Whether the consciousness of these powers, or the suggestions of his friends, or the embarrassments of a scanty income, first invited him to make preparations for the study of the law, it is difficult now to determine. It has, however, been said, that Mr. Erskine had no merit whatever in embarking in so new and arduous a profession; but that, after the death of his father, it was literally forced upon him by the importunities of his mother (a lady of uncommon acquirements and singular penetration), and that the hope of succeeding in it was fortified and kept alive, against his own prepossessions, by her counsel and persuasions.

Mr. Erskine was about twenty-six when he commenced his course of legal study. He entered as a fellow-commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1777; and, at the same time, inserted his name as a student on the books of Lincoln's-Inn. One of his college declamations is still extant; as it was delivered in Trinity College Chapel. The thesis was the revolution of 1688. It gained the first prize, and was an earnest of his future eminence. An ode, written by Mr. Erskine about this time, in imitation of Gray's Bard, is also worthy of notice, as a sportive production of his fancy. It originated in a humorous occurrence. The author had been disappointed by his barber, who neglected his usual attendance upon him, and thereby prevented him from dining in the college hall. In the moment of disappointment, hun¬ ger, and impatience, he pours forth a malediction against the whole race of hair-dressers: with a denunciation, prophetic of the present taste for cropping, and unpowdered hair.

It was not for any academical purpose that Mr. Erskine entered the university. His object in doing so was merely to obtain a degree, to which he was entitled as the son of a nobleman, and by which he saved two years in his passage to the bar. His education had been previously completed in Scotland. His father, one of the most accomplished men of his time, had uniformly felt an extraordinary solicitude as to the education of his children; and actually removed from his family estate for the purpose of residing at St. Andrew's,

where he continued many years. During this time, he procured for them a private tutor, one of the most elegant scholars of that part of the island, to assist their progress at the school and university. Mr. Erskine always pursued the study of the belles lettres with unremitting ardour, and had the advantage of imbibing from the most eminent persons of the day, that various and extended knowledge which can never be derived from books, or solitary application.

In order to acquire a necessary insight into the technical parts of his future profession, he was persuaded, by the judicious counsels of his friends, to enter as a pupil into the office of Mr. Buller, then an eminent special pleader.

During this period of his life, Mr. Erskine experienced all the difficulties arising out of a very limited income. He had already been married about seven years, had a family, and was obliged to adhere to a most rigid frugality. The part sustained by the late Mrs. Erskine, before the cloud that overhung their first entrance into life was dissipated, was highly honourable to her feelings. She accompanied her husband to Minorca; followed his fortunes with cheerful. constancy; and while he was engaged in the pursuits of a most laborious profession, never suffered any pleasure or amusement to interrupt her in the assiduous discharge of her domestic duties. The affection entertained by her husband for this lady was strongly marked in his will; to which we shall by-and-by advert.

While he remained in Mr. Buller's office, he adhered to the business of the desk with unremitting perseverance; and on that gentleman's promotion, he went into the office of Mr. Wood, where he continued a year after he had been in considerable business at the bar. Special pleading, though frequently called a mechanical part of the profession, has of late years arrived at a higher dignity than lawyers of former times were willing to allow it. The absolute and hourly necessity of this law-logic is now recognised by every one who is conversant with the business of our courts of justice. It consists in a sort of analytical correctness; and its greatest

utility is derived from the habits of artificial acuteness which it imparts, and the nice and skilful subtleties on which it is perpetually occupied.

