of the Royal Arms, and surmounted by an Imperial Crown,) and the Crown's and cushions were laid upon the coffin.

His Majesty, the Chief Mourner, sat on a chair of state, at the head of the corpse, and the Supporters stood on each side. Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex, Prince George of Cumberland, the Duke of Gloucester, and Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, were seated near his Majesty. The Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household took his place at the feet of the corpse; and the Supporters and Assistant Supporters of the Pall and of the Canopy arranged themselves on each side of the Royal Body. The Peers, Assistants to the Chief Mourner, arranged themselves behind the Princes of the Blood Royal. The Peers bearing the Banners were placed on each side below the altar. During the service, the Knights of the Garter present occupied their respective stalls, with the exception of the Duke of Wellington, who bore the Sword of State; the Duke of Beaufort, one of the Supporters to the Chief Mourner, and the Peers who supported the pall. The Ministers of State, the Great Officers of the Household, the Nobility, Bishops, Privy Councillors, Judges, and Law Officers, were placed in the vacant and intermediate stalls, and in the lower seats on each side of the choir. The Grooms of the Bedchamber, Gentlemen Ushers of the Privy-chamber, Equerries, and others, composing the Procession, were arranged on each side of the altar, on which was placed the gold plate of the Chapels Royal.

The part of the service before the interment and the anthem being performed, the Royal Body was deposited in the vault; and the service being concluded, his Majesty, the Chief Mourner, was conducted from the choir to the chapterroom of the Chapel, preceded by the Sword of State. After a short pause, Sir George Nayler, Garter Principal King of Arms, pronounced near the grave the styles of his late Most Sacred Majesty, of blessed memory, as follows::-"Thus it hath pleased Almighty God to take out of this transitory life, unto His Divine Mercy, the late Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, GEORGE THE FOURTH, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter; King of Hanover, and Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh. Let us humbly beseech Almighty God to bless and preserve with long life, health, and honour, and all worldly happiness, the Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, Our Sovereign Lord WILLIAM THE FOURTH, now by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter; King of Hanover, and Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh. GOD SAVE KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH !"

After which the Marquis of Conyngham, Lord Steward of the Household to his late Majesty, and the other Officers of his late Majesty's Household, broke their staves of office, and kneeling near the grave, deposited the same in the royal vault; whereupon their Royal Highnesses the Princes of the Blood Royal, the Great Officers of State, Nobility, and others, who had composed the Procession, retired.

The Knights of the several Orders, present on the occasion, wore their respective Collars, with white rosettes. In pursuance of his Majesty's order, the Great Officers of State, his Majesty's Ministers, and the Officers of the Royal Household, appeared in their state uniforms, with black waistcoats, breeches, stockings, and buckles, uniform swords with crape, and black feathers in their hats.

The officers of the Army and Navy appeared in full dress uniforms, with

the mourning directed to be worn by them at Court. The Bishops appeared in their rochets; the Peers, eldest Sons of Peers, Privy Councillors, and others, not included in the Royal order, appeared in full dress black.

The Procession, from the Royal Apartments to the Choir of St. George's Chapel, was flanked by the Grenadiers of the Foot Guards, every fourth man bearing a flambeau. From four o'clock in the morning until nine in the evening guns were fired at intervals of five minutes, and from nine o'clock until the conclusion of the ceremony minute guns were fired.

187

No. V.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JOHN FREEMAN MITFORD,

BARON REDESDALE, OF REDESDALE, IN NORTHUMBERLAND; A PRIVY COUNCILLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, A LORD OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS, F. R. S. AND F. s. a.

OUR ancient nobility consisted solely of men of the sword.

