CLXXXI. A. D. 1796. CHAP. but lamenting that the arguments on this momentous question must considerably suffer from the want of that ability with which he would have enforced them." He then went on so as to make Erskine's failure soon forgotten, and once more to divide the opinion of impartial judges whether the palm of oratory should be awarded to him or to his adversary.* Erskine secedes from the House of His pamphlet "On the Causes and Consequences of For several years afterwards, Erskine very rarely spoke, or even attended the House. The policy which he condemned was not only triumphant in Parliament, but was approved by the great bulk of the nation; and he said that he saved himself for more auspicious times. He joined Fox and the other principal Whig leaders in their ill-judged secession from Parliament. In this interval he published a pamphlet, entitled "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the present War with France," which was so popular, that it was said to have run through thirty-seven editions. However, I cannot say the War." that it adds much to his permanent fame. It contains some forcible passages, but it deals in common-places, and the style is careless. Having received some gentle hints on this subject from his friend Dr. Parr, he replied: "I cannot say how much I thank you for remarking the negligence with which it cannot but be filled. I wonder it is not nonsense from beginning to end, for I wrote it amidst constant interruption, great part of it in open court, during the trial of causes. Fifteen thousand copies have been sold in England, besides editions printed at Dublin and Edinburgh, where the sale has been unusual." The most amusing part of it is the history of the Prime Minister, as connected with parliamentary reform, which thus begins: "Towards the close of the American war, Mr. Pitt (a boy almost) saw the corrupt condition of Parliament, from the defect of the representation of the people, with the eyes of a mature statesman: the eagle eyes of his father had seen it before him, and the thunder of his eloquence had made it tremble. Lord Chatham had detected and exposed the rank corruption of the House of * 32 Parl. Hist. 1464. CHAP. CLXXXI. Commons, as the sole cause of that fatal quarrel, and left it as a legacy to his son to avenge and to correct them. The youthful exertions of Mr. Pitt were worthy of the delegation. A. D. 1797. From my acquaintance with him, both before and after his first entrance into public life, I have no doubt of his perfect sincerity in the cause he then undertook; and the maturity of his judgment, even at that time, with which I was well acquainted, secures his conduct from the rashness of unthinking youth." He then traces him to his fall from virtue, and the degradation he reached when he became the accuser of his old friends. This made Pitt very indignant, and he several times alluded to the pamphlet with bitter scorn. May 26. 1797. His expo sure of the inconsis Pitt. Erskine's next appearance in the House, was in seconding Mr. Grey's annual motion for a reform in Parliament. He now, in a very long speech, reiterated all his former arguments, and thus again showed his enmity to the Premier: "The tency of right honourable gentleman, not contented with apostatising from the principles which he once professed, has resisted them in a spirit and language of the loftiest pride and arrogance. In his humiliation and disgrace unfortunately this once mighty nation has also been humbled and disgraced. The cause of reform was to be, at all events, put down, and all who maintained it were to be stigmatised, persecuted, and oppressed. Here is the clue to every measure of Government, from the hour of the right honourable gentleman's apostasy to the present. But the insolence with which the hopeful changes of the rising world were denounced within these walls is an awful lesson to mankind. It has taught that there is an arm fighting against the oppressors of freedom, stronger than any arm of flesh, and that the great progressions of the world, in spite of the confederacies of power, and the conspiracies of corruption, move on with a steady pace, and arrive in the end at a happy and glorious consummation." Pitt followed, but on this occasion his sarcasms were dulled by the sense of his own inconsistency, and he made but a feeble opposition to the motion, -objecting to the argument of imprescriptible right by which it had been supported, and relying upon the inflamed CHAP. CLXXXI. Feb. 3. 1799. Prosecution of Stone for high trea son. He is de fended by Erskine, and acquitted. state of the public mind, which rendered any constitutional change too perilous.* Reprobating the unfortunate rejection of the overtures of peace by Bonaparte when he became First Consul, Erskine made an excellent speech, and called forth a reply from Pitt, which, although in a bad cause, is one of the finest efforts of his genius. There was no other great battle between them before the time when Pitt, having seen the ruinous effects of his policy, for a time withdrew from office, that others might negotiate with the victorious General, to whom he had prescribed, as a condition of forgiveness, the restoration of the Bourbons. In the meanwhile Erskine spoke several times on miscellaneous subjects—in favour of the Bill for making adultery an indictable offence ‡, and the Bill for checking the institution of monastic societies in this country §; and against the Bill for preventing ordained clergymen from sitting in the House of Commons. || On all these subjects he spoke very sensibly, without saying any thing