CHAP. CLXXXV. A. D. 1807. the At to private life, it will be my delight to cultivate that acquaintance which I have had with you in my public station." · Mr. Attorney General (Sir A. Piggot): "I am sure, my Answer by Lord, I should not do justice to the sentiments of the Bar, if I were to suffer your Lordship to leave this Court without expressing their grateful sense of the kindness shown to them while your Lordship has presided here." torney General. Resignation of Ministers. tains the to give The whole Bar rose and bowed to his Lordship, who instantly after retired. * He then proceeded to the Palace. There he found all his colleagues assembled, and they were introduced one by one Erskine re- into the Royal closet, for the purpose of resigning their Great Seal Wands, seals, keys, and other insignia of office. To the for a week general surprise, Erskine returned still bearing in his hand the judgments. purse containing the Great Seal; and some supposed that, by reason of his concurrence of sentiment with his Majesty as to the propriety of refusing any farther concession to the Catholics, he had been invited, and had consented, to serve under the "No Popery Ministry." But the explanation of this phenomenon was, that "the King, understanding that there were some causes which had been argued, but in which the Chancellor had not yet pronounced his decrees, desired him to remain a week longer in office, that he might finish the business in his Court."† March 26. Ministerial explana. tions. Erskine's statement. The next day came the Ministerial explanations in the House of Lords, and Lord Erskine said, "he considered the subject of the Catholic question as completely irrelevant as any other whatever to the change in his Majesty's councils, although it happened to be the subject which led to such a conjuncture. Although a member of the late Government, he was decidedly adverse to the measure, and should not have advised it, because he did not see the political necessity for it, which had induced the great majority of his colleagues to recommend it to his Majesty. Yet he thought they were highly commendable in giving his Majesty such advice as they in their conscience thought just, -as well as in declining to * Annual Register, 1807, p. 415. † Life of Romilly, ii. 189. be bound by any pledge to refrain from giving to their Sovereign upon this or any subject such advice as they conceived was for the public good. The firmness with which his Majesty had maintained his own conscientious opinions, by resisting the bill in the extent to which it went, had also his respectful approbation; but he must say his colleagues did right in declining to be bound never again to advise the measure under any possible pressure of circumstances. At the moment when his Majesty's late Ministers relinquished the bill in concession to his Majesty's scruples, they stood in the same situation as on their first accession to office. The right of his Majesty to change his Ministers no man would deny, but for them to have remained in power upon any such condition as the pledge alluded to, would have been, in his opinion, contrary to every principle of Ministerial duty, and directly in violation of the Constitution. Their dismissal for no other reason than their declining the pledge, he was afraid was a declaration to the Catholics that the penalties and disabilities under which they laboured were to be considered an essential part of our system of rule; what the result might be of such a conviction taking possession of their minds, he was afraid even to conjecture." CH AP. CLXXXV A.D. 1807. son-in-law cery. Impartiality requires me to mention a circumstance, which, Erskine I recollect, was generally censured at the time,-that although appoints his Lord Erskine had been allowed to retain the Great Seal for a Master a week, only to give judgment in causes which had been in Chanargued before him, he employed the interval to concoct a job for the benefit of a member of his family. It is thus related by Romilly:"Two days before Lord Erskine parted with the Seal, he appointed his son-in-law, Edward Morris, a Master in Chancery. Sir William Pepys was prevailed upon to make a vacancy by resigning. This is surely a most improper act of Lord Erskine's. He ought to have considered himself as out of office last Wednesday. Morris, though a very clever and very deserving man, has no knowledge in his profession of that particular kind which is necessary to qualify a man to discharge the duties of a Master. This is a matter which will draw reproach on the whole Administration, CLXXXV. A.D. 1807. CHAP. though in every other department they have most scrupulously, as I understand, abstained from making any promotions." * He had no doubt supposed in his own mind, that while he held the Great Seal, all its powers, privileges, and patronage belonged to him; and I believe that, if the vacancy had occurred in this interval by death, he would have been justified, according to established usage, in filling it up. He finally parts with the Great Seal. His own content ment with in which he dis