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tem of rigid economy, and it is said even acted as tutor himself to his brothers. The system of economy which circumstances then rendered necessary, became habitual to Lord Buchan, who is now in the receipt of a considerable income.

A profession was the only resource for both the younger brothers, and it is singular that each should have been the most eloquent man, of his day, of the Bar to which he belonged. Thomas, however, was not at first destined for a learned profession; he went to sea with Sir John Lindsay, a nephew of the Earl of Mansfield; he quitted the navy, in consequence, as is said, of his slender chance of obtaining promotion in it, having never risen higher than midshipman, though he served as a lieutenant, through the friendship of his commanding officer. -Oa quitting the navy, he entered, in 1768, into the army as an ensign in the Scots Royals, or First Regiment of Foot, and continued in the service about six years. It is said that he was impelled to quit the service and betake himself to the Bar by the intreaties of his mother, who deemed this career more suitable to the genius of her son. He was about twenty-six when he conmenced his legal studies. He entered as a Fellow Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1777, and at the same time entered himself on the books of Lincoln's Inn. In order to acquire a knowledge of the technical part of his profession, he became a pupil of Judge Buller, then an eminent Special Pleader. He had to encounter all the evils of poverty during his legal studies, for he had married while a soldier, and his wife had even accompanied him to Minorca, in which island he passed three years with his regiment. On the promotion of Mr. Buller to the Bench, he went into the office of Mr. Wood, in which he continued a year after he had been in considerable business at the Bar, to which he was called in Trinity Term, 1778.

We have heard it observed, by a Barrister of great eminence, that those who enter the Bar late in life are much more likely to succeed than those who enter very early. When a suitable occasion is presented to a very young man, his want of judgment and knowledge of the world seldom allows him to avail himself of it as he ought. The mortification caused by an early unsuccessful attempt throws often a damp over the spirits against which the individual is unable to struggle. Lord Erskine, Sir Samuel Romilly, and some other distinguished names, were cited in proof of the assertion. With respect to his Lordship, he certainly contrived to signalize himself the very first

opportunity that presented itself, and that opportunity was soon afforded. Captain Baillie, who had been removed from the superintendence of Greenwich Hospital by the famous or infamous Earl of Sand. wich, then First Lord of the Admiralty, and one of the Governors of the Hospital, was charged with having published a libel on the management of that Institution, and the Attorne General was instructed to move for leave file a criminal information against him. rd Erskine, whose tact was equal to his courage, saw, that by dragging Lord Sandwich into court, the real instigator of the proceedings, though not the prosecutor, the power of the individual whom he assailed would fix the attention of the world on his first effort, and secure that sympathy which never fails to be awarded to the display of courage, while his abilities at the same time commanded their admiration. “The defendant," (Captain Baillie,) "said his Lordship, was not a disappointed malicious informer, prying into official abuses, because without office himself, but himself a man in office-not troublesomely inquisitive into other men's departments, but conscientiously correcting his own, doing it pursuant to the rules of law, and what heightens the character, doing it at the risk of his office, from which the effrontery of power has already suspended him without proof of his guilt-a conduct not only unjust and illiberal, but highly disrespectful to this Court, whose Judges sit in the double capacity of ministers of the law, and governors of this sacred and abused institution. Indeed, Lord

part

has, in my opinion, acted such a

(Here Lord Mansfield observing the Counsel heated with his subject, and growing personal on the First Lord of the Admiralty, told him Lord was not before the Court.)

