One or two, in which he was an actor while Attorney General, perhaps deserve to be recorded. "Lord Thurlow, when Chancellor, had asked me if I did not think that a wooden machine might be invented to draw bills and answers in chancery?* Many years after this, when he had ceased to be Chancellor, and I was Attorney General, a bill was filed against his friend, Macnamara, the conveyancer,-and Lord Thurlow advised him to have the answer sent to me to be perused and settled. The solicitor brought me the answer; I read it. It was so wretchedly ill-composed and drawn, that I told him not a word of it would do---that I had not time to draw an answer from beginning to end-that he must get some gentleman to draw the answer, from- beginning to end, who understood pleading, and then bring it to me to peruse. I went down to the House of Lords the same day, to plead a cause at the bar there. Lord Thurlow was in the House, and came down to the bar to me, and said, 'So I understand you think my friend Mac's answer won't do.' 'Do!' said I, 'my Lord, it won't do at all: it must have been drawn by that wooden machine which you formerly told me might be invented to draw bills and answers.' That's very unlucky,' says Thurlow, 'and impudent too, if you had known the fact-that I drew the answer myself.””+ "I was generally successful against those who committed frauds on the revenue-but one smuggler beat me completely. There being a great rage among the ladies for French kid gloves, which were contraband, he imported from Calais 3000 right-hand gloves, which being immediately seized and sold by the Custom-house, he bought them for a trifle, as they were of no use without the left-hand gloves. He then imported 3000 left-hand gloves, and these he contrived to buy in a similar manner, as they were of no use without the right-hand gloves. Having got both sets, he was entitled to sell them at his own price, under the authority of the Government, to every milliner in London. Jemmy Boswell called upon me at my chambers in Lincoln's Inn, desiring to know what would be my definition of Taste. I told him I must decline informing him how I should define it, because I knew he would publish what I said would be my definition of it, and I did not choose to subject my notion of it to public criticism. He continued, however, his importunities in frequent calls, and in one, complained much that I would not give him my definition of taste, as he had that morning got Henry Dundas's (afterwards Lord Melville,) Sir Archibald Macdonald's, and John Anstruther's definitions of taste. Well, then,' I said, Boswell, we must have an end of this. Taste, according to my definition, is the judgment which Dundas, Macdonald, Anstruther and you manifested when you determined to quit Scotland, and to come into the South. You may publish this if you please."" But perhaps there is nothing more amusing than the account of his soldiering, for when the dread of invasion spread over the land, he, too, * Mr. Babbage is said to have taken from this the idea of his "calculating machine." ‡ Ib. † Twiss, i. 207. wished to become a soldier, and bought a gun and a bayonet. But this was not the line in which he was destined to acquire a high reputation and to serve his country: " During the long war," said he, "I became one of the Lincoln's Inn volunteers, Lord Ellenborough at the same time being one of that corps. It happened, unfortunately for the mili tary character of both of us, that we were turned out of the awkward squadron for awkwardness. I think Ellenborough was more awkward than I was, but others thought that it was difficult to determine which of us was the worst." It should be mentioned, however, for the honour of the house of Scott, that Sir William used to say, “militavi non sine gloriâ,” for he actually commanded a corps of Civilians at Doctors' Commons, who were exceedingly warlike, their profitable practice in the Admiralty Court being threatened with annihilation by any rumour of peace. * As Sir John Scott is forthwith to be raised to the Bench, I am desirous of taking friendly leave of him as a barrister; and I cannot do this more effectually than by quoting the testimony in his favour left us by William Wilberforce: "Sir John Scott used to be a great deal at my house. I saw much of him then, and it is no more than his due to say, that, when he was Solicitor and Attorney General under Pitt, he never fawned and flattered as some did, but always assumed the tone and station of a man who was conscious that he must show he respects himself, if he wishes to be respected by others.'"t I likewise copy, with pleasure, the simple and forcible praise of Townsend: "For six years of active official and extra-official duty, during which he screwed the pressure of his power more tightly than any Attorney General before or since, with the single exception of Sir Vicary Gibbs, he still retained a large share of personal good-will, and was the favourite alike of the Bar, of suitors, and the public."