charged his official duties. Having cleared off his arrear of judgments, and on the 1st of April granted the injunction which I have mentioned in the case of Gurney v. Longman †, without any fresh leave-taking, he made his bow to the Bar, and proceeded to the Queen's Palace. There he finally parted with the Great Seal, and it was delivered to Lord Eldon, who kept it in his firm grasp for a continuous period of above twenty years. From Lord Erskine's farewell address to the Bar, it appears that he was himself well satisfied with the manner in which the manner he had performed the duties of Chancellor; and though he did little to advance the science of equity, the suitors who came before him seem to have had little cause to complain of his decisions; but I am afraid that Romilly, ruminating upon the probable disposal of the Great Seal upon a contemplated change of Ministry a few months after, expresses the general opinion of his own profession and of the public: "The present Ministry can hardly, considering what the crisis is to which public affairs are hasting, be very long in power; and if those whom they have supplanted should recover their authority, the Great Seal can scarcely be again intrusted to the hands of Lord Erskine: with all his talents (and very great they undoubtedly are), his incapacity for the office was too forcibly and too generally felt for him to be again placed in it.”‡ Romilly's estimate of this. Bet be tween two Americans His faults as a judge were afterwards greatly exaggerated, and a report was spread abroad that most of his decrees were respecting reversed. This having reached the United States of America, gave rise to a wager, which the parties, with Transatlantic coolness, referred to himself for decision. His reply to the the rever sal of his decrees. CLXXXV. American Senator who had taken the reversal side of the CHAP. question is extant, and is a striking instance of his buoyancy of spirit and frank good opinion of himself. "SIF, 66 Upper Berkeley Street, Nov. 13. 1819. to decide the bet. "I certainly was appointed Chancellor under the Administration His letter in which Mr. Fox was Secretary of State, in 1806, and could have been Chancellor under no Administration in which he had not had a part; nor would have accepted, without him, any office whatsoever. I believe the Administration was said, by all the Blockheads to be made up of all the Talents in the country. "But you have certainly lost your bet on the subject of my decrees. None of them were appealed against, except one, upon a branch of Mr. Thelluson's will -but it was affirmed without a dissentient voice, on the motion of Lord Eldon, then and now Lord Chancellor. If you think I was no lawyer, you may continue to think so. It is plain you are no lawyer yourself; but I wish every man to retain his opinions, though at the cost of three dozen of port. "Your humble servant, 66 "To save you from spending your money upon bets you are sure to lose, remember, that no man can be a great advocate who is no lawyer. The thing is impossible." CHAP. CLXXXVI. Erskine's general conduct as Ex-Chancellor. CHAPTER CLXXXVI. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE TILL THE PRINCE SOME have regretted that Erskine did not close his mortal career on the day when he resigned his office; but, although A.D. 1807. he cannot, by any means, be held up as a model for ExChancellors, he continued for a good many years, occasionally, to render important services to the public. He began with good resolutions thus writing to a friend: "I am now retired-most probably for life—and am living, what for me may be considered an idle, but I hope not a useless lifeas I keep up my reading, in case the chances of this changeable world should give me the opportunity of turning it to public account. Should I, however, remain long out of a public station, I shall find healthful and interesting occupation in the cultivation of the grateful Earth, who, if well cultivated, is less capricious in the distribution of her favours than Courts or Princes." Sanguine hopes of the "Ta lents" that they would speedily be restored to power. April 13. 1807. Motion of the Marquess of Stafford. The late change of Government had been so highly unconstitutional, that "all the Talents" for some time thought they must speedily be restored to power. They had a decided majority in a House of Commons returned after an appeal by them to the people, and all the measures which they proposed had passed the other House of Parliament. The bill on which they had differed with the King was allowed by unprejudiced men to be salutary, and no one had ventured to say a word in defence of the pledge he had demanded from them. Accordingly the Marquess of Stafford moved a resolution, "That it is the first duty of the responsible Ministers of the Crown not to restrain themselves by any pledge from giving any advice to his Majesty which, to the best of their judgment, the course of circumstances may render necessary for the honour of his Majesty's crown and the security of his dominions." On this occasion Erskine spoke |