quers the yet desert regions of the earth which was given him to be replenished and subdued, the same magic by which you are here enabled to let in on the densest population the air and feeling of mountain solitude, will, in turn, breathe through the opening wilderness the genial refinements of old society; that, as the forest yields to his stout heart and sturdy arm, the dominion of imagination and fancy will extend before him, their powers investing the glades he opens with poetic visions, shedding the purple light of love through thickets and groves till then unthreaded, and touching the extremest hills, when first disclosed to the human eye, with the old familiar hues of Christian hope and joy. Then, in the remotest

conquests of civilization, shall new Athenæums arise, framed on your model-vocal with your language-inspired with your hopes-to echo back the congratulations which shall be wafted to them even from this place, on each succeeding anniversary, if not by yourselves, by your children and your children's children, and yet more remote descendants, and to bless the names of those who, amidst the toils, the cares, and the excitements of a season of transition and struggle, rescued the golden hours of the youth around them from debasing pleasures and more debasing sloth, and enabled them to set to the world, in a great crisis of its moral condition, this glorious example of intellectual courage and progress.*

LORD ELDON AND LORD STOWELL.

[QUARTERLY REVIEW, DEC. 1844.]

THE remarkable success which has attended thus appreciated, vividly suggests the rememthe publication of Mr. Twiss's Life of Lord brance of a kindred instance of industry, Chancellor Eldon is a striking proof of the worth, and success-less prominently placed deep and enduring interest which attaches to before the world, because less intimately assothe character it develops. More than six ciated with its contests and its changes, but years had then elapsed since Lord Eldon's not less crowned with emolument and honour, death, and many more since he ceased to dig- and hardly less fertile of instruction-that of nify the highest seat of British Justice-or to Lord Eldon's elder brother, Lord Stowell; and influence, except by the weight of reputation if each life is worthy of separate contemplaand age, the discussions and the conflicts of tion, both are attended with additional interest the busy world. The principal incidents of his when considered as springing from one source, life were too well known to leave room for the and fostered in the same nurture. That two gratification of curiosity-the political scenes sons of a reputable tradesman in a provincial in which he moved had passed from the arena town at the extremity of England, devoting of living things without having reached an their powers to different branches of the same historical distance-and yet the sale of these profession, should attain the highest honours three massive volumes has exceeded that of which could be achieved in the course which any similar work within our recollection. each had chosen-and that each, after attainThis success has not, we think, been height-ing an age far beyond that usually allotted to ened by the courtly revelations and piquant man, should leave, with a magnificent fortune, anecdotes with which the work is diversified a name indestructibly associated with the desome of which, indeed, so far impair its effect partment in which his work was performedas to suggest the wish we expressed for their is a moral phenomenon not worthy only of excision-but has arisen purely from the inte- national pride, but of respectful scrutiny. rest excited by a vigorous, honest, and affec- This similarity in the results of the labours tionate delineation of the character and the of these two brothers is rendered more refortunes of a great Englishman of sturdy na-markable by the points of strong difference ture, by a hand peculiarly fitted for its office. This remarkable career, thus depicted and

*TO SERJEANT TALFOURD, On reading his Address to the Manchester Athenæum.

BY EDWARD KENEALY.

O'er the white urn that held the sacred heart
Of great Isocrates of old, was placed
The marble image of a Syren, graced
With all the loveliness of Grecian art;
Emblem of eloquence, whose music sweet

Won the whole world by its enchanting spells;
Oh, with what type shall we our Talfourd greet?
What Image shall pourtray the spirit that dwells
Within his soul? An angel from the skies
Beaming celestial beauty from his eyes-
The olden Syren sang but to deceive,

To lure mankind to death her voice was given;
But thine, dear Talfourd, thy bright words enweave
Immortal truths that guide to God and Heaven.

between their intellectual qualities and tastes, as developed in their mature years: inviting us to inquire what faculties were inherent in their youth; how far they were affected by early education; how far varied by the circumstances of their history.

The incidents of Lord Stowell's life, not supplying materials for voluminous biography, are laboriously collected and admirably detailed in an Essay in the "Law Magazine," apparently from the pen which, in a series of papers, seemed to have done enough for Lord Eldon's fame, until Mr. Twiss proved how much more might be achieved by happier opportunity and larger scope. Fortunately, however, the intellectual triumphs of the elder

:

