CLXXV. either party, he probably would have filled the same offices, CHAP. I must likewise censure him for not making himself better acquainted with English jurisprudence. He had a very fine legal understanding, and with proper application he was capable of comprehending and expounding the most abstruse questions debated in our courts; but he was contented with the superficial knowledge of his profession, which enabled him, by means of a cursory examination of authorities and a cautious concealment of his ignorance of all beyond what he had got up for the occasion, decently to get through the business of the day. As a judge he was of spotless integrity, and he could deal well with the facts of every case; but he was often obliged to resort to others for those maxims on which depended the most important rights of the suitors who came before him for justice. Thurlow used to say," That d-d Scotchman has the gift of the gab, but he is no lawyer; in the House of Lords I get Taffy Kenyon, or some one else who does my dirty work, to start some law doctrine in such a way that the fellow must get up to answer it, and then I leave the Woolsack and give him such a thump in the bread-basket that he cannot recover his wind." Yet Loughborough, by his "gift of the gab," sometimes seems to have had the best of it. Lord Eldon used to relate that on one occasion when the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was speaking with considerable effect on a law point which Thurlow had not sufficiently studied, the latter, as he sat on the Woolsack, was heard to mutter, "If I were not as lazy He was deprofes ficient in sional knowledge. 1 CHAP. as a toad at the bottom of a well, I could kick that fellow CLXXV. Loughborough heels over head any day in the week."* Censure upon him for neglect ing and opposing all law re form. Letter from Mr. Pitt proposing that Lord Loughborough should take a sinecure. Still deeper blame is to be imputed to Lord Loughborough, for not only omitting to do any thing material, during the forty years he sat in Parliament, to improve our laws, but for opposing the efforts which now began to be made by others for this great object. Having effected nothing by "Orders" to reform the abuses of the Court of Chancery, the only law bill which he ever introduced, besides that already mentioned, to prevent the dangerous accumulation of property by means of fantastical wills, was the bill requiring, under the pain of nullity, all annuities to be registered, unless secured on freehold estates. The purpose was to check the ruinous practice of expectant heirs borrowing money on extravagant terms by granting annuities, and thus evading the statutes against usury; but the measure was illframed, and has fallen into desuetude.† When a bill for Thurlow, retaining the recollection of the wounds he had received in conflicts with this formidable antagonist, when told by Lord Lauderdale of his intention to make an attack on Lord Loughborough, then Chancellor, said to him, "You had better not, sir: he will come over you with his cold tongue.” He likewise caused to be brought in the Act by which a pension of 4000l. a year was provided for a retired Chancellor. Mr. Pitt, by the following letter, proposed that he should take a sinecure like his predecessors: "MY DEAR LORD, "Holwood, Sunday, March 2d, 1794. "I wish to submit to your Lordship the idea of an arrangement on which I shall be happy to know your sentiments. If it strikes you as it does me, it will be a great satisfaction to me to see it carried into execution. An opportunity occurs of opening the office of Chief Justice in Eyre, now held by Mr. Villiers, the salary of which, as it stands (but subject to some possible deduction), is about 1900l. per annum. The office appears to me to be of a description which might very properly be held with your Lordship's present situation, and there is nothing to prevent an additional pension being granted out of the Civil List, dependent on the event of your ceasing to hold the Great Seal, which might make the amount, in that case, about equal to the salary of a tellership, which has been so frequently the provision for your predecessors. If your Lordship approves of this mode, it appears to be liable to no difficulty, and would render any idea of an application to Parliament unnecessary. You will, perhaps, have an opportunity of turning this in your mind, so as to let me know your opinion when I have the pleasure of meeting you to-morrow. "Ever, my dear Lord, sincerely yours, "W. PITT."1 But he very properly objected to the jobbing to which such bargains were apt to give rise; and Mr. Pitt at last agreed in the propriety of a fixed retired allowance for the Chancellor, which has since been extended to all the Judges. Stat. 39 Geo. 3. c. 110. 1 Rossl. MSS. CLXXV. altering the criminal law, which had been drawn up by Mr. CHAP. Wilberforce, came to the House of Lords, Lord Loughborough threw it out, saying, "I cannot help lamenting that men not conversant with law now-a-days turn law projectors, and in fits of vivacity come forward with raw, jejune, illadvised, and impracticable schemes for alteration of the mode of distributing and carrying into execution the criminal justice of the country: as Attorney General, I always thought it my duty to check the introduction of every such ́ project. I remember that an offender sentenced to stand in the pillory having lost his life from the fury of the mob, a humane gentleman (Mr. Burke) brought in a bill to make the offence capital, with a view to do away with the punishment of the pillory altogether: but I acted upon the opinion that the Judges were the proper persons with whom alterations in the penal code ought to originate." He opposed the bill for repealing 25 Geo. 2., which, in