All. Third Witch. First Witch. All. Hecate. Liver of the lily's hue, Which in Richmond's carcass grew; Oh! well done! I commend your pains, The losing party likewise raised a laugh against their antagonists, by pretending that Lord Belgrave, afterwards Marquess of Westminster, who, on this occasion, declared against them, and quoted, in debate, a passage from the Greek text of Demosthenes, had actually spouted the following line from Homer, ''Τον δ' απαμειβόμενος προσέφη πόδας ωκυς Αχιλλευς". publishing translations of it (for the benefit of the country gentlemen) by those who had chiefly combated the right of the Prince of Wales during the late crisis. TRANSLATION BY SIR JOHN SCOTT. "With metaphysic art his speech he plann'd, However, we have "ANOTHER BY THE CHANCELLOR," in honour of his protégé : "To him Achilles, with a furious nod, Replied, 'A very pretty speech, by The ultra-loyal lawyer was abundantly compensated for all these gibes by a message, some little time afterwards, from George III., requesting a call from him at Windsor. [1789, 1792.] Being ushered into the Royal presence, the King most graciously said to him, "I have no other business with you, Sir John Scott, than to thank you for the affectionate fidelity with which you adhered to me when so many had deserted me, in my malady.”+ * Rolliad, 20th edition, p. 531. † Lord Eldon used to discredit the report of Thurlow's double-dealing on the late occasion, saying, "I was at the time honoured with his intimacy; scarcely Sir John Scott led a very quiet life from this time for four years, till he was promoted to be Attorney General, and the "Reign of Terror" began. During this long interval, he hardly ever had occasion to open his mouth in the House of Commons,-there were no state prosecutions; —and, answering a few Government cases, which could have given him little trouble, he had only to attend to his business in the Court of Chancery. There, those who came next to him were at an immense distance behind him, and his gains must have been enormous. Yet he was at great pains to inculcate the doctrine that a successful barrister is a loser by becoming a law officer of the Crown; and in the "Anecdote Book" he gives this account of a dialogue with George III., in which I must say he seems considerably to have mystified his worthy old master: "Soon after I became Solicitor General, his Majesty George III. at Weymouth, with the kindness which he uniformly manifested to me, said, 'Well, I hope your promotion has been beneficial to you?' I asked his Majesty, if he meant in professional income? He said ‘Yes, in that and in other respects.' I told him, what was strictly true, that in annual receipt I thought I must lose about two thousand pounds a year. He seemed surprised, and asked how that could be accounted for? I stated to him that the attention of his law officers was called to matters of international law, public law, and the laws of [A. D. 1790.] revenue, and other matters, with which not having been previously familiar, they were obliged to devote to them a vast deal of time, and to withdraw it from those other common matters of business which were very profitable; and I concluded by stating what was then the habit of the solicitors of the public offices, to give the Solicitor General only three guineas with his Majesty's (the Government's) cases, which required more time and attention fully to consider, and satisfactorily to answer, than the cases of private individuals, with which their attorneys frequently left fees of ten, fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five guineas. 'Oh!' said the King, then for the first time I comprehend what I never could before understand, why it has been always so dif ficult to get any opinions from my law officers!'" I must be permitted to doubt whether, while in the tranquil times of his Solicitor-Generalship, he ever sacrificed a particle of private prac tice to his public duty; and his professional emoluments-with the a day passed in which there was not much interesting conversation upon that subject between Lord Thurlow and the King's friends, with which I was acquainted, and I do not believe there was a word of truth in the charge." But the truth of it has been established beyond all possibility of contradiction or doubt. (See Vol. V. Chap. CLX.) I have heard it insinuated that Sir John Scott himself was privy to these intrigues, and had a hope, under Thurlow's auspices, of being Solicitor General to the Regent; but I do not believe that there is any foundation for this. He never seems to have been privy to Thurlow's negotiations with the Whigs; and I make no doubt that he acted on the occasion of the Regency with entire singleness of purpose. Gratitude made him eager to disbelieve any thing to Thurlow's disadvantage, as well as to magnify his good qualities. higher fees given by ordinary clients to a counsel who enjoys the highest dignity at the Bar-must have abundantly indemnified him for giving up his circuit.—In spite of his heavy losses, instead of being again reduced to buy sixpennyworth of sprats for supper in Fleet Market, in the course of a few years he bought the fine estate of Eldon, in the county of Durham, from which he afterwards took his title.* Parliament being dissolved in June, 1790, he was again returned from Weobly, and made a speech to the rustics on the blessings enjoyed under the English Constitution,-cautioning them against French principles, of which he early became apprehensive. The first subject discussed in the new House of Commons was "whether the impeachment against Mr. Hastings had abated by the dissolution?" and, this being considered an open question, although Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas held the negative, Mr. Solicitor, under the influence of Lord Thurlow, contended strongly for the affirmative. In answer to the argument, that this would enable the Crown at all times to defeat an impeachment by dissolving Parliament, although it be declared by the Bill of Rights that a pardon under the Great Seal cannot be pleaded in bar to an impeachment, he went so far as to aver, that "the Crown ought to have the right of dissolving for the express purpose of abating an impeachment,-saying that the new House of Commons, if they think fit, may commence proceedings de novo." But this most preposterous doctrine, which I am sorry to say several lawyers of eminence supported, was overruled by the good sense of the house, and is now universally allowed to be untenable.