be that of Mr. Montague, brother to Lord Sand- His great delight was to find himself in a wich, who, being at home, very politely, without circle of lawyers, or common-place politicians, knowing his lordship, conducted him about the and to indulge in boisterous mirth and coarse apartments, which were perfectly elegant; and jocularity. He seems himself to have possessed expatiated on the pictures, some of which a rich fund of humor. Many of his sayings were capital. Among these were two fe- and stories used to be repeated by young students, male figures, beautifully painted, in all their na- when 'Twas merry in the hall, and beards wagtive naked charms. "These ladies," says the ged all, but would not be found suited to the master of the house, "you must certainly know, more refined taste of the present age. He likefor they are most striking likenesses." On the wise indulged in a bad habit which seems to guest's expressing his perfect ignorance, "Why, have been formerly very general, and which I where the devil have you led your life, or what recollect when it was expiring of interlarding company have you kept," says the Captain, "not conversation with oaths and imprecations as into know Fanny Murray and Kitty Fisher, with tensitives-even without any anger or excitement. whose persons I thought no fashionable man like But in spite of these faults, into which he was led you could be unacquainted ?" On the visitor's by the fashion of the times, he was a strictly taking leave, and saying, "I shall be glad to re-moral, and even a religious man. He continued turn your civilities at Wimple," what surprise and to live on terms of the utmost affection and haiconfusion did he express on his discovering he mony with his wife.' had been talking all this badinage to Lord Hardwicke-Vol. V., p. 165. Lord Campbell dismisses this chapter with triumphant decision 'He was one of the handsomest men of his time, and bestowed great attention to his appearance and dress. There were reports circulated of his gallantries with a Lady B, and with the celebrated Mrs. Wells; but for these there was as little foundation as for his conjectured in timacy with Fanny Murray and Kitty Fisher. He was a perfect pattern not only of temperance and sobriety, but also of conjugal fidelity.* เ Lord Campbell dismisses this drinking, swearing, indecent, but strictly moral and religious Chancellor, by saying that even his dying words to his daughters were too gross to be printed; but on the other hand He was noted as a very steady and consistent politician, so that he did not derive the same benefit from the oblivion of his harangues which might have been enjoyed by some of his successors, who, in the discussion of important questions, have spoken with equal ability on both sides.'-Vol. V., p. 182. Of Northington, also, we are told that The stiff and sanctimonious King, the so'he was a remarkably handsome man in his lemn Camden, the brilliant Charles Yorke, person;' but nothing occurs as to love mat- and the prematurely and proverbially grave ters except a somewhat romantic attach- Bathurst, pass before us without speck; but ment' at Bath, of which from his rattling, there is an extract from the private Diary of reckless manner, and his being a professed the first of these which (since we have got votary of the god "ever fair and ever into love-stories) may not unsuitably be young," he was supposed to be incapable, but which led to a very happy wedding' (vol. V., p. 179). He had been a right potent toper both at All Souls and in the Temple: He afterwards so far reformed as not to allow his love of wine very seriously to interfere with the pressing business of life, but many a severe fit of the gout was the result of his youth ful indulgences. He was once heard, in the House of Lords, to mutter, after several hobbling and painful walks, with the purse in his hand, between the woolsack and the bar-If I had only known that these legs were one day to carry a Lord Chancellor, I'd have taken better care of them when I was a lad. quoted here. If Lord King's Diary contains many more passages of the like curiosity, it surely deserves to be published :--- Monday, 2nd September, 1729, went to town. The next day saw the Queen at Court; from thence went to Sir R. Walpole's in his chariot; and dined with him and his lady only. . . . . . On this occasion he let me into several secrets relating to the King and Queen-that the King constantly wrote to her by every opportunity long letters of two or three sheets, being generally of all his actions-what he did every day, even to minute things, and particularly of his amours, what wo men he admired. .; and that the Queen, to continue him in a disposition to do what she desired, returned as long letters, and approved even of his amours; not scrupling to say, that she was but * We have a special reason for not dwelling on one woman, and an old woman, and that he might Lord Campbell's Life of the very greatest of the love more and younger women. . . . . . By which Chancellors. He has not had the full use of the Yorke family's papers, because these had been pre-means, and a perfect subserviency to his will, she viously intrusted to another gentleman, who now effected whatsoever she desired, without which it announces a separate biography of Lord Hardwicke was impossible to keep him within any bounds.' on a large scale. VOL. XIII. No III. 24 Vol. IV., , p. 634. ever