"I know that he is not formally before the Court, but for that very reason I will bring him before the Court; he has placed these men in the front of the battle in hopes to escape under their shelter, but I will not join in battle with them; their vices, though screwed up to the highest pitch of human depravity, are not of dignity enough to vindicate the combat with me. I will drag him to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity. I assert that the Earl of has but one road to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace, and that is by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors and restoring Captain Baillie to his command. If he does this, then his offence will be no more than the too common one of having suffered his own personal interest to prevail over his public

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duty in placing his voters in the hospital. But if, on the contrary, he continues to protect the prosecutors in spite of the evidence of their guilt, which has excited the abhorrence of the numerous audience who crowd this Court; if he keeps this injured man suspended, or dare to turn that suspension into a removal, I shall then not scruple to declare him an accomplice in their guilt, a shameless oppressor, a disgrace to his rank, and a traitor to his trust. But, as I should be very sorry that the fortune of my brave, and honourable friend should depend either on the exercise of Lord -'s justice or the influence of his fears, I do most earnestly entreat the Court to mark the malignant object of this prosecution, and to defeat it ;-I beseech you, my Lords, to consider that even by discharging the rule, and with costs, the defendant is neither protected nor restored. I trust, therefore, your Lordships will not rest satisfied with fulfilling your judicial duty; but as the strongest evidence of the foulest abuses has by accident come collaterally before you, that you protect a brave and publicspirited officer from the persecution this writing has brought upon him, and not suffer so dreadful an example to go abroad into the world, as the ruin of an upright man for having faithfully discharged his duty."

We have heard it said that circumstances peculiarly favoured the daring of Lord Erskine; that Lord Mansfield, though an artful, as well as able and eloquent man, was at the same time nervous and timid, as was proved by his excessive dread of Lord Chatham, who was inferior to himself in intellectual power, though so much superior in courage'; and that if he had made a similar attempt to defy Lord Ellenborough, whose displeasure no one ever encountered without suffering from it, he would have been unsuccessful. But we think they who come to this conclusion, do not make sufficient allowance either for the peculiar buoyancy and energy of Lord Erskine's character, or the deficiency in courage in those over whom Lord Ellenborough tyrannized. We do not believe that he could have trampled on Lord Erskine, any more than he could have trampled on Sir Samuel Romilly.

It is not our intention to follow Lord Erskine through his long and arduous forensic and political life. In this brief sketch we can merely notice some of its leading features. But, indeed, the public are too familiar with the splendid part he has acted, to render it necessary for us to enter with any particularity into his history.

His name will always be associated

with the liberty of the press, which he may be said to have preserved. When he commenced his career, a system was in force and gaining strength, which would have soon deprived Englishmen of all that they had to distinguish them above other nations. The power claimed by the Judges of limiting the Juries to the mere fact of publication, and deciding themselves on the character of the writing before the Court, would have soon rendered freedom of discussion a mere name. Till the accession of George the Third, the Crown was on the side of liberty from the dread of a Pretender, but that danger to kingly power removed, the consequences which might have been anticipated followed. Shortly after this critical period of our history, Lord Erskine appeared, and in a succession of battles he nobly combated the spirit of the new æra, and at last secured to the Juries the decision of the law as well as the fact-a point which would be of the greatest con sequence, were it not for the power which the Crown has obtained of influencing the nomination of juries.

This combat, on one occasion we can. not pass over, as it serves particularly to illustrate that quality for which Lord Erskine was so distinguished. On the trial of the venerable Dean of St. Asaph, (1784,) who has survived his advocate, Judge Buller endeavoured to bully the jury into a verdict favourable to his views

Lord Erskine entered the lists with him, and was triumphant. The following is a specimen of the dialogue which passed between the parties:

"Mr. Justice Buller: I will take the verdict as they mean to give it; it shall not be altered. Gentlemen, if I understand you right, your verdict is this-yon . mean to say guilty of publishing this libel? -A Juror No: the pamphlet; we do not decide upon its being a libel.

"Mr. Justice Buller: You say he is guilty of publishing the pamphlet, and the meaning of the inuendoes is as stated in the indictment ?—A Juror: Certainly,

"Mr. Erskine: Is the word only to stand part of your verdict?-A Juror : Certainly.

"Mr. Erskine: Then I insist it shall be recorded.

"Mr. Justice Buller: Then the verdict must be misunderstood. Let me understand the Jury.

"Mr. Erskine: The Jury do understand their verdict.

"Mr. Justice Buller: Sir, I will not be interrupted.

