recovered, and announced to the Government his ability to attend Parliament. But he did not-and why? Because on two important Reform questions he was compelled to differ from the ministry; and he was informed by them that his opposition might be fatal, circumstanced as they were then. All this was probably new to the Noble Earl (Minto). He was not in the secret. His colleagues told him what they liked about navy matters, and gave him their opinion about quadruple treaties, letting him down somewhat bluntly and unceremoniously. But this, which happened in 1836, they had not told him; yet certain it was, that he (Lord Brougham) at their desire, had kept away in order to keep them in their places. And yet the Noble Earl, not being in the secret, supposed, with some of the Government newspapers, that his (Lord Brougham) not being in office was the cause of his differing with the ministers, and made him wish to turn them out, in order that he might again seize the Great Seal. These newspaper authorities, however, from which the Noble Earl took his facts, should have known, and so should the Noble Earl, that his (Lord Brougham's) opposition, even in 1837, was confined to entering a reluctant protest against the Canada Bill, which had produced a civil war, and that in all other measures he had, during that session, supported the ministry. His opposition only began, as every man in the country knew, and as those slanderous assailants alone wilfully forgot, when, in November last, the Government took a new line against Reform of Parliament, and other reforms; and when on that and on their extravagant civil list, and their Canada Bills, and the slave question, they had compelled him to oppose them, if he (Lord Brougham) did not mean to abandon all his most sacred and most constantly avowed principles and feelings upon the whole policy of the state. These things were quite notorious-they were facts, and even had dates, which at once dispelled the whole charges made by wilful

fabrications out of doors, and at length, with an indiscretion to which great wits are too subject, brought forward by a cabinet minister in that House.*

In the autumn of 1841, when the new Government was formed, Lord Brougham was strongly urged by the Lord Chancellor (Lyndhurst) and the Duke of Wellington, at an interview desired by his Grace, and which took place at the house of the former, to accept the office of Vice-President of the Judicial Committee, which it was proposed to establish, with an adequate salary, and to enable ex-Chancellors to hold it without abatement of their retiring pension. He declined this altogether, though very sensible of the delicacy of the statement with which the proposal was accompanied, that the office was to be regarded as merely judicial, as conferred upon him who had established the Court, and as in all respects whatsoever independent of, and unconnected with, political or party conduct. The only condition annexed, was that of agreeing to be named one of the deputy speakers of the House of Lords, but which, it was added, would not be insisted on if the objections entertained, both by Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Brougham, to taking that place, were still persisted in.

Some conversation having, in the Session of 1842, arisen in the House of Commons respecting the Judicial Committee, in answer to a question, whether the creation of such an office, as the one above mentioned, was intended, Sir R. Peel replied in the negative, which was, strictly speaking, correct, because the intention had been abandoned on Lord B.'s refusal the autumn before. But the Lord Chancellor took an early opportunity, in the House of Lords, in the debates, April, 1842, on the appellate jurisdiction, of expressing his regret that he had not been able to prevail upon Lord B. to accept the place of permanent Vice-President.

WELLINGTON SPEECHES

SPEECHES DELIVERED AT

THE WELLINGTON FESTIVAL.

DOVER-AUGUST 30, 1839.

On the 30th August, 1839, the Cinque Ports celebrated at Dover a festival in honour of their illustrious Lord Warden, the DUKE OF WELLINGTON, the one hundred and sixty-fifth bearer of that high office, filled first by Godwin, the great Earl of Kent, and next after him by Harold of England. The guests, more than two thousand in number, represented in especial the rank and riches of the Cinque Ports-their beauty, too, for six hundred of the fair maids and wives of Kent were present-but there were also in attendance, to do honour to the Cinque Ports and their Warden, many eminent men from other parts of the country, and from the opposite coast, whose chief towns were represented by their Mayors.

This speech is reprinted from an edition published at the time, by Messrs. Simpkin & Marshall, and which is understood to have been corrected by the Noble Speaker. W. HAZLITT.

[The rest of W. H.'s preface is omitted, in which he describes the reception of the speech.]

LORD BROUGHAM:-I rise to discharge the duty which has been cast upon me, and to enjoy the honour which my fellow-citizens have bestowed. And