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LONDON Published for the European Magazine by james Asperne N32, Combill Octob

The Right Honourable

LORD ERSKINE.

Engraved by TBlood from an

original Picture by SDrummond EARA

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

AND

LONDON REVIEW,

FOR SEPTEMBER, 1816.

MEMOIR OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THOMAS, Lord Erskine.

BARON ERSKINE OF RESTORMEL CASTLE, IN THE DUCHY OF CORNWALL, GOVERNOR OF THE CHARTER-HOUSE, K. T. F. R. S. ETC. ETC. ETC.

[WITH A PORTRAIT, ENGRAVED BY T. BLOOD, FROM AN ORIGINAL

BY SAMUEL DRUMMOND, ESQ. a.r.a.]

PAINTING

-By the rare union of all that was learned in law, with ali that was lucid in eloquence, by the singular combination of all that was pure in morals, with all that was profound in wisdom, -he has stamped upon every action of his life the blended authority of a great mind, and an unquestionable conviction,

10

PHILLIPS S Speech,-Guthrie v. Sterne.

To the preceding outline character and was not more than twenty-six when

of the illustrious subject of this memoir, it would be as impossible, as it would be useless, for us to add a single feature; and in detailing, therefore, a few facts of his past life, we shall endeavour to keep in view this elegant eulogium and deserved praise.

Although it is not above four hundred years since the ERSKINES had any title to the earldom of MAR, yet this illustrious family is eminent in itself, if we respect either its antiquity, or the many great employments with which they have been distinguished; and though we are not aware of the precise time when, or by whom, the name was first assumed, yetit appears certain, that it was originally derived from a barony in the shire of Renfrew, and being a local surname, is, of consequence, extremely ancient.

The Right Honourable Thomas Lord ERSKINE is the third and youngest son of Henry David, tenth Earl of BUCHAN, (who died in the year 1767, leaving two sons and two daughters beside the subject of this brief notice), was born about the year 1750, and received his early education partly in the high school of Edinburgh, and partly at the college of St. Andrews. After originally entering both the naval and military services of his country, he quitted each while young,

he commenced his course of legal study, as a fellow-commoner of Trinity-college, Cambridge, and, at the same time, entered his name as a student on the books of Lincoln's-Inn. One of his college declamations is still extant, as it was delivered in Trinity Chapel, when the thesis was the glorious Revolution of

1688.

With a display of extraordinary powers of language, it is easy to discover, in some of its passages, the ele ments, as it were, of that forensic eloquence in which he afterwards acquired such a decisive pre-eminence; and it is not too high a praise to say, that it bears very striking features of superiority over the declamations which are usually produced on these occasions. It gained the first prize, which he, however, honourably declined to accept, not attending Cambridge as a student, and only declaiming in conformity to the rules of the College.

An ode written by Mr. Erskine abont this time, in imitation of Gray's Bard, is also worthy of notice, as a sportive production of fancy: it has been published in the Monthly Magazine, and originated in an incident truly humourous: the author had been disappointed by his barber, who neglected his usual attendance, and prevented him from dining in the college hall. In the mo

ment of disappointment, of hunger, and impatience, he poured forth this malediction against the whole race of hairdressers, with a denunciation, prophetic of a future taste for cropping and unpowdered hair.

As Mr. Erskine did not enter the university for any academical purpose, but merely to obtain a degree to which he was entitled as the son of a nobleman, he by this means saved two years and a half in his passage to the bar. His education had been previously completed in Scotland, under the guidance of his father, one of the most accomplished of men of his time, who, having uniformly felt an extraordinary solicitude as to the instruction of his children, had actually removed from his family estate for the purpose of residing near St. Andrews college, where he continued for many years. During this time, he provided for them a private tutor, one of the most elegant scholars of that part of the island, to assist their studies at the school and university. It was here that Mr. Erskine pursued the study of the belles lettres with unremitting ardour, and thus had the advantage of imbibing from the most eminent professors of the day, that various and extended knowledge which can never be derived from books or solitary application. In order to acquire a necessary idea of the more mechanical parts of his future profession, he was also persuaded, by the judicious counsels of his friends, to enter as a pupil into the office of Judge Buller, who was then an eminent special pleader at the bar.

During this, and some subsequent periods of his life, Mr. Erskine experienced all the difficulties arising out of a very imited income. On March 29, 1770, he had married Frances, daughter of Daniel Moore, Esq. M.P. and was consequently obliged to adhere to a most rigid frugality of expenditure. On these circum stances of his history, many of the particulars have, with great ingenuousness, been mentioned to his friends by Mr. Erskine himself. In reviewing how ever, the struggles which he has encountered, and in contrasting them with the brilliant prosperity of his later years, he must now feel a peculiar gratification because, to an almost involuntary impulse, he can alone attribute his extraordinary elevation; owing it rather to the endowments allotted to him by nature, than to the favourable caprice or partialities of fortune.

