upon this great and painful head of the case. I solemnly assure your Lordships that, but for this conviction, my lips on that branch would not be closed; for in discretionally abandoning the exercise of the power which I feel that I have-in postponing for the present the statement of that case I feel confident that I am waiving a right which I possess and abstaining from the use of materials which are mine. And let it not be thought, my Lords, that if hereafter I should so far be disappointed in my expectation that the case against me shall fail, as to feel it necessary to exercise that right, let no man vainly suppose that only I, but that any, the youngest member of the profession, would hesitate one moment in the fearless discharge of his paramount duty.

"I once before took leave to remind your Lordships, which was unnecessary, but there are many whom it may be needful to remind, that an advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes to his client, knows in the discharge of that office but one person in the world-that client and no other. To save that client by all expedient means; to protect that client at all hazards and costs to all others and among others to himself is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties. And he must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction which he may bring upon any other. Nay, separating even the duties of a patriot from those of an advocate, and casting them, if need be, into the wind, he must go on, reckless of the consequences, if his fate it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client's protection."

The position taken in this last paragraph may be rather exaggerated, but it must be remembered that Brougham was preparing to “beard the British lion in his den."

I also give the peroration of his speech in these words, closing he said:

"Such, my Lords, is the case now before you. Such is the evidence in support of the measure, evidence inadeqate to

prove a debt, impotent to deprive of a civil right, ridiculous to convict of the lowest offense, monstrous to ruin the honor, to blast the name of an English Queen. What shall I say, then, if this is the proof by which an act of judicial legislation, a Parliamentary sentence, an ex post facto law, is sought to be passed against this defenseless woman? My Lords, I pray you to pause. I do earnestly beseech you to take heed. You are standing upon the brink of a precipice; then beware. It will go forth your judgment, if sentence shall go against the Queen. But it will be the only judgment you ever pronounced which, instead of reaching its object, will return and bound back upon those who gave it. Save the country, my Lords, from the horror of this catastrophe; save yourselves from this peril; rescue that country of which you are the ornaments, but in which you can flourish no longer, when severed from the people, than the blossom when cut off from roots and stems of the tree. Save that country, that you may continue to adorn it; save the Crown, which is in jeopardy; the Aristocracy, which is in peril; save the Altar, which must stagger with the blow which rends its kindred Throne. You have said, my Lords, you have willed-the Church and the King have willed-that the Queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has, instead of that solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers of mine. But I do here put forth my humble supplications at the Throne of Mercy that mercy may be poured down upon the people in a larger measure than the merits of their rulers may deserve, and that your hearts may be turned to justice."

Within ten days from the close of the defence by Henry Brouham the Ministry formally abandoned the bill and it was never put upon its final passage. England breathed with relief, a great crisis was passed. "The constitution and scheme of our polity is once more safe," said Lord Erskine, when he burst forth with rejoicing in the House of Lords upon the announcement of the abandonment of the prosecution, and its safety and preservation was largely due to the one lawyer of only twelve years stand

ing at the English bar, Henry Brougham. But the continued strain had been too great for his royal client and in a few months she died with a broken heart, having directed that her only epitaph should be "Here lies Caroline of Brunswick, the injured Queen of England."

Brougham's defiant and fearless defence was never forgiven by the Royal family and not until forty odd years had passed and he had become an old man, nearing his end, could even Queen Victoria be prevailed on to grant him a new and second patent of nobility allowing his title to descend to his brother's family as he had survived his children.

But his eloquence and boldness, although they forfeited for him the favor of the Crown, gained him that of the people, which was increased by his refusing a large popular contribution for defending the Queen, and for nearly twenty years he was the popular idol, wielding a power in the House of Commons, sometimes independently against his own party and at the bar, the extent of which has never been surpassed, if ever equalled, in Great Britain. Literary honors also were heaped upon him; successively he was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University, President of the University College of London, of which he was principal founder; Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, member of the Institute of France and D. C. L. of Oxford. No higher tribute could have been paid Brougham than the election as Lord Rector of Glasgow University over Sir Walter Scott, the greatest literary celebrity of his age, the "Wizard of the North," whose magical pen, by the aid of his wonderful fancy had quickened into life the long and buried past and created therefrom shapes and scenes of beauty, and had thrown a spell of enchantment over every sprig of Scotch heather, making it bloom perpetually with romantic song and story. You must excuse this digression, but I cannot mention the name of "Sir Walter" without expressing my admiration of his genius.

