supposition of an ambiguous state of the disorder, great industry would be used to prolong the state of suspense. Every appearance of favorable in tervals would be magnified, and the apprehension of a change would be studiously excited to prevent the public opinion from attaching itself to the apparent acting power. To oppose this, great spirit and steadiness would be necessary; but I have no doubt that the only measure would be, to assert that authority which no other person has a right to assume, and which, with a united royal family, no opposition would be able to thwart.—Vol. VI.,

pp. 193, 194.

This is pretty distinct--but it is followed by a memorandum, written in pencil by the hand of Loughborough, and which (Lord Campbell has been informed) was read by himself to the Prince of Wales at a secret interview in Windsor—and here the language seems even less susceptible of misinterpre

tation :

Lord Campbell produces, also, the first letter that Fox wrote to Loughborough on his arrival from Italy, which can leave no doubt that, on hearing what Loughborough had suggested, Fox instantly declared that advice inadmissible. This is importantfor even Lord Brougham seems not to have believed that Loughborough's scheme (whatever it might have been) was ever made known at all to any of the Whig leaders. There remains the pinching question whether the memorandum in pencil and the reply to Loughborough of having solemnly disclaimed Camden can be reconciled, so as to acquit the fact of his ever having given 'the arbitrary advice.' We think the reader will agree with us that if any escape be left, it is dextrous an artist in language never stood by a very narrow loophole. Perhaps so more awkwardly committed.

The sequel is no new story. Thurlow, on getting a private hint of the first real sympUpon the supposition of a state of disorder toms of recovery in the King, abruptly withwithout prospect of recovery or of a speedy ex-drew from his correspondence with the Foxtinction, the principle of the P.'s conduct is per-ites. Loughborough, unaware of the sources fectly clear. The administration of government of Thurlow's new movement, was re-anidevolves to him of right. He is bound by every duty to assume it, and his character would be lessened in the public estimation if he took it on any other ground but right, or on any sort of compromise. The authority of Parliament, as the great council of the nation, would be interposed, not to confer, but to declare the right. The mode of proceeding which occurs to my mind is, that in a very short time H. R. H. should signify his intention to act by directing a meeting of the Privy Counci, where he should declare his intention to take upon himself the care of the State, and should at the same time signify his desire to have the advice of Parliament, and order it by a Proclamation to meet early for despatch of business. That done, he should direct the several Ministers to attend him with the public business of their offices.

mated; Fox wrote joyfully that the embarrassment was now got rid of-that the Chief Justice should be Chancellor quam primum. But while, as Lord Campbell says, he was drawing up lists of secretaries, and luxuriating in the great vision of the emblazoned bag, the recovery declared itself, and the crockery of Alnaschar was in bits.

It is of vast importance in the outset, that he should appear to act entirely of himself, and in the conferences he must necessarily have, not to consult, but to listen and direct.

Though the measure of assembling the Council should not be consulted upon, but decided in his own breast, it ought to be communicated to a few persons who may be trusted, a short time before it takes place; and it will deserve consideration whether it might or not be expedient very speedily after this measure, in order to mark distinctly the assumption of government, to direct such persons -at least in one or two instances-to be added to what is called the Cabinet, as he thinks proper By marking a determination to act of himself, and by cautiously avoiding to raise strong fear or strong hope, but keeping men's minds in expectation of what may arise out of his reserve, and in a persuasion of his general candor, he will find all men equally observant of him.'-Vol. VI., p. 195.

Loughborough continued a steady Foxite, and on a most confidential footing at Cariton House, until the next grand crisis in our political history; but we shall not pursue the subsequent details. His share in the private communications between Burke, the Duke of Portland, and other old Whigs, on the one side, and Mr. Pitt on the other, had already been well developed in the Malmesbury Correspondence; and the other political matters in which he was concerned have all been recently before us in that work and the Lives of Eldon and Sidmouth. The student has, in short, little to learn about Loughborough's ultimate attainment of the grand object of his ambition, in January, 1793--or the circumstances which embittered his tenure of the woolsack-or even the melancholy complication of distrusts that brought it to a close in the spring of 1801.

