was persuaded by his friends to enter as a pupil into the office of Judge Buller, then the most eminent special pleader of his day. On the promotion of that gentleman, he removed to the office of Mr. Wood, where he continued a year after he had obtained considerable eniployment at the bar. During the whole term of his probation he is said to have pursued the dry detail business of the desk with unremitting cheerfulness and assiduity. He was called to the bar in 1778; and was very shortly afterwards prèsented with an opportunity of displaying his shining oratorical powers. Captain Baillie, who had been deprived of the Directorship 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. It was as counsel for the Captain on this occasion that Mr. Erskine made his first speech in court; and the intrinsic merits of this maiden essay, added to the novelty of a young lawyer's indulging in the most caustic in vective against a powerful statesman who held an elevated post in the administra tion, excited a degree of attention which his most sanguine hopes had scarcely dared to anticipate. Such was the impression created by his eloquent defence of Captain Baillie, that on leaving the court he is said to have been presented with no less than thirty briefs! A short time afterwards, Mr. Erskine appeared at the bar of the House of Commons as counsel for Carnan, the bookseller, against a bill introduced by Lord North, then Prime Minister, to revest in the Universities the monopoly in almanacks, which Caruan had succeeded in abolishing by legal judgments; and he was fortunate enough to place the noble lord in a considerable minority upon a division. His defence of Admiral Keppel, for which he received a thousand guineas, completely established bis fame as an advocate; and from that time business began to press upon him to an extraordinary extent, and he was looked upon as one of the most able counsellors in the Court of King's Bench. He subsequently conducted the defence of Lord George Gordon; and having delivered to the jury the doctrine of high-treason, wound up his address with the following forcible peroration. "I say by God, that man is a ruffian, who, on such evidence as this, seeks to establish a conclusion of guilt." In the early part of 1783, at the recommendation of the venerable Earl of Mans

field, Mr.Erskine obtained a silk gown, and in the same year was nominated to a seat in the House of Commons as a representative of the borough of Portsmouth. His professional labours were now considerably augmented; and he was appointed by his present Majesty, then Prince of Wales, to the situation which had been so long occupied by Mr. Dunning, afterwards Lord Ashburton. Mr. Erskine was often successfully engaged in conducting trials for crim. con. sometimes for the plaintiff and at others for the defendant. Among the most extraordinary cases of this descrip tion in which he was employed, is the remarkable one of Baldwin versus Oliver, tried at York, and that of Sir Henry Vane Tempest, in both of which he acted for the defendants, and succeeded so far that one shilling was the entire sum awarded as damages against them. In trials for libel, the talents of Mr. Erskine were always found most effective on the part of the defence. When the charges against Mr. Hastings were published by the House of Commons, a Mr. Logie, a Scotch clergyman and a friend to the GovernorGeneral, wrote a tract in which those charges were investigated with some acrimony, but with considerable warmth and vigour; so that the pamphlet being considered as libellous, a criminal information was filed against Stockdale the publisher. The exertions of Mr. Erskine, however, procured him his acquittal. On the trial of the Dean of St. Asaph, at Shrewsbury, for a libel, Mr. Erskine appeared as counsel for the defendant; when the jury delivered a verdict finding the Dean guilty of only publishing the libel. Mr. Justice Buller, who presided at the trial, desired them to reconsider it, as it could not be recorded in the terms in which they had expressed it. On this occasion, Mr. Erskine insisted that the verdict should be recorded precisely as it was found. This was resisted by the Judge, who, finding unusual opposition, peremptorily desired him to sit down, or he should compel him. "My Lord," returned Mr. Erskine," I will not sit down. Your Lordship may do your duty, but I will do mine." The Judge was silent. His defence of Paine is said to have cost Mr. Erskine the situation of AttorneyGeneral to the Prince of Wales. In 1802, however, he was restored to his situation, and also made Keeper of the Seals to the Duchy of Cornwall. The most brilliant event in his professional life was the part he undertook in conjunction with Sir Vicary Gibbs in the state trials in the year 1794. The trials lasted several days, and ended in the acquittal of the prisoners. In 1806, on the accession of Mr. Fox and

his party to power, Mr. Erskine was sworn a member of the Privy Council, created a Baron (Feb. 7, 1806) by the title of Lord Erskine, of Restormel Castle, in Cornwall, and entrusted with the great seal as Lord High Chancellor of England, in which latter capacity he presided at the trial of Lord Melville. On the dissolution of the Whig administration, Lord Erskine retired upon a pension of four thousand pounds a year. Although his Lordship was in opposition to the measures of Government, the Prince Regent, in 1815, invested him with the order of the Thistle, as a high mark of esteem, the other eleven Knights being all Dukes and Earls of Great Britain. For several years past his Lordship has been living in retirement.

