paper, containing the heads of the discourse was occasionally referred to, and the enunciation, which at first seemed imperfect and embarrassed, became, as the preacher warmed in his progress, animated and distinct: and although the discourse could not be quoted as a correct specimen of pulpit eloquence, yet Mannering had seldom heard so much learning, metaphysical acuteness, and energy of argument brought into the service of Christianity. Such,' he said, going out of the church, must have been the preachers to whose unfearing minds, and acute though sometimes rudely exercised talents, we owe the Reformation.'

Dr. Erskine was married to Christian Mackay, third daughter of George, third Lord Ray, by whom he had a family of fourteen children, but of whom only four survived him, David Erskine, Esq. of Carnock, and three daughters.

ERSKINE, RALPH, the well-known author of Gospel Sonnets, and other highly esteemed writings, was a younger son of Henry Erskine, some time minister of Cornhill in Northumberland, and, after the Revolution, at Chirnside, Berwickshire, and was born at Monilaws, in Northumberland, on the 18th day of March, 1685. Of his earlier studies we know nothing. Like his brother, Ebenezer, he probably learned his letters under the immediate eye of his father, and, like his brother, he went through a regular course of study in the university of Edinburgh. During the later years of his studentship he resided as tutor and chaplain in the house of Colonel Erskine, near Culross, where he was gratified with the evangelical preaching, and very often the edifying conversation, of the Rev. Mr. Cuthbert, then minister of Culross. He had here also frequent opportunities of visiting his brother Ebenezer; but though younger in years, and less liberally endowed with the gifts of nature, he was a more advanced scholar in the school of Christ, and his brother, if we may believe his own report, was more benefited by him than he was by his brother. Residing within its bounds, he was, by the presbytery of Dunfermline, licensed as a preacher, on the 8th day of June, 1709. He continued to be a probationer nearly two years, a somewhat lengthened period in the then desolate state of the church, when he received a unanimous call from the parish of Dunfermline, to serve as colleague and successor to the Rev. Mr. Buchanan, which he accepted, and to which he was ordained in the month of August, 1711, his friend Mr. Cuthbert of Culross presiding on the occasion. In common with all the churches of the Reformation, the Church of Scotland was from her earliest dawn of returning light distinguished for her attachment to the doctrines of grace. There, as elsewhere, it was the doctrine of grace in giving thorough righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord, preached in its purity, freedom, and fulness, by Hamilton, Wishart, and Knox, which shook from his firm base the dagon of idolatry, and levelled the towers of papal superstition; and it was in the faith of the same doctrines that the illustrious list of martyrs and confessors

under the two Charleses, and the Jameses sixth and seventh, endured such a great fight of affliction and resisted unto blood. At the happy deliverance from persecution in the year 1688, the ecclesiastical constitution of the country was happily restored, with the whole system of doctrine entire. When her scattered ministry began to be assembled, however, it was found that the sword of persecution or the scythe of time had cut off the chief of her strength. The few that had escaped were men, generally speaking, of inferior attainments. Some of them had been protected purely by their insignificancy of character, some by compliances, real or affected, with the system of prelacy, and not a few of them had actually officiated as the bishops' underlings, but for the sake of the benefice were induced to transfer their respect and obedience from the bishop to the presbytery, and to sign the Confession of Faith as a proof of their sincerity. This was the more unfortunate that there was among them no commanding spirit, who, imbued with the love of truth, might have breathed through the body an amalgamating into its own likeness. In consequence of this state of matters, there was less attention paid both to doctrine and discipline than might have been expected; and even with the better and more serious part of the clergy considerable confusion of ideas on the great subject of the gospel, with no inconsiderable portion of legalism, were prevalent. A spirit of inquiry was, however, at this time awakened, and the diffusion of Trail's works, with the works of some of the more eminent of the English Nonconformists, had a powerful effect in correcting and enlarging the views of not a few of the Scottish clergy, among whom was the subject of this memoir, who from a very early period of life seems to have felt strongly, and apprehended clearly, the great scheme of the gospel. Mr. Ralph Erskine had been a most diligent student, and had made very considerable progress in the different branches of science which were commonly studied at that time; and he continued to be a hard student even to his old age, generally writing out his sermons in full, and for the most part in the delivery keeping pretty close to what he had written. For the pulpit he possessed excellent talents, having a pleasant voice and an agreeable winning manner. He peculiarly excelled in the full and free offers of Christ which he made to his hearers, and in the persuasive and winning manner in which he urged their acceptance of the offer so graciously made to them on the authority of the divine Word. He possessed also, from his own varied and extensive experience, a great knowledge of the human heart, and had a singular gift of speaking to the varied circumstances of his hearers, which rendered him more than ordinarily popular. On sacramental occasions he was always waited upon by large audiences, who listened to his discourses with more than ordinary earnestness. During his incumbency Dunfermline, at the time of dispens ing the sacrament, was crowded by strangers from all parts of the kingdom, many of whom, to the day of their death, spoke with transport of the enlargement of heart they had there experienced. To all the other duties of the ministry he was equally attentive as to those of the pulpit. His diligence in exhorting from house to house was most unwearied, his diets of public catechizing, regular; and he was never wanting at the side of the sick-bed when his presence was desired. Ardently attached to divine truth, he was on all occasions its dauntless advocate. In the case of Professor Simpson he stood up manfully for the regular exercise of discipline, both in