In ages of anarchy and confusion the feudal baron was necessarily a warrior; and contests among individuals, as between nations, were regularly decided by an appeal to arms. In this state of society, every great proprietor of land, immured within a castle, defended by battlements and surrounded by a moat, considered himself as the governor of a fortress, which he defended sometimes against his neighbours, and sometimes against his sovereign. But, happily for the nation, the times are altered; and civilisation has produced, not only security, but a far more liberal cast of manners. The arts and sciences, alike unknown and uncultivated during the barbarous periods to which we have alluded, have since reared their heads: military merit is still estimated, indeed; but civil virtue and talents, also, are now respected and promoted. On turning over the list of modern peers, and looking into their descent, it will be found that a large portion of them have been indebted for their elevation to the law. A call to the bar presupposes a liberal education, as well as considerable attainments; and an eminence at it is sure, sooner or later, to lead to fortune, and frequently to hereditary honours. The student's gown gives way to that of the barrister, the stuff to the silken robe; and that, in its turn, is, in due process of time,

exchanged for the judge's ermine. To two great officers of the law in England, -the Lord Chancellor and the Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, the dignity of the peerage, has, of late years, been generally annexed; and to a third, the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, it has been occasionally appended. In Ireland also, we believe, the Lord Chancellor has usually attained the rank of nobility in that country; although, until of late years, he was never a member of the British peerage.

John Mitford, Lord Redesdale, was born on the 18th of August, 1748. His family appears to have been of considerable antiquity in the north of England; for Sir John Mitford, knight, was lord of Mitford Castle, in the county of Northumberland, so early as the time of William the Conqueror. As he left no male issue, two collateral branches succeeded; the elder was related by means of an intermarriage of his only daughter with the Bertrams, barons of Mitford; while the younger produced the Mitfords of Rolleston; the representative of whom, Robert de Mitford, received a grant of the ancient inheritance of the castle above-mentioned from the Crown, so late as the reign of Charles II. William Mitford, of Newton House, in the county of Kent, Esq., the fifth in descent from Robert, had an heir, John, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Edwards, of Wingfield, in Berkshire, and of London, merchant. This gentleman was a member of Lincoln's Inn, and married Philadelphia, daughter of William Reveley, of Newby Wisk, in Yorkshire, Esq., and a first cousin to Hugh duke of Northumberland; whose mother, Mrs. Smithson, was also a Philadelphia, daughter of William Reveley, Esq., and was aunt to Mrs. Mitford. They had two sons the elder the celebrated historian of Greece, who died in 1827;* the younger the subject of the present

memoir.

Having received his education at Winchester School, and New College, Oxford, Mr. Mitford determined to follow the

* See the index to the 12th volume of "The Annual Biography and Obituary."

profession of his father, who died when he was only fourteen years of age. He accordingly became a student at the Temple, and in due course of time was called to the bar. Having attached himself to the Chancery bar, he soon acquired great facility in the technical forms incident to a Court of Equity. Such indeed became his proficiency, that he was supposed to be better acquainted with the nature of the proceedings, the remedial application of them, and the scope and intent of that conscientious species of justice which is calculated to interpose, and soften the rigours of the law, than any other man in England. So early as in the year 1782, he published "A Treatise of Pleadings in Suits in the Court of Chancery by English bill." Another edition was printed in 1787, and a third, we believe, in 1804. Of this work, it has been observed by a legal critic, "that the author has deduced, in an enlarged analytical method, a rational system of that branch of the practice of the Court of Chancery; illustrated and supported throughout by references to the authorities of rules, order, and determinations of the Court, in the matters incident to that branch of its jurisdiction."

Mr. Mitford's labours were crowned with the most complete success; for he, together with a late Lord Chancellor of England, led in that court, in which one of them was destined afterwards to preside. A situation so distinguished as that of leader in the Chief Court of Equity, soon conferred upon him eminence and wealth. He obtained a silk gown, and with it all the advantages arising from the office of King's counsel.

By the interest of his cousin, the Duke of Northumberland, Mr. Mitford was, in 1788, returned member of Parliament for the borough of Beeralston; for which place he was reelected in July, 1789, having vacated his seat by accepting the office of a Welsh judge, on which occasion he was nominated one of the Judges of the Grand Sessions for the counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and Carmarthen.

*The Earl of Eldon.