"Mr. Erskine: I stand here as an Advocate for a brother citizen, and I desire that the word only may be recorded.

"Mr. Justice Buller: "Sit down, Sir;

remember your duty, or I shall be obliged to proceed in another manner.

"Mr. Erskine: Your Lordship may proceed in what manner you think fit: I know my duty as well as your Lordship knows yours. I shall not alter ny con duct."

Nothing can be more noble than the allusion to the threat of the Judge, with which he concluded his argument :

"It was the first command and counsel of my youth, always to do what my conscience told me to be my duty; and to leave the consequences to God. I shall carry with me the memory, and I trust the practice, of this parental lesson tó the grave. I have hitherto followed it, and have no reason to complain that my obedience to it has been even a temporal sacrifice. I have found it, on the con trary, the road to prosperity and wealth; and I shall point it out as such to my children."

While alluding to his Lordship's bril liant services in behalf of the liberty of the press, we cannot help adverting to a eircumstance which proves how much he identified himself with the press. During the short period of his Chancellorship, when the Whigs were in power, only two livings of any value fell to his disposal. The very first, one between £300 and £400, he gave to the Rev. John Moir, who became unable from defective vision from continuing to execute an engagement he had long had on The Morning Chronicle. Lord Erskine, during Lord Melville's trial, seeing his friend, the late Mr. Perry, whom he greatly loved and esteemed, at the Bar of the House of Lords, he went up to him and gave him the presentation for Mr. Moir, observing that he had lost no time in discharging what he considered a sacred duty, to avoid the importunities of other and more powerful connexions, whose knowledge the circumstance had not reached.

His exertions in rescuing Hardy, Tooke and others, in 1794, from an attempt which, if successful, might have been attended with the most dangerous conse quences to the liberty of the subject, ought always to be remembered with gratitude by Englishmen.

Of Lord Erskine, as a forensic orator, it is impossible to speak too highly. Perhaps he was the most powerful Advocate the Bar of England ever possessed. Foreigners were particularly struck with the elegance of his manner, which was aided by a noble and commanding figure, and by a voice so flexible that it lent itself to every shade of feeling. We remember a distinguished foreigner, the Chancellor of a Continental University, remarks that VOL. XIX.

H

Erskine was the only speaker he heard in England who struck him as possessing elegance of action and a melodious voice.

As a man he was generous and kindhearted. The world are sufficiently ac quainted with his little indiscretions, which were injurious to himself alone. Prudence is the virtue of age, but Lord Erskine was a young man in disposition to the last. He had a buoyancy of spirits very rare in this country.

His delicacy was very great. An unfortunate purchase of an estate, which, from the fall in the value of land, especially of a poor soil, became of little value to him, though he had paid a large sum for it, and a large family of sons and grand-children dependent on him, enbarrassed him greatly towards the latter years of his life. But he cautiously concealed his difficulties from those who would have been proud to assist him. We have a striking case of this in our eyc.

With all his knowledge of character, it would appear he was weak enough to expect that gratitude could lodge in a royal bosom. He was mistaken with respect to the general principle peculiarly unfortunate in this particular instance.

In his manner he was distinguished by candour and frankness. He had nothing of the cold and studied manner characteric of the English Aristocracy. But though he was easy and kind in his manner, he was never undignified. He was the last man that any one would have presumed to take an improper liberty with. He had the ease of a man who never dreamt that any one would think of encroaching on him. How far he owed his superiority over the other men of his rank in this respect to kindness and warmth of heart, or to his schooling in the world, in which he had to fight his way without any of the advantages which men of family usually have, and consequently could hardly fail to appreciate kindred worth and talents, it would be difficult to say. That his friendships were not confined to rank is well known. We believe the late Mr. Perry, from a very early period, to the end of his life, shared more of his regard than any individual of this metropolis, not peculiarly connected with him.

It was impossible to know Lord Erskine, and not think of him with kindbess. Peace to his memory.-Morning Chron.

