IF

30. "MEASURES NOT MEN."

[F I am pushed to the wall, and forced to speak my opinion, I have no disguise nor reservation :-I do think that this is a time when the administration of the government ought to be in the ablest and fittest hands; I do not think the hands in which it is now placed answer to that description.

2. I do not pretend to conceal in what quarter I think that fitness most eminently resides; I do not subscribe to the doctrines which have been advanced, that in times like the present, the fitness of individuals for their political situation is no part of the consideration to which a member of Parlia ment may fairly turn his attention.

3. I know not a more solemn or important duty that a mem ber of Parliament can have to discharge, than by giving at fit seasons a free opinion upon the character and qualities of public men. Away with the cant of "measures, not men!" the idle supposition that it is the harness, and not the horses, that draw the chariot along!

4. No, sir; if the comparison must be made, if the distinc tion must be taken, men are every thing, measures comparatively nothing. I speak, sir, of times of difficulty and danger; of times when systems are shaken, when precedents and general rules of conduct fail.

5. Then it is, that not to this or that measure,—however prudently devised, however blameless in execution, but to the energy and character of individuals, a State must be indebted for its salvation. Then it is that kingdoms rise or fall in proportion as they are upheld, not by well-meant endeavors (laudable though they may be), but by commanding, overawing talents,-by able men.

6. And what is the nature of the times in which we live? Look at France, and see what we have to cope with, and consider what has made her what she is. A man! You will tell me that she was great, and powerful, and formidable before the days of Bonaparte's government, that he found in her

great physical and moral resources; that he had but to turn them to account. True, and he did so.

7. Compare the situation in which he found France with that to which he has raised her. I am no panegyrist of Bonaparte; but I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his talents, to the amazing ascendency of his genius. Tell me not of his measures and his policy. It is his genius, his character that keeps the world in awe.

8. Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far from objecting to the large military establishments which are proposed to you. I vote for them, with all my heart. But, for the purpose of coping with Bonaparte, one great, commanding spirit is worth them all. CANNING.

31. DANGER OF DELAY.

[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 you, reject not this bill." But the sacrifice was too great for that proud nobility. It was rejected by a majority of forty-one, of whom twenty-one belonged to the board of bishops of the Established Church.]

Με

Y Lords, I do not disguise the intense solicitude which I feel for the event of this debate, because I know full well that the peace of the country is involved in the issue. I cannot look without dismay at the rejection of the measure. But grievous as may be the consequences of a temporary defeat-temporary it can only be; for its ultimate and even speedy success is certain. Nothing can now stop it.

2. 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 under 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.

3. 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. 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.

4. But soon, for you cannot 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 Parliament by the year-it is vote by the ballot-it is suffrage by the million !

5. 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 woolsack. What may follow your course of obstinacy, if persisted in, I cannot take upon me to predict, nor do I wish to conjecture.

6. But this I know full well, that as sure as man is mortal, and to err is human, justice deferred enhances the price at which you must purchase safety and peace; nor can you expect to gather in another crop than they did who went before you, if you persevere in their utterly abominable husbandry, of sowing injustice and reaping rebellion.

7. 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 judges, decide all causes, civil and criminal, without 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?

8. 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 resolute people: alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire.

9. 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 utmost 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-by all the ties that bind every one of us to our common order and to our common country, I solemnly adjure you-I warn you-I implore you-yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you-reject not this bill.

LORD BROUGHAM.

32. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.

[Lord Brougham, born in Edinburgh, 1779.-He was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1830. The bill on Parliamentary Reform, after having passed the Commons with a large majority, was taken to the House of Lords, the greater number of whom were known to be bitterly opposed to the measure. The great body of the nation were equally resolved that it should pass: petitions came in by thousands from every part of the kingdom, and the feeling seemed universal "through Parliament, or over Parliament, it must be carried." For five nights it was discussed in the House of Lords with "a skill, force, and variety of argument, which for historical, constitutional, and classical information, was never surpassed." Lord Brougham reserved himself for the fifth night, and after Lord Eldon had spoken, with all the weight of his age and authority, against the bill, the Lord Chancellor came down from the woolsack, to reply in the most powerful speech of the kind that had ever been delivered in the House of Lords. For the characteristics of his oratory, see the article on "Canning and Lord Brougham." In the following extract a rare opportunity is afforded for rhetorical effect. The time is slow, utterance distinct at the beginning. Pure voice, which, as the student advances to the parable, will increase in force and quality to the orotund-not the climax of orotund until the student comes to the last paragraph. Then with great earnestness, begin slow, with much feeling in the utterance-and as you near the close, orotund climax-slow time-high pitch-long pausesas if the feeling was almost overpowering. Close with elevated, imploring gestures.]

THO

HOSE portentous appearances, the growth of later times, those figures that stalk abroad, of unknown stature and strange form-unions of leagues, and musterings of men in myriads, and conspiracies against the exchequer-whence do they spring, how come they to haunt our shores? What power engendered these uncouth shapes, what multiplied the monstrous births till they people the land? Trust me, the same power which called into frightful existence, and armed with resistless force the Irish volunteers, 1782-the same power which rent in twain your empire, and raised up thirteen republics-the same power which created the Catholic Association, and gave it Ireland for its portion.

2. What power is that? Justice denied-rights withheldwrongs perpetrated—the force which common injuries lend to millions-the wickedness of using the sacred trust of government as a means of indulging private caprice-the idiocy of treating Englishmen like the children of the South Sea Islands -the frenzy of believing, or making believe, that the adults of the nineteenth century can be led like children, or driven like barbarians!

3. This it is that has conjured up the strange sights at which we now stand aghast! And shall we persist in the fatal error of combating the giant progeny instead of extirpating the execrable parent? Good God! Will men never learn wisdom, even from their own experience? Will they never believe until it be too late, that the surest way to prevent immoderate desires being formed, aye, and unjust demands being forced, is to grant in due season the moderate requests of justice?

4. You stand, my lords, on the brink of a great event; you are in the crisis of a whole nation's hopes and fears. An awful importance hangs over your decision. Pause ere you plunge! There may not be any retreat! It behooves you to shape your conduct by the mighty occasion. They tell you' not to be afraid of personal consequences in discharging your duty. I, too, would ask you to banish all fears; but above