3 7 1/^^ /f»v^V 1 •^V' K//9^^wj im ISM uc sou V4^k^5^ - '-^Cu =^= JO -^- -^ '_- ; \ -JJ i---- '^^ -' ■ * ■ -fe^ir. ^-^f — ^„v ^B B^^ • *^4^R^/ m^HPVA^S^ r-, 1 ..--v ^^fcfcrf 1-. ■ 1 ^== ^ jBjI^^^^^nik^ -=^=r-= CD iLvH^^^'^b^ iK^ ^^^^Ht^^^X <^^. —^ j: j^^-^^^Hfl^i'"^ 'K^-'^^JII^ ^ < ^B^ -'•''''^'^^K^^Bm^^^^ l^J 'U^U .^^H ^11 A ^\^'^ X'^^v i\>i^-iOi'^'jVjj -rJ :;'-3 •V ' * 3 ^^-^ "^^^M- C C, THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES f kSi'< S < c >^ 1^, ri-/1 C('Vr .i i;llir^l " C(LCC ^ CI cr ?^ i ,>-t; ' mr WmW^^ C C ^Cc CXi S5:: .<^kv.^/ <:( (C c X cere ■T' 3 3 ► BIOGEAPniCAL AND CRITICAL ESSAYS. VOL. I. I i toxDOtf : PniNTED BT SPOTTISWOODE AJfD CO. NEW-STKIiET SQUABE. BIOGEAPHICAL AND CRITICAL ESSAYS. EEPRINTED FROM REVIEWS, ■WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. BY A. HAYWARD, ESQ., Q.C. IN TWO VOLITMES. VOL. I. LONDON : LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS. 1858. k ^ ^ \f' PREFATORY NOTICE. In forming this collection, I have taken care to confine it to contributions which aimed at the general and comprehensive treatment of subjects or characters, rather than the mere criticism of books ; and a preference has been given to those which I ^ have been fortunately enabled to enrich from peculiar sources of information, — such as the reminiscences of distinguished friends and contemporaries. The two Essays entitled ^''Geoi^ge Selwyn^^ and '''■Lord Chesterfield^^ had been already reprinted in Messrs. Longmans' ^^ Traveller' s Library ;''' and "TAd Art of Dining'" forms part oi -'•'• Murray^ s Railway Reading.'''' Although the second edition had been stereotyped, Mr. Murray kindly permitted me to include it in this compilation, as well as any articles of mine that I might choose from " The Quarterly Review^ A. H. Marcli, 1858. ENGLISH Recently pubUsIied, by the same Writer. J U K 1 1) I C A L TRACTS. PART I. Containing : 1. Historical Sketcli of the Law of Real Property in England. — 2. The Principles and Practice of Pleading. — 3. Historical Sketch of IJeforms in the Criminal Law. Preparing for ptiblication. PART II. Containing : 1. History and Present State of the Laws relating to the Settlement and Removal of the Poor in England, Scotland, and Ire- land. — 2. Sketch of the Criminal Courts and Procedure of France. — .9. Outline of the Criminal Jurisprudence of the leading States of Germany. W. G. BENNINa & CO. %i\\o booksellers 43 FLEET STREET, LONDON. CONTENTS or THE FIRST VOLUME. Sydney S^hth ..... Page 1 Samuel Rogers . 60 James Sjoth ..... . 131 George Selwyn ..... . 149 Lord Chesterfield .... . 209 Lord Melbourne ..... . 254 General von Radowitz .... . 269 The Countess Haiin-Hahn . 280 M. DE Stendhal (Henri Beyle) . . 327 Pierre Dupont ..... . 372 Lord Eldon and the Chances of the Bar . 382 ■ A- EERATUM IN THE FIEST VOLUME. Page 254, line 2, fm " 1841 " read " 1848 ". „ 255, „ 29, (/e/e"(1805)" ESSAYS. THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH: HIS LIFE, CHARACTEE, AND WRITINGS. (From the Ebinburgh Eeview, July, 1855.) A Memoir of ike Reverend Sydney Smith. By his Daughter, Lady Holland. With Selections from his Letters. Edited by Mrs. Austin. In 2 vols. London : 1855. The publication of this book affords us the oppor- tunity for which we have been anxiously watching, which we must ere long have found or made for ourselves, had it not presented itself. We should be guilty of an unpardonable neglect of duty were we to allow Sydney Smith to be permanently placed amongst the illustrious band of English worthies in the Temple of Fame, at the risk of seeing too low a pedestal assigned to him, without urging on the at- tention of contemporaries, and recording for the in- struction of posterity, his claims to rank as a great public benefactor, as well as his admitted superiority in what we must make bold to call his incidental and subordinate character of " wit." It was in this Journal that he commenced his brilliant and emi- nently useful career as a social, moral, and political reformer. He persevered in that career through good and evil report, with unabated vigour and vivacity, both in writing and conversation, until the VOL. I. B 2 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH: greater part of his original objects had been attained ; and the simplest recapitulation of these would be sufficient to show that his countrymen have durable benefits and solid services, as well as pleasant thoughts and lively images, to thank him for. With, perhaps, the single exception of Lord Brou and g^estures, which render it rather a dif- ferent thing from what it was before, and infuse a tinge of novelty into the repeated narrative." A story that seemed to haunt him for weeks, was one of a tame magpye in a church, that suddenly descended on the reading-desk and endeavoured to fly off with the sermon ; and of the desperate struggle that ensued between the bird and the preacher, " the congregation all in favour of the pye." There was another which he seldom failed to re- peat whenever one of his most agreeable neighbours, whose Christian name was Ambrose, was announced. " Do you know how they pronounce Ambrose in Yorkshire ? They turn it into Amorous. Once at Foston, I was told that Amorous Phillips was waiting to speak to me in the hall. ' Let him wait,' said I, — deceived by this manner of pronunciation, which I heard for the first time, — ' but do not let any of the maid-servants go near him.' " Many discriminating tributes to Sydney Smith's worth and talents are included in this biography, but Mrs. Austin's preface to the second volume renders all the rest superfluous. It is a concise, convincing, I HIS LIFE, CHAKACTERj AND WRITINGS. 49 impartial, and affectionate summary of her lamented friend's leading merits and distinguishing qualities. It hardly requires an addition, and certainly does not admit of improvement. After justly remarking that, many of the giants he combated being not only slain but forgotten, the very completeness of his victory tends to efface from the minds of the present genera- tion the extent of their obligations to him, she asks, " What other private gentleman of our day, uncon- nected with Parliament, without rank or fortune, has been able by a few pages from his pen to electrify the country, as he did by his letters to the Americans ? or to figlit single-handed against the combined power of the ministry and of the dignitaries of the Church — a battle in whicii he carried public opinion with him ? " — or, we beg leave to add, to alter the whole complexion of a controversy on a subject apparently so exhausted as the Ballot ? At the same time, we cannot quite agree with Mrs. Austin as to his style ; and Sir Henry Holland's remarks, which she quotes approvingly, must be read Avith a few grains of allowance : — " If," writes Sir Henry, " Mr. Sydney Smith had not been the greatest and most brilliant of wits, he would have been the most re- markable man of his time for a sound and vigorous understanding and great reasoning powers ; and if he had not been distinguished for these, he would have been the most eminent and the purest writer of English." Since we are on the chapter of style, we may be pardoned for suggesting that Sir Henry's obvious meaning is not expressed with his usual precision. But he clearly intended to assert that Sydney Smith, besides being the most brilliant of wits, and pos- sessing great reasoning powers, was no less remark- able for the excellence of his style. Now a good style is one which can be safely recommended for general VOL. T. E 50 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH: use ; and in saying that Sydney Smith's was not, in this sense at least, a good style, we say no more than is indisputably true of Burke's, Gibbon's, or John- son's. AYe are not denying that Sydney Smith's style was admirably fitted for his purpose, and we could cite passages of high eloquence which are un- exceptionable in point of composition. His sermons, which are mostly free from mannerism, prove that he could combine purity and correctness with force of lano;uao:e when he thouo-ht fit. But his humorous writings are often deficient in ease, smoothness, grace, rhythm, and purity, because he constantly aimed at eff'ect by startling contrasts, by the juxta- position of incongruous images or epithets, or by the use of odd-sounding words and strange compounds of Greek and Latin derivation. Thus he describes a preacher wiping his face with his " cambric sudarium,^^ and asks, " Why this holoplexia on sacred occasions alone ? " A weak and foolish man is " anserous and asinine." Dr. Parr's wig is the ixiya Oavfxa of barbers. Mr. Grote is quizzed for supposing that England is to be governed by " political acupuncturation," and told that his concealed democrat, doomed to lead a long life of lies between every election, " must do this not only eundo, in his calm and prudential state, but redeundo, from the market, warmed with beer and expanded by alcohol." This is certainly not pure English ; it is not even popular writing, like Defoe's, or Swift's, or Cobbett's. It is caviare to the multitude, and would require to be interpreted for the benefit of the ladies and the country gentlemen ; that is, if the country gentlemen did not now constitute one of the most highly edu- cated classes of our society. The art of true criticism demands that we should subject ourselves to a strict self-examination, and that we should analyse the causes and sources of our impressions, favourable or 'IIIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS. 51 unfavourable. Let Sir Henry Holland do this, and he will admit that he has confounded the style with the man, and that Sydney Smith sometimes formed a striking exception to Buffon's famous dogma, Le style^ c'est Vhomme. In this case the man was always na- tural, simple, and essentially English, — the style was often forced, factitious, composite, and (to boyow his own word) cosmopolite. Many of his allusive ex- pressions, rich with tlie raciest humour, could not be enjoyed beyond the polished circles of the metropolis. He wrote for the meridian of Holland House ; and one reason why he notwithstanding exercised such widespread influence, is to be found in the aristocratic constitution of our Legislature. AVhat Sir Henry Holland says of the suddenness and unexpectedness of his manner is just. His review of Madame d'Epinay's " Memoirs " begins thus : " There used to be in Paris, under the ancient regime, a few women of brilliant talents, who violated all the common duties of life, and gave very pleasant little suppers. Among these supped and sinned Madame d'Epinay, the friend and companion of Rousseau, Diderot, Grimm, Holbach, and many other literary persons of distinction of that period. Her principal lover was Grimm ; with whom was deposited, written in feigned names, the history of her life. Grimm died — his secretary sold the history — the feigned names have been exchanged for the real ones — and her works now appear abridged in three volumes octavo." An excellent judge of composition, the Dean of St. Paul's (Dr. Milman),has spoken of the increased vigour of style and boldness of illustration in Sydney Smith's writings as he advanced in years. This is most ob- servable in the letters, the earliest of which, we frankly own, have disappointed us, although they contain ample confirmation (were any needed) of his soundness of principle, his unaffected piety, his unde- E 2 52 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH : viating rectitude of purpose, his aifectionatc disposi- tion, his happy temper, and his warm heart. The shortest are the best. The longest, we believe, cost him no effort, but some of them read as if they did, and we would gladly exchange them for a collection of the notes he dashed off in the daily commerce of life. Xlius in one excusing himself from keeping an engagement to sup in the Temple: "Charles Street, May 18, 1836. " My dear Hay ward, — There is no more harm in talking between eleven and one, than between nine and eleven. Tlie Temple is as good as Charles Street. The ladies are the most impregnable, and the gentlemen the most unim- peachable, of the sex ; but still I have a feeling of the wick- edness of supping in the Temple ; my delicate and irritable virtue is alarmed, and I recede. " Ever yours, S. S." The following, printed in the selection, are tho- roughly characteristic : "Munden House, Friday 11, 1841. " Dear Milnes, — I will not receive you on these terms, but postpone you for safer times. I cannot blame you ; but, seriously, dinners are destroyed by the inconveniences of a free Government. I have filled up your place, and bought y^"'^ ^°^^- « Sydney Smith." "May 14, 1842. *' My dear Dickens, — 1 accept your obliging invitation conditionally. If I am invited by any man of greater genius than yourself, or one by whose works I have been more com- pletely interested, I will repudiate you, and dine with the more splendid phenomenon of the two. " Ever yours sincerely, " Sydney Smith." "July 4, 1843. " My dear Lord ]\Iahon, — I am only half-recovered from a violent attack of a-out in the knee, and I could not bear the confinement of dinner, without getting up and walkijig be- HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS. 53 tween the courses, or thrusting my foot on somebody else's chair, like the Archbishop of Dublin. For these reasons, I have been forced for some time, and am still forced, to de- cline dinner engagements. I should, in a sounder state, have had great pleasure in accepting the very agreeable party you are kind enough to propose to me ; but I shall avail myself, in the next campaign, of your kindness. I consider myself as well acquainted with Lady Mahon and yourself, and shall hope to see you here, as well as elsewhere. Pray present my benediction to your charming wife, who I am sure would bring any plant in the garden into full flower by looking at it, and smiling upon it. Try the experiment from mere curiosity. " Ever yours, Sydney Smith." The following is a sample of his more thoughtful epistles. It is addressed to his old friend Lord Murray : "Green Street, June 4, 1843. " My dear Murray, — I should be glad to hear something of your life and adventures, and more particularly so, as I learn you have no intention of leaving Edinburgh for London this season, " Mrs. Sydney and I have been remarkably well, and are so at present ; why, I cannot tell. I am getting very old in years, but do not feel that I have beconu so in constitution. My locomotive powers at seventy-three are abridged, but my animal spirits do not desert me. I am become rich. My youngest brother died suddenly, leaving behind him 100,000/. and no will. A third of this therefore fell to my share, and puts me at my ease for my few remaining years. After buying into the Consols and the Reduced, I read Seneca ' On the Contempt of Wealth ! ' AVhat intolerable nonsense ! I heard your eloge from Lord Lansdowne when I dined with him, and I need not say how heartily I concurred in it. Next to me sat Lord Worsley, whose enclosed letter affected me, and very much pleased me. I answered it with sincere warmth. Pray return me the paper. Did you read my American Petition, and did you approve it? • ••••• " Why don't they talk over the virtues and excellences of E 3 5-1 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH: Lansdowne ? There is no man who performs the duties of life better, or fills a higher station in a more becoming manner. He is full of knowledge, and eager for its acqui- sition. His remarkable politeness is the result of good nature, regulated by good sense. He looks for talents and qualities among all ranks of men, and adds them to his stock of society, as a botanist does his plants ; and while other aristocrats are yawning among Stars and Garters, Lansdowne is i"efreshing his soul with the fancy and genius which he has found in odd places, and gathered to the marbles and pictures of his palace. Then he is an honest politician, a wise statesman, and has a philosophic mind ; he is very agreeable in conversation, and is a man of an unblemished life. I shall take care of him in my Memoirs ! " Kemember me very kindly to the maximus minimus (Lord Jeffrey), and to the Scotch Church. I have urged ray friend the Bishop of Durham to prepare kettles of soup for the seceders, who will probably be wandering in troops over our Northern Counties. " Ever your sincere friend, " Sydney Smith." Without carrying the taste so far as Tieck, whose Shakspeare readings and soirees at Dresden boasted about four women to one man, Sydney Smith had a marked predilection for female society. The letters selected for publication were principally addressed to ladies ; the Countess Grey, the late Lady Holland, Mrs. Meynell of Temple Newsham, Mrs. Grote, and Miss Georgiana Harcourt (now Mrs. Malcolm), being amongst the most favoured of his fair correspondents. The letters which passed between him and the Dow- ager Countess of Morley are capital. She had more of his peculiar humour, buoyancy of spirit, fertile fancy, and unaffected cordiality than any other of his contemporaries, male or female ; and the charm of her merriment was ineffably enhanced by feminine refinement and grace. Her death is the greatest loss sustained by English Society since it lost him. In the following playful competition of wit, their simi- I HIS LIFE, CHAKACTER, AND WRITINGS. 55 larity and their congeniality in their sportive moods are obvious : [No date.] *' Dear Lady Morley, — Pray understand me rightly : I do not give the Bluecoat theory as an estabUshed fact, but as a highly probable conjecture ; look at the circumstances. At a very early age young Quakers disappear ; at a very early age the Coat-boys are seen ; at the age of seventeen or eighteen young Quakers are again seen ; at the same age the Coat-boys disappear: who has ever heard of a Coat- man ? The thing is utterly unknown in natural history. Upon what other evidence does the migration of the grub into the aurelia rest? After a certain number of days the grub is no more seen, and the aurelia flutters over his relics. That such a prominent fact should have escaped our naturalists is truly astonishing ; I had long suspected it, but was afraid to come out with a speculation so bold, and now mention it as protected and sanctioned by you. " Dissection would throw great light upon the question ; and if our friend would receive two boys into his house about the time of their changing their coats, great service would be rendered to the cause. " Our friend Lord Grey, not remarkable for his attention to natural history, was a good deal struck with the novelty and ingenuity of the hypothesis. I have ascertained that the young Bluecoat infants are fed with drab-coloured pap, which looks very suspicious. More hereafter on this in- teresting subject. Where real science is to be promoted, I will make no apology to your Ladyship for this intrusion. "Yours truly, " Sydney Smith." [No date.] " Had I received your letter," she replies, " two days since, I should have said your arguments and theory were perfectly convincing, and that the most obstinate sceptic must have yielded to them ; but I have come across a person in that interval who gives me information which puts us all at sea again. That the Bluecoat boy should be the larva of the Quaker in Great Britain is possible, and even probable, but we must take a wider view of the question ; and here, 1 confess, I am bewildered by doubts and difficulties. The E 4 56 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH : Bluecoat is an Indigenous animal — not so the Quaker; and now be so good as to give your whole mind to the facts I have to communicate. I have seen and talked much with Sir R. Kerr Porter on this interesting subject. He has travelled over the whole habitable globe, and has penetrated with a scientific and scrutinising eye into regions hitherto unexplored by civilised man ; and yet he has never seen a Quaker baby. He has lived for years in Philadelphia (the national nest of Quakers) ; he has roamed up and down Broadways and lengthways in every nook and corner of Pennsylvania ; and yet he never saw a Quaker baby ; and what is new and most striking, never did he see a Quaker lady in a situation which gave hope that a Quaker baby might be seen hereafter. This is a stunning fact, and involving the question in such impenetrable mystery as will, I fear, defy even your sagacity, acuteness, and industry to elucidate. But let us not be checked and cast down ; truth is the end and object of our research. Let us not bate one jot of heart and hope, but still bear up, and steer our course right onward. *' Yours most truly, " F. MORLEY." It would be difficult to find a more pleasing speci- men of his letters to ladies than the following to Lady Dufferin : — "Combe Florey [no date]. " I am just beginning to get well from that fit of gout, at the beginning of which you were charitable enough to pay me a visit, and I said — the same Providence which inflicts gout, creates Duffcrins! We must take the good and the evils of life. " I am charmed, I confess, with the beauty of this country. I hope some day you will be charmed with it too. It banished, however, every Arcadian notion to see walk in at the gate to-day. I seemed to be transported instantly to Piccadilly, and the innocence went out of me. " I hope the process of furnishing goes on well. Attend, I pray you, to the proper selection of an easy chair, where you may cast yourself down in the weariness and distresses of life, with the absolute certainty that every joint of the human frame will receive all the comfort which can be derived from easy position and soft materials ; then the glass, HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS. 57 on which your eyes are so often fixed, knowing that you have the great duty imposed on the Sheridan?, of looking well. You may depend upon it, happiness depends mainly on these little things. " I hope you remain in perfect favour with Rogers, and that you are not omitted in any of the dress breakfast parties. Eemember me to the Norton : tell her I am glad to be sheltered from her beauty by the insensibility of age ; that I shall not live to see its decay, but die with that un- faded image before ray eyes : but don't make a mistake, and deliver the message to instead of your sister. " I remain, dear Lady DuiFerin, very sincerely yours, " Sydney Smith." We had thoughts of attempting, with the aid of Mr. Thackeray's Lectures, to draw a parallel between Sydney Smith and the other leading English hu- mourists ; but comparisons are proverbially odious, and in a case like the present they would be both unjust and inconclusive. Sydney Smith stands alone : none but himself can be his parallel ; and he is the first in his line, although his line may not be the first. He possessed the faculty of simplifying and popularising reason and argument in a way which must be pronounced inimitable, and during forty years he uniformly exerted it for noble and useful ends. He weeded out a mass of noxious errors, and he placed a number of valuable truths and principles in new and striking points of view, thereby adding incalculably to their exchangeable value and beneficial influence. The good he has done in this way cannot be measured by wliat passes current, or is ticketed, as his ; for so fertile was his mind that thoughts and images fell from him and were picked up and appropriated by others, like the carelessly set jewels which dropped from Buckin<^- ham's dress at the Court of Anne of Austria. Ifo never came into society without naturally and easily taking the lead as, beyond all question, the most 58 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH: agreeable, sensible, and instructive guest and com- panion that the oldest person living could remember. These are his titles to the celebrity which still attaches to his name, but unluckily they sound transitory, perishable, and inappreciable when con- trasted with the claims of the iirst-class humourists to the undisturbed enjo3anent of their immortality. Each of these has produced at least one standard work, which will rank as an English classic so long as the English language endures. Sydney Smith is similarly situated in this respect to what Swift would be if he had never written " The Tale of a Tub " or " Gulliver's Travels." But if the Canon of St. Paul's was inferior to the Dean of St. Patrick's as a writer, he was superior as a moralist and a man. The prime of his life was not wasted in the barren and abortive struggles of faction. His temper was not soured by disappointment, nor his heart corroded by misanthropy. He was not like the scathed elm which had begun to wither at the top. His intellect retained to the last its original bright- ness; and he died in the fulness of years, with glowing affections and unimpaired faculties, sur- rounded by all that should accompany old age, and able to say with Addison to any sorrowing relative who may have needed the lesson, " I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian can die." We may apply to him, with the alteration of a word or two, what he said in his letter to Sir James Mackintosh's son : — " The impression which the great talents and amiable qualities of 30ur father made upon me will remain as long as I remain. When I turn from living spectacles of stupidity, ignorance, and malice, and wish to think better of the world, I remember my great and benevolent friend Mackin- tosh." How often, in an analogous mood of mind, have we not thus thought of him ! How ardently, HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS. 59 when we see folly or bigotry reviving and putting forth fresh oiFshoots, do we long for one of his racy pamphlets or pithy letters ! Oh, for one hour of Peter Plymley ! What a subject for his pen would be the intolerance of the Sabbatarian party, the call for new bishops as the one thing needful in India, the cry for the simultaneous conversion and extermi- nation of the Hindoo race, or the new-fangled com- mercial system in which accommodation bills and paper money were to perform all the functions of capital. When we turn from such spectacles, and wish to think better of the world, we remember our great, wise, and benevolent friend, Sydney Smith. 60 SAMUEL ROGERS. (From the Edinburgu Review, July, 1856.) Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers; to which is added Porsoniana. London: 1856. For more than half a century a small house in a quiet nook of London has been the recognised abode of taste, and the envied resort of wit, beauty, learn- ing, and genius. There, surrounded by the choicest treasures of art, and in a light reflected from Guidos and Titians, have sat and mingled in familiar con- verse the most eminent poets, painters, actors, artists, critics, travellers, historians, warriors, orators, and statesmen of two generations. Under that roof celebrities of all sorts, matured or budding, and however contrasted in genius or pursuit, met as on the table land where (according to D'Alembert) Archimedes and Homer may stand on a perfect footing of equality. The man of mind was intro- duced to the man of action, and modest merit which had yet its laurels to win, was first brought ac- quainted with the patron Avho was to push its fortunes, or with the hero whose name sounded like a trumpet tone. It was in that dining-room that Erskine told the story of his first brief, and Grattan that of his last duel : that the " Iron Duke " described AVaterloo as a " battle of giants : " that Chantrey, placing his hand on a mahogany pedestal, said, " Mr. Rogers, do you remember a workman at five shillings a day who came in at that door to receive your orders for this work? 1 was that workman." It was there, too, that Byron's intimacy with Moore commenced over the famous mess of potatoes and vinegar : that SAMUEL KOGERS. 61 Madame de Stael, after a triumphaiit argument with Mackintosh, was (as recorded by Byron) " Avell ironed " by Sheridan : that Sydney Smith, at dinner with Walter Scott, Campbell, Moore, Wordsworth and Washington Irving, declared that he and Irving, if the only prose-writers, were not the only prosers in the company. It was through that window, opening to the floor and leading through the garden to the Park, that the host started with Sheridan's gifted grand-daughter on " The Winter's Walk" which she has so gracefully and feelingly commemorated. It was in the library above, that Wordsworth, holding up the original con- tract for the copyright of "Paradise Lost" (1600 copies for 5/.), proved to his own entire satisfaction that solid fame was in an inverse ratio to popularity ; whilst Coleridge, with his finger upon the parchment deed by which Dryden agreed for the translation of the ^neid, expatiated on the advantages which would have accrued to literature, if " glorious John " had selected the Iliad and left Virgil to Pope. Whilst these and similar scenes are passing, we can fancy the host murmuring his well-known lines : " Be mine to listen ; pleased but not elate, Ever too modest or too proud to rate Myself by my companions, self-compell'd To earn the station that in life I held." This house, rich as it was in varied associations, was only completed in 1801 or 1802 ; but the late owner's intimacy with men and women of note goes back to a long antecedent period. He had been, some years before, proposed at Johnson's club — the club, as it is denominated still — by Fox, seconded by Windham, and (as he fully believed) black-balled by JMalone. He had met Condorcet at Lafayette's table in 1789. In the course of a single Sunday at Edinburgh in the same eventful year, he had breakfasted with 62 SAMUEL ROGERS. ' Robertson, heard him preach in the forenoon and Blair in the afternoon, drank tea with the Piozzis, and supped with Adam Smith. There is surely something more in this position, than the extraordinary prolongation of human life, or than its utility as a connecting link between two or three generations, the point of view in which hitherto it has been almost exclusively considered. It leads naturally and necessarily to reflections on the state of our society, especially in relation to the literary, artistic, and intellectual elements, during the last seventy years ; and we feel eager to profit by the experience and sagacity of a nonogenarian who had enjoyed such ample opportunities for appreciating mankind. Fortunately Mr. Rogers's mental habits and tendencies strongly disposed and qualified him for turning his length of years to good account. His writings teem with maxims of worldly wisdom, enforced or illustrated by remarkable incidents, and his conversation was replete Avith anecdotes selected for the sake of the light they threw on manners, the trains of thought they suggested, or the moral they involved. AVhat has been printed of his " table talk " is very far from being in keeping with his character, or on a par with his fame. Indeed, those who form their opinion from such records as the volume before us may be excused for attributing the assiduous court paid him to the caprice of fashion ; whilst others, with better materials for judgment, will haply account for the phenomenon by the felicitous combination of long life, ample means, cultivated taste, refined hos- pitality, and poetic celebrity in one man. Whichever party, the detractors or the admirers, may turn out right, the critical analysis of his life aiid writings which must precede any honest attempt to adjudicate upon his reputation, cannot fail to be highly in- structive ; nor will it be found wantinir in the leadin tion of the hospitality which they had just enjoyed. s " Did you observe how he helped the fish? " said Rogers. He had lent 800^. to Moore, and as the fact was gratefully bruited about at the time, and is duly recorded in the published Diar}^, there was and is no harm in Rogers's or our allusion to it. " When he repaid me the money," said Rogers, he exclaimed, ' There, thank God, I do not now owe a farthing in the world.' If he had been a prudent man he would have reflected that he had not got a farthing." On entering Moore's parlour at Sloperton, and seeing it hung round with engraved portraits of Lord Grey, Lord John Russell, Lord Lansdowne, &c., Rogers remarked, " So, I see you have all your patrons about you." " A good-natured man," charac- teristically observed j\Ioore, when he told the story, " would have said friends." "When he was speaking of some one's marriage in his usual tone, he was reminded that the friends of the bridegroom were very much pleased at it. Rogers rephed, " He's a fortunate man then, for his friends are pleased, and his enemies delighted." Whenever a disagreeable man, or one whom he disliked, married a pretty Avoman, he would say, " Now we shall have our revenge of him." He spoke to Mrs. H. one day of Lady with extreme admiration and apparent cordiality ; he then left the room, and Mrs. H. remarked that she had never heard Rogers speak so well of any one before. The door opened, and Rogers thrust in his head with the words, " There are spots on the sun though." SAMUEL KOGERS. 115 When a late member for a western county and his wife were stopped by banditti in Italy, Rogers used to say, " The banditti wanted to carry off P into the mountains ; but she flung her arms round his neck, and rather than take her with them, they let him go." This kind of malice was a venial ofi'ence in com- parison with the cross things which he sometimes addressed to people to their faces without the shadow of a provocation ; and it is these which have given rise to so many animated controversies about his goodness of heart. The discussion is strikingly analogous, in one essential quality, to the tilting match touching the colour of a shield. He presented the white side of his disposition to those he liked, and the black side to those he disliked ; both likings and dislikings being often based on no sounder principle than that which proved fatal to Dr. Fell. Hence the fervent abuse of one faction, and the equally fervent laudation of another. Only what his eulogists fail to see, or unfairly refuse to admit, is, that no extent of kindness or courtesy to an object of preference is an excuse for unkindness or discourtesy to an object of antipathy, to say nothing of the social oflence of an annoying or rude remark in company. Good breeding requires delicacy of perception enough to know what is pleasing or displeasing to tliose witli whom we mix, as well as good nature and good temper enougli so to use our knowledge as never to cause an unpleasant feeling or even to revive a dis- agreeable association. Rogers was eminently gifted with the instinctive tact in question, but his use of it varied with his mood ; and there were times when he was both wayward and exacting to an unjustifiable extent, — when all his gentler emotions were " like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh." One of his female favourites had made a little I 2 11 G SAMUEL ROGERS. dinner for liim, in wliicb, she fondly hoped, all his tastes and fancies had been consulted. After a glance round the table, he remarked that the fish was out of season. At a bachelor dinner where the attendance was scanty, he refused the two or three things that were offered him, till the solitary waiter had left the room. " Won't you eat anything, Mr. Rogers ? " asked the host. " I will take some of that pie'' (pointing to a vol-au-vent) " when there is anybody to give it to me." He bitterly repented of these two escapades, when, shortly afterwards, he was left out of a succession of small dinners to punish him, and was told why by one of the presiding beauties. The redeeming feature was that Avhen (as ]Mr. Jarndyce would say) the wind was in the east, he was no respecter of persons, and distributed raps on the knuckles without cere- mony to all alike, to the strong and the weak, the big and the little, the rich and the poor, the proud and the humble. Indeed it is no more than justice to him to say, that he was commonly conciliated by humility, and -Nvas more especially irritated by self-confident people in high health and high spirits, who took their share of the conversation, and forcibly broke in upon the monopoly of attention which he claimed or expected. His sense of humour made Sydney Smith's fun irresistible, and it was his pride to have so distinguished a guest at his table; but there was no love lost between them, and Kogers was all the bitterer in their incidental passages of arms from the consciousness of being (in Spenserian phrase) over- crowed. Thus at a dinner at the late Lord S 's, at which both were present, Sydney Smith, by way of falling in with the humour of the company, — mostly composed of Meltonians and patrons of the turf, offered a bet, and added, " If I lose, I will pay \ SAMUEL ROGERS. 117 at once in a cheque on Kogers, Toogood, and Com- pany," which was then the name of the firm. " And it shall be paid," said Rogers, in his bitterest tone, " every iota of it^^ — alluding to Sydney Smith's supposed reply, much censured for its levity, on being asked whether he believed the whole of the Thirty-nine Articles. When Rogers told the story, he justified himself on the ground that Sydney Smith "meant to take advantasre of their behi": in fine company to run him down as a tradesman." When Sydney Smith mentioned it, he declared that he had fallen into an involuntary error from not calculating on the depths of human weakness, and that the notion of ojivinfi: ofi'ence never so much as crossed his mind. It should be added that Rogers had a morbid aversion for what he called " dog and horse men." He had omitted to observe how completely the coarseness and ignorance which was supposed, or at least declared by novelists and dramatists, to mark the country gentlemen of his youth, have been rubbed off and refined away by increased facilities of inter- course and the resulting cultivation of all classes. Although a little jealous of Luttrell's superior fashion (of which an instance is given in the " Table Talk," p. 233), Rogers's favourite amongst the wits and talkers in repute was the author of " I^etters to Julia," and the most refined of their common con- temporaries (admitting Sydney Smith's far larger grasp and higher vocation) will approve the selection. There could not be a more agreeable companion than Luttrell, — so light in hand, so graceful in manner, so conciliating in tone and gesture, with such a range of well-chosen topics, and such a fresh, sparkling, and abundant spring of fancy to play upon them. When his poem (nicknamed " Letters from a Dandy to a Dolly ") was published, a crack critic I 3 118 SAMUEL ROGERS. began a review of it by suggesting that the autlior had, as it were, cut up his gold-egg-laying goose by printing his entire stock in trade as a joker. Never critic made a greater mistake. Luttrell's sources of agreeability were inexhaustible, and they were without alloy. To him belong some of the best mots recorded in " Moore's Diary;" and Rogers accurately described his peculiar manner when he said, " Luttrell is indeed a pleasant companion. None of the talkers whom I meet in London society can slide in a brilliant thing with such readiness as he does." Rogers treated Moore much as Johnson treated Goldsmith, — rated him soundly when present for not attending better to his own interests, and did not always spare him when absent, but would suffer no one else to utter a word against him. In allusion to his restlessness, Rogers used to say, " Moore dines in one place, wishing he was dining in another place, with an opera-ticket in his pocket which makes him wish he was dining nowhere." Moore's " Diary " abounds with practical proofs of Rogers's unceasing liberality and unobtrusive charity. It also contains one valuable testimony of a rarer kind : — " Rogers stayed more than a week [at Bowood, Dec. 1841]. Still fresh in all his faculties, and improved won- derfully in the only point where he ever was deficient, temper. He now gives the natural sweetness of his disposi- tion fair play." It appears from one of Moore's letters to Lady Donegal, published in his " Memoirs," that he had suffered severely at a preceding period from Rogers's carping humour and fault-finding propensity, — " Rogers and I had a very pleasant tour of it, though I felt throughout it all, as I always feel with him, that the fear of losing his good opinion almost embitters the possession of it, and that, though in his society one walks upon roses, it is SAMUEL ROGERS. 