There is, indeed, one paper in this book (new to us) which will reward study in reference to the simultaneous dissmisal of Mr. Pitt and Loughborough in 1801 :—it is a Vindication of his Conduct, drawn up

some time afterwards by the ex-Chancellor, | tration of the proper business of the Chanand by him communicated, with that title, cery, though respectable, had not been emito several of his friends. This is a curious nently distinguished; he had not invested paper certainly, but far too long to be copied his judicial character with any overawing by us, and one of which any abridgment idea. To displace him was not like removwould be valueless, for everything depends ing a Hardwicke-and it was to make way in all such cases on the ipsissima verba, and for an Eldon. these are the verba of the wary Wedder- On retirement he received a pension of burn.' On the whole it is painful to read. 4000l. a-year, and as he had no children, the It exhibits the deep consciousness that he earldom of Rosslyn was granted to him with lay under grave suspicions, and with all his remainder to his sister's son, Sir James St. exquisite art he leaves the suspicion height- Clair Erskine, a cadet of the family of Mar, ened that there had been some shuffling on and representative, through a female, of the his part-some very questionable réticence Barons bold' who sleep in the chapel of in respect of messages and documents meant Rosslyn. But for this connexion it is not by Pitt to be conveyed to the King by the likely that Loughborough would have chosen Chancellor. With respect to the more im- a title from a Scotch locality. Soon after portant points in the transaction, the paper his father's death he sold Chesterhall,leaves all exactly as it seemed to stand on enough,' as Edie Ochiltree says, 'to gar closing the Life of Sidmouth. Lough- the auld man turn in his coffin.' He had borough, for example, clearly denies that never visited his native country since he Lord Castlereagh ever had any sort of au- shook her dust from off his feet in 1757. thority to hold out Emancipation as a mea- There never was anything Scotch in his assure likely to be recommended upon the pect-his figure was rather short, but his ratification of the union with Ireland; and features, though not strictly regular, were asserts his belief that Lord Castlereagh delicate-the nose aquiline-the eyes (we acted precisely on his instructions, and in quote the words of one who well rememtreating with the Irish Romanists made offer of no concessions whatever on church matters, except in a better arrangement as to the payment of tithes and a pecuniary provision for the priests- to neither of which the King ever made any objection.' It is to be observed that Lord Campbell, who 'declines the invidious task of commenting upon this document,' has given it without any date, and the exact time might have been of great use in its application. We should be curious to know whether there is nothing to illustrate the reception and effect of this Vindication among the MS. treasures-rich indeed they must be-of Melville Castle!

bers him on the woolsack) 'deep set, and in general darkly tranquil, but now and then of an unbearable brightness-like burning brass; the contour and complexion oval and Italian. He might have made a good study for a General of the Jesuits. He early overcame most perfectly his northern dialect and accent; and we can well believe that during several winters his chief study had been Garrick. No more finished elocutionist ever appeared in Parliament. It is said by Lord Brougham that in his latter years, when strength was oozing away at all points, the original Doric began to be again perceptible; but this is stoutly denied Whatever may have been Loughborough's by a surviving niece, who lived in his house. indirectness in the closing period of Pitt's The changes in his temper, or at least his first government, we have no doubt that the demeanor, appear to have been almost as grand cause of his fall was George III.'s dis- remarkable as those he went through in his trust of his integrity generally. He had political capacity. The violence and preratted too often and on too many questions. sumption of his younger days had disapHe had been pro-American and anti-Ameri-peared before he reached any prominent can-pro-reformer and anti-reformer-ad-position here he was the blandest of Chanmirer of the French revolution and vilifier cellors, the most courteous of gentlemen. of it a pro-Catholic and an anti-Catholic His bearing was as noble as that of any man by turns he had wheeled right about born to the highest hereditary station-and twice over upon almost everything-and it amidst all the vicissitudes of a busy career is hard for any man to obtain entire credit he maintained scholar-like tastes-such as for honesty, when he walks about in the might entitle him to share the better social world's great masquerade with the label of hours of a Fox. It is creditable to him that so many tergiversations. But, moreover, in a very angry time he overlooked all party he was well stricken in years; his adminis- feelings in behalf of the struggling Mackin

without the gravest ultimate peril to the Church in England itself. And it is perhaps even now too soon to assume that the Chancellor's view was erroneous.

