THE YOUNG GRAY HEAD. I'm thinking that to-night, if not before, There'll be wild work. Dost hear old Chewton roar? As threats, the waters will be out anon. Best let the young ones bide from school to-day. The children themselves join in this request; but the mother resolves that they should set out the two girls, Lizzy and Jenny, the one five and the other seven. As the dame's will was law; 80, One last fond kiss "God bless my little maids!" the father said; Prepared for their journey, they depart, with the mother's admonitions to the elder, "Now, mind and bring "Don't stay Jenny safe home," the mother said. If not o'erflowed, the stepping-stones will be. "Be sure," said she, "To wrap it round, and knot it carefully (Like this) when you come home-just leaving free Good will to school, and then good right to play." The mother watched them as they went down the lane, overburdened with something like a foreboding of evil which she strove to overcome; but could not during the day quite bear up against her own thoughts, more especially as the threatened storm did at length truly set in. His labor done, the husband makes his three miles way homeward, until his cottage coming into view, all its pleasant associations of spring, summer, and autumn, with its thousand family delights, rush on his heart: There was a treasure hidden in his hat- He had found A dormouse nest; the living ball coil'd round And graver Lizzy's quieter surprise. When he should yield, by guess and kiss and prayer, Out rushes his fondling dog Tinker, but no little faces greet him as wont at the threshold; and to his hurried question, "Are they come?-'twas no." To throw his tools down, hastily unhook That almost choked him, and was scarcely heard, To where a fearful foresight led him on. A neighbor accompanies him; and they strike into the track which the children should have taken in their way back-now calling aloud on them through the pitchy darkness-and now by the lantern-light scrutinizing "thicket, bole, and nook," till the dog, brushing past them with a bark, shows them that he was on their track: "Hold the light Low down-he's making for the water. Hark! I know that whine-The old dog's found them, Mark." So speaking, breathlessly he hurried on Toward the old crazy foot-bridge. It was gone! And all his dull contracted light could show Was the black, void, and dark swollen stream below. "Yet there's life somewhere-more than Tinker's whine- "Oh, dear!" And a low sob came faintly on the ear, "My babes! my lambkins!" was the father's cry— 'Twas Lizzy's. There she crouch'd, with face as white, More ghastly, by the flickering lantern-light, Than sheeted corpse. The pale blue lips drawn tight, And eyes on some dark object underneath, Wash'd by the turbid water, fix'd like stone One arm and hand stretch'd out, and rigid grown, * * They lifted her from out her watery bed Its covering gone, the lovely little head Hung like a broken snow-drop, all aside, * And one small hand. The mother's shawl was tied, As was her last injunction-"fast and warm"- A fatal hold, Affording to the scrag, by a thick fold That caught and pinn'd her to the river's bed: I pass over the cruel self-upbraidings of the mother for "She might have lived, Struggling like Lizzy," was the thought that rived a torture aggravated by the tones of the surviving child, who half deliriously kept on ejaculating "Who says I forgot? Mother! indeed, indeed I kept fast hold, And tied the shawl quite close-she can't be cold- And it's so dark and cold!-oh dear! oh dear!-- From their despair for the lost, the poor parents turned to their almost forlora hope in the living, as All night long from side to side she turn'd Piteously plaining like a wounded dove, With now and then the murmur, "She won't move." Shone on that pillow-passing strange the sight The young head's raven hair was streak'd with white!' HENRY BROUGHAM. 1779. THE history of this most distinguished statesman, orator, scholar, and philanthropist is so identified with the history of his country for the last fifty years, that it would be impossible to write his life without making the groundwork of it a history of the age in which he lived. "The public measures with which he is most closely identified are, the advocacy of the manufacturing and commercial interests, as opposed to orders in council, and other restrictions on trade; hostility to the continental combinations of the successors of Pitt, and their legitimate offspring, the exhausting wars of the Holy Alliance; the vindication of Queen Caroline in the struggle with her libertine husband; the freedom of the press, attempted to be overawed by prosecutions for libels on the government and the About poetry like this," says Mr. Moir, "fresh from the fountain of the heart, 'with beaded bubbles yet winking on the brim,' there can be no mistake. It is beyond critic's cavils, for it tells; and I would rather be the author of such-because it will be as good a hundred years hence as now-than of all the statelier philosophic analyses of feeling-the present favorite subjects of a mere fashion, which, when it fades, must be for wver." church; the education of the middle and lower orders; religious toleration for dissenters and Catholics; reform in the civil and criminal law; Parliamentary reform; municipal reform; poor-laws reform; the abolition of the slave-trade and slavery; retrenchment in government expenditures; the independence of the Canadian Legislature, and the repeal of the corn-laws. What a catalogue have we here! Upon all these measures, each of which was an era in British history, Brougham has acted a leading, and, upon many, a controlling part. His speeches upon most of them surpassed those of any other of their advocates, whether we consider the extent of the information displayed, the depth and energy of the reasoning, the scope and vigor of the style, the eloquence of the appeals to justice and humanity, or the majesty and splendor of the highest passages." Henry Brougham is the eldest son of Henry Brougham, Esq., of Brougham Hall, in Westmoreland, and was born in the year 1779. He received the rudiments of his education at the high school in Edinburgh, then under the superintendence of Dr. Adam, and in 1795 entered the university, where he distin. guished himself by the aptness and energy of mind he displayed in grasping any subject which he made the object of his studies. In 1802, he became one of the projectors and chief contributors of the "Edinburgh Review," in conjunction with Mr. Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and others; and, in 1803, published "An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers," which at once drew the eyes of the public upon its author. After being called to the Scots bar, he made a tour to the north of Europe, and on his return commenced practice in the Court of King's Bench, London. Here his reputation rose rapidly, and gained for him both popularity and emolument. He first entered Parliament in 1810, and here he found the appropriate field for his transcendent abilities. In 1815, he introduced his own bill for the better education of the poor, and in 1818 succeeded in carrymg it through a committee. of the whole house, having supported it in a speech of extraordinary brilliancy. In 1820, on the commencement of the proceedings against Queen Caroline in the House of Lords, Mr. Brougham appeared as her attorney-general, at the head of her legal defenders. His bearing on this occasion was such as almost to awe the accusers of his royal client, while his skilful cross-examination of the witnesses against her, and his masterly speech in her behalf, had such an effect, that Lord Liverpool thought it advisable to abandon the prosecution. Toward the end of 1823, Mr. Brougham had the gratification of seeing the London Mechanics' Institution established, in the formation of which he had greatly assisted; and, shortly after, he published an admirable pamphlet, entitled "Practical Observations upon the Education of the People, addressed to the Working Classes and their Employers." In June, 1824, he brought before Parliament the circumstances relative to the horrible treatment of the missionary Smith in Demerara, and continued to denounce slavery and the slave-trade, and to advocate the cause of emancipation, on every opportunity. In the early part of 1825, Mr. Brougham was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, in opposition to Sir Walter Scott, and at the installation, Read an eloquent chapter (the sixteenth) in Stanton's "Reforms and Reformers of Great Britain," upon the life, services, and character of Lord Brougham-a chapter worth the price of the book. delivered one of the most finished and eloquent orations ever composed, although it had been written during the bustle and fatigue of the Northern Circuit. The year 1827 is memorable for the establishment of the "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," of which Mr. Brougham was president. He was its most active promoter, and composed for it the admirable "Treatise on the Objects, Pleasures, and Advantages of Science"-its first publication. In this year, also, the London University was founded, and the name of Brougham will ever be associated with it as one of its originators. In 1829, he supported the Catholic Relief Bill, introduced by the Wellington administration; and at the general election of 1830, he was, in the most flattering manner, chosen for Yorkshire, where he had no influence whatever beyond that of his great public celebrity. In the spring of 1828, he made his memorable speech on the subject of reform in the administration of the law, on which "he spoke six hours and a half— during all that time riveting the attention of his hearers. The way in which he relieved this dry subject, into the details of which he was obliged to enter, the vast body of information he brought forward, and the enlightened nature of the amendments he proposed, render the speech altogether one of the most remarkable in parliamentary history." The accession of Lord Grey's administration in November, 1830, was the signal for Mr. Brougham's appointment to the Lord Chancellorship, and his elevation to the peerage, by the title of Baron Brougham and Vaux, of Brougham in Westmoreland. But it has been correctly remarked that his acceptance of the Chancellorship, and his consequent removal from the House of Commons, was the greatest political error of his life; for that house was the very field for him to display his transcendent abilities and exert his all-powerful influence. During the administration of Earl Grey, the celebrated Reform Bill was passed, which contained many provisions of substantial good, though it did not accomplish all that its ardent friends wished and hoped.2 Lord Brougham continued to discharge the duties of Lord Chancellor until the dissolution of the Melbourne cabinet in 1834, when he went out with the other ministers. Since that time he has been constantly exerting his transcendent abilities in the House of Lords, in favor of every measure that is calculated to advance the best interests of society; but to particularize all his efforts would be quite impracticable in my limited space. His chief publications are, "An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers," 2 vols.; "Biography of Eminent Statesmen and Men of Letters in the reign of George III." 3 vols. ; Biography, in the "National Portrait Gallery." "The reformers expected much from the new administration, and every thing from Brougham. Large quantities of ripe fruit were expected, therefore, to be immediately gathered. Sydney Smith foreshadowed this in his droll way. In a speech during the struggle, he said: All young ladies will imagine, as soon as this bill is carried, that they will be instantly married. Schoolboys believe that gerunds and supines will be abolished, and that currant tarts must ultimately come down in price; the corporal and sergeant are sure of double pay; bad poets will expect a demand for their epics; fools will be disappointed, as they always are; reasonable men, who know what to expect, will find that a very serious good has been obtained. Much was done for reform by the Grey ministry, after the passage of the bill. In less than two years, West India slavery was abolished-the East India Company's monopoly destroyed-the poor-laws amended-the criminal code softened-the admi nistration of the courts essentially improved-the Scotch municipal corporations tally reformed-and many abuses corrected in the Irish church establishment. But young ladies, bad poets, and fools of all sorts, clamored for more, and many reasonable men were disap pointed."-Stanton's Reforms and Reformers, p. 188. |