midable in intellect as his bodily faculties decayed; and, during his declamation against the employment of savages with scalping-knives in carrying on the war, Lord Mansfield silently quailed under him, afraid of being blasted by the lightning of his wrath, while he spoke these scornful words:-"I do not call for vengeance on the heads of those who have been guilty; I only recommend retreat: let them walk off, and let them make haste, or speedy and condign punishment will overtake them."

It was indispensably necessary to meet such attacks with firmness, or to perish by them; and when Lord Chatham announced his intention, notwithstanding severe illness, to be present on the Duke of Richmond's motion in the committee on the state of the nation, it was resolved that the friends of Government should answer him, and Lord Mansfield, remembering conflicts with his great rival in which he himself had the advantage, felt his courage revive.

Fate had ordained that they should never have another conflict, The appointed day arrived. Lord Chatham appeared, and spoke some time with all his ancient fervor; but he perished in the effort. When, in the garb of sickness, he was led into the House between his son and son-in-law, Lord Mansfield joined in the voluntary tribute of respect paid to him by standing up while he passed to his proper place. Having risen slowly and with difficulty to address the House, supported under each arm by his relatives, the dying patriot took one hand from his crutch, and, raising it, and casting his eyes towards heaven, he thus began:-"I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this day to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject which has so deeply impressed my mind. I am old and infirmhave one foot, more than one foot, in the grave;-I am risen from my bed to stand up in the cause of my country-perhaps never again to speak in this House." Most who heard him were softened with pity, as well as struck with awe; but Lord Mansfield appeared to be thinking only of the topics which were likely to be urged by the assailant, and the best arguments to be used in answering him. The exertion of the orator

proving too mighty for his enfeebled frane, he sank in a swoon, and the House was thrown into alarm and agitation, but Lord Mansfield so conducted himself as entirely to escape the charge of affected sorrow.

We have the most authentic account of what then passed, in a letter written immediately after to the Duke of Grafton, who was absent, by Lord Camden, who had been sitting by the side of Lord Chatham, and who thus describes the catastrophe:

"He fell back upon his seat, and was to all appearances in the agonies of death. This threw the whole House into confusion; every person was upon his legs in a moment hurrying from one place to another, some sending for assistance, others producing salts, and others reviving spirits. Many crowding about the Earl to observe his countenance, all affected, most part really concerned; and even those who might have felt a secret pleasure at the accident, yet put on the appearance of distress, except only the Earl of M., who sat still, almost as unmoved as the senseless body itself."1

An attempt has been made by a warm admirer and most eloquent eulogist of Lord Mansfield to rescue him from the charge of this supposed nonchalance, and fix it upon another:-"The Earl of M.," says Lord Brougham, "so discreditably mentioned in this letter, must have been Lord Marchmont. In the Lords' Journal for that day, April 7, 1778, he and Lord Mansfield are the only Earls of M. present; and Lord Mansfield was wholly incapable of suffering such feelings to be seen on such an occasion.'

The Earl of Marchmont was present on this occasion, but I know not why insensibility should be imputed to him more than to his distinguished countryman; and it is quite certain that his demeanor would have excited no attention, that all mankind must have been anxious to observe the impression made by the death-blow of Chatham on an old rival,-and that Lord Camden, writing to the Duke of Grafton, by "the Earl of M.," could mean no other than the Earl of Mansfield, whom they both knew so familiarly. Besides, I am not sure that the See 19 Parl. Hist. 1012-1058. Law Review, vol. ii. p. 316.

imputation, though maliciously meant, ought seriously to lower the object of it in our esteem, for it is not pretended that he betrayed any satisfaction; and, instead of idly proffering assistance, or hypocritically beating his bosom, he might have been thinking with some tenderness of their first meeting as students at Oxford, or calmly considering how soon his own earthly career must be concluded.

