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err is human, justice deferred enhances the price at which you must purchase safety and peace; nor can you expect to gather in another erop than they did who went before you, if you persevere in their utterly abominable husbandry, of sowing injustice and reaping rebellion.

But among the awful considerations that now bow down my mind, there is one which stands pre-eminent above the rest. You are the highest judicature in the realm; you sit here as judg

out appeal. It is a judge's first duty never to pronounce sentence in the most trifling case without hearing. Will you make this the exception? Are you really prepared to determine, but not to hear, the mighty cause upon which a nation's hopes and fears hang? You are. Then beware of your decision! Rouse not, I beseech you, a peace-loving, but a resolute people; alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire. As your friend, as the friend of my order, as the friend of my country, as the faithful servant of my Sovereign, I counsel you to assist with your uttermost efforts in preserving the peace, and upholding and perpetuating the Constitution. Therefore, I pray and exhort you not to reject this measure. By all you hold most dear

too ludicrous to be seriously refuted; that the bill is only a favorite with the democracy, is a delusion so wild as to point a man's destiny toward St. Luke's. Yet many, both here and elsewhere, by dint of constantly repeating the same cry, or hearing it repeated, have almost made themselves believe that none of the nobility are for the measure. A noble friend of mine has had the curiosity to examine the list of peers, opposing and supporting it, with respect to the dates of their creation, and the result is some-es, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, withwhat remarkable. A large majority of the peers, created before Mr. Pitt's time, are for the bill; the bulk of those against it are of recent creation; and if you divide the whole into two classes, those ennobled before the reign of George III. and those since, of the former, fifty-six are friends, and only twenty-one enemies of the reform. So much for the vain and saucy boast that the real nobility of the country are against reform. I have dwelt upon this matter more than its intrinsic importance deserves, only through my desire to set right the fact, and to vindicate the ancient aristocracy from a most groundless imputation. My Lords, I do not disguise the intense solicitude which I feel for the event of this Danger of debate, because I know full well that the peace of the country is involved in by all the ties that bind every one of us to our the issue. I can not look without dismay at the common order and our common country, I solrejection of the measure. But grievous as may emnly adjure you-I warn you-I implore you be the consequences of a temporary defeat--yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you—retemporary it can only be; for its ultimate, and ject not this bill! even speedy success, is certain. Nothing can now stop it. Do not suffer yourselves to be persuaded that even if the present ministers were driven from the helm, any one could steer you through the troubles which surround you without reform. But our successors would take up the task in circumstances far less auspicious. Under them, you would be fain to grant a bill, compared with which the one we now proffer you is moderate indeed. Hear the parable of the Sibyl; for it conveys a wise and wholesome moral. She now appears at your gate, and offers you mildly the volumes the precious volumes—of wisdom and peace.

Peroration:

delay.

The price she asks is reasonable; to restore the franchise, which, without any bargain, you ought voluntarily to give; you refuse her terms-her moderate terms-she darkens the porch no longer. But soon, for you can not do without her wares, you call her back; again she comes, but with diminished treasures; the leaves of the book are in part torn away by lawless hands-in part defaced with characters of blood. But the prophetic maid had risen in her demands -it is Parliaments by the year-it is vote by the ballot-it is suffrage by the million! From this you turn away indignant, and for the second time she departs. Beware of her third coming; for the treasure you must have; and what price she may next demand, who shall tell? It may even be the mace which rests upon that wool-sack. What may follow your course of obstinacy, if persisted in, I can not take upon me to predict, nor do I wish to conjecture. But this I know full well, that, as sure as man is mortal, and to

So completely had Lord Brougham wrought up his own feelings and those of his hearers at the close of this speech, that it was nothing strained or unnatural-it was, in fact, almost a matter of course-for him to sink down upon one of his knees at the table where he stood, when he uttered the last words, "I supplicate youreject not this bill!" But the sacrifice was too great a one for that proud nobility to make at once, and the bill was rejected by a majority of forty-one, of whom twenty-one belonged to the board of bishops of the Established Church.