weak and culpable, he would not aban- [ the chronicles of her predecessor. William's don his wife. What a ballad William Cow-infidelities in the morning of his married life per could have written on this story! at the Hague made his beautiful princess Our author's legitimate heroes having the unhappiest of women-but she learned been for the most part tall and proper men,' patience. No Stuart or Hanover an soveit is, perhaps, more to be regretted than reign either maintained mistresses with less wondered at that he finds occasion to exert disguise than William did after the Revoluhimself in vindicating not a few of themtion, or rewarded them (in one case at least) from aspersions of amatory frailty. Wor- with more impudent profusion-nor was shipping Somers as he naturally does to idol- either Catharine of Braganza or Caroline of atry, he is particularly anxious to clear him, Anspach a more perfect specimen of conjuand treats with almost fierce indignation the gal tolerance and submission than 'Good notion that this glory of Whiggery and Equi- Queen Mary.' We recommend to our author ty kept up in the fulness of his honors the the study of the tenth and eleventh volumes habits of his Templarhood. There is no of Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens of question that the illustrious penman of the England; and also in treating love-stories Bill of Rights had among his contemporaries generally, the avoidance of such strong a very indifferent reputation as to this de- phrases as it is utterly impossible.' Again, partment of his manners-indeed, the im-as to Lord Somers's 'religious feeling,' the pression that his health was broken and his life abridged by such irregularities appears to have been universally received. Lord Campbell, in whitewashing some of his 'Beauties,' lays great stress on the absence of any specific cases or names from the pages in which a general scandal has been transmitted. Perhaps this might be accounted for if the amours happened to be humble ones -even with gentlemen of but ordinary tact, and without extraordinary motives for prudence. But as to Somers-who never was a married man, be it observed-he says, He had for his house-keeper a Mrs. Blount, the wife of a tradesman at Worcester, and it was alleged that he lived openly with this lady as his mistress, behaving cruelly to the husband, and at last shutting him up in a madhouse. Quibus indiciis, quo teste probavit? This story, most improbable in itself, is supported only by the gratuitous assertion of bitter and unscrupulous enemies. The manners of the Court of Charles II. had passed away. William and Mary, and afterwards Anne and the Prince of Denmark, had exhibited to the world a picture of the domestic virtues; licentiousness was discouraged in the highest quar. ters, and the appearance of it was avoided by the most licentious. It is therefore utterly impossible that a grave magistrate like Somers, who, though firm in the discharge of his duty, always showed a solicitude to enjoy the good opinion both of the prince and the people, should have followed a course which was sure to draw down upon him the just censure of all ranks in the state; and the supposition is equally at variance with the prudence and good taste, as with the honor and religious feeling which we know belonged to him.'Vol. IV., p. 230 biographer relies perhaps with rather too much confidence on the eulogies of the amiable Addison, who had been most kindly treated and efficiently patronized by the great Chancellor, and in whose presence, his piety being as well known as his genius, it is not to be supposed that any well-bred gentleman would give utterance to any expression of an irreligious tendency. We may say the same of the weight laid on Somers's friendly intercourse with Archbishop Tillotson, which is here produced (vol. IV., p. 288) as a set-off to his familiarity with Tindal, and his patronage of Bayle's dictionary and Wicked Will Whiston.' Somers, the truth is, lived with all the wits of the time-our author dwells on his good taste in so doing — but we are afraid it might puzzle the apologist to point out a sincere Christian among the set, excepting Addison and Arbuthnot. In the amatory section of Lord Hardwicke's biography the author is not obliged to assume any very strenuous attitude of defence. He quotes from the old Life by Cooksey this little story, which certainly proves that the lofty Earl either was not, or pretended not to be, acquainted with the personal appearance of two much admired beauties of the irregular class : * Queen Mary's paper, given on her death-bed to Archbishop Tennison-in which she disburthened herself of her long sufferings from King William's No doubt, the cruelty to Mr. Blount was preference of her attendant, Barbara Villiers, in due a wild fiction. For the rest-we have no time Countess of Orkney-was seen by Dalrymple; objection to what is here said of Queen printing it; and it has been traced by no subsebut he thought, he says, the time was not come for Anne; but his lordship must have neglectedquent historian. be that of Mr. Montague, brother to Lord Sand-| His great delight was to find himself in a wich, who, being at home, very politely, without circle of lawyers, or common-place politicians, knowing his lordship, conducted him about the and to indulge in boisterous mirth and coarse apartments, which were perfectly elegant; and jocularity. He seems himself