Brougham, HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM AND VAUX, was born in Edinburgh, 19th September 1778. His father, Mr Henry Brougham, was the descendant of an old Westmoreland family, and his mother, Eleanor Syme, a woman of great worth and beauty, was a niece of Robertson the historian. Brougham received his education at the High School and at the university of Edinburgh. He gave early promise of future ability, some scientific papers written by him at the age of eighteen finding admission to the Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1800 he was admitted to the Scotch bar; in 1802 he helped to found the Edinburgh Review (q.v.), to whose first twenty numbers he contributed eighty articles. His Liberal views shut him out from the hope of promotion in Scotland, and a character which he had acquired for eccentricity and indiscretion excluded him from all legal practice, except the unremunerative practice of the criminal courts. In 1805 he settled in London; in 1806 was for three months secretary to a mission to Lisbon; and in 1808 was called to the English bar.
In London he first made his mark at the bar of the House of Commons as counsel for the Liverpool merchants who petitioned against the Orders in Council. Shortly after, in 1810, he entered parliament, and four months later brought in and carried his first public measure—an act making participation in the slave-trade felony. He was welcomed by the opposition leaders, to whose party he had attached himself, as a most powerful assistant in their attacks upon the government. In 1812 he succeeded in carrying the repeal of the obnoxious Orders in Council, and then ventured to contest the membership for Liverpool against Canning. He was defeated, and remained without a seat till 1816, when he was returned for Winchester, and again became an active member of the opposition. By this time he had also established some reputation in the courts of law. He never, indeed, acquired a very large practice, but he repeatedly distinguished himself by speeches of great vigour and ability in the defence of persons prosecuted for libel by the crown. His most famous appearance as an advocate, however, was in defence of Queen Caroline (1820). His eloquence and boldness, though they forfeited for him the favour of the crown, gained him that of the people, and for the ten years between 1820 and 1830 Brougham was the popular idol. He made no bad use of his power. In 1822 he used it, though in vain, in support of a scheme of national education; and to his activity was due, in great measure, the establishment of the London University, of the first Mechanics' Institute, and of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. In 1830 he delivered a powerful speech against slavery, and in consequence of it—so he himself believed—was invited to stand, and returned, as member for the great popular constituency of the county of York. The aristocratically disposed Whigs would, had they dared, have excluded Brougham from the Reform ministry; but, in addition to his enormous popularity, he was virtually their leader in debate in the Commons, and thus, in spite of his unmanageableness, was indispensable. After various intrigues he was offered, and was persuaded, to accept a peerage and the chancellorship. He took his seat in the Lords in November 1830, and assisted materially in carrying the Reform Bill through that house. But his arrogance, self-confidence, and eccentricities, which sometimes verged on insanity, rendered him as unpopular with his colleagues as he was on the bench. He went out with the Whig government in 1834, and on its reconstruction five months later, found himself quietly shelved. He never held office again, never thenceforth exerted any appreciable influence on any great political movement, though still as before he continued to forward every measure for social progress, and was founder of the Social Science Association (1857).
It is as a law-reformer that Brougham will be best remembered. He took up Romilly's uncompleted task of carrying into practice the ameliorations suggested by Bentham. His efforts in this direction began as early as 1816, when he introduced into parliament a bill to remove various defects in the law of libel. In 1827, in a memorable six hours' speech, he enumerated the defects in nearly every branch of English law, and made proposals for dealing with law-reform on a proper scale. These, as might have been expected, met with little encouragement. It has been the fortune of many of his measures to be carried afterwards, in a mutilated form, by other hands. After he left office, Brougham also succeeded in carrying various reforms in the law, among which may be noted some very extensive changes in the law of evidence. His acts and bills, as well those regarding the slave-trade, education, and other public questions, as those touching on law-reform, were collected and published by Sir J. E. Eardley Wilmot (1857). The large volume they form is the most fitting monument that could be preserved of the activity, perseverance, and public spirit of the man.
As an orator, more especially as a debater in parliament, Brougham was, among the men of his time, inferior only to Canning. He was wont, however, to indulge in his speeches in too large an admixture of exciting elements; argument was mingled with fiery declamation; ridicule, sarcasm, invective, were freely used; and these he dealt out with a vehemence and energy that at times carried him far beyond bounds. The power of ready, rapid, and forcible diction was pre-eminently his. In many other fields besides oratory he won a high reputation. He cultivated mathematical and physical science, and ventured upon the domains of metaphysics, history, theology, even romance. His miscellaneous writings are upon an almost incredible variety of subjects, and, numbering 133, fill 11 vols. in the collected edition (1855-61; 2d ed. 1873). They were, however, intended more to serve purposes of the moment, than as permanent additions to our literature; and though they display great powers of rapid comprehension and nervous clear exposition, it cannot be said that we are indebted to their author for any new truths in politics or morals, or any original discoveries in science.
While not engaged in parliament, Brougham chiefly resided at Cannes, in the south of France, where he had built a château in 1835, and where he died 7th May 1868. Two daughters had long predeceased him, and the title passed to his brother William (1795-1886). Brougham's memoir of his own Life and Times (3 vols. 1871) was written in extreme old age, and is very untrustworthy. Peacock hit him off well in Crotchet Castle as 'the learned friend'; and Rogers remarked of him, as he once was leaving Panshanger, 'There goes Solon, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Archimedes, Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Chesterfield, and a great many more in one post-chaise.' O'Connell's gibe, on Brougham's elevation to the woolsack, was less kindly: 'If Brougham knew a little of law, he would know a little of everything.'