that addressed himself to Tully in these memorable words,— Demosthenes tibi præripuit, ne primus esses orator, tu illi ne solus-anticipated their application to Mansfield and Pitt. If the one possessed Demosthenean fire and energy, the other was at least a Cicero. Their oratory differed in species, but was equal in merit. There was at least no superiority on the side of Pitt. Mansfield's eloquence was not indeed of that daring, bold, declamatory kind, so irresistibly powerful in the momentary bustle of popular assemblies; but it was possessed of that pure and attic spirit, and seductive power of persuasion, that delights, instructs, and eventually triumphs. It has been very beautifully and justly compared to a river, that meanders through verdant meads and flowery gardens, reflecting in its crystal bosom the varied objects that adorn its banks, and refreshing the country through which it flows." Bishop Warburton says, that during Mansfield's administration, "the stream of justice ran pure as from its own celestial source, purer than Plato dared to conceive it even in his feigned republic." "Lord Mansfield," says Hurd, "was looked up to and admired as the Cicero of the age; yet he was never much relished by some of the old lawyers, who boldly asserted, that, if his innovations were to be freely adopted, they might shut up their long revered law-authorities; and, in compliment to his lordship, merely adhere to the decisions that were contained in 'Burrow's Reports.' He was, it is said, applied to by the late Mr Owen Ruffhead, for materials to compose an account of his life, but modestly replied that his life was not of sufficient importance to be written. If,' added he to the applicant, you wish to write the life of a truly great man, write the life of Lord Hardwicke; who, from very humble means, and without family support and connections, became lord-high-chancellor of England, on account of his virtue, his talents, and his diligence.''

His memory was astonishing; he never took notes, or, if he did, seldom or never consulted them; yet his references to expressions which fell from him in the course of debate, or his quotations from books, were so faithful that they might have been said to have been repeated verbatim.

"His genius," says another contemporary, "is comprehensive and penetrating; and, when he judges it necessary, he pours forth sounds the most seductive, equally calculated to persuade and to convince. Among his more rare qualifications may be added the external graces of his person, the piercing eye, the fine-toned voice and harmonious elocution, and that happy arrangement which possesses all the accuracy and elegance of the most laboured compositions." The weight he had in the house of lords may be conjectured from what Horace Walpole says in one of his letters: "The third day was a scene of confusion and folly; for when Lord Mansfield is absent, Lost is the nation's sense, nor can be found.'

Dr Smollett, noticing the supporters of Mr Pelham's administration, mentions Murray as entitled to the first place in point of genius. "This gentleman," he continues, "the son of a noble family in North Britain, had raised himself to great eminence at the bar by the most keen intuitive spirit of apprehension, that seemed to seize every object at first glance; an innate sagacity that saved the trouble of intense application; and an irresistible stream of eloquence, that flowed pure and classical,

PERIOD.]

WILLIAM, VISCOUNT BARRINGTON.

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strong and copious, reflecting, in the most conspicuous point of view, the subject over which it rolled, and sweeping before it all the slime of formal hesitation, and all the entangling weeds of chicanery." Lord Mansfield's title of earl descended to his nephew, David, Viscount Stormont, and, at his death, to his son David William, third earl.

William, Viscount Barrington.

DIED A. D. 1793.

THIS nobleman was the son of John, first Viscount Barrington. He commenced his political career in the year 1740, when he entered parliament as representative for the town of Berwick. He immediately attached himself to the opposition party, and shared their triumph over On the formation of the Pelham party, Walpole in the following year. he became a supporter of government, and was appointed a lord of the admiralty. When the duke of Newcastle became premier, Lord Barrington was made secretary-at-war. In March, 1761, on the dismissal of Mr Legge, he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer. When, in May 1762, Lord Bute was appointed first lord of the treasury, Viscount Barrington was removed to the treasurership of the navy, which had been filled by George Grenville, and was succeeded in the exLord Barrington held the navy chequer by Sir Francis Dashwood. treasurership till the year 1765, when, under Pitt, he again became secretary-at-war, in which office he continued till the time of his final He died in 1793. retirement from public life in 1778.

