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Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 by Various

V >> Various >> Blackwood\'s Edinburgh Magazine Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844




In March 1807, a bill having been prepared as a preliminary to the
Popish concession, the king pronounced it contrary to his coronation
oath, and insisted on its withdrawal; the Whigs consented; but the king
further insisting on a pledge that they would attempt no similar
measure, they demurred, and his majesty instantly dismissed them, amidst
the general rejoicing of the empire. The Duke of Portland was placed at
the head of a new ministry, and Lord Eldon received the Seals.

We have now seen his lordship secure in that station which he was to
retain until the close of his useful and vigorous life; we shall,
therefore, abandon politics, and turn to his more numerous recollections
of incident and character.

Lord Eldon as a warrior. "During the war," says his lordship, "I became
one of the Lincoln's Inn volunteers--Lord Ellenborough, at the same
time, being one of the corps. It happened, unfortunately for the
military character of both of us, that we were _turned out of the
awkward squad for awkwardness_! I think Ellenborough was more awkward
than I was; but others thought that it was difficult to determine which
was the worse." His brother William, however, was a smart officer, and
commanded a corps.

Of Chief-Justice Eyre, whom he succeeded in the Common Pleas, he
told--"Eyre once demanded of Wilkes, why he abused him so unmercifully
in his speeches to the Livery while he was Recorder, though in private
he expressed a regard for him?"--"So I have," said Wilkes, "and it is
for that reason I abuse you in public. I wish to have you promoted to a
judgeship."

"When Sir Robert Henley was keeper of the Great Seal, and presided in
the House, he was often indignant at seeing his decrees reversed, while,
not being a peer, he was not entitled to support his decisions. In the
famous case of Drury and Drury, his decision having been reversed,
though the bar then and still pronounced it valid, the lord keeper was
very angry; and, in driving home, his coachman checked the horses. He
asked--'Why he did not drive on?' The man saying--'My lord, I can't. If
I do, I shall kill an old woman.'--'Drive on,' cried Henley; 'if you do
kill her, she has nothing to do but to appeal to the house of Lords.' He
was afterwards made lord chancellor, and this habit of reversals came to
an end."

On his quitting the chancellorship, and accepting the inferior office of
lord president, the Archbishop of Canterbury congratulating him on his
removal from an office of unceasing fatigue to one of so much quiet, the
ex-chancellor not being at all satisfied with the difference of the
emoluments, answered very sulkily, "I suppose, now, you would think I
was extremely civil and kind if I were to congratulate your grace on a
transition from Canterbury to Llandaff."

Taylor, an extravagant personage who called himself a chevalier, and who
professed extraordinary skill in the diseases of the eye, dining one day
with the bar on the Oxford circuit, related many wonders which he had
done. Bearcroft, a little out of humour at his self-conceit,
said--"Pray, Chevalier, as you have told us a great many things which
you have done, try to tell us something which you cannot do." "Nothing
so easy," said Taylor; "I cannot pay my share of the dinner-bill; and
that, sir, I must beg of you to do."

Lord Thurlow's oddity and abruptness, both sometimes amounting to
brutality, were the constant source of amusement--at least to all but
the sufferers. On a trial in which an attorney gave evidence respecting
the will of a man whose death was in question, the attorney, after some
puzzling, said--"My lord, hear me, the man is dead; I attended his
funeral; he was _my client_." "Why, sir," said Thurlow, "did you not
mention _that_ at first? a great deal of time and trouble might have
been saved. That he was _your_ client is some evidence that he was dead;
nothing was so likely to kill him."

At Buxton, Thurlow lodged with a surgeon, opposite to a butcher's shop.
He asked his landlord whether he or his neighbour killed the most.

Thurlow, on being asked, how he got through all his business as a
chancellor, answered--"Just as a pickpocket gets through a horse-pond.
He _must_ get through." Dunning, when a similar question was put to him,
answered in much the same spirit, though in a more professional style.
"I divide my business into three parts: one part I do; another does
itself; and the third I leave undone."

In 1807, Lord Eldon purchased the estate of Encombe in the Isle of
Purbeck, for which he paid between L52,000 and L53,000, comprising a
mansion with 2000 acres, a fertile valley, with a fine sea view.

In 1809, the charges brought by Colonel Wardle against the Duke of York
excited great public interest. The very sound of malversation in high
employments excites all the feelings of a nation with whom character is
the first requisite; and the rumour that the Duke had been a party to
the sale of commissions in the army by Mrs Clarke, with whom he had
formed an unfortunate connexion, produced a public uproar. After
discussions and examination of witnesses, which lasted six weeks, and
brought infinite obloquy on the Duke and his defenders, the House of
Commons resolved, by 278 to 196, that the charge of corruption, or even
of connivance, against the Duke, was wholly without foundation. Upon
this clearance of his character, the Duke resigned the command of the
army; a subsequent motion for a censure on his conduct, was negatived
without a division. The Duke of York was, beyond all question, clear of
any knowledge of the practices of the very ingenious person with whom he
associated, but few men have ever paid more dearly for their offence.
The storm of public abuse which poured on him for months, must have been
torture; and his resignation of office must have stung every feeling;
and even his pecuniary sacrifice during the three years of his
retirement, must have been severely felt by a prince with a narrow
income for his rank. That loss could not have been less than L50,000. In
1811 he resumed the command. We must hasten to the conclusion. Lord
Eldon, after witnessing the two great changes of the constitution, the
Popish bill of 1829--which he calls the "fatal bill," and which he had
resisted with all his vigour and learning for a long succession of
years--and the Reform bill of 1832, at length found that period coming
to him which comes to all. Retiring from public life, he devoted himself
to his study, the society of a few old friends, and those considerations
of a higher kind which he had cultivated from early life, and which
returned to him, as they return to all who reverence them, with
additional force when their presence was more consolatory and essential.
But old age naturally strips us of those who gave an especial value to
life; and after seeing his brother Lord Stowell, and Lady Eldon--his
Elizabeth, for whom he seems to have always retained the tenderness of
their early years--taken from him, he quietly sank into the grave, dying
in 1838, January 13th, aged 87. He deserved to rest in peace--for he had
lived in patriotism, integrity, and honour.

The three volumes exhibit a research which does much credit to the
intelligence and industry of Mr Twiss, their author. They abound in
capital anecdotes, but a few of which we have been able to give--possess
passages of very effective writing--and form a work which ought to be in
the library of every lawyer, statesman, and English gentleman.

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