cases of murder, subjects the body of the criminal to dissection. "According to my experience," said he, "prisoners hardened in vice, and practised in villany, have stood with a firm countenance during trial, and have even heard sentence of death passed upon them without emotion; but when the Judge informed them that they were to undergo a public dissection, their countenances changed, they grew suddenly pale, trembled, and exhibited a visible appearance of the extremest horror. This sort of exhibition has always made a forcible impression on the minds of the bystanders, and, I have not the smallest doubt, is attended with the most salutary consequences in repressing crime." He even went so far as to reject a bill to change to hanging the punishment of burning, to which women were liable for "coining," then treated as "high treason." "I see no great necessity," said he coolly, "for the alteration, because, although the punishment, as a spectacle, is rather attended with circumstances of horror, it is likely to make a more lasting impression on the beholders than mere hanging; and, in fact, no greater degree of personal pain is thus inflicted, the criminal being always strangled before the flames are suffered to approach her body." But such sentiments reflect He defends the burn ing of women for coining. CHAP. CLXXV. His brilliant ora tory. discredit on the times rather than the individual. When Loughborough was Chancellor, our penal code, having reached its utmost degree of atrocity, was generally defended and approved. All that can be said against him personally is, that on such subjects he was not in advance of his age. Dr. Parr relates the following anecdote in proof of his humanity: "Lord Rosslyn, disregarding the difference of our political sentiments, at my request, gave the fullest effect to my exertions for saving an unfortunate person who had committed the crime for which he was on the point of suffering death, but was guiltless of some aggravations hastily imputed to him, and who, by the diligence, sobriety, and honesty which he has uniformly manifested for the space of twenty-five years from the time of his deliverance, has amply repaid to society the mercy shown to him by the Executive Government." So enthusiastic was the worthy divine, that he adds, "In genius and magnanimity Lord Rosslyn towered above his colleagues." It is in oratory that Wedderburn is most to be admired; and I am inclined to think that, while in the House of Commons, he was the greatest debater, for a lawyer, that ever sat in that assembly. More sarcastic than Murray, more forcible than Pratt, more polished than Dunning, more conciliating than Thurlow, he combined in himself the great physical and intellectual requisites for swaying a gentlemanlike mob. His manner was rather too precise, from the pains he had taken with it under Sheridan and Macklin, and from his dread of Scotch phrases or accents; but his voice was powerful and sweet, his eye was full of fire, and, without standing on tiptoe (a vain attempt I have witnessed, to add a cubit to the stature of a little man), the movements of his body were so energetic, appropriate, and graceful, that, like Garrick, he seemed "six feet high." Another circumstance which gave him weight in the House of Commons was, that he always remained true to the colours under which he served, seeking by display to gain separate objects, or to gratify personal vanity; but, under just subordination to his leader, he seemed only to consider the interests of the party to which, - not CLXXV. for the time, he belonged. Upon the approach of a great CHAP. debate he took enormous pains to be master of the subject; he prepared in writing some fine sentences, to be opportunely thrown in when replying; and the story went that he even practised before a looking-glass his starts of surprise at ironical cheers, and his looks of complacency when he expected to be favoured with the sympathy of his hearers. Whatever arts he employed, he was always heard with attention and delight; - controlling the sympathies of his hearers, they for a time forgot his political lubricity. Fox, Burke, and Dunning in turn entered the lists against him without gaining any decisive advantage; he could almost make our quarrel with America appear just, and the war to subdue her well conducted. Perhaps the most striking proof of his great rhetorical powers is the position which he maintained in society notwithstanding what might be stated to his discredit. Though much abused behind his back, all were civil to him in his presence even his opponents, who were influenced by the hope of a compliment from him in debate, or dreaded the keen edge of his sarcasm. - From his articles in the original Edinburgh Review, when His aua very young man, it might have been expected that he thorship. would have gained distinction as an author; but he had not imbibed his friend David Hume's passion for literary fame, and he greatly preferred office, titles, and riches. Lord Commissioner Adam, indeed, says in the Diary which I have before quoted, "he had produced an historical work which never met the light, although he had taken great pains to correct it a Dissertation on the Reign of Henry II. of England; - and there is reason to think that he printed anonymously several political pamphlets; but the only publication ever avowed by him was a little treatise which came out in the year 1793, soon after he received the Great Seal, entitled, "Observations on English Prisons, by the Right Honourable Alexander Lord Loughborough, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain." It had probably been written when he was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and it contains the result of his inquiries and observations as a Criminal Judge. Cer |