Phenix Gazette

But a few days before he accepted the post of Lord Chancellor, with the peerage, Mr. Brougham emphatically stated in the House of Commons, that he would have no other place than the one he held as representative of Yorkshire—that no new arrangements for a ministry could, by any possibility, affect him! Nevertheless, Baron Brougham sits exultingly on the woolsack.

Thus it was with Mr. Randolph in relation to office—thus, we believe, with Mr. P. P. Barbour, of the same state—purists, ultras in their independence and disinterestedness. At the first opportunity, they take that which, in theory and declamation, they had ever seemed to repudiate.

Mr. Brougham suddenly discovered that he could be more useful to his country as Lord Chancellor—a matter quite as clear, if exact, three days before. Nat. Gaz.

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FRIDAY, Nov. 26.

Earl Grosvenor, in presenting a number of petitions, praying, some for Parliamentary reform, and others for the abolition of negro slavery, said that he could not help adverting shortly to those two most important topics. As his noble and learned friend, who had so long been the ornament of the House of Commons had at length reached the woolsack, and become a member of their lordships' House, to which he was destined to prove an equal ornament, he (Earl Grosvenor) was anxious to give his noble and learned friend an opportunity, if his noble and learned friend thought fit to avail himself of it, for declaring his opinions upon these two questions and for setting right some misrepresentations of them which had taken place elsewhere. From what he had heard of his noble and learned friend's sentiments on Parliamentary reform, they must coincide with the opinions which a noble friend of his, now at the head of his Majesty's government, had recently propounded to their lordships in an admirable speech, which would not soon be forgotten. The noble earl then declared his conviction of the necessity of economizing to the quick in all departments of the public service, and afterwards proceeded to say a few words on a subject which, though of a secondary importance, he still considered deserving the consideration of their lordships who must be aware that he was alluding to the propriety of abolishing negro slavery. As long as he had life, he would persevere in calling on their lordships to put an end to slavery. He thought that some period, sooner or later, should be fixed by their lordships for the abolition of slavery in every part of the King's dominions. Such a measure would, in his opinion, prove the happy means of abolishing slavery throughout the world.

The Lord Chancellor then quitted the woolsack, and proceeded to address their lordships:—He had listened he said, with great attention to the few observations which his noble friend had just made on two questions, which were paramount in importance, whether their lordships regarded the private interests of their own country, or the public duty which they owed as statesmen, to the world at large. Many opportunities would occur, he trusted, at no distant period, which would prevent the necessity of his declaring at present the opinions he held on these matters. That his opinions were known to his noble friend was evident from the observations which he had made upon them; that they were known to their lordships, in common with the rest of their fellow-countrymen, was he thought, probable, and was, he hoped, not to his disadvantage. He trusted that few of their lordships—even among those who knew the least of him by report—alone would suppose that he could, in any situation in this world in which he might be placed, alter his opinions and feelings, his principles and wishes, on those two great questions, always of extreme, and now of urgent importance to the welfare and character of the country. He trusted that there were but few of their lordships who would even suspect that there had been the slightest abatement in the zeal with which he had always endeavored to bring them to a successful and glorious decision. It was painful to him—and more particularly so from the unexpected call of his noble friend—that on the first time of his addressing their lordships, except in their judicial capacities he should be compelled to speak upon a subject of such inferior importance as himself. Nevertheless, as his noble friend had said that misrepresentations had gone abroad, and that remarks of an unfriendly nature had been made elsewhere respecting the consistency of his public conduct, it was fitting that he should set the one right, and should say something in reply to the other.

Should he shrink—perhaps he ought rather to say, should he decline saying a word on this subject, in deference to their lordships and out of respect to himself, especially after the call of his noble friend, it might wear the appearance of shrinking, not from explanation of his conduct, but from the attack, if attack it were, which had been made upon him. Suffice it once for all to say, that he bore, with the utmost equanimity of mind, anything that had been said on that subject in any quarter. He was not surprised, but the contrary, that a person, respectable in point of learning and talent—nay, it might be, even distinguished by both—should have fallen, from ignorance of his conduct, into some mistake as to his motives. He therefore bore with equanimity, and was not at all astonished at the observations which that person had made. That person and his friends could not be more astonished—and he understood that the observations in question were offered in the shape of astonishment, whether they were intended or not as attacks—they could not, he said, be more astonished at his elevation in his majesty's service than he was himself. At their astonishment he was not surprised, he shared it with themselves. They were not more stricken with wonder than he was, when at the eleventh hour, he was induced to overcome his repugnance to quit the representation of the county of York, and to walk into that House.

He repeated, that up to the time when he made the statement—for, by the bye, he never declared the intention of never severing himself from the representation of the county of York—he had no more conception of the possibility of his being prevailed upon to quit, than he had this moment a conception that he should go back to the House from which the favor of his Majesty had been pleased to raise him. He trusted that he need not state that, though he had changed his situation in Parliament, his principles remained unchanged; and that when he accepted the office which his Majesty had been pleased to confide to his care, he accepted it in the full and perfect conviction that it would be far from disabling him from