CLXXVII. CHAP. longer, and be myself relieved from a subject which agitates and distresses me. Since Lord George Gordon stands clear A. D. 1781. of every hostile act or purpose against the legislature of his country or the rights of his fellow-subjects, since the whole tenour of his conduct repels the belief of the traitorous intention charged by the indictment, my task is finished. I shall make no address to your passions. I will not remind you of the long and rigorous imprisonment he has suffered; I will not speak to you of his great youth, of his illustrious birth, or of his uniformly animated and generous zeal in Parliament for the Constitution of his country. Such topics might be useful in the balance of a doubtful case. At present, the plain and rigid rules of justice and truth are sufficient to entitle me to your verdict: and may God Almighty, who is the sacred author of both, fill your minds with the deepest impression of them, and with virtue to follow those impressions! You will then restore my innocent client to liberty, and me to that peace of mind, which, since the protection of his innocence in any part depended upon me, I have never known." Perhaps there is nothing in the speech more admirable than the soft, quiet, complacent key in which it concludes. Without arrogance or presumption, he considers that the cause is won no further exertion is necessary," radit æquor liquidum." By a quick interchange of thought the sentiment is imbibed by the jury, that their verdict is already unanimously settled, and that they have only to go through the form of pronouncing it. Accordingly they were proof against the reply of the Solicitor General; and after a rather severe summing up from Lord Mansfield, at a quarter past five in the morning they said NOT GUILTY. All reasonable men rejoiced. Even Dr. Johnson said "he was glad Lord George Gordon had escaped, rather than that a precedent should be established for hanging a man for constructive treason;""which,” adds Boswell," in consistency with his true, manly, constitutional Toryism, he considered would be a dangerous engine of arbitrary power."* If the precedent had been now established, * Vol. iv. 92. CLXXVII. A. D. 1781. it certainly would have been followed in 1794, and our lost CHAP. liberties could only have been restored by some dreadful convulsion. But a just notion of the offence of compassing the death of the King, and of levying war against him in his Acquittal realm, was now impressed upon the English nation by the George exertions of Erskine; and afterwards, in the "Reign of Gordon. Terror," when the grand struggle came, he was enabled to march from victory to victory." * State Trials, vol. xxi. 485—647. of Lord CHAPTER CLXXVIII. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE TILL THE CON- CHAP. CLXXVIII. A. D. 1783. WE are now to see our illustrious advocate on the political stage, where his success was by no means so brilliant. He was of a Whig family, and he ever adhered steadily to the Whig Erskine as party. Its three great leaders, when he appeared in public a politician. life, were all in the meridian of their fame, - the "Coalition" not yet having dimmed the lustre of Fox's name, - Burke not yet having been disturbed from his liberal course by the French Revolution, — and the fatal web of pecuniary embarrassment not yet having been wound round the soul of Sheridan, leading him to discreditable actions and degrading habits. These men rapturously hailed the rising genius of one likely to prove so powerful an auxiliary; but they advised that with his full occupation in his profession he should not enter Parliament either while Lord North was minister, or during the Governments of Lord Rockingham or Lord Shelburne. When the "Coalition " was formed, however, a long tenure of power was expected by his friends, his promotion to be a law officer of the Crown on the first vacancy was promised to him, and his assistance was wanted against a host of lawyers who, joining the Opposition, were now obstructing business in the House of Commons, although the Ministry could command large majorities upon a division. There was some difficulty in finding a seat for the aspirant, but Sir William Gordon, who represented Portsmouth, was for Ports. prevailed upon to take the Chiltern Hundreds, in consideration of a comfortable provision made for him, and Erskine succeeded him, making himself popular with the inhabitants, by boasting of his maritime education, and his warm attachment to the naval service. The "Point " afforded scope for He is returned to Parliament mouth. Nov. 20. 