advanced it in ten years more than it had been previously advanced in a
century. In 1820 he displayed in their perfection those amazing powers of
knowledge, reason, invective, sarcasm, and elocution, on the trial of
Queen Caroline, which more than anything else have made
that trial so memorable among legal and forensic conflicts. In 1822 he
made his unparalleled speech in the case of the Dean and Chapter of
Durham against Williams, and in the following year was elected Lord
Rector of the University of Glasgow. On the downfall of the Wellington
administration, in 1830, and the consequent general election, he was
returned to Parliament as one of the members for Yorkshire, and a few
weeks afterward was made Lord High. Chancellor, and elevated to the
peerage under the title of Lord Brougham and Vaux. He continued in the
office of Lord Chancellor until the dissolution of the Melbourne cabinet,
in 1834. In 1823 he wrote his "Practical Observations on the Education of
the People," and was engaged with Dr. Birkbeck in the formation of the
first Mechanics' Institution. In 1827 he was one of the originators of
the London University, and in the same year he founded the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, of which he was the first president,
and for which he wrote its first publication, the admirable "Treatise on
the Objects, Pleasures, and Advantages of Science." In 1830 he was
elected a member of the Institute of France, and about the time of his
resignation of the chancellorship he published his "Discourse on Natural
Theology." In 1840 he published his "Historical Sketches of the Statesmen
who flourished in the Time of George the Third;" in 1845-6, "Lives of Men
of Letters and Science who flourished in the Time of George the Third;"
and he has since given to the world works on "The French Revolution," on
"Instinct," "Demosthenes' Oration on the Crown," &c., &c. Collections of
his Speeches and Forensic Arguments, and of his Critical Essays, as well
as the other works above referred to, have been republished in
Philadelphia, by Lea and Blanchard.