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make the worse appear the better reason. till we hear Mr. Scarlett," is now the language of jurors at the conclusion of an ingenious speech by an opposing counsel. It would be as well were Mr. Scarlett not to show that he is sensible of these adventitious helps and advantages. It must be confessed, however, that he really does speak “ás one having authority, and not as the scribes." He believes, and with good reason, that the thing as said by him, will have more effect than if it had been said by another man. Of this he sees daily examples; and we all know how readily and impercepti bly self-love may delude even the best of men. As a private character, Mr. Scarlett is quite irreproachable; and as a public man, his conduct is singularly free from any stain of suspicion, or time-serving, or popularity-hunting. As to the sneer of a certain dame, celebrated for a brainless head and cerulean ankles, that Mr. Scarlett is not deep read (red!) we mortally abhor the miserable pun, and boldly give a flat denial to the assertion which it would seem to countenance. The next in order at the

Bar, but by far the first in point of celebrity, is il 1 Henry Brougham. I owe it to truth to confess, that I was for a long period of my life under the influence of strong prejudices against this illustrious man, prejudices imbibed I hardly know how, and cast off with disdain as soon as I had an opportunity of witnessing the display of his Herculean powers. He is, take him for all and all, not merely the most

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wonderful, but the greatest man of his time. He combines powers apparently the most dissimilar. His capacity and versatility are truly prodigious, and are only equalled by his industry. Nature has fitted him to excel in any department of human knowledge to which he chooses to dedicate his mind. As a remarkable instance of this, I may state, that he is known to have made very consider rable progress in the mathematics. There is, in fact, hardly a literary or scientific subject with which he has not grappled, not even excepting bibliography. His mind seems equally formed for the minntest researches, and the most comprehensive and generalized speculations. His book on Colonial Policy, and his splendid, persevering, and ultimately triumphant efforts against the Orders in Council, may be referred to as examples of that prodigious capacity of mind which takes in any subject, however large its dimensions: And he never rises, either in Parliament or the Courts of Law, without indicating a knowledge of the minutiae of detail, which is the wonder of every one who has happened, to witness his more brilliant and striking displays. He is an able logician, and a very close and powerful reasoner. Few men are gifted with such intuitive per+ ceptions, and such richness and felicity of illustra tion. Whatever subject he handles, he exhausts. But it is plain, that in writing, his attention is more intensely directed to the matter than the manner. His style is vigorous, but irregular; frequently

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harsh and peculiar, but always pointed, terse, and perspicuous. In his discursive range of mental exertion, he appears likewise not to have neglected the classics, with the best passages of which I should suppose him to be perfectly familiar. Oh great questions of constitutional law, too, and on the abstract principles of jurisprudence, who has thought so profoundly, or written so learnedly? His very labours on the Education Committee, and otherwise on the great subject of educating the poor, would have served to immortalize an inferior man: To Brougham they were a mere relaxation a divertisement with which he unbent his mind, oppressed with still weightier concerns (if, indeed, any can be so), and allowed it to recover its wonted tone and elasticity. But it was on the Queen's trial that, by the consent of all parties, he shone out with full splendour, and in all the greatness of his strength. A speech of three days! Yes, a speech of three days' length he delivered; and yet, when he came to the peroration, Good God! how did his energies seem to be renovated, exhausted nature recruited,

and his whole soul burning with the inspiration of super-human eloquence! His features also underwent a change. His eyes resembled those of the Sybil under the divine afflatus. He seemed delivered up entirely to the dominion of the predominating passion which burned in his own soul, and which he shot, with electric rapidity and irresistibility, into the minds of every one within the reach of his prodi

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gious voice. You might have heard the respiration of my Lord Eldon; such was the death-like silence that prevailed, while the minds of all present were rapt, and ruled, and moved, and elevated, and depressed, and softened, and inflamed, at the will of this mighty sorcerer. How long this overwhelming torrent rolled, there was none who could exactly tell, as there was none sufficiently master of himself to reckon. The last-the concluding prayer was, however, given in such a manner as to defy descrip→ tion, and to leave impressions on the minds of all who heard it, which they will retain till the last moment of their mortal existence. It is said, that when Sheridan made his celebrated speech against Warren Hastings, on the Begum Charge, Mr. Pitt moved the House to adjourn, as they were then in no condition to judge calmly, considering the splen dour and force of the appeal which had been made to their feelings. And I am satisfied that, had the votes of the House of Lords been taken at that moment, with the exception of the thorough-going ministerial hacks, the Queen would have been unanimously acquitted by the independent aristocracy of England! With these recollections, it was at once an amusing and melancholy contrast, to see the late Queen's Attorney-General stript of his silk gown, and engaged in causes of no possible value or interest, except to the parties concerned.

I must, however, notice one case, tried before Mr. Justice Holroyd, and reported in the Times of Sep

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tember 6; I mean that of Sarah Thompson v. E. Blamire, for breach of promise of marriage. Mr. Brougham was counsel for the plaintiff, and kept the court in convulsions of laughter for an hour and a half. Never was poor sinner rendered so unmercifully ridiculous as Blamire, the treacherous lover of the forsaken and broken-hearted Sarah. Judge, Jury, Bar, Ladies, Gentlemen, and the "swinish multitude," were all equally acted on by the irresistible drollery and comic humour of this most wonderful man. I noticed even Jonathan Raine enjoying the fun with all his might, notwithstanding that the immense popularity of Brougham in the four great Northern Counties has robbed him of his usual share of the briefs-an offence which a less generous man would not have readily forgiven. The judge summed up in favour of the defendant; but such was the impression made on the jury by the opening speech of the plaintiff's counsel (Mr. Brougham), that, without retiring from the box, they found a verdict for the plaintiff, damages L. 100. To give my readers a better idea of what must have been the effect of Mr. Brougham's eloquence, it is necessary to add, that, from the relative circumstances of the parties, there can be little doubt that young Blamire was considered a good speculation by the father of the plaintiff, who had encouraged his addresses to his daughter without apprising the young man's relatives of the state of his affections, and the decisive step which he proposed taking.

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