cessible to all who chose to prefer their complaints to him; and when he was compelled to refuse their prayers, he anxiously studied to convey that refusal in terms the least unpleasing to the feelings of the applicant. In private life, his affable condescension was gratifying to all around him; and although he could descend to the social intercourse of the domestic circle, he never lost sight of that native dignity which repelled improper liberties, and checked the forward. In early life, devoted from choice to the profession of arms, he evinced that most valuable of all qualities in an officer,-the power of securing the attachment of those under him. And when he afterwards came to be employed in the more difficult and complex duties of a ruler, he performed the office so as to secure him the esteem and confidence of his sovereign, and the ardent attachment of those people over whom he was placed. A striking instance of this was evinced in his appointment as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. At a time when contending parties, and discontented individuals, distracted the public mind in that country, his grace's behaviour soon produced the happiest result. His affable condescension pleased all parties; his confidence gained their esteem; and they soon discovered that the chief aim of his administration was to relieve their distresses and promote their happiness. At the present time, though twelve years have elapsed since his appointment to that office, the anniversary of the arrival of the duke of Richmond in Ireland still continues to be celebrated in that country with the warmest enthusiasm, and most gratifying recollection of the event. And this we consider a higher tribute to his memory than 'storied urns or monumental epitaph' can ever perpetuate."

Charles, Duke of Buccleugh.

BORN A. D. 1772.-died A. D. 1820.

WILLIAM SCOTT DOUGLAS, Duke of Buccleugh and Queensberry, was born in 1772. He married Harriet, daughter of Viscount Sydney, and succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1812. He did not long enjoy his honours, having fallen a victim to a long-threatened pulmonary affection in 1820. His weak state of health rendered his life comparatively a private one, if indeed a man of his unbounded wealth and influence could be said to enjoy privacy at all. Sir Walter Scott has sketched his noble relative's character in a very pleasing manner. The following is an extract from his eulogy:

"As a public man, the duke of Buccleugh was, like his father, sincerely attached to the principles of Mr Pitt, which he supported on every occasion with spirit and energy, but without virulence or prejudice against those who held different opinions. He held that honour, loyalty, and good faith, although old-fashioned words, expressed more happily the duties of a man of rank, than the newer denominations which have sometimes been substituted for them. He was a patriot in the noblest sense of the word, holding that the country had a right to the last acre of his estates, and the last drop of his blood; a debt which he prepared seriously to render to her, when there was an expectation that the country would be invaded. While Lord Dalkeith, he sat in

the house of commons: we are not aware that he spoke above once or twice in either house of parliament; but as president of public meetings he often expressed himself with an ease, spirit, and felicity, which left little doubt that his success would have been considerable in the senate. His grace was for many years colonel of the Dumfries-shire regiment of militia, the duties of which situation he performed with the greatest regularity, showing a turn for military affairs as well as an attachment to them, which would have raised him high in the profession, had his situation permitted him to adopt it. That it would have been his choice was undoubted, for the military art, both in theory and in practical detail, formed his favourite study.

"The management of the duke's very extensive estates was conducted on the plan recommended by his father's experience, and which is peculiarly calculated to avoid the evil of rack-renting, which has been fraught with such misfortune to Scotland, and to secure the permanent interest both of tenant and landlord. No tenants on the Buccleugh estate, who continued worthy of patronage, were ever deprived of their farms; and scarce any have voluntarily relinquished the possession of them. To improve his large property by building, by plantations of great extent, by every encouragement to agriculture, was at once his grace's most serious employment, and his principal amusement. The estate of Queensberry, to which he succeeded, although worth from £30,000 to £40,000 yearly, afforded to the duke, owing to well-known circumstances, scarce the sixth part of the lesser sum. Yet he not only repaired the magnificent castle of Drumlanrig, but accomplished, during the few years he possessed it, the restoration, with very large additions, of those extensive plantations which had been laid waste during the life of the last proprietor. We have reason to think that the duke expended, on this single estate, in repairing the injuries which it had sustained, not less than eight times the income he derived from it. He was an enthusiastic planter, and personally understood the quality and proper treatment of forest-timber. For two or three years past his grace extended his attention to the breed of cattle, and other agricul tural experiments, a pleasure which succeeded, in some degree, to that of field-sports, to which, while in full health, he was much addicted. Such were the principal objects of the duke's expense, with the addition of that of a household suitable to his dignity; and what effect such an expenditure must have produced on the country, may be conjectured by the following circumstance :-In the year 1817, when the poor stood so much in need of employment, a friend asked the duke why his grace did not propose to go to London in the spring? By way of answer, the duke showed him a list of day-labourers, then employed in improvements upon his different estates, the number of whom, exclusive of his regular establishment, amounted to nine hundred and forty-seven perIf we allow to each labourer two persons whose support depended on his wages, the duke was, in a manner, foregoing, during this severe year, the privilege of his rank, in order to provide with more convenience for a little army of near three thousand persons, many of whom must otherwise have found it difficult to obtain subsistence. The result of such conduct is twice blessed, both in the means which it employs, and in the end which it attains in the general improvement of the country.

