s of
wisdom which flowed from the lips of my Lord Chancellor. He affected to
study the ledger, and made various pertinent remarks on the manner of
book-keeping. There was a man whom Brougham called 'Cornelius' (Sefton
did not know who he was), with whom he seemed very familiar. While
Brougham was talking he dropped his voice, on which 'Cornelius' said,
'Earl Grey is listening,' that he might speak louder and nothing be
lost. He was talking of Paley, and said that 'although he did not always
understand his own meaning, he always made it intelligible to others,'
on which 'Cornelius' said, 'My good friend, if he made it so clear to
others, he must have some comprehension of it himself;' on which Sefton
attacked him afterwards, and swore that 'he was a mere child in the
hands of "Cornelius;" that he never saw anybody so put down.' These
people are all subscribers to the London University,[116] and Sefton
swears he overheard Brougham tell them that 'Sir Isaac Newton was
nothing compared to some of the present professors,' or something to
that effect. I put down all this nonsense because it amused me in the
recital, and is excessively characteristic of the man, one of the most
remarkable that ever existed. Lady Sefton told me that he went with them
to the British Museum, where all the officers of the Museum were in
attendance to receive them. He would not let anybody explain anything,
but did all the honours himself. At last they came to the collection of
minerals, when she thought he must be brought to a standstill. Their
conductor began to describe them, when Brougham took the words out of
his mouth, and dashed off with as much ease and familiarity as if he had
been a Buckland or a Cuvier. Such is the man, a grand mixture of moral,
political, and intellectual incongruities."[117]

If the part which Brougham's position as attorney-general to Queen
Caroline obliged him to take at the memorable period of the "Bill of
Pains and Penalties" had not closed the door of professional advancement
against him, he had most effectually locked it against himself so long
as her husband lived by the intemperate and ill-judged language in which
he alluded to that event in the speech which he delivered at Edinburgh
on the 5th of April, 1825.[118] But Brougham was constantly on the watch
for its being opened, and on the very day when George the Fourth died,
that is to say on the 20th of June, 1830, he spoke in the House of
Commons in eulogisti