His remains were conveyed from Almondale, on the 28th, and interred in the ancient family vault at Uphall Church. The funeral was private, the body being conveyed in a hearse drawn by six horses,

which was followed only by the family carriages and those of a few private friends.

His Lordship was author of many works of temporary interest. His pamphlet entitled "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the present War with France," which appeared in 1797, had such an unprecedented sale, that forty-eight editions were printed within a few months after publication. His Lordship was one of the vice-presidents of the African Institution.

We subjoin the character of this eminent man from the able pen of the

"Scotsman.”

"At an early period, we have no doubt, the genius that still remains in Scotland will endeavour to do justice to the genius which our country has just lost; but though by no means so presumptuous as to make the attempt ourselves, it would be strange, as well as mean, if we could allow a publication to pass, after the demise of the most illustrious of our countrymen, without adding one word to the common-place expressions of regret. The deprivation, though it has come upon us suddenly, is one which, from the course of nature, was contemplated as not far distant; and yet, we are sure, it will be jong before it be duly appreciated, if the age, in its present state, be at all capable of appreciating what was, in the high. est degree, noble aud magnauimous. It appears to us that the public mind is either sunk into apathy or has become sordidly callous; for the stupid, vulgar and half-superstitious wonder so recently displayed, is only a proof of general degradation. But it is impossible, we should imagine, that the public can, for a single moment, think of having lost one who was full of sympathy for all that was great and good, without experiencing-it must be-a return of all their better feelings. There is not a bosom, certainly, that has ever been animated with the love of liberty, nor a head that has ever perceived the value of freedom, that will not mourn over the remains of Thomas Erskine a name incomparably and inexpressibly more ennobled by the splendid exertions of its owner in the great cause of humanity, than it is by a well-won patent of nobility, or than it could have been by all the honours and orders which could have been heaped upon it by all the Potentates of Europe. The merits of Lord Erskine are bound up with the history of England. When her laws and institutions were about to be laid prostrate at the feet of enraged power-and when all was servile and corrupt around him-it may be said that he alone stood upright, and

threw himself forward unhesitatingly, ei. ther to vindicate the freedom of thought and action, or to fall the victim of his own generosity. The task he had undertaken was appalling-but his choice proceeded from an inherent greatness of soul, which enlarged itself in proportion as his labours and difficulties increased. His exertions were stupendous-at times almost miraculous-but the cause in which he was embarked sustained not only his intellectual, but also his physical strength, His powers grew with the occasions which called for their exercise, until, compared with those that were near him in his own sphere, he appeared omnipotent. Uniting Scottish ardour and English solidity with Irish buoyancy and enthusiasm, he was comparatively irre sistible-the envious only could pretend that the brilliancy of his fancy obscured or warped his judgment. There was a moral grandeur in his nature, which gave him, as it were intuitively, a perception of all that was just and fitting in sentiment; and, in the conduct of an argu ment, this guide-the most invaluable an orator can possess -never forsook him. This fancy was never kindled, but his moral sentiments were also awakened, and his judgment kept on the alert; and from this exquisite balance of his imagi nation, judgment and feelings, arose the great superiority-the magical effects of his eloquence. But although, upon this theme, we could write without end; and, as we do now, hurriedly and literally without study, we have neither time nor limits to do more than quote a passage from one of his own speeches. Upon the principle on which the Attorney-Ge neral prays sentence upon my clientGod have mercy upon us!-instead of standing before him in judgment with the hopes and consolations of Christians, we must call upon the mountains to cover us; for which of us can present for om niscient examination, a pure, unspotted and faultless course? But I humbly ex pect that the benevolent Author of our being will judge us as I have been pointing out for your example. Holding up the great volume of our lives in his hands, and regarding the general scope of them;-if he discovers benevolence, charity and good-will to man beating in the heart, where he alone can look ;if he finds that our conduct, though often forced out of the path by our infirmities, has been in general well directed, his allsearching eye will assuredly never pursue us into those little corners of our lives, much less will his justice select them for punishment, without the general context of our existence, by which faults

