CLXXVI. A. D. 1772. CHAP. expressed himself in Parliament, To the virtue of the army we have hitherto trusted; to that virtue, small as the army is, we must still trust; and without that virtue, the Lords, the Commons, and the people of England may entrench themselves behind parchment up to the teeth, but the sword will find a passage to the vitals of the Constitution.""-He afterwards goes on to show that, from the low pay of the army, none but the cadets of high families and persons of great wealth can enter it; and asks whether these men often deserve the honourable title of soldiers. "A commission," says he," and a tour through Italy, are the finishing strokes to modern education; they are undertaken with the same serious intentions, and are prosecuted with equal improvement. So long as the battalions are encamped on native plains, or ensconced in peaceful barracks, so long these sons of riot and effeminacy maintain their posts. The brilliant orbit of Ranelagh glows with their scarlet, and the avenues of Vauxhall glitter with blades, drawn against unarmed apprentices in the honour of a strumpet, which rust in their scabbards when their country calls. If for a review or a muster they are obliged to loll in their vis-à-vis to the quarters of their regiment, it is but to inflame the contempt and hatred of the people of England against the defenders of their peaceable privileges. They gallop again to town, after having filled the country with such horror at their debaucheries that hospitable doors are shut against officers of principle and reputation. Such are the advantages which the military profession reaps from these apes in embroidery; such are the heroes that in the event of a war must lead the British troops to battle, for these men rise almost universally over the heads of officers grey with fatigues and rough with scars, whose courage and abilities yet preserve the honour of the English name, who, without money and without interest, languish in the subaltern ranks, unknown and unrespected, who, after having braved all the terrors and calamities of war, and immortalised their country, sink into obscure graves, unwept and unremembered, without a tongue to speak their worth, or a stone to record their virtues. It is only upon the use CLXXVI. A. D. 1773. ful and valuable part of the army that all its grievances fall. CHAP. To the stripling of the peaceable parade it is the limbo of vanity; to the veteran of the field it is a path sown with thorns." In the same strain the pamphlet goes on at great length to point out abuses, and to call upon the injured officers to join together in obtaining a remedy, which he assures them they may safely do without danger of being punished for mutiny. From the excellent condition in which the army now is under the illustrious Commander-in-chief, we are not necessarily to suppose that these complaints are much exaggerated. When the American war broke out, soon after, the army was found to be in a very defective state, and the public derived considerable advantage from Erskine's suggestions for its improvement. The pamphlet had a great cir- Great suc culation the name of the author was well known, although it did not appear in the title-page; and he acquired much celebrity by the boldness and eloquence with which he had pleaded for his profession. cess of this pamphlet. He is promoted to be a lieu tenant in the army. Having been some time the senior ensign in his regiment, on the 21st of April, 1773, he was raised to be a lieutenant. The pleasure of promotion speedily passed away, and he became more and more dissatisfied with his situation and his prospects. He was again moving about with his regiment from one country town to another. This mode of life had lost the charm of novelty which once made it endurable, and was now become doubly irksome from his having to keep a wife and family in a barrack-room, or in lodgings, the expense of which he could ill afford. He had no money to purchase His dishigher commissions, and he might wait many years before he gained another step by seniority. Notwithstanding some prospects. disputes with the American colonies, there seemed a probability of long and profound peace. He thought himself fit for better things than the wretched existence that seemed lengthening before him-to be spent in listlessness and penury. content and bad 1774. It so happened that in the midst of these lucubrations, the August, assizes were held in the town in which he was quartered. Occasion of The lounging lieutenant entering the court in his regimentals, his resolu CLXXVI. tion to study the law. CHAP. Lord Mansfield the presiding judge, inquired who he was, and, finding that this was the youngest son of the late Earl of Buchan, who had sailed with his nephew, invited him to sit on the bench by his side, explained to him the nature of the proceedings that were going forward, and showed him the utmost civility. Erskine heard a cause of considerable interest tried, in which the counsel were supposed to display great eloquence. Never undervaluing his own powers, he thought within himself that he could have made a better speech than any of them, on whichever side he had been retained. Yet these gentlemen were the leaders of the circuit, each making a larger income than the pay of all the officers of the Royals put together,—with the chance of being raised by their own abilities to the Woolsack. The thought then suddenly struck him that it might not even now be too late for him to study the law and be called to the Bar. He saw the difficulties in his way, but there was no effort which he was not willing to make, no privation to which he