to have possessed expatiated on the pictures, some of which a rich fund of humor. Many of his sayings were capital. Among these were two fe- and stories used to be repeated by young students, male figures, beautifully painted, in all their na- when 'Twas merry in the hall, and beards wagtive naked charms. "These ladies," says the ged all,—but would not be found suited to the master of the house, "you must certainly know, more refined taste of the present age. He likefor they are most striking likenesses." On the wise indulged in a bad habit which seems to guest's expressing his perfect ignorance, "Why, have been formerly very general, and which I where the devil have you led your life, or what recollect when it was expiring of interlarding company have you kept," says the Captain, "not conversation with oaths and imprecations as into know Fanny Murray and Kitty Fisher, with tensitives-even without any anger or excitement. whose persons I thought no fashionable man like But in spite of these faults, into which he was led you could be unacquainted?" On the visitor's by the fashion of the times, he was a strictly taking leave, and saying, "I shall be glad to re-moral, and even a religious man. He continued turn your civilities at Wimple," what surprise and to live on terms of the utmost affection and haiconfusion did he express on his discovering he mony with his wife.' had been talking all this badinage to Lord Hardwicke-Vol. V., p. 165. Lord Campbell dismisses this chapter with triumphant decision— He was one of the handsomest men of his time, and bestowed great attention to his appearance and dress. There were reports circulated of his gallantries with a Lady B, and with the celebrated Mrs. Wells; but for these there was as little foundation as for his conjectured intimacy with Fanny Murray and Kitty Fisher. He was a perfect pattern not only of temperance and sobriety, but also of conjugal fidelity.* Lord Campbell dismisses this drinking, swearing, indecent, but strictly moral and religious Chancellor, by saying that even his dying words to his daughters were too gross to be printed; but on the other hand He was noted as a very steady and consistent politician, so that he did not derive the same benefit from the oblivion of his harangues which might have been enjoyed by some of his successors, who, in the discussion of important questions, have spoken with equal ability on both sides.'-Vol. V., p. 182. Of Northington, also, we are told that The stiff and sanctimonious King, the so'he was a remarkably handsome man in his lemn Camden, the brilliant Charles Yorke, person;' but nothing occurs as to love mat- and the prematurely and proverbially grave ters except a somewhat romantic attach- Bathurst, pass before us without speck; but ment' at Bath, of which from his rattling, there is an extract from the private Diary of reckless manner, and his being a professed the first of these which (since we have got votary of the god "ever fair and ever into love-stories) may not unsuitably be young," he was supposed to be incapable, quoted here. If Lord King's Diary conbut which led to a very happy wedding' tains many more passages of the like curi(vol. V., p. 179). He had been a right po- osity, it surely deserves to be published :---tent toper both at All Souls and in the Temple : Monday, 2nd September, 1729, went to town. The next day saw the Queen at Court; from He afterwards so far reformed as not to al- thence went to Sir R. Walpole's in his chariot; low his love of wine very seriously to interfere and dined with him and his lady only. . . . . . On with the pressing business of life, but many a this occasion he let me into several secrets relating severe fit of the gout was the result of his youth- to the King and Queen-that the King constantly ful indulgences. He was once heard, in the wrote to her by every opportunity long letters of House of Lords, to mutter, after several hobbling two or three sheets, being generally of all his acand painful walks, with the purse in his hand, tions-what he did every day, even to minute between the woolsack and the bar-If I had only things, and particularly of his amours, what wo known that these legs were one day to carry a men he admired..; and that the Queen, to conLord Chancellor, I'd have taken better care of tinue him in a disposition to do what she desired, them when I was a lad. returned as long letters, and approved even of his *We have a special reason for not dwelling on amours; not scrupling to say, that she was but Lord Campbell's Life of the very greatest of the one woman, and an old woman, and that he might Chancellors. He has not had the full use of the love more and younger women. . . . . . By which Yorke family's papers, because these had been pre-means, and a perfect subserviency to his will, she viously intrusted to another gentleman, who now effected whatsoever she desired, without which it announces a separate biography of Lord Hardwicke was impossible to keep him within any bounds.' on a large scale. Vol. IV., p. 634. VOL. XIII. No III. 24 'I have been obliged (says Lord Camp-wink at the irregularities of the Lord Chancellor, bell) to omit some of the expressions im--not only by their bright example, but by their puted to her Majesty, as too coarse to be well-directed efforts, greatly discouraged the procopied ; and he adds: It is possible and continued, with little abatement, till their fligacy