The snobbishness of Brougham's arguments on behalf of royal princes in his Debtors' Bill again infuriates the democratic _Punch_, who in 1849 was even more disgusted by Brougham's fulsome championship of Radetzky and the Austrians when they defeated the Piedmontese. But _Punch's_ hostility reaches its height in the verses (accompanying a cartoon which represents Brougham standing on his head) describing the amazing farrago of inconsistencies which composed the mind of one who was at once a charlatan and encyclopædist, a reformer and a courtier. In the same year _Punch_ suggests a Bill should be promoted for "the better behaviour of the erotic and learned lord," Who'd rather mount the mountebank's stage than be laid on the shelf, Who does with ease the difficult task of turning his back on himself. Brougham's perversely obstructive attitude towards the Exhibition of 1851 excited _Punch's_ wrath, when he himself had become converted to the scheme, but already the tone of the paper had changed; and the turning point was reached on the occasion of Brougham's visit to America in 1850, when _Punch_ printed the following unofficial letter of introduction to the President of the United States:-- To General Taylor, President of the United States, Favoured by Henry Lord Brougham, Member of the French Institute. "Dear Taylor, "I have much pleasure in making yourself and my friend _Brougham_--the _Brougham_ whose fame is _not_ European but world-wide--personally acquainted. With all his little drolleries, he is an excellent fellow; and with all his oddities, he has worked like a Hercules stable-boy at our Augean Courts of Law. He has cheapened costs; he has well-nigh destroyed the race of sharp attorneys. Indeed, if you would seek Brougham's monument, look around every attorney's office; and you will _not_ see Brougham's picture." [Sidenote: _A Palinode to Brougham_] _Punch_ had already welcomed Brougham's espousal of the anti-Sabbatarian cause, but the full avowal of reconciliation is to be found in the following graceful verses printed in 1851:-- A PALINODE From _Punch_ to Henry Brougham "During the last five or six weeks, he had with the utmost difficulty, and against the opinion of his medical advisers, attended the service of their Lordships' House. During the last ten days the difficulty had increased and become more severe. In the hope of assisting in this great measure, in a cause to which his life had been devoted, he had struggled to the last, until he found he could struggle no more."--_Lord Brougham's last speech on Law Reform in the House of Lords._ And is the busy brain o'erwrought at last? Has the sharp sword fretted the sheath so far? Then, Henry Brougham, in spite of all that's past, Our ten long years of all but weekly war,