The

part sustained by the late Mrs. Erskine (who died December 26, 1805), before the cloud that overhung their first entrance into life was dissipated, is highly honourable to her feelings. She accom panied her husband to Minorca, followed his fortunes with the most cheerful constancy, and, while he was engaged in the pursuits of a laborious profession, never suffered any pleasure or amusement to interrupt her in the assiduous discharge of her domestic duties.

It would be impossible, within the limited space of this memoir, to give any account of the many celebrated causes pleaded by Mr. Erskine, his exertions being, for the most part, absorbed in the transactions of those daily occurrences which are discussed in our courts of justice, and of most of these: there are no other documents than the journal of the day, from which entire fidelity of statement cannot be expected.

From no part of his professional engagements has he deserved or acquired an higher reputation, than in his mode of conducting trials for Crim. Con. It has frequently fallen to his lot to be concerned in behalf of plaintiffs in these actions, a circumstance which has given him considerable advantage; for, besides the attention which is sure to be offered to accusing eloquence, the sympathies of mankind are naturally in alfiance with him who hurls his invective against the disturber of domestic peace, and the invader of conjugal felicity: and alarming as the frequency of these cases may be, yet the torrent of public licentiousness has received no slight check from the indignant feelings of the world, and the exemplarydamages awarded by juries. To this honourable and useful end, the eloquence of the advocate is greatly subservient. He calls forth every slumbering emotion, and every virtuous sensibility into an active league against the crime which he denounces, and Mr. Erskine's speech, in the memorable cause of Sykes v. Parstoc, is still remembered by all who heard it, as an uncommon effort of rhetorical ability. He has, however, also been concerned in some of these remarkable causes on behalf of the defendants. His exertions are well known in the memorable cases of Baldwin against Oliver, tried at York, and the more recent one of Sir Henry Vane Tempest, in both of which there was awarded but one shilling damages : and, on each of these occasions, M

Erskine did equal service to the cause of morality and virtue, by pointing out the infamy of unyoking the female passions from the restraints of conjugal protection, and the ties of domestic attachment. His speech in the cause of Howard versus Bingham will be long remembered at the bar, as containing a most affecting apology for the lady, who was married against her consent; when her affections had long been bestowed upon another; it depicted in the most pathetic eloquence the harshness and cruelty of chaining to the unyielding disposition of a man whom she hated, a young and beautiful woman, and for purposes of family arrangement or parental ambition, dedicating her life to a reluctant discharge of duties, the obligation of which she could not perceive, and the conditions of which she could not sustain. In this speech there is no apology for vice, but an excuse for frailty, which is pleaded with great warmth of eloquence, and much energy of expression.

For a sketch of the royal and noble ancestry of Lord Erskine, we must refer our readers to the peerage of Scotland, and to the pages of Scottish and English history, for a record of those elevated situations of public trust, which his Lordship's forefathers have filled in the confidence of their respective sovereigns as privy councillors and ambassadors as their guardians during minority, and as Regents of the kingdom of Scot land. The present is not a restoration of the extinct barony, which, with the earldom of Mar, was forfeited in 1716; and of which even, if restored, another Branch of the same family, the Erskines of Man, would be the rightful heirs, although Lord Erskine is also lineally descended from the Erskines of Scotland: but was conferred upon his Lordship in consequence of the high office he was called upon to fill in the councils of his Sovereign, and in the government of the country, in February. 1806. His Lordship retains, however, the original designation of his family; a name which he has himself ennobled by great talents, sedulously employed in the courts of judicature, and, above all, by unshaken fidelity and undeviating attachment, during all the political storms of the present era to the cause of constitutional liberty.

Mr. Erskine was called to the bar in 1778; in 1783, was appointed to the Court of King's Bench, with a patent of pre

cedency; and in the same year was named Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales, on his Royal Highness assuming his establishment on coming of age. About this time Mr. Erskine was elected Representative for the borough of Portsmouth; for which he was also unanimously re-chosen in every succeeding Parliainent, until raised to the dignity of a peerage.

