more certain in both Houses of Parliament the success of such things always is, than of the most refined and exalted wit. Upon another occasion, his misanthropy, or rather his great contempt of all mankind, broke out characteristically enough. This prevailing feeling of his mind made all respect testified towards any person, all praise bestowed upon men, nay all defence of them under attack, extremely distasteful to him; indeed, almost matter of personal offence. So, once having occasion to mention some public functionary, whose conduct he intimated that he disapproved, he thought fit to add, "But far be it from me to express any blame of official person, whatever may be my opinion; for

any

that, I well know, would lay me open to hear his panegyric." At the bar he appears to have dealt in much the same wares; and they certainly formed the staple of his operations in the commerce of society. His jest at the expense of two eminent civilians, in the Duchess of Kingston's case, is well known, and was no doubt of considerable merit. After those very learned personhad come forth from the recesses where doctors ages "most do congregate," but in which they divide with their ponderous tomes the silence that is not broken by any stranger footstep, and the gloom that is pierced by no light from without, and appearing in a scene to which they were as strange as its gaiety was to their eyes, had performed alternately the various evolutions of their recondite lore, Mr. Thurlow was pleased to say that the congress of two doctors always reminded him of the noted saying of Crassus-" Mirari se quod haruspex haruspicem sine risu adspicere posset." In conversation he was, as in debate, sententious and caustic.

was not a

Discoursing of the difficulty he had in appointing to a high legal situation, he described himself as long hesitating between the intemperance of A, and the corruption of B; but finally preferring the former. Then, as if afraid, lest he had for the moment been betrayed into anything like unqualified commendation of any person, he added, correcting himself-" Not that there deal of corruption in A's intemperance. He had, however, other stores from which to furnish forth his talk; for he was a man of no mean classical attainments; read much Greek, as well as Latin, after his retirement from office; and having become associated with the Whigs, at least in the intercourse of society, passed a good deal of time in the society of Mr. Fox, for whom it is believed that he felt a great admiration, at least, he praised him in a way exceedingly unusual with him, and was therefore supposed to have admired him as much as he could any person, independent of the kind of thankfulness which he must have felt to any formidable opposer of Mr. Pitt, whom he hated with a hatred as hearty as even Lord Thurlow could feel, commingling his dislike with a scorn wholly unbecoming and misapplied.

When he quitted the great seal, or rather when Mr. Pitt and he quarrelling, one or other must go, and the former was well resolved to remain, the retired chancellor appeared to retain a great interest in all the proceedings of the court which he had left, and was fond of having Sir John Leach, then a young barrister, to spend the evenings with him, and relate whatever had passed in the course of the day. It seemed somewhat contrary to his selfish nature and contracted habits of thinking,

VOL. I.

H

that he should feel any great concern about the course which the administration of justice should take, now that he slumbered upon the shelf. But the mystery was easily explained, by observing that he really felt, in at least its ordinary force, the affection which men long used to office bear towards those who are so presumptuous as to succeed them; and he was gratified by thus sitting as a secret court of revision, hearing of any mistakes committed by Lord Loughborough, and pronouncing in no very measured terms his judgment of reversal upon many things in which the latter no doubt was right.

That his determination and clearness were more in manner than in the real vigour of his mind, there can be no doubt; for, though in disposing of causes, he may have shown little oscitancy, as indeed there seldom arises any occasion for it where a judge is reasonably acquainted with his business and gives his attention without reserve to the dispatch of it, yet, in all questions of political conduct, and all deliberations upon measures, he is known to have been exceedingly irresolute. Mr. Pitt found him a colleague wholly unfruitful in council, though always apt to raise difficulties, and very slow and irresolute of purpose. The Whigs, when he joined them, soon discovered how infirm a frame of mind there lay concealed behind the outward form of vigour and decision. He saw nothing clear but the obstacles to any course; was fertile only of doubts and expedients to escape deciding; and appeared never prompt to act, but ever ready to oppose whoever had anything to recommend. So little, as might be expected, did this suit the restless and impatient vehemence

of Mr. Francis, that he described him as "that enemy of all human action."

Of a character so wanting in the sterling qualities which entitle the statesman to confidence and respect, or the orator to admiration, it cannot be affirmed that what he wanted in claims to public favour he made up in titles to esteem or affection as a private individual. His life was passed in so great and habitual a disregard of the decorum usually cast round high station, especially in the legal profession, as makes it extremely doubtful if the grave and solemn exterior in which he was wont to shroud himself were anything more than a manner he had acquired; for, assuredly, to assert that he wore it as a cloak whereby men might be deceived, would hardly be consistent with his ordinary habits, as remote as well could be from all semblance of hypocrisy and so far from an affectation of appearing better than he was, that he might almost be said to affect, like the Regent Orleans, the "bad eminence" of being

worse.*

* St. Simon relates a saying of Louis XIV., respecting his celebrated nephew, which, he says, paints him to the life, and, therefore, that skilful writer of memoirs is unbounded in his praise of this "Trait de plume." "Encore est-il fanfaron des vices qu'il n'a pas."

LORD MANSFIELD.

CONTEMPORARY with these two distinguished lawyers, during the latter period of his life, was a legal personage in every respect far more eminent than either, the first Lord Mansfield, than whom few men, not at the head of state affairs, have in any period of our history filled an exalted station for a longer period with more glory to themselves, or with a larger share of influence over the fortunes of their country. He was singularly endowed with the qualities most fitted both to smooth for him the path to professional advancement, to win the admiration of the world at large, and to maintain or even expand the authority of whatever official situation he might be called to occupy. Enjoying all the advantages of a finished classical education; adding to this the enlargement of mind derived from foreign travel, undertaken at an age when attentive observation can be accompanied with mature reflection; he entered upon the profession of the law some years after he had reached man's estate; and showed as much patient industry in awaiting, by attendance in the courts, the emoluments and the honours of the gown, as he had evinced diligence in qualifying himself for its labours and its duties. His connexion with Scotland easily introduced him into the practice afforded by the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords;* and the

* He soon rose to such eminence in this, that his biographer, Halliday, has mentioned him as engaged in thirty appeals during one