119 with constant apprehension of the thorns that are among them. . . . He has left me rather out of conceit with my poem, ' Lalla Rookh ' (as his fastidious criticism generally does), and I have returned to it with rather an humbled spirit ; but I have already altered my whole plan to please him, and I will do so no more, for I should make as long a voyage of it as his own ' Columbus,' if I attended to all his objections. His general opinion, however, is very flattering : he only finds fault with every part of it in detail ; and this, you know, is the style of his criticism of characters ; — an excellent person, but—." (Aug. 21, 1812; vol. viii. p. 114.) '^ Your description of Rogers," replies Lady Donegal, " is too like him. How vexatious it is that a man who has so much the power of pleasing and attaching people to him should mar the gifts of nature so entirely by giving way to that sickly and discontented turn of mind which makes him dissatisfied with everything, and disappointed in all his views of life. Yet he can feel for others ; and notwithstanding this unfortunate habit he has given himself of dwelling upon the fiiults and follies of his friends, he really can feel attachment ; and to you, I am certain, he is attached, though I acknow- ledo^e that the thorn sometimes makes one wish to throw away the roses, and forego the pleasure to avoid the pain. But with all his faults I like him, tiiough I know he spares me no more than any of his other dear friends." — Aug. 28, 1812; vol. viii. p. 118. Rogers was unceasingly at war with the late Lady D. One day at dinner she called across the table : " Now, I\Ir. Rogers, I am sure you are talking about me " (not attacking, as the current version runs). " Lady D.," was the retort, " I pass my life in de- fending you." Although fashion is tolerably discriminating upon the whole, and commonly exacts an entrance-fee in sterling or current coin of some sort (either merit or celebrity) from all who are not born and bred within her hallowed precincts, still individuals may now and then be seen there whose position is as puzzling as that of Pope's fly in amber : — I 4 120 SAMUEL ROGERS. " The thing wc know is neither rich nor rare, But wonder how the devil it got there." For this anomalous species, Rogers professed un- mitigated contempt ; and their usual resource, in- dustrious flattery, was Avorse than wasted on hira. One evening when, leaning on the arm of a friend, he was about to walk home from an evening party, a pretentious gentleman of this description made a des- perate attempt to fasten on them, and prefaced the meditated intrusion by saying that he never liked walking alone. " I should have thought, sir," said Rogers, " that no one was so well satisfied with your company as yourself." If he had done no more than check pushing pre- sumption, or expose fawning insignificance, his habi- tual severity of comment would have caused no reflection on his memory; but it became so formidable at one time, that his guests might be seen manoeu- vring which should leave the room last, so as not to undergo the apprehended ordeal ; and it was said of him, with more wit than truth, that he made his way in the world, as Hannibal made his across the Alps, with vinegar. His adoption of a practice at variance with all his avowed theories has been accounted for by the weakness of his voice, which, it was argued, induced him to compel attention by bitterness, — like the backbiters described by Lord Brougham, " who, devoid of force to wield the sword, snatch the dagger, and steep it in venom to make it fester in the scratch." This solution is unjust to Rogers, who was not driven to procure listeners by such means. It, moreover, exaggerates a failing which was com- mon to the wits of his earlier days, both in France and England. Three fourths of the good things at- tributed to Voltaire, Beaumarchais, Chesterfield, Selwyn, Sheridan, Walpole, Wilkes and their con- temporaries, would have found appropriate place in SAMUEL KOGEUS. 121 a . the " School for Scandal,;" and before condemning Itogers on the evidence of those to whom the black side of his character was most frequently presented, we must hear those whose attention was constantly attracted to the white side. One female reminiscent, nurtured and domesticated with genius from her childhood, writes thus : — " I knew the kind old man for five and twenty years. I say kind advisedly, because no one did so many kind things to those who, being unable to dig, to beg are ashamed. The sharp sayings were remembered and repeated because they were so clever. There are many as bitter, no one so clever. He was essentially a gentleman, by education, by association, — his manners were perfect. Once, when breakfasting with him, upon taking our seats he called my daughter to his side, thus obliging a young man to leave his place ; feeling that this was not courteous, he said, ' I ask you to move because I love your parents so dearly that I feel as if you were my son.' " He not only gave freely and generously, but looked out for occasions of being kind. My father once saw him, and he asked after a mutual acquaintance — ' How is K ? ' the reply was — ' As well as a man with nine children and a small income can be ;' the next day Mr. Rogers sent hira fifty pounds. A friend once asked him to assist a young man at college ; he gave immediately twenty pounds, and after leaving the house returned to say, ' There is more money to be had from the same place, if wanted ! ' We ought to observe how much all that appears from time to time tells to his credit in the various Memoirs, &c. You find him always a peacemaker, always giving wise counsel, generous and kind." — Private MS. The author of " The Winter's Walk," after al- luding to " the keen point of many a famed reply," proceeds : — " But by a holler light thy angel reads The unseen records of more gentle deeds, — And by a holier lij^lit thy angel sees The tear oft bhed for humble miseries, 122 SAMUEL ROGERS. Th' indulgent hour of kindness stol'n away From the free leisure of thy well-spent day, For some poor struggling son of Genius, bent Under the weight of heartsick discontent. And by that light's soft radiance I review Thy unpretending kindness, calm and true, Not to me only ; but in bitterest hours To one whom Heaven endowed with varied powers. • • • « • By sorrow weakened, by disease unnerved, Faithful at least the friend he had not served : For the same voice essayed that hour to cheer AVhich now sounds welcome to his grandchild's ear ; And the same hand, to aid that life's decline, Whose gentle clasp so late was linked in mine." Few readers can require to be reminded of the closing scenes in the " Life of Sheridan," when Rogers ad- vanced 150/. (not the first of the same amount, says the biographer) to procure the expiring orator the poor privilege of dying undisturbed. " Oh, it sickens the heart to see bosoms so hollow, And friendships so cold, in the great and highborn ; To think what a long list of titles may follow Tiie relics of him who died friendless and lorn. How proud they can flock to the funeral array Of one whom they shunned in his sickness and sorrow, How bailiffs may seize Ids last blanket to-day Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow." But it cheers the heart to see one neither great nor highborn stepping forward to prevent that last blanket from being seized ; and, " in the train of all this phalanx of Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Viscounts, Barons, Honourables, Right Honcurables, Princes of the Blood, and First Officers of the State, it was not a little in- teresting to see walking humbly, side by side, the only two men who had not waited for the call of vanity to display itself, — Dr. Bain and Mr. Rogers."* When some one complained in Thomas Campbell's hearing, that Rogers said spiteful things : " Borrow * IMoore's "Life of Sheridan." fl SAMUEL ROGERS. 123 five hundred pounds of him," was the comment, ** and he will never sa}^ one word against you until you want to repay him." He told a lady (the reminiscent before quoted) that Campbell borrowed 500/., upon the plea that if he had that sum, it would do him a Sfood service.* Three weeks afterwards he brou2:ht back the money, saying that he found it would not be prudent to risk it. " At this time," added Rogers, " I knew that he was every day pressed for small sums." Here is an exemplarily kind action followed up by unexceptionably kind words. We could fill pages with other well-authenticated instances of his consi- derate generosity. They have come to light gradually ; and it is a remarkable fact that, whilst he was an- nually giving away large sums, his name figured little in subscription lists. He may (as we have heard objected) have been acting all along rather from calculation than from impulsiveness, from head not heart. He may have been following Paley's counsel, who recommends us to cultivate our better feelings by almsgiving, if only with a view to our own self-complacency. Or he may have been simply more fortunate in his experimental benevolence than the nobleman who, on being advised to try doing a little good by way of a new pleasure, replied that he had tried it already and found no pleasure in it. To what does this analysis of motive a la Rochefoucauld amount after all? Surely, to seek and find happiness in doing good, is to be good. Admitting that the mere voluptuary, and the general benefactor, have each the same end, self, — still the difi^erence in the means employed constitutes a sufficiently wide and marked distinction between the two. When we have calmly computed how much good might be done daily, how much ha])piness diffused, without the sacrifice of * This is the loan mentioned in Moore's "[Memoirs," vol. vii. 124 SAMUEL llOGEKS. a wish or caprice, without the interruption of a habit, by thousands of the richer classes who never turn aside to aid the needy or elevate the lowly, — when we have done this, we shall then be in a fitting frame of mind for estimating the superiority of a man who had arrived at just conclusions regarding the real uses of wealth, and acted on them. " Sir," said Adams, " my definition of charity is, a generous disposition to relieve the distressed." "There is something in that definition," answered Mr. Peter Pounce, " which I like well enough ; it is, as you say, a disposition, and does not so much consist in the act as in the disposition to do it." There are plenty of Peter Pounces in our society. What ^ e want are the Allworthys, or the worldly philosophers, on whose tombstones may be read without provoking a smile of irony : " What I spent, 1 had ; what I gave, I have; what I saved, I lost." We commend this epitaph to the attention of the millionaire who has been accused of wishing to invest the accumulations of more than half a century in one big bank-note and carry it out of the world with him. AVhen (see "Table Talk," p. 51) Lord Erskine heard that some- body had died worth 200,000/., he observed, " Well, that's a very pretty sum to begin the next world with." Kogers had reserved for the next world just one eighth of that sum, exclusive of the contents of his house, — not enouirh, had his income from the Bank failed, to enable him to enjoy the comforts which age, infirmity, and confirmed habits had made necessary to him in this. He bore the robbery of his Bank, which might have led to very serious consequences, with great equa- nimity, and said it had done him good, — by the chas- tening effect of adversity, and by bringing out the good qualities of his friends. It was after repeating Pope's line, — " Bare the mean heart that beats beneath a star," SAMUEL ROGEES. 125 that he one day mentioned, by way of qualification, the munificence and promptitude with which noble as well as simple had hurried to aid and sympathise with him. One peer is said to have placed 100,000/. at his disposal. The best accessible specimens of his epistolary style will be found in the eighth volume of " Moore's Memoirs," edited by Lord John Kussell, who says that Rogers himself selected those of his letters which were to be published. They are evidently written with the scrupulous care which marks everything he undertook ; and we will answer for it that his love- letters, should they ever come to light, will bear internal evidence of having been composed on a diametrically opposite principle to that recommended by Rousseau, who says that the writer should begin without knowing what he is going to say and end without knowinc: what he has said. Three or four of Ro2:ers's letters relate to " Columbus." He writes to consult Moore as to which of sundr}' very ordinary verses is the best, telling him, on one occasion, that half of a particular line has received the sanction of Sharp and Mackintosh, and anxiously requiring to be informed if he agreed with them. One of the most pleasing of these compositions is that (p. 95) in which he gives an account of the family of a brother who had retired from the Bank %vith an ample fortune, and was really living the life of rural enjoyment which the poet afiected to think the acme of felicity. In another (p. 71) ) he avows a confirmed dislike to letter- writino:. The notes wliicli he wrote in the common commerce of the Avorld are models of conciseness and calligraphy. If ever hand- writing corresponded with and betrayed character, it was his; — neat, clear, and yet not devoid of elegance. " Will you breakfiist with me to-morrow ? S. R.," was his pithy invitation to a celebrated wit and beauty. " Won't I? H. D.," was the congenial response. 126 SAMUEL KOGERS. There is no good likeness of liirn. The fact is, he would never allow one to be taken. He preferred that by Lawrence, because it was the most flattering. There is one designed and drawn on stone by an amateur artist (Lady j\Iorgan's niece, Mrs. Geale) in 1838, which would have been excellent, had she ventured to give him his actual age at the time. Dantan's caricature bust is hardly a caricature, and for that very reason he held it in horror. One day Moore was indiscreet or malicious enough to say that a fresh stock had been sent over, and that he had seen one in a shop window. " It is pleasant news," said Itogers ; " and pleasant to be told of it by a friend." The accident which deprived him of the power of locomotion was the severest of trials to a man of his active habits and still extraordinary strength ; for he delighted in walking, and thought his health depended u^jon the exercise he took in this way. Not lono; before, he had boasted of having: had a breakfast party at home, — then gone to a wedding breakfast, where he returned thanks for the bridesmaids, — then to Chiswick, where he was presented to an imperial highness, — dined out, — gone to the Opera, — looked in at a ball, and walked home, — all within the compass of fourteen hours. "When I first saw him after his fall," writes the lady already quoted, " I found him lying on his bed, which was drawn near the bed-room window, that he might look upon the Park. Taking my hand, he kissed it, and I felt a tear drop on it, and that was all the complaint or regret that he ever expressed. Never did he allude to it to me, nor, I believe, to any one." One day, between six and seven, when he was just going to dinner, hearing a knock at the door, he desired his faithful and attached servant, Edmund, to say, not at home. " Who was it ? " he inquired. E. "Colonel , sir." R. " And who is Colonel ?" E. " The gentleman who upset you, sir, and caused SAMUEL ROGERS. 127 your accident." JR. " It is an agreeable recollection, did he come to refresh it?" E. "Oh, sir, he calls very often to inquire for you." R. " Does he? then, if he calls again, don't let hiin in, and don't tell me of it" The gallant officer was (at worst) the innocent cause of the mishap ; for as his brougham was passing at an ordinary pace, Rogers, who was about to cross, suddenly checked himself, lost his balance, and fell with his hip against the kerb-stone. He used to say that he had never enjoyed two con- secutive days' good health till he was past fifty; and he rather coveted than avoided allusions to his age. On one occasion, in his eighty-eighth year, he was accidentally left alone in the dark with a lady, who pretended to think her reputation in danger. " Ah, my dear, if sweet seventy-eight would come again ! mais ces beaux jours sont passes ^ He told gracefully, with his usual deliberate sim- plicity and studied artlessness, a little incident of the same period. "They were playing at forfeits. Miss S. had to pay a kiss. ' Oh, it was to my uncle ; so I paid it gladly.' ' Suppose it had been to me?' 'I should have paid it cheerfully.' Was not that a bitter- and-sweet adverb ? " When some one was speaking of a fine old man before Swift, he exclaimed, in a spirit of melancholy foreboding, " There's no such thing as a fine old man ; if either his head or his heart had been worth anything, they would have worn him out long ago." Till near ninety, Rogers was a striking exception to this rule. He then gradually dropped into that state, mental and bodily, which raises a reasonable doubt whether prolonged life be a blessing or a curse — " Omni Tkrembroruni danino major dementia, qua; ncc Nomina servorum, nee vultus agnoscit amicum, Cum queis prajterita ccenavit noctc, ncc illos Quos genuit, quos eduxit." 128 SAMUEL ROGERS. Although his impressions of long past events were as fresh as ever, he forgot the names of his relations and oldest friends whilst they were sitting with him, and told the same stories to the same people two or three times over in the same interview. But there were frequent glimpses of intellect in all its original brightness, of tenderness, of refinement, and of grace. " Once driving out with him," says a female corre- spondent, " I asked him after a lady whom he could not recollect. He pulled the check-string, and ap- pealed to his servant. ' Do I know Lady M ? ' The reply was, ' Yes, sir.' This was a painful mo- ment to us both. Taking ray hand, he said, ' Never mind, my dear, I am not yet reduced to stop the carriage and ask if I know you.'' " To another female friend, who was driving out with him shortly after, he said, " Whenever you are angry with one 3^ou love, think that that dear one might die that moment. Your anger will vanish at once." During the last four or five years he was constantly expatiating on the advantages of marriage. " It was a proud, a blessed privilege," he would repeat, " to be ihe means, under Providence, of clothing an im- mortal soul in clay." He introduced and pursued this theme without respect to persons, and not un- frequently recommended matrimony to married people who would have lent a readier ear to a proposal of separation or divorce. In explanation of the rumours circulated from time to time in his younger days respecting his own attempts to confirm precept by example, he said, " that whenever his name had been coupled with that of a single lady, he had thought it his duty to give out that he had been refused." On his regretting that he had not married, because then he sliould have had a nice woman to care for him, it was suggested, — " How do you know she would not SAMUEL ROGERS. 129 have cared for somebody else ? " — an awkward doubt at all times. His own version of his nearest approximation to the nuptial tie was, that, when a young man, he admired and sedulously sought the society of the most beautiful girl he then, and still, thought he had ever seen. At the end of the London season, at a ball, she said : " I go to-morrow to Worthing. Are you coming there ? " He did not go. Some months afterwards, being at Ranelagh, he saw the attention of every one drawn towards a large party, in the centre of which was a lady on the arm of her husband. Stepping forward to see this wonderful beauty, he found it was his love. She merely said : " You never came to Worthing." He latterly took great delight in hearing the Bible read, especially passages of the sublimest poetry, and those of exquisite moral beauty. This kind office was frequently performed for him by a lady as much distinguished by her private virtues as formerly by qualities which enchanted the public. In the course of religious conversation arising out of her readings, she suggested to him the subject of the Sacrament. After due consideration, he expressed himself desirous of receiving it from his old friend, the Dean of St. Paul's. The Dean, after some conference with him, consented to his request, and accordingly administered the sacramental rite to Itogers, his sister (then, like her brother, in a state of great bodily infirmity), the lady above alluded to, her daughter, and one other person for whom he expressed very sincere aifection. In the case of most men over whom the grave had closed so recently, we should have refrained from such minuteness of personal detail, however curious or illustrative. But the veil had been removed from the private life of Rogers long before we approached the sanctuary ; and we are not responsible for the VOL. I. K 130 SAMUEL HOGERS. profanation, if it be one. His habits, his mode of life, his predilections, his aversions, his caustic say- ings, his benevolent actions, have been treated like common property as far back as the living generation can remember. They have been discussed in all circles, and have occasionally appeared (with varyinf]^ degrees of accuracy) in print. Now that monarchs have left off changing their shirts at crowded levees^ we should be puzzled to name any contemporary celebrity who, whether he liked it or not, had been so much or so constantly before the public as Rogers. He knew everybody, and everybody knew him. Pie spoke without reserve to the first comer, and the chance visitor was admitted to his intimacy as unwarily as the tried friend. This argued a rare degree of con- scious rectitude and honourable self-reliance ; and in estimating his character, in balancing the final ac- count of his merits and demerits, too much stress cannot be laid on the searching nature of the ordeal he has undergone. Choose out the wisest, brightest, noblest of mankind, and how many of them could bear to be thus pursued into the little corners of their lives ? — " all their faults observed, set in a note- book, learned and conned by rote ? " Most assuredly, if the general scope and tendency of their conduct be no worse, they may, one and all, — to borrow the im- pressive language of Erskine, — " walk through the shadow of death, with all their faults about them, with as much cheerfulness as in the comnion path of life." But if great virtues may not atone for small frailties, or kind deeds for unkind words, " they must call upon the mountains to cover them, for which of them can present, for Omniscient examination, a pure, unspotted, and faultless course ? " 131 JAMES SMITH. (From the Law Magazine, Februart, 1840.) The members who do most honour to the legal pro- fession are not those who make its distinctions and emoluments their sole object, — for they often cut a sorry figure beyond its sphere, — but those who com- bine with the dilio-ent and conscientious discharo-e of its duties a fair proportion of the acquirements or qualities which are appreciated in society. Amongst the most remarkable of such men was the late James Smith, and we feel it a duty to record the few par- ticulars we have been able to collect concernins: him. He was the son of an eminent soUcitor, and born in London, February IGtli, 1775. In January, 1785, he was placed at school with the Rev. Mr. Burford, at Chigwell, in Essex, which he left in June, 1789, for the New College at Hackney, where he remained one year. His education was completed under Mr. Wano- strocht, at Alfred House, Camberwell. He was articled to his father in 1792, and in due time taken into partnership. He was also appointed joint- solicitor to the Ordnance Board, and succeeded to the sole appointment on his father's death in 1832. We rather think, from his description, that his father was a practitioner of the old school, not very tolerant of digressions from the beaten track, and likely enough to regard either or both of his distinguished sons as — " Some youth his parents' wishes doomed to cross, AVho pens a stanza when he should engross." But the old gentleman had sufficient respect for K 2 132 JAMES SMITH. literature to point out Dr. Johuson to his son James, wlio, tlioitgli lie could not have been more than eight years old at the time, retained a vivid recol- lection of the circumstance — Virgilium tantum vidi. To the best of our information, James's coup d'essai in literature was a hoax in the shape of a series of letters to the editor of the " Gentleman's Magazine," detailing some extraordinary antiquarian discoveries and facts in natural historj^, Avhich the worthy Syl- vanus Urban inserted without the least suspicion ; and we understand that the members of the Anti- quarian and Zoological Societies are still occasionally in the habit of appealing to them in corroboration of their theories. In 1803, he became a constant con- tributor to the "Pic-Nic" and " Cabinet" weekly jour- nals, in conjunction with Mr. Cumberland, Sir James Bland Burgess, Mr. Horatio Smith, and others. The founder of these pubhcations was Colonel Greville, a man of famil}^, fashion, and cultivated taste, on Avhora Lord Byron has conferred a not very enviable immortality — " Or bail at once the patron and the pile Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle." . One of James Smith's favourite anecdotes related to him. The Colonel requested his young ally to call at his lodgings, and in the course of their first interview related the particulars of the most curious circum- stance in his life. He was taken prisoner during the American war, along with three other officers of the same rank : one evening they were summoned into the presence of Washington, who announced to them that the conduct of their government, in con- demning one of his officers to death as a rebel, com- pelled him to make reprisals, and that much to his regret he was under the necessity of requiring them to cast lots without delay to decide which of them JAMES SMITH. 13 o should be hanged. They were then bowed out, and returned to their quarters. Four slips of paper were put into a hat, and the shortest was drawn by Captain Asgill, who exclaimed, " I knew how it would be ; I never won so much as a hit at backgammon in my life." As Greville told the story, he was selected to sit up with Captain Asgill, under the pretext of compa- nionship, but in reality to prevent him from escaping, and leaving the honour amongst the remaining three. "And what," inquired Smith, "did you say to comfort him ? " " Why I remember saying to him when they left us, '•Hang it, old fellow, never mind ; ' " but it may be doubted (added Smith) whether he drew much comfort from the exhortation. Lady Asgill persuaded the French minister to interpose, and the captain was permitted to escape. Both James and Horatio Avere also contributors to the " ]\Ionthly Mirror," then the property of Mr. Thomas Hill, a gentleman who had the good fortune to live familiarly with three or four gene- rations of authors; the same, in short, with whom the subject of this memoir thus playfully remon- strated : " Hill, you take an unfair advantage of an accident ; the register of your birth was burnt in the great fire of London, and you now give yourself out for younger than you are." Their " Imitations of Horace " (afterwards reprinted in a separate volume) originally appeared in Hill's miscellany. The fame of the brothers was confined to a limited circle until the publication of " The Rejected Ad- dresses," which rose at once into almost unprecedented celebrity, and still keeps its place amongst the best of the jeux d^esprit which have outlived the occasions which gave rise to them, — as the " lloUiad," "Anti- cipation," the choice papers of the "Antijacobin," and the " New Whig Guide." It is a well-known fact in literary history that many K 3 134 JAMES SMITH. of the most popular productions failed at first to attract the confidence or excite the cupidity of " the trade." "Pelhani " was on the point of being returned upon the writer's hands, when Mr. Colburn chanced to glance over a few pages of the manuscript, and with instinctive sagacity divined the value of the prize. " The Rejected Addresses " (as the preface to the nineteenth edition informs us) had been rejected over and over again in the literal acceptation of the term, when Mr. Miller offered to undertake the risk of publication, and share the profits, if any — laying (as James Smith used to say) a peculiar stress upon the if. At the appearance of the third. or fourth edition, they sold their share to the same publisher for one thousand pounds, the "Imitations of Horace" being thrown into the bargain : for these, though clever, can hardly be said to have enjoyed an independent reputation or done more than follow in the wake. Lord Byron, in allusion to the rapid success of " Childe Harold," says, " I awoke and found myself famous ; " (which, by the way, a witty runaway wife parodied by saying, " I awoke and found myself in- famous.") The authors of " The Rejected Addresses " might have said the same. Within a week, reviews and newspapers of all shades and complexions were praising their production, or speculating on their identity ; and the moment they threw off the mask, their acquaintance was eagerly courted by the nota- bilities of the day. Amongst others, the Dowager Countess of Cork — the first English woman of rank who threw open her house to literature, or made in- tellectual distinction a recognised passport to society — was anxious to have them at her soirees, and com- missioned one of the established lions to bring them. Whether the commission was awkwardly executed, or their pride took alarm too readily, or the occasion for a joke was too tempting to be lost, it is currently JAMES SMITH. 135 reported that an answer to the following purport was returned : — " My dear , — Pray make our best excuses to your noble and hospitable friend, and say we regret extremely that it will not be in our power to accept the flattering invitation so obligingly communicated through you, for my brother is engaged to grin through a horse-collar at a country fair, and 1 myself to dance a hornpipe at Sadler's Wells upon that night. " Very truly yours, « J. Smith." * Many of the very writers who were parodied hastened to bear testimony to the accuracy of the imitations, and joined heartily in the laugh. Lord Byron wrote from Italy to Mr. Murray, — " Tell him we forgive him, were he twenty times our satirist." " I certainly must have written this myself," said Sir Walter Scott, pointing to the description of the fire, " although I forget upon what occasion." Crabbe, on being introduced to James Smith at Mr. Spencer's villa at Richmond, seized both his hands, and exclaimed with a loud laugh, " Ah ! my old enemy, how do you do ? " The introduction to Mr. Spencer himself is thus described in the preface already mentioned : — " Lydia White, a literary lady, who was prone to feed the lions of the day, invited one of us to dinner ; but, recollect- ing afterwards that William Spencer formed one of the party, wrote to the latter to put him off; telling him that a man was to be at her table whom he ' would not like to meet.' ' Pray who is this whom I should not like to meet,' inquired the poet. * O 1 ' answered the lady, ' one of those men who have made that shameful attack upon you ! ' * The very man upon earth I should like to know ! ' rejoined the lively and careless bard. The two individuals accordingly met, and have con- tinued fast friends ever since." * Mr. H. Smith tells us that the leUer was never sent. K 4 136 JAMES SMITH. Still Mr. Spencer did not above half like it. " It's all very well for once," he subsequently remarked, "but don't do it a";ain. I had been almost forf^fotten when you revived me ; and now all the newspapers and reviews ring with ' this fashionable trashy author.' " Fitzgerald, one of those most broadly burlesqued *, met James Smith at an anniversary dinner of the Literary Fund : — Fitzgerald (with good humour). — " Mr. Smith, I mean to recite after dinner." Mr. Smith.—" Do you ? " Fitzgerald. — " Yes ; you'll have more of ' God bless the Regent and the Duke of York.' " Monk Lewis became the friend of the authors, but never could be got to admit the truth of the imitation in his own case. " Many of them," was his remark to Lady Holland, " are very fair, but mine is not at all like ; they have made me write burlesque, which I never do." " You don't know your own talent," was the consolatory reply. On the whole, the only discontented persons were the poets who were left out. James Smith used to dwell with much pleasure on the criticism of a Leicestershire clergyman : " I do not see why they should have been rejected : I think some of them very good." This, he would add, is almost as good as the avowal of the Irish bishop, that there were some things in " Gulliver's Travels" which he could not believe. We have often heard him asked whether he could identify his own share of the composition, but he He must have got used to it : — " Let hoarse Fitzgerald bawl His creaking couplets in a tavern hall." English Bards and Scotch Reoiewers. JAMES SMITH. 137 generally evaded the inquiry by declaring the publi- cation to be strictly joint, — d-propos of which he gave us Sheridan's account of his own and his first wife's labours on their first arrival in town : " We composed together, and our labours might well be called joint, for we had no chance of a joint till they were com- pleted." Every now and then, however, he would allude to particular passages as his own, and, by Mr. Horatio Smith's kindness, we are now enabled to give the long desiderated information regarding the authorship. The notion was first started by a gentleman con- nected with the theatres (not the actor) named Ward, christened Portsoken Ward by H. Smith, from his fondness for port. They took different authors, wrote their papers apart, and then submitted them to each other ; but the subsequent alterations seldom exceeded verbal improvements or the addition of a few lines. By James Smith. 2. The Baby's Debut. By W. W. (Wordsworth.) 5. Hampshire Farmer's Address. By W. C. (Cobbett.) 7. The Rebuilding. By W. S. (Southey.) 13. Playhouse Musings. By S. T. C. (Coleridge.) 14. Drury Lane Hustings: A New Halfpenny Ballad. By a Pic~Nic Poet (a quiz on what are called humorous songs). 16. Tlieatrical Alarm Bell. By the editor of the M. P. ("Morning Post.") 17. The Theatre. By the Ptev. G. C. (Crabbe.) 18. 19, 20. Macbeth; George Barnwell; and the Stranger, Travesties. By Horatio Smith. 1. Loyal Effusions. By W. T. F. (Fitzgerald.) 3. An Address without a Phoenix. By S. T. P. (this was a real address sent in by the writer). 138 JAMES SMITH. 4. Cui Bono ? By Lord B. (Byron) — except the first stanza, which was written by James. 6. The Living Lustres. By T. M. (Moore.) 8. Drury's Dirge. By L. M. (Laura Matilda.) 9. A Tale of Drury Lane. By W. S. (Scott.) 10. Johnson's Ghost. 11. The Beautiful Incendiary. By the Hon. AY. S. (Spencer.) 12. Fire and Ale. By M. G. L. (Lewis.) 15. Architectural Atoms. By Dr. B. (Busby.) 21. Punch's Apotheosis. By T. H. A note to the last article runs thus: — " Theodore Hook, at that time a very yoUng man, and the companion of the author in many wild frolics. The cleverness of his subsequent prose compositions has cast his early stage songs into oblivion. This parody was, in the second edition, transferred from Colman to Hook." It was so transferred, because Colman was ex- ceedingly annoyed, and Hook, it is well known, would laugh at it. We cannot discover the slightest re- semblance to either. The numbers in the lists correspond with those in the table of contents of the last and best edition, published by Mr. Murray in 1839.* The preface was written by Horatio, and the notes by James. " To one of us," it is stated in the preface, " the totally unexpected success of this little work proved an important event, since it mainly decided him some years afterwards to embark in that literary career Avhich the continued favour of the novel-reading public has rendered both pleasant and profitable to him." Mr. Horatio Smith, the author of "Brambletye House," "Zillah," and other popular works of fiction, is * Mr. Murray gave 131^. for the copyright in 1819, after the IGth edition. He has since published three editions, and sold nearly four thousand copies. JAMES SMITH. 139 the member of the brotherhood who speaks here. James, though he felt proud of his brother's increas- ing reputation*, doggedly adhered to his favourite maxim, that when a man has once made a good hit, he should rest upon it, — a maxim Avhich he was wont to strengthen by Bishop Warburton's authority. When Anster, the author of the " Bath Guide," was presented to the veteran, he said, " Young man, I will give you a piece of advice : you have written a highly successful work — never put pen to paper again." At the same time he was obli2:ed to own that a man's reputation might require an occasional burnish- ing, and would humorously illustrate the limited and ephemeral nature of fame by an incident that once happened to himself in a Brighton coach. An old lady, struck by his extraordinary familiarity with things and people, at length burst forth, — "And pray, sir, you who seem to know everybody — pray, may I ask who you are ?" " James Smith, ma'am." This evidently conveyed nothing to her mind, and a fellow- passenger added, " One of the authors of ' Rejected Addresses.' " The old lady stared at them by turns, and then ejaculated, " I never heard of the gentleman or the book before." He considered it no breach of his maxim to con- tribute occasionally to the lighter periodical publica- tions, or to assist his friend Mathews in the concoction of his entertainments. Most of the best songs of the great comedian were from his pen.f Brevity, how- ever, whatever it may be with others, was certainly the soul of wit with him ; and the only article of any length we remember from his pen — a critique of some cookery books, written for a review started on * He used to say to Horatio : " I am often coniplinionted on your writings, but podplc don't like to bo contradicted, and so I lot it pass." t See Mrs. Mathews's '' Lilo ol" Mathews " on this subject. 140 JAMES SMITH. a new plan by Mr. Cumberland — was a comparative failure, notwithstanding the obvious fitness of the subject for pleasantry. He was also frequently applied to by dramatic writers for a comic song, a hit at the follies of the day, or other assistance of the kind, which was alwaj's readily afforded, and generally proved eminently useful to the piece. The interest thus taken in theatrical matters naturally led to his being made free of the green-room ; and he used to relate an incident curiously illustrative of the morals of the stage twenty or thirty years ago. An actress of note one night addressed him thus: "JMr. Smith, you are constantly here, but you do not appear to attach yourself to any of our ladies." " Ah, madam," was the reply, " that proves my discretion ; you little know what is going on in private between me and some of you." From the commencement of the " New ]\Ionthly Magazine," in 1821, he was a frequent contributor. His " Grimm's Ghost " in particular attracted much attention ; and a collection of his papers, under the title of "East andAYest," was once advertised by Mr. Colburn, though the intention was subsequently abandoned. His social qualities were those which will live the longest in the recollection of his friends ; for he was one of the pleasantest companions imaginable, and it was difficult to pass an evening in his company without feeling in better humour with the world; such was the influence of his inexhaustible funds of amuse- ment and information, his lightness, livehness, .and good sense. He was not very witty or brilliant, nor even very ready at repartee. Indeed we are pretty sure that most of the best things recorded of him were imjoromptus faits a loisir ; but no man ever excelled him in starting pleasant topics of conversa- JAMES SMITH. 