to say much; some of them are all that the author intended, which is more than can be said of many poetical productions that have a much higher reputation in the world. His Gospel Sonnets, by far the best of his poems, he composed when he had but newly entered on his ministry, as a compend of the scheme of the gospel, and we know few books that in a smaller compass contain one more perfect. The composition is very homely, but it is just so much better fitted for the serious and not highly instructed reader, whose benefit alone the author had in view. Of his versions of the Song of Solomon, of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and of the Book of Job, it must be admitted that they are utterly unworthy of the gloriously divine originals; but it ought to be remembered, that he was put upon these labours by the urgency of his brethren, with a view to their being added to the psalmody, and that in this case, plainness and simplicity has always been aimed at, to a degree bordering on the bold, not to say the profane. Nor are these attempts, after all, beneath | several of the same kind by the greatest names in English poetry.

ERSKINE, THOMAS ALEXANDER, sixth Earl of Kellie, a distinguished musical genius, was born on September 1st, 1732. He was the eldest son of Alexander, fifth Earl of Kellie, by Janet Pitcairn, daughter of the celebrated physician and poet. The Earls of Kellie were a branch of the Marr family, ennobled through the favour of James VI., which was acquired by the services of Sir Thomas Erskine of Gogar, in protecting his majesty from the Earl of Gowrie and his brother. The father of the subject of this memoir, though possessed of a kind of rude wit, was always deemed a person of imperfect intellect, of which he seems to have been himself aware. Being confined in Edinburgh Castle for his concern in the insurrection of 1745, he one morning came into the room occupied by his brethren in misfortune, showing a paper in his hand. This was a list of persons whom the government had resolved to prosecute no further, and while his lordship's name stood at the head, on account of his rank, it was closed by the name of a Mr. William Fidler, who had been an auditor in the Scottish exchequer. "Oh, is not this a wise government?" cried the earl, "to begin wi' a fule and end wi' a fiddler!" On his lordship's death, in 1756, he was succeeded by his eldest son, who seems to have inherited the wit of his father, along with the more brilliant genius of his mother's family.

The Earl of Kellie displayed, at an early period of life, a considerable share of ability; and it was anticipated that he would distinguish himself in some public employment worthy of his exalted rank. He was led, however, by an overmastering propensity to music, to devote himself almost exclusively to that art. We are informed by Dr. Burney, in his History of Music, that "the Earl of Kellie, who was possessed of more musical science than any dilletante with whom I was ever acquainted, and who, according to Pinto, before he travelled into Germany, could scarcely tune his fiddle, shut himself up at Manheim with the elder Stamitz, and studied composition, and practised the violin with such serious application, that, at his return to England, there was no part of theoretical or practical music in which he was not equally well versed with the greatest professors of his time. Indeed, he had a strength of hand on the violin, and a genius for composition, with which few professors are gifted." In the age during which the Earl of Kellie flourished, it was unfortunately deemed an almost indispensable mark

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THOMAS ERSKINE.

