himself when speaking of the Universities, was less indecorous than the Chancellor in his Anecdote Book. In the middle of the last century, Oxford saw at least as much of hard drinking as of hard study. The Anecdote Book tells a story of a Doctor of Divinity, whom Mr. John Scott saw trying, under the influence of some inspiration much stronger than that of the Pierian stream, to make his way to Brazennose College through Radcliffe Square. He had reached the library, a rotunda then without railings; and, unable to support himself except by keeping one hand upon the building, he continued walking round and round, until a friend, coming out of the College, espied the distress of the case, and rescued him from the orbit in which he had been so unsteadily revolving. 66 In days when Doctors of Divinity were thus unguarded in their conviviality, under-graduates could hardly be expected to preserve a very strict temperance. Among the waggeries of the wine parties, Lord Eldon's Anecdote Book has preserved one, which will put the reader in mind of Swift's English derivations for classical names. At Corpus Christi College there were drinking-cups, or glasses, which, from their shape, were called ox-eyes. Some friends of a young student, after seducing him to fil his ox-eye much fuller and oftener than consisted with his equilibrium, took pity at last on his helpless condition, and led or carried him to his rooms. He had just Latin enough left at command to thank them at the stair-head with "Pol, me ox-eye-distis, amici."* Some of Lord Eldon's Oxford stories are silly enough. The best of them is the following :"There was once," said Lord Eldon to Mrs. Forster, a gentleman who had been one of the professors, and who came from Yorkshire to Oxford to consult Mr. Nurse, a surgeon of some celebrity, about a severe complaint under which he laboured. The case proved one which could not be cured, but might be mitigated, and Nurse was very anxious that he should be kept amused: so he insisted upon his changing his lodgings to a better situation, and he took for him a room commanding a view down High Street. When, however, he was seated at the window, it was found that a tree, growing in All Saints' Churchyard, stood in the way, and intercepted the full view of that street. So Nurse kept mumblemumbling to me and a few others, that it was a great pity that tree should be allowed to remain standing, till he inspired us with a wish to get rid of it; for we were all much attached to the Professor. So, one night, when the moon was under a cloud, we set the gentleman's servant to cut down this tree, whilst we stationed ourselves at different parts to watch. Well, he was very long about it, and the moon began to appear, and we were in a great fright, so got over the wall to see what he was about. He was a Yorkshireman, and he told us, the seg winna wag;' and that, which meant,' the saw will not move,' was all we could get from him. So we had to help him: down came the tree, and away we all scampered. The next day there were hand-bills and proclamations from the mayor and magistrates, offering a reward for the conviction of any of the offenders, who had the night before committed a dreadful crime in All Saints' Church-yard. None of us peached, so we all escaped and Nurse said it was the most glorious crime that ever had been perpetrated in favour of a pa tient." 66 Mr. John Scott took his Bachelor's degree, in Hilary term, on the 20th of February, 1770. "An examination for a degree at Oxford," he used to say, was a farce in my time. I was examined in Hebrew and in History. 'What is the Hebrew for the place of a skull? I replied, 'Golgotha.' Who founded University College?' I stated, (though, by the way, the point is sometimes doubted,) that King Alfred founded it.' 'Very well, Sir,' said the examiner,' you are competent for your degree."" About the same time, to the great delight of his *Horat. Epist. lib. ii. Ep. 2. line 138. family and his old master, Moises, Scott gained a twenty-pound prize for an essay on The Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel. The first of the Chancellor's letters which we see, written about the age of twenty, is one of somewhat heavy pleasantry. His wit was always of the ponderous sort. The letter is, however, interesting, from allusions to the romance of the Chancellor's Life,-his passion for Miss Surtees. It is not clear how he got introduced to this young lady during some of his Oxford vacations, but quite evident, that, though living in the same small town, the family of the coal-fitter were unacquainted with that of the more aristocratic Surtees, though the mercantile heads of the respective houses might meet daily on Change. It is, indeed, quite possible that some spark of ambition might have mingled with the flame of Scott, as the lady had not only other advantageous offers, but must have locally been regarded as superior to him in station and connexions. She was pretty, and very young; he clandestinely gained her affections, and an elopement to Scotland was the consequence, to which neither of the families were privy, though the Scotts, whose dignity had been less outraged, were the most easily appeased. Mr. Twiss relates this episode in the Life of the Chancellor at considerable length. The elopement having been agreed upon, the tender conscience, (which in after life often proved so embarrassing to the Lord Chancellor's measures,) being apparently still unawakened, on the night of the 8th November, 1772, he received into his arms Miss Surtees, who descended by a ladder from a window of her father's house, in the Sandhill, Newcastle, by the mode and rule always observed on such occasions. With the help of the picture of the house, which Mr. Twiss gives, the imaginative reader may out of this fashion a Romeo-and-Juliet balcony scene. We, however, prefer Miss Barbara Scott's unvarnished and graphic account of her brother's runaway marriage. The intelligence of their elopement came upon the different members of the family in Love Lane through various channels and with various effects. John had disclosed his intention to his sister Jane, from whom the elder sister Barbara received the intelligence on the very night of the event. Mr. William Scott, their father, did not learn what had happened till the morning. The following is a minute made by Miss Forster, of her own dialogue upon these matters with her great-aunt:- "The night that Jack ran away to Scotland, I knew nothing about it; but Jenny had scarcely got into bed before she took to sobbing and crying at such a rate, I could not tell what was the matter. At last she said, 'Oh Babby, Jack has run away with Bessy Surtees to Scotland to be married: what will my father say?' You may be sure there was no sleep for us that night. I was not over well pleased either, that Jack had told Jenny and not told me: however, when he came back he said he wanted to tell me, but could not find an opportunity. We talked and we cried all that night. Miss Forster." Well, but, aunt, what said my grandfather?" Miss S.