Selections from the Speeches and Writings of the Right Honourable Henry, Lord Brougham & Vaux, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain: With a Brief Memoir of His Lordship's Life

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Page 135 - ... by mere pressure, without any machinery, by merely being placed in a particular way, produce an irresistible force? What can be more strange, than that an ounce weight should balance hundreds of pounds, by the intervention of a few bars of thin iron ? Observe the extraordinary truths which Optical Science discloses.
Page 162 - 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...
Page 195 - I trust that at length the time is come, when Parliament will no longer bear to be told, that Slave-owners are the best lawgivers on Slavery; no longer suffer our voice to roll across the Atlantic in empty warnings, and fruitless orders.
Page 195 - There is a law above all the enactments of human codes — the same throughout the world, the same in all times — such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge ; to another, all unutterable woes ; such it is at this day : it is the law written by the ringer of God on the heart of man ; and...
Page 143 - One of the most delightful treats which science affords us is the knowledge of the extraordinary powers with which the human mind is endowed. No man, until he has studied philosophy, can have a just idea of the great things for which Providence has fitted his understanding — the extraordinary disproportion which there is between his natural strength, and the powers of his mind and the force he derives from them.
Page 84 - ... willed — that the Queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has instead of that solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers of mine. But I do here pour forth my humble supplications at the Throne of Mercy, that that mercy may be poured down upon the people, in a larger measure than the merits of its rulers may deserve, and that your hearts may be turned to justice ! [Mr.
Page 140 - To learn these things, and to reflect upon them, occupies the faculties, fills the mind, and produces certain as well as pure gratification. But if the knowledge of the doctrines unfolded by science is pleasing, so is the being able to trace the steps by which those doctrines are investigated, and their truth demonstrated : indeed you cannot be said, in any sense of the word, to have learnt them, or to know them, if you have not so studied them as to perceive how they are proved. Without this you...
Page 196 - Yet, despite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass ? Not, assuredly, by Parliament leading the way ; but the country at length awoke ; the indignation of the...
Page 195 - Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property of the Planter in his Slaves. I deny the right — I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to • the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim ! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes — the same throughout the world, the same in all times — such as it...
Page 26 - ... exhibited a specimen, the most incredible specimen, of monstrous truckling, for the purpose of obtaining office, that the whole history of political tergiversation could furnish Mr.

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