CHAP. CCII. A.D. 1815. nate conse ness with into execu Vattel, but that the law of self-preservation would justify the keeping of him under restraint in some distant region, where he should be treated with all indulgence compatible with a due regard for the peace of mankind." Accordingly, UnfortuSt. Helena was selected as the place of his exile; and to put quences of a stop to all experiments in our Courts, by writs of habeas the harshcorpus, or actions for false imprisonment, an Act of Parlia- which the ment was passed to legalize his detention.* Had the dis- plan for detaining graceful disputes been avoided which afterwards took place Napoleon respecting the number of bottles of wine he should be allowed was carried for dinner, and the domiciliary visits to which he should be tion. liable, I believe that his captivity at Longwood would have brought no impeachment on British justice or generosity, either in his own age or with posterity. As things were managed, I am afraid it will be said that he was treated, in the eighteenth century, with the same cruel spirit as the Maid of Orleans was in the fifteenth; and there may be tragedies on the Death of Napoleon, in which Sir Hudson Lowe will be the "SBIRRO" - and even Lord Eldon may be introduced as the Stern Old Councillor who decreed the hero's imprison ment. 56 Geo. 3. c. 22. Lord Eldon very properly resisted a motion of Lord Holland, for a reference to the opinion of the Judges relating to the character in which Napoleon Bonaparte stood after his surrender, and our right to detain him as a prisoner. -8th April, 1816. 33 Purl Deb. 1019. CHAPTER CCIII. CHAP. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ELDON TILL THE DEATH It will be impossible for the future historian to clear Lord A. D. 1815. respecting the institutions of his own country. Lord Eldon throws out the bill contract debts. Some thought that with peace a new era of improvement would have begun, the answer to all attempts at reform subject during the last quarter of a century having been" This is ing freehold estates not the time for such projects, when we are fighting for our to simple existence;" but Lord Eldon still obdurately defended every antiquated abuse and absurdity which disgraced our jurisprudence. Sir Samuel Romilly sent up from the House of Commons a bill to subject freehold lands to simple contract debts, for the purpose of preventing this fraud (among others), that a man might borrow 100,000l. to buy an estate, and dying, leave it unencumbered to his son without a shilling of the debt being ever repaid. ButLord Eldon rejected the bill, after a long speech, in which he condemned it as contrary to the wisdom of our ancestors, and subversive of the Constitution under which we had long flourished. I believe he was quite sincere; and the great bulk of his audience listened to him with reverence insomuch that Lord Grey, who ably advocated. the measure, was obliged to give it up without a division.* A few years after, I had the pleasure of humbly assisting my friend Mr. John Romilly, the son of Sir Samuel, to pass this very bill through Parliament — when, even in the House of Lords, it met with hardly any opposition. Its justice and expediency are now so universally acknowledged, that people can hardly believe there was so recently a state of the public mind which could permit its rejection. * 31 Parl. Deb. 1037. * I must doubts as to its CCIII. A.D. 1816. He supports the introduc tion of trial by jury in civil suits Strange to say! Lord Eldon now countenanced an inno- CHAP. vation in the administration of justice in Scotland, although it was most strenuously resisted by many enlightened men in that country, and among others by Sir Walter Scott, the introduction of trial by jury in civil causes. confess that I myself entertain very serious expediency. This mode of trial works admirably well in England, where, from long usage, the procedure is so well understood, and it accords entirely with the habits of the people as well as with the frame of our laws. But where the relative duties of judge and jury were necessarily so little understood,-where issues of fact were to be framed in every cause by an officer of the Court, not always competent to understand on what facts the judgment was to depend, where the Bench and the Bar were imperfectly acquainted with the rules of evidence, and "bills of exceptions," "special verdicts," and "new trials" were terms not to be found in all Erskine's Institutes, or in all Morrison's Dictionary, there might have been a misgiving that the reformation, however plausible, would produce great confusion in practice, and occasion much expense and vexation to the suitors. A better plan probably would have been-separating the law from the facts upon the record,-still to have reserved the decision of disputed facts for the Court, and to have improved the manner of taking the written depositions, or to have examined the witnesses in court vivâ voce. Lord Eldon, however, insisted on at once introducing the English system, and required that the jury should be unanimous—contrary not only to theoretical reasoning, but to the experience in Scotland of juries in criminal trials. One great object he had in view was to get rid of the immense number of appeals from the Court of Session to the House of Lords on mere questions of fact, by which his time had been most unprofitably and vexatiously consumed. The measure was, without difficulty, carried through Parliament; but the expectations entertained from it have been by no means realised, and before long this new system must either be abolished or reformed. Lord Eldon was not called upon to come forward in debate in Scotland. CCIII. CHAP. during the session of 1816, except in opposing a motion in favour of the Irish Roman Catholics; and, in spite of his zealous exertions, he was exceedingly distressed to find it supported by a Bishop, and rejected by the alarmingly small majority of four.