141 tion, and sustaining it ; nor was it well possible for a party of moderate dimensions, when he was of it, to be dull. The droll anecdote, the apt illustration, the shrewd remark, — a trait of humour from Fiel;.ing, a scrap of a song from the " Beggars' Opera," a knock- down retort of Johnson's, a couplet from Pope or Dryden, — all seemed to come as they were wanted, and, as he was always just as ready to listen as to talk, acted each in turn as a sort of challenge to the company to bring forth their budgets and contribute towards the feast. As Scott says of Rash- leigh Osbaldistone, " he was never loud, never over- bearing, never so much occupied with his own thoughts as to outrun either the patience or tlie comprehension of those he conversed with. His ideas succeeded each other with the gentle but unin- termitting flow of a plentiful and bounteous spring, whilst others who aim at distinction in conversation, rush along like tlie turbid gush from the sluice of a millpond, as liurried and as easily exhausted." His gentleman-like manners and fine person — set off by strict attention to his dress — added not a little to the efi'ect; and as he disliked argument, and never lost his temper or willingly gave offence, it would have been no easy matter for others to lose theirs or offend him. His memory was prodigious, but it was principally stored with the choicest morsels from the standard English poets, comic writers, and dramatists (wliich formed his favourite reading), and like ]Mack- intosh, as described by Mr. Sydney Smitli, he so managed it as to make it a source of pleasure and instruction rather tlian " that dreadful engine of col- loquial oppression into which it is sometimes erected." Of late years he was occasionally accused of repeating his favourite stories and epigrams too often, but they were generally new to some persons in the company, and most of them were of such a nature as a cultivated 142 JAMES SMITH. mind always recurs to with delight — decies repetita placebujit. He had a good ear for music, and voice enouo;h to sino' his own sono-s with full effect. AVe need hardly state that, long after the first flush of his celebrity, he was a welcome guest in the best houses, town and country. Latterly, however, he seldom left town except on occasional visits to Mr. H. Smith, at Brighton ; Mr. Croker, at Moulsey ; and Lord Abinger, at Abinger Hall. Though never guilty of intemperance, he was a martyr to the gout ; and independently of the difficulty he experienced in locomotion, he partook largely of the feeling avowed by his old friend Jekyll, who used to say that, if com- pelled to live in the country, he would have the drive l3efore his house paved like the streets of London, and hire a hackney coach to drive up and down all day long. He used to tell with great glee a story showing the general conviction of his dislike to ruralities. He was sitting in the library at a country-house, when a gentleman proposed a quiet stroll into the pleasure crrounds : " Stroll ! why, don't you see my gouty shoe ? " " Yes, I see that plain enough, and I wish I'd brought one too ; but they're all out now." "Well, and what then?" " Wliat then ? Why, ray dear fellow, you don't mean to say that you have really got the gout ? I thought you had only put on that shoe to get off being shown over the im- provements." In town, one of the houses at which he visited most was Lord Harrington's. He was a nice observer of manners ; and the perfect high-breeding Avhich characterises every member of the Stanhope family, without exception, was exactly to his taste. Another of his favourite houses was Lady Bles- sington's. He admired her powers of conversation ; JAMES SMITH. 143 he loved to mingle amongst social, literary, and political celebrities ; and he thought Count D'Orsay one of the most accomplished and agreeable men he had ever known. At Lady Blessington's request he frequently contributed to the " Book of Beauty ; " for example, the verses on Mrs. Lane Fox, and ]\Irs. Verschoyle. He was also in the habit of sending her occasional epigrams, complimentary scraps of verse, or punning notes, like the following: — " The newspapers tell us that your new carriage is very highly varnished. This, I j)resume, means your wheeled carriage. The merit of your personal carringe has always been to ray mind its absence from all varnish. Tlie question requires that a jury should be nrxpannelled.'''' Or this : — " Dear Lady Blessington, — When you next see your American friend, have the goodness to accost him as follows : " In England rivers all are males — For instance Father Thames ; Whoever in Columbia sails, Finds them ma'mselles or dames. " Yes, there the softer sex presides, Aquatic I assure ye, And Mrs. Sippy rolls her tides, Responsive to Miss Souri. *' Your ladyshij)'s faithful and " Devoted servant, " James Smith." His bachelorship is thus attested in his niece's album : — " Should I seek Hymen's tie, As a poet I die : Ye Benedicts mourn my distresses ! For what little fame Is annexed to my name, Is derived from ' Rejected Addresses.' " His solitary state, however, certainly proceeded rather from too discursive than too limited an admi- 144 JAMES SMITH. ration of the sex, for to the latest hour of his life he gave a marked preference to their society, and dis- liked a dinner party composed exclusively of males. The two folio win o^ are amono-st the best of his ""ood things. A gentleman with the same Christian and surname took lodsjinQ-s in the same house. The con- sequence was, eternal confusion of calls and letters. Indeed the postman had no alternative but to share the letters equally between the two. " This is in- tolerable, sir," said our friend, " and you must quit." " Why am I to quit more than you ? " " Because you are James the Second — and must ahdicate.^^ Mr. Bentley proposed to establish a periodical pub- lication, to be called •' The Wit's Miscellany." Smith objected that the title promised too much. Shortly afterwards the publisher came to tell him that he had profited by the hint, and resolved on calling it " Bentley's Miscellany." " Isn't that going a little too far the other way," was the remark. A capital pun has been very generally attributed to him. An actor named Priest was playing at one of the principal theatres. Some one remarked at the Garrick Club that there were a great many men in the pit. " Probably clerks who have taken Priest's orders." The pun is perfect, but the real proprietor is Mr. Poole, one of the best punsters as well as one of the cleverest comic writers of the day. In a letter dated May 21, 1836 (since printed), he wrote to a lady friend : — " Our dinner party yesterday, at H 's chambers in the Temple, was very lively. Mrs. was dressed in pink, with a black lace veil ; her hair smooth, with a knot behind, and a string of small pearls across her forehead. Hook was the lion of the dinner-table, whereupon I, like Addison, did * maintain my dignity by a stiff silence.' An opportunity for a hon-mot, however, occurred, which I had not virtue sufficient to resist. Lord L mentioned that an old lady, an ac- JAMES SMITH. 145 qunintance of his, kept her books in detached ui^ok-cases, the male authors in one, and the female in another. I said, * I suppose her reason was, she did not wish to add to her library.' " The joke was made by Lord L ; the story, an invented pleasantry, illustrative of Madame Genlis's prudery, having been related by another of the company. He had an unfeigned respect for his profession, and would often reojret the manner in which it was losino^ its individual character by becoming blended with the world. He would fain have brought back the times when it was as much a matter of course for a judge to reside in Bloomsbury as for a barrister to have chambers in an inn of court, and we have heard him frequently state that, when Lord Ellenborough set the present fashion by moving to St. James's Square, the circumstance gave general dissatisfaction, and was a prominent topic in the newspapers for a week. In those days, it Avas customary on emergencies for the judges to swear affidavits at their dwelling-houses. Smith was desired by his father to attend a judge's chambers for that purpose, but being engaged to dine in Russell Square at the next house to Mr. Justice Holroyd's, he thought he might as well save himself the disagreeable necessity of leaving the party at eight, by despatching his business at once : so a few minutes before six he boldly knocked at the judge's, and requested to speak to him on particular business. The judge Avas at dinner, but came down without delay, swore the affidavit, and then gravely asked what was the ^iressing necessity that induced our friend to disturb him at that hour. As Smith told the stor}', he raked his invention for a lie, but finding none fit for the purpose, he blurted out the truth : — VOL. I. L 146 JAMES SMITH. " * The fact is, my lord, I am engaged to dine at the next house — and — and — ' " ' And, sir, you thought you might as well save your own dinner by spoiling mine ? ' " ' Exactly so, my lord, but — ' " ' Sir, I wish you a good evening.' " Though he brazened the matter out, he said he never was more frightened ; for he had a prescriptive reverence for legal dignitaries, and we doubt whether an invitation from one of the Royal Family would have given him more gratification than an invitation from a judge. We well remember the pleasure with which he dwelt upon a dinner at Baron Gurney's, where he met Lord Denman ; and his attachment to Lord Abinger was based full as much on that distinguished person's unrivalled forensic reputation, as on his general acquirements, literary taste, polished manners, and sociability. He was rather fond of a joke on his own branch of the profession ; he always gave a peculiar emphasis to the line in his song on the contradictions in names,- " Mr. Makepeace was bred an attorney," and would frequently quote Goldsmith's lines on Hickey, the associate of Burke and other distinguished contemporaries : — " He cherished his friends, and he relished a bumper ; Yet one fault he had, and that was a thumper. Then, what was his foiling ? come, tell it, and burn ye : He was, could he help it ? a special attorney." The following playful colloquy in verse took place at a dinner-table between Sir George Ross and him- self, in allusion to Craven Street, Strand, where he resided : — " J. S. — ' At the top of my street the attorneys abound, And down at the bottom the barges are found : JAMES SMITH. 147 Fly, Honesty, fly to some safer retreat. For there's craft in the river, and craft in the "treet.' " Sir G. R. — ' Why should Honesty fly to some safer retreat. From attorneys and barges, 'od rot 'em ? For the lawyers are just at the top of the street. And the barges are just at the bottom.'" He had a proper, unaffected, philosophical respect for rank ; but he had formed too true and precise an estimate of his own position to be ever otherwise than at his ease, and no one knew better that the great charm of society is the entire absence of pretension and subserviency, — the thorough, practical, operating conviction in the minds of all present that they are placed for the time on a perfect footing of equality. He had a keen relish for life, but he spoke calmly and indifferently about dying — as in the verses on revisitino; Chisrwell : — o ^ ' o "I fear not, Fate, thy pendent shears: There are who pray for length of years, To them, not me, allot 'em — Life's cup is nectar at the brink, Midway, a palatable drink, And wormwood at the bottom." This is not quite reconcileable with a remark he once made to the writer, that if he could go back to any former period of his life, he would prefer going back to forty. He was about that age when he first sprang into celebrity. On the occasion of another visit to Chigwell he wrote thus : — " World, in thy ever busy mart, I've acted no unnoticed part — Would I resume it ? — Oh, no — Four acts are done — the jest grows stale, The waning lamps burn dim and pale. And reason asks — cui boiio" On giving up the solicitorship to the Ordnance, he found that his income would not suffice for his I. 2 148 JAMES SMITH. habitual wants, and he invested liis moneyed capital (about 3000/.) in an annuity. "It looks selfish," he remarked, "as regards my brother's children; but please to observe, that when my brother married, he cut me off from all chance of inheritino^ from liim ; and although my life is not worth many years' pur- chase, it may last twenty years, and I should be made miserable by the possibility of ever coming to want." He did not live long enough to receive more than the first quarter of the annuity. We are informed by his friend and physician, Dr. Paris, by whose skill and attention his life was more than once unexpectedly prolonged, that he did not suffer much during his last illness. He died on the 24th December, 1839, and was buried in the vaults under St. Martin's Church. The funeral, by his own desire, was strictly private. 1 149 GEORGE SELWYN. (From the Edinburgh Review, July, 1844.) George Sehcyn and Ms Contemporaries ; with ISIemoirs and Notes. By John Heneage Jesse. 4 vols. London : 1843-4. There is a charm in the bare title of this book. It is an open sesame to a world of pleasant things. As at the ringing of the manager's bell, the curtain rises, and discovers a brilliant tableau of wits, beanties, states- men, and men of pleasure about town, attired in the quaint costume of our great-grandfathers and great- grandmothers ; or, better still, we feel as if we had obtained the reverse of Bentham's wish — to live a part of his life at the end of the next hundred years, — by being permitted to live a part of ours about the beginning of the last, with an advantage he never stipulated for, that of spending it with the pleasantest people of the day. Let us suppose that onl}^ twenty-four hours were granted us ; how much might be done or seen within the time! AVe take the privilege of long intimacy to drop in upon Selwyn in Chesterfield Street, about half-past ten or eleven in the morning ; we find him in his dressing-gown, playing with his dog Raton : about twelve we walk down arm-in-arm to White's, where Selwyn's arrival is hailed with a joyous laugh, and Topham Beauclerk hastens to initiate us into tlie newest bit of scandfd. The day is warm, and a stroll to Betty's fruit-shop (St. James's Street) is proposed. Lord ^larch is already there, settling his famous bet with young Mr. Pigot, that old Mr. Pigot would die L 3 150 GEORGE SELWYN before Sir AVilliam Codrington. Just as this grave affair is settled, a cry is raised of " the Gunnings are coming," and we all tumble out to gaze and criticise. At Brookes's, our next house of call, Sir Charles Han- bury Williams is easily persuaded to entertain the party by reading his verses, not yet printed, on the marriage of Mr. Ilussey (an Irish gentleman) with the Duchess of Manchester (the best match in the kingdom), and is made happy by our compliments ; but looks rather blank on Kigby's hinting that the author will be obli^xed to fio:lit half the Irishmen in town, which, considering tlie turn of the verses, seemed probable enough. To change at once the subject and the scene, we accompany Sir^ Charles and Rigby to the House of Commons, where we find " the Great Commoner " making a furious attack on the Attorney-General (Murray), who (as Walpole phrases it) suffered for an hour. After hearing an animated reply from Fox (the first Lord Holland) we rouse Selwyn, who is dozing behind the Treasury Bench, and, wishing to look in upon the Lords, make him introduce us below the bar. We find Lord Chester- field speaking, the Chancellor (Hardwicke) expected to speak next, the Duke of Cumberland just come in, and the Duke of Newcastle shuffling about in a ludi- crous state of perturbation, betokening a crisis ; but Selwyn grows impatient, and we hurry off to Straw- berry Hill, to join the rest of the celebrated ijartie quarree, or " out of town " party, who are long ago as- sembled. The petit soiiper appears on the instant, and as the champagne circulates, there circulates along with it a refined, fastidious, fashionable, anecdotic, gossip- ing kind of pleasantry, as exhilarating as its sparkle, and as volatile as its froth. We return too late to see Garrick, but time enough for the house-warming fete at Chesterfield house, where the Duke of Hamil- ton loses a thousand pounds at faro, because he HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 151 cliooses to Ogle Elizabeth Gunning instead of attend- ing to his cards. We shall, perhaps, be reminded that (making light of an anachronism or two) we have seen nothing of Fielding, Eichardson, Smollett, Johnson, Collins, Akenside, Mason, or Gray ; but our gay friends, alas ! never once alluded to them, and for tis to waste any part of so short a period in looking for men of letters, would be to act like the debtor in the Queen's Bench Prison, who, when he got a day rule, invariably spent it in the Fleet. According to Mr. Jesse, we owe this new glimpse into these times to a habit of Selwyn's, which it is difficult to reconcile with his general carelessness. " It seems to have been one of his peculiarities to preserve not only every letter addressed to him during the course of his long life, but also the most trifling notes and unimportant memoranda." Such was the practice of the most celebrated wit of the eighteenth century ; the most celebrated wit of the nineteenth did precisely the reverse. " Upon prin- ciple," (said Sydney Smith, in answer to an applica- tion about letters from Sir James Mackintosh,) "I keep no letters, except those on business. I have not a single letter from him, nor from any human being, in my possession."* We should certainly pre- fer being our contemporary's correspondent ; but we must confess that we are not sorry to come in for a share of the benefits accruing from Selwyn's savings to his posterity. With the help of the materials thus supplied, or collected by Mr. Jesse, we will endea- vour, before tapping (to borrow Walpole's word) the * Life of Mackintosl), by his Son, vol. ii. p. 99. — " We talked of letter- writing. ' It is now,' said Johnson, ' become so much the fashion to pub- lish letters, that, in order to avoid it, I put as little into mine as I can.' 'Do what you will, sir,' replied Boswell, 'you cannot avoid it.' " — Bos- V'ell's Life of Johnson, vol. viii. p. 80, I. 4 152 GEORGE selwyn: chapter of Selwyn's correspondence, to sketch an outline of his life. George Augustus Selwj'n entered the world with every advantage of birth and connexion ; to which that of fortune was added in good time. His father, Colonel John Selwyn, of Matson in Gloucestershire, where the family ranked as one of the best in the county, had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marl- borough, commanded a regiment, sat many years in Parliament, and filled various situations about the court. His mother, a daughter of General Farring- ton, was woman of the bedchamber to Queen Caroline, and enjoyed a high reputation for social humour. As his father was a plain, straightforward^ common- place sort of man, it is fair to presume that he in- herited his peculiar talent from her ; thus adding another to the many instances of gifted men formed by mothers, or endowed by them with the best and brightest of their qualities. Schiller, Goethe, the Schlegels, Victor Hugo, Canning, Lord Brougham, occur to us on the instant ; and Curran said — " The only inheritance I could boast of from my poor father, was the very scanty one of an unattractive face and person, like his own ; and if the world has ever attri- buted to me something more valuable than face or person, or than earthly wealth, it was that another and a dearer parent gave her child a fortune from the treasure of her mind." Selwyn was born on the 11th August, 1719. He was educated at Eton, and on leaving it entered at Hertford College, Oxford. After a short stay at the university, he started on the grand tour, and on his return, though a second son with an elder brother living, made London and Paris his head-quarters, be- came a member of the clubs, and associated with the wits and men of fashion. Before he had completed his twenty.first year, he was appointed Clerk of the HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 153 Irons and Surveyor of the Meltings at the Mint; offices usually performed by deputy. At all events, occasional attendance at the weekly dinner, formerly provided for this department of the public service, was the only duty they imposed on Selwj'n ; the very man to act on Colonel Hanger's principle, who, when afriend in power suggested that a particular office, not being a sinecure, would hardly suit him, replied, " Get mo the place, and leave me alone for making it a sinecure." The salary must have been small, for in a letter from Paris (September, 1742), he says that his entire in- come, including the allowance made him by his father, was only 220/. a year ; and he appears to have been constantly in distress for money. In a letter to his former Eton tutor, Mr. Vincent Mathias (Paris, November, 1742), he entreats his advice as to the best mode of getting the Colonel to advance a small sum over and above his yearly income ; and gives a pitiable descrip)tion of his circumstances, " without clothes, linen, books, or credit." In 1744, Selwyn returned to Hertford College, and resumed the life of a college student ; — unaccountably enough, for he was then a formed man of the world, and twenty-five. Probably he had thoughts of pur- suing a profession, or, to please his father, pretended that he had. His influential position in the London Avorld at this time, is shown by letters from Rigby and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. " The RigJit Hon. Richard Rigby to George Sehcyn. " Tuesday, March 12 (1745), 7 o'clock. " Dear George, — I thank you for your letter, which I have this moiuent received and read; and, tliat you may not be surj)rised at my readiness in answering it, I will begin with telling you the occasion of it. I am just got home from a cock-match, where I have won forty pounds in ready money, and, not having dined, am waiting till I hear the 154 GEORGE SELWYN: rattle of the coaches from the House of Commons, in order to dine at White's ; and now I will begin my journal, for in that style I believe my letters will be the best received, con- sidering our situations. . . . " I saw Garrick act Othello that same night, In which I think he was very unmeaningly dressed, and succeeded in no degree of comparisorf with Quin, except in the scene where lago gives him the first suspicion of Dcsdemona. He endeavoured throughout to play and speak everything directly different from Quin, and failed, I think, in most of his alterations." This was the occasion on which Quin went to the pit to see his rival act. It was at a time when Hogarth's " Marriage a la Mode " was familiar to every one. One of the prints of that series represents a negro boy bringing in the tea-things. When Garrick, with his diminutive figure and blackened face, came forward as Othello, Quin exclaimed, " Here is Pom- pey, but where is the tray ? " The effect was electrical, and Garrick never attempted Othello again. When Dr. Griffiths, many years afterwards, thoughtlessly inquired wdiether he had ever acted the part ? " Sir," said he, evidently disconcerted, " I once acted it to my cost." Sir Charles writes — " I hope you divert yourself well at the expense of the whole university, though the object is not worthy you. The dullest fellow in it has parts enough to ridicule it, and you have parts to fly at nobler game." By disregarding this sensible hint, Selwyn got into a scrape, which, had it happened in our time, would have fixed a lasting stigma on his character. In 1745, he so far forgot himself, in a drunken frolic, as to go through a profane mockery of a religious ceremony ; and the circumstance having come to the knowledge of the heads of the university, he Avas HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 155 expelled. Most of his gay friends looked on this affair in the same light as Sir William Maynard, who writes thus : — "Walthamstow, July 3, 1745. " Dear George, — I have this moment received yours, and have only time to tell you the sooner you come here, the greater the obligation will be to me. D — n the university ! — I ivish they loere both on fire, and one could hear the jn-octors cry like roasted lobsters. My compliments to Dr. Newton. " Yours affectionately, «W. M." Indeed the only palliation or apology, and that a poor one, that can be urged for Selwyn, is to be found in the bad taste and loose habits of his contemporaries. The famous Medenham Abbey Club was founded soon afterwards. It consisted of twelve members, who met at Medenham Abbey, near Marlow, to indulge in ribaldry, profanity, and licentiousness. The motto (from Rabelais) over the grand entrance was : Fay ce que voudrais. Although the club became notorious, and their disgusting profanity was well known, it proved no bar either to the reception of the members in society, or to their advancement in the state. Sir Francis Dash wood, the founder, who officiated as high priest, became Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty ; and Wilkes everything that the sober citizens of London could make of him. Selwyn's character at this time is given by one of the Oxford magnates : — " The upper part of the society here, with whom he often converses, have, and always have had, a very good opinion of him. He is certainly not intemperate nor dissolute, nor does he game, that I know or have heard of. He has a good deal of vanity, and loves to be admired and caressed, and so suits himself with great ease to the gravest and the sprightliest." 156 GEORGE SELWYN : Colonel and Mrs. Selwyn were shocked and irritated in the highest degree by such a termination of his university career ; but the faihng health of his elder brother John contributed to soften them, and procured George an extent of indulgence which would hardly have been granted, had it not become apparent that the family estate and honours must eventually de- volve upon him. John Selwyn was the intimate friend of ]\Iarshal Conway, to whom, so early as 1740, Walpole writes: "I did not hurry myself to answer your last, but chose to write to poor Selwyn upon his illness. He deserves so much love from all that know him, and you owe him so much friendship, that I can scarce conceive a greater shook." John did not die till June, 1751, when George was in his thirty-second year. By this event he became the heir, but the estate was unentailed, and his prospects Avere still dubious enough to excite the apprehensions of his friends. In November, 1751, Sir William Maynard writes — " The public papers inform me of your father's being dangerously ill, which was confirmed to me last 2^ost. As you have always convinced me of your love for your father, (though I can't persuade the world you will be sorry for his death,) I shall be glad to know, if you have one moment's leisure, how he does, as you are so nearly concerned in his doing well. I can't help thinking but it will be more for your interest that your father should recover, as I don't yet imagine you quite establislied in his good opinion, and as you have so powerful an enemy at home." Who his powerful enemy at home was, does not appear. His mother is mentioned in a preceding letter as his advocate ; yet one of Walpole's anecdotes implies that at one time he had forfeited the affection of both parents. The notorious Lady Townshend had taken an extraordinary fancy to the rebel Lord 1 IIIS LIFE AND TIMES. 157 Kilmarnock, whom she had never seen until the day of his trial. " George Selwyn dined with her, and not thinking her affliction so serious as she pretends, talked rather jokingly of the execution. She burst into a flood of tears and rage, told him she now believed all his father and mother had said of him, and, with a thousand other reproaches, flung up-stairs. George coolly took Mrs. Dorcas, her woman, and made her sit down to finish the bottle. ' And pray, sir,' says Dorcas, ' do you think my lady will be prevailed upon to let me go and see the execution ? I have a friend that has promised to take care of me, and I can lie in the Tower the night before.' " His father died in 1751 without tying up the property, which brought with it the power of nomi- nating two members for Ludgershall, and interest enouo-h at Gloucester to insure his own return for a that city. This change of circumstances made little change in his course of life. He had sat in Parlia- ment for the family borough since 1747, when Gilly Williams writes: — "I congratulate you on the near approach of Parliament, and figure you to myself before a glass at your rehearsals. I must intimate to you not to forget closing your periods with a significant stroke of the breast, and recommend Mr. Barry as a pattern, who I think pathetically excels in that beauty." Spranger Barry, the actor, is the proposed model ; but Selwyn was not ambitious of senatorial honours, and when obliged to attend the House and be in readiness for a division, he used either to withdraw to one of the committee-rooms for conversation, or to fall asleep. He generally sided with the court party, and was Avell rewarded for his constancy ; being at the same time Clerk of the Irons and Surveyor of the Meltings at the Wmt, Registrar of the Court of Chancery in Barbadoes (where he had an estate), and Paymaster of the Works — de- 158 GEORGE SELWYN scribed as a very lucrative appointment. It was abolished in 1782, by Burke's Economical Reform Bill ; but in the course of the next year he was made Surveyor-General of the Works by Mr. Pitt. In 1768 he was opposed at Gloucester by a timber- merchant, and the manner in which his friends speak of his opponent is characteristic of the times. Gilly Williams calls him "ad — d carpenter;" and Lord Carlisle asks — " Why did you not set his timber yard a-fire ? What can a man mean who has not an idea sepa- rated from the foot square of a Norway deal plank, by desiring to be in Parliament ? Perhaps, if you could have got anybody to have asked him his reasons for such an unnatural attempt, the fact of his being unable to answer what he had never thought about might have made him desist. But these beasts are monstrously obstinate, and about as well bred as the great dogs they keep in their yards." It is currently related that Selwyn did his best to keep Sheridan out of Brookes's, and was only pre- vented from black-balling him for the third or fourth time by a trick. According to one version, the Prince of Wales kept Selwyn in conversation at the door till the ballot was over. According to Wraxall's, he was suddenly called away by a pretended message from his adopted daughter. Some attribute his dislike to aristocratic prejudice; others to party feeling; and Mr. Jesse says that it arose in a great degree from Sheridan's " having been one of the party which had deprived Selwyn of a lucrative post" — that of Pay- master of the Works. Yet Mr. Jesse himself states that the black-balling occurred in 1780, and that the place was abolished in 1782. We are uncharitable enouirh to think that an established wit would feel something like an established beauty at the proposed HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 159 introduction of a rival, and tliat a tinge of jealousy mierlit have been the foundation of the dislike. Selwyn had taken to gaming before his father's death — probably from his first introduction to the clubs. In 1748, Gilly Williams asks— "What do you intend? I think the almanack bids you take care of colds, and abstain from physic ; I say, avoid the knowing ones, and abstain from hazard." His stakes were high, though not extravagantly so, com- pared with the sums hazarded by his contemporaries. In 1765, he lost a thousand pounds to Mr. Shafto, who applies for it in the language of an embarrassed tradesman — "July 1, 1765. *'Deai* Sir, — I have this moment received the favour of your letter. I intended to have gone out of town on Thurs- day, but as you shall not receive your money before the end of this week, I must postpone my journey till Sunday. A month would have made no difference to me, had I not had others to pay before I leave town, and must pay : therefore must beg that you will leave the whole before the week is out at White's, as it is to be paid away to others to whom I have lost, and do not choose to leave town till that is done. Be sure you could not wish an indulgence I should not be happy to grant, if in my power." Mr. Jesse states that latterly Selwyn entirely got the better of his propensity to play ; observing that it was too great a consumer of four things, — time, health, fortune, and thinking. But an extract from the late Mr. Wilberforce's Diary throws some doubt on the accuracy of this statement : " The first time I was at Brookcs's, scarcely knowing any one, I joined, from mere shyness, at the faro-table, where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called out to me, ' What, Wilberforce ! is that you ?' Selwyn quite resented this interference, 160 GEOllGE selwyn: and turning to him said, in his most impressive tone, ' Oh, sir ! don't interrupt Mr. Wilberforce, he could not be better employed.' " This occurred in 1782, when Selwyn was sixty-three. Previously, in 1776, we find him undergoing the process of dunning from Lord Derby; and in 1779 from Mr. Crawford, — "Fish Crawford," as he was called, — each of whom, like Mr. Shafto, " had a sum to make up." Gaming was his only vice. He indulged mode- rately in the pleasures of the table. In 1765 Williams Avrites, " You may eat boiled chicken and kiss Raton (his dog) as well on this side the water." As regards gallantry, we have good authority for doubt- ing whether he was quite so much an anchorite as was supposed ; but his coldness was a constant sub- ject of banter among his friends. Lord Holland says — "My Lady Mary goes (to a masquerade) dressed like Zara, and I Avish you to attend her dressed like a black eunuch." Lord Carlisle adopts the same tone — " In regard to her (a mysterious un- known), in every other light but as a friend you shall see I shall be as cold as a stone, or as yourself." Keaders of the " Rolliad" may recall a broader joke; and Mr. Jesse has ventured to print one of Gilly Williams's, levelled at Walpole as well as Selwyn, which we cannot venture to transcribe. As to Sel- wyn's alleged intrigue with the Marchesa Fagniani, there is no better proof of it than his extreme fond- ness for her daughter (Maria, Dowager-Marchioness of Hertford), whom the gossips thence inferred to be his own. In contemporary opinion, Lord March shared the honours of paternity with Selwyn. His Lordship was equally intimate with her mother, and he left her an immense fortune at his death. Re- semblance, too, must go for something; and Dr. Warner, after an interview with Lord March, says — " The more I contemplate his face, the more I am HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 161 struck with a certain likeness to the lower part of it ; his very chin and lips, and they are rather singular. But you will never be cVaccord upon this interesting subject, as I am sorry to be too much convinced ; but that you know better than I." In considering this question, it must not be forgotten that Selwyn's passion for children was one of the marked features of his character. Lord Carlisle's and Lord Co- ventry's, particularly Lady Anne Coventry (after- wards Lady Anne Foley), were among his especial favourites. Selwyn paid frequent visits to Paris, and spoke French to perfection. " I shall let Lord Huntingdon know (says Lord March) that you are thought to have a better pronunciation than any one that ever came from this country." The Queen of Louis XV. took pleasure in conversing with him. " I dined to- day (we are still quoting from Lord March,} at what is called no dinner, at Madame de Coignie's. The Queen asked Madame de ^lirepoix, ''Si elle iiHavait pas heaucoup entendu medire de Monsieur Selivyn et ellef^ Elle a repondu^ ^ Oui, beaiicoup, Madame.^ '' J'en suis bien-aise,^ dit la Reine.^^ He was received on a perfect footing of equality, and as it were na- turalised, in that brilliant circle of which ]\ladame du Deffand was the centre ; and he often lins^ered longer in it than was agreeable to his English friends. " Lady Hertford (writes Lord March in 1766) made a thousand inquiries about you ; asked how long you intended to stay, and hoped you Avould soon be tired of blind women, old Presidents, and Premiers," — alluding to Madame du Deffand, the President llen- ault, and the Due de Choiseul. Williams sarcastically inquires, " Cannot we get you an hospital in this island, where you can pass your evenings with some very sensible matrons ? and, if they arc not quite VOL. I. M 162 GEORGE SELWYN : blind, they may have some natural infirmity equiva- lent to it.'' Nothing proves Selwyn's real superiority more strongly than his reception in this brilliant coterie, and the enjoyment he found in it; for when he began making his periodical visits to Paris, national preju- dice was at its height; — the French regarded the English as barbarians, and the English entertained a contemptuous aversion for the French. So late as 1769, Lord Carlisle thus amusingly alludes to these vulgar errors: — " I am very sorry to hear Mr. Wood's family were splashed by the sea. People who never travel know very little what dangers we run. I dare say most of your French acquaintances here wonder you do not go to England hy land, but I believe they are very easy about us after we are gone. They think we are very little altei*ed since the land- in£j of Julius Caesar : that we leave our clothes at Calais, having no furtlier occasion for them, and that every one of us has a sunflower cut out and painted upon his , like the prints in Clarke's Caesar. I do not think that all enter- tain this idea of us ; I only mean the sgavans ; those who can read." The French might be pardoned for supposing that the English left their clothes at Calais, for the tailors of Paris were then as much in requisition as the milliners ; and Selwyn is invariably loaded with com- missions for velvet coats, silk small-clothes, brocade dressing-gowns, lace ruffles, and various other articles, by the gravest as well as the gayest of his friends. As for the notion of reaching England hy land, geo- graphy and the use of the globes were rare accom- plishments in both countries. When Whiston foretold tlie destruction of the world within three years, the Duchess of Bolton avowed an intention of escaping the common fate, by going to China. Selwyn not only overcame the national prejudice in his own indi- ins LIFE AND TIMES. 