Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 2.djvu/357

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BROUGHAM 341 cases and otherwise. Having no issue to inherit his title, he was " in con- sideration of eminent public serviceSjQ especially in the diffusion of knowledge, the spread of education,(^) and the abolition of the Slave- cartoon of him as " The Citizen of the World," depicting him in a vast variety of characters. The Annual Register of 1 868 says truly of him that he was " A man so many sided in his aspects; so multifarious in his tastes and studies; so superhuman in his energy and industry, he was almost everything in turn — a Mathematician, an Historian, a Biographer, an Essayist and Reviewer, a Physical Philosopher, a Moral and Political Philosopher, an Educator of the People; a Lawyer [r], an Orator, a Statesman [and] a Philanthropist." This list, moreover, might be considerably ex- tended. He was emphatically what Dryden wrote of the Duke of Buckingham: — " A man so various that he seem'd to be Not one, but a/I mankind's epitome." (*) These services were, however, more especially as to his law reforms, much marred by his haste and self reliance. " His mind ranged over so wide an area that he never acquired a thorough knowledge of any particular division of learning. It has been said of him that ' Science was his forte, and omniscience his foible ';" and again, " that if he had known a litt/e law he would have known a little of everything." William Carpenter, in his Peerage for the People (no unfriendly critic of a radical Peer), says: " Whenever the reforming lawyer tried his hand at any practical measure he miserably failed. Oh! my Lord, you must be satisfied with the empty honour of talking about what should be done; to accomplish what you have desiderated, and had the power of realising, must be reserved for others!" And, again, " What Lord Brougham lacked in learning he was desirous to make up for in haste." G.E.C. The German poet Heine, who, when in England, interested himself in our Liberal politicians, describes his very lean figure, and head with black hair lying flat on the temples, long pale face, and twitching facial muscles, and his restless activity. The Duchess de Dino, Talleyrand's niece, does not mince her words about him in her Chronique, 28 May 1834. " Cet etrange Chancelier sans dignite, sans convenance, sale, cynique, grossier, se grisant de vin et de paroles, vulgaire dans ses propos, malap- pris dans ses fagons, venait diner ici en redingote, mangeant avec ses doits, me tapant sur I'epaule, et racontant cinquante ordures. Sans les facultes extraordinaires qui le distinguent comme memoire, instruction, eloquence et activity, personne ne le repous- serait plus vivement que Lord Grey." " Tall, thin, and commanding in figure, with a face which, however ugly, is full of expression, and a voice of great power, variety, and even melody, notwithstanding his occasional prolixity and tediousness, he is an orator in every sense of the word." (GrevilU Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 338). " Thersites of the House, Parolles of Law, The double Bobadil takes scorn for awe." [Byron). His name has been given to a form of close carriage still in general use, while a greater statesman, Gladstone, is only godfather to a bag. Wellingtons, Bluchers, Napoleons, Clarence (now obsolete), bobby, sandwich, spencer, peeler, and mackin- tosh, are instances of similar nomenclature. V.G. (^) i.e. Both by his numerous writings, and as one of the earliest Promoters of "The Society for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge" (1827), and of "The London University." In this last capacity he is (after the style of Rogero's song in The Rovers in the Anti-facobirt), thus celebrated —