CHAPTER CLXXXIX.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE TILL HIS LAST
VISIT TO SCOTLAND.

CHAP. CLXXXIX.

AFTER the Queen's trial Erskine survived nearly three years; but he very rarely appeared in his place in Parliament, and he never again addressed the Peers, except once or twice, in 1820–1833. a tone of conversation, upon a point of order. However, his Erskine's popularity chivalrous defence of Caroline of Brunswick, in the midst revived. of strong temptations to side with her prosecutors, revived his ancient popularity; and, without any fresh exertion, he continued till his death the idol of the multitude, almost as much as he had been when exposing the danger to liberty from "constructive treason" in the defence of Hardy and Horne Tooke. He was loudly cheered as often as he appeared in public; addresses, and gold boxes containing grants of the freedom of corporations, poured in upon him from all parts of the country, and prints and busts of him ornamented every workshop and almost every cottage.

The Scotch who, notwithstanding their alleged nationality, have always been cautiously slow in doing honour to their eminent men while alive, — although they were proud of the greatest advocate that had ever practised at the English bar, had never, hitherto, shown him any public mark of distinction piqued, perhaps, by his seeming neglect of them, for he had not once visited his native land since he first left it in the uniform of a midshipman, more than half a century ago. There was now, however, a general desire in all ranks beyond the Tweed to see among them, and publicly to honour the man who had done so much to raise the national fame, and to remove the prejudice that they were time-serving politicians ever ready, for the sake of a job, to support and to praise the minister of the day. Accordingly, he was invited to a public

He is invited to a

public din

ner at

Edin

burgh.

CHAP.

CLXXXIX.

A.D. 1821.

He arrives

at Edinburgh.

The dinner.

dinner at Edinburgh, and he at once accepted the invitation,— not only from gratified vanity, but from a desire to revisit the scenes of his childhood, and above all, from a curiosity to cross by a bridge the loch or lake, which had been the northern boundary of AULD REEKIE, and to admire beyond it the splendid New Town of Edinburgh, where he had been accustomed to shoot wild ducks and snipes.

On his arrival in the Scottish metropolis he eagerly flew to his old haunts, particularly the "flat" in the lofty house inhabited by his father and mother, the High School where he had smarted under the tawse, and the close in which he believed he had conversed with the ghost of the old family butler. It is said that he was affected by deep melancholy when he found that a second generation of men had nearly passed away since he had run about there, a thoughtless, barelegged, curly-pated stripling, and when he reflected that he must himself soon be spoken of among those who had been. Confessing himself to be laudator temporis acti, he would not allow that many of the changes which he saw were improvements, and recollecting the lustre shed upon their country by Hume, Robertson, and Adam Smith, he questioned whether Scotland prospered in literature as much as in material wealth. But after he had passed a few days in the society of FRANCIS JEFFREY, all these moody contemplations were banished from his mind, and he admitted that for valuable knowledge, for intellectual prowess, for refined taste, and for gentle manners she could still show a man equal to the sons of whom she had been most proud in former days.

Unfortunately, party spirit was dreadfully embittered by the recent trial of the Queen, and now raged in Edinburgh with unexampled fury. For this reason the Tories considered themselves bound to keep aloof from him who had so crossed the wishes of the King, and who was now so obnoxious at Court. Walter Scott, whose benevolent disposition is to be admired not less than his genius, refused to meet him, and did every thing in his power to disparage him. Nevertheless, the dinner went off with éclat - Jeffrey, Cockburn, Cranstoun, Moncrieff, John Murray, Cunning

CHAP.

CLXXXIX.

hame, and the other leading Scotch Whigs assisting to do honour to their illustrious guest. They drank the health of "Plain Thomas Erskine," thinking that such a designation A.D. 1821. would be more grateful to his feelings than a pompous enumeration of all the titles bestowed upon him and all the offices he had ever filled. His forensic triumphs were duly celebrated, and he was seen to shed tears at allusions to the glories of former days.

His own speech was distinguished by good feeling and good His speech taste. After a few introductory observations, he thus burst after din. forth:

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself has said,

This is my own, my native land; '
Whose heart has ne'er within him burn'd
When home his footsteps he has turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand?