of

tosh. Both Lord Brougham and Lord and that after a Union of Church and State Campbell say expressly that the English that Establishment could not be destroyed. lawyers as a body were proud of having a man of such accomplishments at their head. We do not pretend to have any deep reverence for this Chancellor; but, after all, there is something to be said for him in To conclude the Earl of Rosslyn did those of his political turns which his biogra- nothing to protract the consideration of Lord pher regards as the most lamentable. As to Loughborough. He spent much of his one of them, indeed, Lord Campbell admits time at a villa which he rented near Windfrankly that it was made in company with sor, in the sole view, according to both Lord many men of the most spotless honor-Port- Brougham and Lord Campbell, of keeping land, Spencer, &c., &c.—and with the bright- himself before the royal eye, and greatly est and loftiest genius of the time-Burke; delighting in occasional admissions to the and in the presence of such names he is mo- Castle, which inferred, however, no abatedest enough to confine his wrath to Lough- ment of the royal prejudice. At the age borough, whom he assumes to have been, seventy-two the forgotten Earl died-Jaunlike the others, insincere. However, it nuary 1, 1805-and the present biographer must be owned that even Loughborough tells, as if he believed it, that on hearing he might express warm approbation of the was gone King George, who was shaving French Revolution in its early period, and himself, observed, Then he has not left a yet denounce it as the most hideous of ini- greater knave behind him in my dominions,' quities when it had reached a fuller deve- with the addition-that when Thurlow lopment, without ex facie meriting Lord heard of this gracious saying he muttered, Campbell's severity. In the other case, I perceive that his Majesty is at present the Catholic question, there is also a point sane.' Lord Brougham says that his stock of some consequence that may be taken in of law was extremely slender, and Lord his favor. When he advocated the Eman- Campbell seems to adopt this view pretty cipation principle Ireland was a separate nearly. We suppose he was of Talleykingdom, with her own legislature and her rand's opinion, that no wise man will ever own established church. A member of the do for himself what he can get another to English House of Commons might then do for him.' It seems certain that both at consider the safety of the Protestant estab- the bar and on the bench he contrived to lishment in Ireland as a secondary question, make uncommonly liberal use of the enand yet take a very different view when the dowments and industry of obscurer perUnion was on the carpet-still more after sons. Both his recent critics fully admit the Union was a fact. Lord Loughbo- his surpassing eminence both as an advocate rough's opposition to the Catholic claims and in parliamentary debate. Of the Chanwas grounded, primarily, on the danger to cellor our present author kindly observes the Church of England-secondly, on the that he was at least free from faults and fixedness of the King's conscientious objec- follies that have made others in that station tions to the measure. This latter point was odious or ridiculous.' He discredits the not within his sphere until he was Chancel- popular notion of his infidelity, with some lor. From the time when he as Chancel- story of his having been converted in his lor was first consulted on the subject, the last years by reading Burgh on the DiviUnion was in contemplation also, and in nity,' which book, he says, might have beneevery deliberation on the general case it was fited a heretic, but would never have been assumed, as the clearest result of all the prescribed for a disciple of Hume.' This preliminary inquiries, that the union of the story is in Mr. Wilberforce's very gossiping kingdoms could never be effected unless the correspondence, where no one could expect Irish Protestants were to be tranquillized by to find a man of Loughborough's stamp conthe inclusion in the Act itself of the com- sidered as having much claim to the name plete union and incorporation of the two es- of a Christian. In his private morals he tablished churches. Before Mr. Pitt's first was unimpeached: this irregular enough government was imperilled by the Catholic Beauty' affords Lord Campbell no pretext question, that incorporation had been so- for an Ovidian chapter. We are only told lemnly completed. Loughborough always that he was the decorous husband of two argued that Catholic Emancipation must by- rich and barren wives.