His principal publications were as follow:-

I. Arguments on the Right of Juries, in the cause of the Dean of St. Asaph, in the Court of King's Bench. London, 1791. 8vo. II. The whole Proceedings on a Trial of an information ex-officio by the Attorney-General against John Stockdale, for a supposed libel on the House of Commons,-in the Court of King's Bench before Lord Kenyon. To which is subJoined an Argument in support of the Right of Juries. 1791. 8vo.-III. Speech on the Liberty of the Press. London, 1793. 8vo. IV. Speech in Defence of Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke, Esq. tried on a charge of High Treason. London, 1795. 8vo.-V. Speeches of the Honourable T. Erskine and J. Kyd, Esq. on the trial of T. Williams, for publishing Payne's Age of Reason; with Lord Kenyon's charge to the Jury. London, 1797. 8vo.-VI. A view of the causes and consequences of the present War with France. London, 1797. 8vo. This pamphlet had an unprecedented sale, there being no less than forty-eight editions of it printed within a few months after its publication.-VII. Substance of his Speech in the House of Commons on a motion for an Address to the Throne, approving of the refusal of Ministers to treat with the French Republic. London, 1800. 8vo. VIII. An explanation of all the Acts of Parliament relative to the Volunteer Corps. London, 1803.IX. Speech on Malicious and Wanton Cruelty to Animals. 1809. 8vo.-X. The Speeches of the Honourable T. Erskine when at the Bar, on subjects connected with the Liberty of the Press, and against Constructive Treason. Collected by James Ridgeway. London, 1810. 3 vols. 8vo.-XI. Speeches when at the Bar on Miscellaneous Subjects. 1812. 8vo.-XII. Armata, 1821.

VOL. XII. NO, XXXVII.

DOCTOR ANDREW NICOLL.

At Acera, on the 27th of April last, on board his Majesty's ship Cyrene, Doctor Andrew Nicoll, Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, and chief Medical officer on the Coast of Africa.

The nature of military service tends to distribute much of the talent and energy of this country over every portion of the globe; and many individuals, who would grace important situations at home, are left to expend their powers on objects of inferior moment abroad, and, often the victims of climate, to sink into a premature grave, "unnoticed and unknown." Sometimes, however, this custom is productive of the most beneficial results; and men have been sent into our colonies, from whose activity, enterprise, and genius these isolated portions of the empire have derived incalculable advantages, which have been deeply felt by the Mother Country. In such cases, when the individual unfortunately falls a sacrifice to an honourable sense of duty, justice powerfully demands that his merits should not be silently forgotten. Doctor Nicoll was an exemplification of this remark. He was ordered to Sierra Leone merely to superintend the Medical Staff of that Colony; but the energy of his mind soon led him to suggest plans for the improvement of the Settlement, which raised him to an important situation in its government, and which will long embalm his virtues in the affection of every one interested for the happiness of Africa. To these, and to many others, the following brief memorial of this excellent individual will not be unacceptable.

Doctor Nicoll was the son of Mr. David Nicoll, a creditable farmer in the parish of Seggie, near Saint Andrew's, Fifeshire, in Scotland. He received the rudiments of his education in the parish where he was born, and completed his classical studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he entered himself a student of Humanity and of Medicine in 1807. Having completed his term of study, he graduated in 1810; and was, almost immediately afterwards, appointed Assistant-Surgeon to the 80th regiment, then on the Madras establishment, where he joined it in the following year. It was on this stage that Doctor Nicoll first displayed his professional talents, both in his care of the regiment, which soon devolved on him, owing to the ill health of the Surgeon, and as an acute and accurate observer of the effects of climate and situation on the animal economy, in a memorial on liver disease

G

and jungle fever, which he presented to the Medical Board of Madras in 1817. The high estimation in which he was held by that board was acknowledged in a public communication, addressed to him on his leaving India, stating the regret of its members, that one so well calculated to investigate and throw light upon Indian diseases should be withdrawn from the field of inquiry. The constant attention of Doctor Nicoll to the sufferings of the sick soldier led him to suggest many things for his comfort, and, amongst others, to invent an excellent, cheap vapour-bath, which has been found of the greatest utility in the treatment of several diseases, and particularly chronic rheumatism, a malady from which soldiers suffer severely on returning home from a warm climate.