Scott were of a nature capable of preservation as they will be found recorded entire in the Reports of his judicial decisions, of which Dr. Haggard's form the most interesting specimen, as they relate to a class of cases in which manners and affections are frequently involved, and were corrected by the judge himself with sedulous nicety. It is a subject of deep regret that his Lectures on History, which he delivered at Oxford from the Chair of the Camden Professorship, have hitherto been withheld from the world. Of these lectures Dr. Parr writes :—“To these discourses, which, when delivered before an academical audience, captivated the young and interested the old-which are argumentative without formality, and brilliant without gaudiness-and in which the happiest selection of topics was united with the most luminous arrangement of matter-it cannot be unsafe for me to pay the tribute of my praise, because every hearer was an admirer, and every admirer will be a witness." The writer of the article in the "Law Magazine" confirms a rumour we have elsewhere heard, that "a copy of those lectures, transcribed with all the care and accuracy which their noble author was accustomed to bestow on his labours, exists in manuscript;" and we cordially join in this hope "that no false delicacy will prevent their publication," as we feel assured that they will gratify a similar curiosity to that which Gibbon expressed, and justify even Dr. Parr's architectural praise. It would be interesting, for a different reason, to recover the Essay by which the younger Scott, when scarcely twentyone years of age, obtained the prize of English Composition at Oxford-"On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel,"-a subject far removed from his experience, alien from his studies, and which, therefore, would seem to have owed its success either to the ingenuity of its suggestions, or the graces of its style. As, in after-life, the essayist was never distinguished for felicity of expression or fertility of illustration, and acquired a style not only destitute of ornament, but unwieldy and ponderous, this youthful success suggests the question-Whether, in devoting all his powers to the study of the law, he crushed the faculty of graceful composition with so violent an effort, that Nature, in revenge, made his ear dull to the music of language, and involved, though she did not darken his wisest words?

customary severities made more sweet-had the same influence at first as at last: no favour was shown to the youth of one generation more than to that of one degree over another; and the results seem to have been equally uniform-the insurance of that "holy habit of obedience," which is not only the most wholesome, but the happiest state of boyhood; and of a life-long affection to the veteran distributor of justice and praise, which the modern instructor-who, instead of the master, governing by old rules, is the instru ment of new theories—can never hope to enjoy. Each of these celebrated pupils of Mr. Moises delighted in the opportunity which after-life afforded him of acknowledging his obligations to this excellent person; and each testified his gratitude in a manner appropriate to his position, and perhaps characteristic of his nature: Lord Eldon, by the substantial promotion of their schoolmaster, till the good old man declined all worldly favours, and then by transferring them to his son; and Lord Stowell, by contributing to his monument an inscription of graceful and just praise, expressed in Latin, which Dr. Parr might envy.

Among the lawyers who have emerged from that rank which the honest coal-fitter of Newcastle adorned, few have enjoyed, like his sons, the blessings of an education completed at one of our old English Universities. Many youths of such parentage, by means equally honourable to their own ambition and industry, have worked and cut their way through the impediments of fortune to forensic eminence-perhaps acquiring, from the difficulties with which they have struggled, nerve and courage for the painful controversies in which they aspired to mingle-and deriving from the varieties of "many-coloured life" with which they were personally conversant, "a learned spirit of human dealing," which they were able forcibly and happily to apply to the sudden exigencies of their professional career. But no such advantages can supply, however they may sometimes compensate for, the want of that protective influence, extended over opening manhood, which, superseding the restraints of school by a more generous and appropriate discipline, delays the fever and turmoil of life for a few of life's happiest years-which presents to yet unworldly ambition the achievements of praise and fame, before it is compelled to seek the lower rewards The school-day annals of the brothers dis- of fortune-which, amidst the flutterings of close no trace of difference between them: expectation and beneath the uncertain gleams unless the statement of their various recollec- of fancy, lays the deep and sure foundation of tions of the Sunday sermon-William gives a principle to be cemented in the mind amidst lucid detail of its substance, and John an ex- pliant affections-and which blends the veneact detail of portions-may be so regarded: ration for ancient things with the aspirations which may scarcely be, when it is recollected of hope and the quickenings of joy. The that if they were required to perform the ex- youth who, quitting school, has been initiated ercise at the same time, there was a difference at once into the perplexities of the law as in their ages of six years. That interval-practised in the most respectable attorney's long as a section of school-boy life-implies, however, no variety in the system of their education for Mr. Moises, the master of the ancient grammar-school of their native town, one of the best" of the old leven," admitted no innovations: the stern requisition-the unspared rod-the hearty commendation, which

office, or immersed amidst its more refined technicalities in the chambers of an eminent pleader, will acquire an earlier aptitude in some points of practical routine and pigeon-hole knowledge; but, unless gifted with some rare felicity of nature, will be less prepared for the systematic acquisition of legal learning, than

