very speech which the King himself delivered from the throne, and which Thurlow, on bended knees, put into the King's hand, his Majesty was made to say, "I have observed, with the utmost satisfaction, that you have made provision for the reduction of the present national debt, and established a permanent system for preventing the dangerous accumulation of debt in future,"—although it was the scheme which the "keeper of the royal conscience" had so violently opposed, and for opposing which he had received notice to quit his office. The last time he ever spoke in public as Chancellor was in proroguing the parliament, by his Majesty's command, till the 30th day of August then next.*

As soon as this ceremony had been performed, he drove to St. James's Palace, where a council was held, and he surrendered the

Great Seal to his Majesty,-having the mortification to see [JUNE 15.]

Sir James Eyre, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir William Ashurst, a Judge of the King's Bench, and Sir John Wilson, a Judge of the Common Pleas, in attendance to receive it as Lords Commissioners. Resignation of office into the hands of the Sovereign by a Ministry retiring in a body, though not a joyous scene, is attended with some consolations. They probably feel, in common, that they have fought a good fight; they know that the same fate has overtaken all; and their misfortune is not only softened by mutual sympathy, but by the prospect of going together into opposition, and of returning together into place. Poor Thurlow was now a solitary outcast; he had brought his disgrace upon himself by his own waywardness and intemperance; he had no question to agitate before the public; he had no political party to associate with; he had lost the pleasures of office, without the excitement of opposition; and hope even was gone, for there was no conceivable turn of parties that could ever again bring power within his reach. When he drove home from St. James's to Great Ormond Street without the Great Seal, which had been his beloved companion so many years, he must have been a good deal dejected.-The only boon bestowed upon him was a remainder of his peerage to the sons of his two brothers,t-and no ray of kingly favour ever after shone upon him for the rest of his days.

:

He soon comported himself, however, with apparent firmness, and he showed a friendly and generous disposition by the advice he now gave to Sir John Scott, the Attorney-General, who, having been advanced by him, wished to share his fall. "Stick by Pitt," said the retiring Chancellor he has tripped up my heels, and I would have tripped up his if I could. I confess I never thought the King would have parted with me so easily. My course is run, and for the future I shall remain neutral. But you must on no account resign: I will not listen for a moment to such an idea. We should be looked on as a couple of fools! Your pro29 Parl. Hist. 1555.

On the 12th of June, 1792, he was created Baron Thurlow of Thurlow, in the county of Suffolk, with remainder, on failure of his own heirs male, to the heirs male of his brother the Bishop, and John Thurlow, Esq.

motion is certain, and it shall not be baulked by any such whimsical proceeding." It is creditable to both, that, in the party vicissitudes which followed, their intimacy and cordiality remained unabated.

CHAPTER CLXI.

CONCLUSION OF THE LIFE OF LORD THURLOW.

OUR ex-Chancellor was at this time only sixty years of age, with an [A. D. 1792, 1793.] unbroken constitution. Considering his abilities and reputation, he might, as an independent member of the legislature, have had great weight, and he might have continued to fill a considerable space in the public eye-being of some service to his country, and laying the foundation of some additional claim to the respect of posterity. But with his office he seemed to have lost all his energy. When he again entered the House of Lords, he was like a dethroned sovereign, and he could not bear his diminished consequence. Seen without his robes, without his great wig, sitting obscurely on a back bench instead of frowning over the assembly from the woolsack,-the Peers were astonished to discover that he was an ordinary mortal, and were inclined to revenge themselves for his former arrogance by treating him with neglect. Finding his altered position so painful, he rarely took any part in the business of the House, and he might almost be considered as having retired from public life. He had a very favourable opportunity of improving our institutions, and correcting the abuses in the law which he had observed in his long experience; but he would as soon have thought of bringing in bills to alter the planetary system, or to soften the severity of the climate,-for he either believed what was established was perfect, or that the evils experienced in the administration of justice were necessary and ought to be borne without murmuring. Almost the only subject which excited him was the attempt to abolish the slave trade," a dangerous sentimentality," which he continued to resist and to reprobate.