‡ Mr. Attorney, in a letter to his brother-in-law, Mr. Surtees, dated 6th June, 1799, thus speaks in modest terms of his own military prowess and Sir William's "We had a most glorious exhibition here on the King's birth-day, in the review of the volunteer corps, which furnished much the most magnificent spectacle I have ever seen. As a non-effective in an awkward squadron, I had the modesty not to show myself in arms, though I have military character enough to attend the drill occasionally in a more private scene. Your friend Major Sir William Scott's corps, not having yet been bold enough to attempt the strong measure of firing, were also absent."-Twiss, i. 216. + Life of Wilberforce, vol. v. p. 214. + Eminent Judges, ii., 401.--Since finishing the composition of this chapter, I have been furnished with the following testimony to Lord Eldon's amiable and disinterested conduct while he was at the Bar, from a most worthy clergyman of the Church of England, who is still living, and who, I hope, will long continue to tell anecdotes of his old patron: "My knowledge of Mr. Scott commenced at a very early period of my life-when I was so young that, had he not been subsequently so eminent, and so very good to me, I doubtless should not have retained in memory the following particulars of this knowledge. My father died in France, in the prime of life, and so unexpectedly that he could not obtain professional assistance in making his will, and consequently it was in some points so at variance with the forms of law, that it could not be carried into execution. Thus the affairs of my family were thrown into Chancery, and so misconducted CHAPTER CXCVII. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ELDON TILL HE WAS MADE LORD CHANCELLOR. On the 8th of July, 1799, died Sir James Eyre, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and the Attorney General claimed his pillow." Mr. Pitt and Lord Loughborough, the Chan- [A. D. 1799.] cellor, wished much to retain him in his office-representing to him how important it was for the Government to have his assistance in the House of Commons, and suggesting that, for his own sake, it would be better to wait for higher promotion. But his health and comfort requiring repose, he insisted on his right-and it was conceded to him, under an arrangement that he should be raised to the peerage. He used always to add: “The King, likewise, made it a condition, that I should promise not to refuse the Great Seal when he might call upon me to accept it-and this condition I thought I was bound to accede to."*- While there for several years, by a superannuated and not very honest Solicitor, and a very dishonest Receiver, that my poor mother could not help apprehending that she and her children would be ruined. It happened, however, fortunately, that the gentleman of the Bar who had been engaged to conduct the suit for the widow and her children was promoted, and that Mr. Scott was the party fixed upon subsequently to lead it. He was not, it is conceived, satisfied with the statements wherewith he was officially furnished, and requested that he might confer with my mother and her solicitor, at his chambers. She went there immediately, taking me with her, and my sister. The subjects of conference were, of course, beyond my understanding; but I remember hearing that Lord Thurlow said, "It was a d-d hard case, and he did not like to decide it ;' and that Mr. Scott added, 'And I say it is a VERY hard case, and ought to be decided.' The great good nature, too, of Mr. S. to my sister and to me made an indelible impression on us, especially as an apology was offered for my presence. He replied, patting my head, that he seldom met at consultations any one giving him so little trouble, and protested that I was a very fine fellow,' though I was commonly described as a short, puny child. At the commencement of these visits, he had one of his feet in a cloth shoe, resting on two or three folios enacting cushions, though a comparatively young man; and the constitutional gout, which rendered this necessary, he ascribed, with humorous solemnity, to his having been a three-bottle man at college,’—a description which raised in my mind strange wonderments, which were never laid till I became, on going to Oxford, intimate with his contemporaries, and was assured by them that his collegiate life was one of great prudence and hard study. He conducted the Chancery suit to a termination, through a long series of years, with his usual industry and ability, but positively declining to take any fees in a case which he thought so hard; and when I state that this suit cost my family 10,0007., it will be clear that the sacrifice thus made by him was one of no ordinary character." George III. certainly had