of a man of genius, either in literature or music, to devote himself much to the service of Bacchus. Hence this young nobleman, whose talents might have adorned almost any walk of life, identified himself with the dissolute fraternity who haunted the British metropolis, and of whom there was a considerable offshoot even in Edinburgh. Thus he spent, in low buffooneries and debaucheries, time which might have been employed to the general advantage of his country. He, nevertheless, composed a considerable quantity of music, which, in its day, enjoyed a high degree of celebrity, though it is generally deemed, in the present age, to be deficient in taste and feeling. "In his works," says a late writer, "the fervidum ingenium of his country bursts forth, and elegance is mingled with fire. From the singular ardour and impetuosity of his temperament, joined to his German education, under the celebrated Stamitz, and at a time when the German overture, or symphony, consisting of a grand chorus of violins and wind-instruments, was in its highest vogue, this great composer has employed himself chiefly in symphonies, but in a style peculiar to himself. While others please and amuse, it is his province to rouse and almost overset his hearer. Loudness, rapidity, enthusiasm, announced the Earl of Kellie. His harmonies are acknowledged to be accurate and ingenious, admirably calculated for the effect in view, and discovering a thorough knowledge of music. From some specimens, it appears that his talents were not confined to a single style, which has made his admirers regret that he did not apply himself to a greater variety of subjects. He is said to have composed only one song, but that an excellent one. What appears singularly peculiar in this musician, is what may be called the velocity of his talents, by which he composed whole pieces of the most excellent music in one night. Part of his works are still unpublished, and not a little is probably lost. Being always remarkably fond of a concert of wind-instruments, whenever he met with a good band of them he was seized with a fit of composition, and wrote pieces in the moment, which he gave away to the performers, and never saw again; and these, in his own judgment, were the best he ever composed."

Having much impaired his constitution by hard living, the Earl of Kellie visited Spa, from which he was returning to England, when he was struck with a paralytic shock upon the road. Being advised to stop a few days at Brussels, he was attacked by a putrid fever, of which he died at that city, on the 9th of October, 1781, in the fifty-first year of his age.

ERSKINE, THOMAS, Lord Erskine, was the youngest son of David Henry, tenth Earl of Buchan. He was born in the year 1750, and, after having passed through the high-school classes at Edinburgh, was sent to the university of St. Andrews to finish his education. At a very early age he had imbibed a strong predilection for a naval life; and the limited means of his family rendering an early adoption of some profession necessary, he was allowed to enter the service as a midshipman, under Sir John Lindsay, nephew to the celebrated Earl of Mansfield. Young Erskine embarked at Leith, and did not put foot again on his native soil until a few years before his death. He never, it is believed, held the commission of lieutenant, although he acted for some time in that capacity by the special appointment of his captain, whose kindness in this instance ultimately led to his élève's abandoning the service altogether,

1 Robertson of Dalmeny's Inquiry into the Fine Arts, vol. i.

when required to resume the inferior station of a midshipman. After a service of four years, he quitted the navy, and entered the army as an ensign, in the royals, or first regiment of foot, in 1768. In 1770 he married an amiable and accomplished woman, and shortly afterwards went with his regiment to Minorca, where he spent three years. While in the army, he acquired great reputation for the versatility and acuteness of his conversational powers. Boswell, who met with the young officer in a mixed company in London, mentions the pleasure which Dr. Johnson condescended to express on hearing him-an approbation which assures us that the young Scotsman's colloquial talents were of no ordinary kind, and possessed something more than mere brilliancy or fluency, even at that early period of life. It was the knowledge of these qualities of mind, probably, which induced his mother-a lady whose uncommon acquirements we have already had occasion to eulogize in a memoir of another son-to urge him to devote the great energies of his mind to the study of the law and jurisprudence of his country. Her advice, seconded by the counsel of a few judicious friends, was adopted; and, in his 27th year, Thomas Erskine renounced the glittering profession of arms for the graver studies of law.

