2 CONTEST AGAINST [1808. 



"the bat$l<& : . j^ainst the Orders in Council I fought 



. 



*\\ .' ** In" 'the rt)egiin4ing of the struggle, when in 1808 I 

 contended before the House of Lords and House of 

 Commons on behalf of the traders and manufacturers 

 of Liverpool, Birmingham, London, and Manchester, 

 I had to confront the opposition not only of the Tory 

 Government, but of the Whig ministers of 1806 and 

 1807, who had issued the first Order, afterwards greatly 

 extended in impolicy and injustice by the Orders of 

 their Tory successors.* 



I do not deny that between the beginning of the 

 contest in 1808 and the victory I gained in 1812, the 

 Whigs, perhaps convinced by the evidence I produced 

 in Parliament, perhaps acting upon their natural 

 tendency to oppose the measures of their Tory suc- 

 cessors (albeit the Orders issued by them were in 

 reality identical with their own of January 1807), did 

 afford me most valuable assistance. By their help, 

 and by the great assistance I received from others, 

 especially from Alexander Baring, I was enabled to 

 prevail, and to achieve what I have always looked 

 upon as the greatest success it ever was my fate to 

 win. I shall not say a word upon what I have done 

 for education, slavery, charitable trusts, or law reform, 

 for all I did in such matters has been long before the 

 public, is well known by my speeches in Parliament, 

 by my writings, and by the fact that many of the 

 measures which I so strenuously advocated have long 

 since been adopted by the Legislature. I may, how- 

 ever, be pardoned for referring, with some pride, to 

 the acknowledgment of my services, declared by the 



* See Speeches of Henry Lord Brougham, i. 393 et seg. 



