ueen's trial _vide
supra_, p. 37, October 15, 1820.]

[24] [This was the address moved by Mr. Wilberforce on the
22nd of June, 1820 (_vide supra_, p. 30, June 23rd,
1820). Lord Brougham states in his 'Memoirs' that the
Queen resolved to reject the advice of Parliament
without consulting her lawyers. In one of Lord
Brougham's letters written at the time he calls Wood
'the ass and alderman called _Thistle_-wood,' and
attributed to him the intrigue which brought the Queen
to England.]

If it had been possible to recollect all that Brougham said on
this and a hundred other subjects, it would be well worth writing
down, but such talk is much too evanescent, and I remember no
more.

[Page Head: CHARACTER OF MR. BROUGHAM.]

After all Brougham is only a living and very remarkable instance
of the inefficacy of the most splendid talents, unless they are
accompanied with other qualities, which scarcely admit of
definition, but which must serve the same purpose that ballast
does for a ship. Brougham has prospered to a certain degree; he
has a great reputation and he makes a considerable income at the
bar; but as an advocate he is left behind by men of far inferior
capacity, whose names are hardly known beyond the precincts of
their courts or the boundaries of their circuits. As a statesman
he is not considered eligible for the highest offices, and
however he may be admired or feared as an orator or debater, he
neither commands respect by his character nor inspires confidence
by his genius, and in this contrast between his pretensions and
his situation more humble abilities may find room for consolation
and cease to contemplate with envy his immense superiority. To
suppose that his ambition can be satisfied in the possession of
natural and acquired powers far greater than the majority of
mankind would be contrary to all experience. Such men consider
their acquirements as means for the attainment of greater ends,
and the disappointments which they frequently meet with in the
pursuit of their objects of ambition more than counteract all the
feelings of pride and satisfaction which conscious superiority is
calculated to inspire. The life of a politician is probably one
of deep mortification, for the race is not always to the swift
nor the battle to the strong, and few things can be more galling
than to see men far inferior to ourselve