'CHAP. I. At school. He is in love and writes verses. In the year 1786, young Copley appears to have been at school at Clapham, in the county of Surrey, and precociously both a lover and a poet. The author of 'Literary Lawyers,' after noticing Sir William Jones, and a few others, from the short list of those who have been celebrated both in Westminster Hall and Paternoster Row, thus proceeds : "Lord Lyndhurst, too, has wooed the Muse. While he was at a school kept by a Mr. Franks, a circumstance occurred which will serve to show how early the ardent temperament and ready talent, which have distinguished his public career, developed itself in this remarkable man. At Clapham there was a young ladies' school, which was attended by the same dancing-master as that employed at Mr. Franks'; and, previous to his annual ball, the two schools used frequently to meet together for the purpose of practising. At one of these agreeable reunions young Copley, then not more than fourteen years of age, was smitten with the charms of a beautiful girl; and at their next meeting slipped into her hand a letter containing a locket with his hair, and a copy of verses of which the following is a transcript. They were entitled : 'Verses addressed by J. Copley to the most amiable Thy fatal shafts unerring move, I bow before thine altar, love; I feel thy soft resistless flame Glide swift through all my vital frame; Unheard I mourn, unheard I sigh, 'I beg you will do me the honour to accept of the trifle which accompanies it, and you will oblige 'Your affectionate admirer, P.S.-Pray excuse the writing.' 'J. S. COPLEY, Jun. "It is only necessary to add that the lady to whom these verses were addressed still survives, and retains in her possession both the letter and its contents." The lines, closely imitated from a well known translation of Horace, I suspect to have been copied for the occasion from a scrap book; for the professed lover has never since been known to versify. From Clapham he was removed to a school at Chiswick. Here he was taught first by the Rev. Mr. Crawford, afterwards by the Rev. Dr. Horne, father of the present Sir William Horne, once my colleague as law officer of the Crown, now a Master in Chancery. I have not been able to obtain any authentic account of young Copley's proficiency or demeanour at this school; but at this time he must have laid the foundation of his classical knowledge, which is reckoned very considerable. He next entered on a field in which he acquitted himself most creditably. The following is a copy of the entry of his admission at Trinity College, Cambridge:-. "1790, July 8.—Admissus est Pensionarius Johannes Singleton Copley, filius Johannis Singleton Copley de Boston in America, a schola apud Chiswick in Middlesexia sub præsidio Doctoris Horne. Annos nat. 18.” From his wonderful quickness of comprehension and strength of memory he was able to make a given portion of time devoted to study more available than any man in the University, and he would occasionally affect to be an idler and a man of pleasure; but his solid acquirements must have been the result of steady application. demical When he was to take his Bachelor's degree, in a good is Acayear, he came out second wrangler, and he proved his honours. proficiency not only in mathematics, but in classics and A.D.1794. general learning, by obtaining a Trinity fellowship the first time he sat for this highly creditable honour.* * 1795, October 2: Joannes Singleton Copley, juratus et admissus in socium minorem. 1797, July 5: Joannes Singleton Copley, juratus et admissus in socium majorem. He took his degree of M.A. 1797, and was created LL.D. in 1835. СНАР. I. The tremendous struggle produced by the French Revolution between the defenders of old institutions however defective, and those who contended that all existing governments ought to be overturned, was now at its height; and His early young Copley's mind being from infancy imbued with repubdevotion to lican principles, he took what in American phrase he called republican principles. the "go-a-head side" so warmly and openly, as to run some risk of serious animadversion. He gradually became more cautious, but, till many years afterwards, when he was tempted to join the Tory ranks by the offer of a seat in parliament and the near prospect of the office of Chief Justice of Chester, he thought a democratic revolution would be salutary, and he is said to have contemplated without dismay the possible establishment of an Anglican Republic. He is ad mitted of Lincoln's sides in the Temple. The law was the profession by which on this, as on the other side of the Atlantic, such ambitious dreams were to be realized. He had no appetite for the necessary drudgery, but to gain an object which he had at heart he could for a season submit to intense application. For his means of subsistence he depended chiefly upon his fellowship; his father, having lived rather expensively, had accumulated little for him. But the aspiring youth hoped that before the time when, by the rules of the College, he must take orders or forfeit his fellowship, he should have made sufficient progress at the bar to enable him to dispense with all adventitious aid. On the 19th day of May, 1794, he was admitted a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn by the name and Inn, but re- designation of "John Singleton Copley of Trinity College, Cambridge, Gentleman, eldest son of John Singleton Copley of George Street, Hanover Square, in the county of Middlesex, Esq." His residence, however, was in the Temple, which is chiefly haunted by the students of the Common Law, the branch of the profession to which he was destined. As soon as he had finally left Cambridge he took chambers in Crown Office Row. He soon after became a pupil of Mr. Tidd, the famous Special Pleader, and having diligently worked in his chambers till he was well conversant with everything, from the De claration to the Surrebutter, he commenced Special Pleader CHAP. under the bar on his own account. I. becomes Now was the time when I made his acquaintance. He The author still kept up a friendly intercourse with Tidd, and attended a acquainted debating club which was held at his chambers in King's with him. Bench Walk. When I entered here as a pupil, and was admitted a member of this club, I had the honour of being presented to Mr. Copley, to whom I looked up with the most profound reverence and admiration. He was a capital speaker, but rather too animated for dry juridical discussion. I remember once he was so loud and long upon a question arising out of the law of libel that the porters and laundresses gathered round the window, in great numbers, listening to his animated periods. At last a cry of fire being raised from the crowd, the Temple fire-engine was actually brought out, and had the effect of putting an end to the flaming oration by raising a general laugh at the expense of the incendiary. He was very kind to me, and although of much older standing and much courted from his university reputation, he would ask me to call upon him. In those days I never met him in private society, but I did meet him not unfrequently at public dinners of a political complexion. In after life he asserted that he had never been a Whig-which I can testify to be true. He was a Whig and something more, or in one word a Jacobin. He would refuse to be present at a dinner given on the return of Mr. Fox for Westminster, but he delighted to dine with the "Corresponding Society," or to celebrate the anniversary of the acquittal of Hardy and Horne Tooke. A.D. 1803. He attempts to practise as a special pleader unHis travels der the bar. As a Special Pleader under the bar, his eloquence being of no service, and a constant attendance at chambers being expected, which was very distasteful to him, he had not the success which he expected; and he determined on being called to the bar. But before commencing his forensic in America. career he embarked for America, having a strong desire to revisit his native country, and to renew an intimacy with some relations whom he had left there. With a view to this ramble he had solicited and obtained at Cambridge the appointment of Travelling Bachelor, and in compliance CHAP. I with the statutes he remitted to the Vice-Chancellor an ample account of Transatlantic cities and manners. This I have in vain attempted to see, and I am afraid it is lost for ever. His narrative must be exceedingly interesting if it detailed his personal adventures; for he paid a visit of some days to the illustrious Washington, and he travelled some weeks in company with Louis Philippe-afterwards King of the French-then a refugee in the United States. * On my application to his College and to the University authorities, search was made for these letters, but I was informed that they could nowhere be found. |