which was introduced at the Restoration, that the whole was the invention of Wal-time.Vol. V., p. 657. pole, who over his wine might wish to mystify the Chancellor.' But this mystification. It appears to us that Lord Campbell could cannot be charged against Walpole. The hardly have penned the foregoing note, unstyle of the King's letters from Hanover to less he had utterly forgotten the strain of his Queen is, we understand, not only de ́scribed but exemplified in the forthcoming Memoirs of Lord Hervey. Thurlow's chapter is not by any means so easy, but Lord Campbell shows every disposition to treat him gently : his own observations when vindicating So- Thurlow was early in life honorably attached to an accomplished young lady, Miss Gooch-of a respectable family in Norfolk; "but she would not have him, for she was positively afraid of to leave in Lord Campbell's merciful him." He seems then to have forsworn matri- hands : mony. It is with great reluctance that I proceed; but I should give a very imperfect sketch of the It has been said that Thurlow was a sceptic; individual and of the manners of the age, if I were but I do not believe that there is any foundation for to try to conceal that of which he was not this assertion, beyond the laxity of his practice, ashamed, and which in his lifetime, with very and an occasional irreverence in his expressions slight censure, was known to all the world. Not on religious subjects-which, however censurable, only while he was at the bar, but after he became were not inconsistent with a continuing belief in Lord Chancellor, he lived openly with a mistress, the divine truths he had been taught by his pious and had a family by her, whom he recognized, parents.' and without any disguise brought out in society as if they had been his legitimate children.-In like Thurlow was the earliest of these heroes manner, as when I touched upon the irregularities that ever fell under the biographer's personal of Cardinal Wolsey, I must remind the reader that inspection, and we feel throughout the narevery man is charitably to be judged by the stand-rative how much life and verisimilitude are ard of morality which prevailed in the age in which he lived. Although Mrs. Hervey is some. gained when the subject has actually sat to times satirically named in the Rolliad and other the artist, though but once, and long before contemporary publications, her liaison with the there could have been any thought of the Lord Chancellor seems to have caused little scan- portraiture. dal. In spite of it he was a prime favorite, not only with George III. but with Queen Charlotte, With these eyes have I beheld the lineaments both supposed to be very strict in their notions of of Edward, Lord Thurlow; with these ears have chastity; and his house was not only frequented heard the deep tones of his voice. by his brother the Bishop, but by ecclesiastics of He had resigned the Great Seal while I was all degrees, who celebrated the orthodoxy of the still a child residing in my native land; but when head of the law,-his love of the Established I had been entered a few days a student at LinChurch, and his hatred of Dissenters. It should likewise be stated in mitigation, that he was an affectionate parent, and took great pains with the education of his offspring' I ་ coln's Inn it was rumored that, after a long ab. sence from Parliament, he was to attend in the House of Lords, to express his opinion upon the very important question, "whether a divorce bill Note. When first knew the profession, it should be passed on the petition of the wife, in a would not have been endured that any one in a case where her husband had been guilty of incest judicial situation should have had such a domestic with her sister?"-there never hitherto having establishment as Thurlow's, but a majority of the been an instance of a divorce bill in England exJudges had married their mistresses. The under- cept on the petition of the husband for the adultery standing then was, that a man elevated to the of the wife. bench, if he had a mistress, must either marry her When I was admitted below the bar, May 20, or put her away. For many years there has been 1801, Lord Chancellor Eldon was sitting on the no necessity for such an alternative. The im- woolsack; but he excited comparatively little inprovement in public morals, at the conclusion of terest, and all eyes were impatiently looking round the eighteenth century, may be mainly ascribed to for him who had occupied it under Lord North, George III. and his Queen, who, though being un- under Lord Rockingham, under Lord Shelburne, able to lay down any violent rule, or to bring and under Mr. Pitt. At last there walked in, about any sudden change, they were obliged to supported by a staff, a figure bent with age, dressed in an old-fashioned grey coat,—with breeches and in a loud voice CAPITAL! CAPITAL! CAPITAL ! Lord gaiters of the same stuff-a brown scratch wig-Chancellor Eldon declared that he had made up his tremendous white bushy eyebrows-eyes still mind to oppose the measure, but that he was consparkling with intelligence-dreadful crows' feet verted; and Ex-chancellor Lord Rosslyn confessed round them-very deep lines in his countenance--that the consideration which had escaped him,-of and shrivelled complexion of a sallow hue--all the impossibility of a reconciliation-now induced indicating much greater senility than was to be him to vote for the bill. Having passed both expected from the date of his birth as laid down in Houses, it received the Royal assent, and has since the Peerage [1732]. been followed as a precedent in two or three other cases of similar atrocity.'