The question, "What will the Lords do?" which had agitated and divided the public mind for some months, was now answered, and a burst of wounded and indignant feeling followed throughout the whole country. The London papers were many of them arrayed in mourning; some of the Lords who had opposed the bill were assaulted by the populace in the streets; others were burned in effigy in the neighborhoods where they lived; riots took place in many of the large towns, at which the property of the anti-Reformers was destroyed; and in the vicinity of Nottingham the ancient palace of the Duke of Newcastle was consumed by fire. The great body of the nation, while they disapproved of these excesses, were wrought up to the highest pitch of determination that, come what might, the bill should be carried.

Public meetings, embrac ing a large part of the entire population, were held in all parts of the kingdom, and men of the highest standing and ability came forward to

form them into one compact body, with the King | The Atlantic was roused, Mrs. Partington's spirit in their midst, to press with the united force of was up, but I need not tell you that the contest millions on the House of Lords. Before such was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. an array the aristocracy of England, for the first Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a time, with all its wealth, and talent, and hered- puddle, but she should not have meddled with a itary claims on the respect of the people, were tempest. Gentlemen, be at your ease-be quiet seen to be utterly powerless. They were even and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington."s treated with contempt. แ "The efforts of the On the 12th of December, 1831, the bill was Lords to stop the progress of reform," said the introduced into the House of Commons for the Rev. Sydney Smith at the Taunton meeting, “re- third time, and was passed by a majority of one minds me very forcibly of the great storm at hundred and sixty-two; but was rejected in the Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent House of Lords on the 7th of May, 1832, by a Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the win- majority of thirty-nine. The ministry instantly ter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that resigned, and the King, after an ineffectual eftown; the tide rose to an incredible height, the fort to form another, invited them back, on the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every condition that he would create enough new Lords thing was threatened with destruction. In the to carry through the bill. This ended the conmidst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame test. To escape such an indignity, a large numPartington, who lived upon the beach, was seen ber of the anti-Reformers signified their intenat the door of her house with mop and pattens, tion of being absent when the bill came up anew, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and it finally passed the Upper House on the and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. 4th of June, 1832, by a vote of 106 to 22.

INAUGURAL DISCOURSE

OF MR. BROUGHAM WHEN ELECTED LORD RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW DELIV ERED APRIL 6, 1825.

INTRODUCTION.

AT Glasgow a Lord Rector is annually chosen by a major vote of the members of the University. The station is simply one of honor, like that of Chancellor in the English Universities, involving no share in the government or instruction, and is usually awarded to some public man who has a distinguished name in literature or politics.

When inducted into office, the Lord Rector returns thanks in an address which is usually short, as a mere matter of form and compliment, expressing his sense of the honor conferred, and his best wishes for the prosperity of the institution. Lord Brougham, however, when called to this office, took a different course. He prepared an elaborate address on "the study of the Rhetorical Art, and the purposes to which a proficiency in this art should be made subservient." He urges the study of rhetoric, however, not in mere treatises on the subject, but (as in the case of the sculptor and painter) in the direct study of the great productions of the art itself, and especially of the Greek orators; of whom he affirms, "the works of the English chisel fall not more short of the wonders of the Acropolis, than the best productions of modern pens fall short of the chaste, finished, nervous, and overwhelming compositions of them "that fulmined over Greece." The discourse is full of striking remarks, many of them of great value as the result of the author's own experience, and it therefore forms a very appropriate close to this volume. One fact respecting it is certainly remarkable, that, containing so many and such extended quotations, it was written not at home among his books, but "during the business of the Northern Circuit."

DISCOURSE, &c.

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igence in a col

I feel very sensibly that if I shall now urge you by general exhortations to be Transition: instant in the pursuit of the learning Motives for dilwhich, in all its branches, flourishes lege life. under the kindly shelter of these roofs, I may weary you with the unprofitable repetition of a thrice-told tale; and if I presume to offer my advice touching the conduct of your studies, I may seem to trespass upon the province of those venerable persons under whose care you have the singular happiness to be placed. But I would nevertheless expose myself to either charge, for the sake of joining my voice with

8 It scarcely need be said that this mention of the good lady gave rise to the frequent occurrence of her name in the newspapers of the present day.

the study of the rhetorical art, by which useful truths are promulgated with effect, and the purposes to which a proficiency in this art should be made subservient.