He entered as a fellow-commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1777, merely to obtain a degree, to which he was entitled as the son of a nobleman, and thereby shorten his passage to the bar; and, at the same time, he inserted his name in the books of Lincoln's Inn, as a student at law. One of his college declamations is still extant, as it was delivered in Trinity College chapel. The thesis was the revolution of 1688, and the first prize was awarded to its author; but, with that nobleness of feeling which always characterized him, he refused to accept of the reward, alleging as an excuse, that he had merely declaimed in conformity with the rules of college, and, not being a resident student, was not entitled to any honorary distinction. A burlesque parody of Gray's Bard which appeared about this time in the Monthly Magazine, was generally attributed to Mr. Erskine. The origin of this production was a circumstance of a humorous nature. The author had been prevented from taking his place at dinner in the college-hall, by the neglect of his barber, who failed to present himself in proper time. In the moment of supposed disappointment, hunger, and irritation, the bard pours forth a violent malediction against the whole tribe of hair-dressers, and, in a strain of prophetic denunciation, foretells the overthrow of their craft in the future taste for cropped hair and unpowdered heads. The ode is little remarkable for poetical excellence, but displays a lively fancy and keen perception of the ludicrous. In order to acquire that knowledge of the technical part of his profession, without which a barrister finds himself hampered at every step, Mr. Erskine became a pupil of Mr. (afterwards Judge) Buller, then an eminent special pleader, and discharged his laborious and servile avocation at the desk with all the persevering industry of a common attorney's clerk. Upon the promotion of his preceptor to the bench, he entered the office of Mr. (afterwards Baron) Wood, where he continued for some months after he had obtained considerable business at the bar.

At this time his evenings were often spent in a celebrated debating association then held in Coachmakers' Hall. These spouting clubs, at the period of which we speak, were regarded with a jealous eye by the government; and it was considered discreditable, or at least prejudicial to the interests of

any young man who looked forward to patronage at the bar, to be connected with them. The subjects usually discussed were of a political nature, and the harangues, delivered in a motley assembly of men of all ranks and principles, were often highly inflammatory in sentiment, and unguarded in expression. But it was in such schools as these that the talents of a Burke, and a Pitt, and an Erskine, were nursed into that surpassing strength and activity which afterwards enabled them to "wield at will" not the "fierce democracy," but even the senate of Great Britain. While engaged in these preparatory studies, Mr. Erskine was obliged to adhere to the most rigid economy in the use of his very limited finances-a privation which the unvarying cheerfulness and strong good sense of his amiable consort enabled him to bear with comparative ease.

Mr. Erskine, having completed the probationary period allotted to his attendance in the Inns of Court, was called to the bar in 1778; and in the very outset of his legal career, while yet of only one term's standing, made a most brilliant display of professional talent in the case of Captain Baillie, against whom the attorney-general had moved for leave to file a criminal information in the Court of King's Bench, for a libel on the Earl of Sandwich. In the course of this his first speech Mr. Erskine displayed the same undaunted spirit which marked his whole career. He attacked the noble earl in a strain of severe invective. Lord Mansfield, observing the young counsel heated with his subject, and growing personal on the first lord of the admiralty, told him that Lord Sandwich was not before the court: "I know," replied the undaunted orator, "that he is not formally before the court; but for that very reason I will bring him before the court. He has placed there men in the front of the battle, in hopes to escape under their shelter; but I will not join in battle with them; their vices, though screwed up to the highest pitch of human depravity, are not of dignity enough to vindicate the combat with me; I will drag him to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity. I assert that the Earl of Sandwich has but one road to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace: and that is, by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors, and restoring Captain Baillie to his command."

Mr. Erskine's next speech was for Mr. Carnan, a bookseller, at the bar of the House of Commons, against the monopoly of the two universities in printing almanacs. Lord North, then prime minister and chancellor of Oxford, had introduced a bill into the House of Commons for revesting the universities in their monopoly, which had fallen to the ground by certain judgments which Carnan had obtained in the courts of law; the opposition to the premier's measure was considered a desperate attempt, but, to the honour of the house, the bill was rejected by a majority of 45 votes.

Not long after having gained this original triumph, Mr. Erskine made a most splendid appearance for the man of the people, Lord George Gordon, at the Old Bailey. This great speech, and the acquittal which it secured to the object of it, have been pronounced by a competent judge the death-blow of the tremendous doctrine of constructive treason. The monster, indeed, manifested symptoms of returning life at an after-period; but we shall see with what noble indignation its extirpator launched a second irresistible shaft at the reviving reptile. Lord George's impeachment arose out of the following circumstances. Sir. George Saville had introduced a bill into parliament for the relief of the Roman Catholics of England from some of the penalties they