From the original Ficture by ir Joshua Reynolds in the Pepression of Lord Mansfield

London, Fublyhed by charles Knight Ludgate street.

accidental indisposition of his leader, a few years afterwards, having given him an opportunity of distinguishing himself before a jury, he speedily rose into extensive practice, not, however, so much in Common-Law Courts as in Chancery.

had

Ten years after he entered the profession he was made Solicitor-General and came into parliament, which he had hitherto shunned, observing, with the caution so characteristic of the man and of the nation, "That he many respected friends on both sides of the House, and did not care to lose the patronage of both parties for the favour of one." If this principle be as great an honour to his public virtue as to his personal discretion, his biographer has done well to record it in proof of the praises which he lavishes upon him; and certainly nothing in the subsequent course of his life can be found which betokens a falling off from the wary circumspection of his outset in life.

His powers as an advocate were great, though not first-rate. In manner, which he had studied so much that Pope was found one day superintending him while he practised before a looking-glass-in a sweetness of voice which by nature was almost unequalled—in clearness and skill of statement, which he so greatly laboured, that it was said his story was worth other men's argument,-in the wariness and discretion so necessary to one that represents another's interests, as an advocate does his client's,-in knowledge accurate, as far as it went, if not very profound, of the principles

session. A worse piece of biography than Halliday's, it may be observed in passing, hardly exists, notwithstanding its having so admirable a subject.

of the law; and in an enlarged view of general subjects, whether of jurisprudence or of a more liberal kind-he stood high, either above all his contemporaries, or in their foremost rank. A certain want of vigour, arising from the inroads which his constitutional caution made into the neighbouring dominions of its ally, fear, prevented him from ever filling the first place among advocates; and to anything that deserved the name of genius or of originality he preferred at no time and in no station any claims. Atkins, his staunch admirer, has preserved, with extreme eulogy, one of his arguments in a case of great importance; it is learned and able, but far from justifying the preference given to it over those of the other council, whose arguments in the same cause are also reported.

In the House of Commons it was his fortune to defend the measures of government, when no men of eminence filled the front ranks of the opposition party, excepting Mr. Pitt (Lord Chatham); and the perilous task of encountering him always was reserved for the ministerial chief himself. That he was very successful as an elegant and persuasive speaker, is certain; that he was unequal to fill a first place, at a time when the secret had not been discovered of posting second-rate men in such positions, is as undeniable; and it is known that he felt this inadequacy: for an arrangement was at one period proposed, by which he was to have taken the lead, on the part of the government, and he peremptorily declined it. Indeed, he was both conscious of his power lying in a different direction, and resolved to follow the bent at once of his capacity and his inclination. Accordingly, on the death of Chief Justice Ryder, though