To such works as these the present Life of Lord Eldon will prove a most valuable addition, because, in the first place, it presents an abstract of all that could be well achieved in the legal profession by united talents and industry; it gives the history of one who, from a very humble station, without any assistance from others, without a patron's help, without professional connexion, without public favour, rose to the highest honours and emoluments, to the especial friendship of two Sovereigns, to general estimation with the members of his own profession, and to the respect and esteem of the community-"Clarum et venerabile nomen:" and, secondly, it is useful, as detailing, at greater length and with more authentic materials than are usually supplied, the means by which this elevation was attained, showing, that an entire and well-grounded reliance on himself was the foundation of all Lord Eldon's future fortunes. No accident raised him to eminence, no adulation gained him patronage, no alliance procured him superiority of station. This is the history of a plain, simple man, who won his own way up the toilsome hill he had to climb; and the bread he ate was earned by the painful application of mental labour, continued often through night and day, requiring truly the "mentem adamantinam"-the utmost resolution of a determined will in the conquest of great difficulties. Burke has somewhere said, that the study of the law has perhaps a greater tendency to sharpen the faculties, and give acuteness and subtilty in reasoning, and in detecting errors, than in enlarging the general powers of the understanding, and affording those comprehensive views and great resources which distinguish the philosopher and statesman; which, as in Bacon, can enlarge the empire of thought; or in Turgot, disclose a policy which may at once improve the condition and sway the destinies of mankind. This assertion is probably true, for Burke seldom spoke in vain; and, if it be so, it would not be a question surely too curious or remote to inquire, to what cause can this be referred; and may we not, in the first place, attribute something to the disadvantage naturally attending an exclusive study of any one science; for such an entire application of the time and thought the science of law, in its vast and complicated growth, seems imperiously to demand. The late ruler of France, it is said, made men of science statesmen, and found them wanting, for the same reason. Again, it may be said, that, in the various lines of argument through which the discovery of truth is sought, some are more calculated to expand the powers of the understanding, and to extend the boundaries of knowledge, than others; and if that of law depends more on the usages of antiquity, on prescriptive formularies, on foregiven decrees, on statute books, on technicalities, rather than on those large processes of induction which in other pursuits conduct through the different provinces of knowledge, through original research and distant inquiry, through analogy, experiment, and theory, through patient investigation and repeated trial, to the desired result; then we cannot hesitate to acknowledge the effect which the habitual exercise of those very opposite modes of conducting argument and arriving at truth may produce upon the mental powers; though the one may lead to the possession of subtle powers of distinction and nicety of discrimination in the use of terms, and quickness in detecting sophistry in the arguments of the opponent, yet that is not to be compared to the great and general advantage derived from the other; and further it might be said, that the very pursuits of the finished and learned lawyer, preparing for practice or engaged in it, are

not altogether favourable to the full development of the mental faculties, because they deny time for general cultivation, and press the copious and diversified stream of thought into too narrow a channel. We mean to say, that very minute inquiry into any department of knowledge, has a tendency rather to contract than to enlarge the understanding. As we proceed upwards in the stream of science, we find a thousand little channels multiplying themselves in every direction, in the pursuit of which we often suffer our attention to be so far absorbed, as to forget the ends, while we are investigating the source of things around us. We study parts rather than the whole. Even law is so extensive as to admit of much division of labour in its separate branches: and so, what we gain in our power of division, we lose in our nobler faculty of combination. What may be gained in the habit of close and laborious thinking, may be lost in the power of ready judgment and practical discrimination. These observations will surely not be thought irrelevant, when it is recollected how much it has been objected, when Lord Eldon's eminence in his profession was the subject of conversation, that he had carried the narrower views of his profession into his political life; that he did not display the same powers at the council table as at the bench; and that, even in the limits of his own profession, he was far behind some of his contemporaries in comprehensive knowledge and liberal application of the science of law; that he pertinaciously elung, like men of bounded intellect, to inflexible rules and forms; that he had rather a mechanical readiness in practical parts, and a power of threading his way through difficult and complicated questions, than that more philosophic spirit, "quæ vult rerum cognoscere causas," which likes to compare what is confirmed by practice, to the rudiments and origin of rules, to broad and fundamental truths, and to the original principles of science, till the further we advance the more clearly we perceive the scattered elements of truth combine and assume their proper form; and we are at length admitted within those sacred precincts and august abodes, where we behold the venerable monuments of ancient wisdom, and see the majestic lineaments of divine jurisprudence. The latter part of Mr. Twiss's work is occupied in the consideration, and partly in the refutation, of these opinions. We confess that we are not able to enter into such discussions for want of legal knowledge and professional experience; but we may be permitted to remark, that Lord Eldon's legal knowledge and talents have been thus severely judged, not by his contemporaries, and those who most intimately were acquainted with him when in the full possession of all his active powers; not by Lord Redesdale or Lord Erskine, his rivals, or companions of his labours, but by his successors; not by his equals, but his juniors; not by those educated with him in the same line of policy, when the country was under great restrictions of foreign intercourse, and intense dangers from foreign policy and domestic insurrection ; not by those who knew him as the guardian of the law, the adviser of the Crown, and the most experienced member of the ministry during a long period, when every danger to the constitution and existence of the country was threatened, from the most powerful enemies abroad, and discontented demagogues at home. No wonder that, under the pressure of great difficulties, he was willing to hold together the reins of