and-by destroy the Irish Establishment, In his mode of living he was generous

and magnificent; with him the grandeur of energies as any poor parson's or attorney's the Cancellarian pomp and circumstance son among his predecessors-the illustrious seems to have ceased and determined. The advocate, the greatest master of forensic regal dignity of the two coaches was too eloquence that Britain ever produced 'costly for Lord or Lady Eldon's calcula- was also without spot or blemish as a Whig. tions; and the judicial dinners of the old His career could not be studied without the régime, after dwindling into breakfasts, are liveliest curiosity, or commented on without now, as we understand, only shadowed by overflowing enthusiasm. His failure both bows. Lord Campbell seems to dwell re- in Parliament and on the Woolsack was gretfully on the stately hospitalities of too notorious not to be admitted; and it was Loughborough; and for the rest, though the same as to all the vanities, imprudences, 'surrendering him to severe censure as a and whimsical vagaries of his life and conpolitician,' the biographer says, 'It will be versation. The character was transparent found that he not only uniformly conformed and with whatever pain and wonder certo the manners and rules supposed to dis- tain specks must be contemplated, it was as tinguish a gentleman, but that in his changes a whole a very loveable character. The of party he was never guilty of private task, for one who must have lived much in treachery, and never attempted to traduce the same society with Lord Erskine's surthose he had deserted.' There are two or viving family, could not be altogether an three more drops of sweetness at the bot- easy one: but the author has acquitted tom of the flask: Although his occupations himself with skill. Perhaps he evades after his fall were not very dignified, per- some of the most difficult steps-passi dohaps he was as harmlessly employed in lorosi-by a rather too bold affectation of trying at Windsor to cultivate the personal ignorance. Let this pass. We cannot bear favor of the old King, as if he had gone to dwell with any harshness of thought on into hot opposition, or had coquetted with the frank, chivalrous, kind-hearted Erskine. all parties in the House of Lords in the vain The most valuable novelties respect the hope of recovering his office. early struggles with poverty. Perhaps the We have perhaps dwelt too long on highest-born man in the whole series of Loughborough-but that case is the one Chancellors, we question if any one among in which Lord Campbell has added most to them had that mischief to contend with in the previous stock of biographical details, more humiliating and tormenting extremity. and also in which he has made his most His father, the Earl, never had more than valuable contribution to our national history. 2001. a year from his deeply encumbered Neither of the remaining essays claims any estate. To support himself, his lady, and historical importance; and the longer one his eldest son in the most frugal decency, of the two, by much the longest in the and educate the second son, Henry, for the whole work, has really added almost nothing Edinburgh bar, completely exhausted his to our materials for estimating Lord Eldon. means. Thomas from childhood delighted The life of Erskine has a great deal of in his book: he would fain have been sent novelty, and very interesting novelty, in to college, and, like Henry, followed some its personal anecdotes; for the family ap- learned profession in his native kingdompear to have been exceedingly liberal in the but there was no money to pay even the communication of letters; and Lord Camp-very modest charges of a Scotch university. bell could draw largely on the floating anec- Most tenderly feeling for his parents' diffidotes of Whig and legal society-above all, culties, he suggested the army-but they on his own recollections of the rich and terse had no interest, and could not buy a pair of table-talk of his father-in-law, Lord Abin- colors; therefore, though with a particular ger. But he has only filled up the outline dislike to the sea, he became a midshipman of Lord Brougham; and we could not hope and by and by his delightful temperato offer any abridgment of the story that ment reconciled itself to every circumstance would be acceptable after that masterly of that existence in those rough days-exsketch. Lord Campbell has executed his cept only the idleness in which most of it task con amore-with a keener delight, was wasted. He resumed his readingprobably, than any other article in the col- spent every spare sixpence at the bookstalls lection. The Scotchman who, though of of seaports-by degrees made himself a fair noble birth, to which he himself always adept in English Belles Lettres. When attached the highest importance, owed his the old Earl at last died in the richest ocor success as purely to his own talents and of Lady-Huntingdonism, he received a small VOL XIII. No. III.