sons.

"In his domestic relations, as a husband, a son, a brother, and a father, no rank of life could exhibit a pattern of tenderness and affection superior to that of the duke of Buccleugh. He seemed only to live for his family and his friends; and those who witnessed his domestic happiness can alone estimate the extent of the present deprivation. He was a kind and generous master to his numerous household, and was rewarded by their sincere attachment.

"In the sincerity and steadiness of his friendship he was unrivalled. His intimacies, whether formed in early days, or during his military life, or on other occasions, he held so sacred, that, far from listening to any insinuations against an absent friend, he would not with patience hear him censured, even for real faults. The duke of Buccleugh also secured the most lasting attachment on the part of his inmates, by the value which he placed upon the sincerity of their regard. Upon one occasion, when the duke had been much and justly irritated, an intimate friend took the freedom to use some expostulations with his grace, on the extent to which he seemed to carry his resentment. The duke's answer, which conceded the point in debate, began with these remarkable words: I have reason to thank God for many things, but especially for giving me friends who will tell me truth.' On the other hand, the duke was not less capable of giving advice than willing to listen to it. He could enter with patience into the most minute details of matters far beneath his own sphere in life, and with strong, clear, unsophisticated good sense, never failed to point out the safest, most honourable, and best path to be pursued. Indeed his accuracy of judgment was such, that, even if a law point were submitted to him, divested of its technicalities, the duke generally took a view of it, founded upon the great principles of justice, which a professional person might have been benefited by listening to. The punctilious honour with which he fulfilled every promise, made the duke of Buccleugh cautious in giving hopes to friends, or others, applying for his interest. Nor was he, though with such high right to attention, fond of making requests to administration. But a promise, or the shadow of a promise, was sacred to him; and though many instances might be quoted of his assistance having been given farther than his pledge warranted an expectation, there never existed one in which it was not amply redeemed.

"Well-educated, and with a powerful memory, the duke of Buccleugh was both a lover and a judge of literature, and devoted to reading the time he could spare from his avocations. This was not so much as he desired; for the active superintendence of his own extensive affairs took up much of his time. As one article, he answered very many letters with his own hand, and never suffered above a post to pass over without a reply, even to those of little consequence; so that this single duty occupied very frequently two hours a-day. But his conversation often turned on literary subjects: and the zeal with which he preserved the ancient ruins and monuments which exist on his estates, showed his attachment to the history and antiquities of his country. In judging of literary composition, he employed that sort of criticism which arises rather from good taste, and strong and acute perception of what was true or false, than from a vivacity of imagination. In this particular, his grace would have formed no inadequate representative of the soundest and best educated part of the reading public; and

an author might have formed, from his opinion, a very accurate conjecture how his work would be received by those whom every author is desirous to please. The duke's own style in epistolary correspondence was easy, playful, and felicitous, or strong, succinct, and expressive. according to the nature of the subject."

Sir Vicary Gibbs.

BORN A. D. 1750.-DIED A. D. 1820

This eminent lawyer was born about the year 1750, in the city or the vicinity of Exeter. He was educated at Eton, and in 1770 was elected to king's college, Cambridge, as a scholar on Lord Craven's foundation, where he distinguished himself by his attainments in classical literature; and where he took the degree of B. A. 1772, and proceeded M. A. 1775.