* See on this subject, Rennell's Remarks on Scepticism, 1823.

discipline closer than he otherwise would; and even to fear any innovations in the practice of the law, when he thought that its very power was threatened. Objections have been made and criticisms applied to him by those who were fortunate enough to live under happier auspices and more liberal institutions than he did; when the gloomy and tempestuous clouds which hung over the fairest prospects of the country had seemed to pass away; when the liberal hand of peace had opened every long-closed port, and established throughout the world new channels of friendly connexion and commercial intercourse; when more extensive negotiations and closer intimacies knit together the nations of the globe; when progressive knowledge and accumulated experience gave rise to new thoughts and feelings; and when a larger communication of mutual ideas swept away at once many lingering prejudices, abolished many hurtful restrictions, and opened new regions of enterprize, and it is to be hoped of happiness, unknown before.

We now proceed to give a short abridgment of the contents of these volumes, and a summary of the events of Lord Eldon's life.

Lord Eldon was descended from the ancient family of the Scotts of Balweary, in Fifeshire, and the name is mentioned as far back as the year 1124. Among them appears the celebrated name of Sir Michael Scott the Wizard. He was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland on the death of Alexander III. He wrote a Commentary on Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496. He is mentioned in the Inferno of Dante, and has appeared with great effect in later days in the romantic Lay of his descendant. This old Scottish family, somehow or other, got South, according to custom, and settled at Newcastle. The father of Lord Eldon was William Scott, a merchant and tradesman, and belonged to the fraternity of the hoastmen of the town. His principal business was that of a coal-fitter, or factor, who conducts the sales between the owner and shipper. This gentleman had two wives, the first of whom we pass over; his second was Jane Atkinson, whom he married Aug. 18, 1740. He lived to be seventy-nine, she to be ninety-one, years of age. By her he had thirteen children, of whom John Scott was the eighth, and William Lord Stowell the eldest. Lord Eldon believes that he was born 4 June, 1751, in Love Lane. He was sent to the Royal Grammar School at Newcastle, of which that fine scholar Richard Dawes had been the master from 1738 to 1749. He was succeeded by the Rev. Hugh Moises, Fellow of Peterhouse, under whose learning and good management the school flourished, which had declined under his predecessor, who was laying down recondite rules of Greek metre for scholars, when he should have been flogging the elements of that language into the boys. John Scott was a diligent boy, attached to his studies, and had the benefit of his brother William's example and instruction. His father meant him for his own business, but William thought he could do better for him. So John was sent to Oxford in May 1776, matriculated as Member of the University, and entered as a Commoner of University College, under the tuition of Sir Robert Chambers, and his brother Lord Stowell. He came up in the Newcastle coach, which had for its motto, Sat cito, si sat bene! which motto made a deep impression on him. "In short (he says) in all that I have had to do in future life, professional and judicial, I have always felt the effect of this early admonition on the panels of the vehicle which conveyed me from school, Sat cito, si sat bene.' It was the impression of this which made

me that deliberative judge,―as some have said too deliberative,―and reflection on all that is past will not authorise me to deny, that whilst I have been thinking Sat cito, si sat bene,' I may not have sufficiently recollected whether Sat bene si sat cito' has had its due influence." He was elected a Fellow in July 1767, when he had but just completed his sixteenth year. He says, both to his brother and himself these Fellowships were of great use in life, and in their future success in it. He took his Bachelor's degree in Feb. 1770, after the following rigid examination :-"I was examined in Hebrew and History. What is the Hebrew for the place of a skull? I replied, Golgotha.' Who founded University College?' I stated that King Alfred founded it, though that is doubtful. Very well, sir,' said the examiner, you are competent for a degree.'' He gained the prize in 1771 for the prose essay "On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel." This was better than being a Newcastle grocer, from which he had a narrow escape.

