If your champions had yielded to the force of numbers, of gold, of power — if defeat could have dismayed them — then would the African Slave Trade* never have been abolished — then would the cause of Reform,* which now bids fair to prevail over its enemies, have been long ago sunk amidst the desertions of its friends — then would those prospects of peace have been utterly benighted, which I still devoutly cherish, and which even now brighten in our eyes* — then would the Orders in Council,* which I overthrew by your support, have remained a disgrace to the British name, and an eternal obstacle to our best interests.
I no more despond now than I have done in the course of sacred and glorious contentions; but it is for you to say whether tomorrow shall not make it my duty to despair. Tomorrow is your last day — your last efforts must then be made — if you put forth your strength, the day is your own — if you desert me, it is lost. To win it, I shall be the first to lead you on, and the last to forsake you.*
* The slave trade had been criminalised across the British Empire five years earlier, in 1807. Slavery itself followed in 1833. Brougham was a leading campaigner for abolition. See posts tagged Abolition of Slavery.
* ‘Reform’ here refers to the campaign to modernise Parliamentary elections, which were widely criticised for corruption and for failing to meet the changing demographics of Britain in the industrial revolution. In fact, the radical change hoped for did not materialise until The Reform Act of 1832.
* The autumn of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor, had plunged all Europe into war in his attempt to hammer the Continent into his vision of order, but thanks largely to the Royal Navy Britain had so far escaped. By November 10th, 1812, polling day, news was filtering through that Napoleon’s Russian campaign was not going well, encouraging Brougham to believe that there was hope for the embattled peoples of Europe.
* Orders in Council are a form of legislation that allows measures to be put in place without going through Parliament: the two most common forms are the prerogative order and the statutory instrument. In 1806, Napoleon established the ‘Continental System’, an alliance of European states tasked with enforcing trade sanctions on Britain to break our resolve. Lord Liverpool’s government responded tit-for-tat with Orders in Council, forbidding British merchants to trade with France or with neutral nations that did trade with France. Foreseeing the harm that would be done by offending neutral countries, which included the USA, and even France’s allies, several of which had little love for their master, Brougham campaigned to get the Orders in Council revoked, and evidently believed that his sanctions-busting efforts had helped to undermine Napoleon’s campaign.
* Brougham’s oratory was unavailing, and he was not elected as Member for Liverpool in 1812. Three years later he was returned to the Commons as MP for Winchelsea in Sussex.