Speeches of Henry, Lord Brougham, upon Questions Relating to Public Rights, Duties, and Interests: With historical introductions, and a critical ... upon the eloquence of the ancients. Volume 1
(This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 18...)
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1838 edition by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh.
Opinions of Lord Brougham, on Politics, Theology, Law, Science, Education, Literature, etc, etc: As Exhibited in His Parliamentary and Legal Speeches, and Miscellaneous Writings
(This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 18...)
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1841 edition by Baudry, Paris.
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a lawyer, British Whig Party politician, reformer, and lord chancellor of England (1830–34); he was also a noted orator, wit, man of fashion, and an eccentric. Before and during his tenure as lord chancellor he sponsored numerous major legal reforms, and he took the lead in creating (1825–28) the University of London, the first English nondenominational institution of higher learning.
Background
Brougham was born on the 19th of September, 1778 in Edinburgh and grew up there, the eldest son of Henry Brougham (1742-1810), of Brougham Hall in Westmorland, and Eleanora, daughter of Reverend James Syme. The Broughams had been an influential Cumberland family for centuries. His father held literary ambitions, but never pursued them with much vigor.
Education
After finishing the Royal High School at the age of 13, Brougham was tutored for a year and entered Edinburgh University in 1792. There, he studied science and mathematics and even wrote a paper on optics that was published by the Royal Society in 1796.
Career
As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in 1808. In 1810 he entered the House of Commons as a Whig. Brougham took up the fight against the slave trade and opposed restrictions on trade with continental Europe. In 1820, he won popular renown as chief attorney to Queen Caroline, and in the next decade he became a liberal leader in the House. He not only proposed educational reforms in Parliament but also was one of the founders of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1825 and of University College London in 1828. As Lord Chancellor from 1830 to 1834 he effected many legal reforms to speed procedure and established the Central Criminal Court. In later years he spent much of his time in Cannes, which he established as a popular resort.
Brougham was born and grew up in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Henry Brougham, of Brougham Hall in Westmorland, and Eleanora, daughter of Reverend James Syme. The Broughams had been an influential Cumberland family for centuries. Brougham was educated at the Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh, where he chiefly studied natural science and mathematics, but also law. He published several scientific papers through the Royal Society, notably on light and colours and on prisms, and at the age of only 25 was elected a Fellow. However, Brougham chose law as his profession, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1800. He practised little in Scotland, and instead entered Lincoln's Inn in 1803. Five years later he was called to the Bar. Not a wealthy man, Brougham turned to journalism as a means of supporting himself financially through these years. He was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Review and quickly became known as its foremost contributor, with articles on everything from science, politics, colonial policy, literature, poetry, surgery, mathematics and the fine arts. In the early 19th century, Brougham, a follower of Newton, launched anonymous attacks in the Edinburgh Review against Thomas Young's research that proved light was a wave phenomenon that exhibited interference and diffraction, attacks that slowed acceptance of the truth for a decade until François Arago and Augustin-Jean Fresnel championed Young's work. Another example of Lord Brougham's scientific incompetence is his attack against Sir William Herschel (1738-1822). The story is described by Pustiĺnik and Din. The Royal Astronomer Herschel found a correlation between the observed number of sunspots and wheat prices. This met with strong and widespread rejection, even ridicule - as a "grand absurdity" - by Lord Brougham. Herschel had to cancel his next publications of these results. 70 years later, the English economist W.S. Jevons discovered 10–11 years intervals between wheat high prices - in agreement with the 11-year cycle of solar activity, discovered at those times. Miroslav Mikulecký, J. Střeštík and V. Choluj found by cross regression analysis shared periods between climatic temperatures and wheat prices as 15 years for England, 16 years for France and 22 years for Germany. Pustiĺnik and Din believe they have found a direct evidence of the causal connection between wheat prices bursts and solar activity.
(This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 18...)
Politics
In 1807, Brougham was tapped to organize the press campaign for the Whig Party. Elected in 1810, Brougham served two years and rose quickly within the Whig Party to a leadership role. The Whigs were committed to eradicating slavery, or at least England's role in the trade.
Membership
In 1834, Henry Peter Brougham was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Connections
Brougham was married to Mary Spalding. They had two daughters.