-"Well, you may be sure we went down to breakfast all trembling; but we had bathed our eyes in cold water, and composed ourselves as we best could; and when my father came in, there was a letter lying, from Jack, which he read, and put into his pocket, and said never a word about it: so we were left to guess what was to be done. "By this time, however, the lovers were beyond pur suit. They had travelled all night; and now, on the morning of the 19th of November, they reached a village called Blackshiels, which lies close to Fala in Scotland, and is the last posting stage on the road from Newcastle, by Morpeth and Coldstream, to Edinburgh. At Blackshiels they halted; and were married there by a minister of the Scottish church. "The certificate of this marriage was found among Lord Eldon's papers after his death." The penitent couple were received by Scott's father; but the family of the Surtees remained so long implacable, that the Chancellor ran imminent hazard of being converted into a grocer. Indeed, all the friends of both parties were greatly chagrined at the match. "If put out of temper he was not very moderate in the terms in which he expressed his displeasure. I remember, that, in the common room of University College, he was dilating upon some subject, and the then head of Lincoln College, Dr. Mortimer, was present. Whilst Johnson was stating what he proposed to communicate, the Doctor occasionally interrupted him, saying, 'I deny that.' This was often repeated, and observed upon by Johnson, as it was repeated, in terms expressive of inAt length, upon the creasing displeasure and anger. Doctor's repeating the words 'I deny that,' 'Sir, Sir,' said Johnson, you must have forgot that an author has said, Plus negabit unus asinus in una hora, quam centum philosophi probaverint in centum annis."" Mrs. John Scott used to speak of Dr. Johnson's having drunk tea with her and her husband at Oxford, and to relate that she had herself helped him one evening to fifteen cups. "Jack Scott has run off with Bessy Surtees," exclaimed Mr. Moises, "and the poor lad is undone!" The father of the bride was so much displeased, that for We presume that no lady likes to yield to ansome time he would not even speak to the bridegroom's other in the number of cups she has had the honour father, with whom he had before been on friendly terms. to minister to Johnson. It is told that Dr. Johnson, The latter, who had an impression that Mr. Surtees was on his death-bed, sent a message to his young friend not really a man of so large a fortune as he wished to be Scott, now a thriving lawyer, enjoining him to thought, and that he was willing to part with but little of what he might really possess, went up to him one day attend public worship. It is, however, believed on the Exchange, saying, " Mr. Surtees, why should this that the Chancellor enjoyed a dispensation in this marriage make you so cool with me? I was as little respect; the fundamental tenet of his religion, wishful for it as yourself; but, since what is done cannot that which covered all sins of omission, being the be undone, for every hundred pounds you put down for your daughter, I will cover it with another for my son." stubborn Protestantism manifested in his unde"You are too forgiving, Mr. Scott, you are too forgiv-viating opposition to the Catholic claims. ing," was the answer: that would be rewarding disobedience." It has been said, upon highly respectable authority, that, at the anxious and critical period which immediately followed his marriage, Lord Eldon had a narrow escape from being a grocer. The particulars, as related in the Oxford Herald of 28th January, 1838, are, that a worthy and wealthy grocer of Newcastle, who had no children of his own, paid a friendly visit to Mr. Scott the elder, upon his son's marriage; and after expressing an apprehension that Mr. Surtees would never forgive either his daughter or John Scott, proposed to take John into partnership; that Mr. Scott deferred his answer till he should have received a letter which he was expecting from William ; and that William's letter determined the answer in the negative. Thus Lord Stowell interposed a second time to preserve his brother from an ignoble destiny. By an arrangement between the fathers, three thousand pounds were settled on the young pair, of which Mr. Scott advanced £2000 for his son. Scott also enjoyed the emoluments of his fellowship during a year of grace; and he now repaired to Oxford with his wife, and with two strings to his bow, hoping that some college living might fall vacant, but prepared to study law. During this residence at Oxford, Scott became acquainted with Dr. Johnson, then a frequent visiter at the University. The anecdotes which he relates of Johnson are not of any great importance save from their relation to the sage. "I had a walk in New Inn Hall Garden, with Dr. Johnson, Sir Robert Chambers, and some other gentlemen. Sir Robert was gathering snails, and throwing them over the wall into his neighbour's garden. The Doctor reproached him very roughly, and stated to him that this was unmannerly and unneighbourly. Sir,' said Sir Robert, my neighbour is a Dissenter.'