"The accomplished author well knew that there was no
such Scotsman: no, I verily believe there is no such man,

the great Author of our nature having implanted in us all an instinctive love of our country. It is this which makes the heart throb and vibrate when the eye recalls even the inanimate scenes of our earliest youth. A waste covered with heath or broom- varied, perhaps, by no higher vegetation than a few stunted trees half dead with age, which are yet remembered-will more affect the imagination of every human being, and will fill him with a far higher delight than the most splendid scenery which nature assisted by art ever produced. It is on this account that when I shall visit St. Andrew's, the sequestered place to which my excellent parents retired for so many years, to perform the most sacred duty to their children, I shall feel more than I can express. The lifeless unadorned street in which a traveller would read his book as he drove through it, will electrify me at every step. I shall gaze upon the old plastered church wall (if it be yet standing) where I used to toil at fives when I was a boy with more pleasure than St. Peter's at Rome could bestow. Gentlemen, these sentiments are quite universal, and

*

As a St. Andrew's man, I feel rather hurt at the slighting manner in which he speaks of this seat of learning. The Presbyterian Church, against which

ner.

CLXXXIX.

CHAP they illustrate the Divine Providence in the economy of the world. Some regions are covered with never-fading fruits A. D. 1821. and flowers, whilst in others vegetation sickens and human life almost goes out: but the instinctive love of country gives, in the estimation of the native, equal lustre and enjoyment to them all. Without this attachment, indeed, there would be no such thing as a people, and we should be still, as in the earliest times, scattered tribes, roaming about in search of spots where acorns are most abundant, or wild animals may be most easily snared. Scotland has ever been proverbially and fondly pre-eminent for this useful, this virtuous attachment; and however we may be driven to seek our fortunes in the most distant countries, we are still eager to return to our own." After dwelling at considerable length on the glory, martial and literary, which the Scotch had acquired by their love of country, he described his astonishment when he first saw the NEW TOWN "not one stone of which stood upon another, when more than half a century ago he left Old Edinburgh, which gave him birth." He then rather in a discursive manner touched on parliamentary reform, and other topics, and concluded by saying, “I shall look back with delight on this day during the remainder of my life a period which cannot now be much prolongedand I hope that all who shall ever be descended from me will hold it in perpetual remembrance.

Mrs. Grant of Lag

gan's account of Erskine at Edinburgh.

崇

Of this dinner we have the following prejudiced account from Mrs. Grant of Laggan, who, though now become an Edinburgh Tory, I must admit when she wrote her "Letters from the Mountains," displayed as much talent in describing Highland scenery and Highland manners as Madame de Sevigné, in painting the characters and narrating the in

he played at fives, is not much to be commended for exterior beauty; but the chapel of St. Salvator's College is a fine specimen of Gothic architecture; and the cathedral in ruins gives striking though melancholy evidence of the ancient splendour of the metropolitan see of Scotland.

An Edinburgh correspondent of mine, who was present at this dinner, says: His Lordship's speech rather caused a feeling of disappointment,—it not having the brilliancy we looked for. I must grant, however, that this may have arisen from our want of good taste as to what a dinner speech should be. It was a light, rambling, and jocular speech-whereas our stock speakers at that time delivered on such occasions regular and formal spoken Essays."

CHAP.

CLXXXIX.

trigues of the Court of Louis XIV.: "The party have been paying great homage to Lord Erskine, and talking of his return to Scotland after fifty-one years' residence, as if a .D. 1821. comet had re-appeared. I was asked to meet him last Saturday night, and saw him surrounded by all his satellites. He is a shattered wreck of a man, decked with a diamond star. This decoration he wore, I was told, as a Knight of the Thistle. I always thought of him with the deep straw bonnet which he wore on his Gretna Green expedition. * On Monday the great dinner was given to the Ex-Chancellor. Several great persons were expected, but none of them came.† I observe that these despisers of rank are wonderfully vain of getting a title to grace their meetings."

the Court

The illustrious stranger next visited the Court of Justiciary, He visits and appeared there with the star of the order of the Thistle of Justi blazing on his breast. The question to be considered was ciary. one which had occupied his thoughts much when he was Lord Chancellor-how far Judges should interpose to punish in a summary manner printed comments on their own proceedings? A schoolmaster at Glasgow had published in a newspaper a letter disapproving rather freely of a judgment of their Lordships, and the Lord Advocate complained of this as a contempt of Court, for which the culprit ought to be immediately committed to the Tolbooth. Mr. Cockburn, the defendant's Counsel, argued that he had not exceeded the bounds of legitimate discussion, and that, at any rate, the case ought to be submitted to the determination of a jury, in the ordinary course of law. The Court, however, asserted its jurisdiction, and passed sentence of imprisonment. Lord Erskine decorously concealed all expression of opinion while he remained on the Bench, but in private lamented that in Scotland "trial by jury" should be thus superseded. ‡ He afterwards went to the theatre, to see the representation of "The Heart of Midlothian.” It is a curious fact,

* I know nothing of the story here alluded to. t I suppose she means some Tory Peers. All the truly great men in Edinburgh, except Walter Scott, were present at the dinner.

His own conduct on such occasions had not been quite uniform and consistent.

See antè, p. 568.

He is applauded at the theatre.