But there is another branch, or rather associated branches of this great profession, requiring powers and habits of thought and feeling different, perhaps opposite, to those which should endow the advocate who would be the charmer of the hearts of juries. To study the law as a science; to trace its principles upwards to their source in the early yet ripe wisdom of our English annals, and thence to follow it through the thousand ramifications which extending wealth and population have rendered needful; and thus to acquire that knowledge which may enable its possessor to solve with confidence the most intricate questions, and to present the aspect of each which he is retained to sustain, encrusted with learn

is an employment laborious and silent indeed, but not unhappy in its progress nor doubtful in its reward. To succeed in this course, a clear and sound understanding, a retentive and not fastidious memory, an untiring ndustry, either finding or creating a love of its work, are all that is required; but how rare are these qualities, compared to the lower des

the lights cast on them from the passions and | competitors were few, he soon found that this the hopes of the client, to be refracted through was not the scene on which he could fulfil the mind and coloured by the fancy of the the prophecies which great judges had procounsel! In the majority of his causes he nounced on the outset of his career. becomes, therefore, always a zealous, often a passionate partisan; lives in the life of every cause (often the most momentous part of his client's life)" burns with one love, with one resentment glows,"-and never ceases to hope, to struggle, or to complain,-till the next cause is called on, and he is involved in a new world of circumstances, passions, and affections. Sometimes it will be his province to track the subtle windings of fraud, pursuing its dark unwearied course beneath the tramplings of busy life; to develop, in lucid array, a little history or cluster of histories, tending to one great disclosure; to combine fragments of scattered truths into a vivid picture; or to cast the light from numerous facts on secret guilt, and render it almost as palpable to be-ing, but lucid in outline and clear in result,― lief as if disclosed to vision. At another time, the honour or the life of man may tremble in his hands; he may be the last prop of sink ing hope to the guilty or the sole refuge clasped by the innocent; or, called on to defend the subject against the power of state prosecution, may give to the very forms and quibbles with which ancient liberty was fenced, a dignity, and breathe over them a magic power. Some-grees of those which are deemed loftier-or times it will be his privilege to pierce the how rarely do they withstand the temptations darkness of time, guided by mouldering char- of pleasure or the more dangerous seductions ters and heroic names; or, tracing out the of the listlessness and dreamy inaction which fibres of old relationships, to explore dim are the besetting sins of studious life! The monuments and forgotten tombs, retracing student who is brave enough to embrace such with anxious gaze those paths of common a course with heroic devotion, has objects life which have been so lightly trodden as to strongly defined before him in the horizon of retain faint impress of the passenger. One his mind; for him hour is linked to hour, and day he may touch the heart with sympathy for day to day, by the continuous effort to ap "the pangs of despised love," or glow indig-proach them; and his life, instead of being nantly at the violation of friendship, and ask, for wrongs beyond all appreciation, as much money as the pleader's imagination has dared to claim as damages; the next he may implore commiseration for human frailty, and preach nothing but charity and forgiveness. The sentiment of antiquity-the dawnings of hope -the sanctity of the human heart in its strength and its weaknesses, are among the subjects presented in rapid succession to his grasp;-with the opportunity sometimes, in moments of excitement, when his audience are raised by the solemnity of the occasion above the level of their daily thoughts, to give hints of beauty and grace which may gleam for a moment only, but will never be forgotten by his delighted hearers. In this sphere, Erskine moved triumphant;—lending his_pliant sensibility to every modification of human feeling he touched on-gay, grave, pitying, humourous, pathetic, by turns-casting all himself into every subject, and forgetting himself within it, and shedding on the world of Nisi Prius hues of living beauty, which seemed to glance and tremble over it. Mr. Scott touched on the verge of his sphere in his circuits; but though an earnestness which all clients admire, a humour not too refined for the most vulgar apprehension, and a temper always under control, procured for him some business at the Assizes in days when

dissipated among various pursuits, and fretted by doubts and vanities, is massed by the coherence of its habits into one consistent whole, and acquires a dignified harmony. By toiling thus in an artificial world, the great lawyer not rarely preserves to old age the simplicity and the freshness of childhood,-moving about as unconscious of the fever of life as a shepherd whose experience is bounded by his native mountains.

When Lord Eldon entered on his studies, the English law formed a body of old principles and modern instances, far better adapted to animate and reward such a career than its present condition. Although even then greatly increased in bulk since the palmy days of its first expositors, it was not, as now, perplexed by multitudes of statutes, expressed in the barbarous jargon peculiar to modern legislation, oppressing the understanding and "darkening counsel with words without knowledge;" nor bound up or frittered away by new rules, fashioned more on imagined expediency than on principle, and presenting an array of volu minous discords which may well strike a student with dismay, and induce him, in despair of acquiring a mastery over the whole, to rest contented with such knowledge of indexes, "small pricks to their subsequent volumes," as may enable him to find some authority to quote, or some expedient to grasp, on the exi

of his sovereign," is equally applicable to the early triumphs of his professional career. His powers were all massed together, and moved by a single impulse, and did not jostle or interfere with each other's influence. In every suit in which he was counsel at the bar, in every struggle of political controversy, or in the tenor of his private life, he saw his object clearly before him; and toiled upward to realize it with undivided strength by the straightest, though often the most arduous pathssome joke, innocent of wit or fancy alone relieving its patient sternness.

