CHAPTER XXX.

LIFE OF LORD MANSFIELD FROM HIS BIRTHI TILL HE

A

WAS CALLED TO THE BAR.

N indifferent author, who wished to write the life of Lord Mansfield, having applied to him to be furnished with materials, "so that the brilliancy of such a splendid luminary of the law might never fade," received the following answer:-"My success in life is not very remarkable: my father was a man of rank and fashion; early in life I was introduced into the best company, and my circumstances enabled me to support the character of a man of fortune. To these advantages I chiefly owe my success; and therefore my life cannot be very interesting; but, if you wish to employ your abilities in writing the life of a truly great and wonderful man in our profession, take the life of Lord Hardwicke for your subject; he was indeed a wonderful character; he became Chief Justice of England, and Chancellor, from his own abilities and virtues, for he was the son of a peasant."

Unless this may be excused as a mode of getting rid of an impertinent application from a coxcomb, it must be considered an ebullition of aristocratic insolence. The "peasant" was an eminent attorney in England; and, by birth, his son had an infinitely better chance of succeeding at the English bar, and reaching the highest dignities in Westminster Hall, than the son of a poor Scotch peer, of descent however illustrious. When the babe, afterwards Earl of Mansfield and Chief Justice of England, first saw the light at Scone, the chances were many milliards to one that he would never fill that office; and the probability was, that, if he was not cut off by some of the diseases of childhood, he would obscurely waste his days, like a true younger brother-with a contempt of trade and of books,-angling for salmon

in the river Tay, and coursing the deer over the braes of Athol; or that he would languish as a subaltern in the army, without hope of promotion, in the service of King George; or (which was still more probable) that he would wander over Europe in exile and in indigence, as an adherent of King James, enjoying no prospect of celebrity except that which might accrue to him from being beheaded on Tower Hill.

His circumstances did not enable him "to support the character of a man of fortune," and he did not owe his success to the advantages which he then enumerated. His life, therefore, is very interesting.-and it must be curious to trace the steps by which, after riding on a wretched pony from Perth to London, "he drank champagne with the wits;" he became the most distinguished advocate in England; he prosecuted Scotch peers, his cousins, for treason against King George; he was the rival of the elder Pitt, the greatest parliamentary orator England has ever produced; he was raised to be the highest Criminal Judge of the realm; he repeatedly refused the still more splendid office of Lord Chancellor; he, without political office, directed the measures of successive Cabinets; and (what was far truer glory) he framed the commercial code of his country.

There are other considerations which particularly excite me as I enter upon the life of LORD MANSFIELD. He was the first Scotchman who ever gained distinction in the profession of the law in England; and, though his education was English, the characteristics of his race may have contributed to his success.' Being, like him, an English lawyer, I am proud of him when I reflect that he affords a rare example among us of a genuine taste for elegant literature, combined with a profound knowledge of jurisprudence. But, most of all, I look

1 Different trades and professions seem to suit the inhabitants of different countries. In London, all the milkmen are Welsh; all the sugar-bakers are German, and a great many of the tailors. The vast majority of the bakers are Scotch, but there is not a Scotch butcher to be found. While no tolerable theatrical performer ever came from Scotland, we have had considerable success in medicine and in law. To the literature of the country I trust it will be allowed that we have brought at least our fair contribution, when it is considered that there are less than 3,000,000 of inhabitants in Scotland. while there are 8,000,000 in Ireland, and 14,000,000 in England.

upon him with interest as a connecting link between the reign of Queen Anne and our own times. Having been the familiar friend of Pope, he was the familiar friend of my familiar friends.' Occupying the stage of political life almost for a century, he brings together systems as well as men that seem many generations asunder. After the expulsion of the Stuarts he saw the present dynasty placed upon the throne of Britain; and he lived to hear the news of the murder of Louis XVI., and to foresee and foretell all the evils which Europe has since suffered, and is suffering, from a violation of the principles of order and of true liberty.

In following the career of such a man, while we meet with striking vicissitudes affecting him individually, we must catch interesting glimpses of history and of manners. But I have too much raised expectation, and I must now expose myself to the peril of disappointing it.

Lord Mansfield was entitled to the consideration which fairly belongs to distinguished ancestry. Setting aside the fabulous origin of his family from a great MoRAVIAN chief, supposed in a very remote age to have conquered a province of Scotland now called Morayshire, we know, from authentic records, that Friskinus de Moravia was a powerful noble in the north of Scotland in the beginning of the twelfth century; and that Gulielmus de Moravia, his lineal descendant, by a charter of King Alexander III., dated 1284, was confirmed in the possession of the estates of Tullebardine, in the county of Perth, which he had obtained by marriage with the heiress of Malise, Seneschal of Strathearn. From him sprang a long line of Barons of Tullebardine, represented by the present Duke of Athol, chieftain of the Murrays.