In 1802, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who some years before had been advised to remove Mr. Erskine from the office of his Attorney-General for refusing to give up a professional retainer at the bar, on the trial of Thomas Paine, not only restored him to the office, but revived that of Chancellor, which had been dormant from the decease of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and appointed him by patent to the office, at the same time also making him Keeper of the Seals of the Duchy of Cornwall. He continued Chancellor to the Prince of Wales until the 8th of February, 1896, when he was appointed Lord High Chanceller of Great Britain, and soon afterwards presided in Westminster Hall as the Speaker of the House of Lords, on the memorable trial of Viscount Melville. It ought not to be omitted, that, in 1804, when the ruler of the French threatened England with invasion, his Lordship feeling (to use his own words in a reply to the vote of thanks of the Law Association)“ a just reverence and affection for the institutions of our ancestors, and a proper zeal to defend them against the invaders of our country," was, with one voice, at its first formation, invited to command that highly respectable corps, and continued Colonel-Commandant until directed by his Majesty to resign his commission on becoming Chancellor.

On the death of the Marquis of Lothian, in the spring of 1815, the Prince Regent invested Lord Erskine with the Most Noble Order of the Thistle, a high mark of his Royal Highness's regard, the other eleven Knights being ali Dukes and Earls of Great Britain.

No less than five volumes of his

Lordship's admirable speeches, while at the bar, have been collected and published; but, though unquestionably authentie, they can scarcely be considered as a work of which his Lordship may be termed the Author, as they were not written by him, but delivered without having been previously composed. His only avowed publication is a Pamphlet,

which had an almost unprecedented sale, no less than Forty eight Editions having been printed within a few months after its first appearance. It is entitled "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the present War with France," and was published in the year

1797.

Few words are necessary to conclude, -Lord Erskine is a man whose splendid career at the English bar, is familiar to all; but, though all may appreciate, it is difficult to describe, the grace, the beauty, and the copiousness of his eloquence, it was totally unlike any thing in the same sphere, either before or since. The silver tones of his voice,—the lightning of his eye. the incessant blaze of his imagery, his touching appeals to the heart, and his profuse command of language, inspired every auditor with delight and rapture, or overwhelmed

with astonishment and terror. Nor was his judgment less correct than his talents were brilliant. His prudence and sagacity, as an Advocate, were as decisive as his speeches were splendid. He could discriminate with as much labour of intellect, as he could illumine by the stores of his inexhaustible fancy. Inclination, no doubt, led him to give full liberty to the excursive powers of his mind; but he had also the rare ability of minute discernment, and profound investiga. tion. In short, as an orator, he is a man formed in the "prodigality of nature," and, to whomsoever honours may be grudged, they cannot be said to have been unjustly conferred upon LORD

ERSKINE.

C.

ternal form of things, nor descend with our bodies to the tomb: but continue with us while we exist, accompany us under all the vicissitudes, not only of our natural life, but of that which is to come; secure us in the darkness of the night, and compensate for all the miseries we are doomed to suffer.

CONSEQUENCE RESULTING FROM A FASH IONABLE WASTE OF TIME.

The legions of fantastic fashions to which a man of pleasure is obliged to sacrifice his time, impair the rational faculties of his mind, and destroy the native energies of his soul. Forced continually to lend himself to the performance of a thousand little trifles, a thousand mean absurdities; he becomes by habit frivolous and absurd: the face of things no longer wears its true and genuine aspect, and his depraved taste loses all relish for rational entertainments, or substantial pleasure: the in fatuation seizes on his brain, and his corrupted heart teems with idle fancies, and vain imaginations.

ANECDOTE.

Charles XIIth, whom the Turks, when incensed by his disobedience to the Grand Seignior, called Head of Iron, shewed early symptoms of his headstrong nature; yet, in his childhood, if his preceptor named but glory, any thing could be obtained from Charles. He had a very great aversion to learning Latin; but when he was told that the kings of Poland and Denmark understood it, he began to study it in good earnest.

THE HIVE. No. XXI.

MENTAL PLEASURE.

HE streams of mental pleasures, of Twhich all men may equally partake, flow from one to the other; and that of which, we have most frequently tasted loses neither its flavour nor its virture, but frequently acquires new charms, and conveys additional pleasure the oftener it is tasted. The subjects of these pleasures are as unbounded as the reign of truth, as extensive as the world, as unlimited as the divine perfections Incorporeal pleasures, therefore, are much more durable than all others; they neither disappear with the light of the day, change with the ex

GEORGE HERBERT.

It is recorded of this gentleman, who was styled in his day the divine Herbert, and who was celebrated for his piety and his poetry, that, being prælector in the rhetoric school at Cambridge, in the year 1618, he thought proper to pass by the orators of Greece and Rome, and chose to read upon an oration of King James. In his lecture, he analysed the parts of the royal speech; he showed their connection, and he pointed out the propriety of the language, and its power to move the affections. He also illus trated the beauties of the style, which, as he very properly observed, was of a

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