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CLXI.

complexion, and bushy eyebrows. O'Keefe, the famous CHAP. farce writer, has left us a little portrait of him shortly before he was removed from office, at a moment when he must have been suffering from bodily pain: "I saw Lord Thurlow in court he was thin and seemed not well in health; he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, which were spread wide, and his hands clutched in each other. He had on a large three-cocked hat, his voice was good, and he spoke in the usual judge style, easy and familiar." But, generally speaking, although pretending to despise the opinion of others, he was acting a part, and his aspect was more solemn and imposing than almost any other person's in public lifeso much that Mr. Fox used to say, "it proved him dishonest, since no man could be so wise as Thurlow looked."

The late land's me

Lord Hol

him.

His manner made an awful impression on all who beheld him, and I have seen this successfully mimicked by the late Lord Holland, so as not only to create a belief of profound mory of wisdom, but to inspire some apprehension into the company present of being committed to the Fleet, or of being taken into custody by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. Yet, in private life, he could, on rare occasions, lay aside his terrors, - affecting mildness and politeness. Once when at His goodBath, he went to the pump-room and sat there, booted humour in and spurred. Being informed by the master of the ceremonies, that it was against rule to appear there with spurs, he said, "the rules of Bath must not be disputed," and not only ordered his spurs immediately to be taken off, but that an apology should be made in his name to the

company.

private life.

sional vul

"Many stories of Thurlow's rudeness," says his friend His occaCraddock, "have been in circulation; but it should be fairly garity. stated that he was ever more cautious of speaking offensively amongst inferiors than amongst the great, where he sometimes, indeed, seemed to take a peculiar pleasure in giving proofs of his excessive vulgarity. A single instance of this singular humour will be sufficient. On his return from

• Cr. i. 78.

CLXI.

CHAP. Scarborough, he made visits to some of those splendid mansions with which the county of York so greatly abounds, and a friend of mine had the honour to meet him at one of them, then full of very high company. Whilst walking in the garden, and they were all admiring the elegancies which surrounded them, the noble proprietor being near the hothouse, turned to the Lord Chancellor, and politely asked him whether he would not walk in and partake of some grapes. Grapes!' said Thurlow, did I not tell you just now I had got the gripes?' The strangers in the company were all petrified with astonishment."

His saying

tation of Presbyterians.

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A body of Presbyterians made an application to him to to a depu- assist in repealing certain statutes which disqualified them from holding civil offices. He received the deputation with great civility, but in his own blunt manner replied, "Why, gentlemen, if your old sour religion had been the Establishment, I might have complied; but as it is not, you cannot expect me to accede to your request." They retired, smiling, and probably less dissatisfied than if he had tried to reason them into a conviction of the justice of the Test and Corporation Acts.

His advice

to George

III. about

giving the royal assent

to bills.

*

Although he by no means despised the smiles of royalty, and "principibus placuisse viris" was not a low object of ambition with him, he was a courtier in his own peculiar fashion, and sometimes he used a freedom of speech which from any other man would have been offensive. Lord Eldon used to relate the following anecdote: "Once, when the mind of George III. was not supposed to be very strong, I took down to Kew some acts for his assent, and I placed on a paper the titles and the effect of them. The King, perhaps suspicious that my coming down might be to judge of his competence for public business, as I was reading over the titles of the different acts, interrupted me, and said, 'You are not acting correctly, you should do one of two things, either bring me down the acts for my perusal, or say, as Thurlow once said to me on a like occasion: having read several, he stopped and said, 'It was all damned nonsense trying to make

* Cr. i. 73

me understand them, and that I had better consent to them at once.""

On the occasion of a public procession, the Prince, who had taken offence at something Thurlow had said or done, rudely stept in before the Chancellor. Thurlow observed, "Sir, you have done quite right: I represent your royal Father: Majesty walks last. Proceed, Sir."

At Brighthelmstone the Prince of Wales, living with a gay set of frivolous young men who displeased the Ex-chancellor much, asked him frequently to dinner, but always met with an excuse. At last, walking in front of the Pavilion in company with them, he met Lord Thurlow, and pressed him much to dine with him, saying, "You must positively name a day." Lord Thurlow, looking at the party who were with the Prince, said, "If I must name a day or time, it shall be when your Royal Highness keeps better company."

CHAP.

CLXI.

His specch when the Wales took the pas

Prince of

of him.

His answer Prince invited him

when the

to dinner.

with the

advice.

At another time Lord Thurlow had voluntarily given the Difference Prince some advice, which was far from being palatable. Prince His Royal Highness was so angry that he sent to him to about givsay, that in future Carlton House Gates would be shut ing him against him. Lord Thurlow answered,-"I am not surprised; proffered favours always stink." The Prince, conscious of the ungenerous return he had made, acknowledged his error, and they again became friends.