It seems almost increditable that Brougham, a poor young Scotchman, could come to London, without influence or the assistance of patronage, and within twenty years, by the sheer force of his acquired knowledge, character, intellect and energy and talents, become the admitted leader, not only at the bar, but in parliamentary and reform legislation of the Kingdom and

authority in every branch of literature and almost every science. It is no cause for wonder that such a man in ten years of service in the House of Commons, in spite of the opposition of the Crown and the Ministry, and the House of Lords, overthrew, by reform, agitation and legislation, the Tory administration that had been a power for twenty-five years or more.

With the Whig party in power Brougham was induced, as I have said, against his inclination and judgment, sacrificing a large professional practice and his almost omnipotent power as a popular leader, and, as he says, against the advice of his mother, to accept the position of Lord Chancellor, with the title of "Baron Brougham and Vaux." .This removed him, unwillingly, from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, which he soon denominated as he had done in the House of Commons. His work at this period seems to have been almost superhuman, delivering elaborate opinions in the Court of Chancery, attending and taking an active part in every meeting of the Cabinet, daily in his place on the wool-sack at three o'clock; after adjournment sitting up half the night writing out his opinions, occasionally dashing off an article for the "Edinburgh Review," discoursing, writing and speaking on every subject of politics, science, literature and theology, his phenomenal life presents an experience, the equal of which I have never read in history, past or present.

With a change in administration in 1835, there was a change in the office of Lord Chancellor, and Lord Brougham became simply a member of the House of Lords, and because of envious opponents in his own party and hostility of the Crown, he never again held office. Nor can I find that he ever sought office. Nevertheless there was a great career of usefulness before him, and it was to be a long career; and at this period, looking back upon the unofficial labors of this remarkable man, to whom repose during life was an impossibility, and measuring him with the most untiring of recorded workers, it is marvelous that he accomplished as much as he did and did it so well.

It would be impossible, in such a paper as this, even to mention the multitude of reform measures originated by Lord Brougham and enacted into law. His acts and bills have been collected and were published by Sir Eardly Wilmot in 1857, the large, well filled

volume which they form, is a most fitting monument to the unremitting labor and public spirit of the man.

But there are some great reforms that his name will always be linked with which I cannot omit to mention, such as the gradual, and I repeat the word gradual, emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies, and the indemnification, and I repeat the word indemnification, of their owners by the home government. For this scheme he spoke and labored for ten years and saw the successful consummation of his work in 1833, the only cloud on the joy of the event being death of his celebrated co-laborator, Wilberforce, a few days before the final passage of the act.

England was first thoroughly aroused to this reform by Henry Brougham when, on the first day of June, 1824, he brought the case of Missionary Smith before the House of Commons. Smith had been convicted by a Demorara Court-martial for inciting negroes to revolt and sentenced to death; the British Cabinet rescinded the sentence. The Missionary, despite the home government's action, was thrown into a loathsome dungeon and died there after some weeks of severe suffering. The feeling produced in Great Britain was that of pity for the victim and indignation at the proceedings of the court-martial, which, to use the language of Brougham, showed a "series of errors so gross as to mock belief and of oppressions which are unexampled in the dispensation of English justice." 'Twas in this memorable debate that he uttered the solemn and prophetic warning, "Yet a little delay, yet a little longer of this unbearable trifling with the commands of the parent state, and she will stretch out her arms in mercy, not in anger, to those deluded men themselves, and exert at last her undeniable authority, vindicate the just rights and restore the tarnished honor of the English name."

Lord Brougham was the leader of public education in Great Britain, and for forty-four years he devoted much of his untiring energy to this great question, commencing in 1816, when he moved for the appointment by the House of Commons of a select committee, of which he was made chairman, to inquire into the state of the education of the lower order of the people of London the adoption of this motion was the corner-stone to the pyramid on which the modern system of his country's education is builded