I now come to speak of one whose fame was familiar to me as a
boy--the great Lord Brougham.--for he lived till 1868. I remember that
he was vehemently praised and blamed as a politician, but with such
matters others have dealt; in this letter, Antony, we will concern
ourselves with the glory of English prose as it poured from Lord
Brougham in two of his greatest speeches.
He was an orator whose voice was uplifted throughout a long and
strenuous life in condemnation of all the brutalities and oppression of
his time, and to whose eloquence the triumphant cause of freedom
stands for ever in deep obligation.
His great speech on Law Reform in the House of Commons, in 1828,
took six hours to deliver, and the concluding passage, which mounted
to a plane of lofty declamation, displayed no sign of exhaustion, and
was listened to with strained attention by an absorbed and crowded
audience:--
"The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You
have the power of sending your name down through all times,
illustrated by deeds of higher fame, and more useful import, than
ever were done within these walls.
"You saw the greatest warrior of the age--conqueror of
Italy--humbler of Germany--terror of the North--saw him account
all his matchless victories poor, compared with the triumph you
are now in a condition to win--saw him contemn the fickleness of
fortune, while, in despite of her, he could pronounce his
memorable boast, 'I shall go down to posterity with the Code in my
hand!'
"You have vanquished him in the field; strive now to rival him in
the sacred arts of peace! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom in arms
you overcame! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the
more solid and enduring splendour of the Reign. The praise which
false courtiers feigned for our Edwards and Harrys, the Justinians
of their day, will be the just tribute of the wise and the good to
that monarch under whose sway so mighty an undertaking shall be
accomplished. Of a truth, the holders of sceptres are most chiefly
to be envied for that they bestow the power of thus conquering,
and ruling thus.
"It was the boast of Augustus--it formed part of the glare in
which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost,--that he found
Rome of brick, and left it of marble; a praise not unworthy a
great prince, and to which the present reign also has its claims.
But how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he shall
have it to say, that he found law dear, and left it cheap; found
it a sealed book--left it a living letter; found it the patrimony
of the rich--left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the
two-edged sword of craft and oppression--left it the staff of
honesty and the shield of innocence!
"To me, much reflecting on these things, it has always seemed a
worthier honour to be the instrument of making you bestir
yourselves in this high matter, than to enjoy all that office can
bestow--office, of which the patronage would be an irksome
encumbrance, the emoluments superfluous to one content with the
rest of his industrious fellow-citizens that his own hands
minister to his wants; and as for the power supposed to follow
it--I have lived near half a century, and I have learned that
power and place may be severed.
"But one power I do prize; that of being the advocate of my
countrymen here, and their fellow-labourers elsewhere, in those
things which concern the best interests of mankind. That power, I
know full well, no government can give--no change take away!"
His speech on negro slavery made a deep impression upon the country,
and rose towards its termination, gradually, but with ever-ascending
periods, to a close of absolute majesty:--
"I regard the freedom of the negro as accomplished and sure. Why?
Because it is his right--because he has shown himself fit for it;
because a pretext, or a shadow of a pretext, can no longer be
devised for withholding that right from its possessor. I know that
all men at this day take a part in the question, and they will no
longer bear to be imposed upon, now they are well informed. My
reliance is firm and unflinching upon the great change which I
have witnessed--the education of the people, unfettered by party
or by sect--witnessed from the beginning of its progress, I may
say from the hour of its birth! Yes! It was not for a humble man
like me to assist at royal births with the illustrious Prince who
condescended to grace the pageant of this opening session, or the
great captain and statesman in whose presence I am now proud to
speak. But with that illustrious Prince, and with the father of
the Queen, I assisted at that other birth, more conspicuous still.
With them, and with the head of the House of Russell, incomparably
more illustrious in my eyes, I watched over its cradle--I marked
its growth--I rejoiced in its strength--I witnessed its maturity;
I have been spared to see it ascend the very height of supreme
power; directing the councils of state; accelerating every great
improvement; uniting itself with every good work; propping all
useful institutions; extirpating abuses in all our institutions;
passing the bounds of our European dominion, and in the New World,
as in the Old, proclaiming that freedom is the birthright of
man--that distinction of colour gives no title to oppression--that
the chains now loosened must be struck off, and even the marks
they have left effaced--proclaiming this by the same eternal law
of our nature which makes nations the masters of their own
destiny, and which in Europe has caused every tyrant's throne to
quake!
"But they need feel no alarm at the progress of light who defend a
limited monarchy and support popular institutions--who place their
chiefest pride not in ruling over slaves, be they white or be
they black, not in protecting the oppressor, but in wearing a
constitutional crown, in holding the sword of justice with the
hand of mercy, in being the first citizen of a country whose air
is too pure for slavery to breathe, and on whose shores, if the
captive's foot but touch, his fetters of themselves fall off. To
the resistless progress of this great principle I look with a
confidence which nothing can shake; it makes all improvement
certain; it makes all change safe which it produces; for none can
be brought about unless it has been prepared in a cautious and
salutary spirit.
"So now the fulness of time is come for at length discharging our
duty to the African captive. I have demonstrated to you that
everything is ordered--every previous step taken--all safe, by
experience shown to be safe, for the long-desired consummation.
The time has come, the trial has been made, the hour is striking;
you have no longer a pretext for hesitation, or faltering, or
delay. The slave has shown, by four years' blameless behaviour,
and devotion to the pursuits of peaceful industry, that he is as
fit for his freedom as any English peasant, ay, or any lord whom
I now address.
"I demand his rights; I demand his liberty without stint. In the
name of justice and of law--in the name of reason--in the name of
God, who has given you no right to work injustice; I demand that
your brother be no longer trampled upon as your slave! I make my
appeal to the Commons, who represent the free people of England;
and I require at their hands the performance of that condition for
which they paid so enormous a price--that condition which all
their constituents are in breathless anxiety to see fulfilled! I
appeal to this House. Hereditary judges of the first tribunal in
the world--to you I appeal for justice. Patrons of all the arts
that humanise mankind--under your protection I place humanity
herself! To the merciful Sovereign of a free people I call aloud
for mercy to the hundreds of thousands for whom half a million of
her Christian sisters have cried aloud--I ask that their cry may
not have risen in vain. But first I turn my eye to the throne of
all justice, and devoutly humbling myself before Him who is of
purer eyes than to behold such vast iniquities, I implore that the
curse hovering over the head of the unjust and the oppressor be
averted from us--that your hearts may be turned to mercy--and that
over all the earth His will may at length be done!"
This is nobly to use noble gifts; it is difficult to think ill of a
man who can carry oratory for a glorious object to such heights of
splendour. It may seem a duty to some to darken his character with
detraction, but his inspiring words remain supreme and unsullied and
will still live when such faults as may be truly laid to his charge
are long forgotten. To fight for a great cause, Antony, is rightly to
use great powers, and this is what Lord Brougham did with all his
might.
Your loving old
G.P.
21