Soon after his arrival in England, Doctor Nicoll left the 80th regiment, of which he was still only Assistant-Surgeon, carrying with him the regrets and sincere good wishes of his brother officers, to whom his open, affable, obliging, and gentlemanly deportment had greatly endeared him. He continued for nearly a year officially unemployed after this period, but filling up his time with acquiring a knowledge of Mineralogy, Botany, and Natural History, in order to qualify him for any situation abroad to which he might be appointed. His talents did not long remain unobserved by the discriminating eye of Sir James Mac-Gregor, the Director-general, who, conceiving that he was well adapted to prove useful in a quarter of the world which had excited much public attention, and considering also that he was prepared to withstand the unwholesomeness of a tropical climate by his previous residence in India, appointed him to the situation of principal Medical officer at Sierra Leone, where he arrived in December 1818.

The impulse which Doctor Nicoll's energy, activity, and industry produced in the Medical department over which he presided in Africa was soon conspicuous. The junior Medical officers, who had previously merely attended to their duties of visiting and prescribing for the sick, were roused to direct their attention, not only to the effects of climate on the constitutions of the troops, but to the topography of the places where they were stationed; to cultivate Mineralogy and Botany; to collect and preserve objects of Natural History, and to keep regular Meteoro logical tables.

Quarterly reports were demanded from each establishment on the Coast; and these being embodied by Doctor Nicoll in general half-yearly reports, which were sent home, a mass

of information has been thus obtained, of great importance to the health of our sailors and soldiers who may in future be destined to serve on a coast so ungenial to the constitution of Englishmen as that of Africa.

How well he fulfilled the expectations formed of him, on being appointed to this service, was acknowledged by his superiors at home appointing him a Deputy Inspector; and is further shewn in the following extract from a Report, which was drawn up by Sir George Ralph Collier in 1820, and laid before the House of Commons:

"Before I conclude my observations upon the improved state of Sierra Leone," says Sir George, "it is justice only which disposes me to notice the indefatigable exertions of the chief of the Medical department, Doctor Nicoll. No part of the establishment of this Colony reflects more credit upon the heads of the departments, nor does more honour to the Mother Country, than the liberal manner in which this branch of public duty is supported in England and conducted at Sierra Leone. And it is not merely in his professional duties that Doctor Nicoll shews his zeal for the public service: his unwearied researches as to the localities of the country, its capabilities and productions, as well as a close investigation into the causes of disease and the best mode of treatment, make his life a most valuable one; and his death or removal would be an irreparable one to the Colony. Talent and science, industry and application, are in him conspicuously blended."

With this happy structure of mind, and energetic disposition, Dr. Nicoll could not long remain a passive spectator of the public transactions connected with the colony of Sierra Leone; nor indifferent to the welfare and the progress of civilization in Africa, and the amelioration of the depressed condition of her sable sons. Nihil humani à me alienum puto, was the guiding principle of his life: and he soon adopted such measures as contributed largely towards rendering a station which was formerly not unjustly regarded as a mere place of banishment, and the certain grave of our countrymen, superior, in many respects, to the majority of our colonies, by opening a wide field of interesting research in Natural History; by improving the character of its limited society; and, by his statistical regulations, rendering the climate more salubrious; and, under ordinary circumstances, certainly less fatal to British life. But his exertions were not limited to Sierra Leone. He courtea the confidence of every stranger who had visited,

and of every native who came from, the interior of Africa; and, had he lived longer, many of the difficulties which have opposed the efforts of Europeans to penetrate into that mysterious country, would have been removed. "Wherever you turn your eye," writes one who was on the spot, a witness of the labours of this excellent man, "to any improvements, to any advancement of civilization at Sierra Leone, if you observe a good road, a new bridge, a good essay in the Sierra Leone Gazette, a correct and full almanack, if you notice a valuable collection of specimens of the productions of Africa, Dr. Nicoll alone was the projector, the architect, the author, the collector. The loss of such a man is incalculable, irreparable! His hospitality too, if it impoverished him, threw a lustre upon Sierra Leone, which enlivened to many a stranger the monotonous tedium of an African life. His society was the chief delight of the place, and it is not to be wondered at, that he was sought after by all enlightened visitors. He has died poor; but he was a public character, and his private losses arising from munificence, if not to be indemnified, ought not to be placed amongst his faults."

