Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/373

 348 LORD BROUGHAM.

Council in Downing-Street. There we saw Lord Baron Parke, Judge Bosanquet, and Dr. Lushington, and one who more particularly ri vetted our gaze, Lord Brougham, with his expressive Scottish physiognomy. The clerk of the court was young Keeve, the accom plished translator of De Tocqueville, and Guizot s &quot; Life of Washington.&quot;

Busily at his table wrote Lord Brougham with a coarse gray goose-quill. A case of compensation was being argued by the eminent barrister, Pendleton, with a mellifluent voice, and great quietness of manner. Birge, the distinguished advocate of the Jamaica plant ers, spoke well, and others also. But still busily wrote on my Lord Brougham. What mighty trains of thought can thus absorb the intrepid and invincible defender of the desolate Queen Caroline?

A document was read, when suddenly raising his head, with divers nervous twitchings about the mouth, he observed, that the word &quot; several,&quot; which ought to occur, was omitted ; and seeming to suspect some quib ble, kindled up, and demanded a collation of instru ments and manuscripts.

There, I have heard him speak. A right, sharp voice has he too. How many things have great men the power to think of at once ? Pursuing an elaborate theme, as it would appear, yet listening so closely to a reader, as to detect a missing particle. I once heard Dr. Gallaudet, the Principal of an institution for the deaf and dumb, in Hartford, Conn., say, that he could use the manual alphabet with each hand, conversing at

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