In 1772 he eloped with Miss Elizabeth Surtees from her father's house at Newcastle, who was a banker of that city. This lady is described as having had at all times such naturally retired habits, that this seems the only instance in which she ever cast them off. She however got out of a one pair of stairs' window, descended a ladder, threw herself and her honour into her lover's arms, and was married at Gretna Green. When they got back to Morpeth they had no money left, and no bed on which they could pass the bridal night. In repentance, therefore, the lady wrote to her father, was forgiven, and they returned to Love Lane. This marriage obliged Mr. Scott to vacate his Fellowship, precluded him from any prospect of preferment in the church, and determined him to the study of the law. In January 1773 he entered as a student of the Middle Temple, and in February of the same year he took his degree of Master of Arts. For the greater part of the next three years he continued to reside in or near Oxford. He says of himself, in a letter to a friend, "I have married rashly, and have neither house nor home to offer my wife; but it is my determination to work hard to provide for the woman I love, as soon as I can find the means of doing so." His wife is described as very young, very beautiful, with flowing ringlets, and wearing a white frock and sash. Who would not work hard for such a creature? and John Scott nearly killed himself by his labour.

In March 1773 the eldest son was born. About 1774 he gave lectures on the law, as deputy for the Vinerian Professor, and for this had 60l. a year. The first lecture he read was on the statute of young men running away with maidens (4 and 5 Phil. and Mar. 8 ch.) In 1773-4-5 he kept his terms at the Temple. At this time, as he had but little funds of his own, it is supposed that his brother assisted him. He was indeed in earnest in the business he undertook. When remonstrated with by a medical friend, he said, "I must either do as I am doing, or starve." Pursuing the advice of Lord Coke, he read "non mulla sed multum." He rose at four o'clock in the morning, was abstinent at meals, and studied at night with a wet towel round his head. He was wont to recur in his later life to these days as not unhappy, though laborious; nor indeed from any labour of the intellect, however severe, can unhappiness arise; the happiness that endures, is generally a happiness that has been slowly and severely won. He was soon to be called to the bar, and settled in London, in a house in Cursitor Street. "Many a time," he said, "have I run

down from Cursitor Street to Fleet Market, to get sixpenny worth of sprats for supper." Such was the early life of the future Lord Chancellor. In February 1776 he was called to the bar. In the first year he made a bargain with his wife, that whatever he got in the first eleven months should be his, and all in the twelfth month hers. "In the twelfth month I received half a guinea, eighteen-pence went for fees, and Betsy received nine shillings; in the other eleven months I got not one shilling." His father died in November of this year, and therefore did not live to see his son receiving even the earliest business or honours of his profession. He left him, however, 10007. in addition to the 20007. settled at his marriage. He now removed to Carey Street, still adhering with intense application to his studies; but his brother William in a letter describes him as rather disheartened. "Business is very dull with poor Jack; if it does not brighten a little he will be heartily sick of his profession. I do all I can to keep up his spirits, but he is very gloomy." After a trial of three or four years he thought of relinquishing London, and settling as a provincial counsel in his native town. But the fulfilment of this desire was prevented by two opportunities, related at length by his biographer, and which Lord Eldon detailed in after life to Mr. Farrer, over a glass of Newcastle Port.* An attorney told him "his bread was buttered for life;" for he had received the commendations both of Lord Thurlow and of Dunning.

He now accepted the office of Recordership of Newcastle, the salary of which added a little to his income; and the causes of Ackroyd and Smithson, and the Clitheroe petition, had left his professional success no longer doubtful. His biographer here makes a remark on the subject, of great importance to those that belong to the profession he alludes to, and we think of interest to all who feel the importance and high rank that the profession bears in our social system, and are therefore curious in tracing the machinery by which it is conducted, and the system that leads to success.

"At the present day, from the great competition of very learned and very able practitioners, a few occasional opportunities do little, however they be improved. Among the more influential class of attorneys and solicitors, it has become usual to bring up a son or other near relation to the Bar, who, if his industry and ability be such as can at all justify his friends in employing him, absorbs all the business which they and their connexion can bestow; and the number of barristers thus powerfully supported is now so great, that few men lacking such an advantage can secure a hold upon business. But at the time when Mr. Scott began his profes

sional life, the usage had not grown up of coming into the field with a 'following' already secured. Education being less general, fewer competitors attempted the Bar; and, even among the educated classes, a large proportion of adventurous men devoted themselves to naval and military pursuits, which have now been deprived of their attraction by a peace of more than a quarter of a century. In those days, therefore, it might well happen, as with Mr. Scott it actually did, that a couple of good opportunities, ably used, would make the fortune of an assiduous barrister in London."

Scott's talent in leading the great cause before mentioned had fixed Lord Thurlow's attention on him, and his kindness was shown in the following singular manner. Sir Grey Cooper asked him to give Scott a Com

* We remember an old Suffolk squire telling us, that at some public dinner he sat next to Lord Stowell. A bottle of port wine was put to each guest. Just before the cloth was removed, he said to his neighbour, "Stowell, I think you've done pretty well," for his bottle was two-thirds emptied. Lord Stowell said, "Look at my brother's," pointing to Lord Eldon's; there was not a drop left.-REV.