The writer of this brief sketch of a departed friend, whose loss he must ever deeply lament, knew Doctor Nicoll, before his powers were so fully developed by the opportunities of exercising them which his destiny supplied, and might warmly eulogize him as a private character, were he capable of doing justice to the subject.

With great liveliness of disposition, and a natural talent for satire, his conversation was embellished by wit and pithy remark, yet he was mild, amiable, and modest; and was endowed with all those kindly affections which attract others to their possessor, cement friendships, and render them indissoluble. His discrimination of character was quick, his appreciation of merit in others correct, and his liberality and openness of heart so conspicuous, that in most instances he was regarded as a standard of excellence to those around him. He was plain in his attire, unostentatious in his habits, and simple in his manners: but, as it may be readily supposed from what has been said, his sociable powers were considerable, and he had acquired a profuseness of expense in his hospitality, which left him only the conscious approbation of his mind, as the reward of his official labours.

A short period before his death, he made a will, leaving all his papers to the writer of this sketch, with a request, that

such of them as merited publication might be prepared for the press. They have not yet all come to hand; but it is to be hoped, that nothing will occur to prevent that desire from being fulfilled.

Dr. Nicoll had suffered from repeated attacks of fever; but his last illness was an abscess upon the liver, which, after reducing him to a skeleton, robbed the world of this useful character.

We cannot better conclude this memoir, than by an extract from a letter of the same gentleman, already alluded to as an eye-witness of his labours; as it describes the impression which his death produced on Sir Charles M'Carthy, and those associated with him in the government of Sierra Leone.

"The Governor and suite arrived here (St. Mary's on the Gambia) a few days ago in the Cyrene from the Cape Coast, A without stopping at Sierra Leone. gloom pervaded the whole party when it landed in the boats under discharges of artillery. I anticipated something wrong. There seemed to be a cold indifference in the shaking of hands among old friends; and when I had gone through that ceremonial, I thought some one was wanting: the party was incomplete; but my doubts were at an end, when Weatherill, aid-decamp to Sir Charles, turned to me and said, "We have lost poor Nicoll! all would have been well if he had been spared!" Sir Charles M'Carthy was deeply affected at his decease, and the more so, as the danger was all along carefully concealed from him. Sir Charles has lost, in Dr. Nicoll, his right hand, his adviser, his confidential friend, his companion in all his toils and pleasures; and life must appear like a blank to him after so great a separation.

"Our departed friend kept up his spirits and his sociability even to the last moment of his life. He fell a sacrifice to his sense of duty, for if, instead of accompanying the Governor to Cape Coast, he had returned to England, from Sierra Leone, in November last, his life would, probably, have been spared for many years. So useful was he, however, to our worthy Governor, that it is not wonderful he should have persuaded him to remain on the Coast: but our friend has just verified your prophecy," that he would stay until it was too late to return."

His friends, his country, will ever lament his compliancy of disposition on this occasion; yet, the thought that he was in the line of his duty must have soothed the last moments of Doctor Nicoll

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori!"

BERKSHIRE.

CORNWALL.

Lately, as some men were sinking an air-hole to the bottom level of the Consolidated Mines, when at the depth of 160 fathoms from the surface, they struck into a cavern, the rush of foul air from which compelled them to call out to their companion stationed above, to raise them by a tackle kept in readiness for that purpose. This vast subterranean vault is situated in one of the principal lodes of the mine; it is about nine feet high, and six feet wide; the western end, from the place of entry, has been explored, and is found to be about forty fathoms in length; the foul air in the eastern end has hitherto prevented the miners from fully exploring it; the appear. ance of the sides and roof is very craggy, and shews that the cavity has been occasioned by a convulsion of nature.

