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Judge of the King's Bench, was of slen intellect, insomuch that once, when pleading a cause, and being checked for wandering from the subject, he exclaimed, "I wish you would remember that I am the son of a Chief Justice;" upon which, old Mr. Justice Gould answered with much simplicity, "Oh, we remember your father, but he was a sensible man."

Chief Justice Willes's heirs in the male line have long been extinct, but many distinguished persons still flourishing are descended from him through females. If by good luck he had actually reached the woolsack, this descent would have been considered a great honor; but it is difficult to say why there should have been such a difference merely from his having pronounced a certain number of equitable decrees, good or bad, and having been commemorated in several volumes bound in calfskin and entitled "REPORTS TEMPORE LORD CHANCELLOR WILLES." Had he suspended his claim to a peerage, all this glory, by which the eyes of lawyers are dazzled, would have been showered down upon him.

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CHAPTER XXIX.

LIFE OF CHIEF JUSTICE WILMOT.

VILMOT, a succeeding Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, enjoyed the remarkable distinction of being a lawyer without ambition, and more than once refused the great seal,-not from any haggling about the terms on which he should accept it, nor from any dread of its precarious tenure, or calculation that he might enjoy more power and wealth by remaining in the position which he occupied, but from a genuine contempt of power and of wealth as well as of titles, and an ardent love of leisure, repose, and obscurity. Although he certainly was altogether free from the last infirmity of noble minds, and of the sin by which the angels fell, we may lament that he never displayed those high aspirations and heroic efforts to be of service to others which make ambition virtue.

John Eardly Wilmot was the second son of Robert Wilmot, a gentleman of respectable family and moderate fortune in the county of Derby. His mother was daughter and co-heiress of Sir Samuel Murrow, a Warwickshire baronet. He was born on the 16th of August, 1709. Having received the first rudiments of his education at a school in Derby, he was sent to the free school at Lichfield, under the tuition of Mr. Hunter, who is celebrated for having flogged seven boys who afterwards sat as judges in the superior courts at Westminster at the same time.' Samuel Johnson, who had likewise been subjected to his flagellation, gave this account of him:-"The head master was very severe, and wrong. headedly severe. He used to beat us unmercifully; and

1 Among these, besides Wilmot, were Lord Chancellor Northington, Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the Rolls, Chief Justice Willes, and Chief Baron Parker. Lord Mansfield is generally included in the list; but he never saw the city of Lichfield till he had been called to the bar.

he would beat a boy equally for not knowing a thing or for neglecting to know it. He would call up a boy and ask him Latin for a candlestick, which the boy could not expect to be asked. While Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, ' And this I do to save you from the gallows: " However, under such harsh discipline young Wilmot, like young Johnson, became an excellent Latin scholar, and was imbued with a love of learning. It is remarkable that, although they were several years class-fellows at Lichfield, there never seems to have been the slightest intercourse between them in after-life; but the Chief Justice used frequently to mention the Lexicographer as a long, lank, lounging boy, whom he distinctly remembered to have been punished by Hunter for idleness."

When David Garrick, who was at the same time a very little boy in the lowest form, made his first appearance in Goodman's Fields, in October, 1741, Wilmot went to applaud him, and, having often afterwards gone to admire him in his various parts, was present at his last performance at Drury Lane in June, 1776, when he took a final leave of the stage; but there was no private intimacy between them, notwithstanding David's passion for legal dignitaries, which made him pride himself so much upon his friendship with Lord Camden and Lord Mansfield. This was probably Wilmot's fault, for he was not only afraid of being distinguished himself, but he wished to avoid those who had gained distinction.

After he had been some years under Hunter at Lichfield, the better to prepare him for the University, he was removed to Westminster School; and here he applied diligently to his books, without ever mixing in the amusements of his schoolfellows.