-Vol. V., p. 473. The debate was begun by his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV, who moved the rejection of the bill, on the ground Would that Lord Thurlow had oftener that marriage had never been dissolved, in this found such a reporter! What strong clear country, and never ought to be dissolved, unless sense, and what sterling English! We are for the adultery of the wife,-which alone for ever frustrated the purposes for which marriage sorry not to quote the most striking dehad been instituted. Lord Thurlow then rose, and scription of his mode of addressing the the fall of a feather might have been heard in the House of Lords, which occurs in Lord House while he spoke. At this distance of time I Brougham's Sketches; but we must keep retain the most lively recollection of his appear our space for our Campbell, and give anance, his manner, and his reasoning. other favorable specimen of this Essay on "I have been excited by this bill," said he, Thurlow-to wit, the account of his first "to examine the whole subject of divorce. Why start of professional success (1761). Every do you grant to the husband a divorce for the reader of Cowper's Letters knows how adultery of the wife? Because he ought not to forgive her, and separation is inevitable. Where little of labor apparently entered into his the wife cannot forgive, and separation is inevita-more fortunate companion's early course of ble by reason of the crime of the husband, the life: wife is entitled to the like remedy. By the clearest evidence, Mr. Addison since the marriage has been 'According to legal tradition, soon after the deguilty of incest with the sister of Mrs. Addison. cision of the Court of Session in Scotland that Reconciliation is impossible. She cannot forgive the alleged son of Lady Jane Douglas was a suphim, and return to his house, without herself be posititious child purchased at Paris, the question, ing guilty of incest. Had this intercourse with the which excited great interest all over Europe, was sister taken place before the marriage, the Ecclesi- discussed one evening at Nando's coffeehouse-astical Court would have set aside the marriage which, from its excellent punch, and the ministraas incestuous and void from the beginning; and is tions of a younger daughter of the landlady, was Mrs. Addison to be in a worse situation because Thurlow's favorite haunt. At this time, and inthe incest was committed after the marriage, and deed when I myself first began the study of the under her own roof? You allow that she can law, the modern club system was unknown; and never live with him again as her husband, and is (as in the time of Swift and Addison, men went she, innocent, to be condemned for his crime to in the evenings for society to coffee-houses, in spend the rest of her days in the unheard-of situa- which they expected to encounter a particular set tion of being neither virgin, wife, nor widow of acquaintance, but which were open to all who Another sufficient ground for passing the bill is, chose to enter and offer to join in the conversation, that there are children of this marriage, who, with at the risk of meeting with cold looks and mortiout the interference of the legislature, would be fying rebuffs. Thurlow, like his contemporary exclusively under the control of the father. Now, Dr. Johnson, took great pains in gladiatorial disyour Lordships must all agree that such a father cussion, knowing that he excelled in it, and he as Mr. Addison has proved himself to be, is unfit to was pleased and excited when he found a large be intrusted with the education of a daughter. The body of good listeners. On the evening in quesillustrious Prince says truly that there is no ex- tion, a friend of his at the English bar strongly act precedent for such a bill; but, my Lords, let applauded the judgment against the supposed heir us look less to the exact terms of precedents than of the house of Douglas. For this reason, proto the reason on which they are founded. The bably, Thurlow took the contrary side. Like most adultery of the husband, while it is condemned, other lawyers he had read the evidence attentively. may be forgiven, and therefore is no sufficient and in a succinct but masterly statement he gave reason for dissolving the marriage; but the in- an abstract of it to prove that the claimant was incestuous adultery of the husband is equally fatal deed the genuine issue of Lady Jane and her busto the matrimonial union as the adultery of the band,-dextrously repelling the objections to the wife, and should entitle the injured party to the claim, and contending that there were admitted same redress." facts which were inconsistent with the theory of the child being the son of the French rope-dancer. Having finished his argument and his punch, he withdrew to his chambers, pleased with the victory which he had obtained over his antagonist; and went to bed, thinking no more of the Douglas I cannot now undertake to say whether there were any cheers, but I well remember that Henry Cowper, the time-honored Clerk of the House of Lords, who had sat there for half a century, came down to the bar in a fit of enthusiasm, and called out |