He now spent the greatest part of his time at a villa he had purchased near Dulwich. The taste which, in early life, he had contracted for classical literature, proved during some months a resource to him. But reading without any definite object he found tiresome, and [A. D. 1793.] he is said to have suffered much from the tedium vita. His principal relief was in getting young lawyers to come to him in the evening to tell him what had been going on in the Court of Chancery in the morning; and he was in the habit of censuring very freely the decisions of his successors.*

* Mr. Leach, afterwards Sir John, and Master of the Rolls, was his chief reporter. It is curious that Mr. James Allen Park, afterwards a Judge, acted in the same capacity to Lord Mansfield when retired from the Court of King's Bench.

For a few years he pretty regularly attended the hearing of appeals and writs of error in the House of Lords, but refused to come any longer.* Having no pension or retired allowance, he did not consider that the public had any claim upon his time:† he could not well endure to appear as a subordinate where he had so long dictated; and as there was no reasonable prospect of his return to office, he was indifferent about keeping up his law by acting as a Judge. In January, 1793, his mortification was increased by seeing the Great Seal in the possession of his rival Wedderburn, on the secession of a large section of the Whig party from Mr. Fox-an event to which Thurlow's own retirement had materially contributed.

An attempt was made to bring him back to the Cabinet as President of the Council,-which is referred to in the following letter from the Earl of Carlisle to the new Chancellor :

"My dr L,

"I forgot to mention to you that on Thursday I found the P. extremely hot upon a project that I think right to advertise you of, though perhaps by this time it may be no longer in his thoughts. He was prodigiously bent upon making La Thurlow President, and seemed very desirous to know your ideas upon this subject. He is immediately to go to the K. upon it: in short, he has settled the business with his usual ease and quickness. You will be able to judge whether this springs from himself, or whether it rises from another source: you know he has been living lately with your predecessor. If he (Ld. T.) can digest what indeed he brought upon himself, he is a match for an ostrich: but that is his affair. To talk of business of almost equal importance, I think your cook did very well yesterday.

"Ever yours, my d' La, most aff3,

"C."*

But the Prince had thought no more of this scheme, or it had been disliked by the parties interested; for Thurlow never tasted office more, although he had very little relish for a private station. When he showed himself in the house, he was observed to look sulky and discontented. He was even at a loss where to seat himself, for he hated equally the Government and the Opposition. He took no part in the important debates which arose on the French Revolution, or on the origin of the war with the French Republic. In the session of 1793 he contented himself with opposing a bill to increase the sum for which a debtor might

* I have been favoured with the perusal of a large collection of letters which he wrote when ex-Chancellor to Sir Ilay Campbell, the Lord President of the Court of Session, respecting the Scotch cases before the House, showing a very creditable anxiety to obtain information and to arrive at a just decision, but they are of too technical a nature to be generally interesting.

Although there was then no parliamentary retired allowance for ex-Chancellors, they were better off than at present. Thurlow was a Teller of the Exchequer, and had given sinecures to all his relations, for one of which his nephew now receives a commutation of 9000l. a year.

Rosslyn MSS.; indorsed, in handwriting of Lord Loughborough, "E. of Carlisle, 1793."

be arrested from 107. to 207.,* and expressing an opinion that there is no appeal in criminal cases from the Courts in Scotland to the House of Lords. In the beginning of the following year he re[JAN. 1794.] sisted the attempt that was made to obtain a reversal of the atrocious sentence of transportation passed by the Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, on Muir, for advocating parliamentary reform.‡

Out of office he continued a warm partisan of Mr. Hastings, although he could hardly have expected that the aged and vituperated ex-Governor General could now be set up as a rival to Mr. Pitt.

Thurlow's zeal in defeating the impeachment was heightened by his antipathy to Burke, with whom he continued from time to time to have 66 passages of arms." A Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to inquire into the causes of the length of the trial, having presented an elaborate Report drawn by the chief manager, which reflected with severity upon the manner in which the Lords had conducted the proceedings, and particularly their practice of deciding all questions upon the admissibility of evidence according to the rules of the common law as declared by the Judges,§ the ex-Chancellor loudly complained of it as a libel on the House of Lords, denominating it "a scurrilous pamphlet, published by one Debrett in Piccadilly," which had that day been put into his hands, reflecting highly upon the Judges and many members of that House. He said "it was indecent and disgraceful, and such as ought not to pass unpunished, as it villified and misrepresented the conduct of judges and magistrates intrusted with the administration of criminal justice, an offence of a very heinous nature,-tending with the ignorant and the wicked to lessen the respect due to the law itself."