Lord Barrington appears to have been a man of good business habits and respectable talents. That he managed to keep so long in office during a period which witnessed the overthrow of so many successive administrations, is rather a suspicious circumstance; yet he appears, by the testimony of almost all his contemporaries, to have been a thoroughly The following letter to General Conupright and conscientious man. way affords strong testimony to the integrity of his lordship's official conduct: "When I first came to the war office I made a resolution from which I have never departed in one instance, and from my adherence to which the greatest benefits have arisen to his majesty's service. This resolution was, never to recommend to the king any surgeons of regiments, or of the army hospitals, but such as should be recommended to me by the physicians and chief surgeons of the army, who constitute My instructions to them are, always to what I call the hospital board. recommend to me on vacancies, not only good and able people, but the very best and ablest they can find; regard being had, where merit is equal, to such as have served in lower stations, either as mates in hospitals or in regiments. I verily believe they have complied with these directions; because though I have often heard great commendations, I have never heard the least blame of any medical people recommended by them; notwithstanding I have frequently been obliged-always unwillingly-to put their colonels out of humour by refusing the people

19 A few years afterwards Dr Smollett again drew the character of Lord Mansfield the Adventures of an Atom,' in terms very different from the above.

3 K

whom they have recommended. I have gone farther, having refused, in more instances than one, the recommendations of the commander-inchief; and even of the duke of Newcastle, to whom I owe more compliance than to any man living; because he is the only subject to whom I have a real obligation. I must do his grace the justice to say that, after the first warmth was over, he has always approved my rule, and the steadiness with which I adhered to it. Forgive me, my dear general. that I cannot, in this instance, show the same regard to your recommendation, as in the instance of Mr Bourke, lately appointed a cornet in your regiment at your desire. The two cases, give me leave to say, are widely different. None but medical men can judge of medical men; and, in my opinion, it would be as preposterous to take the character of a surgeon from a colonel, as of an officer from the hospital board. As to breaking my rule in this instance and keeping it in others, I am sure upon consideration you will not adhere to that advice; for I should then give real offence to all those whom I have refused already, or shall refuse hereafter. If I have ever given any satisfaction in the troublesome and delicate station I am in, it has arisen from making no exceptions to general rules. It is with great difficulty that I am steady at present; but this advantage will arise from a very disagreeable thing no colonel can ever expect I should take his recommendation of a surgeon, when I have refused General Conway's."

There is still stronger testimony of his inflexible adherence to this excellent rule in his correspondence with Lord Ligonier, and the mar quess of Granby. A letter to the former-at that time commander-inchief-concludes thus: "I have not time to answer your lordship's letter of Sunday, which I received last night: perhaps it is better that I should not particularly answer it, as I wish always to keep my temper, especially with those who are older and wiser than myself. I will only say, that whatever the power of a commander-in-chief may be, it certainly does not extend to make a secretary-at-war give the king advice which he thinks wrong. I told your lordship very explicitly at our first outset, that I never would. I have refused in a like case the only man living to whom I have an obligation, and he is not offended. I wonder I am pressed to do it by your lordship. If you think these alterations in the German hospital to be right, you will propose them to the king. If his majesty, after hearing my objections, shall be of your lordship's opinion, I will obey his orders with the same cheerfulness, and do all other business with the same good humour, as if he had declared for mine. I have no points to carry, and should blush at a triumph."

Charles Pratt, Earl Camden.

BORN A. D. 1713.-DIED A. D. 1794.

FEW men have such strong claims to the gratitude and admiration of his countrymen as the noble and illustrious character whose life and political merits we are now about to sketch.

Charles Pratt was the third son of Sir John Pratt, chief-justice of the court of King's bench under George I. by his second wife, Elizabeth,

daughter of the Rev. Hugh Wilson, canon of Bangor. He was born in 1713, the year before his father was raised to the bench. He received the first rudiments of his education at Eton, and afterwards studied at King's college: he was remarkably diligent and studious, and particularly versed in the history and constitution of his country. After taking his master's degree in 1735, he entered himself a student of the Inner temple, and was in due time admitted to the bar.