Rhetoric.

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theirs in anxiously entreating you to believe how incomparably the present season is verily and indeed the most precious of your whole lives. It is not the less true, because it has been oftentimes said, that the period of youth is by far the It is an extremely common error among young best fitted for the improvement of the mind, and persons, impatient of academical dis- Part Fir the retirement of a college almost exclusively cipline, to turn from the painful study. The stay of adapted to much study. At your enviable age of ancient, and particularly of Attic Test,ɔuld be every thing has the lively interest of novelty and composition, and solace themselves among the freshness; attention is perpetually sharpened by with works rendered easy by the fa- Greek orators curiosity; and the memory is tenacious of the miliarity of their own tongue. They plausibly deep impressions it thus receives, to a degree contend, that as powerful or captivating diction unknown in after life; while the distracting cares in a pure English style is, after all, the attainof the world, or its beguiling pleasures, cross ment they are in search of, the study of the best not the threshold of these calm retreats; its dis- English models affords the shortest road to this tant noise and bustle are faintly heard, making point; and even admitting the ancient examples the shelter you enjoy more grateful; and the to have been the great fountains from which all struggles of anxious mortals embarked upon that eloquence is drawn, they would rather profit, as troublous sea are viewed from an eminence, the it were, by the classical labors of their English security of which is rendered more sweet by the predecessors, than toil over the same path themprospect of the scene below. Yet a little while, selves. In a word, they would treat the perishand you too will be plunged into those waters able results of those labors as the standard, and of bitterness; and will cast an eye of regret, as give themselves no care about the immortal now I do, upon the peaceful regions you have originals. This argument, the thin covering quitted forever. Such is your lot as members which indolence weaves for herself, would speedof society; but it will be your own fault if you ily sink all the fine arts into barrenness and inlook back on this place with repentance or with significance. Why, according to such reasonshame; and be well assured that, whatever time ers, should a sculptor or painter encounter the -ay, every hour-you squander here on un- toil of a journey to Athens or to Rome? Far profitable idling, will then rise up against you, better work at home, and profit by the labor of and be paid for by years of bitter but unavailing those who have resorted to the Vatican and regrets. Study, then, I beseech you, so to store the Parthenon, and founded an English school your minds with the exquisite learning of former adapted to the taste of our own country. ages, that you may always possess within your-you assured that the works of the Enselves sources of rational and refined enjoyment, which will enable you to set at naught the grosser pleasures of sense, whereof other men are slaves; and so imbue yourselves with the sound philosophy of later days, forming yourselves to the virtuous habits which are its legitimate offspring, that you may walk unhurt through the trials which await you, and may look down upon the ignorance and error that surround you, not with lofty and supercilious contempt, as the sages of old times, but with the vehement desire of enlightening those who wander in darkness, and who are by so much the more endeared to us by how much they want our assistance.

Subject: The study of Raet

oric and its

proper appica

tions.

Assuming the improvement of his own mind and of the lot of his fellow-creatures to be the great end of every man's existence, who is removed above the care of providing for his sustenance, and to be the indispensable duty of every man, as far as his own immediate wants leave him any portion of time unemployed, our attention is naturally directed to the means by which so great and urgent a work may best be performed; and as in the limited time allotted to this discourse, I can not hope to occupy more than a small portion of so wide a field, I shall confine myself to two subjects, or rather to a few observations upon two subjects, both of them appropriate to this place, but either of them affording ample materials for an entire course of lectures

