Erskine withdraws from public Life, and becomes an Idler, 616. Romilly's Account of one of his Dinners, 616. His horticultural Pursuits, 618. His Manufactory of Brooms, 618. His Progress in the Study of Agriculture, 618. His Visits to Westminster Hall, 619.. SEALS good living, if kept long, 619. Honour due to the Dignitary who wears his wig for life, 619. How to cut "the Stakes," 620. A legal Opinion by Erskine when at the Bar, 620. His Change of Hours, 620. 66 Character of Fox, 621. His Reference to the State Trials of 1794, 622. Compliment to the Duke of Wellington, 623. His very bad Political Economy, 623. His Recommendation of Official Costume, 623. His Defence of sinecure Places, 624. His beautiful Argument for the Immortality of the Soul, 625. His Letter to Colman, accompanying a Copy of Armata, 625. Erskine's continued Steadiness to his Party and his Principles, 626. Assassination of Mr. Perceval, 627. Erskine defends Lords Grey and Grenville for refusing to take the Government without appointing the Officers of the Household, 628. Lord Byron and Erskine, 628. Erskine's culpable Indifference about Law Reform, 629. He becomes a Knight of the Thistle, 629. He is attacked by "An Elector of Westminster," 630. His Defence for accepting the "Green Ribbon," 631. His Letter on the Publication of Fox's Speeches, 632. The Banbury Peerage Case, 633. Erskine's Speech on Legitimacy in Defence of the Erskine opposes coercive Measures, 639. Scheme for coercing FIRE, WATER, and AIR, 639. The Six Acts, 640. Erskine's Solution of his Failure in Parliament, 642. Death of George III., 643. George IV. and Queen Caroline, 643. The Queen comes to England, 644. Prosecution against her, 644. Erskine's inde- pendent Conduct on this Occasion, 644. He moves that the Queen should be furnished with a List of the Witnesses against her, 645. Refusal to furnish the Queen with a Specification of the criminal Acts charged against her, 649. Anecdote of a Witness who refused to kiss the Book, 649. Erskine successfully resists the Adjournment of the Trial to enable more Witnesses for the Prose- cution to arrive, 650. He is properly defeated on a Motion to give an irregular Advantage to the leading Counsel for the Queen, 651. Erskine's Speech on the second Reading, 651. While speaking, is taken dangerously ill, 652. He recovers, 652. He resumes his Speech, 653. Debate on the third Reading, 655. The Bill withdrawn, 655. Erskine's last Speech in Parliament, 656. Erskine's Popularity revived, 657. He is invited to a Public Dinner at Edin- burgh, 657. He arrives at Edinburgh, 658. The Dinner, 658. His Speech after Dinner, 659. Mrs. Grant of Laggan's Account of Erskine at Edinburgh, 660. He visits the Court of Justiciary, 661. He is applauded at the Theatre, 661. Walter Scott's Account of Erskine in the Edinburgh Theatre, 662. He returns to London, 662. His Imprudences and distressed Circumstances, 663. His supposed Habit of eating Opium, 664. Account of his Hilarity by Rush, the American Minister, 664. His last Letter to Dr. Parr, 666. Correspondence between Erskine and Dr. Parr, 667. His Pamphlet in favour of the Greeks, 668. His Letter, presenting a Copy of it, to Lady Morgan, 668. Extracts from his Pamphlet on the Greeks, 668. His Pamphlet on Agricultural Dis- tress," 670. He exposes the Abuses of the old Poor Law, 670. Publication of He meditates another Visit to Scotland, 673. His Resolution to go by Sea, 673. He is taken ill on the Voyage, 673. His Death, 674. His Funeral, 674. His Monument, 675. His Will, 675. His Fortune, 676. Statements by Erskine respecting the Manner in which his Speeches were reported, 676. Glory to be gained by an Advocate, 677. Erskine as an Advocate, 678. Erskine's mental Culture, 679. Characteristics of his Eloquence, 680. Sweetness of his Lan- guage, 681. His Attention to Trifles to add to the Effect of his Eloquence, 681. His general Courtesy, 682. Character of his Eloquence by Butler, 682. By Roscoe, 682. By Lord Brougham, 683. By Espinasse, 683. His Skill in examining Witnesses, 684. Erskine as an Author, 685. His Prose Writings, 685. His Verses, 685. Epigram on James Allan Park, 686. On Judge Ashurst, 686. Lines in compliment to Lady Payne, 686. On his Pony "Jack," 686. On himself, 687. On Lewis the Dramatist, 687. On a Lock of Mr. Fox's Hair, 688. The Farmer's Vision, 688. Defence of Rooks, 688. On Plumer's prosy Pleading at the Bar of the House of Lords, 689. Rege," 690. His Success in Society, 690. His Egotism accounted for, 690. His Egotism ridiculed, 691. In the Pursuits of Literature, 691. By Canning in the Anti-Jacobin, 691. By Cobbett, 693. By Lord Byron, 693. By Miss Burney, 693. By Hannah More, 694. He is praised by Miss Seward, 694. His Puns, 695. "The Example of the Elephant," 695. "A Man may do what he likes with his own," 696. "Swan with two Necks," 696. "Demurring," and "going to the Country," 696. Why is a Resurrection Man like a great Bail- Counsel? 