examining all the draughts and cases which went through the office. To this period of study he ascribed much of his success in the profession. When he referred, as he was fond of doing to Mr. Duane's liberality in taking him without a fee, he would add, "That was a great kindness to me. He was a most worthy and excellent man. The knowledge I acquired of conveyancing in his office was of infinite service to me during a long life in the Court of Chancery." I will here finish what I have to relate of his legal studies. To supply the deficiency arising from his not having been with a special pleader or equity draughtsman, he copied all the MS. forms he could lay his hands upon. He was very proud of the volumes he thus compiled, and regretted their loss, suggesting that " he had lent them to friends with a bad memory." Unconscious of the joke which I have often heard circulated against himself,—that, when Chancellor, he greatly augmented his own library by borrowing books quoted at the Bar, and forgetting to return them,—he would say of such borrowers, Though backward in accounting, they are well practised in bookkeeping." 66 He engaged in a course of reading, the expediency of which I should doubt. It is well for the student to pursue consecutively the Reports of Lord Coke and of Plowden; but Mr. Scott went through a systematic course of Reports, and, coming down to a reporter of such low credit as Vernon, he could tell the names of most of the cases reported, with the volume and page where they were to be found. I wish I could add, that at the same time he attended to more elegant pursuits; but for such a combination I fear that human strength is insufficient. He seemed to have renounced all taste for classical learning with his academical cap and gown, and never to have taken the smallest interest in the literature of the day. He read a weekly newspaper, but no other periodical publication; and although when a boy he had studied the Rambler, and Johnson's earlier works, he is not supposed to have spared time from copying precedents to read the "Journey to the Hebrides," or the "Lives of the Poets." Hence we have to desiderate in him the vein of classical allusion, and the beautiful diction, which gave such a charm to the conversation and compositions of Lord Stowell. But we ought to honour his unwearied industry, and to admire his stupendous acquirements in one department of human knowledge. Before he had ever pleaded a cause, he was fit to preside on the bench; and there he would have given more satisfaction than most other members of the profession, who could boast of their “lucubrationes viginti annorum." It must be remembered always, that he had by nature an admirable head for law, and that he seemed almost by an intuitive glance to penetrate into its most obscure mysteries.—He was ere long to reap the reward of his industry. CHAPTER CXCIII. CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR ELDON TILL HE MR. JOHN SCOTT was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on the 9th of February, 1776; [A. D. 1776.] but he did not begin to appear as a candidate for practice till Easter term following. He used in his latter years to talk much of his bad success at starting; but I am bound to say that this he greatly exaggerated. It seems to me, that, with a view to enhance the marvel of his ultimate rise, he was unconsciously disposed to dwell rather too much upon the difficulties he had overcome, and to forget the encouragements he had met with,-till at last, by oft repetition, he himself gave faith to a representation of his first years at the Bar considerably at variance with the genuine truth. According to the following statement by himself, he was cheated of his maiden fee:-"I had been called to the Bar but a day or two, when, on coming out of court one morning, 1 was accosted by a dapper-looking attorney's clerk, who handed me a motion paper, in some matter of course, which merely required to be authenticated by counsel's signature. I signed the paper, and the attorney's clerk, taking it back from me, said, A fine hand yours, Mr. Scott-an exceedingly fine hand! It would be well if gentlemen at the Bar would always take a little of your pains to ensure legibility. A beautiful hand, Sir.' While he spoke thus, the eloquent clerk was fumbling first in one pocket, then in the other, till, with a hurried air, he said. A-a-a- -I really beg your pardon, Sir, but I have unfortunately left my purse on the table in the coffee-room opposite; pray do me the favour to remain here, and I will be back in one moment.' So speaking, the clerk vanished with the rapidity of lightning, and I never set eyes on him again." 