We have a fuller account of Burke's retaliation next day in the House of Commons. After stating the attack made on "the pamphlet published by one Debrett in Piccadilly," he said, "I think it impossible, combining all the circumstances, not to suppose that this speech does reflect upon a Report which, by order of the committee on which I served, I had the honour to present to this House. For any thing improper in that Report, I and the other members of the committee are responsible to this House, and to this House only. I am of opinion, with the eminent person by whom that Report is censured, that it is necessary at this time very particularly to preserve the authority of the Judges. But

30 Parl. Hist. 650.

† Ib. 928.

20 Parl. Hist. 1302, 1304. The trials which took place in Scotland about that time cannot now be read without amazement and horror,-mixed with praises to Heaven that we live in better times. In the year 1834, being a candidate to represent the city of Edinburgh in parliament, I was reproached for not being sufficiently liberal in my opinions. I said truly, that, although Attorney General to the Crown, I had uttered sentiments for which, forty years before, I should have been sent to Botany Bay. "The Martyrs' Monument,' on the Calton Hill, erected to the memory of Muir and his companions, is a striking proof of the servitude of a former generation, and of the freedom of the present.

31 Parl. Hist. 288.

the Report does not accuse the Judges of ignorance or corruption. Whatover it says, it does not say calumniously. This kind of

language belongs to those whose eloquence entitles them [A. D. 1795.] to a free use of epithets. It is necessary to preserve the respect due to the House of Lords; it is full as necessary to preserve the respect due to the House of Commons, upon which (whatever may be thought of us by some persons) the weight and force of all authorities within this kingdom essentially depend. The Report states grave cause of complaint, to the prejudice of those whom we represent. Our positions we support by reason and precedent, and no sentiment which we have expressed am I disposed to retract or to soften. Whenever an occasion shall be regularly given for discussing the merits of the Report, I shall be ready in its defence to meet the proudest name for ability, learning, or reputation which this kingdom can send forth.”*

Thurlow remained quiet till the trial was at last to close; and the arraignment having taken place before one generation, the judgment was to be pronounced by another. One hundred and sixty Peers had walked in the procession the first day, and only twenty-nine voted on the question of guilty or not guilty. "The Great Seal was borne before Loughborough, who, when the trial commenced, was a fierce opponent of Mr. Pitt's government; while Thurlow, who presided in the court when it first sat, estranged from his old allies, sat scowling among the junior Barons."+

But when the debates upon the merits began among the Lords themselves, in their own chamber, the ex-Chancellor's pugnacity returned in full vigour, and he valiantly assailed his successor, who, formerly and still closely connected by party ties with Mr. Burke, contended that all the charges except three were fully established. Thurlow treated all these arguments with contempt, and insisted that even the charges on which six Peers said "Guilty," were either entirely frivolous, or unsupported by a shred of evidence. He had, on this occasion, not only the majority of the House, but the voice of the public on his side, there having been for some time a strong reaction against the accusation; and he must have enjoyed a great triumph in being present while Lord Loughborough was compelled to announce the acquittal, and to behold the triumphant Hastings, still standing at the bar, overwhelmed with congratulations.‡

The vulgar, who do not penetrate the workings of the human heart, were astonished now to discover that Thurlow, who had been a furious ultra-Tory, was beginning to incline to the liberal side in politics. He was taken into favour by the Prince of Wales; he formed an intimacy with Lord Moira, a leader of the Carlton House party, and he was even disposed to cultivate the acquaintance of Mr. Fox. There is nothing so effectual to reconcile old political, and even personal enmities, as a common hatred of the Minister for the time being. "Idem sentire de rerum * 31 Parl. Hist. 605-609. Macaulay's Essays, iii. 456. Trial of Warren Hastings, published by Debrett, 1797; Mill's History of India, vol. v. c. 2.