Lord Brougham and the Whig Party

"The magistrates there [in Manchester] and all over Lancashire I have long known for the worst in England, the most bigotted, violent and active. I am quite indignant at this Manchester business."

This was Henry Brougham's typically outspoken summary of the main cause of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Such scorn for the political elite and concern for the 'lower orders' was contrary to the prevailing attitudes among his peers, something which provides a motif for Brougham's life, a man who counted other leading Radicals such as William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb and Lord Byron among his many friends.

After becoming an MP, Brougham soon established himself as one of the foremost Radicals in Parliament. He spoke out against many of the major social evils of his time and advocated a state-funded education system years before anyone else. Appointed Lord Chancellor in 1830, he was instrumental in helping to pass the Reform Act of 1832, the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, and the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.

This book chronicles his life, from his early years, when he showed such precocious intelligence that he was accepted at Edinburgh University aged just fourteen, through his time as a formidable lawyer, to his distinguished Parliamentary career. It is a compelling portrait of one of the great politicians of the nineteenth century.