163 vidual instance, but paved the way for the reception of his friends. It was he who made Horace Walpole acquainted with Madame du Deffand, and Gibbon with Madame de GeofFrin. His habit of dozing in the House of Commons has been already noticed. He occasionally dozed in so- ciety. " We hear (says Williams) of your falling asleep standing at the old President's (Henault's), and knocking him and. three more old women into the fire. Are these things true ?" Walpole also hints at it. " When you have a quarter of an hour, awake and to spare, I wish you would, bestow it on me." He is by no means singular, as miglit be shown by many remarkable instances besides that of Lord North, who (according to Gibbon) " might well in- dulge a short slumber on the Treasury bench, when supported by the majestic sense of Tliurlow on the one side, and the skilful eloquence of Wedderburne on the other." Lord Byron, in one of his Journals, records a dinner-party of twelve, including Sheridan, Tierney, and Erskine, of whom five were fast asleep before the dessert was well upon the table. Li an- other, he relates: — "At the Opposition meeting of the peers in 1812, at Lord Grenville's, where Lord Grey and he read to us the correspondence upon Moira's negotiation, I sat next to the present Duke of Grafton, and asked what is to be done next ? * Wake the Duke of Norfolk^ (wlio was snoring away near us), replied he; 'I don't think the negotiators have left any tiling else for us to do this turn.' " Considering the hours kept by modern wits and senivtors, they may be excused for dropping into a pleasing state of forgetfulness occasionally ; but Sel- wyn had no such excuse. His mode of life is ex- hibited in a droll sketch, in a letter to himself, written by Lord Carlisle at Spa, in 1768 : — M 2 164 GEORGE SELWYN " I rise at six ; am on horseback till breakfast ; play at cricket till dinner ; and dance in the evening till I can scarce crawl to bed at eleven. There is a life for you ! You get up at nine ; play with Raton till twelve in your nightgown ; then creep down to White's to abuse Fanshawe ; are five houj's at table ; sleep till you can escape your supper reckon- ing ; then make two wretches carry you, with three pints of claret in you, three miles for a shilling." AYits are seldom given to ruralities. In the spirit of Captain Morris's song, they are ready to give up any amount of green trees or mountain breezes for " the sweet shady side of Pall Mall." Sehvyn par- took largely of this feeling. The state of a gentle- man's cellar was then, whatever it may J)e now, a fair indication of the use he made of his house, and Matson was very slenderly stocked. When Gilly Williams took up his quarters there in passing through Gloucester, he writes — " I asked Bell to dine here, but he is too weak to venture so far ; so the Methodist and I will taste your new and old claret. I have been down in the cellar : there are about nine bottles of old, and five dozen of new." Yet Matson was a highly ngreeable residence, charmingly situated, and rich in historical associations. Charles II. and James II. (both boys at the time) were quartered there during the siege of Gloucester by the Royalists in 1643; and they amused themselves by cutting out their names, with various irregular emblazonments, on the window-shutters. During one of his brief electioneering visits at Matson, Selwyn took it into his head to perform jus- ticeship ; for (as Fielding observes with reference to a similar attempt on the part of Squire Western) it was, indeed, a syllable more than justice. " What the devil (exclaims Gilly AVilliams) could tempt you to act as justice of the peace ? This is Trapolin with a vengeance! What! evidence, party, and judge HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 165 too ! If you do not make it up with the man soon, some rogue of an attorney will plague your heart out in the King's Bench." His gardener had been guilty of some peculation, for which Selwyn, without cere- mony, committed him. A little over-eagerness might be excused, as one of his strongest peculiarities was a passion for the details of criminal justice, from the warrant to the rope. His friends made a point of gratifying it, by sending the earliest intelligence of remarkable crimes, criminals, trials, and executions, as well as every anecdote they could collect concerning them. When Walpole's house in Arlington Street was broken open, liis first care, after securing the robber, was to send for Selwyn : — ''I despatched a courier to White's for George, who, you know, loves nothing upon earth so well as a criminal, except the execution of him. It happened very luckily that the Drawer, Avho re- ceived my message, has very lately been robbed him- self, and had the wound fresh in his memory. He stalked up into the club-room, stopped short, and with a hollow trembling voice said, ' Mr. Selwyn, Mr. Walpole's compliments, and he's got a house- breaker for you.' " Gilly Williams, having no house-breaker for him, sends him a story about one instead: — " I will give you a Newgate anecdote, wliich I had from a gentle- man who called on P. Lewis the night before the execution, and heard one runner call to another and order a chicken boiled for Rice's su2:)per ; ' but,' says he, ' you need not be curious about the sauce, for he is to be hanged to-morrow.' ' That is true,' says the other; 'but the Ordinary sups with him, and you know he is a devil of a fellow for butter.' If the continental air has not altered you, this will please you ; at least, I have known the time wdien you have gone a good way for such a morsel." M 3 166 GEOKGE SELWYN : The best stories regarding his taste for executions are related by Walpole, and well-known. Innumerable were the jokes levelled at him for this peculiarity. The best is the first Lord Holland's, who was dying: — " The next time Mr. Selwyn calls show him up : If I am alive, I shall be delighted to see him ; and if I am dead, he will be glad to see me." Lord Holland was not the only statesman of the period who could joke under such circumstances. Mr. Legge (the story is Gilly Williams's) told a very fat fellow who came to see him the day he died — " Sir, you are a great weight ; but, let me tell you, you are in at the death." Another of the same gentleman's stories is probably meant as a warning — " I remember a man seeing a military execution in Hyde Park, and when it was over, he turned about and said, ' By G — , I thought there was more in it ! ' He shot himself the next morning." The writer of a letter in the " Gentleman's Majra- zine," for April, 1791, supposed to be the Rev. Dr. Warner, makes a gallant effort to rescue Selwyn's memory from what he terms an unjust and injurious imputation. After urging that nothing could be more abhorrent from Selwyn's character, and that he had the most tender and benevolent of hearts, the writer thus proceeds: — "This idle but widespread idea of his being fond of executions (of which he never in his life attended but at one, and that rather accidentally from its lying in his way, than from design) arose from the pleasantries which it pleased Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, and the then Lord Chesterfield, to propagate from that one attendance, for the amusement of their common friends. Of the easiness with which such things sat upon him, you may judge from the following circumstance, which I have heard him more than once relate. Sir Charles was telling a large company a similar story to that HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 167 of his attending upon executions, with many strokes of rich humour, received with great glee, before his face, when a gentleman who sat next to the object of their mirth, said to him in a low voice — ' It is strange, George, so intimate as we are, that I should never have heard of this story before.' ' Not at all strange,' he replied in the same voice, ' for Sir Charles has just invented it, and Ivuows that 1 will not by con- tradiction spoil the pleasure of the company he is so highly entertaining.' And such was his good nature in everything." This may account for the plea- santries, but hardly for the facts, stated by Walpole and others ; or for such an epistle as the following : — *' I can with great pleasure inform you, my dear Selwyn, that the head is ordered to be delivered on the first appHca- tion made on your part. The expense is Httle more than a guinea ; the person who calls should pay for it. Adieu, mon cher mondain. «T. Phillips." As to tenderness and benevolence, there surely was no necessity for assuming, that the taste in question was irreconcilable with such qualities. It was simply a craving for strong excitement ; a modification of the feeling which still induces the Spanish women to attend bull-fights, and formerly lured the gentlest and noblest of the sex to tournaments. Moreover, people were by no means so refi.ned or squeamish in Selwyn's time as now, when the spectacle of bloody heads over Temple Bar would not be tolerated for an hour. Crowds of all classes pressed round to gaze on those of the rebel Lords in 1740; and telescopes were fixed for the use of the curious at a halfpenny a peep. "I remember" (says Johnson, as reported by Boswell) " once being with Goldsmith in West- minster Abbey. While we surveyed the Poets' Corner, I said to him, " ' Forsitan et nomen nostrum miscebitur islis.' M 4 168 GEORGE SELWYN: When we got to Temple Bar, he stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and shly wliispered me, *' ' Forsitan et nomen nostrum miscebitur istis.'' " Nay, not thirty years ago, it was customary for the governor of Newgate to give a breakfast to thirteen or fourteen persons of distinction on the morning of an execution. The party attended the hanoincr breakfasted, and then attended the cuttino;- down, but few had any appetite for the second and third parts of the ceremoniah When we ourselves attended, a very pretty girl (the governor's daughter, we believe), who spoke of the sufferers as " our 2)eoj)le," distributed the tea and coffee. §he assured us, in confidence, that the first call of the incipient amateur was invariably for brandy ; and that the only guest who never failed to do justice to the broiled kidneys (for which she was famous) was the Ordinary. Storer (one of the Selwyn set) writes in 1774: — " You will get by your edition of Madame de Sevigne's Letters, enough to pay for as much Vin de Grave as ever she drank en Bretagne^ Selwyn rivalled or outran Walpole in his admiration of Madame de Sevigne, and paid a visit to her residence, Les Rochers (graphically described, as at present existing, in Lady Morgan's "Book of the Boudoir"); but we find no other proof of direct literary intentions on his part ; and there is consequently no ground for disputing the applicability of the remark with which Mr. Jesse introduces the topic of his wit : — " Perhaps no individual has ever acquired so general a reputation for mere wit as George Selwyn. Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Lords Dorset, Kochester, Chesterfield, and Hervcy, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Bubb Doddington, Sheridan, and (perhaps the most brilliant luminary in this galaxy of wit) the late Theodore Hook, were men who had HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 169 one and all distinguished themselves in following the paths of literature, while more than one of them had rendered himself eminent in the senate. Thus, the character which each maintained for wit was supported by the adventitious aid of a reputation for literary or oratorical talents, while tlie fime of George Selwyn stands exclusively on his character for social pleasantry and conversational wit." Not quite. It stood also on his three seats in Parliament, and on his family connexions. These, at the very outset, procured him that vantage ground, to which Sheridan and Hook were obliged to win their way at the risk of fretting a thousand vanities. This may not apply to the rest on Mr. Jesse's list ; but then it is a very imperfect one, and admits of large additions — as (omitting all living examples) Foote, Wilkes, Jekyll, Curran, Colman. Dr. Johnson disliked Foote ; but when one of the company, at a dinner-party at Dilly's, called him a merry-andrew, a buffoon, the sage at once declared that he had wit ; and added — " The first time I was in company with Foote, was at Fitzherbert's. Having no good opinion of the fellow, I was resolved not to be pleased ; and it is very ditlicult to please a man against his will. I went on taking my dinner pretty sullenly, aftecting not to mind him. But the dog was so very comical, that I was obliged to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself back on ray chair, and fairly laugh it out. Ko, sir, he was irresistible." It was said to be impossible to take Foote unawares, or to put him out. As he was telling a story at a fine dinner-party, a gentleman, to try him, pulled him by the coat-tail, and told him that his handker- chief was hanging out. " Thank you, sir," said Foote, replacing it, " you know the company better than I do," and went on with his story. Wilkes's fame may rest on his reply to Lord Sand- wich, and on his fling at Thurlow. Jekyll needs no 170 GEORGE SELWYN : trumpeter. Lord Byron says of Colman — " If I had to choose, and could not have both at a time, I would say, ' Let me begin the evening with Sheridan, and finish it with Colman.' " Of Curran, he says, " I have met him at Holland House ; he beats every body — his imagination is beyond human, and his humour (it is difficult to define what is wit) perfect. Then he has fifty faces, and twice as many voices, when he mimics." This, we may add, was Hook's great charm. His best stories were dramatic repre- sentations a la Mathews^ little inferior to that fine observer's " At Homes." Why, again, since Mr. Jesse has gone back so far, did he not go back a little farther, and' mention the old Earl of Norwich ; — a singular illustration of the fickleness of taste, and the truth of the maxim — " a jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him who hears it." He was the acknowledged wit of Charles the First's court ; but was voted a dead bore when he attempted to resume his wonted place at Whitehall after the Restoration. It should be remembered, moreover, to be placed on the opposite column of the account — that high reputation in one line may sometimes prevent a man from acquiring much in another ; not merely because of the prevalent dislike to pluralities, but because the less is merged in the greater. Thus it was ad- mirably said of Sir James Mackintosh by Sydney Smith, " that he had not only humour, but wit also ; at least, new and sudden relations of ideas flashed across his mind in reasoning, and produced the same effect as wit, and would have been called wit, if a sense of their utility and importance had not often overpowered the admiration of novelty y Wilber- force, speaking of Pitt, said — " He Avas the wittiest man I ever knew, and (what was quite peculiar to himself) had at all times his wit under entire control. UIS LIFE AND TIMES. 17J Others appeared struck by tlie unwonted associa- tion of brilliant images ; but every possible combina- tion of ideas seemed always present to his mind, and he could at once produce whatever he desired. I was one of those who met to spend an evening in memory of Shakspeare, at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap. i\Iany professed wits were present, but Pitt was the most amusing of the party, and the readiest and most apt in the required allusions.*' In addition to Selwyn's other places, the voice of his contemporaries conferred on him that of Receiver- General of Waif and Stray Jokes — a sufficient proof that he had plenty of his own ; for as D'Alembert sarcastically observed to the Abbe Voisenon, who complained that he was unduly charged with the absurd sayings of others — '''■Monsieur rAObe, on ne prete qu^aux richest Selwyn's droits^ in respect of his anomalous office, were not limited to the clubs. Lord Holland writes, in 1770, — " As the newspapers impute so much wit to you, I hope they give you the invention of that pretty motto they have put upon Lord Carlisle's cap." Lord Carlisle, in 1776, — "What the witty Mr. G. S. says in the newspapers is admi- rable about the red-hot poker, though I like Diis pla- cuit better." Lord March, in 1767, — " The king talked of you at his dressing, and told me something that you had said of the Macaronis, that he thought very good." According to Walpole, it was Selwyn's habit to turn up the whites of his eyes, and assume an expres- sion of demureness when giving utterance to a droll thought ; and Wraxall says, that the effect of his witticisms was greatly enhanced by his listless, drowsy manner. Nor is this all.' What makes a-- man like Sclwyn the delight of his contemporaries, is that ver- satility, richness, and elasticity of mind, which invests the commonest incidents with amusing or inspiriting 172 GEORGE SI'XWYN: associations — lights intuitively on the most attrac- tive topics, grasps theni one moment, lets them go the next, and, in a word, never suffers companionsliip to become tiresome, or conversation to grow dull. He may do this without uttering any thing that will be generally recognised as wit. At the risk of disappointing our readers, however, we shall here quote some of the best of Selwyn's re- corded witticisms and pleasantries : they occupy little room, and there is nothing more provoking than to be told of "the well-known anecdote" which one does 7iot know. When a subscription was proposed for Fox, and some one was observing that it would require some delicacy, and Avas wondering how Fox would take it — " Take it? why, quarterly^ to be sure." When one of the Foley family crossed the Channel to avoid his creditors — "It is 2i pass over that will not be much relished by the Jews." When Fox was boasting of having prevailed on the French court to give up the gum-trade — "As you have permitted the French to draw your ieeth^ they would be fools, indeed, to quarrel with you about your gums." When Walpole, in allusion to the sameness of the system of politics continued in the reign of George the Third, observed — "But there is nothing new under the sun." — " No," said Selwyn, " nor under the graiidsony One night, at White's, observing the Postmaster- General, Sir Everard Fawkener, losing a large sum of money at piquet, Selwyn, pointing to the successful player, remarked — " See, how he is robbing the mail ! " On another occasion, in 1756, observing Mr. Pon- sonby, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, tossing about bank-bills at a hazard-table at New- market — " Look how easily the Speaker passes the money -hills. ''^ HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 173 The beautiful Lady Coventry was exhibiting to him a splendid new dress, covered with large silver spangles the size of a shilling, and inquired of hiui whether he admired her taste — " Why," he said, " you will be change for a guinea.''^ This bears a strong resemblance to one of Lord Mansfield's judicial pleasantries. Serjeant Davy was cross-examining a Jew at great length, in order to prove his insufficiency as bail. The sum was small, and the Jew was dressed in a suit of clothes bedizened witli silver lace. Lord Mansfield at length interfered — "Come, come, brother "Davy, don't you see the man would burn for the money ? " At the sale of the effects of the minister, Mr. Pelham, Selwyn, pointing to a silver dinner-service, observed — "Lord, how many toads have been eaten off these plates ! " A namesake of Charles Fox having been hung at Tyburn, Fox inquired of Selwyn whether he had at- tended tlie execution — " No, I make a point of never frequenting rehearsahy A fellow-passenger in a coach, imagining from his appearance that he was suffering from illness, kept wearying him with good-natured inquiries as to the state of his health. At length, to the repeated ques- tion of " How are you now, sir," Selwyn replied — " Very well, I thank you ; and I mean to continue so for the rest of the journey." He was one day walking with Lord Pembroke, when they were besieged by a number of young chimney-sweepers, who kept plaguing them for money. At length Selwyn made them a low bow : " I have often," he said, "heard of the sovereignty of the people ; I suppose your Highnesses are in court mourning." " On Sunday last," says Walpole, " George Selwyn was strolling home to dinner at half an hour after four. He saw my Lady Townshend's coacli stop at 17-i GEORGE SELWYN Caraccioli's cliapel. He watched, saw her go in ; her footman Laughed ; he followed. She went up to the altar, a woman brought her a cushion ; she knelt, crossed herself, and prayed. He stole up, and knelt by her. Conceive her face, if you can, when she turned and found him close to her. In his demure voice, he said, ' Pray, madam, how long has your ladyship left the pale of our church ? ' She looked furious, and made no answer. Next day he went to her, and she turned it off upon curiosity ; but is any- thing more natural ? No, she certainly means to go armed with every viaticum ; the Church of England in one hand, Methodism in the other, and the Host in her mouth." Wraxall stands godfather to the next: — "The late Duke of Queensberry, who lived in the most in- timate friendship with him, told me that Selwyn was present at a public dinner with the Mayor and Cor- poration of Gloucester, in the year 1758, when the intelligence arrived of our expedition having failed before Rochfort. The Mayor, turning to Selwyn — ' You, sir,' said he, ' who are in the ministerial secrets, can, no doubt, inform us of the cause of this mis- fortune ? ' Selwyn, though utterly ignorant on the subject, yet unable to resist the occasion of amusing himself at the inquirer's expense — ' I will tell you, in confidence, the reason, Mr. Mayor,' answered he ; * the fact is, that the scaling-ladders prepared for the occasion were found, on trial, to be too short.' This solution, which suggested itself to him at the moment, was considered by the Mayor to be perfectly explana- tory of the failure, and as such he communicated it to all his friends ; not being aware, though Selwyn was, that Rochfort lies on the river Charente, some leagues from the sea-shore, and that our troops had never even effected a landing on the French coast." A gentleman, on being twice cut by Selwyn in HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 175 London, came up and reminded him that they had been acquainted at Bath. " I remember it very well ; and, when we next meet at Bath, I shall be happy to be acquainted with you again." "When Lord George Gordon asked Selwyn to choose him again for Ludgershall, he replied, the electors would not. " Oh yes ! if you would recommend me, they would choose me if I came from the coast of Africa." — " That is, according to what part of the coast you came from ; they would certainly, if you came from the Guinea coast." Walpole, who relates this anecdote in a letter to Lady Ossory, remarks on it : " Now, madam, is not this true inspiration as well as true w^it ? Had one asked him in which of the four quarters of the world Guinea is situated, could he have told ? " On hearing that C (a new man) wanted to be made Earl of Ormond, Selwyn said — " It would be very proper, as no doubt there had been many Butlers in the family." Once, and once only, was he guilty of verse — ON A PAIR OF SHOES FOUND IN A LADY'S BED. " Well may suspicion shake its head, Well may Clarinda's spouse be jealous, When the dear wanton takes to bed Her very shoes because they're fellows." Selwyn died at his house in Cleveland Row, January 25, 179L He had been for many years a severe sufferer from gout and dropsy: and Wilber- force describes him as looking latterly like the wax figure of a corpse. He continued to haunt the clubs till within a sliort period before his death ; but Mr. Jesse assures us that he died penitent, and that the Bible was frequently read to him, at his own request, during his last illness. By his will he gave 33,000/. to ]\Iaria Fagniani ; 100/. each to his two nepliews ; 176 GEORGE SELWYN: his wardrobe and 30/. a year to his valet ; and the residue of his property to the Duke of Qaeensberry, with the exception of Ludgershall, which was en- tailed on the Townshend fiunily. Mr. Jesse quotes some lines from a j^oetical tribute published soon after his death, in whicli the Graces are invoked to fulfil several appropriate duties — " And fondly dictate to the faithful Muse The prime distinction of the friend they lose. 'Twas social wit, which, never kindling strife, Blazed in the small sweet courtesies of life." Had we been at the writer's elbow, we would have suggested shone or glowed in preference to blazed. AValpole, writing to Miss Berry on the day of Selwyn's death, says — " I am on the point of losing or have lost, my oldest acquaintance and friend, George Selwyn, who was yesterday at the extremity. These misfortunes, though they can be so but for a short time, are very sensible to the old ; but him I really loved, not only for his infinite wit, but for a thousand good qualities," Again — " Poor Selwyn is gone, to my sorrow ; and no wonder Ucalegon feels it!" The heartlessness of the French set, to which Selwyn and Walpole belonged, is beyond a question. Madame du Deffimd's colloquy with one lover, as to the cause of their fifty years' unbroken harmony — " N^est ce pas que, jjendant tout ce terns Id, nous avons ete souverainement indiffere?is Tun d Vautre''^ — and her behaviour on the death of another, are not invented pleasantries, but melancholy facts. Yet, either we were wrong in supposing that the malady was in- fectious, and Miss Berry was right in her generous and able vindication of her friend, or Selwyn pos- sessed the peculiar talismanic power of kindling and fixing the affections of his associates ; for not only does Walpole invariably mention him when living. HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 177 and mourn over him when dead, in terms of heartfelt sincerity, but the same influence appears to have operated on one, whom (possibly with equal injustice) we should have suspected of being, in his own despite, a little hardened by a long course of selfish indul- gences — Lord March. Here are a few, and but a few, of the proofs : — " As to your banker," says his Lordship, " I will call there to-morrow ; make yourself easy about that, for I have three thousand pounds now at Coutts's. There will be no bank- ruptcy without we are both ruined at the same time. — How can you think, my dear George, and I hope you do not think, that anybody, or anything, can make a tracasserie between you and me ? I take it ill that you even talk of it, which you do in the letter I had by Ligonier. I must be the i^oorest creature upon earth — after having known you so long, and always as the best and sincerest friend that any one ever had — if any one alive can make any impres- sion upon me when you are concerned. I told you, in a letter some time ago, that I depended more upon the con- tinuance of our friendship than anything else in the world, which I certainly do, because I have so many reasons to know you, and I am sure I know myself" This speaks well for both head and heart ; and how much unhappiness would be prevented by the universal adoption of the principle — never to listen to, much less believe, the alleged unkindness of a friend. All of us have our dissatisfied, complaining, uncongenial moments, when we may neglect ordinary attentions, or let "drop words utterly at variance with the habitual suggestions of our hearts. These are repeated from design or carelessness : then come complaints and explanations; confidence is destroyed; "the cre- dulous hope of mutual minds is over ; " and thus ends at once the solace of a life. Lord IMarch's letters are, on the whole, the most valuable in the collection — most characteristic of the VOL. I. N 178 GEORGE selwyn: writer, and most redolent of tlie times. This un- | folding of his private relations and inmost feelings is highly favourable to him. As we see him now, he is the very impersonation of his class — shrewd, sensible, observing, generous, and affectionate, amid all his profligacy. His letters are dashed off in clear, manly, unaffected language, on the spur of the occasion ; and although they are actually better written than those of many of his noble contemporaries who pretended to literature, it is obvious that the last thing he ever thought of was the style. Walpole's are epistolary compositions ; Lord March's are letters in the plain ordinary acceptation of the term. Their idiomatic ease reminds us of Byron's, and in their ^pregnant brevity they often resemble Swift's hasty dottings down of public events or private chit-chat in the journal to Stella : — " November, 1766. " My dear George, — I intended to have written to you last Tuesday, but we sat so late at the House of Lords that I had no time. It was a dull debate, though it lasted a great while. Lord Cliatham spoke very well, and with a great deal of temper, and great civility towards the Duke of Bedford ; who spoke and approved of the measure at the time of laying the embargo, because of the neces- sity ; but complained of Parliament not being called sooner, because what had been done was illegal, and only to be justified from necessity, which was the turn of the whole debate. Lord Mansfield trianned in his usual manner, and avoided declariog his opinion, though he argued for the il- legality. Lord Camden attacked him very close upon not speaking out his opinion, and declared strongly for the legality. Upon the whole, I think we shall have very little to do in Parliament, and your attendance will be very little wanted." This was Lord Chatham's first appearance in the House of Lords. Li letters dated the same month we find : — HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 179 " Monday, 19tli November, 1766. '^ My dear George, — For fear that I should not have any- other moment to write to you, I write this in the King's rooms. I was obhged to dress early to come here, it being the princess's birth-day. I dine at Lord Hertford's, Avhich, with the ball at night, will take up the whole day; you know that he is chamberlain. The Duke of Bedford comes to-day, and on Wednesday, I suppose, they will kiss hands ; but nothing is known. Every body agrees that this resignation of the Cavendishes is, of all the resignations, the most foolish ; and I hear they begin already to repent of it. They make a fine opportunity for Chatham to strengthen his ad- ministration. They want T. Pelham to resign ; Ashburnham certainly will now. The only people that do well are those that never resign ; which Lord Hertford seems to have found out long ago. Saunders and Keppel resign to-mor- row." "November, 1766. *' My dear George, — Jack Shelley has kissed hands for Lord Edgecombe's place. He was offered to be of the Bedchamber, which he has refused, and wants to have the Post-office, w^hich they won't give him. I find it is imagined that we shall he obliged to send troops into North America, to bring them to a proper obedience. It is whispered about that the Cavendishes, and Rockingham's friends, will take the first opportunity they can to be hostile to Government: and likewise, that Norton and Wedderburne will certainly op- pose. If these things are so, we may perhaps have some more convulsions in the state." Such letters are excellent correctives of history ; but we are not writing history just now, and must turn to those which throw light on manners : — " Ilinchinbrooke, Thursday (1770). "My dear George, — Our party at AVakefiekl went off very well. AVe had hunting, racing, whist, and quinzc. My horse won, as I expected, but the odds were upon him, so that I betted very little. " After hunting on Monday I went to Ossory's, where I lay in my way here. He came with me, and went back N 2 1 80 GEORGE SELWYN : jesterday. I imagine he would have liked to have stayed if Lady Ossory had not been alone. They live l)ut a dull life, and there must be a ^reat deal of love on both sides not to tire. I almost promised to go back for Bedford races, but believe I shall not. I go to Newmarket to-night, and to London to-morrow. Sandwich's house is full of people, and all sorts of things going forward. Miss Ray does the honours perfectly well. While I am writing they are all upon the grass-plot at a foot race." To make this intellio-ible, we must ""o behind the scenes. Wakefield Lodfre was the seat of the minister Duke of Grafton, Lady Ossory Avas his ci-devant duchess. She had divorced him on account of his intimacy with Nancy Parsons, described by Walpole as " one of the commonest creatures in London : once much liked, but out of date. He is certainly grown immensely attached to her ; so much so, that it has put an end to all his decorum." The culpable excesses into which the Duke was hurried by his passion, are thus stigmatised by Junius: — "It is not the private in- dulgence, but the public insult of which I complain. The name of Miss Parsons would hardly have been known, if the First Lord of the Treasury had not led her in triumph through the Opera-house, even in the presence of the Queen." Hinchinbrooke, from which Lord March's letter is dated, was the seat of Lord Sandwich, another Cabinet Minister. Miss Ray, who did the honours so well, was his mistress — shot at Covent Garden in 1779. The story is told by Dr. Warner in a paragraph which may serve as a pattern of good condensation : — a The history of Hackraan, Miss Ray's murderer, is this. He was recruiting at Huntingdon ; appeared at the ball ; was asked by Lord Sandwich to Hinchinbrooke ; was intro- duced to Miss Ray ; became violently enamoured of her ; made proposals, and was sent into Ireland where his regi- ment was. He sold out ; came back on purpose to be near HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 181 the object of his affection ; took orders, but could not bend the inflexible fair in a black coat more than in a red. He could not live without her. He meant only to kill himself, and that in her presence ; but seeing her coquet it at the play with a young Irish templar, Macnamara, he determined sud- denly to despatch her too. He is to be tried on Friday, and hanged on Monday." The Morning Post for April 9, 1799, has this an- nouncement : — " When the news of the above mis- fortune was carried to the AdmiraUy, it was received by her noble admirer with the utmost concern. He wept exceedingly, and lamented, with every other token of grief, the interruption of a connexion which had lasted for seventeen years, with great and unin- terrupted felicity on both sides." The catching character of notorious insanity has often been remarked. While the Hackman affair w^as the popular topic, it seems that no woman, young or old, ugly or pretty, could venture forth without alarm. Lady Ossory writes : — " This Asiatic weather has certainly affected our cold constitutions. The Duchess of B is afraid of being- shot wherever she goes. A man has followed Miss Cla- vering on foot from the East Indies ; is quite mad ; and scenes are daily expected even in the drawing-room. An- other man has sworn to shoot a Miss Something, li'importe, if she did not run away with him from the 0{)era. " Sir Joshua Reynolds has a niece who is troubled Avith one of these passionate admirers, to whom she has refused her hand and her door. He came a few days since to Sir Joshua's, asked if she was at home, and on being answered in the negative, he desired the footman to tell her to take care, for he was determined to ravish her (pardon the word) whenever he met her. Keep our little friend (]Mie Mie) at Paris whilst this mania lasts, for no ngc will be spared to be in fashion, and I am sure Mie jNlie is quite as much in danger as the person I quoted in my first page." Before auotinf:: those letters of Lord March Avhich N 3 182 GEOKGE SELWYN : refer to topics of a strictly personal character, we will mention the few authentic particulars that have been recorded of him. He was born in 1725, succeeded his father in the earldom of March in 1731, his mother in the earldom of Kuglen in 1748, and his cousin in the dukedom of Queensberry in 1778, being then in his iifty-third year. Few men of his day acquired greater notoriety, or were more an object of inquiry and speculation ; yet he took little part in political events, except so far as his own interests were affected by them, and it would have been better for his reputation had he taken none. When the King's inalady grew serious in 1788, he gave in his allegiance to Fox, and on the recovery of his royal master, was unceremoniously dismissed from his situation of lord of the bed- chamber, which he had held for twenty-eight years notwithstanding the known profligacy of his life. Wraxall says he took a journey to Windsor to learn the exact condition of the King, but was misled by Dr. Warren. The dismissal mattered little. His business was pleasure, his passions were women and the turf; and he contrived to gratify both, without impairing either his fortune or his constitution. As regards the turf, he was thoroughly versed in all its mysteries, and seldom indulged in any sort of gaming unconnected with it, or relating to matters where any undue advantage could be taken of him. On the contrary, he was generally on the look-out for oppor- tunities of turning his own shrewdness and coolness to account. A curious instance is related in Edge- worth's memoirs. Lord March had noticed a coachmaker's journey- man running with a wheel, and on minuting him by a stop-watch, found that he actually ran a consider- able distance faster with it than most men could run unencumbered. A waiter in Betty's fruit- shop was HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 183 famous for speed. Lord March adroitly introduced the topic, and, by maintaining what appeared a paradox, easily got bets offered to a large amount, that the Avaiter would run faster for a mile than any one could run with the hind-wheel of his lordship's carria2:e, then standino^ at the door. But he had committed a triflino^ oversight. The wheel was lower than the wheel the man was used to run with ; and the biter would have been bit, had not Sir Francis Blake Delaval suggested an expedient. The night before the match, planks were obtained from the Board of \yorks, and a raised groove, for the wheel • to run in, was constructed across the course. The journeyman won, and the Jockey Club decided in Lord March's favour. Another of his bets came before the Court of King's Bench. He had laid a wager of five hun- dred guineas with young Mr. Pigot, that old Mr. Pigot (the father) would die before Sir William Codrington. Old Mr. Pigot died the same morning before the makino- of the wao-er, but neither of the parties was acquainted with the fact. The Court held that the dutiful and hopeful heir must pay. A startling example of this style of bet is mentioned by Walpole. " I, t'other night at White's, found a very remarkable entry in our very remarkable wager-book. Lord bets Sir twenty guineas, that Nash outlives Cibber. How odd that these two old creatures should live to see both their wager ers put an end to their own lives ! " Lord March's rate of betting Avas never very high. The largest sum he appears to have won or lost at any race or meeting, during the period over whicli this correspondence extends, was 4100/., and this is mentioned as a rare occurrence. He also mana2:ed his intercourse with the fair sex in such a manner, as to prevent them from interfering with his peace or even his caprices ; and few things N 4 184 GEOKGE SELWYN : are more amusing than his mode of keeping his occa- sional liaisons from chishing with his permanent ones — for we are obhged to speak of both classes in the plural number. His parting with one of his favour- ites is peculiarly touching : — " I am just preparing to conduct the poor little Tondino to Dover. My heart is so full that I can neither think, speak, nor write. How I shall be able to part with her, or bear to come back to this house, I do not know. The sound of her voice fills my eyes with fresh tears. My dear George, J'ai le coeur si serve que je ne suis hon a present qu'a j)leurer. Take all the care you can of her. Je la recommende a vous, my best and only real friend." In return for the care Selwyn was to take of the Tondino, Lord March, it seems, was to keep an eye to Raton : — " I wrote to you last night, but I quite forgot Raton. I have not had him to see me to-day, having been the whole morning in the city with Lady H., but I have sent to your maid, and she says that her little king is perfectly well, and in great spirits." Besides the Tondino, Selwyn had the principal care of the Rena, a beautiful Italian, who stood in nearly the same relation to Lord March as INladame de Pompadour to Louis the Fifteenth. That sagacious favourite, it will be remembered, troubled herself very little about the Pare aux Cerfs so long as she retained the chief place in his Majesty's confidence. Queen Caroline is said to have preserved her influence over George the Second by the same policy. The Rena's prudence was put to a severe trial by the arrival of Signora Zamperini, a noted dancer and singer, in 1766. His lordship writes to Selwyn in Paris : — " I wish I had set out immediately after Newmarket, which I believe I should have done, if I had not taken a I HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 185 ■violent fancy for one of the opera girls. Tliis passion is a little abated, and I hope it will be quite so before you and the Rena come over, else I fear it will interrupt our society. But whatever is the case, as I have a real friendship and aftection for the Rena, I shall show her every mark of regard and consideration, and be vastly happy to see her. I con- sider her as a friend, and certainly as one that I love very much ; and as such, I hope she will have some indulgence for my follies." A few days afterwards he writes : — " The Rena must be mad if she takes any thing of this sort in a serious way. If she does, there is an end to our society. If she does not, we shall go on as we did. I am sure I have all the regard in the world for her, for I love her vastly, and I shall certainly contrive to make her as easy and as happy as I can. I like this little girl, but how long this liking will last, I cannot tell ; it may increase, or be quite at an end before you arrive." His lordship had not attained to equal proficiency with Madame de Girardin's hero : " Albert ne viendra pas — il est amoureux pour une quinzaine ; 11 me I'a dit, et il est toujours a la minute dans ces choses- la." In a subsequent letter, we find all three (the Tondino, the Rena, and the Zamperini) mixed up together. " You see what a situation I am in with my little Biiffa. She is the prettiest creature that ever was seen ; in short, I like her vastly, and she likes me, because I give her money. " I have had a letter from the Tondino to-day. She tells me that she never passed her time so well at Paris as she does now : ' Monsieur du Ban-i est un homme charmante, et nous donne des bals avcc dcs Princesses.^ Pray, my dear George, find out something that will be agreeable to the little Teresina. Considt the Rena about it. *' I shall write two or three words to the Rena by this post. I told her, in my last letter, that I was supposed to be very much in love with the Zamperini, which certainly would not prevent me from being very happy to sec her. I 186 GEORGE selwyn: have been too long accustomed to live with her not to like her, or to be able to forget her, and there is nothing that would give me more pain than not to be able to live with her upon a footing of great intimacy and friendship; hut I am always afraid of every event where women are concerned — they are all so exceedingly wronyheaded.