697. The Great Seal necessary at a Ministerial Fish Dinner, 697. "Malum prohibitum and Malum in se," 697. His practical Jokes, 697. Instance while at the Bar of his claiming Precedence of the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 698. His Humanity, 698. His superstitious Turn, 699. His Interview with a Ghost, 699. His Person, 700. His two Brothers, 700. The Earl of Buchan, 700. Incredible Vanity of this Nobleman, 700. Installation of the Statue of Sir William Wallace, 703. Henry Erskine, 704. His great Eminence and Respectability, 704. His Jokes, 706. Sir Walter Scott's Estimate of the three Brothers, 707. Lord Erskine's Descendants, 708. Portraits and Statues of him, 708. His Statue in Lincoln's Inn Hall, 709. Moral, 709. LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER CLXII. LIFE OF LORD LOUGHBOROUGH*, FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HIS CALL TO THE SCOTCH BAR. CHAP. CLXII. the author composi It is with conflicting feelings that I enter upon the composition of this memoir. I am glad to hail a man of brilliant talents and varied accomplishments,-whose early history Conflicting carries me back to the institutions, manners, and distin- feelings of guished literary characters of my native country,—whose in entering subsequent career was connected with the most striking vicis- upon the situdes of the eventful times in which he lived,-who, tion of this having been a Ruling Elder in the Kirk of Scotland, presided over the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, who, without any Scotsman as an example, in struggling for this elevation showed that it was possible to conquer his native dialect, and the prejudices against his countrymen,—who reminded the Scottish youth that, if they could no longer hope to rival the fame of Belhaven or Fletcher of Saltoun in their own land, and if I prefer the historical title of "Lord Loughborough," to that of " Earl of Rosslyn," conferred upon him after his retirement,-as I have written the Lives of "Lord Ellesmere" and of "Lord Bacon," not of "Lord Viscount Brackley" and of "Lord Viscount St. Alban's." memoir. CHAP. the decrees of their supreme Court were to be subjected to revision in the British House of Lords, loftier objects of ambition were presented to them than to their forefathers, and that they might enjoy the power, and eclipse the fame, of a Somers or a Hardwicke. But it is painful and humiliating to be obliged to recollect, and to confess, that this harbinger of good fortune of whom we might have been so proud-was almost entirely devoid of public principle, and in all his movements seems to have been actuated exclusively by a view to his own aggrandisement, careless about any improvement of the laws and constitution,-contented with the present possession of high office, and reckless of his reputation with posterity: "Pudet hæc opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli." Nevertheless, it is a consolation to me to think that I can palliation; but it will be refreshing to behold him, while still in possession of the Great Seal, the patron and protector of the author of the VINDICIA GALLLICE against the narrowminded persecution of the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn. Although his occupations after his fall were not very dignified, perhaps he was as harmlessly employed in trying at Windsor to cultivate the personal favour of the old king as if he had gone into hot opposition, or had coquetted with all parties in the House of Lords in the vain hope of recovering his office. Proceeding with my task, however disagreeable it may sometimes be, I shall be cheered by reflecting that I might have had more discreditable disclosures to make, and heavier censures to inflict. CHAP. CLXII. Alexander Wedderburn*, afterwards Lord Loughborough, Loughborough's Earl of Rosslyn, and Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, was birth." born on the 13th of February in the year 1733, in East Lothian. † He was the eldest son of Peter Wedderburn, who was owner of a small estate in that county, called Chesterhall, and who exercised the profession of an advocate in Edinburgh with the reputation of a good lawyer, though without making a large professional income. Indeed at this time the pabulum for the Scotch bar was very scanty, so that an advocate was supposed to be in great practice who made 5007. sterling a-year, and the appointments of the "Senators of the College of Justice," or "Lords of Session," or "Judges of the Supreme Civil Court in Scotland" were not more considerable. The Wedderburns of Chesterhall, though not very wealthy, were of ancient descent, and had acted a prominent part. They were sprung from the Wedderburns of Wedderburn (or of that ilk), whose * The name was often spelt with a final e; but I make no doubt that this is the most accurate as well as the modern orthography, the place from which the family name is taken being evidently the "burn," or brook, in which the "wea thers were washed the Scotch mode of pronouncing it to this day being "Weatherburn." † A valuable correspondent states that Wedderburn was born at Edinburgh, adding, that "all the Scotsmen who have ever held the Great Seal of England were natives of that city-Loughborough, Erskine, Brougham." I have in vain tried to find the register of his baptism. I think the evidence preponderates in favour of the rural birth-place. |