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may be sometimes found to have grown out of virtues, and very many of our heaviest offences to have been grafted by human imperfections upon the best and kindest of our affections. No, Gentlemen, believe me, this is not the course of divine justice, or there is no truth in the gospels of heaven. If the general tenor of a man's conduct be such as I have represented it, he may walk through the shadow of death, with all his faults about him, with as much cheerfulness as in the common paths of life; because he knows, that instead of a stern accuser to expose before the Author of his nature those frail passages, which, like the scored matter in the book before you, chequers the volume of the brightest and best-spent life, his mercy will obscure them from the eye of his purity, and our repentance blot them out for ever."". II. 269-271.

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November 28, at Collumpton, aged 66, WILLIAM BROWN, Esq. In his family he was kind and affectionate, and iniuutely attentive to the wants and wish es of those about him. As a man of business and a member of society he was active, benevolent and eminently upright. In him poverty and distress had a kind and considerate helper and protector, friendship an intelligent and judicious counsellor, freedom a steady and ener getic supporter, and Unitarian Christianity a consistent and zealous friend, whose practice did credit to his principles. În early life he attended the Established Church, but by inquiry he became a Dissenter and a Unitarian, and he was one of the earliest members of the Western Unitarian Society. His attendance on public worship was regular and punctual, and when the society with which he was connected, was without a minister, or whenever the settled minister was either indisposed or absent, he was at hand to conduct the religious services, in a serious and acceptable manuer; an example which has obtained, and, it is hoped, will still obtain, many imi

tators. He was a liberal contributor not only to the Unitarian Sunday School, but, also, to the school, established in the town, for the education of the poor generally. The respected subject of this notice was a man of lively sensibilities, and, as in his best days he fully partook of the rich and pure enjoyments of the family and friendly circle, so, when assailed by the trials and disappointments and sorrows of life, his feelings were acutely painful, especially on the loss of an adopted and beloved nephew, [Mon. Repos. XIII. 526,] who was every way worthy of this distinction and of the

warm affection of all who knew his worth and high promise, which produced a deep and lasting impression. Yet, whether the sun shone or the storm raged, he maintained his integrity and never allowed his consistency, political or religious, to be shaken. And, looking to his life and conversation, the encouraging hope is entertained, that he is now removed to that state where the changes and griefs of mortality are done away, and to that "rest which remaineth for the people of God."

D.

Mr. CROSSKEY, of Lewes, and eldest Dec. 17, at Ditchling, MARIA, wife of daughter of Mr. Browne, of the former place. A more striking instance of the transient state of man could be scarcely offered to the consideration and sympathy of mortals. This victim of untimely having been a wife only six months. death was cut down at the age of 23, Bright and vernal were the prospects of of life appeared strewed with flowers. the happy pair. The remaining journey She possessed the universal esteem of her her relatives, and the devoted fondness acquaintance, the warmest affection of of her husband. It would be impossible to afford a more illustrative proof of the power of religion on the mind, in the trying hours of decay, than that which was displayed by our departed sister. When the bright lustre languished in her eye, it still beamed with a saint-like pa tience and pious resignation to the will hectic, sat unusual peace and composure. of heaven; on the cheek now pale, then From childhood she had given her hand Unitarian views and principles of religion to religion and her heart to God. The she had imbibed and cherished, respecting the placability and parental character of God; the consolation that, though death was about to separate her from all that was most dear to her on earth, in bridal hour, yet, that all is under the the very prime of life, and almost in the unerring direction of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness; the retrospect of a life, which, though short, was well spent ; the silent armed death of his sting and disease of whispers of an approving conscience, dis its pain.

J. D.

24, at Chatham, aged 46 years, Mrs. SARAH HOSMER, wife of Mr. Daniel HOSMER, of Smarden, in Kent, a woman' much beloved and respected. Almost the whole of her life was spent in the country, and possessing a mind susceptible of vivid impressions from surrounding ob

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