constant dialectic contest; but eloquence is far more than these the gift
of nature. Lord Brougham's eloquence savors of the peculiar constitution
of his mind. It is eminently adapted for educated men. He was never
intended for a demagogue; for he never condescends to the art of
pandering to the populace. His speeches are specimens of argumentative
eloquence; and their only defect arises from his fertility of
illustration. The extraordinary information he possesses has induced the
habit of drawing too largely upon it; and he is apt to be led aside from
the straight road of his argument, to elucidate some minor disputed
point. But the argumentative style of which we speak is almost peculiar
to himself. There is a ripeness, a fruitfulness, in his mind, that places
him above the fetters of ordinary speakers. Such men, from the difficulty
of clearing their heads for the contest, too often present a mere
fleshless skeleton, as it were, very convincing to the judgment, but
powerless over the feelings; so that no lasting impression is produced.
But Lord Brougham, from being a master in argument, is free to pursue his
bent in illustration, and thus conjures up a whole picture that dwells on
the mind, and is remembered for its effect on the feelings or the
imagination, even by men whose levity or dullness precluded their being
fixed by the argument. The very structure of his sentences is more
adapted for this kind of speaking than any other. They sometimes appear
involved, to an ordinary mind, from their length, and the abundance of
illustration and explanation which they embrace; but the extraordinary
vigor with which the delivery is kept up, and the liveliness of fancy or
of humor that flashes at every turn of the thought, soon dispel the
temporary cloud.

In irony and in sarcasm, Lord Brougham is unrivaled among the public men
of the day. That his exuberant power of ridicule led him while Lord
Chancellor, into some excess of its use, cannot be denied, although a