original
impulse that urged him forward is forgotten in so wide a field, in so
interminable a career. If he can, others _cannot_ carry all he knows
in their heads at the same time; a rope of circumstantial evidence
does not hold well together, nor drag the unwilling mind along with
it (the willing mind hurries on before it, and grows impatient and
absent)--he moves in an unmanageable procession of facts and proofs,
instead of coming to the point at once--and his premises (so anxious
is he to proceed on sure and ample grounds) overlay and block up his
conclusion, so that you cannot arrive at it, or not till the first
fury and shock of the onset is over. The ball, from the too great
width of the _calibre_ from which it is sent, and from striking
against such a number of hard, projecting points, is almost
spent before it reaches its destination. He keeps a ledger or a
debtor-and-creditor account between the government and the country,
posts so much actual crime, corruption, and injustice against so much
contingent advantage or sluggish prejudice, and at the bottom of the
page brings in the balance of indignation and contempt, where it
is due. But people are not to be _calculated into_ contempt or
indignation on abstract grounds; for however they may submit to this
process where their own interests are concerned, in what regards the
public good we believe they must see and feel instinctively, or not
at all. There is (it is to be lamented) a good deal of froth as well
as strength in the popular spirit, which will not admit of being
_decanted_ or served out in formal driblets; nor will spleen (the soul
of opposition) bear to be corked up in square patent bottles, and kept
for future use!

"Mr. Brougham speaks in a loud and unmitigated tone of voice,
sometimes almost approaching to a scream. He is fluent, rapid,
vehement, full of his subject, with evidently a great deal to say, and
very regardless of the manner of saying it. As a lawyer, he has not
hitherto been remarkably successful. He is not profound in cases and
reports, nor does he take much interest in the peculiar features of
a particular cause, or show much adroitness in the management of it.
He carries too much weight of metal for ordinary and petty occasions:
he must have a pretty large question to discuss, and must make
_thorough-stitch_ work of it. Mr. Brougham writes almost, if not
quite, as well as he speaks. In the midst of an election contest
he comes out to