-It seems to have been absurdly insinuated in the newspapers, that Sir John Scott and his associates of the long robe had been bribed by Mr. Hastings; for, a few days after the decision, writing to Henry, at Newcastle, to * Since writing the last paragraph, I have met with an exact statement of Sir John Scott's gains from his own fee-book-abundantly corroborating my conjectures; for it appears that the first year he was in office, instead of losing 2000Z., he made more than 10007. beyond the receipts of the preceding year, and that his income went on constantly increasing £ S. d. 6,833 7 0 -Twiss, i. 218. Some of the fees then received by the law officers of the Crown have fallen off, but we have been pretty well indemnified by "patents of invention." † 28 Parl. Hist. 1074, 1028, 1150. give an account of an attack of the gout, he refers to his calumny, and takes occasion to mention that his opinion was unchanged: "Oh! the dignity of the cloth shoe! How hard it is upon me that I, the youngest, and most temperate and abstemious of the three, should, the first of all the brothers, arrive to this dignity! I hope most heartily you may escape; because, between the pain felt and the pain of being laughed at, the complaint is quite intolerable. You would see by the papers how unmercifully we poor lawyers have been treated in the House of Commons.-But the black squadron, as we are called, are an obstinate little handful, and in the long run, in a right cause, we shall at least fall gloriously. As to newspaper slander, all which to my knowledge is paid for, I hold that cheap, and, in spite of it, I shall have, at our next meeting, another tumble down with Charles Fox and William Pitt, who, for once at least, agree in a business in which they are both wrong." The only other measure on which he spoke while Solicitor General, was Mr. Fox's Libel Bill. This he was not permitted directly to oppose, for Mr. Pitt and Lord Grenville, to their immortal honour, were determined to carry it against the efforts of Lord Thurlow and the bigoted opinion of all the Judges; but he did what he could to disparage and to weaken it. According to the Parliamentary History, "the Solicitor General began by professing a most religious regard for the institution of juries, which he considered the greatest blessing which the British Constitution had secured to the subject. He had his doubts, however, whether the bill then before the House would add to the utility of that invaluable institution." He then stood up for the old doctrine that libel or no libel? was a question of law for the Judges, and suggested that "a bill to unsettle a well-established rule, by which the courts had been guided for a century, ought not to pass with precipitation.' Finding that the bill must pass, he afterwards added a proviso which was very unnecessary, and which for a good many years proved very injurious, "that on trials for libel the Judges should, according to their discretion, give their opinion and directions to the jury on the matter in issue between the King and the defendant, in like manner as in other criminal cases."+ A few days after the Libel Bill received the Royal assent, Lord Thurlow was forced to surrender the Great Seal. On this occasion Sir John Scott acted a very honourable and spirited part, of which we have an extremely interesting narrative from his own lips, delivered to his brotherin-law, Mr. John Surtees: Having received a message from Mr. Pitt, begging that I would call upon him, I called accordingly. Mr. Pitt said,Sir John Scott, I have a circumstance to mention to you, which, on account of your personal and political connexion with Lord Thurlow, I wish that you should first hear from myself. Lord Thurlow and I have quarrelled, and I have signified to him his Majesty's commands that he should resign. * 29 Parl. Hist. 592, 594, 602. † 32 Geo. 3, c. 60, s. 2. the Great Seal.' I replied, 'I am not at all surprised at the event which has taken place; I have long looked forward with [A. D. 1792.] great pain to the probability of such an event, and my resolution is formed. I owe too great obligations to Lord Thurlow to reconcile it to myself to act in political hostility to him, and I have too long and too conscientiously acted in political connexion with you to join in any party against you. Nothing is left for me but to resign my office as Solicitor General, and to make my bow to the House of Commons.' Mr. Pitt reasoned with me, and implored me not to persist in that resolution-in vain,-but at length prevailed upon me to consult Lord Thurlow before I proceeded any farther. After I had stated to Lord Thurlow what had passed between Mr. Pitt and myself, he said, 'Scott, if there be any thing which could make me regret what has taken place (and I do not repent it,) it would be that you should do so foolish a thing. I did not think that the King would have parted with me so easily. As to that other man, he has done to me just what I should have done to him if I could. It is very possible that Mr. Pitt, from party and political motives, at this moment may overlook your pretensions; but sooner or later you must hold the Great Seal. I know no man but yourself qualified for its duties.' I yielded; and, preserving the friendship of Lord Thurlow, I continued to act with undiminished cordiality with Mr. Pitt."* His last prominent act as Solicitor General was, very properly, to appeal to the laws of his country against a gentleman who sent him a challenge for words spoken by him as counsel, strictly in the discharge. of his professional duty. There was no reason to doubt his personal courage, but a display of it on such an occasion would have been a wanton exposure of his own valuable life, and would have established a precedent highly detrimental to the interests of suitors in courts of justice. His conduct was entirely approved of by the Bar and by the public. The challenger, who thus sought to repair his reputation from the damage which the evidence in the cause had cast upon it, was sentenced by the Court of King's Bench to fine and imprisonment.—But scenes were at hand in which our hero appeared with little advantage. CHAPTER CXCVI. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE of Lord CHANCELLOR ELDON TILL HE WAS MADE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COMMON PLEAS. I NOW with unaffected pain approach Sir John Scott as Attorney General, for I shall be obliged to censure him severely in this capacity. I doubt not that he acted all the while in strict conformity to his own * Twiss, i. 148. |