Be

Inferiority of

models

glish chisel fall not more short of the all Fish
wonders of the Acropolis, than the
best productions of modern pens fall short of
the chaste, finished, nervous, and overwhelming
compositions of them that "resistless fulmined
over Greece." Be equally sure that, with
hardly any exception, the great things of poetry
and of eloquence have been done by men who
cultivated the mighty exemplars of Athenian
genius with daily and with nightly devotion.
Among poets there is hardly an exception to
this rule, unless may be so deemed Shakspeare,
an exception to all rules, and Dante, familiar as
a cotemporary with the works of Roman art,
composed in his mother tongue, having taken,
not so much for his guide as for his "master,"
Virgil, himself almost a translator from the
Greeks. But among orators I know of none
among the Romans, and scarce any in our own
times. Cicero honored the Greek masters with
such singular observance, that he not
only repaired to Athens for the sake
of finishing his rhetorical education,
but afterward continued to practice
the art of declaiming in Greek; and although
he afterward fell into a less pure manner through
the corrupt blandishments of the Asian taste, yet
do we find him ever prone to extol the noble
perfections of his first masters, as something
placed beyond the reach of all imitation. Nay,
at a mature period of his life, he occupied him-
self in translating the greater orations of the

Cicero to the of Greek or

pre emunegre

tory

Greeks, which composed almost exclusively his | satisfied with studying the Roman, we should treatise De optimo genere Oratoris;" as if to write a discourse on oratorial perfection were merely to present the reader with the two immortal speeches upon the Crown. Sometimes we find him imitating, even to a literal version, the beauties of those divine originals-as the beautiful passage of Æschines, in the Timarchus, upon the torments of the guilty, which the Roman orator has twice made use of, almost word for word; once in the oration for Sextus Roscius, the earliest he delivered, and again in a more mature effort of his genius, the oration against L. Piso.1

Roman elo

quence as a model.

only be imitating the imperfect copy, instead of the pure original-like him who should endeavor to catch a glimpse of some beauty by her reflection in a glass, that weakened her tints, if it did not distort her features. In the other case, we should not be imitating the same, but some less perfect original, and looking at the wrong beauty; not her whose chaste and simple attractions commanded the adoration of all Greece, but some garish damsel from Rhodes or Chios, just brilliant and languishing enough to captivate the less pure taste of half-civilized Rome.

The style and

ero not suited

day.

But there are other reasons too weighty to be I have dwelt the rather upon the authority of passed over, 'which justify the same Inferiority of M. Tullius, because it enables us at decided preference. Not to mention manner of Cieonce to answer the question, Whether the incomparable beauty and power to the present a study of the Roman orators be not of the Greek language, the study of sufficient for refining the taste? If the Greeks which alone affords the means of enriching our were the models of an excellence which the first own, the compositions of Cicero, exquisite as they of Roman orators never attained, although ever are for beauty of diction, often remarkable for inaspiring after it-nay, if so far from being satis-genious argument and brilliant wit, not seldom fied with his own success, he even in those his excelling in deep pathos, are nevertheless so exmasters found something which his ears desid-tremely rhetorical, fashioned by an art so little erated (ita sunt avidæ et capaces; et semper aliquid immensum infinitumque desiderant [so eager are they and capacious, so continually desirous of something boundless and infinite])—he either fell short while copying them, or he failed by diverting his worship to the false gods of the Asian school. In the one case, were we to rest

1 Μὴ γὰρ οἴεσθε, τὰς τῶν ἀδικημάτων ἀρχὰς ἀπό θεῶν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὑπ' ἀνθρώπων ἀσελγείας γίνεσθαι μηδὲ τοὺς ἠσεβηκότας, καθάπερ ἐν ταῖς τραγῳδίαις, Ποινὰς ἐλαύνειν καὶ κολάζειν δασὶν ἡμμέναις, αλλ' αἱ προπετεῖς τοῦ σώματος ἡδοναὶ, καὶ τὸ μηδὲν ἱκανὸν ἡγεῖσθαι, ταῦτα πληροῖ τὰ ληστήρια-ταῦτ' εἰς τὸν ἐπακτροκέλητα ἐμβιβάζει — ταῦτά ἐστιν ἑκάστῳ Ποινή, κ. τ. λ. — ΑΙΣΧΙΝ. κατά Τιμάρ. xov. Let no one think that crimes arise from the instigation of the gods, and not from the rash intemperance of men; or that the profane are driven and chastized, as we see them on the stage, by furies with blazing torches. The eager lusts of the flesh,

