for knowledge of all sorts, both small and great. Said Sugden, "If Brougham only knew a little about Chancery law he would know a little about everything." Somebody has compared him to a Scotch Encyclopædia without alphabetical arrangement. But this is only a sly sneer; for Brougham, with his great mind and wonderful power, has an extraordinary amount of method, though his ambition be not tied down with red tape to nisi prius pre

cedents.

To regard Brougham as a lawyer only, would be but one view of his life, and very unjust to his character as a whole. But regarded as a lawyer only, Brougham attained all that could be attained. The trial of Queen Caroline brought out not only his ability as a lawyer-his eloquence as an orator-but his disinterestedness and courage. By defending the queen, he exposed himself to the displeasure of the Court, and shut himself out from official advancement not only in that reign, but in the reign that was to succeed; for the Dukes of York and Clarence were both arrayed against the queen and her cause. But Brougham could afford to wait. He suffered for a time it is true, but ultimately earned the lofty position and reward to which his splendid merit so well entitled him. He rose to be Lord Chancellor. And it was sometimes said that Brougham took a wrong step when he accepted the Chancellorship. By that step he was necessarily removed from the House of Commons, where the great political struggle of his life had been undertaken and accomplished, and where still greater struggles-still more Herculean labours yet awaited him. It has, indeed been urged, that his legal reputation was seriously injured_by his judicial administration. But this is not the fact. The profession to him was but an auxiliary, a help, to greater political eminence, and to a more important influence. His speeches on law reform prove two things-his accurate knowledge of the law, and his great contempt for its administration in our law courts. "When presiding in a tribunal whose currents had been brought to a dead stand by the everlasting doubts' of Lord Eldon, the best service he could render suitors and the country, was to

clear out the channel and set the streams flowing, even though he might make mistakes in acting on the expedient maxim, that it is better to have a case decided wrong, than not at all.'"

Much was expected of Brougham. All looked to him when he formed one of the new administration. Every

thing went well till the Reform Bill passed; but more was expected from that movement than it brought. Sydney Smith foreshadowed this in his droll way. "All young ladies will imagine, as soon as the bill is carried, that they will be instantly married. Schoolboys imagine that currant tarts will come down in price; the corporal and serjeant 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.”

He devoted himself to the advancement of public education. With this object in view, he moved for and obtained in 1816, a select committee to enquire into the state of the education of the people in London and Westminster. He was appointed chairman, and gave a great impetus to the enquiry by his personal exertions. The school-master was veritably abroad. He it was who originated the Society for the Diffusion of useful Knowledge; he who was first instrumental in the issue of healthy low-priced literature-he who set afloat the first penny periodical devoted to educational purposes; he who in connection with Birkbeck and others, first established Mechanics' Institutes. The cause of popular education is deeply indebted to the exertions-the untiring, self-denying labours of Lord Brougham.

And thus in looking round on our group, we find that men of all degrees can help to lighten the load of mankind if they will-that it is not the exclusive prerogative of the poor man or the peer to do good-but the privilege of all. All may do something-eloquent, gifted, illustrious Brougham-humble, ill-educated labourer, John Poundsthe shrewd, wary lawyer-the man of leisure-the politician-Romilly-Howard-Wilberforce, all are needed, all may help-one talent or ten-still talents of trustloans to be rendered back with interest. Here we have one man pleading for the slaves-another for criminals, another for the ignorant. All honour to these brave champions of progress-these heaven-taught men, who after the Divine pattern, have gone about doing good.

-WEBSTER.

THE world must have its statesmen, wise or foolish. Well is it for the world's prosperity and peace when honest, prudent, and sagacious men are in high places. Great men are not always wise, nor are they invariably

good. In grouping our statesmen we must take them for what they are-as giants in their official life-men who have exercised a potent influence in their own time, and, in consequence, on ours also. The number of these men is large, if we look back on history, and glance round on the world. Our space admits only of us noticing a few of these illustrious men.

We notice, first of all, the figure of Cardinal Wolsey, Prime Minister of Henry the Eighth.

Wolsey was an honest poor man's son -so says Cavendish. Common report says his father was a butcher, a tradition adopted in the alliterative lines

Begat by butcher, but by bishop bred,
How haughtily his highness holds his head!"

There is, or was a few years since, a butcher of the name of Wolsey in Ipswich, Wolsey's birth-place. Wolsey was born at Ipswich in 1471, and he nearly lost his life, according to a local tradition, at a place now known as Wolsey's Bridge: the tale is, that when a boy, driving some cattle, he met with an accident at the place, and was well-nigh drowned, and that when he became great he ordered the bridge to be erected. He was sent when quite young to the Free Grammar School of Ipswich; at the age of fifteen was a student at Oxford, already in possession of his B.A. degree; the "boy bachelor soon became Fellow of Magdalene College, and tutor to the sons of the Marquis of Dorset. He afterwards obtained-still quite a youththe rectory of Lymington, in Somersetshire. There he took part in a riot at a country fair, and was subjected by a neighbouring justice to the degrading punishment of the stocks! Soon after this-the sooner the betterWolsey retired from the rectory, and accepted an appointment as one of the domestic chaplains of Archbishop Dean. On the death of that prelate he went to Calais, where Sir Richard Vaughan was so struck by his ability as to recommend him to the patronage of the king. Wolsey afterwards became one of the chaplains of the court, and obtained the living of Redgrave. A treaty of marriage