*

in the room of Lord Sidmouth. Lord Erskine, alluding to Charles Wynn's voice, said, "Ministers are hard run, but they still have a squeak for it." Lord Eldon opposed the Roman Catholic Peers' Bill, which had passed the Commons, but was negatived in the Lords by a majority of 171 against 129. He was defeated, however, in his opposition to the Marriage Act Amendment Bill. In the August of this year he was much affected by the death of Lord Londonderry; whose vacant place was supplied by Mr. Canning, an appointment which we recollect gave a general satisfaction, and much advantage was anticipated from his commanding talents and enlarged and liberal policy. In 1824 he had to sustain a renewed attack of Mr. Williams on the proceedings of Chancery and the profits of the Chancellorship. Mr. Peel, on this occasion, said the Chancellor's income was hardly more than a third of what the Members thought it was, and the Chancellor himself said he detested being influenced by sordid motives and feelings. It does not appear in the Life what it was, but sufficient, we believe, to have accumulated at Lord Eldon's death to somewhere about eight hundred thousand pounds. In May he resisted the Bill of Lord Lansdowne for the relief of the English Catholics. Mr. Canning called his speech that of a "pettifogging lawyer," on which Lord Eldon observes, "Politicians are fond of representing lawyers as most ignorant politicians they are pleased, however, to represent politicians as not being ignorant lawyers, which they, most undoubtedly, generally are-and this was never more clearly demonstrated than by Mr. Canning's speeches on the Roman Catholic question." Most of this session of 1825 was passed in debate on the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, which passed the Commons by a majority of 21, but was lost in the Lords. The session of 1826-7 terminated the official, though not the public, life of Lord Eldon. In February Lord Liverpool was seized with that attack which destroyed his mental powers, and subsequently his life. In April the formation of a Government was entrusted to Mr. Canning, and Lord Eldon was succeeded as Chancellor by the present Lord Lyndhurst. He resigned the Seals on the 30th April 1827. "I have now," he said, "taken my farewell of office; the King behaved to me with kindness and feeling ;" and, we may also add, from knowing the Chancellor's habits of life, he gave him a tankard for his potations, parcel-gilt. His high office he had held about a quarter of a century. Lord Eldon's life was prolonged for ten years after this period; but we have no room left to record the events, though, as his biographer says, "He still faithfully served his country-opposing the weight of his years, of his abilities, and his character, against the rash delusions of the time-and, with steadfast and calm disregard to all the odds of passion and power, defending to his latest strength the institutions which his manhood had been devoted to maintain." It is, we think, principally seen in his opposition to the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts; in 1828 also against the Catholic Claims, proposed by Lord Lansdowne ; and again in 1829, at which time the account he gives of the state of vacillation in which he found the King in his interviews with him, is very curious; he talked of going to the baths abroad-flung

Vol. ii. p. 556, Lord Eldon says, in a letter to his daughter, that the profits of the Chancellorship are a little more than 9,000l. his receipts in bankruptcy 4,0007. more. If so, the Law is not so well paid as the Church, for the bishoprick of London is at this time worth 40,000l. per annum !! But see vol. iii. p. 315, where it appears, from a fuller statement, that his profits from the Chancellorship for the whole period were 14,7001. per annum.

his arms around Lord Eldon's neck-asked what he was to fall back upon, and seems never to have prepared himself for meeting the most important question agitated in his reign. Probably, when Lord Eldon left him, he fell back on a paté of foie gras and a bottle of Burgundy: but the venerable and strong-minded statesman was attached to Georget he Fourth, and with cause, for he had distinguished him by political favour and personal friendship. Once, he told him, he hated no man so much. The last great question which occupied the attention of a man now in his 80th year was the Reform Bill; to this he vainly opposed all his remaining strength. In 1831 he lost the old and faithful companion of his life. Lady Eldon expired on the 29th June, and from this affliction he never wholly recovered. Almost sixty years had elapsed since he received the fair burthen in his arms, as she descended from the window of her father's house, and for this long period she had faithfully shared in all his fortunes -with cheerfulness to the privations of early life, and with modest retirement during the splendour of his later. We know few things more discordant to our minds than the laborious lawyer and his dashing, fashionable, and expensive wife. If women wish to be gay, they should eschew a marriage into the learned professions.