^'' It might be deemed useless, if not impertinent, to keep on repeating that obviously wrong things are wrong ; but, in connexion with the next extract, the reader should bear in mind, that, at the time in ques- tion and for twelve years afterwards, the writer was a lord of the bedchamber in the decorous court of George the Third and Queen Charlotte : — "I was prevented from writing to you last Friday, by being at Newmarket with my little girl. I had the whole family and Cocchi. The beauty went with me in my chaise, and the rest in the old landau." The family consisted of father, mother, and sister. " As March finds a difficulty (says Williams) in separating her from that rascally garlic tribe, whose very existence depends on her beauty, I do not think he means to make her what our friend the countess (the Rena) was." In another place " March goes on but heavily with his poor child (she was only fifteen). He looks miserable, and yet he takes her off in her opera-dress every night in his chariot." Numerous allusions, in these volumes, show that Lord March was not devoid of taste for female so- ciety of a better order. He is repeatedly spoken of as about to marry this or that young lady of quality; and Wraxall says that he cherished an ardent passion for Miss Pelham, the daughter of the minister, who persevered in refusing his consent to their union on account of the dissipated habits of the peer. He died unmarried, and continued his libertine habits till his death. During the first ten years of the present century, " Old Q.," as he was popularly called, might HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 187 constantly be seen in the bow-window of his house in Piccadilly (now divided into the two houses occupied by Lord Cadogan and Lord Rosebery), examining the street passengers through an eyeglass with his re- maining eye (it was currently stated that the other was of glass), and when a woman or a horse struck his fancy, an emissary was instantly despatched to make inquiries. That no time might be lost, a pony was always kept saddled for the purpose. " It is a fact," says Wraxall, "that he performed in his own draw- ino:-room the scene of Paris and the o;oddesses. This classic exhibition took place in his house opposite the Green Park." We do not believe that any exhibition took place at all — founding our scepticism more on the folly than the vice ; yet it is melancholy to think to what human nature may be degraded by sensuality. A striking illustration of his shrewdness was given by Lord Brougham, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee on Lord Campbell's Libel Bill : — " The late Duke of Queensberry was a great alarmist in 1792, like many other very noble, very rich, and very honourable men. He thought there was an end of all things, and he used to be abusing principally the seditious writers of the day, giving them and their authors ill names in great abundance and variety, as infamous, detestable, abominable — when one day some toad-eater who attended his person, added, ' Ay, indeed, and full of such falsehoods.' ' No,' said the duke, ' not falsehoods — they are all so true ; that is what makes them so abominable and so dangerous.' If his grace had felt all that was said on the corruptions of parliament and office to be groundless, he would have let them write on in the same strain to the end of time." A characteristic trait has been preserved by Mr. Wilberforce : — " I always observe that the owners of your grand houses have some snug corner in which 188 GEORGE SELWYN : they are glad to shelter themselves from their own magnificence. I remember dining, when I was a young man, with the Duke of Queensberry, at his l! Richmond villa. The party was very small and select — Pitt, Lord and Lady Chatham, the Duchess of ■ Gordon, and George Selwyn (who lived for society, I and continued in it till he looked really like the wax- work figure of a corpse), were amongst the guests. We dined early, tliat some of our party might be ready to attend the opera. The dinner was sumptuous, the views from the villa quite enchanting, and the Thames in all its glory ; but the duke looked on with in- difference. ' What is there,' he said, ' to make so much of in the Thames? I am quite tired of it — there it goes, flow, flow, flow, always the same.' " This is precisely what we should have expected from the Duke ; and no one was better qualified than Mr. Wilberforce to explain why the glorious scene before them was a sealed book to the worn volup- tuary — why his spirit's eye was blind to it — why every simple, innocent, unforced gratification was denied to him — wdiy the full enjoyment of natural beauty and sublimity is reserved for men of purer lives and higher minds than his. The Duke's notions of comfort, on which his opinion was worth having, were expressed in a letter to Selwyn : — "I wish you were here (the place is not stated). It is just the house you would wish to be in. There is an excellent library ; a good parson ; the best English and French cookery you ever tasted ; strong coffee, and half-crown whist." It has been stated that he paid his physicians on the j)lan adopted by the Chinese emperors — so much per week for keeping him alive. If so, he cheated them ; for the immediate cause of his death was im- prudence in eating fruit. lie died in 1810, firm and self-possessed. His deathbed was literally covered HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 189 with unopened billets (more than seventy) from women of all classes, which he ordered to be laid on the counterpane as they were brought in. His per- sonal property exceeded a million, and his will, with its twenty-five codicils, was a curious document. lie left 150,000/. and three houses to Mie Mie, and made her husband (the late Marquis of Hertford, a con- genial spirit) his residuary legatee. Selwyn's most intimate friends and frequent corre- spondents, after the Duke, were George James (alias Gilly) AVilliams, and Lord Carlisle. Of Williams, little is known. He Avas the son of Peere Williams, the compiler of three volumes of Chancery cases, highly esteemed by equity lawyers. He was connected by marriage with Lord North, and, in 1774, was appointed Receiver-General of Excise. Selwyn, Edgecumbe, Walpole, and AVilliams used to meet at stated periods at Strawberry Hill, and form what AValpole called his out-of-town party, Gilly 's letters convey a highly favourable impression of his social pleasantry ; and it seems that he soon acquired some reputation as a wit : — " I have desired Lord R. Bertie (he writes in 1751) to propose me at White's. Don't let any member shake his head at me for a wit ; for, God knows, he may as well reject me for being a giant." Frederick, fifth earl of Carlisle, was a remarkable man in many ways. He filled some important public situations with credit ; and, on his being appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, his intimate friend, Storer, writes — " I wish he was Secretary of State. It is a joke to think it too high a step. I am of the old King's opinion, that a man in this country is jit for any place he can get^ and I am sure Carlisle will be fit for any place he will take." In literature, he distinguished himself as a poet ; but unluckily he is principally known in that capacity 190 GEORGE SELWYN: througli Lord Byron, who, in liis English Bards and Scotch Reviewers^ levels twelve unjust und acrimonious lines at him. In the first sketch of the poem, these twelve lines were wanting, and their place was occu- pied by two — " On one alone Apollo deigns to smile, And crowns a new llosconimon in Carlisle." Lord Carlisle had offended his young relation, between the writing and the printing of the poem, by refusino; to introduce him on his takinc;; his seat in the House of Lords. Lord Byron afterwards deeply regretted the injury. There is a beautiful atonement in the third canto of Childe Harold ; and in writing, ^ in 1814, to Mr. Rogers, he thus expresses himself — " Is there any chance or possibility of making it up with Lord Carlisle, as I feel disposed to do anything, reasonable or unreasonable, to effect it ? " In early youth. Lord Carlisle, endowed with warm feelings, a lively fancy, and an excitable disposition, was peculiarly liable to be led astray by the temp- tations which assail young men of rank. In 1769, being then in his twenty-first year, he went abroad, desperately in love with some wedded fair one. She forms the burthen of many a paragraph in his letters to Selwyn ; who, though nearly thirty years older, entered warmly into all his feelings. i( I thought I had got the better of that extravagant passion, but I find I am relapsed again. I tremble at the consequences of the meeting, and yet I have not the courage, even in thought, to oppose its temptations. I shall exert all the firmness I am capable of, which, God knows, is very little, upon that occasion. If I am received with coolness, I shall feel it severely. I shall be miserable if 1 am made too welcome. Good God ! what happiness would I not exchange, to be able to live with her without loving her more than friendship will allow ! Is my picture hung up, or is it in the passage with its face turned to the walla ? " i HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 101 From tlie allusion to the picture, and other indi- cations, it is clear that the mysterious lady (who has given rise to much surmise) was the beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury (7iee Lennox), whom it is said George III. would have married, had he been allowed. His Majesty gave up his own wishes for the good of the country, but the impression remained. Mrs. Pope, the actress, was very like Lady Sarah. On one occasion at the theatre, many years after his marriage, the King turned round to the Queen in a fit of melan- choly abstraction, and said, pointing to Mrs. Pope, " She is like Lady Sarah still." Lord Carlisle got the better of this passion, and married at twenty-two. It Avould have been well for his peace of mind had he been equally successful in getting the better of a still more fatal one for play. Letter after letter is filled with good resolutions, but the infatuation was too strong. The blow came at last : — " July, 1776. " My Dear George. — I have undone myself, and it is to na purpose to conceal from you my abominable madness and follv, though perhaps the particulars may not be known to the rest of the world. I never lost so much in five times as I have done to-night, and am in debt to the house for the ■whole. You may be sure I do not tell you this with an idea that you can be of the least assistance to me ; it is a great deal more than your abilities are equal to. Let me see you, though I shall be ashamed to look at you after your goodness to me." This letter is endorsed by Selwyn, " After the loss of the ten thousand pounds ; " which, following on other losses, appears to have sunk the Earl to the lowest depths of despondency. " I do protest to you, that 1 am so tired of my present manner of passing my time — however I viay he kept in conn- 192 GEORGE selwyn: teyiance hy the number of those of my oivn rank and superior fortune — that I never reflect on it loithout shame. If they will employ inc In any j)art of the world, I will accept the employment ; let it tear me, as It will, from every thing dear to me in this country. * * * " If any of our expectations should be gratified in the winter, I cannot expect anything sufficient to balance the expenses of living in London. If I accept anything, I must attend Parliament — I must live in London. If I am not treated with consideration, I can live here ; if that can be called living, Avhich is wasting the best years of ray life in obscurity : without society to dit^pel the gloom of a northern climate ; left to myself to brood over my follies and indis- cretions ; to see my children deprived of education by those follies and indiscretions ; to be forgotten ; to lose my temper ; to be neglected ; to become cross and morose to-vthose whom I have most reason to love ! Except that the welfare and interest of others depend upon my existence, I should not wish that existence to be of lony dwation." So thought and felt a man apparently possessed of every blessing — youth, health, talent, birth, fortune, connexion, consideration, and domestic ties of the most endearing kind — " Medio de fonte leporum I Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat." The very accident (miscalled advantage) of his position, commends the poisoned chalice to his lips, and the lord of Castle Howard lono;s for death at twenty- seven ! But a truce to reflection till we have introduced another and more memorable subject for it. Lord Carlisle's embarrassments were inextricably mixed up with those of Charles James Fox ; and it can therefore hardly be deemed a digression to turn at once to the passages in these volumes which relate to him. The few letters of his own that occur in them, are principally remarkable for ease and sim- plicity. For example : — HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 193 " Paris, Nov. 1770. " Quantities of cousins visit us ; amongst the rest the Duke of Berwick. What an animal it is ! I supped last night with Lauzun, Fitz-James, and some others, at what they call a Cloh a VAnglaise. It was in a petite maison of Lauzun's. There was Madame Briseau, and two other women. The supper was execrably bad. However, the champagne and tokay were excellent ; notwithstanding which the fools made (hi ponche with bad rum. This club is to meet every Saturday, either here or at Versailles. I am glad to see that we cannot be foolisher in point of imitation than they are." Principally through Selwyn's introduction, Fox was on a familiar footing with Madame du Deffand and her set : — " Madame Geoffrin m'a chante la palbiodie. I dine there to-day ; she inquires after you very much. I have supped at Madame du DefFand's, who asked me if 1 was deja sous la tutele de M. Selvin ? I boasted that I was." In August 23, 1771, he writes: — " I am reading Clarendon, but scarcely get on faster than you did with your Charles the Fifth. I think the style bad, and that he has a good deal of the old woman in his way of thinking, but hate the opposite party so much that it gives one a kind of partiality for himJ'^ Fox's marvellous powers as a debater were re- marked very soon after his first entrance into Parlia- ment. In March, 1770, his delighted father writes to Selwyn : — " You know by this time that your panegyric upon Charles came about an hour after I had wrote mine to you of the 9th. He writes word that upon February the twelfth he spoke very ill. I do not mind that, and when he speaks so well as to be, as Lady Mary says, the wonder of the age, it does not give me so much pleasure as what you, very justly I think, tell mc de son cosur. And yet that may not signify. I have VOL. I. O 194 GEORGE SELWYN : been honest and good-natured, nor can I repent of it ; tliouglr convinced now that honesty is not tlie best policy, and that good-nature does not meet with the return it ought to do." It may be doubted whether his lordship had tried honesty long or steadily enough to qualify him for disputing the received doctrine on the strength of his personal experience. It appears from a letter addressed by Lord Carlisle to Lady Holland (Fox's mother) in 1773, that he had become security for Fox to the amount of fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds ; and a letter to Selwyn, in 1777, puts the ruinous character of their gambling transactions in the strons-est lisiht. Lord Ilchester (Fox's cousin) had lost thirteen thousand" pounds at one sitting to Lord Carlisle, who oiFered to take three thousand pounds down. Nothing was paid ; but ten years afterwards, when Lord Carlisle pressed for his money, he complains that an attempt was made to construe the offer into a remission of the ten thou- sand pounds; — " The only way, in honour, that Lord I. could have accepted my offer, would have been by taking some steps to pay the 3000/. I remained in a state of uncertainty, I think, for nearly three years ; but his taking no notice of it during that time convinced me that he had no intention of availing himself of it. Charles Fox was also at a much earlier period clear that he never meant to accept it. There is also great justice in the behaviour of the family in passing by the in- stantaneous payment of, I believe, five thousand pounds to Charles, won at the same sitting, without any observations. At one period of the play, I remember there teas a balance in favour of one of those gentlemen, but of which I protest I do not remember, of about Jifty thousand.^^ At the time in question, Fox was hardly eighteen. The following letter from Lord Carlisle, written in 1771, contains some highly interesting information HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 195 respecting tlie youthful habits, and ah^eady vast intel- lectual pre-eminence, of the embryo statesman: — " It gives me great pain to hear that Charles begins to be um-easonably impatient at losing. I fear it is the prologue to much fretfulness of temper; for disappointment in raising money, and any serious reflections upon his situation, will (in spite of his affected spirits and dissipation, which sit very well upon Richard) occasion him many disagreeable moments. They will be the more painful, when he reflects that he is not following the natural bent of his genius; for that would lead him to all serious inquiry and laudable pursuits, which he has in some measure neglected, to hear Lord Bolingbroke's ap- plause, and now is obliged to have recourse to it, and play, to hinder him from thinking how he has perverted the ends for which he was born. / believe there never tvas a person yet created who had the faculty of reasoning like him. His judg- ments are never wrong ; his decision is formed quicker than any man^s I ever conversed icith ; and he never seems to mistake hut in his own affairs.'''' Lord Carlisle's fears proved groundless in one re- spect. Fox's sweetness of temper remained with him to the last ; but it is most painful to think how much mankind has lost through his recklessness. There is no saying what might not have been effected by such a man, had he simply followed the example of his great rival in one respect. " We played a good deal at Goosetree's," says AVilberforce, " and I well remem- ber the intense earnestness which Pitt displayed when joining in these games of chance. He perceived their increasing fascination, and soon after abandoned it for ever." AVilberforce's own cure is thus recorded by his biographers, on the authority of his private Journal: — "We can have no play to-night," com- plained some of the party at the club, " for St. Andrew is not here to keep bank. ' Wilberforce,' said Mr. Bankes, who never joined himself, 'if j^ou will keep it, I will give you a guinea.' The playful challenge was accepted, but as the game grew deep, o 2 196 GEORGE SELWYN : he rose the winner of 600/. ]\Iuch of this was lost by those who were only heirs to future fortunes, and could not therefore meet such a call without incon- venience. The pain he felt at their annoyance cured him of a taste which seemed but too likely to become predominant." Goosetree's being then almost exclusively composed of incipient orators and embryo statesmen, the call for a gaming-table there may be regarded as a deci- sive proof of the universal prevalence of the vice. But most of these were the friends and followers of Pitt; and when his star gained the ascendant, idleness was no longer the order of the day among politicians, and rising young men gave up faro and ^hazard for Blackstone and Adam Smith. We know of no can- didate for high office, entering public life after 1784, who did not affect prudence and propriety ; and pro- bably we shall never again see a parliamentary leader aspire, like Bolingbroke, " To shine a Tully and a Wilmot too." Gaming, however, continued a blot on our manners and morals for many years afterwards ; and it may not be uninstructive to trace its progress and decline. During the whole of the last century, gaming of some sort was an ordinary amusement for both sexes in the best society. In General Burgoyne's play of "The Heiress," Mrs. Blandish exclaims — "Time thrown away in the country ! as if women of fashion left London to turn freckled shepherdesses ! No, no ; cards, cards and backs^ammon, are the delisfhts of rural life ; and, slightly as you may think of my skill, at the year's end I am no inconsiderable sharer in the pin-money of my society." Till near the commence- ment of the present, the favourite game was faro ; and, as it was a decided advantage to hold the Bank, masters and mistresses of noble houses, less scrupulous HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 197 than Wilberforce, frequently volunteered to fleece and amuse their company. But scandal having made busy with the names of some of them, it became usual to hire a professed gamester at five or ten guineas a night to set up a table for the evening, as we should hire Lablache for a concert, or Weippert for a ball. Faro gradually dropped out of fashion ; macao took its place : hazard was never wanting, and whist began to be played for stakes which would have satisfied Fox himself; who, though it was calculated that he might have netted four or five thousand a year by games of skill, complained that they afforded no excitement. Watier's club, in Piccadilly, was the resort of the macao-players. It was kept by an old maltre cVhutel of George the Fourth, a character in his way, who took a just pride in the cookery and wines of his establishment. All the brilliant stars of fashion, (and fashion was power then,) frequented it, with Brummell for their sun. " Poor Brummell dead, in misery and idiotcy, at Caen ! and I remember him in all his glory, cutting his jokes after the opera at White's, in a black velvet great-coat, and a cocked hat on his well-pow- dered head."* Nearly the same turn of reflection is suggested as we run over the names of his associates. Almost all of them were ruined ; three out of four, irretrievably. Indeed, it was the forced expatriation of its supporters that caused the club to be broken up. During the same period (from 1810 to 1815 or there- abouts) there was a great deal of high play at White's and Brookes's, particularly whist. At Brookes's figured some remarkable characters — as Tippoo Smith, by common consent the best whist-player of his day ; and an old gentleman nicknamed Neptune, from his having once flung himself into the sea in a fit of despair at being, as he thought, ruined, lie was fished out in * Private MS. o 3 198 GEORGE SELWYN : time, cast up his betting-book a second time, found lie was not ruined, and played on during the remainder of his life. The most distinguished player at White's was the nobleman who was presented at the Salon in Paris as Le Wellington des Joueurs ; and he richly merited the name, if skill, temper, and the most daring courage, are titles to it. The greatest genius, however, is not infallible. He once lost three thousand four hundred pounds at whist by not remembering that the seven of hearts was in. He played at hazard for the highest stakes that any one could be got to play with him, and at one time was supposed to have won nearly a hundred thousand pounds ; but it all went, along with a great deal more, at Crockford's, There was also a great deal of play at Graham's, the Union, the Cocoa-tree, and other clubs of the second order in point of fashion. Here large sums were hazarded with equal rashness ; and remarkable characters started up. Among the most conspicuous was the late Colonel Aubrey, who literally passed his life at play. He did nothing else, morning, noon, and night ; and it was computed that he had paid more than sixty thousand pounds for card-money. He was a very fine player at all games, and a shrewd, clever man. He had been twice to India, and made two fortunes. It was said that he lost the first on his way home, transferred himself from one ship to f another without landing, went back, and made the \ second. His life was a continual alternation between \ poverty and wealth ; and he used to say, the greatest pleasure in life is winning at cards — the next greatest, losing. For several years deep play went on at all these clubs — fluctuating both as to locality and amount — till by degrees it began to flag. It had got to a low ebb when Crockford came to London, and laid the HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 199 foundation of the most colossal fortune that was ever made by play. He began by taking Watier's old club- house, in partnership Avith a man named Taylor. They set up a hazard-bank, and won a great deal of money, but quarrelled and separated at the end of the first year. Taylor continued where he was, had a bad year, and broke. Crockford removed to St. James's Street, had a good year, and instantly set about build- ing the magnificent club-house which bore his name. It rose like a creation of Aladdin's lamp; and the genii themselves could hardly have surpassed the beauty of the internal decorations, or have furnished a more accomplished maitre cVhotel than Ude. To make the company as select as possible, the establish- ment was regularly organised as a club, and the election of members vested in a committee. " Crock- ford's " became the rage, and the votaries of fashion, whether they liked play or not, hastened to enrol themselves. The Duke of Wellino;ton was an orio-inal member, although (unlike Blucher, who repeatedly lost everything he had at play) the Great Captain was never known to play deep at any game except war or politics. Card-tables were regularly placed, and whist was played occasionally ; but the aim, end, and final cause of the whole was the hazard-bank, at which the proprietor took his nightly stand, prepared for all comers. There was a recognised limit, at which (after losing a certain sum) he might declare the bank broke for the night ; but he knew his busi- ness too well to stop. The speculation, it is hardly necessary to add, was eminently successful. During several years, every- thing tliat any body had to lose and cared to risk, was swallowed up. Le Wellington des Joueurs lost twenty-three thousand pounds at a sitting, beginning at twelve at night, and ending at seven the following evening. He and three other noblemen could not o 4 200 GEORGE SELWYN: have lost less, sooner or later, than a hundred thou- sand pounds a-piece. Others lost in proportion (or out of proportion) to their means; but we leave it to less occupied moralists and better calculators to say, how many ruined families went to make Mr. Crockford a millionaire — for a millionaire he became in the English sense of the term, after making the largest possible allowance for bad debts. A vast sum, per- haps half a million, remained due to him ; but as he won all his debtors were able to raise, and easy credit was the most fatal of his lures *, we cannot make up our minds to condole with him on that account. He retired at length — lassatus non satiatus — much as an Indian chief retires from a hunting country when there is not game enough left for his tribe ; and the club has been broken up. Some good was certainly produced by it. In the first place, private gambling (between gentleman and gentleman) with its degrading incidents, as illustrated by the foregoing letters, is no longer tolerated in society. In the second place, this very circumstance brings the worst part of the practice within the reach of the law ; for public gambling, which only exists by and through what are popularly termed " hells," may be easily suppressed. There are, or recently were, more than twenty of these establishments in Pall-Mall, Piccadilly, and St. James's, called into ex- istence by Crockford's success. AVhy does not the police interfere ? If the police cannot, why does not the legislature ? Not an hour should be lost in putting * Brookes was equally accommodating: — " From liberal Brookes, whose speculative skill Is hasty credit and a distant bill ; Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade, Exults to trust, and blushes to be paid." — Verses, From the Hon. Charles James Fox, partridge-shooting, to the Hon, John l^ownshend, cruising ; by Tiekell. i HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 201 down this monstrous evil. We claim to be superior in morals and public order to the French ; yet all the public gaming-tables of Paris were suppressed several years ago, and (what is more) suppressed without difficulty, the moment the police set to work in good earnest.* In conclusion, we are happy to say that the com- parison, suggested by Selwyn's life and letters, be- tween the manners and morals of the last century and our own, is highly satisfactory. Intellectual tastes have nearly superseded the necessity, formerly felt by the unoccupied classes, of resorting to coarse indulgences or strong excitements ; and respect for public opinion induces those among them who con- tinue unreclaimed, to conceal their transgressions from the world. It is also worthy of note, that the few persons of noble birth or high connexion who have recently attracted attention by their laxity, are professed votaries of (what they call) pleasure ; and are no longer encouraged by the example, or elevated by the companionship, of men distinguished in the senate, the cabinet, or the court. No Prime Minister escorts a woman of the town through the Crush-room of the Opera ; no First Lord of the Admiralty per- mits his mistress to do the honours of his house, or weeps over her in the columns of the " Morning Post ;" no Lord of the Bedchamber starts for New- market with a danseuse in his carriage, and her whole family in his train ; our parliamentary leaders do not dissipate their best energies at the gaming-table ; our privy councillors do not attend cock-fights ; and, among the many calumnies levelled at our public men, they have not been accused (as General Bur- * since this was written, the most uotorious London establishments have been suppressed. 202 GEORGE SELWYN : gojne was by Junius) of lying in wait for inex- perienced lads to plunder at play. Though the signs are less marked, the improve- ment in the female aristocracy is not less certain ; for it may safely be taken for granted that the practice of gambling was fraught with the worst consequences to the finest feelings and best qualities of the sex. The chief danger is hinted at in " The Provoked Husband." ^^ Lord Townley. — 'Tis not your ill hours that al- ways disturb me, but as often the ill company that occasion those hours. '"'' Lady Townley. — Sure I don't understand you now, my Lord. What ill company do I keep V ''''Lord Toionley. — Why, at best, women that lose their money, and men that win it ; or perhaps men that are voluntary bubbles at 07ie game, in hopes a lady will give them fair play at another." The facts confirm the theory. AValpole's Letters, and the volumes before us, teem with allusions to proved or understood cases of matrimonial infidelity ; and the manner in which notorious irregularities were brazened out, shows that the oflfenders did not always encounter the universal reprobation of society. ]\Iiss Berry, speaking of the Duchess of Norfolk's divorce in 1697, observes: — " Many circumstances of this lady's case show how much the ordinary habits of life were overstepped, and what precautions were thought necessary pre- vious to such misconduct. A house taken at Lam- beth, then a small and little frequented village, whose nearest communication with W^estminster was by a horse-ferr}^ — this house, hired and resorted to under feigned names, and occupied by foreign servants, who it was supposed could not identify the lady, are not measures taken in a covmtry where the crime they I HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 203 were meant to conceal was frequent." {England and France^ vol. i. p. 297.) This test would be fatal to the female nobility of England half a century later ; for many of them took no pains whatever to conceal their immoralities. We are obliged, from obvious motives, to refrain from mentioning some conclusive instances ; but it is notorious that Lady Vane gave Smollett the mate- rials for the Memoirs of a Lady of Quality (herself) published in " Peregrine Pickle ;" that Lady Towns- bend sat (perhaps not so willingly) for the portrait of Lady Bellaston in " Tom Jones ;" and we can hardly do wrong in copying a note which Lord Dover has annexed to the name of a Miss Edwards in his edition of Walpole's Letters : — " Miss Edwards, an unmarried lady of great fortune, who (1742) openly kept Lord A. Hamilton." Gilly Williams mentions a caprice of a more re- spectable kind, which was far from uncommon at the period : — " Lord Rockingham's youngest sister has just married her footman, John Sturgeon. Surely he is the very first of that name that ever had a lliglit Honourable attached to it. I made the Duchess of Bedford laugh yesterday with the story of Lord March's handsome Jack wanting to go to live Avith Lady Harrington." " The girls talk of nothing but the match between Lord Rockingham's sister and her footman. Never so much and discretion met together; for she has entailed her fortune with as much circumspection as Lord Mansfield could have done, and has not left one cranny of the law unstopi)ed. They used to pass many hours together, which she called teaching John the mathematics." o Another unmarried woman of quality, the daughter of an earl, had ruined herself at play, and was on her road to the Continent, to avoid being arrested by her I 204 GEORGE SELWYN : creditors. At Sittingbouriio, where slie stopped to change horses, a bright idea struck her. She called in the postilion, and asked him if he had any objection to a wife who would allow him fifty pounds a year, pro- vided he would never claim the privilege of a hus- band. The bargain was speedily struck. They were legally married witli all practicable despatch ; and when legal proceedings were taken against her, she pleaded coverture. Unless John was a very unapt scholar, he must soon have become as worthy an object of a lady's favour, so far as mental culture was concerned, as Sir John Germaine, who, after occasioning the Duchess of Norfolk's divorce, married a noble heiress, Lady Betty Berkeley, and lived till the middle of the last century. Miss Berry tells us that he actually left a legacy to Sir Matthew Decker, under a belief that he was the author of the Gospel of St. Matthew ! It has been thought by some that we have lost in I spirit and grace what we have gained in decency, and that society is no longer so gay, easy, accomplished, or even literary, as it used to be. Miss Berry, though she commends the fashion which encouraged occupa- tion and mental acquirements, cannot refrain from a sly sarcasm at the " new prodigies who were already great orators at Eton, and profound politicians before they left Christchurch or Trinity," — the gentlemen to whom " it was easier to be foolishly bustling than seriously employed ; " and IMr. Moore maintains a yet more startling doctrine. *' AYithout any disparagement of the many and useful talents which are at present nowhere more conspicuous than in the upper ranks of society, it may be owned that for wit, social powers, and literary accomplishments, the political men of the period under consideration (1780) formed such an assemblage as it would be flattery to say that our own times can parallel. The natural tendency of the French Revolu- HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 205 tion was to produce in the higher classes of England an in- creased reserve of manner, and of course a proportionate restraint on all within their circle, which have been fatal to conviviality and humour, and not very propitious to wit — subduing both manners and conversation to a sort of polished level, to rise above which is often thought almost as vulgar as to sink below it. Of the greater ease of manners that existed some forty or fifty years ago, one trifling but not the less significant indication was the habit then prevalent among men of high station, of calling each other by such familiar names as Dick, Jack, Tom, &c. &c. — a mode of address that brings with it in its very sound the notion of conviviality and playfulness, and, however unrefined, implies at least that ease and sea-room in which wit spreads its canvas most fear- lessly." (^Life of Sheridan.^ We differ with unfeigned reluctance from Mr. Moore ; but he is surely mistaken in supposing that the higher classes in England have contracted an increased reserve of manner in consequence of the French Revolution ; or shown more anxiety on that account to intrench themselves within the privileges of their rank. On the contrary, the tendency of that event, and of our own Reform Bill, was and is to make them more anxious to identify themselves in feeling and interest Avith the people. If they have ceased to be familiar, it is because they have ceased to be exclusive ; restraint is necessary, because society is mixed ; and there is no reason why men of rank should change their mode of address to men of rank, except that they live less with one another and more with the world at large. The very peculiarity in question was observed by Mrs. TroUope in the most exclusive coterie in Europe, the crcme de la crenie of Vienna. "All the ladies address each other by their Christian names, and you may pass even- ing after evening surrounded by Princesses and Countesses, without ever hearing any other appella- tions than Therese, Flora, Laura, or Pepe." 20G GEORGE selwyn: This may be very agreeable for the privileged few, and we readily admit that intimacy is a great pro- moter of humour. Few of Selwyn's hon-mots could have been hazarded at a mixed party. But we are as far as ever from admitting Mr. Moore's proposition in the main. It is not flattery but sober truth to say, that our public men have contracted no reserve beyond that which the voluntary enlargement of their circle has entailed upon them. It would be difficult to contend that they have impaired their social powers by mixing with eminent authors, men of science, and artists, whatever influence these may have exercised upon their wit or humour ; and, even .as regards wit or humour, it would simply be neces- sary to run over a few known names to vindicate our equality in both. Modern conversation is rich with the product of every soil, the spoils of every clime ; and it would be a grave error to suppose that those who contribute most to it seldom meet in intimacy. They meet very often, but they belong to several co-equal and intersecting circles, instead of keeping to one, and making that the sole object of interest. There are signs, moreover, that he who runs may read. It is clear that they talked politics as much as we do ; perhaps more, since their eagerness was so manifest to a Frenchwoman. " Madame de Boufflers (writes Williams in 1763) is out of patience with our politics, and our ridiculous abuse of every person who either governs or is likely to govern us." This was a serious drawback, but not the most serious. Selwyn's principal correspondents were not dandies and fine ladies, but the most cultivated men and women of the highest class ; including several on whom Mr. Moore would rely, if we came to a division on the question. The masterpieces of English light literature, and several other standard works, appeared during their correspondence. Yet neither Field- HIS LIFE AND TBIES. 207 ing, Richardson, Smollett, Gray, Goldsmith, Flume, Robertson, Johnson, Gibbon, nor even Burke, elicits a remark. There is one allusion to Garrick (by Rigby) ; one to Reynolds (by Lord Carlisle) ; and one to Gainsborough (by Gilly Williams), as " the painter by whom, if you remember, we once saw the caricature of old Winchilsea." There was no want of classical acquirement, it is true. Many wrote graceful verses ; and Fox and Walpole had a taste for contemporary literature but Fox kept it to himself for lack of sympathy, and Walpole was ashamed of it. By literature, how= ever, must be understood merely the Belles Lettres ; for Fox confessed late in life that he had never been able to get throus^h " The Wealth of Nations." Familiarity, again, is a great charm, but the habits which are the conditions of its existence beget mono- tony. In Charles the Second's reign, when it was the fashion to go to sea and fight the Dutch, instead of taking lodgings at Melton, or attending battues, Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, tells us in his " Memoirs," that a party of gay, witty, lettered pro- fligates were becalmed on board the Duke of York's ship, and got so tired of one another, that the first care each took on landing was to ascertain where the rest were going, in order to get away from them. We are not aware whether the habitues of White's or Brookes's, seventy or eighty years ago, were ever brought to such a pass ; but we know (and there is no getting over this) that they habitually resorted to the gaming-table — " Unknown to sucli, when sensual pleasures cloy, To fill the languid pause with finer joy." With rare exceptions, the most accomplished per- sons, about to risk more than they can afford to lose, will be found both ill-disposed, and ill-qualified, for 208 GEORGE SELWYN : HIS LIFE AND TIMES. the easy equable enjoyment of conversation ; althongh (with the aid of wine) they may have their occa- sional bursts of sparkling pleasantry. To sum up all — there is a halo floating over cer- tain periods ; dazzling associations may cluster round a name : " 'tis distance lends enchantment to the view;" and living witnesses who have known both generations, will always, by a law of our nature, award the palm to the companions of their youth. But it will require stronger arguments than have been adduced yet, to convince us that the social powers of any class have fallen off, whilst morality, taste, knowledge, general freedom of intercourse and liberality of opinion, have been advancing ; or that the mind necessarily loses any portion of its play- fulness, when it quits the enervating atmosphere of idleness and dissipation for the purer air and brighter skies of Art, Literature and Philosophy. 