404 POLITICS OF THE DAY. [1808. 



gainers. It is a rare set-off to such meetings as Pitt's 

 birthday dinner, where, by the way, the Chancellor 

 covered himself with ridicule. Faithfully yours, 



" HENRY BROUGHAM." 



I wrote the following letter to Lord Grey, partly to 

 give him some news about Spain, but chiefly to con- 

 vey to him the disappointment and disgust I was 

 then suffering under from the spiteful proceedings of 

 the Government in stopping my call to the bar. It 

 is difficult to find a reason, much less an excuse, for 

 a proceeding which I may call unparalleled.. It might 

 be that the Government had a foretaste of the fate of 

 their Orders in Council ; but it indicated pretty plainly 

 to me what I was to look to in the future, and the 

 kind of injustice I might expect to meet with in my 

 professional career. 



TO EARL GREY. 



" MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL, July 2, 1808. 

 " MY DEAR LORD GREY, I expected to learn some 

 news about Spain which might be worth communi- 

 cating. There is, however, nothing authentic arrived. 

 Portuguese people have no letters, but believe that 

 Oporto is freed from the French, and that Junot is 

 intrenching himself somewhere about Lisbon. There 

 is a tendency in Spain, no doubt, to rise ; but one can- 

 not safely trust the flattering prospects held out until 

 it appears that the insurgents have actually begun 

 operations, and proved their constancy as well as their 