would not cheerfully submit, that he might rescue himself from his present forlorn condition,-that he might have a chance of gaining intellectual distinction, above all, that he might make a decent provision for his family. Lord Mansfield invited him to dinner, and being greatly struck with his conversation and pleased with his manners, detained him till late in the evening. When the rest of the company had withdrawn, the Lieutenant, who ever showed great moral courage, in consideration of the connection between the Murrays and the Erskines, and the venerable Earl's great condescension and kindness, disclosed to him his plan of a change of profession, with a modest statement of his reasons. Lord Mansfield by no means discouraged him; but advised him before he took a step so serious to consult his near relations. Advice given to him by Lord Mansfield. Arrange. ments for his becoming a lawyer. He accordingly wrote to his mother, and she, justly appreciating the energy and perseverance as well as the enthusiasm belonging to his nature, strongly advised him to quit the army for the law. His brothers did not oppose, although Henry warned him of the thorny and uphill path on which he was entering. His resolution was now firmly taken, and CLXXVI. A. D. 1775. he came up to London to carry it into effect. It was not CHAP. till the spring of the following year that financial difficulties were so far removed as to render it possible for him to make the experiment. Craddock says:-"At the House of Admiral Walsingham I first met with Erskine and Sheridan, and it was there the scheme was laid that the former should exchange the army for the law;" but he had not been made acquainted with the previous consultations, or he would have said that "the plan was there matured, and the arrangements were made for his legal studies and his call to the Bar." The period of five years was then required by all the inns of court for a student to be on the books of the society before he could be called-with this proviso, that it was reduced to three years for those who had the degree of M. A. from either of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. It was resolved that Erskine should immediately be entered of an inn of Court; that he should likewise be matriculated at Cambridge, and take a degree there; that he should keep his academical and law terms concurrently, and that as soon as it could be managed, he should become a pupil to some eminent special pleader, so as to be well grounded in the technicalities of his new craft. He is en- tered of matricu Accordingly, on the 26th day of April, 1775, he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn*, and on the 13th of January, 1776, he was matriculated at Cambridge, and entered on the books of Trinity College as a Gentleman Commonert, with the privilege of wearing a hat. He had rooms in college, in which he resided the requisite periods to keep his terms, but being entitled to a degree without examination, he paid dence at "Lincoln's Inn.-The Honourable Thomas Erskine, third son of the Right Honourable Henry David Earl of Buchan, is admitted into the Society of this Inn on the 26th day of April, in the fifteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord 1775; and hath thereupon paid to the use of this Society the sum of Three pounds three shillings and fourpence. — Admitted by J. Cox." "Jan. 13. 1776.- Admissus est Socio-commensalis Thomas Erskine, filius Henrici Davidis, Comitis Buchan, defuncti in academia Sancti Andreæ sub præsidio Magistri Dick, olim institutus ann. nat. 25. Mag. Collier et Atwood, Tut." lated at Cam bridge. His resi CLXXVI. 1775-1778. Trinity CHAP. no attention to the peculiar studies of the place. He despaired of ever becoming a great classical scholar, and he never either had or desired to have more than the slightest tincture of science which he had acquired at St. Andrew's. But he still assiduously applied to English belles lettres, and practised English composition both in verse and prose. He gained some applause by a burlesque parody of Gray's Bard. 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 to trim the aisles de pigeon, without which no one could then appear in public. 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 dynasty in the future taste for cropped hair and unpowdered heads. The ode is not very remarkable for poetical excellence; but he gained the prize given by the College for English declamation. To this academical distinction he referred with complacency in his defence of Paine :-"I was formerly called upon, under the discipline of a college, to maintain these truths, and was rewarded for being thought to have successfully maintained that our present Constitution was by no means a remnant of Saxon liberty, nor any other institution of liberty, but the pure consequence of the oppression of the Norman tenures, which, spreading the spirit of freedom from one end of the kingdom to the other, enabled our brave fathers not to reconquer, but for the first time to obtain those privileges which are the inalienable inheritance of all mankind." He took the honorary degree of A. M. in June 1778. He gains the prize for the English declamation. Takes his degree of M. A. His study of the law. While still a student at Cambridge he contrived to keep his terms at Lincoln's Inn. He had not yet actually quitted the army, having obtained six months' leave of absence. It is said that during Easter and Trinity Terms he excited a great sensation in the dining-hall by appearing with a student's black gown over the scarlet regimentals of the Royals, probably not having a decent suit of plain clothes to |