6 He dilated often on the difficulty he had in procuring an equipage to go his first circuit. "At last,” he continued, “I hired a horse for myself, and borrowed another for an inexperienced youth who was to ride behind me with my saddle-bags. But I thought my chance was gone; for, having been engaged in a discussion with a travelling companion, on approaching the assize town I looked behind, but there was no appearance of my clerk, and I was obliged to ride back several miles, till I found him crying by the road-side, his horse at some distance from him, and the saddle-bags still farther off; and it was not without great difficulty that I could accomplish the reunion between them, which he had in vain attempted. Had I failed too in this undertaking, I never should have been Lord Chancellor." He represented his gains for twelve months after he put on his gown to amount to 9s. sterling, and no more. "When I was called to the Bar," he would say, "Bessy and I thought all our troubles were over; business was to pour in, and we were to be rich almost immediately. So I made a bargain with her, that during the following year all the money I should receive in the first eleven months should be mine, and, whatever I should get in the twelfth month should be hers. That was our agreement, and how do you think that it turned out? In the twelfth month I received half a guinea; eighteen pence went for charity, and Bessy got nine shillings.* In the other eleven months I got not one shilling." It may be true, although it is highly improbable, (considering his north-country connexions, the friendship of Mr. Duane, and his own agreeable manners,) that he had no other business in London during his first year; but in the summer of this year he went the Northern Circuit, where we know, from undoubted authority, that he prospered. There is extant a letter from Sir William to their brother Henry, written on the 2d of October, 1776, containing this passage:"My brother Jack seems highly pleased with his circuit success. I hope it is only the beginning of future triumphs. All appearances speak strongly in his favour. If he does not succeed, I will never venture a conjecture upon any one thing again. He is very industrious, and has made great progress in the knowledge of his profession." Lord Eldon had fallen into the belief that his famous argument in Akroyd v. Smith, before Lord Thurlow, in the year 1780, was the first opportunity he ever enjoyed of gaining distinction. But it now appears, that early in the year 1777 he repeatedly harangued the freemen of Newcastle at a contested election for that borough, and that in the ensuing session of Parliament he was counsel before a committee of the House of Commons, upon a petition that arose out of it. Stoney Bowes had lately married the Countess of Strathmore, after fighting a sham duel, in defence of her honour, with the Reverend Bate Dudley, editor of the Morning Post, and was now, in her right, become entitled to large estates in the county of [MARCH, 1777.] Durham. During the honeymoon he announced himself as a candidate to represent Newcastle on the death of Sir Walter Blackett; and his absence being excused on account of the duties he had to discharge elsewhere, John Scott, retained as one of his counsel, not only argued the validity of votes on his behalf before the returning officer, but used to speak for him in public. "As a mob orator, his townsmen considered him to have failed; he proceeded with hesitation, stopped frequently, and with a nervous action raised his hand to his mouth, as though to pull out the reluctant words." The printed poll-book shows that John Scott, along with his brothers William and Henry, as free * This must have been a half-guinea motion, the last day of term-when there was a deduction (it used to be only 1s. in the King's Bench) for the benefit of poor prisoners confined for debt. W. E. Surtees, 51. In a humorous piece acted on the Italian stage, where there is a similar difficulty experienced, Punchinello runs his head into the stomach of the stammering orator-to make the words jump out. men of the Hoastmans' Company, voted for Bowes; but Trevelyn, the opposite candidate, had a majority of votes, and was returned.* The poll lasted fourteen days, and our young barrister received an honorarium of 200 guineas, which he must have carried back to Bessy with high glee, although somehow it afterwards slipped entirely from his recollection. But his forgotten good fortune did not end here. There being a petition against the return, he was retained for the petitioner, against Dunning, Serjeant Glynn, and Jack Lee-and, with mutual charges of bribery, the case was fiercely fought many days. While it was pending, he wrote a letter to his brother Henry, who had been one of Bowes's agents during the election; in which, after stating that he had summed up the evidence for the petition that morning in a long speech, that a greater impression had been made upon the committee than was expected, but that their witnesses had been rigorously crossexamined with a view to recrimination, he adds :—“ I hope you have not been so zealous as to overleap the bounds of law and prudence, for I take it for granted that they will spare nobody-our case has irritated and surprised them so much. I think, upon the whole, it will not be a void election, but will contribute to establish Bowes's importance very much." The committee at last reported that the sitting member was duly elected, when John