Lord Eldon's medical adviser had come to an opinion that his health would be benefited by frequent movements through long columns of air. From this time therefore, through the remainder of his life, he travelled a good deal, and sometimes with no other object than the journey itself. He visited his friends and estates in the North-looked on the scenes and surviving companions of his youthful days, and occasionally went to Encombe. In 1832 he lost his second son, who died in July of that year. In this year he had so much recovered his health as to be able to walk to the top of the Encombe Hills, a favourite spot, commanding extensive views of land and sea. He also dined at the Bench table, in the Middle Temple Hall, with the members of the Society. The 8th of June was the last day he ever sat judicially as a Privy Councillor. In the autumn of 1834 he was subpoenaed on a trial by an attorney; when he appeared to take his seat the whole Bar respectfully rose, and again when he stood up to be sworn. Mr. Twiss says, "That was probably the only case where a Lord Chancellor was defendant (Brougham), an ex-Lord Chancellor witness (Eldon), and another ex-Lord Chancellor the judge (Lyndhurst)." In this year he was received with great honours at the Installation at Oxford. He was particularly pleased when leaving the theatre some one cried out, "There is old Eldon-cheer him, for he never ratted." "I was much delighted, for I never did rat. I will not say I have been right through life I may have been wrong-but I will say that I have been consistent." In the formation of Sir R. Peel's government in 1835, from Lord Eldon's great age and growing infirmities, no tender of office was made to him; but the minister conveyed to him an outline of his political views, and Lord Eldon still continued to interest himself in the political measures of the country, acting himself according to the advice he gave to the landlord at Rushyford, Busy people are apt to think a life of leisure a life of happiness; but when a man who has been much occupied arrives at having nothing to do, he is very apt not to know what to do with himself." In 1836 he lived to witness the death of Lord Stowell's only son, and shortly after of the father himself; whose infirmity of mind had spared him the painful knowledge of the great affliction that had befallen him. In September 1836 we find his medical adviser, Mr. Pen

nington, at Encombe, and Lord Eldon suffering under some disease, which is not named, but which was pronounced fatal. In March 1837 he announced by letter to each member of the family the separation between Mr. Bankes and Lady Frances. In June he had a small family party to celebrate his birthday, and his cheerful manner and pleasant conversation was noticed by his friends. He spent the autumn of the year 1837 partly at Encombe and partly in another journey to the North, Mr. Pennington describing him as never more cheerful or more abundant in anecdote and other pleasant conversation. In November he went to the House of Lords, and paid personally a handsome compliment to Lord Cottenham, on the high reputation he had acquired in his office. From this time his strength rapidly decayed-he was affected by the cold of the severe winter that was then commencing; and, after being confined for some days to his room and bed, he expired in the afternoon of January 13th, at a quarter past four. On the 26th he was buried in the chapel of Kingston, near Encombe.

The biographer, at the conclusion of his narrative, has added the testimonials given by the highest authorities of the law to Lord Eldon's qualifications for the station he held; testimonials coming not from personal friends but from those opposed to him, and that constantly and conscientiously in political life and general policy,-from Sir Samuel Romilly, from Lord Brougham ;-he also has given much information worthy of attention on the one accusation which alone seemed to be justly founded, viz. his delay in giving judgment. We must, however, on these points refer to the work itself, and must content ourselves with recording in these pages the opinion of an eminent civilian and well-known writer, who was well acquainted with Lord Eldon's acquirements and the practice of his

court.

"In profound, extensive, and accurate knowledge of the principles of his court," says Mr. C. Butler, "and the rules of practice which regulate its proceedings, in complete recollection and just appreciation of former decisions,-in discerning the inferences to be justly drawn from them, in the power of instantaneously applying this immense theoretical and practical knowledge to the business immediately before the court,-in per

ceiving almost with intuitive readiness, on the first opening of the case, its real state, and the ultimate conclusion of equity upon it, yet investigating it with the most conscientious, most minute, and most edifying industry,-in all or in any of these requisites for a due discharge of his high office, Lord Eldon, if he has been equalled, has assuredly never been surpassed, by any of his predecessors," &c.

