arrived at the dignity of a silk gown, and of a seat within the bar of the court; but an event took place which called his talents into activity on a most memorable occasion; we allude to the riots which disgraced the City of London in the year 1780. Every one knows the universal consternation, which at that time agitated the kingdom; when the security of the nation was threatened in the destruction of the Capital. After the suppression of these tumults, the vigilance of the magistracy was exercised in directing the insulted justice of the country against the actors in that dreadful conflagration. The part attributed to lord George Gordon in these outrages is well known.

Mr. Erskine was retained as counsel for his Lordship, in conjunction with Mr. Kenyon, after wards Chief Justice of the King's bench. The duty which more immediately devolved on the former, was that of replying to the evidence; a duty which he sus tained with infinite judgment and spirit. His speech on this trial abounds with many of the most finished graces of rhetoric. It is rapid and impetuous; and altogether in that style and character which are most impressive in judicial assemblies. The exordium is after the artificial method of the ancients, who never begin an oration without an appeal to the tribunal they are addressing, upon the embarrassments and peril of the function they have undertaken. "I stand," said Mr. Erskine, “much more in need of compassion than the noble prisoner. He rests secure in conscious innocence, and in the assurance that his innocence will suffer no danger in your hands. But I appear before you a young

and inexperienced advocate; little conversant with courts of Criminal Justice, and sinking under the dreadful consciousness of that inexperience."

There is perhaps no department of his profession, in which Mr. Erskine reached higher excellence than in commenting upon evidence; and the defence of lord George Gordon required the exer cise of these powers to their amplest extent. Having delivered to the jury the doctrine of high treason, as it had been established by the act of the 25th of Edward the third, and as it was expounded by the best authorities, he made a most dextrous application of those rules to the evidence which had been adduced. They who study this speech will observe, with admiration, the subtleties with which he abates the force of the testimony he is encountering, and the artful eloquence with which he exposes its defects, and its contradictions. "I say, by God, that man is a ruffian, who on such evidence as this, seeks to es tablish a conclusion of guilt!" was his exclamation, as he was finishing this topic of his defence. An impassioned mode of address, which, although it may find some apology in the perpetual example of Cicero, is not altogether suited to the soberness of English eloquence. Of this speech, the concluding sentence is truly pathetic. We scarcely hesitate to pronounce it to be the best effort of Mr. Erskine's talents; it does not, indeed, display the minute beauties of cultivated diction, nor those grave remarks of moral wisdom with which his latter speeches, in imitation of Mr. Burke, are pregnant; but, considered in reference to the occasion on which it was delivered,

it is a most astonishing effort of vigorous and polished intellect. In the month of May, 1783, Mr. Erskine received the honour of a silk gown. His Majesty's patent of precedence being conferred upon him, as has been said, on the suggestion of the venerable lord Mans field. His professional labours were now considerably augmented, and he succeeded to that place which had been so long occupied by Mr. Dunning, afterwards lord Ashburton.

It would be impossible, within the space allotted to this article, to give an account of the causes pleaded by Mr. Erskine. It has been said, that he who looks for a perfect model of the style of Mr. Erskine, must examine his speech on the trial of Stockdale. When the charges against Mr. Hastings were published by the House of Commons, a Mr. Logan, a clergyman of the church of Scotland, and a friend of the governor general, wrote a tract, in which those charges were investigated with some acrimony, but with considerable warmth and vigour; so that the pamphlet being considered as libellous by a resolution of the House, a criminal information was filed by the attorney-general against Stockdale, the publisher. In the course of his defence, Mr. Erskine urged many collateral topics in favour of Mr. Hastings, in a style of fervid and ornamental elo

quence.

fessional career Mr. E. had, on an average, not less than a dozen in a year. On these occasions Mr. E never failed to earn meritoriously the large remuneration which was paid to him. His vanity and ambition conduced to this effect, as well as his sense of duty. It was necessary that his exertions should correspond with the high expecta tions formed in each instance of a special counsel, and that counsel, Mr. Erskine. Accordingly he not only made himself a perfect mas ter of his client's case, but he brought to his service the full measure of his zealous feeling, and the perfect exercise of his brilliant talents. He condescended even to have recourse to little artifices, pardon able in themselves, to aid the illusion. He examined the court the night before the trial, in or der to select the most advantageous place for addressing the jury, and when the cause was called on, the court and audience were usually kept waiting in anxious suspense a few minutes before the celebrated stranger made his appearance, and when at length he gratified their impatience, a particularly neat wig, and a pair of new gloves distin guished and embellished his person beyond the more ordinary costume of the barristers of the circuit. On these occasions, whether it was owing to the superior abilities, or the better fortune of Mr. Erskine, is perhaps doubtful. (but in many instances certainly the former was the prevailing cause of the event), he was almost uniformly cessful.