He spent the next four years as a recluse student at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His ruling passion was to enter the Church, in the hope of obtaining a small living, and spending his days in a remote part of the kingdom, conversing only with the peasants who might be

1 Boswell, i. 21, 22. Johnson had so high an opinion of the good effects of such severity, that when he heard of a schoolmaster having abolished flogging, he exclaimed, “I am afraid that what his boys gain at one end they will lose at the other."

Boswell, iii. 336

under his pastoral care. His father, however, who appreciated his vigorous talents and his solid acquirements, would by no means agree to this scheme, and insisted on his entering the profession of the law. The dutiful son submitted, though reluctantly, and, before he left Trinity Hall, was initiated in the Roman Civil Law-a study for which this place of education has been always renowned, and to which he afterwards ascribed his proficiency in the Common Law of England.

In the mean while he kept terms in the Inner Temple, and after three years' residence there he was called to the bar. We are left entirely in ignorance of the plan of study which he pursued, except it was solitary; but we know that, without going into an attorney's office, or attending much in court, or appearing at the "Readings," which were still kept up, he rendered himself a consummate jurist. Instead of being vain of his acquirements, he was earnestly desirous of concealing them; as if afraid that the attorneys, hearing of his familiarity with black-letter learning, should send him retainers.' He was exceedingly successful in gaining his wishes, and for many years he was allowed to remain unmolested. But going the Midland Circuit, in spite of all his efforts he had a little business from family connections in his own county: avoiding display as much as possible, he was on several occasions compelled to show what there was in him, and by and by, at the Derby, Assizes, he was in every cause. Still he contrived to preserve his obscurity in London, till, arguing some demurrers and new trials in causes from his circuit, he was at last betrayed to Westminster Hall as a deep lawyer and pow erful advocate.

Sir Dudley Ryder, the Attorney General, then ap

There was a valued friend of mine, now no more, who went the Oxford Circuit for years pour passer le temps, but who had a horror, which was well known, of being professionally employed. At last he affronted an attorney by making him rather unceremoniously surrender a place in court when a very interesting trial was coming on, saying that "barristers only were entitled to sit there." The retreating attorney was heard to mutter, "I will have my revenge of him." So, the same night, he sent a brief in an important cause to his antagonist; who returned it with a messsge that he had been sent for on urgent business to London. The frightened barrister left the assize town early next morning, and never again appeared upon the circuit.

pointed him "Treasury Devil;" and, deriving important aid from his services, and being very desirous to bring him forward, mentioned him to the Lord Chancellor as a man who might be an ornament to the profession, and would one day show himself qualified for the highest judicial station. In consequence he was offered a silk gown. Secretly resolved to refuse it, he wished to have some countenance in the opinion of a friend whom he pretended to consult, and to whom, after very clearly disclosing his inclination, he said: "Consider it well, and tell me what you think of it, for when I have once hoisted the sail I cannot take it down again: therefore it requires a proper consideration and digestion in every respect. The withdrawing from the eyes of mankind. has always been my favorite wish; it was the first and will be the last of my life. His friend advised him "to hoist the sail, sure of a trade wind:" but, against all remonstrances, he said he would not go within the bar to contend with the King's Bench leaders. It was then proposed to him that, if he would take the coif, he should immediately have the rank of King's Sergeant; the encouraging remark being added that, "in the drowsy confines of the Common Pleas he might remain without any unpleasant collision or notoriety." But he declared his immutable determination "to live and die in a stuff gown."

He was, sorely against his will, obliged to lead for the defendant in an action for crim. con. falsely brought against an old school-fellow, who insisted on having him for his counsel. As the trial proceeded, he got over his nervousness, and delivered an excellent address, which carried the verdict. The parties living near Lichfield, David Garrick took a lively interest in the result, and attended in court, planting himself in a snug corner where he expected to remain unobserved. The following is the account he delivered of the performance of his old school-fellow :

"There appeared much contradiction and confusion in the evidence given by the witnesses, till at length rose Mr. Wilmot, who immediately explained the whole in

'Some accounts say that he called this his DOMINO, and that, like Rabe. lais, he repeated the text "Beati sunt qui moriuntur in Domino."

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