1783. CHAP. CLXXVIII. innumerable jests against him from Jekyll, and his other friends in Westminster Hall; but he bore them all with great good humour, and took off the effect of a bad pun by a A. D. 1783. worse. Anticipahis success tions as to House of There was great eagerness to hear his maiden speech in St. Stephen's Chapel. Almost all mankind anticipated that he would still raise his reputation by being a match for the in the younger Pitt, who had recently, all at once, placed himself Commons. in the very highest class of parliamentary orators; but a few judicious men, who knew Erskine best, had misgivings as to his success in a new field, in which, if not higher, very different qualifications were required from those he had hitherto displayed. Thus wrote one of his professional friends to another detailing the gossip of the robing-room: "Nov. 3. 1783. "Wallace is gone down to Teignmouth, the place where Dunning died, in all probability on the same errand. Everybody says that Erskine will be Solicitor General, and if he is, and indeed, whether he is or not, he will have had the most rapid rise that has been known at the Bar. It is four years and a half since he was called, and in that time he has cleared 8000l. or 90007., besides paying his debts, got a silk gown, and business of at least 30001. a year a seat in Parliament and over and above, has made his brother Lord Advocate. For my part I have great doubts whether his coming into Parliament was a wise thing. He sacrificed his House of Commons business, which was very profitable. He has several of Burke's defects, and is not unlikely to have his fate, and the expectation from him will be too great to be satisfied. We expect a match between him and Pitt, and another between Fox and Flood." - Deep was the disappointment of the Opposition - loud His maiden was the exultation of the Ministers—when the new champion speech. in the political arena had essayed his prowess.—It is a curious coincidence that Erskine and John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon, of whom but slender expectations were then enter * Jekyll said to him, "Having been long a wanderer, I hope you will now stick to the Point." He answered, "Yes, I have an eye to the pole, since I know where the Pointers are." My readers have probably heard of the Point at Portsmouth, and its inhabitants. CHAP. CLXXVIII. A.D. 1783. tained, first addressed the House of Commons in the same debate, upon the introduction of Mr. Fox's famous India Bill. Alas! neither of them raised the reputation of lawyers His failure. for parliamentary oratory. The Equity man took the precedence, but was dull and prosy. Our great common lawyer despised such an antagonist, and lay by for Pitt- but (impar congressus!) disgrace fell on both sides of Westminster Hall. The speech of the honourable member for Portsmouth could not have been so wretchedly bad as it is represented in the Parliamentary History, from which I cannot extract a sentence of any meaning, except the concluding one,that "he considered the present bill as holding out the helping, not the avenging hand of Government."* But all agreed in considering the effort a failure. The most favourable account of it I find is by Sir Nathaniel Wraxall: "Mr. Erskine, who, like Mr. Scott, has since attained to the highest honours and dignities of the Bar, first spoke as a member of the House of Commons in support of this obnoxious measure. His enemies pronounced the performance tame and destitute of the animation which so powerfully characterised his speeches in Westminster Hall. They maintained that, however resplendent he appeared as an advocate while addressing a jury, he fell to the level of an ordinary man, if not below it, when seated on the Ministerial bench, where another species of oratory was demanded to impress conviction or to extort admiration. To me, who, having never witnessed his jurisprudential talents, could not make any such comparison, he appeared to exhibit shining powers of declamation."† Pitt's display of contempt for According to one most graphic representation of the scene, Erskine's faculties upon this occasion were paralysed by the Erskine in by-play of his opponent: "Pitt, evidently intending to reply, sat with pen and paper in his hand, prepared to catch the arguments of this formidable adversary. He wrote a word or the House of Com mons. two. Erskine proceeded; but with every additional sentence 23 Parl. Hist. 1215. In answer to the argument from the violation of the charters of the East India Company, he seems to have taunted Pitt with the little respect he showed for the ancient privileges of the rotten boroughs, by his plan of Parliamentary Reform. This could not have been well received on either side of the House. † Memoirs, ii. 436. |