was

Mr. Erskine's eloquence altogether different from any thing that had been witnessed before his time, and assuredly he has left no competitor behind him. He could

law, invigorated as it was by a Latinised phraseology, and a pronunciation slightly tinctured with a northern burr: he had not the coarse humour of Mingay; the tormenting pertinacity of Gibbs; or the interrogative astuteness of Garrow, but he possessed an opulence of imagination, a fertility of fancy, a power of commanding at the instant all the resources of his mind, and a dexterity in applying them, which the whole united bar of England could not equal. He -was successful with nearly the same degree of excellence on all subjects, in dry legal argumentation and in Nisi Prius popular orations; and when before a jury, his merit shone no less in plain matter-of-fact business, in commercialand navigation causes at Guildhall, than on occasions when it was necessary to make appeals to the passions, when adultery, se duction, or insanity, formed the subject of damages, or the matter of inquiry. The latter unques tionably constituted the more shewy and imposing exhibitions of talent, and in these the palm of unrivalled excellence was awarded to him; but Mr. Erskine's judgment, in the conduct of a cause, was at least equal to his other merits, and on common occasions those who were associated with him in holding briefs had no less reason to admire his prudence in what he did not say, as the bye-standers had to extol his ingenuity in what he did. To these more intellectual qualifications, Mr. E. added the not less useful advantages of person, countenance, and voice. His features were good, and capable of infinite variety of expression; the whole animated and intelligent at all times, and occasionally lighted up and beaming with a sweetness

which we never saw in equal perfection in any other human face. His manner set off the whole. The clear melodious tones of his voice were nicely, and almost scientifically, modulated to the subject in hand, and accompanied by action most inimitably graceful; such as those who have not seen it, can form no notion of it from the stiff attitudes and boisterous gestutes of the degenerate performers of the present day. It should not be forgotten that his demeanour was uniformly respectful to the bench, and kind and courteous to his brethren at the bar. During his twenty-eight years practice, he was never known, but on one occasion, to say a rude or harsh word to any gentleman opposed to him in a cause, and on that single occasion he made ample amends by a voluntary and instantaneous apology. In truth he was as much beloved in Westminster Hall, as he was admired in the world, the first in popularity at home, as the foremost in fame abroad.

In 1783 Mr. Erskine was elected a member of Parliament for Portsmouth, but his success in the House of Commons was not commensurate with the splendor of his professional reputation. He was overpowered by the commanding tones, the sarcastic invective, and the cutting irony of Mr. Pitt. In politics a follower of Mr. Fox, and a disciple of the Whig school, he naturally became what is called a constitutional lawyer, a distinction cheaply gained, and not a legitimate object of Mr. E's. ambition. Hence his exertions in the dean of St. Asaph's case, and his advocating the causes of a multitude of persons prosecuted for sedition by government. His defence of Paine, however, occasioned

against the summary process of attachment exercised by the courts, as contrary to the liberty of the subject, and as depriving the party of trial by jury. But in the case of ex parte Jones, reported in Vesey, vol. xiii. p. 237, it happened to him to be under the necessity of himself committing a printer to prison for a contempt in publishing a pamphlet defaming the proceedings of the court.

In the early part of 1807, the short-lived administration of lord Grenville broke up, and lord Erskine, after his retirement from office, took for a long time but little part in public concerns. His present majesty with whom he had always been a personal favourite, invested him, soon after he became regent, with the order of the thistle. Gratitude for this favour, as well as other considerations, perhaps, kept lord E. from active opposition until the unfortunate business of the late Queen, when after a little vacillation in the outset, he ultimately took a decided part against his royal patron.

In the interval of leisure he published two volumes of a political romance, and recently some pamphlets in favour of the Greeks. These publications added nothing to his former reputation. His last literary production was a poem humanely written in favour of the poor rooks, so unmercifully sacrificed by farmers. It appeared in the Literary Gazette.

His lordship married March 29, 1770, Frances daughter of Daniel Moore, Esq. M.P. for Great Marlow, who died Dec. 26, 1805, and by whom he had issue five daughters and three sons. Late in life, he married a woman with whom he had long cohabited, and was scarcely married, when he

sought (but unsuccessfully) a divorce. He was succeeded in his titles and estates by David Montague his eldest son, married Jan. 1800, to Fanny, daughter of general Cadwallader of Philadel phia, in North America.

He died on the 17th of November, at Almondell, near Edinburgh, the seat of his nephew, Henry Erskine, of an inflammation of the chest, aged 75. He had been twice before ill of the plaint which proved fatal to him

com

in 1807 and 1819. His recovery at the last of these periods was deemed impossible, but his strength of constitution, saved him then against the expectation of the physicians.

His remains were conveyed from Almondell, and interred in the ancient family vault at Uphall church. The funeral was private, the body being conveyed in a hearse drawn by six horses, which was followed only by the family carriages, and those of a few private friends.

His principal publications were as follow:

1. Arguments on the Right of Juries, in the cause of the dean of St. Asaph, in the court of King'sbench. London, 1791. 8vo.-2. The whole Proceedings on a Trial of an information ex-officio by the attorney-general against John Stockdale for a supposed libel on the House of Commons, in the court of King's-bench before lord Kenyon. To which is subjoined an Argument in support of the Right of Juries. 1791. 8vo.-3. Speech on the Liberty of the Press. London, 1793. 8vo.-4. Speech in Defence of Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke, Esq. tried on a charge of High Treason. London, 1795. 8vo.-5. Speeches of