Some admirable

concealed, and sacrificing the subject to a display of the speaker's powers, admirable as those are, that nothing can be less adapted to the genius of modern elocution, which requires a constant and almost exclusive attention to the business in hand. In all his orations which were spoken (for, singular as it may seem, the remark applies less to those which were only written, as all the Verrine, except the first, all the Philippics, except the first and ninth, and the Pro Milone) hardly two pages can be found which a modern assembly would bear. arguments on evidence, and the credit of witnesses, might be urged to a jury ; several passages, given by him on the merits of the case, and in defense against the charge, might be spoken in mitigation of punishment after a conviction or confession of guilt; but, whether we regard the political or forensic orations, the style, both in respect of the reasoning and the ornapiments, is wholly unfit for the more severe and less trifling nature of modern affairs in the Senate or at he bar. Now it is altogether otherwise with the Greek masters. Changing That of the a few phrases, which the difference Greeks perfectof religion and of manners might ren- modern times. der objectionable-moderating, in some degree, the virulence of invective, especially against private character, to suit the chivalrous courtesy of modern hostility-there is hardly one of the political or forensic orations of the Greeks that

and the insatiable desire for more-these swell the

ranks of the robber, and crowd the deck of the rate-these are to every one his own fury!

Nolite enim putare, quemadmodum in fabulis sæpenumero videtis, eos, qui aliquid impie scelerateque commiserint, agitari et perterreri Furiarum tædis ardentibus. Sua quemque fraus, et suus terror maxime vexat; suum quemque scelus agitat, amentiaque afficit; suæ malæ cogitationes conscientiæque animi terrent. Hæ sunt impiis assidua domesticæque Furie; quæ dies noctesque parentum pœnas a consceleratissimis filiis repetant.-Pro Sexto Ros

cio Amerino.

Nolite enim putare, ut in scena videtis, homines consceleratos impulsu deorum terreri Furiarum tædis ardentibus. Sua quemque fraus, suum facinus--suum scelus-sua audacia, de sanitate ac mente deturbat. Hæ sunt impiorum Furiæ-hæ flammæ hæ faces.-In Luc. Calp. Pisonem.

The great improvement in Cicero's taste between the first and the second of these compositions is manifest, and his closer adherence to the original. He introduces the same idea, and in very similar language, in the Treatise De Legg., Lib. 1.— Brougham. 2 Orator., c. 29.

ly adapted to

There is a singular example of this in the remarks on the evidence and cross-examination in the oration for L. Flaccus, pointed out to me by my friend Mr. Scarlett (now Lord Abinger), the mention of whose name affords an illustration of my argument, for, as a more consummate master of the forensic art in all its branches never lived, so no man is more conversant with the works of his predecessors in ancient times. Lord Erskine, too, perhaps the first of judicial orators, ancient or modern, had well studied the noble remains of the classic age.-Brougham

your passions; and now you shall see how I can amuse your fancy," the more vigorous ancient argued in declaiming, and made his very boldest figures subservient to, or rather an integral part of his reasoning. The most figurative and highly wrought passage in all antiquity is the famous oath in Demosthenes; yet, in the most pathetic part of it, and when he seems to have left the furthest behind him the immediate subject of his speech, led away by the prodigious interest of the recollections he has excited; when he is naming the very tombs where the heroes of Marathon lie buried, he instantly, not abruptly, but by a most felicitous and easy transition, returns into the midst of the main argument of his whole defense-that the merits of public servants, not the success of their councils, should be the measure of the public gratitude toward them—a position that runs through the whole speech, and to which he makes the funeral honors bestowed alike on all the heroes, serve as a striking and appropriate support. With the same ease does Virgil manage his celebrated transition in the