25

coming after his habitudes were fixed for another scene, it in nowise shook the opinion of adequate observers. He appears to have had very much of the tact in conducting a case which so distinguished Thomas, and, in fact, to have rivalled him as a barrister, excepting only that he never did reach the very highest flight of his declamation. It might be said of Erskine the Great' that he never said or did a foolish thing for a client--very rarely a wise one in his own private capacity. The Lord Advocate seems to have escaped almost entirely the eccentricity of the blood.

sum as his patrimony, and he spent every | Parliament was, after all, by no means so shilling of it in the purchase of an ensigncy marked as that of his younger brother-and, -for he had still been hankering after that, as he thought, less irksome and confined course of service. But he was as poor as an ensign could be-and there was a very slight chance of promotion for him. He might have crept up by slow steps to command a battalion when his hair was grey. Luckily he had the gay audacity to fall in love with and espouse instantly a garrisontown beauty, who had not a farthing, but well deserved to be the heroine of a romance, with a genius for its hero. Then indeed his poverty became a serious matter. His fond young wife brought him child after child in the barrack-room. He literally could hardly feed and clothe them-his own red coat was the barest in the regiment. But he had still kept to his studies-he was now a very accomplished man. One day the assizes were held in a neighboring town; and he had a curiosity to witness the scene, especially because Mansfield presided. His great countryman invited him to dinner. The honorable subaltern delighted the Chief Justice. In the course of the evening he said it had struck him that he could make as fair a speech as any of that day's barristers-examine a witness, too, as adroitly. Lord Mansfield, struck with his buoyant spirit, his neat and fluent language, and the easy abundance of his humorous illustrations, encouraged him. This was the turning point. Hence-after a few earnest, laborious years-the Advocate whom no jury could resist-he, whom, if he had never been more than an advocate, his biographer might have, with more justice than we can now concede to him, styled Erskine the Great.'

This admirable expansion of Lord Brougham's miniature is followed by a careful kit-cat after Mr. Twiss's full-size portrait of Lord Eldon. Whatever additional wrinkles could be supplied by subsequent artists of inferior mark have been insertedbut these were not many; and the novelty is almost wholly in the coloring. Mr. Twiss made no attempt to disguise his own sympathy, except on one isolated question, with his venerable Tory. Lord Campbell has the old Whig pallet in his hand, and dashes in the requisite shadows with the fattest brush of his school. But as no Whig has ventured to complain of Twiss for an inaccurate feature, so no Tory student will be either perplexed or saddened by the gloomier tinges of the successor.

In the Preface to this Series he expresses much gratitude to Sir Robert Peel for the free use of the correspondence between Lord Eldon and himself while colleagues in the Liverpool cabinet, and we turned to the chapter with some expectation of new light -but not much. We have found no new One question naturally starts up-how lights at all. It was obvious from letters did the Honorable Thomas contrive to find printed by Mr. Twiss, that during the latter means for his however careful family ex- years of that administration Lord Eldon penditure during the years between his found himself de trop among his colleagues; dropping of the epaulette and his participa--it was plain that Lord Liverpool, from tion in the profits of the bar? To this the first a little jealous of his Chancellor, question we find no answer in Lord Camp-became more and more so, as the private bell's book. We venture to say there never Sunday dinners on liver and bacon at Carlton was any doubt that the needful assistance House grew into a custom; and it could was derived from Henry Erskine, his imme- hardly fail to be surmised that as younger diately elder brother, who was rising by men rose into importance, they also grathat time into considerable employment at dually imbibed something of a similar feelthe Edinburgh bar. This gentleman ap-ing. The incurable old Tory was at all peared in the House of Commons somewhat events their incubus. Fully conscious of late in life as Lord Advocate, and did not in that sphere quite sustain the expectations drawn by the English public from his eminent northern success. But his failure in

the weight that his name lent them in the eye of the legal profession, of the Church, and of the real Tories of the aristocracy they still felt more and more that his authori