209 LORD CHESTERFIELD. (From the Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1845.) The Letters of Philip Dormer , Earl of Chesterfield : includ- ing numerous Letters now first published from the original Manuscripts. Edited, with Notes, by Lord Mahon. 4 vols. 8 vo. London: 1845. The name of Chesterfield has become a synonyme for good breeding and politeness. It is associated in our minds with all that is graceful in manner and cold in heart, attractive in appearance and unamiable in reality. The image it calls up is that of a man rather below the middle height, in a court suit and blue riband, with regular features, wearing an habitual expression of gentlemanlike ease. His address is insinuating, his bow perfect, his compliments rival those of Le Grand Monarque in delicacy : laughter is too demonstrative for him, but the smile of courtesy is ever on his lip ; and by the time he has gone through the circle, the avowed object of his daily ambition is accomplished — all the women are already half in love with him, and every man is desirous to be his friend. But the name recalls little or nothing of the statesman, the orator, the wit. We forget that this same little man was one of the best Lords-Lieutenant Ireland ever knew, the best speaker in the House of Lords till Pitt and Murray entered it, one of our most graceful essayists, and the wittiest man of quality of his time — a time when wit meant something more than pleasantry or sparkle, and men of quality prided themselves on VOL. I. r 210 LORD CHESTERFIELD. having dined in company with Swift, supped at Button's with " the great Mr. Addison," or passed an evening at Pope's villa at Twickenham. Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurce: what would be the feelings of the all-accomplished and eloquent earl himself, were he to wake from the dead and find his reputation resting on his confidential " Letters to his Son ! " He would be little less astonished than Pe- trarch, were he to wake up and find his " Africa " for- gotten, and his " Sonnets " the keystone of his fame. Dr. Johnson has said, that whenever the public think long about a matter, tliey generally think right. Perhaps they do when they are familiar with the facts, and when no twist or warp has baen given to the judgment they found upon them. But the best of Lord Chesterfield was that of Avhich he left no lasting or no easily accessible memorials ; and Dr. Johnson himself gave a warp to the judgment of the public when he said of his lordship, that he was " a lord among wits, and a wit among lords ; " and pro- nounced his famous diatribe against the " Letters " (that they taught the morals of a and the man- ners of a dancing-master) ; although we find him afterw^ards telling Bos well — "1 think it might be made a very pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every young gentleman." The authority of the " Letters " is certainly im- paired by the popular notion entertained of his lord- ship as a mere courtier ; and for this reason a short review of his life will form the best introduc- tion to his writings, which are peculiarly of a class requiring to be read by the light that personal history throws upon them ; — like Rochfoucauld's " Maxims," which it is impossible to appreciate or apply without an intimate knowledge of the men and women of the Fronde. It is, moreover, good for literature to take LORD CHESTERFIELD. 211 retrospective views occasionally of books and cha- racters that have obtained a prescriptive reputation ; and there are passages in Lord Chesterfield's career which deserve to be dwelt upon, independently of their use in illustrating his rules of conduct and speculations on society. We propose, then, with the aid of Dr. Maty and Lord Mahon, to bring this ornament of his order once more before that public for which he loved to drape himself — to sift his claims, and settle definitively his place and precedence as a writer, a moralist, and a man. The " Memoir of the Life of the Earl of Chester- field," which occupies the whole of the first volume of the edition of his miscellaneous works published in 1777, consists of six sections. The first five were written by Dr. Maty ; the sixth by Mr. Justamond, who, on Dr. Maty's death, took charge of the pub- lication. This Memoir is a tolerably fair specimen of second-rate biography. Lord Mahon has contented himself with prefixing to his edition of the " Letters " the sketch of Lord Chesterfield's life and character published in his (Lord Mahon's) "History of England." * It is so well written that we could wish it had been longer. Lord Mahon, himself a Stanhope, has of course enjoyed ample opportunities of making his edition complete. He says he had two objects in view — to combine the scattered correspondence in one uniform arrangement, with explanatory notes ; and to publish many cha- racteristic letters which liad been kept back. He has succeeded in both objects; the new matter is valuable, the arrangement is judicious, and the only fault that can reasonably be found with the notes is, that they are short and far between. Wa will now proceed to the immediate purpose of this essay. * Sec vol. iii. r 2 212 LORD CHESTEUFIELD. The family of Stanhope is one of the best in Eng- land, and boasts three peerages, Chesterfield, Stan- hope, and Harrington. The date of the earldom of Chesterfield is 1628. The first earl, a devoted Royalist, died in 1G56, and the title descended to his grandson, the " Milord Chesterfield " who plays so conspicuous a part in Grammont's Memoirs. His son, the father of the earl, was unknoAvn beyond the circles of private life. He is described as a man " of a morose disposition and violent passions, who often thought that people behaved ill to him, when they did not in the least intend it." He married one of the daughters of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, by Avhom he had four sons and two daughter^. She did not live long enough to take charge of their educa- tion, and, in consequence of the unaccountable dis- like or indifference of the father, the care of the eldest devolved on his grandmother, Lady Halifax, a woman of understanding, conduct, and sensibility. Dr. Maty somewhat magniloquently compares her house to that of the mother of the Gracchi; and it was, undoubtedly, the resort of the leading politicians and the best company, from whom much might be learnt by so apt a scholar and nice observer as Lord Chester- field. "Pie was very young" (says Dr. Maty) "when Lord Gal way — who, though not a very fortunate general, was a man of uncommon penetration and merit, and who often visited the Marchioness of Hali- fax — observing in him a strong inclination for a political life, but at the same time an unconquerable taste for pleasure, with some tincture of laziness, gave him the following advice — ' If you intend to be a man of business, you must be an early riser. In the distinguished posts your parts, rank, and fortune, will entitle you to fill, you will be liable to have visitors at every hour of the day, and unless you will LORD CHESTERFIELD. 218 rise constantly at an early hour, you will never have any leisure to yourself.' " He took the hint, and acted upon it through life ; nor, although liis edu- cation till his eighteenth year was strictly private, does he appear to have ever wanted the spur of emulation, which it is thought the peculiar privilege of a public school to apply. " When I was at your age (eleven) " lie tells his son, " I should have been ashamed if any boy of that age had learned his book better, or played at any play better than I did ; and I should not have rested a moment till I had got before him." In 1712, being then in his eighteenth year, he was entered at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and became a resident member of that university. We are tempted to translate a letter which he wrote in French to his language-master, M. Joumeau, soon after his arrival : — • '' I had a lively pleasure in reading the letter which you were so kind as to write to me It seemed as if you were speaking to me, and that I was in the company of the man in the world I esteem the most, and whom I wish most ardently to please. I should have answered it sooner, had I not been passing this week at the Bishop of Ely's, who lives fifteen miles off. In this short time I have seen more of the country than I had seen before in all my life, and which is very asreeable in this neio;hbourhood. " I continue constant to my studies, which as yet are but Latin and Greek, because the fair, which is to take place in ten days, would have interrupted them ; but as soon as this diversion is over, I am to commence civil law, philosophy, and a little mathematics ; but as for anatomy, it will not be in my power to learn it, for, although there is a poor devil tliat was hanged ready, the surgeon who was wont to perform these operations has ol)jccted this time because the subject is a man, and then he says the students are not desirous to attend. I find this college infinitely the best in the whole university, for it is the smallest, and it is filled with lawyers, who have p 3 I 214 LOUD CIIESTEUFIELD. been in the world, and understand life. fFe have but one clergijman, who is also the only man in the college who gets drunk. Let them say what they will, there is very little debauchery in this university, and particularly among the people of con- dition ; for it would require the taste of a porter to put up with it here." This letter is curious, not merely as giving an insight into the writer's habits, but as showing that, even at this early period, he possessed the same live- liness of remark, light humour, and careless ease of ex- pression, Avhich form the great charm of his "Letters" in more advanced age, and which he himself would probably have attributed to persevering care in the formation of a style. For this reason it is difficult to believe the account he gives of his own tone and manner on leaving the university. " When I first came into the world at nineteen, I left the University of Cambridge, where I was an absolute pedant. When I talked my best I talked Horace ; when I aimed at being facetious I quoted Martial ; and when I had a mind to be a fine gentleman I talked Ovid." Plis object in thus exaggerating his own defects probably was, to show his son what pains could do in overcoming deficiencies. But there is no doubt he studied hard enough to justify afiiir share of pedantry, so far as learning can justify it ; and it seems that he paid particular attention to the great masters of oratory. " So long ago as when I was at Cambridge, whenever I read pieces of eloquence, (and indeed they were my principal study,) whether ancient or modern, I used to write down the shining passages, and then translate them as well and elegantly as ever I could ; if Latin or French, into English ; if English, into French. This, which I practised for some years, not only improved and formed my style, but im- printed in my mind and memory the best thoughts LORD CHESTERFIELD. 215 of the best authors." He remained about two years at Cambridge, and then started on the grand tour, unattended by a Governor. Nothing worth mention- ing is recorded of him by others or himself, till his travels brought him, in the summer of 1714, to the Hague, where, for the first time, he began to play an independent part in society. The love of shining, which he so strongly inculcates, here broke out in a manner which shows it to be not unaccompanied by risk. " When I went abroad, I first went to the Hague, where gaming was much in fashion, and where I observed that many people of shining rank and character gained too. I was then young, and silly enough to believe that gaming was one of their accomplishments; and, as I aimed at perfection, I adopted gaming as a necessary step to it. Thus I acquired by error the habit of a vice, which, far from adorning my character, has, I am conscious, been a great blemish to it." From the Hague he repaired to Paris, where so much of the coUes-e rust as still stuck to him was rapidly rubbed off. In December, 1714, he writes to M. Joumeau : — "I shall not give you my opi- nion of the French, because I am very often taken for one, and many a Frenchman has paid me the highest compliment they think they can pay to any one, which is — Sir, you are just like one of us. I will merely tell you that I am insolent ; that I talk much, very loud, and in a dogmatical tone. I sing and dance as I walk ; and lastly, that I spend a mon- strous deal of money in powder, feathers, and white gloves." — He afterwards thought better of the French ; and, like Marlow in "She Stoops to Conquer," he must have kept his loud talking and gay rattle for the coifee-house and the barmaid ; for on his first arrival at Paris he sufiered under a most pitiable de- gree of mauvaise honte in the drawing-room. r 4 216 LOKD CHESTERFIELD. — " I got more courage soon afterwards, and was intrepid enough to go up to a fine woman, and tell her that I thought it a warm day; she answered me very civilly, that she thought so too ; upon which the conversation ceased on my part for some time, till she, good-naturedly resuming, spoke to me thus : ' I see your embarrassment, and I am sure the few words you said to me cost you a great deal ; but do not be discouraged for that reason, and avoid good company. We see that you desire to please, and that is the main point ; you want only the manner, and you think that you want it still more than you do. You must go through your novitiate before you can profess good breeding ; and, if you will be my novice, I will present you to my acquaintance as such.' You will easily imagine how much this speech pleased me, and how awkwardly I answered it; I hemmed once or twice (for it gave me a burr in my throat) before I could tell her that I was vei'y much obliged to her ; that it was true I had a great deal of reason to distrust my own behaviour, not being used to fine company ; and that I should be proud of being her novice and receiving her instructions. As soon as I had fumbled out this answer, she called up three or four people to her, and said Sgavez-vous (for she was a foreigner, and I was abroad), guefai entrepris cejeune homme et quHl le faut r assurer ? Pour moi, je crois en avoir fait la conquete^ car il s^est emancipe dans le moment au point de me dire en tremblant quHl faisoit chaud. H faut que vous m^aidiez a le derouiller. II lui faut necessairement une passion, et s'il ne m^en juge pas digne, nous lui en cherchercns quelque autre. Au Teste, mon novice, n''allez pas vous encanailler avec des Jilles d'' opera et des comediennes, qui vous dpargneront lesfrais et du sentiment et de la jjolitessc, mais qui vous en couteront Lien plus a tout autre egard^^ The death of Queen Anne opened a new career for every young man of an ambitious turn of mind, and Lord Stanhope (for this was his title till the death of his father in 1720) hurried home to assist in strengthening the new dynasty. He entered public life under the auspices of his relative, the first Earl Stanhope, the fjivourite minister of George I., who immediately appointed him one of the gentlemen of LORD CHESTEKFIELD. 217 the bed-chamber to the Prince of Wales — a post well suited to his apje and habits. It gave him an oppor- tunity of observing the manners of a court ; and his " Characters," as well as numerous remarks scattered through his " Letters," show that he made an excellent use of it. He entered the House of Commons as member for St. Germains in the first parliament of George I., and lost no time in trying the efficacy of the system of training to which he had for years subjected himself with the view of becoming an orator. He spoke for the first time in support of the proposed impeachment of the Duke of Ormond, and attracted some attention by the decided tone of his opinions, as well as by the fluency of his declamation. But he had hardly done speaking when one of the opposite party took him on one side, paid him a high compliment on his debut, and reminded him that, as he still wanted six weeks of being of age, he was liable to a heavy penalty for sitting or voting in the House, and must immediately absent himself for a brief interval, unless he wished his minority to be made known. Lord Stanhope made the gentleman a low bow, quitted the House directly without voting, and went to Paris, where he rendered himself extremely useful in procuring in- formation regarding the Jacobite rising in 1715. On his return the year following, he took frequent part in the debates and proceedings of the House, and had gained sufficient distinction to justify the advance- ment which his friend and rehition the Minister was anxious to confer upon him ; when, unluckily, the Prince's quarrel with the King broke out, and Lord Stanhope remained faithful to the Prince, although some tempting offers were made to him. Among others, it was proposed to make his father a Duke, and the old Earl was extremely angry with him for not closing with the proposal. Lord Stanhope, how- / 218 LORD CHESTERFIELD. ever, does not appear to have gone into systematic opposition ; he occasionally lent his vote to the Government, and in 1723 he was rewarded for coming to their aid on a critical occasion, by being appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. Lord Townshend, his predecessor in the post, advised him to make it more profitable than he himself had done, by disposing of the [)laces. "For once," (was the answer,) "I would rather follow your lordship's example than your advice." He was also offered the red riband on the revival of the Bath in 1725 ; but he thought the order beneath his rank, and was even angry with his younger brother for accepting it. We need hardly say that he was too sensible a man to be indifferent to marks of honour, provided they really carried consideration along with them ; and six years later we find him claiming the Garter from Sir Robert Walpole, with the remark, " I am a man of j^leasure, and the blue riband would add two inches to my height." He probably owed his importance at this time to his rank and connexions, rather than to his powers as a speaker ; for the House of Commons was cer- tainly an uncongenial field for them. He was not fitted either by nature or study for a popular as- sembly. His style Avanted the requisite degree of nerve and muscle, as much as his physical frame. His very taste and refinement were against him ; and it is impossible to conceive a man succeeding in that House, who made it his chief study to avoid giving way to strong excitement or engaging in rough com- petition of any kind. It is also stated by Dr. Maty that there was another cause for his not appearing to advantage there. He is said to have stood in awe of a member who was in the habit of mimicking the tone and action of the more remarkable speakers ; and this is not unlikely, for in his Letter to his God- I LORD CHESTERFIELD. 219 son he remarks, that " ridicule, thongli not founded upon truth, will stick for some time, and if thrown by a skilful hand, perhaps for ever." // 7i'y a rien qui tue comme un ridicule. I... The death of his father, in 1728, at length placed him in a more appropriate sphere of action. The House of Lords at that period filled a very different position from what it does at present ; and the fate of governments hung upon its debates and divisions nearly as often as on those of the House of Commons. Eighty or a hundred peers were not an unusual attendance, when the peerage was not much more than half as numerous as at present ; but the cha- racter of the audience differed essentially from that of the representative body. Here Lord Chesterfield's high-bred ease, delicate irony, fine humour, persuasive tones, and gracefully flowing periods, were appre- ciated ; no unmannerly interruption or coarse freedom would liave been endured ; and his total want of those energetic bursts and impulsive movements, which are inseparable from the highest efforts of eloquence, was deemed rather a merit than a defect ; for even Chatham, when he put forth his strength, has been known to ruflfle their lordships' complacency, and was sometimes accused of compromising the dignity of their House. Lord Chesterfield particularly excelled in that graceful and urbane pleasantry which lightens up and relieves an argument, without appearing to trifle with the subject or ever degenerating into what he would term the vulgarity of a joke ; and many of the best political as well as social repartees of his times are attributed to him. It was nearly five years, however, after his acces- sion to the peernge when he became one of the ac- knowledged leaders of the Upper House. George the First died in 1727, and it was then expected tliat Lord Chesterfield would reap the reward of his 220 LORD CHESTERFIELD. constancy to the new king whilst heir-apparent. But, instead of being placed in high office at home, he was despatched on an embassy to the Hague. This post, whatever the intention of the Ministry in sending him there, was well fitted to his abilities, and he con- trived to add considerably to his reputation by means of it. In 1729, Lord Townshend, having formed a plan for removing the Duke of Newcastle, advised Lord Chesterfield to wait on the King at Helvoet- Sluys on his return from Hanover, and desire per- mission to attend his ]\Iajesty to London on account of private business. This was done in the hope that the King might be won over by the charm of the Earl's conversation, and be prepared to appoint him in the Duke's place. The stratagem failed : Lord Townshend was forced to resign ; and Lord Chester- field went back to his embassy, after impressing Sir Robert Walpole so effectually with his entire inno- cence of the plot, and with the prudence of keeping well with him, as to obtain the place of High Steward and the Garter. His predecessor in the place, who was suspected of having made money by the patronage attached to it, gave him a list of the persons he had appointed, and desired they might be continued. "I have at present no thoughts of turning any one out," was the answer ; " but if I alter my mind, it will only be in relation to those who have bought in." Lord Chesterfield remained abroad till 1732, when he gave up his embassy. He had suffered both in health and fortune during his residence at the Hague, and it took him some months to o-ain streno^th enouo:h to resume his parliamentary attendance, which now became unremitting. He at first supported the minis- ters, but was too fond of his own independence to fulfil the conditions which Sir Robert Walpole ex- acted from his adherents ; and their friendship was consequently short-lived. On the introduction of the II LORD CHESTERFIELD. 221 famous Excise Bill, Lord Chesterfield denounced the scheme in the strongest terms, and his three brothers voted against it in the House of Commons. So high was the popular excitement, that when Queen Caro- line consulted Lord Scarborough as to the possibility of carrying the bill, he is reported to have told her that he could answer for his regiment against the Pretender, but not against the opposers of the excise ; upon which the Queen, with tears in her eyes, said, " Then we must drop it." The Ministry was in im- minent danger, and was only saved by the tact of the Premier in yielding willow-like to the storm. It was not at such a season that he could afford to make a show of magnanimity. Lord Chesterfield was sum- marily dismissed from his office of Lord Steward, and the ministerial papers fell upon him wuth more than usual asperity. One writer in a leading govern- ment print went the length of insinuating, that reasons for the removal unconnected with politics might be disclosed, if it were not dangerous to speak such truths of a peer as might be deemed scandalum niag- natum. Lord Chesterfield met and silenced this at- tack by a message to the anonymous writer, formally authorising him to say all he knew or what he pleased of him. During the next two years Lord Chesterfield was one of the leaders of the opposition in the House of Lords, and left no means untried to effect the down- fall of the minister who had insulted him. Dr. Maty tells a curious story in illustration of his zeal : — " The late Lord R , with many good qualities, and even learning and parts, had a strong desire of being thought skilful in physic, and was very expert in bleeding. Lord Chesterfield, who knew his foible, and on a particular occasion wished to have his vote, came to him one morning, and, after having con- 222 LORD CHESTERFIELD. versed upon indifferent matters, complained of the headache, and desired his lordship to feel his pulse. It was found to beat high, and a hint of losing blood given. ' I have no objection ; and, as I hear your lordship has a masterly hand, will you favour me with trying your lancet upon me ? Apropos^^ said Lord Chesterfield after the operation, ' do you go to the House to-day ? ' Lord R answered, ' I did not intend to go, not being sufficiently informed of the question which is to be debated ; but you who have considered it, which side will you be of ? ' The Earl having gained his confidence, easily directed his judgment; he carried him to the House, and got him to vote as he pleased. He used afterwards to say, that none of his friends had done so much as he, having literally bled for the good of his country." Though Lord Chesterfield contributed largely to the downfall of the Minister, he was left out of the new government, which lost considerabl}' in public confidence for want of him. Li " An Ode to a Great Number of Great Men, lately made," he is thus apostrophised in company with his friend, John Duke of Argyll : — " More changes, better times, this isle Demands. Oh, Chesterfield, Argyll ! To bleeding Britain bring 'em : Unite all hearts, appease each storm ; 'Tis yours such actions to perform, My pride shall be to sing 'em." He continued in opposition, and on more than one occasion (as on commenting on the want of conduct^ as contradistinguished from behaviour^ at Dettingen) ga\i8 such strong personal offence to George IL, that his exclusion from public employment might have proved permanent, could his services have been dis- pensed with. Li 1744, however, the King was obliged to give up his favourite minister, Lord Carteret, and LOUD CHESTERFIELD. 223 to accept the coalition or " broad-bottom " party, at tlie head of which was Lord Chesterfield. The state of affairs abroad being just then the main difficulty, and the co-operation of the Dutch of vital importance, it was arranged that he should go first to Holland as Ambassador, and then to Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant ; a plan in which the King acquiesced the more readily on account of its removing his supposed enemy from court. His Majesty stood out for some time against admitting the Earl into the cabinet, or granting him a personal interview, but was compelled to concede both points, and could only show his resentment by his manner, which he took care to make as ungracious as possible. The only words he uttered at the leave- taking audience, when the Earl requested to be honoured with his commands, were, " You have received your instructions^ my Lord^ The Earl succeeded tolerably well with his old friends their High Mightinesses ; but we have no space to dwell upon this mission or its effects, and gladly hasten with him to L'eland, where he arrived towards the end of the year 1745 — a most trying period for a new Lord-Lieutenant, as the Catholics were hourly expected to take arms to co-operate with the Pretender. It is impossible to speak too highly of the wise and enlightened policy which he there adopted and enforced. It was immeasurably in ad- vance of his age. Indeed, we should be puzzled to name any other English statesman, till we come to Burke, capable of conceiving such a scheme of go- vernment ; mucli less of carrying it into effect with firmness, impartiality, and disinterestedness. All his more innnediate predecessors had governed through " managers," i. 0/., the supposed marvel is at an end. Lord Eldon had as fair a start in point of birth and connexion as nineteen out of twenty of his contemporaries. So (with due deference to Sir Robert Peel) had the present Lord Chancellor (Lyndhurst). We do not say this to detract from their merits, but to fix the precise value of the ex- amples they hold up. The Scotts received their school education at the grammar-school of Newcastle. Lord Collingwood was Lord Eldon's class-fellow. " We were placed at that school," said Lord Eldon, " because neither his father nor mine could afford to place us elsewhere." They lay under no disadvantage on that account, and Lord Eldon felt that they did not. He is always eager to do justice to the merits of his old master, the Rev. Mr. Moises, and tells, with evident satisfaction, the anecdote of the king (George HL) expressing his surprise how a naval officer could write so excellent a despatch as that which contained Collingwood's account of the battle of Trafalgar, and suddeidy adding, " but I find he was educated by Moises.'' c c 2 388 LOUD ELDON. The foundation of the two brothers' fortune Avas laid by WiUiam (Lord Stowell), who in his sixteentli year obtained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and followed up this first university success so effectually, that in 1766, when the father wrote to notify an intention of making his j^oungest son a fitter, he was enabled to reply — "Send Jack up to me; 1 can do better for him here." Jack was ac- cordingly matriculated in 1 766, being then fifteen, and the year following elected to a fellowship. As it is not recorded that any competition took place, he was probably the only member of the college duly qualified as to county. He took his bachelor's degree in February 1770. " An examination foY a degree at Oxford," he used to say, " was a farce in my time. I was examined in Hebrew and in History." ' What is the Hebrew for the place of a skull ? ' I replied, ' Golgotha.' ' Who founded University College ? " I stated (though, by the way the point is sometimes doubted) 'that King Alfred founded it.' 'Very well, sir,' said the examiner, ' you are competent for your degree.' " We have consequently no means of ascertaining liow far he became a proficient in the peculiar studies of the place ; but, the year following, he won the Chancellor's prize for the best composition in English prose — the subject being, the " Advantages and Dis- advantages of Foreign Travel." It would be unrea- sonable to expect any depth of thought on such a subject from an untravelled lad, and the essay is never wanting in good sense ; but the stjde is turgid, and the clumsy construction of the sentences would lead us to infer that Mr. Moises had taken less pains with John Scott than with Collingwood, did we not bear in mind how intimately style is connected with cha- racter — le sti/le, c'est Thomme. He who thinks de- cidedly, will write clearly, if not forcibly ; he who I LORD ELDON. 389 lias made np his mind what he is going to say, can say it ; and the difference between Lord Eldon's and Lord Collingwood's mode of writing, is neither more nor less than that which existed to the last between the energetic Seaman and the hesitating Judge. Lord Eldon's style did not improve materially in after life. It ceased to be turgid, but it never ceased to be con- fused and ungrammatical. He might have said of grammar what the 7'oue Due de Richelieu said of spelling — "We quarrelled at the outset of life, and never made up our differences." Mr. Twiss, a man of taste, with probably the Micro- cosm in his recollection, hurries over the subject of the essay, pausing neither for extracts nor commen- dations, but contents himself with recording the de- light with which it was received at Newcastle. It is worthy of note that, five or six years later, the same prize was won by anotlier grejit lawyer. Lord Tenterden, the subject being " The Use and Abuse of Satire." His essay is remarkable for neatness, cor- rectness, and precision, the very qualities by which he was distinguished in tlie courts. A still more successful Oxford prize-man was Mr. Justice Cole- ridge, who won three prizes (including the prize in question) in one year. Cambridge, however, has alwa3^s been the favourite University for embryo lawyers, from a notion that the mathematics are better adapted than classics to prepare the mind for forensic reasoning ; and on running over the list of wranglers and medallists, we cease to wonder that this notion has gained ground. On that list we find, amongmany other less known names, those of Law (the first Lord EUenborough), Copley, Tindal, Littledale, Shadweil, Bickersteth, Pollock, Parke, Alderson, Maule, &c. On the other hand, an equal or greater iHimber of eminent judges and advocates never re- ceived the benefit of an Oxford or Canibridi2;e educa- c c 3 390 LORD ELDON. tion, or made no effort at diistinction there. Ilarcl- wicke, Kenyon, Thiirlow, Dunning, Erskine, Scarlett, Gifford, Shepherd, liomilly, FoUett, with ahnost all the undisputed leaders of the profession in England at the present moment, belong to one or the other of these two categories. It is, therefore, quite im- possible to deduce any general rule from the ex- amples ; and those who lay much stress on college honours as an earnest of future eminence, as well as those who make light of them as an indication, are equally at fault. Neither at school or college was Lord Eldon one of those demure boys who (as Falstaff says) never come to any proof. He was always fond of a frolic, and used to relate, with great glee, how he aided in cutting down a tree in All-Saints' churchyard, and how often he poached on Lord Abingdon's preserves. He had also no particular liking for work. " I have now (he said late in life) a letter in which Lord Thurlow promised me a commissionership of bank- ruptcy, when it would have been most valuable to me in point of income; he never gave it me, and he always said it was a favour to me to withhold it. What he meant was, that he had learnt (a clear truth) that I was by nature very indolent, and it was only want that could make me very industrious." Some have carried the doctrine still further. " Spend your own fortune, marry, and spend your wife's, and then you will have some chance of suc- ceeding in the law." Kenyon (to whom, as well as Thurlow, this advice has been attributed) and Dun- ning might be cited as practical examples of the stimulating effects of poverty. They used generally (according to Steevens) " to dine together, in vaca- tion time, at a small eating-house near Chancery Lane, where their meal was supplied to them at the charge of sevenpence-halfpenny a-head." Home LORD ELDON. 391 Tooke, who frequently made a third, added, in telling this to Steevens — "Dunning and myself were gene- rous, for we gave the girl who waited on us a penny a-piece ; but Kenyon, who always knew the value of '^monej, rewarded her with a halfpenny, and some- times with a promise." Erskine often spoke of his wife and children twitching at his gown, and con- straining him to exertion. Still, one of the last pro- fessions we should recommend to a young man with- out fortune or connexion, is the law. Assuming (what, in the present state of the profes- sion, is far from clear) that industry and talent will eventually ensure success, considerable expenses must be incurred at the outset, and many years may elapse before a remunerating income can be calculated on. How is the future attorney-general or judge to keep himself during the intervening period without diverg- insT from the course ? The utmost that can be ex- pected is, that he will not imitate the example of a late leader, who used fairly to admit that he had been guilty of sundry breaches of etiquette at start- ing; but excused himself by saying that he left off all improper practices the moment he could afford to do without them. The late Lord Abinger was so strongly impressed with the conviction, that indepen- dence in point of circumstances was requisite, as well to give the candidate a fair chance as to keep up the respectability of the calling, that at one time he had serious tlioughts of proposing a property qualification for barristers. In his opinion, AOOL a-year was the smallest income on which a barrister should begin. He liimself had been a gentleman commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, and when lie joined the Northern Circuit, was already in the possession of a handsome income; but this never lessened his interest in his profession, though it enabled him to follow it on liberal principles. Perhaps the most favourable posi- c c 4 332 LORD ELDON. tion for a young man of any force of character is, to be sure of a small independence, but to have fortune, position, and the luxuries of life to struggle for. As for the self-accusation of indolence, it is not at all unusual to find an extraordinary capacity for mental labour combined with an extreme reluctance to undertake it. Dr. Johnson seldom put pen to paper except to get money when he wanted it. He complained that the setting his mind in motion was always attended with pain, though when it was thoroughly warmed and in full play, the excitement was pleasurable. Perhaps Lord Eldon felt the same ; or, to take a more obvious solution, perhaps Lord Thurlow got up the charge as the best excuse for his own breach of promise ; and Lord Eldon assented to it, without reflecting that all of us are by nature indolent, if this means that we are frequently disin- clined to work. Be this as it may, he took care to provide himself with the stimulant of necessity. Li November 1772, being then twenty-one years and a few months old, he ran away with Miss Surtees, a beautiful girl of eighteen, and married her. Neither of them had a sixpence independent of their parents ; and the mar- riage was equally displeasing to the friends and family of each. " Jack Scott has run off with Bessy Surtees," exclaimed Mr. Moiscs ; " and the poor lad is undone ! " He spoke the opinion of Newcastle. At Oxford, Lord Stowell observed to a friend — " I suppose you have heard of this very foolish act of my very foolish brother ?" The friend expressed a hope that it might turn out better than was anticipated. "Never, sir; he is completely ruined ; nor can any thing now save him from beggary." He was obliged to relinquish his fellowship; but a year of grace remained during which he had the option of accepting any college living that miglit come to his turn. During I LORD ELDON. 39 this year lie began the study of the law, with the view (to use his own words) of having two strings to his bow. But the church " was his first mistress ; " and it was not until all chance of a collcGre livinf!