It cannot be denied, however, that he acted an ungenerous part in the proceedings which were proposed to do honor to the memory of the deceased, and to mark the public gratitude for his services in advancing the glory and prosperity of the country. Upon an address of the House of Commons, the King having given directions that the remains of the great patriot should be deposited in Westminster Abbey, Lord Shelburne gave notice of a motion in the House of Lords, that their Lordships should all attend the funeral. Although there was a strong canvass, Lord Mansfield could not make up his mind to vote either for it or against it. He pusillanimously absented himself; and, upon a division, the motion was negatived by a majority of one.'

If he thought that the Peers, in their aggregate capacity, should not pay such homage to an individual from whose opinions they had generally differed, he might, without suspicion of political inconsistency, have attended the solemnity as a private person, to show his respect for the splendid talents and acknowledged virtues of him whom he had known intimately when a boy, and with whom he had been engaged in a competition for honorable distinction above half a century. But while the Court could not resist the general impulse in favor of a public funeral, all true courtiers endeavored to diminish the effect of it; and Lord Mansfield's name is not to be found in the list of those who saw consigned to the tomb the dust of the greatest orator and statesman England had produced for ages.'

Lords' Journals, 19 Parl. Hist. 1233.

"Lord Chatham's funeral was meanly attended, and Government ingeniously contrived to secure the double odium of suffering the thing to be done and of doing it with an ill grace." (Gibbon's Misc. Works, vol. i. p. 538.) The Annual Register for 1778, however, says that "the funeral was attended by a great number of lords, mostly in the minority."

An opportunity soon occurred to him for relieving himself from the uneasy feelings which must have annoyed him when he reflected on his paltry conduct. The bill for annexing an annuity of £4,000 a-year to Lord Chatham's title, which had passed the House of Commons almost unanimously, was strongly opposed in the House of Lords; and the Lord Chancellor, and other members of the party called the "King's Friends," not only objected to it on the score of economy, but made violent attacks on the career and character of the deceased Earl, -even depreciating his talents.' Lord Mansfield was present, but remained silent. I am afraid it is impossible to doubt that on this and other occasions he displayed a want of heart, as well as of moral courage.But we must not hate or despise him for these infirmities: if, to the great qualities which he actually possessed, he had added the boldness of Chatham and the friendly enthusiasm of Camden, he would have been too perfect for human nature.

'Thurlow, in his coarse, bantering manner, concluded with a parody upon the stanza in Chevy Chase respecting the death of Percy:

"Now God be with him," said our King,

"Sith 'twill no better be,

I trust I have within my realm

Five hundred as good as he."

'On a division, the numbers were, for the bill 42, against it 11. I have not been able to find out with certainty how Lord Mansfield voted. There was a protest setting forth that "this may in after times be made use of as a precedent for factious purposes, and to the enriching of private families at the public expense" but this was not signed by Lord Mansfield, and only by one prelate and three temporal peers.-19 Parl. Hist. 1233-1255.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD MANSFIELD TILL THE CONCLUSION OF THE TRIAL OF

L

LORD GEORGE GORDON.

ORD MANSFIELD and his friends expected that after the death of Chatham he would have an unbounded ascendency in the House of Lords; but it is an undoubted fact that from this time his political importance greatly declined. He was not so much wanted as the champion of the Government, and the stimulus which excited him to his finest parliamentary displays was gone. Thurlow, firmly seated on the woolsack, proved himself a match in debate for any member of Opposition; and he gallantly defended all ministerial measures, till the nation, universally become sick of the war which they had once so much approved, forced Lord North to resign, that a negotiation might be opened with our revolted colonies as an independent state.

I find only one speech of Lord Mansfield upon the American question after Lord Chatham's death; and, strange to say, in this he recommends a coalition between the parties into which the state was then divided: but we must recollect that he no longer dreaded seeing in council him whom he and the King so mortally hated, and that there was no chance of the Government being able to carry on the war without some great accession to its strength. At the meeting of parliament. in November, 1779, the Marquis of Rockingham, in opposing the address, moved an amendment which, after drawing a contrast between the happy state of affairs at the accession of his Majesty and the lamentable one to which the nation was reduced, represented to his Majesty "if any thing could prevent the consummation of public ruin, it could only be new councils and new counsellors.'