HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM. 7 



We especially refer to Mr. Brougham's pamphlet addressed to the Working 

 Classes and their Employers, in which, referring to a cheap series of standard 

 works, then in course of publication by John Limbird, of the Strand, Mr. 

 Brougham thus generously characterized the same publisher's cheap perio- 

 dical : — 



" The Mirror, a weekly publication, containing much matter of harmless and 

 even improving amusement, and edited with very considerable taste, has besides, 

 in almost every number, information of a most instructive kind. Its great cir- 

 culation must prove highly beneficial to the bulk of the people." 



It may be as well here to refer to Lord Brougham's other leading exertions in 

 the cause of Public Education. During his Chancellorship (in 1833), greatly 

 through his influence upon the Report of a Parliamentary Committee, the first 

 annual grant for Education Purposes was made by the Government. Five years 

 later, we find Lord Brougham under " sore discouragement," lamenting what he 

 considered as the final and hopeless failure of his life-long efforts in the cause of 

 education of the people. But early in the subsequent year, a Committee of Council 

 was appointed to dispense the annual Government grant for education, and the 

 amount was increased to 30,000Z. a-year. The next step was the establishment 

 of Normal Schools under Government inspection. This was followed by the 

 formation of Training Schools and Colleges for the education and training of 

 Schoolmasters and Schoolmistresses. 



Returning to Lord Brougham's more direct contributions to Science, we come 

 to his able work on Natural Theology, intended as a preliminary discourse to 

 *■ Paley's Natural Theology, Illustrated." In a dedication to Earl Spencer, 

 Lord Brougham tells us, this work was undertaken in consequence of his having 

 observed that scientific men were apt to regard the study of Natural Religion as 

 little connected with philosophical pursuits ; and many of these persons seemed 

 to regard Natural Theology as a mere speculation. The Society for the Diffusion 

 of Useful Knowledge were urged to publish an edition of Dr. Paley's popular 

 work ; Lord Brougham and Lord Spencer favoured the plan, but some of their 

 colleagues feared it might lead to religious controversy, and the scheme was 

 abandoned. Lord Brougham, however, resolving to carry his plan into execu- 

 tion, associated with the worthy and accomplished Sir Charles Bell. The " Dis- 

 course" was mostly written between 1830 and 1833, a portion being added in the 

 autumn of 1831. " In those days (says Lord Brougham) I held the Great Seal 

 of this kingdom ; and it was impossible to finish the work while many cases of 

 another kind pressed upon me. But the first leisure that could be obtained was 

 devoted to this object, and to a careful revision of what had been written in a 

 season less auspicious for such speculations." His dedication of the volume to 

 " honest Lord Althorp" (now Earl Spencer) is touchingly eloquent : — 



"I inscribe the fruits of these studies to you, not merely as a token of ancient 

 friendship — for that you do not require ; nor because I have always found you, 

 whether in possession or in resistance of power, a fellow-labourer to maintain our 

 common principles, alike firm, faithful, disinterested — for your known public 

 character wants no testimony from me ; nor yet because a work on such a subject 

 needs the patronage of agreat name— for it would be affectation in me to pretend 

 any such motives ; but because you have devoted much of your time to such 

 inquiries — are beyond most men sensible of their importance — concur generally 

 in the opinions which I profess to maintain, and had even formed the design of 

 giving to the world your thoughts upon the subject,as I hope and trust you now 

 will be moved to do all the more for the present address. In this view, your autho- 

 rity will prove of great value to the cause of truth, however superfluous the 

 patronage of even your name might be to recommend the most important of all 

 studies. 



" Had our lamented friend Romilly lived, you are aware that not even these 

 considerations would have made me address any one but him, with whom I had 

 oftentimes speculated upon this ground. Both of us have been visited with the 

 most severe afflictions, of a far nearer and more lasting kind than even his re- 

 moval, and we are now left with few things to care for." 



The Edinburgh Review says of this work: — " When Lord Brougham's 

 eloquence in the Senate shall have passed away, and his services as a statesman 

 shall exist only in the free institutions which they have helped to secure, his 

 Discourse on Natural Theology will continue to inculcate imperishable truths, 

 and fit the mind for the higher revelations which these truths are destined to 

 foreshadow and confirm." 