^ iW-as at an end, that he decided " to pursue a pro- fession which had much less of his affection and respect." It is a curious coincidence, that the two greatest Chancery lawyers of their day should both have been forced into the profession by incidental circumstances. Romilly says, that what principally influenced his de- cision was, the being thus enabled to leave his small fortune in his father's hands, instead of buying a sworn clerk's seat with it. " At a later period of my life, after a success at the bar which my wildest and most sanguine dreams had never painted to me — when I was gaining an income of 8000/. or 9000/, a- year — I have often reflected how all that prosperity had arisen out of the pecuniary difficulties and con- fined circumstances of my father." Wedderburn (Lord Loughborough) began as an advocate at the Scotch Bar. In the course of an al- tercation with the Lord President, he was provoked to tell his Lordship that he had said as a judge what he could not justify as a gentleman. Being ordered to make an apology, he refused, and left the Scotch for the English bar. Wha*t every one thought his ruin, turned out the best thing that could happen to him. " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rouj^h hew them how we may." Lord Tenterden's earl}' destination Avas changed by a disappointment. When he and Mr. Justice Richards were going the Home Circuit, they visited the cathedral at Canterbury together. Richards commended the voice of a singing man in the choir. " Ah," said Lord Tenderden, " that is the only man 394 LORD ELDON. I ever envied ! When at school in this town, we were candidates for a chorister's place, and lie ob- tained it." It is now well known that the Duke of Wellington, when a subaltern, was anxious to retire from the army, and actually applied to Lord Camden (then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland) for a commissionership of customs ! It is not always true, then, that men destined to play conspicuous parts in the world, have a consciousness of their coming greatness, or patience to "bide their time." Their hopes grow, as their capacity expands, with circumstances ; honours on honours arise, like Alps on Alps; in ascending one they catch a glimpse of another, till the last and highest, which was veiled in mist when they started, stands out in bold relief against the sky. Lord Eldon certainly had none of those vague pre- sentiments or proud aspirings Avhich made Nelson, when a captain, exclaim that, some time or other, he would have a gazette to himself. He had little if any imagination ; the poetry of his life began and ended with " Bessy." During many months after his sticcess was considered certain by his friends, he meditated settling down as a provincial barrister in Newcastle; and a comfortable house in the High Street was his castle in air. Immediately after the marriage, he writes thus to a friend : — "I have now, Reay, bid adieu to all ambitious projects, because my ambition is gratified. Though a husband, I am still so much of a lover as to think the world well lost while I retain the affections of one woman, the esteem of a few friends, and the good wishes of Reay." This was something more than a mere honeymoon sentiment. A love- match may be either a very silly and selfish action, or a very wise and disinterested one; — the sugges- tion of a passing fancy, or the result of reflection and LORD ELDON. 395 self-knowledge. Lord Eldon tells us, that he had literally no alternative but to act as he did, or live in the hourly apprehension of seeing the only woman who could make him happy forced into a union with '^ -Another ; and as he never repented of his choice, or shrank from the labour or repined at the priva- tions it entailed upon him, it would be doing him a great injustice to regard his marriage as a mere youthful indiscretion, and the beneficial results as accidents. The circumstances of the young couple were slender, but not embarrassed. Besides the interest of 3000/., at five per cent, settled upon them, he had an allowance from his father, and occasional aid from other quarters. Still he had to depend upon his own exertions for everything beyond bare necessaries ; and the consciousness of this drove him into the error, common to men of energetic character, of overtasking both his bodily and mental powers to a degree which nearly proved fatal to all his hopes and projects, and partially counteracted the ver}^ object he had in view. He became so alarmingly ill, that when he and a travelling companion stopped, late at night, at Birmingham, on their way from Newcastle, in 1774, the cook at the Hen and Chickens insisted on dressing something hot for them, saying she was sure they would neither of them live to see her again. A medical friend remonstrated. " It is no matter," was the answer ; " 1 must either do as I am now doing, or starve." We do not see the necessity. A student will learn more in two or three years by judiciously husbanding his strength, than by exhausting it at starting. But this is a truth which no one will con- descend to take at second hand ; and the consequence is, that our seats of learning are strewed with the wrecks of broken constitutions. Lord Eldon had a narrow escape. The y&xv after his call to the bar, he 396 LOKD ELDON. was obliged to consult Dr. Pleberden, who sent liisn to Bath, with an intimation that he must prepare for the worst, unless the waters brought on a fit of the gout within a month. The gout appeared within the allotted period, and he was saved. It is stated by Mr. Townsend, and repeated by Mr. Twiss, that he was in the habit of rising at five in the morning, and studying at night with a wet towel round his head ; not (like Porson) to allay fever, but to prevent drowsiness. No wonder that his spirits lost their elasticity. In 1775 he apologises for not writing to his brother Henry, because he foresaw " that a gloomy strain of melancholy would sully every page of the sheet." Perhaps no two men, — certainly no two men above the common level, ever acquired their knowledge in the same order, or fixed it by the same method in the memory. One reads a book carefully through ; an- other dips into it at random, reads enough to seize the leading idea, or (as Boswell says of Johnson) digs out the heart of it, and throws it by. One likes to begin with the simplest rules or elements, and clear away each difficulty as he goes on ; another prefers plunging into a mass of heterogeneous matter, for tlie pleasure of seeing new lights constantly breaking upon him, and in the firm confidence of eventually emerging somewhere, and of being amply rewarded for his adventurous exertions in the end. Any mode of study may be good with relation to the individual, and none are fit for universal adoption. Still it is always curious, and sometimes useful, to know how men of Lord Eldon's calibre set to work. We are not informed what law-book he read first ; but he was clearly for strong meat. Lawyers brought up on Blackstone and " less elegant compilers," were (in his opinion) like dogs bred in the parlour, unfit for the rough service of the field ; and we strongly LORD ELDON. 897 suspect that he took the bull by the horns, and grappled with Coke upon Littleton at once. Such a feat is not impossible, since Dr. Parr read through " Fearne's Contingent Remainders," as a mental ^-exercise, and expressed himself much pleased with the closeness of the logic. Still, in reading Coke, (a much tougher job than Fearne,) the sage's own Avarning must have been kept in mind : " And albeit, the reader shall not at any one day, do what he can, reach to the meaning of our author, or of our com- mentaries ; yet let him noway discourage himself, but proceed ; for on some other day, in some other place, that doubt will be cleared." In 1807, Lord Eldon tells Mr. Farrer to read Coke upon Littleton again and again. " If it Avill be toil and labour to you, and it will be so, think as I do when I am climbing up to Sw3'er or to Westhill, (high grounds at Encombe,) that the world will be all before you when the toil is . over: for so the law world will be, if you make your- self complete master of that book. I read Coke on Littleton through, when I was the other day out of office, and when I v/as a student I abridged it." Li fact, his Coke, Coke, Coke, was like the action^ action^ action of Demosthenes. One day, when his brother asked him to meet Dr. Johnson at dinner, the answer was, " I dine with Coke to-day." The late Lord Abinger, a greater advocate, though a far inferior judge, drew up a list of books for a law student, at the head of which stands " Cicero de Ojjiciis, once, twice, thrice, once every ^'■ear ;" — a curious contrast, and a striking illustration of the inevitable want of agreement on this subject. Still scorning the aid of treatises. Lord Fldon ap- pears to have next thrown himself Avith his whole remaining strength upon the Chancery Reports. Mr. Townsend says he acquired such an intimate ac- quaintance with most of them, that he could tell not 398 LOUD ELDON. merely the very page in which each of the cases was to be found, but state oif-hancl the precise points in which they agreed or differed. It is considered an essential part of legal educa- tion in England, for those who intend to practise in the common -law courts, to pass a year at least in the chambers of a special pleader, wliere the various written proceedings in a cause (tlie declaration or complaint, the plea, the replication, &c.) are prepared. A year in the chambers of an equity draftsman, to learn the mode of drawing bills and answers, is thought equally indispensable for Chancery barris- ters. But the prescriptive fee is one hundred guineas per annum ; and Lord Eldon gallantly made up his mind to dispense with this description of noviciate altogether. " How then," asked Mr. Farrer, " did you acquire your knowledge of pleading ?" " Why," answered Lord Eldon, " I copied everything I could lay ray hands upon." He compiled two large volumes . of precedents, but lent them to a friend, and could not recollect to whom. Li allusion to such borrowers, he observed, that " though backward in accounting, they seemed to be practised in hook ■keeping.''^ He was so fortunate as to meet with a conveyancer, who, out of regard for his family and respect for his talents, offered to give him the run of his chambers without a fee. The gentleman in question was Mr. Duane, a Roman Catholic, who did all the great con- veyancing of Newcastle and the neighbourhood. Lord Eldon was particularly anxious to be with him, in the hope of profiting by the connexion when he settled in the north, to which he was eagerly looking forward. He remained only six months in Mr. Duane's cham- bers, being unwilling to incur too great an extent of obligation. " Every man/' says Gibbon, " who rises above the common level, receives two educations — the first from I LORD ELDON. 399 his instructors ; the second, the nriost personal and important, from himself." Almost all Lord Eldon's k'2fal education was from himself, without even the ordinary helps, which he disdainfully flung from him ; ^aiid of no one could it be more truly predicated, that he was not " rocked and dandled " into a lawyer. The time was now approaching when the efficacy of this peculiar mode of training was to be tried. He was called to the bar in February 1776. Mr. Ben- tham, in his " Indications of Lord Eldon," with some- what less than his wonted scrupulosity, asserts, that "Mr. Scott waited the exact number of years it cost to take Troy, and had formed his determination to pine no longer, when Providence sent an angel in the shape of a Mr. Barker, with the papers of a fat suit and a retaining fee." Mr. Scott did not wait more than five years, and was in the full tide of prosperity before the tentli. The first year was not productive. It was agreed between him and liis wife, that what- ever he got during the first eleven months should be Ijis, and whatever he got in the twelfth month should be hers. " What a stingy dog I must have been to have made such a bargain ! I would not have done so afterwards. But, however, so it was : that was our agreement ; and how do you think it turned out ? In the twelfth month, I received half a guinea; eighteenpence went for fees, and Bessy got nine shil- Ym^s : in the other eleven months I 2:ot not one shil- ling." During the second year, the Duke of Xortliumber- land, who had been quartered at Newcastle, and was acquainted with his father-in-law, caused him to be retained in a case before the House of Lords. " I consider the fee," said Scott, " only as a handsome way of giving me twenty guineas a-day for walking down to the House of Lords." He had also a general retainer for the corporation of Newcastle, and picked 400 LORD ELDON. up a brief or two on circuit. Still these were small gains, and, weakened as he was by sickness, he occa- sionally lost heart. "Business" (writes the elder brother, William, to the second, Henry) "is very dull with poor Jack — very dull indeed ; and of con- sequence he is not very lively. I heartily wish that business may brisken a little, or he will be heartily sick of his profession. I do all I can to keep up his spirits, but he is very gloomy." A whim or fancy — for we cannot believe it to be more — induced him to change his line. Upon Mr. Farrer asking him, whe- ther the Court of Chancery had been his object when he was called to the bar, he replied — " Certainly not. I first took my seat in the King's Bench f but I soon perceived, or thought I perceived, a preference in Lord Mansfield for young lawyers who had been bred at Westminster School and Christ Church ; and as 1 had belono-ed to neither, I thou";ht I should not have a fair chance, and therefore I crossed over to the other side of the Hall. Lord Mansfield, I do believe, was not conscious of the bias ; he was a good man." Lord Eldon could have had no opportunity of testing this bias by his own individual experience ; and we sus- pect it existed only in a mind rendered morbidly apprehensive by bodily suffering and disappointment. The change was fortunate ; for many years might have elapsed before the stores of real pro])erty lore, which formed the bulk of his leo;al kiiowledo;e, could have been brought into play in the courts of common law. As things turned out, a speedy opportunity was afi^orded. Early in the third year occurred the case of Ackroyd v. Smithson, which laid the foundation of his fame. " ' Mi^lit I ask you, Lord Eklon,' said ]\Tr. Farrer, 'whe- ther Ackroyd v. Smithson was not the first cause in which you distinguished yourself?' " ' Did I ever tell you the history of that case ? Come, LORD ELDON. 401 help yourself to a glass of Newcastle port, and give me a little. You must know,' lie went on, * that the testator in that cause had directed his real estates to be sold, and, after paying his debts and funeral and testamentary expenses, the residue of the money to be divided into fifteen parts, which '-tie gave to fifteen persons whom he named in his will. One of these persons died in the testator's lifetiaie. A bill was filed by the next* of kin, claiming, amongst other things, the lapsed share. A brief was given me to consent for the heir- at-law, upon the hearing of the cause. I had nothing then to do, but to pore over this brief. I went through all the cases in the books, and satisfied myself that the lapsed share Avas to be considered as real estate, and belonged to my client (the heir-at-law). The cause came on at the Rolls, before Sir Thomas Sewcll. I told the solicitor who sent me the brief, that I should consent for the heir-at-law so far as re- garded the due execution of the will, but that I must support the title of the heir to the one-fifteenth which had lapsed. Accordingly, I did argue it, and went through all the autho- rities. When Sir Thomas Sewell went out of court, he asked the register who that young man was ? The register told him it was Mr. Scott. " He has argued very well," said Sir Thomas Sewell, " but I cannot agree with him." This the register told me. He decided against my client. " ' You see the lucky thing was, there being two other parties, and the disappointed one not being content, there was an appeal to Lord Thurlow. In the meanwhile, they had written to Mr. Johnstone, recorder of York, guardian to the young heir-at-law, and a clever man, but his answer was — " Do not send good money after bad ; let Mr. Scott have a guinea to give consent, and if he will argue, why, let him do 80, but give him no more." ^So I went into court, and when Lord Thurlow asked who was to appear for the heir- at- law, I rose and said modestly, that I was ; and as I could not but think (with much deference to the Master of the Rolls, for I might be wrong) that my client had the right to the property, if his lordship would give mc leave I would argue it. It was rather arduous for me to rise against all the eminent counsel. Well, Thurlow took three days to consider, and then delivered his judgment in accordance with my speech ; and that speech is in print, and has decided all similar questions ever since.' " VOL. I. r D 402 LORD ELDOX. As he left the hall, a respectable solicitor, named Foster, came up to him, touched him on the shoulder, and said, " Young man, your bread and butter is cut for life." He did not think so, or languished for his native town ; for when, precisely one year afterwards, the recordership of Newcastle was offered to him, he accepted it, and caused a house to be taken for him there. Then occurred one of these anomalous inci- dents which can only be referred to luck : — " ' I did not fjo to the circuit one year, Mary,' said Lord Eldon to Mrs. Foster, ' because I could not afford it ; I had borrowed of my brother for several circuits without getting adequate remuneration, and I had determined to quit London, because I could not afford to stay in it. You know a house Avas taken for me at Newcastle. Well ! one morning about six o'clock/ (probably on the 14th of March, 1781, the com- mittee having been struck on the 13th), ' Mr. (afterwards Lord) Curzon, and four or five gentlemen, came to my door and woke me ; and when I enquired what they wanted, they stated diat the Clitheroe election case was to come on that morning at ten o'clock, before a committee of the House of Commons ; that Mr. Cooper had written to say he was detained at Oxford by Illness, and could not arrive to lead the cause ; and that jNIr. Hardlnge, the next counsel, refused to do so, because he was not prepared. " Well, gentlemen," said I, " what do you expect me to do, that you are here ? " They answered, " they did not know what to expect or to do, for the cause must come on at ten o'clock, and they were totally unprepared, and had been recommended to me as a young and promising counsel." I answered — "I will tell you what I can do ; I can undertake to make a dry state- ment of facts, If that will content you, gentlemen ; but more I cannot do, for I have no time to make myself acquainted with the law." They said that must do ; so I begged they would go down stairs, and let me get up as fast as I could. Well, I did state the facts, and the cause went on for fifteen days. It found me poor enough, but I ben;an to be rich before It was done ; they left me fifty guineas at the begin- ning, then there were ten guineas every day, and five guineas every evening for a consultation — more money than I could LORD ELDON. 403 count. But, better still, the length of the cause gave me time to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the law.' " According to a scheme for adapting the division of labour to the stage, described by the late Charles -MattheAVS, one actor was to do the action and another to speak the speeches. Hardly less absurd is the practice of one counsel attending to the evidence, and another hurrying in at the end to reply. Yet it ex- isted in Lord Eldon's time as it exists still. At the- end of a fifteen days' enquiry, Mr. Hardinge pre- sented himself. " ' I saw the members of the committee put their heads together, and then one of them said, " Mr. Hardinge, Mr. Scott opened the case, and has attended it throughout, and the committee think, that, if he likes to reply, he ought to do so. Mr. Scott, would you like to reply ? " I answered, " that I would do my best." I began my speech with a very bad joke. You must know that the leading counsel on the other side, Douglas, afterwards Lord Glenbervie, had made one of the longest speeches ever known before a committee, and had argued that the borough of Clitheroe was not a borough by prescription, for it had its origin within the memory of man. I began by saying, " I will prove to the committee, by the best evidence, that the borough of Clitheroe is a borough by prescription ; and that it had its origin before the memory of man. My learned friend will admit the commencement of this borough was before the commencement of his speech ; but the commencement of his speech is beyond the memory of man; therefore, the borough of Clitheroe must have commenced before the memory of man." AYe were beaten in the committee by one vote. After this speech, ISIansfield, afterwards Sir James Mansfield, came up to me in West- minster Hall, and said he heard I was going to leave London, but strongly advised me to remain. I told him that I c*)uld not; that I had taken a house in Newcastle; that I had an increasing family ; in short, that I was compelled to quit London. Wilson afterwards came to me, and pressed me in the same manner to remain in London, adding, what was very kind, that he would ensure me 400/. the next year. I gave D D 2 404 LORD ELDON. him. the same answer as I had given Mansfield. However, I did remain in London, and lived to make INIansfield Chief- Justiee of the Common Pleas, and Wilson a Puisne Judge.' " Until very recently, it was customary for Chancery barristers to go circuit and attend sessions — in short, to beat up for practice in all quarters. Lord Eldon does not appear to have attended any sessions ; but, except during one year, when funds were wanting, he regularly went the Northern Circuit, and, at two assize towns in succession was brought forward by the opportune absence of a leader, and a joke. Case the first is thus related by Mr. Twiss : — " The plaintiff was a Mrs. Fermor, who sought damages against the defendant, an elderly maiden lady, named San- stern, for an assault committed at a whist-table. Mr. Scott was junior counsel for the plaintiff, and when the cause was called on, his leader was absent in the Crown court, conduct- ing a government prosecution. Mr. Scott requested that the cause might be postponed till his leader should be at liberty ; but the judge refusing, there was no help, and ]\lr. Scott addressed the jury for Mrs. Fermor, and called his witnesses. It was proved that at the whist-table some angry words arose between the ladies, which at length kindled to such heat, that Miss Sanstern was impelled to throw her cards at the head of Mrs. Fermor, who (probably in dodging to avoid these missiles) fell or slipped from her chair to the ground. Upon this evidence, the defendant's counsel objected that the case had not been proved as alleged ; for that the declaration stated the defendant to have committed the assault with her hand, whereas the evidence proved it to have been committed with the cards. Mr. Scott, however, contended, that the facts were substantially proved according to the averment in the declaration, of an assault committed with the hand— for that, in the common parlance of the card-table, the hand means the hand of cards ; and thus that Miss Sanstern, having thrown her cards into INIrs. Fermor's face, had clearly assaulted Mrs. Fermor with her hand. The court laughed — the jury, much diverted, found the plaintiff's allegations sufficiently proved — and the young counsel had the frolic and fame of a verdict in his favour." LORD ELDON. 405 He told Mr. Sj^ence, the queen's counsel, that he was first brou2:ht into notice on the Northern Circuit by breaking the Ten Commandments : — ^ > " * I'll tell you how it was. I was counsel in a cause, the 'Tate of which depended on our being able to make out who was the founder of an ancient chapel in the neighbourhood. I went to view it. There was nothing to be observed which gave any indication of its date or history. However, I observed that the Ten Commandments were written on some old plaster, wiiich, from its position, I conjectured might cover an arch. Acting on this, I bribed the clerk with five shillings to allow me to chip away part of the plaster ; and after two or three attempts, I found the keystone of an arch, on which were engraved the arms of an ancestor of one of the parties. This evidence decided the cause, and I ever afterwards had reason to remember, with some satisfaction, my having on that occasion broken the Ten Commandments.' " His first success at Durham was in Adair v. Swinburne^ involving a question of great importance to coal-owners. All the leaders of the circuit were retained ; but it was arranged in consultation that Scott should lead the cause, partly because he had been employed in some preliminary proceedings — partly because he had been bred in a coal country — and partly (we cannot help suspecting) because they were apprehensive of the result. When the defend- ant's case closed, the judge expressed a decided opinion against Scott's client. " ' Said Mr. Justice Buller, '< You have not a leg to stand upon." Now this was very awkward — a young man — and the Judge speaking so decidedly. However, I said, " My lord, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred I would sit down upon hearing the Judge so express himself; but so persuaded am I that I have the right on my side, that 1 must entreat your lordship to allow me to reply ; and I must also express my expectation of gaining a verdict." Well, I did reply ; and the jury — it was a special jury — Charles Brandling was foreman — retired, and after consulting six or eight hours, D u 3 406 LORD ELDON. they returned, and actually gave the verdict in my favour. AVhcn I went to the ball that evening, I was received with open arms by every one. Oh, my fame was established ! I really think that I might have married half the pretty girla in the room that night. Never was man so courted. It certainly was very flattering to be so received ; but yet it was painful, too, to mark the contrast from the year before. It certainly was not my fault that I had no cause to plead the year before.^ " Tn about eight years from his call to the bar, Lord Eldon was in the hio^h-road to its hi^-hest honours. We have minutely detailed his progress at the most critical periods, with a view to a few observations we have to offer re<2;ardino; the difficulties and 'chances of the profession ; but before venturing on them, it may be as well to strengthen our conclusions by a parallel — to see how many of his great predecessors and contemporaries adopted the same method of study, or got on in the same manner. Somers flourished a little before the period when legal honours ceased to depend principally upon intrigue and faction. He had made himself useful to his party by some well-written pamphlets, and the young Earl (afterwards Duke) of Shrewsbury was his fast friend; still, when he was proposed as junior counsel for the Seven Bishops, they objected to him as too young (be was then thirty-seven) and too little known. Serjeant Pollexfen insisted on their I'ctain- ing him, and his speech for the defence laid the foundation of his fame. Lord Hardwicke, the son of an attorney, and bred up in an attorney's office, was fortunate enough to obtain the patronage of Lord Macclesfield, and that noble and learned but most unscrupulous personage forced him at once into the front rank of the pro- fession. He was only twenty -nine years of age, and five years' standing at the bar, when he was called I o LORD ELDON. 407 up from his first circuit to be made Solicitor-General. Having had little or no leading business, it was con- fidently expected that he would break down ; but his talents and knowledge proved fully equal to the ex- Jtraordinary call made upon them. Thurlow dashed into practice with the same sud- denness, and was indebted for his first lift to patron- age ; though he certainly did not obtain it by the quality for which Lord Hardwicke was famous — bowing, smihng urbanity. His favourite haunt was Nando's coiFee-house, near the Temple, where a large attendance of professional loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch and the charms of the landlady, which, the small wits said, were duly admired by and at the bar. One evening the Douglas case was the topic of discussion, and some gentlemen engaged in it were regretting the want of a competent person to digest a mass of documentary evidence. Thurlow being present, one of them, half in earnest, suggested him, and it was agreed to give him the job. A brief was delivered with the papers ; but the cause did not come on for more than eight years afterwards, and it was a purely collateral incident to which he was indebted for his rise. This employment brought him acquainted with the famous Duchess of Queensberry, the friend of Pope, Gay, and Swift, and an excellent judge of talent. She saw at once the value of a man like Thurlow, and recommended Lord Bute to secure him by a silk gown. He was made king's counsel in 1761, rather less than seven years after his call to the bar. He ran greater risks than Lord Hardwicke, because his business had been hitherto next to nothing ; but he had far more of the vis vivida and the unhesitating self-confidence which enables an untried man to beat down obstacles. Dunning got nothing for some years after his call to the bar, which was about 175G. " He traveled 1) D 4 408 LORD ELDON. the AVestern Circuit," (says the historian of Devon- shire, Mr. Polwhele,) "but had not a single brief"; and had Lavater been at Exeter in the year 1759, he must have sent Counsellor Dunning to the hospital of idiots. Not a feature marked him for the son of wisdom." He was, notwithstanding, recommended by Mr. Hussey, a King's Counsel, to the Chairman of the East India Company, who was looking out for some one to draw up an answer to a memorial de- livered by the Dutch government. The manner in wliich Dunning performed this piece of service gained him some useful connections, and an opportune fit of the gout, which disabled one of the leaders of the Western Circuit, did still more for him. The leader in question handed over his briefs to Dunning, who made the most of the opportunity. His crowning triumph was his argument against the legality of General Warrants delivered in 1765. He was in- debted for his brief in this famous case to Wilkes, whose acquaintance he had formed at Nando's, the Grecian, and other coffee-houses about the Temple, which, seventy years ago, were still the resort of men of wit and pleasure. Kenyon rose slowly and fairly through the general impression entertained at the bar of the extent of his legal knowledge; but this impression was nearly twelve years in reaching the brief-bestowing branch of the profession. He was brought into notice by Thurlow, to whom he acted as what is technically termed " Devil," that is, looked out cases, prepared pleadings, and drew up opinions for him. Lord Camden (a judge's son, Etonian, and Cantab) went the Western Circuit for ten or twelve years without success, and at length resolved on trying one circuit more and then retiring upon his fellowship. His fi'iend Henley (Lord. Northington) hearing of this determination, managed to get him retained as LORD ELDON. 409 his own junior in a cause of some importance, and then absented himself on the plea of illness. Lord Camden won the cause and prospered. Lord Mansfield came to the bar with a high repu- ^l^-tion, but it was rather for literary taste, accom- plishment, and eloquence, than law. He '' drank champagne with the wits," as we learn from Prior ; and Mr. Halliday relates, that one morning Mr. Mur- ray was surprised by a gentleman of Lincoln's Lm, who took the liberty of entering his room without the ceremonious introduction of a servant, in the sin- gular act of practising the graces of a speech at a glass, while Pope sat by in the character of a friendly spectator. It is from a couplet of Pope's we learn how he first became known in the profession — " Graced as thou art with all the power of words, So known, so honour' d, in the House of Lords." A piece of bathos thus parodied by Gibber — " Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks, And he has chambers in the King's Bench walks." He is reported to have said, that he never knew the difference between no professional income and three thousand a-year; and the case of Cibher and Sloper is specified as his starting-point. The tradition goes, that Sergeant Eyre being seized with a fit (the god who cuts the knot always comes in this question- able shape), the conduct of the defence devolved on Murray, who after a short adjournment, granted by the favour of Chief-Justice Lee, made so excellent a speech, that clients rushed to him in crowds. The case was admirably adapted to his abilities, being an action of crim. con. brought by a conniving husband against a weak young man of fortune. But the story is apocryphal at best. There is no mention of the Sergeant's illness in the printed accounts of the trial. 410 LORD ELDON. On the contrary, a long speech by him is duly re- - ported ; and it appears that Murray was the fourth f counsel in the cause. He certainly made a speech, I and probably spoke well ; but we disbelieve the tra- * dition which makes him the hero of the day. Cibber V. Slojyer ^vsis tried in December 1738; Pope's lines were published in 1737. How could a man "so known, so honoured " for his eloquence, be raised from obscurity by a speech ? It was a stepping- stone, not the keystone. "When Lord Loughborough first came to London, he was a constant attendant at the green room, and associated with Macklin, Foote, and Sheridan (the father of Richard Brinsley), who assisted him to soften down his Scotch accent. But the main chance was not neglected. It is stated in Boswell's Johnson, that he solicited Strahan the printer, a countryman, to get him employed in city causes ; and his brother- in-law. Sir Harry Erskine, procured him the patron- age of Lord Bute. When a man of decided talent and good connexion does not stand on trifles, there is no necessity for speculating on the precise causes of his success. There is hardly a surviving friend of Lord Erskine's who has not heard the history of his first lucky hit from his own lips. The author of tlie " Clubs of London " has undertaken to report his very words : — " ' I had scarcely a shilHng in my pocket when I got my first retainer. It was sent me by a Captain Balllie of the navy, who held an office at the Board of Greenwich Hospital, and I was to show cause in the Michaelmas term against a rule that had been obtained in the preceding term, calling on him to show cause why a criminal information for a libel, reflecting on Lord Sandwich's conduct as governor of that charity, should not be filed against him. I had met, during the long vacation, this Captain Baillie at a friend's table, and after dinner I expressed myself with some warmth, probably LORD ELDON. 411 with some eloquence, on the corruption of Lord Sandwich as First Lord of the Admiralty, and then adverted to the scan- dalous practices imputed to him with regard to Greenwich Hospital. Baillie nudged the person who sat next to him, ^and asked who I was. Being told that I had just been called fb the bar, and had been formerly in the navy, Baillie ex- claimed with an oath, " Then I'll have him for my counsel ! " I trudged down to Westminster Hall when I got the brief, and being the junior of five, who should be heard before me, never dreamt that the court would hear me at all. The aro-u- ment came on. Dunning, Bearcroft, Wallace, Bower, Har- grave, were all heard at considerable length, and I was to follow. Hargrave was long-winded, and tired the court. It was a bad omen ; but, as my good fortune would have it, he was afflicted with the strangury, and was obliged to retire once or twice in the course of his argument. This protracted the cause so long, that, when he had finished. Lord Mans- field said that the remaining counsel should be heard the next morning. This was exactly what I wished. I had the whole night to arrange in my chambers what I had to say the next morning, and I took the court with their faculties awake and freshened, succeeded quite to my own satisfaction (some- times the surest proof that you have satisfied others); and as I marched along the Hall after the rising of the judges, the attorneys flocked around me with their retainers. I have since flourished, but I have always blessed God for the pro- vidential strangury of poor Hargrave.'" In a more particular, and apparently more accurate, note of the same story, taken by an eminent poet (Rogers), it is stated that the other counsel proposed a compromise at consultation ; that Erskine stood out, and that Baillie flung his arms round his neck in a transport of grateful confidence. According to this note, the number of retaining fees which Erskine said he carried home was sixty-two. Now, retaining fees are usually paid to the clei'k at chambers ; but, taking the statement to mean nothing more than that busi- ness came in very rapidl}^ in consequence of the speech, still we must be pardoned for suggesting that 412 LORD ELDON. the reports of the period do not bear out the supposi- tion ; and that the speech, excellent as it was, was not of the sort to win the confidence of attorneys, particularly those passages which brought hiin into collision with the court. The effect in our day would strongly resemble that produced by Alan Fairford in the case of Peebles and Plainstanes : — " The worst of the whole was, that six agents who had each come to the separate resolution of thrusting a retaining fee into Alan's hand as he left the court, shook their heads as they returned the money into their leathern pouches, and said, ' That the lad was clever, but they would like to see more of him before they en- gaged him in the way of business.' " Erskine was next engaged to draw up Admiral Keppel's defence, which was spoken by the Admiral. For this service he received a bank-note for 1000/., which he ran off to flourish in the eyes of his friend Reynolds, exclaiming " Voild the nonsuit of cow- beef! " He was employed in two or three other cases of public interest on account of his naval knowledsfe, and the extraordinary powers he displayed in them speedily led to a large general business. It is now acknowledged that Erskine's best quality was the one ordinary observers would be least likely to give him credit for — sagacity in the conduct of a cause. Sir AVilliam Jones made his forensic debut about the same time as Erskine, though, according to the account given in Miss Hawkins's "Memoirs" on her brother's authority, without producing an equally favourable impression. He spoke for nearly an hour, with great confidence, in a highly declamatory tone, and with studied action ; impressing all present, who had ever heard of Cicero or Ilortensius, with the belief that he had worked himself up into the notion of being one or both of them for the occasion. Being little acquainted with the bar, he spoke of a case as LORD ELDON. 413 having been argued by " one Mr. Baldwin," a gentle- man in large practice sitting in the first row. This caused a titter ; but the grand effect was yet to come. The case involved certain family disagreements, and he iliad occasion to mention a governess. Some wicked wag told him he had been too hard upon her ; so, the day following, he rose as soon as the judges had taken their seats, and began in the same high tone and with both hands extended — " My Lords, I have been informed, to my inexpressible mortification and regret, that, in what I yesterday had the honour to state to your Lordships, I was understood to mean to say that Miss was a harlot." He got no further: solvuntur risu tahulce ; and, so soon as the judges could speak for laughing, they hastened to assure him that no impression unfavourable to Miss 's morals had been made upon the court. Not- withstanding this inauspicious commencement, and his fondness for literature, Jones obtained a fair share of business. His " Essay on Bailments " is considered the best written English law-book on a practical subject. None can be placed alongside of it, for style and method, except Stephen's " Treatise on the Principles of Pleading." Lord Ellenborough pursued the most laborious path to distinction. He practised several years as a special pleader, and joined the Northern Circuit with a formed connection. He rose into fame by his de- fence of Warren Hastings, who employed him at the instance of Sir Thomas Kumbold, a connection of the Law family. The rise of Sir Samuel Shepherd is thus described by his son ; — " For the first two or three years his advancement was slow, but gradual ; it was not long, however, before good fortune or unJeviating attention brought him into greater notice. 