* June 25. 1816. Lord Eldon annoyed by the return to office of Mr. Canning. May 2. 1816. Marriage of the Prin cess Charlotte with Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg. Marriage of the Prin- Duke of He was farther annoyed by the return to office of Mr. Canning, whom he regarded as little better than a Whig. Although Catholic emancipation henceforth became an open question, he had the full assurance of Lord Liverpool and of the Regent that it should not be granted. On this understanding alone would he have consented to remain in the Cabinet. My firm belief is, that, in spite of his professions, by which he tried to deceive others, and perhaps deceived himself, he was strongly attached to the Great Seal; but I am sure that he would have resigned it without one moment of doubt, rather than have agreed to a surrender of any of those safeguards which he considered necessary to preserve our Protestant Establishment. His retention of office was probably rendered doubly agreeable to him by the reflection that he could thereby more effectually watch and counteract the dangerous schemes of his latitudinarian colleagues. Now he had to arrange the preliminaries of the marriage between the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg-destined to be followed by other alliances with that illustrious house, which auspiciously promise to connect it for ever with the throne of Great Britain. When the ceremony took place, the Chancellor was treated with peculiar distinction by the Regent, and the royal bride and bridegroom. † His graceful manners and skilful tact as a courtier, • 73 to 69. 31 Parl. Deb. 1254. †The Chancellor and Lady Eldon were likewise present at the wedding of the Princess Mary with the Duke of Gloucester on the 22d of July following. We have an account of this ceremony in a letter from him to one of his daughters: "Mainma (Lady Eldon) went through her part of the ceremony capitally well; but dear Princess Mary's behaviour was so interesting and affecting that every hody was affected. Even the tears trickled down my cheeks; and as to Mamma, she cried all night, and nine-tenth parts of the next day." It is delightful to think that this illustrious lady, whose kindness of disposition and exemplary conduct have ever secured to her the admiration and respect of all classes of the community, is still likely to be long preserved, as an example of the union of the highest rank with the highest virtues. coal-fitter's son, CHAP. CCII. in which, by intuition, as it were, the reared in the purlieus of Lincoln's Inn, hereditary nobility of England, had so completely in- An. 1816. gratiated him with his "young master," that he was not unfrequently invited as a guest to the private symposia at Carlton House, where, with his Northern-Circuit stories, he was a full match for professed wits, although he wisely took care to testify a conscious inferiority in jovial powers, as much as in rank, to his Royal Highness, who, in his imitations of Lord Thurlow, and in the relation of ridiculous anecdotes of other public characters, really was a very considerable performer. We have a striking proof of Familiarity the familiarity with which "Old Bags was now treated the Chanby the man against whom "the Book" had been indited a few years ago, in the notes to him from the Regent, which all conclude, "Your very affectionate friend, GEORGE P. R.," or "Very affectionately yours, GEORGE P. R.," and particularly in one urging him to complete some law arrangements without further delay thus concluding with a very good-humoured caution, that his Lordship should not be quite contented with his own notions of despatch: "Forgive me also, my dear friend, if I add, and bring to your recollection (and I can hardly do so without its forcing at the same time a smile on my countenance) that a snail's gallop is but a bad thing, and a very poor pace at best, in most of the occurrences of life, and I am sure that you would particularly find it such in the present." The Chancellor knew too well both his duty and interest ever to forget for a moment that it was his sovereign who jested with him; and therefore, while other boon companions were speedily cast off, he long retained the favour and the respect of George IV. between cellor and the Regent. contents. The transition from a long war to profound peace, the Public disderangement of our monetary system by the Bank Restric tion Acts, and the contemplated return to cash payments, had caused much commercial distress—with want of employment, and a great lowering of wages in many manufacturing * 2d May, 1817. |