Married.] At St. Andrew's, E. Jago, esq, to Miss A. D. Trelawny-At Probus, Mr. R. Whitford to Miss A. Gerrans At St. Columb, Mr. F. Hawkey to Miss Hicks-At Padstow, Mr. J. Grose to Miss S. Brewer-At Budock, Mr. M. H. Eade to Miss E. W. Cory-At Launceston, Mr. J. Spettignes to Miss S. Baker.

Died.] At Liskeard, J. Lyne, esq.-At St. Enoder, the Rev. W. Hocken, 84-At St. Austell, Mrs. Merrifield-At Port Elliot, St. Germains, the Earl of St. Germains, 64-At St. Germains, Mr. J. Wills At Ellenglaye, Mr. J. Hosken-At Newport, Mr. J. Spettigue-At Penzance, the Rev. W. Peel-At Lanarth, Miss M. B. Sandys.

evident that this pier, by stopping the beach to the southward, will, in a little time, be the means of deepening the channel, and making the harbour of Workington the easiest of access, the most commodious, and the safest of any along shore: the expense, it is calculated, will be only the comparatively trifling sum of from three to four thousand pounds.

Married.] At Carlisle, Mr. P. Graham to Miss H. Ripley-The Rev. W. Gaskin to Miss S. Slack -Mr. H. Bailey to Miss E. Ingram-Mr. J. Tailor to Miss A. Railton-Mr. T. Hill to Miss E. Halton -Mr. W. Weightman to Miss M. Bowning-At Greystoke, Mr. J. Edmondson to Miss H. Robinson-At Crosby Ravensworth, Mr. R. Lamley to Miss Langham-At Whitehaven, Mr. J. Sturgeon to Miss M. Winstanley-Mr. D. Murray to Miss A. Beadie-Mr. H. Branthwaite to Miss M. Little.

Died At Carlisle, Mrs. Railton-Miss B. Blake -Miss A. Graham-Mr. W. Irving-Mr. M. Roome Mr. T. Morley-Mr. W. Anderson-At Wetheral, Mr. W. Robinson-At Skelton, Mr. G. Walker-At Penrith, Mrs. A. Bell-Mrs. Cookson-At Glassonby, Mrs. S. Lawson-At Cockermouth, Mrs. Young Mrs Birkett-At Bolm House, Mrs. Wannop, 76, and her husband, Mr. T. Wannop, 79 -At Portinscale, Mr D. Crosthwaite-At Holmes, T. Tallentier, esq.-At Carlton, Mr. H. Parker-At Workington, Mrs. M. Armstrong-At Whitehaven, Mrs. Kirkbridge-Mrs. A. Daywood-Mrs. Raisbrown-Mr. Bowness- Mr. W. Clementson-At Ravensworth Castle, the Hon. F. J. Liddel-At Egremont, Mrs. Pitt-At Penrith, having attained the almost patriarchal age of 107 years 8 weeks and 4 days. Maiy Noble, widow; who was a native of Haresceugh, in the parish of Kirkoswald, in this county, in the baptismal register of which parish she is entered as having been born on the 17th of Sept. 1716. Such longevity is an additional illustration of the beneficial effect of temperance and exercise, by which not only bodily health but the health of the mind also may (as in this instance) be protracted beyond the common period of mortality. At the age of 90, Mary Noble assisted in reaping a field of barley, and "kept her rigg" (as it is expressed in the provincial plirase) with the younger reapers. DERBYSHIRE.

Married.] At Chesterfield, Mr. J. Thompson to Miss Jones-Mr. W. Lowe to Miss M. L. Froggatt-Mr. G. Lacey, of Cotmanhay, to Miss J. Disney.

Died.] At Spondon, near Derby, Mrs. Hayhurst -Mrs. Gawthorne, of Derby-At Chesterfield, Mrs. Parkin.

DEVONSHIRE.

A meeting, at which Earl Morley presided, was lately held at the Royal Hotel, Plymouth, for the purpose of petitioning the Lords of the Treasury to grant a loan of 45,0001. for the purpose of aiding the erection of the proposed Suspension Bridge across the Tamar, at Saltash. The span of the proposed bridge, from the points of suspension, is eight hundred and fifty feet! wards of 10,000l. have been already subscribed by inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall.

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