might not be delivered in similar circumstances before our Senate or tribunals; while their funeral and other panegyrical discourses are much less inflated and unsubstantial than those of the most approved masters of the epideictic style, the French preachers and academicians. Whence this difference between the master-pieces of Greek and Roman eloquence? Whence but from the rigid steadiness with which the Greek orator keeps the object of all eloquence perpetually in view, never speaking for mere speaking's sake; while the Latin rhetorician, “ingenii sui nimium amator" [too fond of his own ingenuity], and, as though he deemed his occupation a trial of skill or display of accomplishments, seems ever and anon to lose sight of the subject-matter in the attempt to illustrate and adorn it; and pours forth passages sweet indeed, but unprofitablefitted to tickle the ear, without reaching the heart. Where, in all the orations of Cicero, or of him who almost equals him, Livy, "mira facundia homo" [admirable for his command of language], shall we find any thing like those thick successions of short questions in which De-Georgics; where, in the midst of the Thracian mosthenes oftentimes forges, as it were, with a few rapidly following strokes, the whole massive chain of his argument; as in the Chersonese, Εἰ δ ̓ ἅπαξ διαφθαρήσεται καὶ διαλυθήσεται, τί ποιήσομεν, ἂν ἐπὶ Χεῤῥόνησον ἴη; κρινοῦμεν Διοπείθην ; νὴ Δία. Καὶ τί τὰ πράγματα ἔσται βελτίω ; ἀλλ' ἐνθένδε βοηθήσομεν αὐτοῖς· ἂν δ' ὑπὸ τῶν πνευμάτων μὴ δυνώμεθα; ἀλλὰ μὲ Δί' οὐχ ἥξει· καὶ τὶς ἐγγυητής ἐστι τούτου; [Let this force be once destroyed or scattered, and what are we to do if Philip marches on the Chersonese? Put Diopeithes on his trial? But how will that better our condition? And how shall we send them succor if prevented by the winds? But, by Jupiter, he will not march! And who is our surety for that?] or, comprising all of a long narrative that suits his argument in a single sentence, presenting a lengthened series of events at a single glance; as in the Пapanpɛobɛia: Пévre yàp yɛγόνασιν ἡμέραι μόναι, ἐν αἰς—οὗτος ἀπήγγειλε τὰ ψευδῆὑμεῖς ἐπιστεύσατε οἱ Φωκεῖς ἐπύθοντο— ¿védwkav čaνTOÙÇ―ánúhovτo. [There were only five days in which this man (Eschines, who had been sent as an embassador) brought back those lies—you believed-the Phocians listened-gave themselves up-perished!]

Qualities in which it surpasses the best specimens of

But though the more business-like manner of modern debate approaches much nearer the style of the Greek than the Latin compositions, it must be admitmodern debate. ted that it falls short of the great originals in the closeness, and, as it were, density of the argument; in the habitual sacrifice of all ornament to use, or rather in the constant union of the two; so that, while a modern orator too frequently has his speech parceled out into compartments, one devoted to argument, another to declamation, a third to mere ornament, as if he should say, "Now your reason shall be convinced; now I am going to rouse

+ Quintilian.

The admirable

topics.

war, and while at an immeasurable distance from
agricultural topics, the magician strikes the
ground on the field of battle, where helmets are
buried, and suddenly raises before us the lonely
husbandman, in a remote age, peacefully tilling
its soil, and driving his plow among the rusty
armor and moldering remains of the warrior.
But if a further reason is required for giving
the preference to the Greek orators,
we may find it in the greater diversi- variety of a
ty and importance of the subjects upon
which their speeches were delivered. Besides
the number of admirable orations and of written
arguments upon causes merely forensic, we have
every subject of public policy, all the great af-
fairs of state, successively forming the topics of
discussion. Compare them with Cicero in this
particular, and the contrast is striking. His
finest oration for matter and diction together is
in defense of an individual charged with murder,
and there is nothing in the case to give it a pub-
lic interest, except that the parties were of op-
posite factions in the state, and the deceased a
personal as well as political adversary of the
speaker. His most exquisite performance in
point of diction, perhaps the most perfect prose
composition in the language, was addressed to
one man, in palliation of another's having borne
arms against him in a war with a personal rival.
Even the Catilinarians, his most splendid decla-

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