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of the Lord Chancellor's first
levee:--
"Unfeigned respect for, and a slight personal acquaintance with, the
noble person who now holds the seals, led me to attend his last levee.
The practice of receiving the respects of the public on one or two stated
occasions is sufficiently ancient, but I have understood was
discontinued, or not much observed, in the latter days of Lord Eldon. It
was revived with somewhat greater splendour by Lord Lyndhurst, but
still it attracted little public notice. I incline to think that it was reserved
for Brougham to illustrate the ancient custom, by the splendour of those
who chose to be dutiful to the Lord Chancellor. The fashion of going to
court is such, that it infers little personal respect to the individual
monarch; but the practice of attending the levee of an inferior
personage is to be ascribed to the respect which individual eminence
commands. When Lord Brougham announced his levees, it could not
be known whether he should receive the homage of the aristocracy, to
whom it was not supposed that his lordship's politics were very
amicable. It was moreover thought that the republican, or, to speak
more guardedly, the whig Lord Chancellor would care little for a
custom in which there was no manifest utility. He had declared that the
gewgaws of office delighted him not; and I dare say he would fain
bring his mind to believe that all ceremonial was idle, perhaps
contemptible. But it is the greatest mistake to suppose that Lord
Brougham is inattentive to the ceremonies with which his high place is
surrounded. A careful observer will see clearly that imposing forms are
perfectly agreeable to his mind; nobody could ridicule form better, so
long as he held no situation which required the observance of
customary rules; but elevated to his present distinction, it is plain that
he enjoys all the little peculiarities of his office. Somebody said that he
presided in the House of Lords in a bar whig, and instanced the fact as
a proof of his reforming temper; but it was not true. Accident may have
obliged him to take his seat in this ungainly form, but he had no
purpose of deviating from the ancient full-bottom, and he is now to be
seen in all the amplitude of the olden fleece. In like manner he observes
the strict _regime_, so fantastical to a stranger, of causing counsel to be
shouted for from without, although they are actually present; and he
adds to the oddness of this custom by receiving them with a most

imposing mien, and putting on his chapeau as they advance. This is a
form, for which the model is not to be found in the practice of his
immediate predecessors. It is possible, however, that his extensive and
minute reading may have made him aware that Wolsey, peradventure,
or some great chancellor of old, had the fancy to be covered when the
suppliants approached. Let any one observe with what studied dignity
he performs the duty of announcing the royal assent to Acts of
Parliament: he assumes a solemnity of tone for which his voice is not
ill-fitted, but which is unusual with him. These small circumstances,
and many such which might be mentioned, show that State is not
uncongenial to his mind. Why should it? His weakness consists in the
unreal contempt for what is not really contemptible. With his high
notions of office, I should have been surprised if he had foregone the
levee; and assuredly he has not reckoned without reason; for a more
splendid or flattering pageant could not be witnessed than that which
his rooms exhibited. Unquestionably the most remarkable man in the
empire at this moment, it is his fortune to attract the honourable regards
of all who are distinguished as compeers. It is not my intention to offer
any estimate of what I conceive to be his genuine worth, as he may be
appreciated in a more dispassionate time; I speak of him only as a great
man filling a very large space in the consideration of the empire.
Judging from the throng of all classes upon this occasion, whose favour
is desirable, no man is more popular * * *. The Chancellor took his
place at a corner of the room, backed by his chaplain, and was soon
encircled by the visitants; his dress remarkably plain, being a simple
suit of velvet in the court cut. The names were announced from the
bottom of the stairs, and each person as he entered walked up to the
Chancellor and offered his respects. The numbers were so great that it
was impossible to devote any marked attention to each; as soon,
therefore, as the visiter had made his bow, he retired into the throng, or