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 words put by Dio Cassius into the mouth of Octavia's maid and used against Tigellinus. He now learnt that the king had taken them to himself. On Lyndhurst's suggestion Denman prepared a humble memorial (24 July) protesting against any such intention. He entrusted this to Lyndhurst, who delayed the presentation, and Denman then became impatient and suspicious and appealed to the good offices of the Duke of Wellington. In October the king yielded, and endorsed an order for a patent of precedence upon the memorial itself, which he ordered to be preserved in the treasury. The duke told Denman of his success (1 Dec.), adding, ‘but, by G——, it was the toughest job I ever had.’ The king, however, was by no means pacified. In November 1829, the recorder of London being ill, it became Denman's duty as common serjeant to attend the council at Windsor and present the report of the sessions at the Old Bailey. The king declared that he would never admit Denman into his presence. After what Wellington described to Greville as a fearful scene, it was arranged that the council should be put off, and at the next council the recorder contrived to attend. More magnanimous than his brother, William IV did not make the epithet ‘slanderer’ a ground for refusing to receive Denman as his principal law officer (see Greville Memoirs, 1st series, i. 156, 250;, Lyndhurst, p. 227; Wellington's Civil and Political Correspondence, v. 117, 153).

Denman had remained in parliament till 1826, advocating most of the measures of legal reform introduced from time to time. He visited Scotland with Brougham in 1823, and a banquet was given in Glasgow in their honour. He spoke frequently in favour of whig principles and for measures of legal reform, such as the abolition of the death penalty for forgery and the allowance of counsel to persons charged with felony. He brought forward a motion in favour of negro emancipation (1 March 1826), and supported Brougham's motion for an inquiry into slavery in the West Indies (19 May 1826). He also presented petitions in individual cases of hardship—Thomas Davison's, tried for a blasphemous libel (23 Feb. 1821); Richard Carlile's (8 May 1823); and the Walsall mechanics', petitioning against the Combination Laws. His success, however, was not very conspicuous. His delivery was too histrionic to suit the taste of the House of Commons, and at times he was dull. At the general election of 1826 he contested Leinster in Ireland unsuccessfully, and then withdrew from electoral strife. Anxious to attend to his practice, he refused offer of a borough of the Duke of Norfolk's which Brougham procured him. His pen, however, had been active in the cause of law reform during this period, and continued to be so. His review of Dumont's ‘Traité de Législation’ in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ March 1824, attracted public attention to the defects in the law of evidence; he gave evidence (14 Nov. 1828) before the commission on actions at law, and published a pamphlet embodying his suggestions. He also (24 April 1828) delivered an inaugural discourse on the opening of the theatre of the City of London Literary and Scientific Institute, which was published by the committee.

He re-entered public life in 1830. At the general election he received a requisition from Nottingham, and, his opponent withdrawing, he was triumphantly returned. The day after the new parliament met (3 Nov.) he spoke regretting the duke's declaration against reform, and again on 8 Nov. denouncing the mob violence which had been offered to him. On the 16th Wellington resigned, and on the 19th Denman became attorney-general, and was subsequently knighted. On his consequent resignation of the common serjeantship he received the thanks of the common council. He had discharged its duties exceedingly well (, 1st series, ii. 330). On 16 Dec. he spoke on Campbell's motion for leave to bring in a bill to establish a register of deeds, and was afterwards officially engaged in the crown prosecutions of the Hampshire and Dorsetshire rioters before special commissions at Winchester and Salisbury. Unpopular as the task was, he discharged it with conspicuous humanity. Next year (8 Feb. 1831) he spoke against Hunt's motion for an address praying for their pardon, which was rejected by 269 to 2; and having ascertained that Cobbett and Carlile had by their writings directly encouraged the rioters, he filed ex officio informations against them—against Carlile for his ‘Address to the Insurgent Agricultural Labourers,’ 27 Nov. 1830, and against Cobbett for the ‘Register’ of 11 Dec. Carlile was tried 11 Jan. 1831, convicted, and heavily sentenced; Cobbett was tried in July, and, the jury disagreeing, Denman was glad to enter a nolle prosequi. The king, who had been in close communication with him during the rioters' trial, urged him on several occasions to file other informations ex officio, but, convinced by the popularity of Cobbett after his trial of their unwisdom, he declined to do so, stating his reasons in a full memorial, 24 May 1832. He spoke (15 April 1831) on Buxton's resolution in favour of negro emancipation; and having, under instructions from the cabinet