felt a high regard for him ever since the Regency question, and entirely approved of all his conduct, both in Parliament and as public prosecutor; but, perhaps, Lord Eldon a little magnified his Majesty's fondness for him, with the view of showing that he held the Great Seal directly of the Crown, and that he was at liberty to take part, if he chose, against the Prime Minister. deliberating about his title and his motto, he thus wrote to Sir William: "There seems to be, as suggested by Mitford, a difficulty about Allondale. The whole dale belonging to Mr. Beaumont, and I having no connexion with it, it's thought it may give offence to trespass upon it. If the Chancellor thinks so and you, I must resort to something else; there's hardly any that don't open to some such objection, and I may be driven to Eldon at last. Sit sine labe decus'is the best motto by far that I have heard of; and John told me he had it from you. "As the ring is to be a compliment to the King, I have thought of Virgil's description of the hive when the King is secure, as applicable to the unanimity of the country in the present security of its monarchy. Rege incolumi, mens omnibus una.'* Pray, my dear brother, send me a line when you receive this. I am going to spend my last day in the Court of Chancery, and then I am to dine with the Chancellor, so that I fear I cannot get to the Commons; and the moment I come out of Court, I could only come under strong emotion of spirits. I can find nobody that can think that Scott† will do, except Lord R.; and I won't have it unless you bid me." At last, resolving to take his title from his estate, he became John Lord Eldon, Baron Eldon, of Eldon, in the county palatine of Durham ; and being sworn of the Privy Council, and his patent as Chief Justice having passed the Great Seal, he thus addressed his venerable parent, who survived to rejoice in his elevation: "MY DEAR MOTHER, "Lincoln's Inn, 19th July, 1799. "I cannot act under any other feeling than that you should be the first to whom I write after changing my name. My brother Harry will have informed you, I hope, that the King has been pleased to make me Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and a Peer. I feel that under the blessing of Divine Providence I owe this-I hope I may say I owe this to a life spent in conformity to those principles of virtue which the kindness of my father and mother early inculcated, and which the affectionate attention of my brother, Sir William, improved in me. I hope God's grace will enable me to do my duty in the station to which I am called. I write in some agitation of spirits: but I am anxious to express my love and duty to my mother, and affection to my sisters, when I first subscribe myself, "Your loving and affectionate son, I prefer the letter to his brother : "ELDON." * This alludes to the ceremony of his being called to the degree of Serjeant-atLaw, which was a necessary preliminary to his being made a Judge. Rings are distributed by a new Sergeant, with an appropriate motto. An act of Parliament was passed (39 Geo. 3, c. 113,) to allow him to be called Sergeant in vacation. † The title of LORD SCOTT, if he had taken it, would by this time have appeared sounding and historical, like Lord Say or Lord North. The surnames of Pitt and Fox, now so illustrious, must once have appeared very mean. "MY DEAR HARRY, "I would write you a longer letter, but I am really so oppressed with the attention and kindness of my friends, that I can't preserve a dry eye. God bless you and my sister; remember me affectionately to Mr. and Mrs. Forster. You shall hear from me again. With the same heartfelt affection with which I have so often subscribed the name of J. Scott, I write that of your affectionate brother, ELDON." When these letters reached Newcastle, the members of the family threw themselves into each other's arms in a transport of joy, and the good old lady exclaimed, "To think that I, in this out-of-the-way corner of the world, should live to be the mother of a lord!" In the midst of all these distinctions, one object for which he struggled he could not yet obtain. To please Lady Eldon, who had a just horror of the wigs with which Judges were then disfigured in society, he prayed the King that when he was not sitting in Court he might be allowed to appear with his own hair-observing, that so lately as the reigns of James I. and Charles I., judicial wigs were unknown. "True," replied the King, “I admit the correctness of your statement, and am willing, if you like it, that you should do as they did; for though they certainly had no wigs, yet they wore long beards." Lord Eldon took his seat in Court the first day of Michaelmas following. All accounts admit that he was a most admirable [1799-1801.] Common law Judge. At this period of his life he [Nov. 6, 1799.] * Onslow v. Smith, 2 B. & P. 384. † 2 B. & P. 336. |