The Prince once sent Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt to the Exchancellor, to ask his opinion respecting some difference in the royal family. "You may tell your master," said Thurlow, "I shall not give him my opinion." "My Lord," said Sir Thomas, "I cannot take that message to his Royal Highness." "Well then," said Lord Thurlow, "you may tell him from me, that if he can point out one single instance in which he has followed my advice, I will give him my opinion on this matter."

Traditionary anecdotes, to show the violence of his temper, particularly on the marriage of his favourite daughter without his consent, I pass over as not sufficiently authenticated *;

His family accounted for his whimsicalities in his later years by the shock he sustained from the flight of this daughter — to whom he had been so much attached, that he made himself master of the principles of thorough-bass that he might superintend her musical practice.

CHAP.
CLXI.

Habit of profane swearing.

His quarrel with Holland, the architect.

but it is certain that, by reason of a quarrel he had with Holland, the architect, who had contracted to build a grand new house for him at Dulwich, he would never enter it, and he continued to live in a small inconvenient lodge close by.*

In Thurlow's time, the habit of profane swearing was unhappily so common that Bishop Horsley, and other right reverend prelates, are said not to have been entirely exempt from it; but Thurlow indulged in it to a degree that admits of no excuse. I have been told by an old gentleman, who was standing behind the woolsack at the time that Sir Ilay Campbell, then Lord Advocate, arguing a Scotch appeal at the bar in a very tedious manner, said, 66 I will noo, my Lords, proceed to my seevent pownt." "I'll be dd if you do," cried Thurlow, so as to be heard by all present; "this House is adjourned till Monday next," and off he scampered. Sir James Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, used to relate that while he and several other legal characters were dining with Lord Chancellor Thurlow, his Lordship happening to swear at his Swiss valet when retiring from the room, the man returned, just put his head in, and exclaimed "I von't be d-d for you, Milor," which caused the noble host and all his guests to burst out into a roar of laughter. †-From another valet he received a still more cutting retort. Having scolded this meek man for some time without receiving any answer, he concluded by saying, "I wish you were in hell.” The terrified valet at last exclaimed, "I wish I was, my Lord! I wish I was!"

Sir Thomas Davenport, a great nisi prius leader, had been intimate with Thurlow, and long flattered himself with the hopes of succeeding to some valuable appointment in the law, but several good things passing by, he lost his patience and temper along with them. At last he addressed this laconic application to his patron:-"THE CHIEF JUSTICE

An action brought against him by Holland came on for trial before Lord Kenyon, who, for the dignity of the Chancellor, got it referred to arbitration. † I am afraid that profane swearing was then much practised by men of all degrees in Westminster Hall. I remember when Sir James Mansfield was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and the unruly members of the coif who practised before him led him a most wretched life, it was said that one evening, having fallen asleep on a sofa in a lady's drawing-room, he was heard to call out several times in his dream, " G-d-the Serjeants!"

SHIP OF CHESTER IS VACANT; AM I TO HAVE IT?" and received the following laconic answer: "No! BY GOD! KENYON SHALL HAVE IT!"

Having once got into a dispute with a Bishop respecting a living of which the Great Seal had the alternate presentation, the Bishop's secretary called upon him, and said, "My Lord of sends his compliments to your Lordship, and believes that the next turn to present to belongs to his Lordship."-Chancellor. "Give my compliments to his Lordship, and tell him that I will see him dd first before he shall present."- Secretary. "This, my Lord, is a very unpleasant message to deliver to a Bishop."-Chancellor. "You are right, it is so; therefore tell the Bishop that I will be d- -d first before he shall present."

CHAP.

CLXI.

With all his faults, it must ever be remembered to his Thurlow's honour that, by his own abilities alone, without flattery of great merit. the great, or mean compliances with the humours of others, he raised himself from obscurity to the highest dignity in the State; that no one can ascribe his rise to reputed mediocrity, which is sometimes more acceptable than genius, and that for a period of forty years he not only preserved an ascendency among distinguished lawyers, statesmen, and orators, but that he was regarded with respect and esteem by eminent poets, moralists, and divines.

rary chahim while Attorney General.

racter of

he was

I shall conclude this memoir with sketches of him by some Contempoof his contemporaries, which may better enable the reader justly to estimate his merits than any observations of mine. The first is from a volume published in 1777, when he was Attorney General, entitled, "Public Characters," in which it is remarkable that his name is spelt "Thurloe," like that of Cromwell's Secretary:-" His voice is harsh, his manner uncouth, his assertions made generally without any great regard to the unities of time, place, or probability. His arguments frequently wild, desultory and incoherent. deductions, when closely pressed, illogical, and his attacks on his adversaries, and their friends, coarse, vulgar, and illiberal, though generally humorous, shrewd, and pointedly severe."

His

"The Chancellor Thurlow," says Bishop Watson, "was an able and upright Judge; but as the Speaker of the

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