Abercromby (afterwards speaker of the reformed Parliament, created on his retirement Lord Dunfermline), and Lord Rosslyn, then a leader of the moderate Whigs, write in the same strain. Abercromby says, "However I may personally regret that this act of justice was not done to you by your political friends, it yet adds to your victory that it has been wrung, by the urgency of your claims, from one on whom you can have no hold from sympathy in your public feelings and conduct." Lord Rosslyn writes, "I cannot but hail the appointment as of good omen, not only of the times, but of the probability that you may aspire with a reasonable hope to the highest honors to which distinguished and unshaken integrity and brilliant success at the bar can lead.”

The following highly characteristic communication came from his sincere friend, the gifted, eccentric, and honest Lord Nugent, the genial "Lord of Lilles":

"Lilles: December 10, 1828.

"Dear Denman,-One line of congratulation on the advancement which I saw, for the first time to-day, noticed in my 'Times.' My wife also desires me to join her congratulation, sympathizing with the best of you as she does in her love of a silk gown, and having, just like you, succeeded in getting one, which I brought with me from Ireland, where, I believe, by law, none but Protestant ladies may wear them-a regulation plainly disadvantageous to trade when well understood.

"I am glad on every account that you were not deceived in your Duke. From the beginning I thought that the not allowing you to be proscribed on account of your having once done your duty in preventing a client from being murdered by her husband was an act of justice and good sense which was very likely to tickle his fancy. It almost gives me hopes of seeing him give in to another frolic of the same sort on a larger scale of justice and policy elsewhere. [Catholic Emancipation-in a few weeks the writer's hopes were realized.]

"You will have some holidays, short ones, at Christmas: will you come and give us part of the benefit of them? This is the best season for cutting down trees. And the

two chestnuts still stand saucy and menacing, as if there were not such a thing existing in the world as a 'fell serjeant,' King's or Commons', to keep them within bounds of decency. When will you come? And will you bring your sailor [his son Joseph, now the Admiral] with you, which will double your welcome. "Yours ever truly,

"NUGENT."

Lord Nugent's suggestion (soon to be verified) that the Duke's act of justice to Denman was probably an augury of a still grander act of justice to the Catholics is shared by another correspondent, William Smith, of Norwich, a leading light among the Whigs of those days, who writes (inter alia) as follows:

"I have been intending every day to express to you the pleasure I felt on learning what the Duke had done for you and for us. It does not seem to me at all fit to be considered as an individual favor, but as a symptom of right feeling awakened on a question where it is of so much importance to us that it should prevail, and as affording a presumption that certain great men mean better than many people give them credit for.

To his more intimate personal friends the event seems, probably from the long and weary expectation which had preceded it, to have been a source of more lively pleasure than any even of his later and greater successes. Hodgson, then living with his first wife at the Vicarage of Bakewell, sent this cordial effusion :

"December 8, 1828.

"My dear Denman,-It is with feelings of the most unfeigned delight that I have just read in the papers the announcement of the performance of a long-delayed act of justice. If what is said of a high personage be true, his conduct on this occasion enhances the value of the act, and makes it approach to an amende honorable. For your friends, although they must indeed feel on this occasion that Worth makes the man,' etc., yet as Prunella has its value too, they cannot but rejoice at its failing on such worthy shoulders. God bless you, my

dear Denman, and your wife and children. Mrs. Hodgson cordially joins in the above, and I am "Yours affectionately,

"F. HODGSON."

Among Denman's early friends on the Midland Circuit was, as previously mentioned, William Empson, a person of very considerable literary accomplishments, but of health too delicate for the rough work of the Bar, and which compelled him frequently to winter in Italy or in various invalid stations in the south of England. On this occasion he sent his congratulations from Torquay:

"December 6, 1828.

Make

"My dear D.,-My mother is far from well, and she being asleep on the sofa, I opened Tindal's frank, as the 'Times' had certified by the mouth of Dr. Birkbeck that the Duke had realized his promise. I had waited for a word from you to avoid possible mistakes. me congratulated and -tory duly to your wife. There are few things, indeed, that could have happened in this unlucky planet of ours which would give me half the pleasure. As Hone said of himself on my apologizing for having lampooned him in the Edinburgh,' 'it is the first act of justice that has been done to you these six years.' Beloved as you are, there are few single acts by which the Duke could have achieved more Benthamically the greatest happiness of the greatest number.' "Ever yours,

"W. E."

His aged mother, then residing with her widowed daughter, Mrs. Baillie, in Cavendish Square, thus characteristically expressed her joy at the long deserved and long withheld promotion, and her letter probably caused Denman sincerer pleasure than any other which he received upon this fortunate occasion-the turning-point, as it afterward proved, of his distinguished professional

career:

"Cavendish Square: December 3, 1828. "With a heart overflowing with love and gratitude to

our Heavenly Father, my dear son, I most heartily congratulate you and yours upon your having at last obtained what you have so long merited. In our repeated disappointments I consoled myself with a sentence which you and I learned in our youth,

'Tis not in mortals to command success,

But we'll do more, Sempronious, we'll deserve it.

That this and every acquisition you may make may prove a permanent blessing to yourself and family will ever be my constant and ardent prayer.

If I could move I should fly to you on the wings of love; but as I am stationary, and you all know where to find me, I hope it will not be long before I have the opportunity of showing some of you how cordially I sympathize in all your concerns.

"Give my kind love to your wife, with many thanks for her note. If she will take the trouble of providing you with such a silk gown as is suitable to the occasion, I shall have great pleasure in paying for it.

"Believe me always,

"Your affectionate mother,
"E. DENMAN."

A

A.D. 1828 TO 1830. ET. 49 To 51.

FTER Canning had been "destroyed by Wellington and Grey" a feeble attempt was made by Lord Goderich to carry on the administration. It soon failed, as all men foresaw it must, and on January 8, 1828, Lord Goderich resigned. The Duke of Wellington was sent for, and, after some delay, succeeded in forming a ministry, with Lyndhurst as Chancellor, and Peel as Secretary of the Home Department and leader of the House of Commons.

Lord Eldon, to his great indignation, had not been consulted as to the new arrangements, nor requested to take part in the ministry, even as President of the Council; the only thing done to propitiate him was the reappointment of Wetherell as Attorney-General in the place of Scarlett. 2

The reason of the old Chancellor's exclusion soon became apparent. The Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel were both convinced that some concession to the spirit of the times, especially in matters bearing upon religious liberty, had become imperatively necessary, and the first step taken in pursuance of this reluctant and tardy conviction was the Government measure for the relief of the Dissenters by the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, the

1 Hookham Frere's epigram,

2 Wetherell retired soon after the passing of the Catholic Relief Bill, and was succeeded by Scarlett, who continued in office till the formation of the Whig ministry in November, 1830.