Brougham and Vaux, Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron

▪ British politician

born Sept. 19, 1778, Edinburgh

died May 7, 1868, Cannes, Fr.

      lawyer, British Whig Party politician, reformer, and lord chancellor of England (1830–34); he was also a noted orator, wit, man of fashion, and an eccentric. Before and during his tenure as lord chancellor he sponsored numerous major legal reforms, and he took the lead in creating (1825–28) the University of London, the first English nondenominational institution of higher learning.

      Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he practiced at the Scots bar (from 1800) and helped to found The Edinburgh Review (1802). In his early political activities and in his book Colonial Policy of European Powers (1803), he attacked the slave trade and eventually became associated with the left wing of the Whig Party. Apprehensive of his strong individualism, however, party leaders waited until 1810 before procuring his election to the House of Commons. Called to the English bar in 1808, Brougham served as legal adviser to Princess (afterward Queen) Caroline, whom he and Thomas Denman (later lord chief justice) successfully defended in an annulment action initiated in 1820 by her husband, King George IV. He sponsored the Public Education Bill of 1820; continued to make antislavery speeches; advocated parliamentary reform; and delivered a now-famous address (Feb. 7, 1828) that gave direction to the reform of English civil procedure later in the 19th century. During the 1820s he helped to found not only the University of London but also the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, intended to make good books available at low prices to the working class.

      Created a baron, Brougham held the Cabinet office of lord chancellor from Nov. 22, 1830, to Nov. 11, 1834, under two prime ministers, the 2nd Earl Grey and the 2nd Viscount Melbourne. He was largely responsible for the establishment of the central criminal court in London and the judicial committee of the Privy Council. He greatly speeded equity proceedings, inspired later legislation for a county court system, and was a leader in forcing the parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 through the House of Lords. In the 1840s he urged the repeal of the Corn Laws (import duties on grain). During the 1848 upheaval in France, he tried without success to obtain French citizenship and a seat in the National Assembly.

      Brougham spent much of the last 30 years of his life at Cannes, on the French Mediterranean. The brougham, the first four-wheeled carriage intended to be drawn by only one horse, was designed by him.

Additional Reading

Biographies include Frances Hawes, Henry Brougham (1956); and Robert Stewart, Henry Brougham, 1778–1868 (1985).

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