Book Description

Excerpt from Report of the Proceedings in the House of Lords, Vol. 2: On the Bill of Pains and Penalties Against the Queen Mr. Brougham began to address their lordships in a very low tone of voice; it was with difficulty he could at first be heard, but, as far as could be collected, he spoke to the following effect: - The time had now arrived when it became his duty to address himself to their lordships in defense of his illustrious client. But when the moment which he had so anxiously desired had at length come, he felt the greatest alarm. It was not, however, the august presence of that assembly which oppressed him, for he had often experienced its indulgence: neither was it the novelty of the proceedings that embarrassed him, for to novelty the mind gradually gets accustomed, and becomes at last reconciled to the most extraordinary deviations; nor was it even the great importance and magnitude of the cause he had to defend which perplexed him, for he was borne up in his task with that conviction of its justice, and of the innocence of his illustrious client, which he shared in common with all mankind. But it was even that very conviction which alarmed him - it was the feeling that it operated so zealously and so rightly which now dismayed him, and made him appear before their lordships impressed with the fear that injustice might be done to the case by his unworthy mode of handling it. While, however, other counsel have trembled for fear of guilt in a client, or have been chilled by indifference, or have had to dread the weight of public opinion against them, he had none of these disadvantages to apprehend. Public opinion had already decided on the case, and he had nothing to fear but the consequence of perjury. The apprehension which oppressed him was, that his feeble exertions might have the effect of casting, for the first time, this great cause into doubt, and turning against him the reproaches of those millions of his countrymen now jealously watching the result of these proceedings, and who might perhaps impute it to him if their lordships should reverse that judgment which they had already pronounced upon the charges in the present state of the case. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.