eat speech on Law Reform in the House of Commons, in 1828,
took six hours to deliver, and the concluding passage, which mounted
to a plane of lofty declamation, displayed no sign of exhaustion, and
was listened to with strained attention by an absorbed and crowded
audience:--

"The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You
have the power of sending your name down through all times,
illustrated by deeds of higher fame, and more useful import, than
ever were done within these walls.

"You saw the greatest warrior of the age--conqueror of
Italy--humbler of Germany--terror of the North--saw him account
all his matchless victories poor, compared with the triumph you
are now in a condition to win--saw him contemn the fickleness of
fortune, while, in despite of her, he could pronounce his
memorable boast, 'I shall go down to posterity with the Code in my
hand!'

"You have vanquished him in the field; strive now to rival him in
the sacred arts of peace! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom in arms
you overcame! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the
more solid and enduring splendour of the Reign. The praise which
false courtiers feigned for our Edwards and Harrys, the Justinians
of their day, will be the just tribute of the wise and the good to
that monarch under whose sway so mighty an undertaking shall be
accomplished. Of a truth, the holders of sceptres are most chiefly
to be envied for that they bestow the power of thus conquering,
and ruling thus.

"It was the boast of Augustus--it formed part of the glare in
which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost,--that he found
Rome of brick, and left it of marble; a praise not unworthy a
great prince, and to which the present reign also has its claims.
But how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he shall
have it to say, that he found law dear, and left it cheap; found
it a sealed book--left it a living letter; found it the patrimony
of the rich--left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the
two-edged sword of craft and oppression--left it the staff of
honesty and the shield of innocence!

"To me, much reflecting on these things, it has always seemed a
worthier honour to be the instrument of making you bestir
yourselves in this high matter, than to enjoy all that office can
bestow--office, of