414 LORD ELDON. " Two of his earliest arguments of any importance, for which he had made copious notes, were called on successively upon the same day. In the first he was much embarrassed ; at the commencement of the second he fortunately dropped his papers, which became displaced and useless ; this obliged him to trust to his memory, which did not fail him, for the cases previously collected ; his eye was thus unshackled from that constant reference to notes, so often injurious to the effect of a good argument; and being thrown upon his own re- sources, his manner, naturally excellent, became more free and impressive, and he received a great compliment from Lord Mansfield at the conclusion of the argument. The court, too, suspended the judgment they were about to pro- nounce against him, and which they afterwards pronounced upon further deliberation. From this time he came into full practice, as apj)ears by the frequent recurrence of his name in the reports of that period." * The chief-justiceship of the Queen's Bench and that of the Common Pleas were by turns pressed upon Sir Samuel Shepherd ; but he refused both on ac- count of his deafness, principally because he should be obliged to sit alone as a criminal judge during circuit. Romilly's account of his own early life is replete with useful hints. After describing the circuit mode of life, he says : — " This sort of amusement, however, was for a consider- * Memoir of the Right Honourable Sir Samuel Shepherd. By Henry John Shepherd, Esq. (printed for private circulation). The author of this pleasing and appropriate tribute to tlie memory of a distinguished father, was himself pre-eminently distinguished by talent and accom- plishment,— by the finest sense of honour, the truest generosity of feeling, the most delicate perception of humour, and the utmost refinement of taste. He is the author of an approved work on " Election Law," and of a poem, " Pedro of Castille ; " which contains many passages of genuine poetry, and is obviously the emanation of a graceful fancy and a richly cultivated mind. The modesty of his character, and the extreme fasti- diousness with which he regarded his own works and efforts, alone pre- vented him from obtaining a far larger share of forensic and literary fame. LORD ELDON. 415 O able time the only profit that I derived from the circuit. Many of the barristers upon it had friends and connections in some of the counties through which we passed, which served as an introduction of them to business ; but for myself, I jvas without connections everywhere, and at the end of my 'sixth or seventh circuit I had made no progress. I had been, it is true, in a few causes ; but all the briefs I had had were delivered to me by London attorneys, who had seen my face in London, and who happened to be strangers to the juniors on the circuit. They afforded me no opportunity of dis- playing any talents, if I had possessed them, and they led to nothing ; I might have continued thus a mere spectator of the business done by others, quite to the end of the sixteen years which elapsed before I gave up every part of the circuit, if I had not resolved, though it was very inconve- nient to me on account of the business which I began to get in London, to attend the quarter sessions of some midland county. There is, indeed, a course by which an unconnected man may be pretty sure to gain business, and which is not unfrequently practised. It is to gain an acquaintance with the attorneys at the different assize towns, to show them great civility, to pay them great court, and to affect before them a display of wit, knowledge, and parts. But he who disdains such unworthy means, may, if he do not attend the quarter sessions, pass his whole life in travelling round the circuit, and in daily attendances in court, without obtaining a single brief. When a man first makes his appearance in court, no attorney is disposed to try the experiment ichether he has any talents ; and ivhen a marts face has become familiar by his having been long a silent spectator of the business done by others, his not being employed is supposed to proceed from his incapacity, and is alone considered as sufficient evidence that he must have been tried and rejected" Under this conviction, he joined the Warwick sessions, where the bar happened to be neither strong nor numerous, and soon got into business; which led, as he anticipated, to business on the circuit. He was gradually acquiring, during the same period, a large practice in Chancery ; but his debut there was unlucky. He grew so nervous and confused, 416 LORD ELDON. that his old master, Lally, prognosticated a complete failure. At the present moment, the bench and bar might furnish a long list of distinguished men of all grades of talent and knowledge ; yet we should be puzzled to name one who sprang into great practice at a bound ; and it is a remarkable fact that most of the leading barristers are past forty years of age, and few of less than twenty years' standing in the pro- fession. This justifies a suspicion, that the effect of lucky hits is somewhat over-estimated in the tra- ditional instances. Mr. Twiss, however, thinks that a change has taken place in the constitution of the body, which may account for the difference. " The two well-employed opportunities of Ackroycl v. Smithson and the ' Clitlieroe Petition,' had left the suc- cess of Mr. Scott a matter no longer doubtful. At the present clay, from the great competition of very learned and very able practitioners, a few occasional opportunities do little, however they be improved. Among the more influ- ential class of attorneys and solicitors, it has become usual to bring up a son, or other near relation, to the bar *, who, if his industry and ability be such as can at all justify his friends in employing him, absorbs all the business which they and their connection can bestow ; and the number of barris- ters, thus powerfully supported, is now so great, that few men lacking such an advantage can secure a hold upon business. But at the time when Mr. Scott began his pro- fessional life, the usage had not grown up of coming into the field with a ' following ' already secured. Education being less general, fewer competitors attempted the bar ; and, even among the educated classes, a large portion of the adventurous men devoted themselves to naval and military })ursuit8, which have now been deprived of attraction by a peace of more than a quarter of a century. In those days. * It would be nearer the truth to say, that attorneys and solicitors now belong to the class from which the bar is principally recruited. LORD ELDON. 417 therefore, It might well happen, as with Mr. Scott it actually did, that a couple of good opportunities, ably used, would make the fortune of an assiduous barrister in London." . .^ We do not believe that the constitution of the bar Ms much altered ; but its effective members have been more than trebled in number within living memory; while equity business has not more than doubled, and common law business has positively decreased. Mr. Shepherd says, that when Sir Samuel began attending the King's Bench, there were but three rows of seats, and they were rarely full. It is stated by Mr. Townsend, and repeated by Mr. Twiss, that the num- ber of counsel regularly practising at the Chancery Bar when Lord Eldon joined it, was only twelve or fifteen. The cause lists at Guildhall are not half the length they used to be. The late Sir Albert Pell told the present writer, that when he joined the West- ern Circuit the number of barristers did not average above twenty-five, and that it was an understood thing among the leaders to procure every new-comer a chance. The number now exceeds fifty; the cause lists are shorter than they were in his time ; and all sympathy is at an end. Besides the fear of litigation (which has now grown into something more than a proverbial saw, which every one repeated and no one acted on), there are plain specific causes for the change. The most profitable part of sessions practice (Appeals) received its death-blow from the new Poor- Law ; and the improvements effected by the Com- mon- Law Commissioners (for which the public are indebted to Lord Brougham), nip in the bud a vast number of lawsuits, which, under the old system, would have gone on to trial and borne briefs.* * When a defendant was at liberty to plead the general issue — i. e. a broad general denial of the demand — the parties frequently came into court in entire ignorance of the precise point in dispute ; and as techni- cal objections were also allowed ad libitum^ there was always a chance of VOL. I. E E 418 LORD ELDON. It may be taken, therefore, as an established truth, that there are fewer prizes and more blanks in the lottery. But is the mode of drawing altered? In our opinion, very little. If a man has connections, he is pushed on at starting. If he has not, he must wait. It was always tlius ; and it is clear, from Lord Eldon's many opportunities, that he did not want backers. We see the increasing difficulties that beset the modern candidate ; but it strikes us that attorneys' sons and relations must suffer as much from the general crowding as the rest. Their pro- ])ortional advantage is obviously diminished by com- petitors of the same class ; and, as a matter of fact, we do not find that the avenues are blocked up by them. Three out of four of the present judges and leading counsel are not sons or near relations of attorneys ; and, could the private history of each of these be read, it would appear that there is still a large field for knowledge and capacity. In most instances, it would be found that they availed them- selves of some fortunate opportunity to establish a name, and gradually dropped into business as others dropped off. Legal promotion, like military, depends on deaths and other vacancies. It is very seldom, indeed, that an established leader is displaced ; what the lucky hit does, is simply to indicate the successor. At the same time, it is absurd to say that merit is sure to be appreciated if the aspirant will bide his time ; for the time may never come, or come too late — when his faculties have been deteriorated by disuse, and his spirit is broken by disappointment — defeating a claim by an unforeseen objection or defence. Under the new mode of pleading, they are compelled to arrive at a precise issue ; each considers whether he can support his allegation by evi- dence; and the one who finds he cannot, gives in. (Since this was written, the new County Courts have come into full play and still further reduced the business of Westminster Hall.) LORD ELDON. 419 when " all he had wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds." What is to ensure him even the few occa- sional briefs which are absolutely necessary to enable j.-him to profit by the grand opportunity when it does come ? — for the management of causes is not to be learned by mere observation or reflection ; some practice is indispensable ; and there is much that is merely technical, almost mechanical, in the arts of advocacy. In the front rank, competition is more open, and merit generally decides ; but the difficulty is to clear the intervening shallows, and get fairly afloat. A man who has merit without connection, will not be employed till he is known ; and he can hardly be known till he is employed. Yet it may be that nobody is to blame, neither the attorney for not choosing, nor the barrister for not being chosen. When there is not enough for all, some must starve. An overstocked profession is like a crew trying to save themselves upon a raft scarcely large enough to carry half of them ; or like the in- mates of the Black Hole at Calcutta, where all who could not get near the aperture in the wall were suffocated — the survivors owing their safety as much to position and selfishness, as strength. Erskine once declared in Parliament, that " success oftener de- pended upon accident, and certain physical advan- tages, than upon the most brilliant talent and the most profound erudition." A high-spirited and popular leader (Thesiger) lately illustrated the matter thus : — " When I look round on my competitors, and consider my own qualifications, the wonder to nie is, how I ever got to the place I now occupy. I can only account for it, by comparing the forensic career to one of the crossings in our great thoroughfares. You arrive just when it is clear, and get over at once ; another finds it blocked up, is kept Avaiting, E E 2 420 LORD ELDON. and arrives too late at his destination, though the better pedestrian of the two.'' Does it not sometimes (certainly not in this gentleman's case) resemble the Strand on Lord Mayor's Day? Those who, like Swift's fat man in the crowd, do not mind what fuss they make, whose toes they tread on, to what extent they splash themselves, or how many quiet people they thrust off the pavement or against the wall, always clear the press soonest and get first to Charing Cross or Temple Bar. According to Mr. Sergeant (the late Mr. Justice) Talfourd, the undisputed leader of his circuit, " mere stupidity, accompanied by a certain degree of fluency, is no inconsiderable power. It enables itg possessor to protract the contest long after he is beaten, because he neither understands his own case, nor the argu- ments by which he has been answered. It is a weapon of defence, behind which he obtains protection, not only from his adversaries but from the judge. If the learned person who presides, wearied out with endless irrelevancies, should attempt to stop him, he will insist on his privilege to be dull, and obtain the admiration of the audience by his firmness in support- ing the rights of the bar. In these points, a sensitive and acute advocate has no chance of rivaUing him in the estimation of the bystanders." Here is Romilly's sketch of the leader of his circuit when he joined : — " Next to him (Sergeant Hill) in rank, but far before him in business, and indeed com- pletely at the head of the circuit, stood ; who without talents, without learning, without any one qualification for his profession, had by the mere friendship, or rather companionship, of Mr. Justice , obtained the favour of a silk gown ; and by a forward manner, and the absence of commanding abilities in others, had got to be employed in almost every cause. The merits of a horse he understood LOKD ELDON. 421 perfectly well ; and when in these, as sometimes hap- pened, consisted the merits of a cause, he acquitted himself admirably ; but in other cases nothing could be more injudicious than his conduct. In spite, how- -ever, of his defects, and notwithstanding the obvious effects of his mismanagement, he continued for many years, while I was upon the circuit, in possession of a very large portion of business." There was truth as well as fun in the late James Smith's induction. " The elite of our uni- versities, with the most promising recruits from all classes, are sent almost as a thing of course to the bar. The most distinguished of these, therefore, may fairly be regarded as the most distinguished of their contemporaries. Now, I remember when Marryatt and Mingay (naming two gentlemen not remarkable for refinement or cultivation) were at the head of the practising members of the profession. It follows that Marr3'att and Mingay were the very cream of intellect, the most favourable representatives of the wit, learn- ing, and eloquence of their age." One of these boasted that, from the hour he left school, he had never opened any book but a law book. Sir Vicary Gibbs confessed to having read two unprofessional publications; one being ''Bam- berger's Travels," which he had actually indexed. In his case the exclusive mode answered, i. e. he became a successful lawyer of the technical narrow- minded sort ; but when the example is recommended for general adoption, we are tempted to exclaim with Chief-Justice Bushe : — " Such a man depreciates the genius which he does not possess, and overrates the handicraft he is equal to ; he would shear a splendid profession of its beams, and cut it down to trade. But I Avill not believe that the profession I preferred, because I thought it the most liberal, is such a low mechanic craft as this. I will not give up the Burghs, E K 3 422 LORD ELDON. and the Erskines, find the Currans of the profession, to those fair jurisprudents and learned applicants of the law, who scorn the genius tliat scorns them." We also take liberty to suggest that clear arrange- ment, correct language, faniiharity with the topics of the day, some power of iUustration, and some ac- quaintance with the elementary parts of the popular sciences, are not unreasonably expected from the members of a learned profession ; which, dealing by turns with every branch of human knowledge, brings by turns every faculty, talent, and accomplish- ment into play. We have heard a libel case laughed out of court by a happy allusion to the Vicar of Wakefield : in order to fix the meaning of the words, "entertainment of the stage," in an Act of Parlia- ment, (10 Geo. 11. c. 28,) it became necessary to review the whole dramatic literature of the period : the arguments regarding Lady Hewley's charity turn on the nicest points of theological controversy and biblical criticism : the Chancellor has just decided a case which depended on art and connoisseurship ; and almost every patent case involves some new dis- covery in chemistry or mechanics. It would, there- fore, be no reflection on a lawyer to say, with the change of a word, what was wittily said of a celebrated Cambridge Professor, that science (read, law^) is his forte, and omniscience his foible. Without that readiness of apprehension, Avhich nothing but ex- tended cultivation can perfect, he is not safe a moment. Lord Eldon (who, however, once an- nounced from the bench in the Court of Chancery that he had been reading "Paradise Lost" during the long vacation) took avowedly the means he thought best adapted to gain a speedy competence, and never thought of playing the great game till it was forced upon him. He then suffered greatly from the want of liberal knowledge and a more cultivated taste. ■J—! LORD ELDON. 423 Examples of a different tendency may be men- tioned ; but, speaking from our own observation, we should say, that it is not the literature that does harm, but the reputation for it. A sergeant who knows 'three times as much law as a learned brother who knows nothing else, may be reputed the worse lawyer of the two ; but not unless he gives his literary pur- suits a turn calculated to attract attention ; and then he is compensated in fame. In Wilberforce's Diary is this entry : — " Saw Lord Eldon, and had a long talk with him on the best mode of study for the young Grants to be lawyers. The Chancellor's reply was not encouraging : — 'I have no rule to give them, but that they must make up their minds to live like a hermit and work like a horse.'" At first, we incline to think, he must — or rather that little is to be expected from students who do not do so of their own accord ; but happily the hermit and horse period need not be long, or it would be better to turn galley slave. " Let a man do all he can in any one branch of study, he must exhaust himself and doze over it, or vary his pursuit, or else be idle. All our real labour lies in a nutshell. The mind makes at some period or other one Herculean effort, and the rest is mechanical. We have to climb a steep and narrow precipice at first, but after that the way is broad and easy, where we may drive several ac- complishments abreast."* As to the overwhelming labour of the profession when it has been learned^ the late Lord Abinger used to boast that he dined out every day during the whole of a long Guildhall * llazlitt's " Plain Speaker," vol. i. p. 142. IMr. Charles Butler tells us that Fearne, the author of the " Essay on Contingent Remainders," was profoundly versed in medicine, chemistry, and mathematics — had ob- tained a patent for dyeing scarlet — and written a treatise on the Gret-k accent. The period of life at which students impair their health by study is generally from eighteen to twenty-five. E E 4 424 LORD ELDON. sittings ; and lawyers in full business spend evening after evening in the House of Commons. To bring this topic to a conclusion — as we run over the foregoing lists of examples, nothing strikes us more than the variety of plans of study, modes of life, kinds of talent, and degrees of industry, pre- sented by it. Thurlow at Nando's, and Wedder- burn in the green-room; Murray before the looking- glass, and Eldon with the wet towel round his head ; a judge's son (Camden) neglected for twelve years, and an attorney's (Hardwicke) fairly forced into the solicitor-generalship in five ; Kenyon loving law, and Ivomilly detesting it ; Dunning brought forward by an East India director, and Erskine by an old seaman ; — such things set all speculation at defiance, or brino: us back at last to the sao;e remark of Vau- venargues, that " everything may be looked for from men and from events." It is related in the " Anecdote Book," that during the formation of the coalition government Mr. Fox called on Lord Thurlow, and requested him to retain the Great Seal. Lord Thurlow refused, and it was then put into commission ; — the Lords Commis- sioners beino- Lord Lou2fhborouo;h, then Chief- Justice of the Common Pleas, Mr. Justice Ashhurst, and Mr. Baron Hotham. With the view of gratifying some friends of the new government, the Lords Commissioners were authorised to confer a limited number of silk gowns, and it was found impossible to pass over Mr. Scott. He received a message from the Duke of Portland (the Premier) offering to include him in the list. After some hesitation he accepted the oifer, saying that he felt honoured and gratified in doino^ so. This was on the Wednesdav. C)n Thursday he learned that Erskine and Pigott, his juniors at the bar, were also to have silk gowns, and were to be sworn in on the Friday, the day before him- I LORD ELDON. 425 self, which would have given them precedence. He instantly wrote to retract his acceptance ; and, on being called before the Commissioners, steadily per- severed in refusing to waive his professional rank for i_^ny one. " One of them said Mr. PIgott was senior at the bar to Mr. Erskine, and yet he had consented to let Mr. Erskine take precedence of him. I answered — * Mr. Pigott is the best judo;e for himself: I cannot consent to give way, either to Mr. Erskine or Mr. Pigott.' Another said, ' Mr. Scott, you are too proud,' — ' My lord with all respect, I state it is not pride : I cannot accept the gown upon these terms.' After much diflSculty, and particularly as the patents of Erskine and Pigott had passed the seal, the matter seems to have been arranged ; for on the Saturday I received a patent, appointing me to be next in rank to Peckham, and placing Erskine and Pigott below me, though in fact both of them had been sworn in the day before me ; and that patent I have to this day. ' Did you think,' said Mr. Farrer to him, *that it was so important to insist upon retaining your rank ? ' — 'It was everything,' he replied, with great earnest- ness ; ' I owed my future success to it.' " Though premiers interfere occasionally, this kind of promotion is considered to depend altogether on the possessor of the Great Seal ; and Lord Eldon was afterwards strongly censured for his mode of dis- pensing it. To enable the reader to form his own opinion, and also to enter into the spirit of the fore- going passage, we will briefly explain the nature of professional rank. A barrister who is made king's (now queen's) counsel, or who receives a patent of precedence, sits in the front row (within the bar), wears a silk gown instead of a stuff one, and takes precedence of the rest of the bar, next after his immediate senior of the same grade. Originally the king's counsel were the salaried counsel of the crown ; but since the increase in number (ren- dered necessary by the increase of the profession and 426 LORD ELDON. the courts) the salary has been discontiniied, and they may now be regarded simply as the field oflicers of the law. Independently of the honour, the advantao-e (or disadvantage) of a silk goAvn is, that it puts the wearer in the best position for leading causes ; for, according to the etiquette of the English bar, the client cannot fix the order in which his counsel shall be heard, or assign them parts adapted to their capacity. This is regulated by seniority. Captain Baillie, for example, could not have said, "Mr. Erskine has eloquence and spirit, and is fully master of my views. He shall lead my case. Mr. Hargrave is a sound lawyer, but a bad speaker. Let him keep in the background, and supply Mr. Erskine with authorities." In this instance the strangury set matters right ; but we remember an instance in which Lord Brougham was intended to lead a libel case; immediately before the trial it was discovered that the other counsel retained (a mere special pleader) was his senior, and the mistake proved irremediable. This patronage, therefore, is a delicate matter as regards the distribution of business. It is not less so as regards the character of the profession ; for the Chancellor is thereby enabled to distinguish those who reflect credit on it. It is undeniable that Lord Eldon discharged the silk-distributing duty of his ofiice very badly. His political prejudices, and his habits of procrastination, proved equally mischievous. The late Lord Abinger, Lord Brougham, and Lord Denman were proscribed — Sir Charles Wetherall postponed. A lame attempt is made in the " Anecdote Book " to defend the pro- scription of Lord Brougham ; on the ground that, in consequence of the line he took on the Queen's Trial, the appointment was personally ofi"ensive to George lY. But it was Lord Eldon's duty to resist such a preju- LORD ELDOy. 427 dice, and resign rather than be responsible for it. What becomes of the privileges of the bar, if an ad- vocate is to be subjected to this sort of disqualification for discharging his duty fearlessly ? or what becomes s_^f ministerial responsibility, if the minister may fall back on the caprices of the king? Had Lord Eldon shown himself in earnest, George IV. would not have refused to him what he granted at once to Mr. Canning or Lord Lyndhurst. In the case of Lord Abinger, a great injustice was done, and a great injury inflicted, without the shadow of an excuse. He would have been undisputed leader of the Northern Circuit six or eight years sooner, had he received his rank when he was first entitled to it. He and Sir Charles Wetherall had been more than twenty-five years at the bar when they were promoted ; Lord Eldon about seven, and he was senior to Erskine and Pigott. There can be no doubt that the principal object of the move was to oblige Erskine ; and Lord Eldon stood out for his rightful precedence, from a belief that a concession might be regarded as an avowal of inferiority. A few days after he received his silk gown he was elected for AVeobly, a borough in the patronage of Lord AVey mouth, to whom he was recommended by Lord Thurlow ; it being expressly stipulated that he was not to be bound by the opinions of the patron. Erskine was elected for Portsmouth, on the Govern- ment interest. They took their seats at the same time, made their maiden speeches the same night, and were simultaneously voted fresh illustrations of the saying, that lawyers do not succeed in Parliament. But it strikes us that this saying is in one sense a truism, and in every otlier false. It is true that all eminent lawyers do not become equally eminent in Parliament ; but may not the remark be extended to other orders and classes ? Do 428 LORD ELDON. historians, essayists, poets, wits, metaphysicians, in- variably sustain their reputation ? Witness Gibbon, Addison, Byron, George Selwyn, David Hartley. Does the country gentleman retain his relative im- portance ? Is the merchant as influential as upon 'Change ? The scene is shifted ; the required talent is different ; the public is a wider public ; the compe- tition is indefinitely increased. Because a lawyer excels Peckham and Pigott in the Court of King's Bench, he is expected to excel or equal Pitt, Fox, Burke, and Sheridan in the House of Commons ! Nay, he is to prove a match for the best of them, Avith one hand tied behind him. After a mornino- spent in an exhausting contest before judges^ or juries, and an afternoon in consultations, with hardly a moment to prepare himself, he is to encounter first- rate debaters fresh from their clubs, who have spent their whole lives in the political atmosphere, and given tlieir full attention to the subject of the night. Suppose, at the end of one of the grand party conflicts, prolonged till daylight, Erskine had said to Fox, " Now, come across the Hall and defend Hardy. You know the case as well as I do, and there are no technicalities involved in it." Would Fox have sus- tained the reputation acquired by such speeches as that on the Westminster scrutiny ? Would he have delivered anything at all approximating in effect to Erskine's famous speech for the defence, which stands like a landmark in history ? The truth is, unrivalled pre-eminence (like Erskine's) in one walk, implies a peculiar kind of genius or combination of qualities, and renders equal pre-eminence in another almost im- possible. There is no instance on record (unless Michael Angelo be one) of the same man's standing on the very apex of two arts, sciences, professions, or pursuits, even those more congenial than politics and law ; yet we do not complain that the greatest chemist LORD ELDON. 429 is not the greatest botanist, nor gravely lay down as an axiom that painters do not succeed in poetry. Even if we adopt Dr. Johnson's notion, that genius is nothing more than great general powers of mind ca- '>.,]pable of being turned any way, and admit that " a man who has vigour may walk to the east just as well as to the west ; " still, a man cannot walk as far both ways, or cover as much ground, as two men of much inferior vigour, each taking his line and keeping to it. The real wonder, therefore, is, or ought to be, how so many lawyers have succeeded ; for the list is a highly respectable one. Somers was the constitutional and parliamentary organ of his party. Murray was regularly pitted against the Great Commoner. " They alone " (says Lord Chesterfield) " can inflame or quiet the House ; they alone are attended to in that numerous and noisy assembly, that you may hear a pin fall while either of them is speaking." Lord North is described by Gibbon as placing his chief dependence on Thurlow and Wedderburn. Dunning was an ex- cellent debater. Fox himself grew anxious when he had to answer Sir William Grant; and the present Lord Lansdowne (then Lord Henry Petty) was the only speaker who ever completely did away the efi'ect of one of his best speeches (on the Orders in Council) by a reply. It was hardly possible to fill a prouder position in Parliament than Roinilly. Dundas had been Lord Advocate, and Perceval Solicitor-General. Mr. O'Connell was at one time the undisputed leader of the Irish bar. Lord Plunkett was quite perfect as a debater. Sir William Follett and Mr. Pem- berton Leigh have surely succeeded in the House of Commons ; while Lord Brougham and Lord L3md- hurst are not generally thought to have failed in either House. The list might be indefinitely extended, if we in- cluded those who (like Lord Eldon) were always 430 LORD ELDON. equal to their work, though they acquired no dis- tinctive reputation as speakers ; or those Avho have risen to eminence after going through the training of the bar, like Pitt and Tierney, who both went the Western Circuit. But we have not shrunk from the common mode of arguing the question, palpably un- fair as it is ; according to which, no one is to count who has not been occupied- during the best portion of his life with law, and expended his best energies on it. It was said of Sheridan, when he delayed writing another comedy, that he was afraid of the author of " The School for Scandal." Erskine, when he rose to speak, might reasonably have stood in awe of the advocate who defended Lord George Gordon. It was his own reputation that bore him down ; and one of the first of living authorities on such a subject. Lord Brougham, thinks that his parliamentary talents were underrated, and that, had he appeared at any other period, and given more attention to the practice, " there is little chance that he would have been eclipsed even as a debater." This could not be said of Mr. Scott. His high reputation for legal know- ledge ensured attention when he spoke, but nothing could be worse than the taste and style of his early speeches. He broke ground in opposition to the famous East India Bill, and began with his favourite topic, the honesty of his own intentions, and the purity of his own conscience : — " He spoke in respectful terms of Lord North, and more highly still of Mr. Fox ; but even to JMr. Fox it was not fittincr that so vast an influence should be intrusted. As Brutus said of Caesar — ' he would be crown'd ! How that might change his nature, — there's the question.' LORD ELDON. 431 It was an aggravation of the affliction be felt, that the cause of it should originate with one to whom the nation had so long looked up ; a wound from him was doubly painful. Like Joab, he gave the shake of friendship, but the other hand held a dagger, with which he dispatched the constitution. ''-Here Mr. Scott, after an apology for alluding to sacred writ, read from the Book of Revelation some verse which he re- garded as typical of the intended innovations in the affairs of the English East India Company : — ' And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast : and tbey woi'shipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast ? who is able to make war with him ? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.' Here," said Mr. Scott, " I believe there is a mis- take of six months — the proposed duration of the bill being four years, or forty-eight months. ' And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.' — Here places, pensions, and peerages are clearly marked out. — * And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great ' — plainly the East India Company — 'is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.'" He read a passage from Thucydides to prove that men are more irritated by injustice than by violence, and described the country crying out for a respite like Desdemona — " Kill me to-morrow — let me live to-night — But half an hour! " This strange jumble was well quizzed by Sheridan, and Mr. Scott soon found out that rhetorical em- bellishment was not his line ; for his subsequent speeches are less ornate. They were not always plain, however, in the full sense of the word, and he was never cured of the habit of talking of his con- science. In the squibs of the period, their obscurity 432 LORD ELDON. forms the point of the jokes levelled at him. Thus, among the pretended translations of Lord Belgrave's famous Greek quotation, the following couplet was attributed to him : — " With metaphysic art his speech he plann'd, And said — what nobody could understand." He was certainly too much given to refining and distinguishing ; but a lawyer speaking principally on legal subjects, will frequently, without any fault of his, be unintelligible to a shifting and impatient au- dience like the House of Commons. His opinion was always duly appreciated, and he took care not to im- pair its value by lending it for party purposes. In the affair of the \Yestminster scrutiny, he considered the high bailiff to be acting contrary to law in de- laying the return, and said so in the House. Fox showed his sense of this highly commendable act of candour, by the tone of respectful courtesy in which he invariably alluded to him. In 1788, Lord Mansfield resigned the chief-justice- ship of the King's Bench ; Lord Kenyon, then Master of the Rolls, succeeded him ; Sir R. P. Arden (Lord Alvanley), then attorney-general, succeeded Lord Kenyon ; the solicitor-general (Macdonald) became attorney-general ; and the solicitor-generalship was conferred upon Mr. (who thereupon became Sir John) Scott. The story goes that he did not wish to be knighted ; but the king said, " Pooh, pooh ! you must be served like the rest," and knighted him. Mr. Twiss says that the ceremony had not then become a matter of course, and that he was really taken by surprise. The value of such a coadjutor was soon experi- enced by Mr. Pitt. In the Regency debates of 1789, the brunt of the discussion was sustained by the solicitor-general. Shortly after the king's recovery, LORD ELDON. 433 he was requested to attend at Windsor, and in the personal interview that followed, the king told him " he had no other business with him than to thank him for the affectionate fidelity with which he ad- ,'Jbered to him when so many had deserted him in his malady." The report that Lord Thurlow was of the number is discountenanced in the " Anecdote Book." But it is stated that several of the kin^-'s friends thought it very desirable, for the king's sake, that Lord Thurlow should continue chancellor, and possibly that noble person thought it no less desirable for his own. A trifling incident, remarked at the time, was calculated to excite suspicion. When one of the cabinet councils, held at the Queen's House, broke up, and the ministers rose to depart. Lord Thurlow's hat was missing. After a fruitless search in the ordinary place, it was brought by a page, who said he had found it in the prince's apartment, where the chancellor, it seems, had left it, though he had no ostensible business there, and had said nothing of any interview with the prince. The report also derived plausibility from the known ill-will between Lord Thurlow and Mr. Pitt, which three years afterwards led to an open rupture, and narrowly missed affecting Lord Eldon's fortunes very seriously. On this occasion Mr. Pitt sent for him, and said, " Sir John Scott, I have a circumstance to mention to you, which, on account of your personal and political connexion with Lord Thurlow, I wish you should first hear from myself Lord Thurlow and I have quarrelled, and I have signified to him his Majesty's commands that he should resign the great seal." The answer, after an expression of regret, was, " j\fy resc- lution is formed. I owe too great obligations to Lord Thurlow to reconcile it to myself to act in poli- tical hostility to him, and I have too long and too conscientiously acted in political connexion with you VOL. I. F F 434 LORD ELDON. to join any party against you. Nothing is left for me but to resign my office as solicitor-general, and to make my bow to the House of Commons." All Mr. Pitt could do was to persuade him to delay acting on this resolution till he had consulted Lord Thurlow. The chancellor, after hearing what had passed, said, " Scott, if there be anything which could make me regret what has taken place (and I do not repent it), it would be that you should do so foolish a thing." He added, " I did not think the king would have parted with me so easily. As to that other ma?i, he has done to me just what I would have done to him, if I could. It is very possible that Mr. Pitt, from party motives, at this moment may overlook your preten- sions ; but sooner or later you 7nust hold the Great Seal. I know no man but yourself qualified for its duties." There was no reason beyond personal friendship, why the solicitor-general should resign with the chancellor, unless the chancellor had been going out on some question of principle, on which the solicitor- general agreed with him. Lord Thurlow was not the leader of a political party, and was merely indivi- dually offended with the premier. Sir John Scott kept his place ; and Lord Loughborough received the Great Seal, to Thurlow's increased umbrage, who dis- liked and made light of him. Some good stories, illustrating this, are told in the " Anecdote Book." Once when Lord Loughborough was making a considerable impression in the House of Lords, on a subject which Lord Thurlow had not studied in detail, the latter was heard to mutter, " If I was not as lazy as a toad at the bottom of a well, I could kick that fellow Loughborough heels over head any day in the week." Lord Thurlow told George IV., who repeated it to Lord Eldon, that "the fellow (Lord L.) had the LORD ELDON. 435 gift of the gab in a marvellous degree, but that he was no lawyer" — adding, "In the House of Lords I get Kenyon, or somebody, to start some law doc- trine, m such a manner that the fellow must get up 5:j:to answer it, and then I leave the woolsack, and give him such a thump in his bread-basket, that he cannot recover himself." Dr. Johnson, in comparing the two, says, " I never heard anything from him (Loughborough) that was at all striking; and depend upon it, sir, it is when you come close to a man in conversation that you discover what his real abilities are. To make a speech in a public assembly, is a knack." Early in 1793 Sir Archibald Macdonald became chief baron of the Exchequer, and Sir John Scott succeeded him as attorney-general. From this period, therefore, the responsibility of the Crown prosecutions devolved upon him, and it fell to his lot to institute some of the most memorable : amon