allowed to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare to calumniate me. Let my character and my motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice. Then shall my character be vindicated; then may my epitaph be written. I have done." Brave, manly words! Undaunted, unconquerable soul! mercifully spared the foreknowledge of the coming degradation of your countrymen. We can salute you across the century. "By all the good and all the wise forgiven." CHAPTER XXXVI LORD ERSKINE LORD ERSKINE was a younger son of the tenth Earl of Buchan, and, after serving in both the Navy and the Army, was called to the Bar in 1778, where, as the Hon. Thomas Erskine, he displayed very great powers as an advocate, and ultimately rose to be Lord Chancellor. In defending Thomas Hardy and subsequently Horne Tooke against an accusation of high treason, he triumphed over all the powers and artifices of the Government of the day and won verdicts against the most overwhelming obstacles. In such a position of tremendous responsibility we may excuse his occasional violation of the rule of English advocacy that directs gentlemen of the bar ever to refrain from avowing their own personal belief in the innocence or guilt of a prisoner when addressing a jury. After obtaining an acquittal of Thomas Hardy, a person of no prominence and distinction, Horne Tooke was selected as the next defendant by the Government. Erskine, after rehearsing all the accumulated forces gathered against his client, exclaimed: "I have, lastly, to contend with all this array of ability and learning which is now before me, though with this consolation, that the contention is with honourable men. It is the glory of the English bar that the integrity and independence of its members is no mean security of the subject. When, in spite of all this mighty and seemingly insuperable pressure, I recollect that an humble and obscure individual was not merely acquitted, but delivered with triumph from the dangers which surrounded him; when I call to mind that his deliverance was sealed by a verdict not obtained by cabal or legal artifice, but supported by principles which every man who has a heart in his bosom must approve, and which accordingly has obtained the most marked and public approbation; when I consider all this, it raises up a whirlwind of emotion in my mind, which none but He who rides upon the whirlwind could give utterance to express. "In that season of danger, when I thought a combination of circumstances existed which no innocence could overcome, and having no strength of my own to rely on, I could only desire to place the jury under the protection of that benevolent Providence which has so long peculiarly watched over the fortunes of this favoured island. 66 Sincerely and from the bottom of my heart, I wished that a verdict should be given, such as a jury might look up to God, as well as around them to man, when they pronounced it. Gentlemen, that verdict was given, it is recorded; and the honour and justice of the men who, as the instruments of Providence, pronounced it are recorded, I trust, for ever along with it." In commenting on Erskine's conduct of this great trial of Horne Tooke for his life, Lord Brougham has delivered the following magnificent tribute : "He was an undaunted man; he was an undaunted advocate. To no Court did he ever truckle, neither to the Court of the King, neither to the Court of King's Judges. "Their smiles and their frowns he disregarded alike in the fearless discharge of his duty. He upheld the liberty of the press against the one; he defended the rights of the people against both combined to destroy them. "If there be yet amongst us the power of freely discussing the acts of our rulers; if there be yet the privilege of meeting for the promotion of needful reforms; if he who desires wholesome changes in our constitution be still recognised as a patriot, and not doomed to die the death of 66 a traitor; let us acknowledge with gratitude that to this great man, under Heaven, we owe this felicity of the times. In 1794 his dauntless energy, his indomitable courage, kindling his eloquence, inspiring his conduct, giving direction and lending firmness to his matchless skill, resisted the combination of statesmen, and princes and lawyers the league of cruelty and craft formed to destroy our liberties-and triumphantly scattered to the winds the half-accomplished scheme of an unsparing proscription. "Before such a precious service as this well may the lustre of statesmen and of orators grow pale. 66 At the famous state trial of 1794 he lost his voice on the evening before he was to address the jury. It returned to him just in time, and this, like other felicities of his career, he always ascribed to a special providence, with the habitual religious disposition of mind which was hereditary in the godly families from which he sprung." The Courts of Justice are frequently the scene of splendid eloquence and noble declamation which is all lost with the day of its delivery. The profession cultivates a capacity for instant retort which, being entirely unprepared, is the more astonishing to those of us who have not the gift of expression in such amplitude. There is recorded a short but very perfect rhetorical flight delivered by Curran to a judge who had risen to the Bench by intrigue, and to eminence which he disgraced, who had written many slavish and scurrilous pamphlets, and whose name out of charity may be left in his ignominious grave. Sneering at Curran's poverty, this miserable creature had told him that he supposed "his law library was rather contracted." To this Curran immediately replied thus: "It is very true, my Lord, that I am poor, and the circumstance has certainly somewhat curtailed my library: my books are not numerous, but they are select, and I hope they have been perused with proper dispositions. I have prepared myself for this high profession rather by the study of a few good works, than by the composition of a great many bad ones. "I am not ashamed of my poverty, but I should be ashamed of my wealth, could I have stooped to acquire it by servility and corruption. "If I rise not to rank, I shall at least be honest; and should I ever cease to be so, many an example shows me that an ill-gained elevation, by making me the more conspicuous, would only make me the more universally and the more notoriously contemptible." This must have given exquisite pleasure to the crowded court, and must have effectually deflated for the time, at any rate, the "insolence of office." But now to return to Erskine. I propose to quote a very delicate and beautiful passage from a source that does not often yield such felicities of oratorythe Divorce Court. The Hon. Richard Bingham, afterwards Lord Lucan, had fixed his affections on a beautiful woman, who was forcibly married by her worldly parents to Mr Howard, the heir to the Dukedom of Norfolk. The lady displayed from the first her aversion from Mr Howard and her love for Mr Bingham. When the inevitable happened and the action was brought by Mr Howard, Erskine's speech for Mr Bingham was full of touching eloquence : "Nothing certainly is more delightful to the human fancy than the possession of a beautiful woman in the prime of health and youthful passion: It is, beyond all doubt, the highest enjoyment which God, in his benevolence, and for the wisest purposes, has bestowed upon his own image. "I reverence, as I ought, that mysterious union of mind and body which, while it continues our species, is the source of all the affections; which builds up and dignifies the condition of human life; which binds the husband to the wife by ties more indissoluble than laws can possibly create; and which by the reciprocal endearments arising from a mutual passion, a mutual interest, and a mutual honour, lays the foundation of that parental affection |