ABSTRACT
The speech adopts the same tone as the opposition peers used, including Wellington, with instances of extreme language and prophecies of chaos and destruction if reform was adopted. Appended to Brougham's speech is Earl Grey's reply to the opposition peers, which again emphasises the 'temperate, gradual, judicious' nature of the reform. The noble and learned lord had read an extract from a speech of his, in which ho conceived that he had expressed opinions on reform different to those he now entertained. Lord Brougham was first returned to Parliament for the borough of Camelford in 1810. During his election campaign in Yorkshire in 1830 he pledged himself to parliamentary reform and drew up a scheme to give the franchise to all householders, leaseholders and copyholders, redistributing seats from the rotten boroughs.
