lord John Russell's motion for the repeal of the Test and Corporation
Acts. On March 6, Mr. Brougham spoke