When Lord Eldon read this just and handsome eulogy by one who had knowledge to estimate his merits correctly, and taste to describe them elegantly, he observed to him, "I have ventured to think that my life exhibits a remarkable proof of what may be done in a free country by moderate talents and never-ceasing industry; but I never presumed to think that I had the merits you have pleased to think it good to ascribe to me. I have felt more consolation than I can express in reading in a part of your work what a considerable person * stated in answer to the imputation of being

* This passage, as it is the declaration of one eminent man which applies to another, we give. When his son told him that the public accused him of dilatoriness, he answered," My child, when you shall have read what I have read, seen what I have seen, and heard what I have heard, you will feel that if, on any subject, you know much there may be also much that you do not know; and that something even of what you know may not, at the moment, be in your recollection :-you will then too be sensible of the mischievous and often ruinous consequences of even a small error

dilatory. That has been often and I admit most fairly imputed to me; to all who accuse me of it, I wish to give as my answer the passage I allude to," &c. We shall only add one passage more as being the result of a professional rather than a political judgment, and, therefore, more entitled to credit for impartiality, for though professional prejudices are strong they must yield in intensity and in injustice to political animosity.

"Of the value of Lord Eldon's judgments, though sometimes too tardily pronounced, it would be superfluous to enlarge. The grammarian or rhetorician * may find fault with the structure of the sentences. The worthy judge himself, a bad judge of style, found fault with the reporters for reducing to some limit their excessive length. But these sentences the real-property lawyer will fix in his memory, and disregard, as much as their author, the want of paint and drapery. The worth of some few may be impaired by leaving the question with which the court had to grapple in abeyance, or by keeping too closely to minute details, and their practical application. But in revising his decisions we should remember

that he who comes latest has, as to general principles, nothing to invent and little to add. That he has the less brilliant though more difficult task of distinguishing the effect of these principles, of reconciling the ever-growing variety of precedents, and of guarding the application of old principles and precedents to a new cause from any doubt as to the precise points to which such authorities are applied. Lords Nottingham and Hardwicke may be considered the fountains of equity law. It was reserved for Lord Eldon to illustrate them both, as Coke illustrated Littleton, by the admirable commentaries he has preserved on the decisions of his predecessors.'t

We shall now add a few critical sketches of the character of some of the most eminent of Lord Eldon's contemporaries in the law, not only for the just and pleasing records of their worth, but for the discriminating judgment shown in estimating their various talents and acquirements. Those interested in the subject may have the leisure and curiosity to compare the present portraits of some of the persons with those sketched by Lord Brougham in his Gallery of the Statesmen of the time of George III. and, as regards some of the others, perhaps the present recollection of them, drawn fresh as it is from life, may be the only one rendered permanent, by being incorporated in a popular work like the present. To our minds these tributes, however small, to departed excellence of whatever kind are eminently gratifying, especially when the picture is brightened by the strokes of the artist's pencil, who was familiar with the lineaments he adventured to draw. They remind us of those noble and generous testimonies which the great Roman statesman and orator so loved to bear to his scarcely less great rivals either in the forum or the senate, and which forms one of those portions of the remains of his enchanting eloquence to which we are never tired of referring. It is in these divine pages that the names of Crassus and Hortensius, of Pollio and Licinius, still survive, though every relic of the splendid triumphs of their genius has long passed away. That their names still live in the fame and memory of ages, is entirely owing to the circumstance of having had Cicero as their friend; and, as Seneca truly observes of another person still more generally known, "Nomen Attici perire Ciceronis epistolæ

in a decision; and conscience, I trust, will then make you as doubtful, as timid, and, consequently, as dilatory, as I am accused of being," &c. Butler's Rem. p. 264.

* In our opinion the construction of sentences, and the general composition in Lord Eldon's speeches and letters, is so devoid of correctness and eloquence, as to contradict a belief we would willingly entertain, that a clear-headed man must express himself clearly.-REV.

† See Law Magazine, No. XVII. p. 351.

GENT. MAG. VOL. XXIII.

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non sinùnt. Nihil illi profuisset gener Agrippa, et Tiberius progener, et Drusus pronepos; inter tam magna nomina taceretur, nisi Cicero illum applicuisset." v. Senec. Ep. 21.

*See some judicious observations on Sir W. Grant's style of parliamentary oratory in the Memoirs of Mr. Horner.-REV.