very brilliant. We must now look back to what was passing in the Courts of Law, where his ascendency remained unimpaired. The Government having very properly brought to trial, for high treason, William Stone, a merchant of London, against whom there was strong evidence that he had "adhered to the King's enemies," by inviting an invasion from France, Erskine was his counsel, and conducted the defence with infinite tact and dexterity. There was here no ground to complain of any perversion of the law of treason, or of any attack on public liberty. In a very moderate tone, therefore, he confined himself to an examination of the evidence, contending that it was all consistent with the prisoner's innocence, and observing, that "it was not enough for the Crown to raise so thick a cloud that the jury could not be sure which way to walk, but that a clear light must be shed upon the path leading to conviction, before they could venture to tread it." After long deliberation, there was a verdict of NOT GUILTY. ¶ * 33 Parl. Hist. 653. † 34 Ib. 1285. + 35 Ib. 309. 25 St. Tr. 1153-1438. CLXXXI. Erskine of Bangor, His speech in defence of the Bishop of Bangor, delivered CHAP. at Shrewsbury, was corrected by him, and published under his sanction; but the occasion did not offer an opportunity July 26. for a display of his higher powers as an advocate. The Right 1796. Reverend Prelate, along with a body of his clergy, having counsel for somewhat irregularly and violently broken into the office of the Bishop the Registrar for the diocese, and ejected from it a Mr. indicted Grindley, who pretended to be the lawful Registrar, this for a riot. gentleman indicted them all for a riot and assault. The prosecutor was a very intemperate and wrong-headed person, but the law hardly justified the proceeding of the defendants, and their counsel was evidently under very considerable alarm, I must content myself with introducing the piece of acting, to which he thought he was justified in resorting at the conclusion of his address. Although he knew that he could not alter the facts by calling witnesses, and he had resolved that none should be called, he observed, "I am instructed, gentlemen, and, indeed, pressed, by the anxiety of the Bishop's friends, to call many witnesses to show that he was by no means disturbed with passion, as has been represented; and that, so far from it, he even repressed those whose zeal for order, and whose affection for his person, prompted them to interfere, saying to them, The law will interpose in due season.' I have witnesses, to a great number, whom I am pressed to call before you, who would contradict Mr. Grindley in the most material parts of his testimony; but then I feel the advantage he would derive from this unnecessary course; he would have an opportunity from it to deprive the Right Reverend Prelate of the testimony and protection of your approbation. He would say, no doubt, 'Oh! I made out the case which vindicated my prosecution, though it was afterwards overturned by the testimony of persons in the Bishop's suite, and implicitly devoted to his service: I laid facts before a jury from which a conviction must have followed, and I am not answerable for the false glosses by which his witnesses have perverted them.' This would be the language of the prosecutor; and I am therefore extremely anxious that your verdict should A. D. 1796. CHAP. proceed upon the facts as they now stand before the Court; CLXXXI. and that you should repel with indignation a charge which is defeated by the very evidence that has been given to support it. I cannot, besides, endure the humiliation of fighting with a shadow, and the imprudence of giving importance to what I hold to be nothing, by putting anything in the scale against it, -a conduct which would amount to a confession that something had been proved which demanded an answer. How far those from whom my instructions come may think me warranted in pursuing this course I do not know; but the decision of that question will not rest with either of us, if your good sense and consciences should, as I am persuaded they will, give an immediate and seasonable sanction to this conclusion of the trial." He was in hopes that on this invitation the jury would at once have risen, and, without turning round to deliberate, have said it was unnecessary to proceed farther, and pronounced a verdict of NOT GUILTY; - but they all kept their seats, and maintained a deep silence. Thereupon, considerably disconcerted, he pretended to consult a few minutes with Mr. Plumer, Mr. Leycester, and Mr. Milles, who were counsel along with him for the defendants, and with the attorney who instructed them, and then, with an assumed air of satisfaction, said, "he was happy to inform the court that his advice was followed, and he should give no evidence.” Mr. Justice Heath summed up for a conviction *, and said to the jury, "Considering that all individuals are to be tried by the law of the land, notwithstanding their high station and the character they may heretofore have maintained, if you believe the prosecutor's witnesses, and think that a case has been made out against the defendants, it will be your duty to find them guilty; but if you have any reasonable doubt whether they are guilty or not, you will acquit them." The jury, from a laudable reluctance to send an aged prelate, venerated for his piety and good works, and a number of respectable clergymen of the Church of England, who *This Judge was supposed generally rather to lean against Erskine: he used to say, "I am always on my guard against these 300 guinea gentry." |