A younger son of Sir William Murray, the eighth Baron of Tullebardine, was married to the Lady Janet Graham, daughter of the Earl of Montrose, and had several sons, who, though highly connected, were very

I may particularly instance the late Mr. Justice Allan Park and Lord Mansfield's kinsman, the present Lord Murray, a judge of the Court of Session. My greatest boast in this line is, that I have conversed with Sir Isaac Herd, the celebrated HERALD, and he had conversed with a person who was present at the execution of Charles I.

poorly provided for, and seemed to have no resource for a subsistence but to join in an occasional raid on the lowlands, or to become tacksmen to the chief of the clan of a patch of land in a remote highland glen. This was probably the fate of all of them except one, for no mention is afterwards made of the others; and their descendants may be shoemakers at Perth, or may be sweeping the crossings of the streets in London, unconscious of any claim to noble ancestry. But David, the second son, became the founder of the Stormont branch of the family, and is the ancestor of the Earls of Mansfield.

Being remarkably well formed and athletic, he was enlisted, when very young, as a private in a small body of halberdiers, all of gentle blood, constituting the bodyguard of James VI., who nominally had filled the Scottish throne from his infancy, while his mother, Mary, the rightful sovereign, was a captive in a foreign land, and successive factions governed in his name. The identical passion for handsome favorites, which afterwards raised the Earl of Somerset and the Duke of Buckingham to such unfortunate distinction in England, showed itself in the Scottish monarch in early youth. Caught by the good looks, pleasing manners, and skill in all sorts of games which he discovered in David Murray, he made. him his companion, knighted him, and promoted him to be Master of the Horse, Comptroller of the Household, and Captain of the Body-guard.

It so happened that the favorite was in attendance on his royal patron in the castle of the Earl of Gowrie, at Perth, when that conspirator (for such, after long controversy, I fear he is now proved to have been) attempted to make the King a prisoner, with the view of getting all the power of the state into his own hands.' Sir David Murray displayed great presence of mind upon the occasion, and gave important assistance in rescuing the King and securing the traitors. He soon after

'I wish I could have defended him from this charge, as he was the heir and representative of the Lords Hallyburton, from whom I am descended; but, in spite of the many volumes which have been written on the Gowrie Conspiracy to prove that JAMES got up a sham plot to wreak his vengeance on a family he had devoted to destruction, I think there can be no longer doubt that the plot was real, and that he had very nearly been the victim

wards gallantly quelled an insurrection of the inhabitants of Perth and the surrounding country, who idolized the young Earl of Gowrie, and had risen to avenge his death. For these services a considerable portion of the forfeited estates of that nobleman was bestowed upon him. The site of the ancient Abbey of Scone,-where the kings of Scotland had been crowned from the remotest antiquity, and where stood, till it was removed to Westminster by Edward I., the famous stone on which they were anointed,-had been granted to the Earl, after the sacred edifice itself had been burnt to the ground by the reformers;-and here he was erecting a new castle, or PALACE (as it was called from royal recollections), at the time of his attainder. This became part of the possessions of the new favorite, who completed the structure, and was designated Lord Scone, the property having been erected into a temporal barony. He continued in high favor at court till James's accession to the throne of England; and, although he was then cast off for other minions, he was afterwards, by letters patent bearing date 16th of August, 1621, created Viscount Stormont.' This title, long borne by his descendants in the lineal male line, was absorbed by the earldom, which a cadet won by very different arts and achievements.

For several generations following, the family were distinguished by extravagance rather than by talent or enterprise, and a large portion of the possessions which they had received from the bounty of King James VI. had been alienated. In the time of the fifth Viscount little remained to them beyond the Castle of Scone, which, in a dilapidated condition, frowned over the Tay in the midst of scenery which for the combination of richness and picturesque beauty is unsurpassed. He had married the only daughter of David Scot, of Scotstarvet, the heir male of the Scots of Buccleugh; but had received a very slender portion with her, as their vast possessions had gone with the daughter of the last Earl, married to the Duke of Monmouth. To add to the

'There may still be seen in the adjoining church a fine marble monument over his tomb, representing him, as large as life, in a kneeling posture, and in complete armor,