gency of each occasion. The system of law, a single distracting pleasure. Mr. Twiss's just however applicable to the enjoyment, the de- remark-" that in the station he was eventuscent, and the transfer of real property, though ally called to fill, his want of imagination was despoiled of some of its forms of ancient dig- one of his advantages; for the judgment, the nity, and debased by limitations of time, which, highest of the intellectual powers, and in pubhowever generally convenient, sometimes pro-lic affairs worth all the rest, was thus left to tect the grossest injustice-making kindness exercise undivided and undisturbed its empire work a sort of disseisin, and arming ingrati- in his mind and its influence in the counsels tude with power-is even still an extraordinary scheme of ingenious architecture, reducing the vestiges of feudal barbarism to consistent form, and extracting from the usages of violence and tyranny the securities of social rights. The system of equity too, not a capricious relaxation of the strict rules of law, but having a sisterly entireness of its own, little disturbed as yet by the busy hand of tumultuous legislation, retains a kindred if not an equal claim for a mind braced for laborious study. To the perfect mastery of these systems, with the more miscellaneous complexities of commercial law, Lord Eldon on quitting Oxford devoted his powers, admirably fitted for the work by all they included, and scarcely less by all they wanted; and the consequence was slow, gradual, and complete success in his profession-secured before he added to his toils the anxieties of political life-and calmly and steadily grasped as his first object amidst them.

Thus constituted by nature of masculine understanding-beyond the common order rather in its grasp than in its essence-destined to move altogether when it moved at all,' Lord Eldon was fortunate in a kindred simplicity of religious and political creed. The effect of his early lessons in the old-fashioned school at Newcastle was to implant in a strong and simple mind a sense of the reality of reliThe great element of Lord Eldon's success, gious truths, as imbodied in the formularies both in legal and political life, was the re- of the Church of England, which admitted of markable simplicity which characterized his no more question than if it was the object of moral nature, his intellect, his opinions, and corporal vision. In his defence, therefore, of his purposes. Even his prodigious industry, that which was part of his own being, he felt which seemed to rejoice in the accumulation no scruple; no airy speculations disturbed the of toils on those which would stupify men who repose of his settled thought; to protect the are accounted laborious, was a subordinate Church against Romanism on the one side, power to this singleness of being and aim. and Dissent on the other-regardless of the If he ever cherished tastes which might dazzle expediencies of the times, or deriving new or distract him in his stubborn career, he soon strength of opposition from them—became to crushed them beneath the weight of his studies. him through life a natural if not an easy office. Once, indeed, when a young member of the He at least "knew his course." In like manHouse of Commons, he attempted an elaborate ner, his attachment to the order of things in speech on the third reading of the India Bill, the State, as he found it, was scarcely less garnished with Shakspearian quotations vio-hearted—with him it was not a matter of lently applied, and scraps of Latin and texts reasoning, but of fact, so distinctly perceived, of Scripture let into the mosaic-work of his | that he regarded the brilliant defence of the incomposition, with strange contrast of colour-stitutions he loved by the eloquence and wit having resolved, with characteristic boldness, of Canning with uneasiness, as if unquestionto rival Sheridan; but the House listened with able truths were lowered in dignity by being astonishment to the wilful extravagance of the protected by the dazzling fence of genius. hard-headed lawyer; and he never repeated When, therefore, his tendency to doubt and the error. Encouraged by the intellectual suc- hesitate in the decision of those complicated cesses which his industry won in more con- questions of fact and equity which depended genial studies, he thought perhaps that he had for adjudication on his individual view of their only to apply the same labour to the depart- bearings, is invidiously contrasted with his ment of wit and eloquence, in order to obtain prompt resistance to all extensive innovations, a similar victory as an eminent special it should be recollected that his attachment to pleader whom we had the happiness to know, the institutions of England, as he first knew rejoicing in the ease with which he produced them, was one of the laws of his moral and inworks of extraordinary practical merit by dis- tellectual nature;-it might be narrow, bigoted, tributing the labour of filling up his own mas- inconvenient; incapable of gracefully bending terly outlines among his pupils, once gravely to the necessities of the times; but still it was proposed to manufacture novels and plays by part of his true self: an attack on Church and a similar process. After this failure-which State was to him the same thing as a violation does not seem to have impaired his character of his paternal roof or an insult to a domestic with the House for sterling sense and compre-affection. The same simplicity of nature, wiser hensive legal knowledge-he resolutely ab- than the most cunning policy, rendered him a stained from all attempts to adorn his natural greater, or rather a dearer favourite in the plainness of speaking, or to relieve his toil by closet of the Sovereign than many who have