made for the petty spite, the depreciating superciliousness, of
disappointment. Lord Brougham's classical knowledge partakes more of that
intimate regard and appreciation which we accord to the great writers,
than of this pedantry of the schools. Hence the cry of want of depth,
that has been raised against him. Like many other great men of his age,
he has read the authors of Greece and Rome in a spirit that has
identified him with their thoughts and feelings, by taking into account
the circumstances of their times; and the result has been, that he has
exchanged the formalities and critical sharp-sightedness of acquaintance
for the intimacy of friendship.

In point of general political knowledge, and particularly of that branch
called political economy, Lord Brougham stands prominently among his
contemporaries. In his speeches and writings will be found the first
principles of every new view of these subjects that has been taken by the
moderns. Of not a few he has himself been the originator. In the party
history of the last century he is well versed, as many of his speeches
show; and no public man of the present day is so well acquainted with the
theory and practice of the constitution, whether as regards the broad
principles of liberty on which it is based, or its gradual formation
during the different periods of our history. It may not be amiss here to
observe, that notwithstanding his long connection with the movement
party, and the countenance he has from time to time given to measures of
a decidedly liberal cast, he never was, and is still as far from being, a
Democrat. Throughout his career he has been a consistent Liberal: always
advocating such measures of reform as were calculated to remove abuses,
while they in no way affected the stability and integrity of the
institutions of the country. While, on the one hand, he has declared his
most unequivocal opposition to the ballot and universal suffrage, on the
other he has advocated popular education, as the ultimate panacea for all