Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Lord Brougham to Samuel Rogers, 2 August 1852
‘Scarborough: 2nd August, 1852.
‘My dear R.,—I long to hear of your well-being,
whether in London or at Brighton.
‘I have been here these three weeks and more with my
brother’s children, he being still detained in town. Except Denman, I have seen no one that I ever saw
before; but I am far from complaining of that. Denman was
here 10 or 12 days, and found the fine bracing air of the place agreed well
with him. We often talked of you; and he said you were his great example. We
also talked over this outrage lately committed by poor
Langdale’s
family—publishing such letters as L. himself would sooner have put his
hand in the fire than made ![]()
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public:
some of his own, and some—much more improper—of his friend and
benefactor Burdett.
‘There is a book lately come out which I recommend to
you—Mallet du
Pan’s Memoirs—as containing curious matter. I had always a
prejudice against him, though I recollect Romilly used to take his part, and I now think justly. Nothing
in the book is more remarkable than the low estimate, in all respects, of the
Bourbon Princes and the emigrants generally. Of Louis Philippe it is quite otherwise.
‘Believe me ever sincerely yours,
Henry Bickersteth, baron Langdale (1783-1851)
Son of a physician of the same name; he studied at Caius College, Cambridge and the Inner
Temple, was a friend of Sir Francis Burdett and Jeremy Bentham, and was appointed master of
the rolls and created Baron Langdale in 1836. In 1835 he married Lady Jane Elizabeth
Harley, daughter of the Earl of Oxford.
Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844)
Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and
again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.
Thomas Denman, first baron Denman (1779-1854)
English barrister and writer for the
Monthly Review; he was MP,
solicitor-general to Queen Caroline (1820), attorney-general (1820), lord chief justice
(1832-1850). Sydney Smith commented, “Denman everybody likes.”
Louis Philippe, king of the French (1773-1850)
The son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans; he was King of France 1830-48; he
abdicated following the February Revolution of 1848 and fled to England.
Jacques Mallet du Pan (1749-1800)
Editor of the
Mercure de France and
Mercure
britannique; he was a defender of constitutional monarchy who spent his later
years in exile in England.
Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818)
Reformer of the penal code and the author of
Thoughts on Executive
Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.
