Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1871-12-21

HENRY BRoU6uAM.-The most listles>
t-avelsrhy the great Lyons Railway would
have turned to give second look To the
extraordinary person. attractive by his
uglincss who haunted that route for many
years. like gro,es9ue bird of passage.
seeking the milder climate Of Cannes in
the autumn. and returning with the spring
to London fog. A spare. ungainly figure.
galvanized with inccssant motion that
multiplied itself in jerking wrinkles over
a countenance like that child bites out
Of gingerbread. sharp. imperious voice,
ity by the unfaiing plaid. completed a
picture Of eccentric force and conscious orr
ginality; and the natural curiosity that
inquired his name would have been salts
fed by the harmony between the appear
ance and the history of Henry Brougham
For he looked precisely ike wha. he
was-a man who had done many srca.
things without being great. had left moth
ing complete for want Of concentration.
and in his zeal for correcting others had
forgotten 70 govern himself. Devoted in
early days to reforms that needed no
martyr, he sacrificed little, aud won no
vencration in carrying them out. His
reputation. NJ vue Time great, CImc 81,
soon in his long career that his later fame
fell below it. and he seemed to grow but
little after rirening. But his energy for.
babe him TO retire from public life. Even
il he had not loved to he talked about, he
loved work too well ever to be idle Be
sides. under all his passion for conflict and
personal delay. there lay an honest aud
hopeful faith in progress, and purpose
to drive it IN in all ways that his energy
could open. But the great occasions for
his peculiar powers had all come up and
bcen used long before those powers declin-
ed. and the hitter part Of his life was fill
cd with action without effect.
It is not easy for this generation to re-
alize how much Broughsm outgrew. and
helped the world to outgrow with him.
At the time of his birth the horizon of hu-
man experience was about to enlarge sud
denly and grandly. tn take in new histo.
ries written by the French revolution, our
own nation, and Napoleon: new sciences
and inventions; new ideas ofhuman rights
and Of what it was possible and wise to dc
for advancing human happiness. 1t wa.
by personal experience, not tradition. that
he knew of the times when Enslishmcn
were slave-traders and slave holders: When
government kept the greater part of the
nation poor and left them ignorant: when
Ireland was a province. and Scotland had
scarcely voice in legislation when stern
statutes branded Catholic as unfit tn rule
and hung n petty thief rs unfit tn live -
The peers led the state rs a powerful order
OF which the pale mimicry now fingers
the press was but beginning to know and
afraid to use its might; routine cramred
the courts. corruption ruled the hus,ings
and tradition. in spite of the shock it had
received in a neighbnring county, still
overawed inquiry. The few who ven.
tured to look into the foundations Of the
existing order Of things in church and stat,
had little thought Of rebuilding upon them
Not that Brougham early and consciousl,
devoted himself to this very work-fev
men do plan their des.iny-bu, i, was III,
work for which his nature fitted him and
when the hour came hr threw himself in
to it sith ardor. Tie was impatien, of con
troll aud Unsuitable of knowledge. Ant
no one better understood tha, the freedom
and the knowledge which were the If
Of his own being were also the urccn
needs Of his nation in his time, or NOR,
resolutely sought both for the sake o
communicating them to his countrymrn.-
A. X. MAcpoSorGH. in Harper's Mega
.ime for December.