Scott, in another letter to his [MAY 2, 1777.] brother Henry, says, "The committee cleared the room to take the sense of the majority; but, after debating two hours, they were so much divided, that they could not come to a determination. They met according to adjournment again yesterday, but again broke up without a decision. This morning they met a third time, and I am just informed that the majority is against us. Thus this vexatious and frivolous petition' has proved respectable, though not successful." A few days afterwards Sir William wrote "I am very happy to find that my brother John acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of his friends in the matter of the petition. That affair is well ended for us all,-all circumstances considered."t The same year Mr. John Scott, through the influence of his father 1163 to 1068. †These election proceedings not having been communicated to Mr. Twiss, he does not refer to them in his first or second edition. In a note on the third, he says, "Among the papers left by Lord Eldon there has been found no trace of, or allusion to, Mr. Bowes's retainers, nor is any memory of them extant in the Eldon family." But the old Earl could hardly have forgotten" briefs, consultations, and refreshers," which must have been so important to him; and I suspect he became ashamed of his connexion with a client who turned out such a reprobate. Many years after, Sir John Scott was examined as a witness in the Court of Common Pleas to prove that, at the time of this contested election, Mr. Bowes and Lady Strathmore lived together on cordial terms. In a letter dated 1st May, 1778, he says: "I see your friend Bowes very often, but I dare not dine with him above once in three months, as there is no getting away before midnight; and, indeed, one is sure to be in a condition in which no man would wish to be in the streets at any other season." in-law, had a general retainer from the corporation of Newcastle, and received a brief, with several eminent [A. D. 1776.] leaders, to support a claim of the Duke of Northumberland to an ancient office against Lord Gwydir. Of this last employment he would often talk, saying, "It was only a handsome way of giving me twenty guineas a day for walking down to the House of Lords." This summer he again went the Northern Circuit, and had evidently taken root there, having various briefs in the Crown Court at Newcastle, where the attorneys showed a disposition to employ him, and were well pleased with his performances. Above all, Mr. Cuthbert, the topping attorney of the town, was his avowed patron.† In the end of the preceding year he had lost his father, who by his will left him a legacy of 1000l. He placed a tab let, with an unostentatious inscription, in St. Nicho- [Nov. 6, 1776.] las's church, to the memory of the worthy coal-fitter, and always behaved with kindness to his surviving parent, who lived to see him a peer. At this time, rather attracted by the harvest which he thought was ripe for him in his native place, than despairing of ultimate success in the metropolis, he resolved at once to settle as a provincial counsel; and he actually hired a house in Pilgrim Street, on the bank of the Tyne; the summit of his ambition being, as yet, the recordership of Newcastle. But before he had removed his family from London he altered his plans, and made over the lease of his house in Pilgrim Street to his brother Henry. What was the cause of this sudden change has not been cleared up to us. [A. D. 1777.] Mr. Heron, another leading Newcastle attorney well-affected to him, strongly urged that London was the proper field for such powers and acquirements as his, and added, "Only go, and I'll give you a guinea now, on condition that you give me a thousand when you're Chancellor." So saying, he handed him a guinea, which Mr. John Scott, who did not like to refuse money, was proceeding to put into his pocket. On this Sir William, who was present at the deliberation, exclaimed, in a tone of remonstrance, “Jack, you're robbing Heron of his guinea," and it was returned. I suspect that London was at this time preferred on account of a promise given by Lord Thurlow, on the application of Lord Darlington, though never fulfilled,-to confer upon Mr. John Scott a Commissionership of Bankrupts. Accustomed to doubt long on questions of law, he ever showed great decision in acting where his own interests * When the Duke was commander-in-chief of the northern forces during the American war, his head-quarters being fixed at Newcastle, he was occasionally the guest of Mr. Surtees, when Mrs. John Scott and her infant son were there. His Grace would often take the boy on his knees, calling him his Captain, and saying, good-humouredly, " You shall soon be an officer in my regiment." The importance attached by the family to this patronage appears by a letter written at this time by Sir William, complaining much of Cuthbert's conduct in some negotiation, in which he says,-" However, Jack's interest is concerned in not saying any thing affronting to him; otherwise I should not spare him." |