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Flitch of Bacon, comic opera, acted at the Haymarket

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Shield also published a Concerto, a set of Six Canzonets, a set of Trios for two violins and a bass, and another of Duets for two violins.

Among his numerous detached Songs which still remain popular, we may mention "The Thorn," "O bring me Wine," "The Wolf," "The Heaving of the Lead," "The Post Captain," "Old Towler," and "Down the Bourne and thro' the

tune.

Mead," the last, by an unintentional compliment, being frequently found in collections of genuine Scotch songs. The words for this song were written by the composer's friend, Holcroft, who was one evening drinking tea with some friends at White-Conduit House, when the organ was playing the After they had listened some time, a person in the next box began to descant rather learnedly on the beauty of the Scotch airs, and the tenderness and simplicity of their popular poetry, bringing, as an illustration of his argument, this very ballad, neither the words nor the music of which, he said, any one living was capable of imitating. Mr. Holcroft, on this, took occasion to remark the strange force of prejudice, and, turning to the gentleman, informed him that he himself was the author of the song in question, and that the tune was composed by his friend Shield. This song had been composed for, and was originally sung at, Vauxhall, by the celebrated Nan Catley. A music-seller had procured the words and music, and had advertised them in his window to be sold. Mr. Shield was accidentally passing, saw the music in the window, and went in to demand by what right the advertiser meant to publish his property. To this he received for answer, "By a very good right, for that the music was composed by him (the vender), and that the words had been written by a friend, for Miss Catley, whom he very well knew." It was with difficulty that Mr. Shield, by informing him that he was the author of the music, prevailed on the pretended composer to relinquish his claim.

No. VI.

THE HONOURABLE SIR EDWARD WEST,

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE, AT
BOMBAY.

THE highly-gifted and estimable subject of this memoir was justly proud of his extraction; his family being ancient and distinguished, and also closely connected with some of the most distinguished names in the last century. Admiral Temple West, his grand-father, was second in command to Admiral Byng, in the action off Minorca, in which he behaved with great gallantry; and his independence and honour were evinced by his conduct during the trial of Admiral Byng, and by his subsequent letters to the Admiralty. He was afterwards one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and member for Buckingham; but died in 1757, at the early age of forty-two. He was the younger brother of the celebrated Gilbert West, the author of a translation of Pindar, but perhaps better known by his treatise on the resurrection. Admiral West married the daughter of Sir John Balchen (whose name is yet remembered with honour by naval men, but who was unfortunately lost in the Victory, in the Bay of Biscay, with all his officers and crew); and his sister married Admiral Hood, afterwards Lord Bridport. Sir Edward West's family, however, through one of his female ancestors, could boast of more remarkable alliThe mother of Gilbert West and Admiral West, was the eldest sister of the celebrated Lord Cobham; and they thereby became closely related to the noble families of Lyttleton and Grenville; and to the splendid name of Chatham. Richard Grenville married the second sister of Lord Cobham, who afterwards became in her own right Countess Temple: Lord Chatham married Hester Grenville, one of

ances.

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the issue of that marriage. Sir Thomas Lyttleton, the father of Lord Lyttleton, married the remaining sister of Lord Cobham. It was in consequence of the intimacy produced by near relationship with Gilbert West, that the first Lord Lyttleton received his religious convictions, and made himself remarkable by his treatise on the Conversion of Saint Paul. The bulk of Lord Cobham's fortune went to the Grenville family; and formed the nucleus of their gigantic property.

No considerable fortune seems to have descended to the father of Sir Edward West. He died when the subject of this memoir was very young, leaving the latter under the guardianship of his uncle, Admiral West, and Sir Martin Folkes, his maternal uncle, and the father of Lady West. Sir Edward went through the usual routine of English education. From Dr. Horne's school at Chiswick he removed to Harrow, and from Harrow to Oxford; where, by the examination which he underwent for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he obtained a distinguished reputation, both for classical and for mathematical acquirements. Finding, however, that the University of Oxford did not at that time possess competent instructors for the study of the deeper and more abstruse parts of mathematics and natural philosophy, he placed himself for a time under the tuition of Mr. Frend, the highly esteemed actuary of the Rock Life Insurance Company, who had been educated at Cambridge, and the extent of whose mathematical knowledge is well known.

Sir Edward West was elected a Fellow of University College, Oxford. Upon his marriage, which took place shortly before he sailed for India, he vacated his fellowship.

In the Temple, Sir Edward became a severe student of the law; and, being ambitious of early eminence, he made the painful sacrifice of avoiding all society, except that of his immediate friends and relations. Success followed his exertions, and he was in the receipt of a considerable income derived from his profession, when he quitted England for India. His knowledge was extensive and accurate, and his judgment sound; and in that quality which ought to be the

brightest ornament of an English barrister - disinterestedness

he was pre-eminent. His mind was set on the highest objects. It could not therefore stoop to low gains, or allow itself to be contaminated by the baseness which always attends an appetite for them.

The only legal work which he published was his Treatise on Extents. It is, however, a standard book, and placed Sir Edward West's reputation for learning and acumen on the firmest basis. He undertook it without any view of professional advantage, at a time when the subject was surrounded by difficulties of a peculiar nature. An extent, with reference to the present purpose, may be described to be an execution out of the Court of Exchequer, at the suit of the king, against the king's debtor; and it is of so summary and expeditious a nature, that in most cases the king is enabled to obtain a priority of satisfaction for his debt over all other creditors of the same debtor. The benefit of this process is also allowed to the king's debtor against his debtor, on the principle that the king may not ultimately be injured by his debtors' not having sufficient funds to pay the debt due to the king: In such cases it is called an extent in aid. It is easy to see how this principle might be abused by collusion, or by a legal fiction, to the great injury of all fair traders. The abuses, indeed, rose to such a height, that a reform was loudly called for. Mr. William Smith, the member for Norwich, undertook to introduce the necessary bills into parliament, and Sir Edward West proposed to himself the task of making the public acquainted with the practice of the Court of Exchequer on the subject. Many of Sir Edward's legal friends predicted that he would fail in his object; but his natural ardour and firmness of character overcame all the obstacles which the ancient and abstruse forms of the court, and the difficulty of access to the documents, presented.

When not engaged in business, his chief resource was the study of political economy. He commenced it shortly after quitting Oxford; and it occupied his attention, more or less, until his death. In 1815, he published his "Essay on the

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