·

In the earlier part of his life he was a popular counsel, being second to Lord Erskine in the State-trials of 1794; his exertions in favour of liberty at that time were the foundation of his eminence; but, like others, he kicked down the stool by which he rose, and when made king's counsel, his political principles changed into the most violent persecution by ex-officio informations ever known among the records of attorney and solicitor-generals, who are no way sparing in this mode. In 1795 he was made solicitor general to the Prince of Wales, and recorder of Bristol. In 1805 he was knighted, and appointed solicitorgeneral; at the general election of 1807, he became M. P. for Cambridge. In 1812, attorney-general. In 1813 he was elevated to the bench as chief-baron of the exchequer, and soon afterwards chief-justice of the court of common pleas, on the resignation of Sir James Mansfield, which important office he was obliged to resign in 1818, on account of ill health." In 1808," says the editor of the London Magazine,'" he was counsel in a cause in which the editor of this magazine, then acting as sheriff of London, was a witness. It was important to his client to prove that the editor paid vulgar respect to the dicta of reviews; but the editor, whose opinions of these corrupt productions are well known to all his readers, told the counsel that he neither respected nor read them. This Sir Vicary Gibbs affected to think strange, and insisting that every publisher ought to consult the opinions which the reviews give of authors before he treated for their works, he asserted in his coarse way, that if any publisher bought a MS. without consulting the reviews in regard to former works of the same author, he ought not to be allowed to walk about without a keeper.' This position was to the last degree silly, yet it suited the purpose of certain witlings of the day to endeavour to embroil the sheriff with the attorney-generat. The former, indeed, did not consider himself as likely to be a favourite with the crown-lawyers, with whom he had been officially at issue on several points discreditable neither to his patriotism nor benevolence. What had passed led him, however, to consider the affair as a manifestation of personal hostility on the part of Sir Vicary; but in a few days, both being in the drawing-room at St James's-Sir Vicary, at a considerable distance, across a crowd of heads, recognised the sheriff by

a continuance of cordial salutations, which were at first gravely received and not returned; but in a few minutes he bustled through the throng, commenced some friendly inquiries, and held out his hand. The sheriff' smiled, and remarked, that after all that had passed in the newspapers it must be thought strange to see them in that attitude. Pshaw, Sir,' said he, 'do you imagine I regard newspapers, or think about their observations?' 'Good,' rejoined the sheriff; yet Sir Vicary, it must be allowed that you have as great an interest in what they say, as a publisher has in the opinions of reviews! You are right—you are right, Sir-I feel the force of the observation; but you must not expect a pleader to be always logical-the man must be distinguished from the advocate, and I hope we are friends and shall continue to be so.' The sheriff replied, that a publisher always wished to be on good terms. with an attorney-general; and the parties then separated in mutual good humour, several by-standers laughing at the incident and at so singular an eclaircissement. A volume," adds Sir Richard Philipps, "could not more fully illustrate the character of Sir Vicary Gibbs, though different readers may draw very different inferences from the anecdote."

Sir Vicary died on the 8th of February, 1820. His friend Sir Richard, whose interview with him we have just described in his own words, thus sums up his character: "The late chief-justice of the court of common pleas, was a man of strong mind, peevish temper, and great legal knowledge, perfected by vast industry and continual practice. For the sake of the bar, however, the urbanity of which we would wish to respect, it is to be hoped that the asperity with which this lawyer treated all who differed in opinion from him, whether in a wig or without, will never be copied. In a counsellor a waspish infirmity of temper becomes disgusting, but in a judge it is monstrous; not that we can impute this to Sir Vicary as a chief-justice,-when raised to the bench all his petulance fled, and a dignified amenity went hand in hand with duty. The dictatorial manner of a contemporary chief-justice was unknown on the chief seat of the common pleas."

Francis Hargrave.

BORN A. D. 1741.-DIED A. D. 1821.

THIS very eminent lawyer was the son of an attorney. He was educated at the Charter house and Oxford, and afterwards entered of Lincoln's Inn. Little is known of his early career at the bar. The first case in which he appears to have distinguished himself was that of the negro Somerset, already noticed in our sketch of that eminent philanthropist Granville Sharp. Soon after his successful pleading in this interesting case, Lord North appointed him one of the treasury counsel; but he did not long retain this appointment; his whig principles appear to have procured his abrupt and early dismissal.

On this occasion Lord Thurlow addressed a letter to him in the following terms: "I am exceedingly sorry for the accident, whatever it be, by which you are removed from an office, which could not be more agreeable to you, than you might have been useful to the public. If it was mere caprice, I am also sorry that it was thought expedient to