Mr. Erskine had now completed the probationary period allotted to attendance in the inns of court; and he was called to the bar in Trinity Term, 1778. It has been remarked by a barrister of great eminence, and who has had abundant means of observation, that those who enter the bar rather late in life, are much more likely to succeed, than those who enter very early. When a suitable occasion for distinguishing himself is presented to a very young man, his want of judgment and knowledge of the world frequently prevents him from availing himself of it as he ought; and the mortification caused by an unsuccessful attempt often throws a damp over the spirits, fatal to future effort. However that may be, it is certain Mr. Erskine was a singular exception to the tardy advance of professional merit at the English bar. He did not long continue a mute auditor in the back benches of the court, among the crowd of be not unyoung men, who may aptly compared to the ghosts that linger on the banks of the Styx for a passage to Elysium. By a remarkable partiality of Fortune he was not tortured by the "hope deferred," and the sickening expectation of a brief, which so many men of promising talents are doomed to undergo. An opportunity was almost immediately afforded him of distinguishing himself in Westminster Hall. Captain Baillie, who had been removed from the superintendance of Greenwich Hospital by the late Earl of Sandwich, then first lord of the admiralty, and one of the governors of Greenwich Hospital, was charged with having published a libel on that nobleman; and the attorney-general was instructed to move for leave to file a criminal information against him. Mr. Erskine was retained for Captain Baillie. In opposing the motion of Mr. Attorney-General, an opportunity presented itself of entering into the merits of the case in behalf of Captain Baillie. He accordingly expatiated upon the services which had been rendered by his client, and on the firmness with which he resisted the intrigue and artifice

to which he attributed the prosecution set on foot against him. In the course of his speech, Mr. Erskine attacked the noble Earl in a tone of sarcastic and indignant invective.

"The defendant," said the young advocate, "is not a disappointed malicious informer, prying into official abuses because without office himself, but himself a man in office; not troublesomely inquisitive into other men's departments, but conscientiously correcting his own; doing it pursuant to the rules of law, and, what heightens the character, doing it at the risk of his office, from which the effrontery of power has already suspended him without proof of his guilt; conduct not only unjust and illiberal, but highly disrespectful to this court, whose judges sit in the double capacity of ministers of the law, and governors of this sacred and abused institution. Indeed, Lord Sandwich has, in my mind, acted such a part

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(Here Lord Mansfield, observing the counsel heated with his subject, and growing personal on the first lord of the admiralty, told him that Lord Sandwich. was not before the court.)

"I know that he is not formally before the court, but for that very reason I will bring him before the court. He has placed these men in the front of the battle, in hopes to escape under their shelter; but I will not join in battle with them: their vices, though screwed up to the highest pitch of human depravity, are not of dignity enough to vindicate the combat with me. I will drag him to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity. I assert that the Earl of Sandwich has but one road to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace: and that is, by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors, and restoring Captain Baillie to his command. If he does this, then his offence will be no more than the too common one of having suffered his own personal interest to prevail over his public duty, in placing his voters in the hospital. But if, on the contrary, he continues to protect the prosecutors, in spite of the evidence of their guilt,

which has excited the abhorrence of the numerous audience that crowd this court; if he keeps this injured man suspended, or dares to turn that suspension into a removal, I shall then not scruple to declare him an accomplice in their guilt, a shameless oppressor, a disgrace to his rank, and a traitor to his trust."

This animated denunciation proves that the courage which marked Lord Erskine's professional life was not assumed or acquired after the success which rendered it a safe and a cheap virtue; but, being inherent in his nature, was displayed at a moment when its exhibition was attended with the most formidable risks. It was, at that time, no common spectacle to observe a man, so little known, commenting with asperity of remark on the conduct of a powerful statesman, who held an elevated post in the administration; and distinguishing himself by a species of confidence not usually felt in early efforts of public speaking; under circumstances that rendered it prudent to abstain from personal severity, and to conciliate the bench he was addressing.

This was the first trial of his talents at the bar, having been called only in Trinity term, and having been employed for Captain Baillie in the Michaelmas term following. He is said to have been indebted for this opportunity of making his debut to no interference, recommendation, or connexion; for, that his acquaintance with Captain Baillie originated in his having accidentally met him at the table of a common friend. As he left the court on this occasion, nearly thirty briefs were presented to him by the attorneys who happened to be present.

In a few months after, Mr. Erskine appeared at the bar of the House of Commons, as counsel for Mr. Carnan, the bookseller, against a bill introduced by Lord North, then Prime Minister, to revest in the universities the monopoly in almanacks which Mr. Carnan had succeeded in abolishing by legal judgments. The ingenuity and elegance of the following passage, which occurs towards the close of the address in question, have perhaps seldom been exceeded: -