LORD BROUGHAM IN THE PROVINCES.
THERE is reason to believe that Lord Been:Guam will be unusually active during the recess. He is aware that his proceedings and
speeches during the past session have very considerably d--god his influence and popularity in the country. He has much lost way to make up; and will strive, by sailing on every tack and steering to every point of the political compass, according to the latitude in which he may happen to find himself, once more to get the breath of popular favour in his stern. It cannot be denied that Lord Baottoirma's qualifications as a popularity-hunter are surpassingly great. No man is his match
at a public dinner, where the party is half-convivial, half-political. He falls in with the bent of his audience, as in society he grasps the meaning and enters into the feelings of an individual, apparently with all his soul. One would suppose that his whole faculties were engrossed in the discussion of the question in hand, if a serious one; or that he delighted in nothing so much as conviviality, if talk, fun, and wine, were the order of the day. He has a wonderful fund of drollery ; and his extensive though superficial knowledge helps Lim to innumerable illustrations of any subject he may happen to take up. Then, he never pays the least regard to consistency. He utters precisely what seems best to answer his temporary pur- pose.of making himself agreeable to the assembly he is aiming to conciliate or cajole. Flattery is as pleasant to multitudes as to indi- viduals ; and in the ardour of a public meeting or the hilarity of a public dinner, men are disposed to be delighted, and averse from recollecting that the orator of the night has perhaps the week before spouted in very different style and professed very opposite views. To gain golden opinions from all sorts of men, has been the constant aim of Lord BROUGHAM; and he is apt to mistake the cheers and laughter which his harangues call forth from packed audiences of friends and admirers, for evidence of his real weight and influence in the country. Two public dinners, at which the Chancellor is expected to show off, are already advertised—the first at Lancaster, the second at Edinburgh. There will doubtless be many others ; and if any one could inform us of the politics or prejudices of the different parties he is to meet, we would undertake beforehand to give our readers a sketch of the Chancellor's speechification. Place him amongst the thoroughgoing Reformers, and how eloquently would he not denounce the corruptions in Church and State ! imisting that the march of improvement in every direction should be rapid and persevering, that the Libel Law is an abomination, the Taxes on Knowledge barbarous, and the influence of the Aristocracy bane- ful as poison. But among the Moderate Whigs, Lord BROUGHAM would recommend "moderation," dwell on the dangers of too quick change, laud Earl GREY, sneer at Hume, and denounce O'Costaratt. And even among the Tories, the versatile Chan- cellor would feel very much at home : lie would eulogize his pre- decessors on the Woolsack, hint at his love for the Church as evidenced by his disposal of clerical patronage, profess veneration for the Hereditary Peerage, their judicial wisdom, and useful qualities of retardation, and finish with an intimation not to be mistaken, that his devotion to his Sovereign is such as to over- come all personal feelings, and prevent his embarrassing even a Conservative Ministry by resigning the Great Seal.
If there are any " puir simple bodies," who are taken in or about to be cajoled by the Chancellor's blarney, we would advise them to look to his deeds, and see how they accord with his professions. He talks of the Liberty of the Press: but after nearly four years' occupation of the Woolsack, the odious part of the Six Acts, the Law of Libel, and the Taxes on Knowledge, have not been touched.
He enlarges on Free Election : but he has cushioned the War- wick, Hertford, Liverpool, and (7arickfergus Bills, in the mean at- tempt to conciliate the Tory Peers; and moreover, has justified the interference of Peers in elections.
He proclaims himself a Church Reformer: but, for party pur- poses, he makes pluralists himself, and courts the Conservative Prelates by throwing much of his Church patronage into their bands : and he has not carried a single measure, though he has obtruded many on the House of Lords, to effect any real reform in the Church.
There is no end to his declamation about the pure administration of Justice: but the Magistracy is not improved since the days of
ELDON.
His unblushing inconsistency, and attempts to reconcile the snost opposite opinions and actions—his eulogizing the Peers one day, and violently abusing them the day after—his praise of their legislative wisdom in rejecting and mutilating the bills from the Commons, and his sneers at their ignorance and exposure of their shameful neglect of judicial duties—his indecorous conduct as Speaker of the House, and everlasting attempts to thrust himself forward as the "Turn Thumb" of the Ministry, the man of all work—to say nothing of his incessant and unprincipled intrigues during the recent Ministerial changes, which are more hidden from the many, though known to some—are enough to convince
the reflecting and sincere of all parties, that no reliance is to be placed on Lord BROUGHAM and VAUX, and that it will be only common preidence to shut their ears to the voice of the charmer. Still there is one service for which perhaps Lord BROUGHAM is destined, and which he is well qualified to perform. He is a pow- erful battering-ram whenever he lends himself to the assault of the Order. Should stout Radicalism gain the ascendant, which is not impossible, Lord BROUGHAM would be the greatest Radical in the land ; and we verily believe that he would deal his blows at the Aristocracy with hearty good-will and prodigious effect. Really this seems to be all he is now good for, as a politician.
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