t
{124} Brougham in the House of Commons might, at any time, be so far
carried away by his own emotions, and his own eloquence, and his own
masterful temperament as to bring his colleagues into many a
difficulty, and force on them the unpleasant alternative of having to
choose between going further than they had intended to go or failing to
keep up with Brougham as the accredited and popular promoter of reform.

[Sidenote: 1830--Brougham as Lord Chancellor]

When Lord Grey next conferred with the King he was not a little
surprised to hear from the sovereign's own lips a suggestion that
Brougham might be offered the position of Lord Chancellor. Grey told
the King that he had been almost afraid to start such a proposition,
inasmuch as William had discouraged the idea of making Brougham Master
of the Rolls; but the King with shrewd good sense directed Grey's
attention to the fact, which had been already an operative force in
Grey's own mind, that to make Brougham Master of the Rolls, and yet
keep him in the House of Commons, might still leave him a very
dangerous colleague, while by making him Lord Chancellor the King and
his Prime Minister could get him practically out of the way altogether.

So it was agreed between the King and his Prime Minister that Lord
Brougham should be made Lord Chancellor, and thus forfeit his right to
sit in the House of Commons. If we speak with literal accuracy it is
not quite correct to say that a man by becoming Lord Chancellor becomes
necessarily, and at once, a member of the House of Lords. The Lord
Chancellor of course presides over the sittings of the House of Lords,
but he is not necessarily, from the first, a member of the hereditary
assembly. He sits on the woolsack, which, though actually in the House
of Lords, is not technically to be described as occupying such a
position. If a Lord Chancellor who is actually a peer desires to take
part in a debate he has to leave the woolsack and stand on some part of
the floor which is technically within the Chamber. On more than one
historic occasion some inconvenience has arisen from the fact that a
newly created Lord Chancellor had not yet been {125} made a peer, and
therefore was not entitled to take part in a debate, or even to speak
for some ceremonial purpose within the Chamber on behalf of the House
of Lords. Brougham as a matter of fact was not made a peer until a
little time after he had become Lord Chancellor.

All this, how