Mr Pratt, after being called to the bar, notwithstanding his family connexions and his own personal character, was nearly nine years in the profession without getting in any degree forward. Whether this arose from a natural timidity of constitution, or ill-luck, or despondence, it is now difficult to tell, but the fact was so; and he was so dispirited by it, that he had some thoughts of relinquishing the profession of the law, and retiring to his college, where he might be sure of a church living, that would afford him a small but honourable independence. Brooding over these melancholy thoughts he went as usual the Western circuit, resolving to make one more experiment, and then take his final determination. He had, from his first setting out in his profession, been very intimate with Mr Henley, afterwards Lord Northington, and lord-high-chancellor of England,- --a man who, with the talents of wit and conversation, was esteemed a good lawyer and capable of strong and lasting friendship. Henley, at this time, was rising rapidly at the bar, and was concerned in most of the great causes on the circuit. He was the amicus omnium horarum' of Pratt; but knew nothing of the embarrassments of his friend's affairs, till the other, availing himself of a leisure hour, confided his cares to him with all the frankness and unreservedness of an old and intimate colleague. Henley heard him throughout with a seeming and anxious composure, and then burst out into a horse-laugh, exclaiming in his strong manner: "What! turn parson at last! No, Charles; you sha'nt be a priest neither! You shall do better for yourself; and that quickly too. Let me see,-I'm concerned in a cause that will suit you to a hair,-you shall be concerned in it too,-it is on the popular side, and will do you credit. So let me hear no more of this canting business of turning parson: you have abilities that run before us all, but you must endeavour to scour off a little of that d-ned modesty and diffidence you have about you, to give them fair play." In this rough familiar manner Henley rallied the spirits of his friend; and he followed up his advice with sagacity and cordiality. When his client's attorney called upon him to arrange the particulars of the cause, he asked him whether he had retained Pratt ? "Pratt! Pratt !" said the attorney, "who is Mr Pratt ?" "Who is Mr Pratt, Sir!" said Henley gravely, "the question shows you to be a country attorney, or you should know better. Go to him directly and engage him, as I would not have a man of his abilities against me on any consideration." The attorney did as he was directed, and Mr

Mr Pratt's case was by no means singular even in his own day. Some of the greatest luminaries of the law in his time passed through the same ordeal. Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Lord Grantley, was some years before he got into notice. Mr Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton, received but twenty guineas the first year, and for three years afterwards did not get above one hundred pounds. Sir George Hay, no less a civilian than a man of fine general talents, was for three or four years in so little practice as to be scarcely able by his profession to keep up the port of a gentleman.

Pratt was retained in the cause. Henley was taken ill upon the day of trial, and Mr Pratt took the lead, and won the admiration of his brother barristers and the whole court by the display he made. In short, the issue of that day's trial was, that besides gaining his cause, he gained the reputation of an eloquent, profound, and constitutional lawyer.

When Pratt returned to London, he found the bruit of his professional fame-which his friend Henley took care to cultivate by all the good offices in his power-had reached the metropolis before him. The second great event which called out his professional talents, and placed his fame on that basis which rendered it marked and permanent, and for ever after shielded and protected it from neglect and insecurity, was the celebrated case of Owen the bookseller, for publishing A Defence of Alexander Murray, Esq.,' 1751. In the contested election between Lord Wenman and Sir James Dashwood on one side, and Lord Parker and Sir Edward Turner on the other, Mr Pratt was counsel for the former, and distinguished himself in a manner that not only elevated his character as a lawyer, but marked him out as an able defender of the constitutional rights of his country. Mr Pitt was the 'auditor tantum' of this celebrated contest. But charmed with the eloquence, the professional skill, and the integrity of his new friend, he gave him his unreserved confidence, and from this hour they were the Pylades and Orestes of their time. With these warm professions in favour of his friend, when Mr Pitt came to be appointed secretary of state, in 1756, he appointed Mr Pratt his private counsellor, with a handsome salary, in order, as that great man declared, "not only to have the benefit of such advice, but to guard against any inroads which he otherwise might unintentionally make on the laws and constitution of his country." In 1757 Mr Pratt was made attorney-general in the room of Sir Robert Henley, made lord-keeper. Mr Pitt jocosely played upon the temper of his friend on this occasion, by telling him he was ap pointed attorney-general. "Not for the world, Sir," said he, "to the prejudice of my oldest and best friend, Henley !" "Well, but suppose

we kick this old friend of yours up to the house of lords, will that do? In fact, the thing is so, Henley is made lord-keeper, and I wish you joy most sincerely of your new appointment of attorney-general." From the office of attorney-general Mr Pratt ascended the bench, being appointed lord-chief-justice of the court of common pleas in 1762, after having been chosen representative for Downton, Wiltshire, in 1759, and made recorder of Bath the same year. Writing to his friend Dr Davies at this period, he says: "I remember you prophesied formerly that I should be a chief-justice, or perhaps something higher. Half is come to pass: I am thane of Cawdor; but the greater is behind, and if that fails me, you are still a false prophet. Joking aside, I am retired out of this bustling world to a place of sufficient profit, ease, and dignity, and believe that I am a much happier man than the highest post in the law could have made ine."

In his judicial capacity he manifested great independence and impartiality. In 1763, when John Wilkes, after having been conveyed to the Tower, on a general warrant, was brought up, by virtue of a writ of habeas corpus, the chief-justice discharged him; it being his opinion, as he subsequently stated, on the trial of an action brought by Wilkes against the messenger who had arrested him, that general warrants,