-Oh! said the Doctor, if so, Chambers, toss away, toss away, as hard as you can."" "The Doctor was frequently, apparently, very absent. I have seen him standing for a very long time, without moving, with a foot on each side the kennel which was then in the middle of the High Street, Oxford, with his eyes fixed on the water running in it. No church living fell vacant during Scott's year of to the Bar, it became necessary for him to provide him- necessity of some abatement in his severe application. "It is no matter," answered he: "I must either do as I am now doing, or starve." Pursuing the advice of Lord Coke, he read "non multa, sed multum." He rose at the early hour of four in the morning: observed a careful abstinence at his meals: and, in order to prevent the invasion of drowsiness, studied at night with a wet towel round his head. He was wont, in his later life, to recur to those days as not unhappy, though la borious. Scott at this time entertained the idea of settling in his native town, where, by means of his professional knowledge and local connexions, he hoped to obtain considerable employment in conveyancing. This did not take place. His success in the first year or two of his professional life was by no means flattering. Of his want of employment he related this racy anecdote to Mrs. Forster: We soon hear of him as junior counsel to Dunning, of whom he tells a story, a version of which is related of every Bar in the kingdom, and of every eminent counsel from generation to generation. If the honour of the story, as we suspect, does not belong to Joe Miller, Lord Eldon's may be the true and original edition; nor is it improbable that in the hurry of business a similar slip may have been made by different counsel. There could not be a better practical illustration of professional sincerity. "I had, very early after I was called to the Bar," says Lord Eldon, 66 a brief in business in the King's Bench, as junior to Mr. Dunning. He began the argument, and appeared to me to be reasoning very powerfully against our client. Waiting till I was quite convinced that he had mistaken for what party he was retained, I then touched his arm, and, upon his turning his head towards "When I was called to the Bar," said he to Mrs. me, I whispered to him that he must have misunderstood Forster," Bessy and I thought all our troubles were for whom he was employed, as he was reasoning against over: business was to pour in, and we were to be almost our client. He gave me a very rough and rude repririch immediately. So I made a bargain with her, that mand for not having sooner set him right, and then produring the following year, all the money I should receive ceeded to state, that what he had addressed to the court in the first eleven months should be mine, and whatever was all that could be stated against his client, and that I should get in the twelfth month should be hers. What he had put the case as unfavourably as possible against a stingy dog I must have been to make such a bargain! him, in order that the court might see how very satisI would not have done so afterwards. But however, sofactorily the case against him could be answered; and it was; that was our agreement: and how do you think accordingly, very powerfully answered what he had beit turned out? In the twelfth month I received half a fore stated." guinea; eighteen pence went for fees, and Bessy got nine shillings in the other eleven months I got not one shilling." He used to relate that he had been called to the Bar but a day or two, when, on coming out of court one morning, he was accosted by a dapper-looking attorney's clerk, who handed him a motion-paper, in some matter of course, which merely required to be authenticated by counsel's signature. He signed the brief, and the attorney's clerk, taking it back from him, said," A fine hand yours, Mr. Scott; an exceedingly fine hand! It would be well for us, Sir, 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 never," said Lord Eldon, in telling the story, "did I set eyes on that man again. In the year in which he was called to the Bar Mr. Scott lost his father, whose testamentary dispositions show the way in which the law of primogeniture influences Englishmen who have been the founders of their own fortune. While the eldest son, at that time the most prosperous of the family, received about £25,000, John Scott was left £1000, in addition to the £2000 settled on him at his marriage, and the two daughters £1500 each. Whatever might be thought of such a settlement in France or the United States, it would probably still be regarded in England, by all except the parties immediately wronged, as a fatherly and judicious distribution of property. That the portions of the dependent daughters amounted to little more than one year's income of the property left to the eldest son is quite in the spirit of those aristocratic institutions which influence every class of English Society. Business, for which Mr. Scott omitted no opporEunity of qualifying himself, came by degrees. In Lord Eldon's first years at the Bar he continued his habit of severe study so unremittingly as to injure his health. He had removed from Cursitor Street to a house in Carey Street, in which, besides accommodation for his family, he had business-chambers. It is pleasing at this stage of his progress to hear of the struggling young lawyer's labours being lightened by the sympathy and companionship of his wife, who, accommodating herself to his hours, would sit up with him silently watching his studies. His health failed so much that Dr. Heberden ordered him to Bath, declining all fees,-a generosity which the lawyer admired exceedingly, whether he ever followed the example or not. Drinking the Bath waters produced a desired fit of gout-or what the cold-water doctors of our day would call a crisis-and restored his health. From the Anecdote Book and Mrs. Forster's minutes of conversations held with her uncle, Mr. Twiss has selected many amusing scraps, relating to Lord Eldon's adventures on his first circuits, and his early habits and associates. Of these the following prophecy by Lord Mansfield is characteristic. When Lord Eldon saw The Examiner, Cobbett's Register, and other democratic journals bristling up around him, he must have believed that the awful period foretold by Lord Mansfield was about to arrive. "When I was a very young man," said Lord Eldon to Mrs. Forster, "Lord Mansfield used to hold levees on the Sunday evenings, and of course all the young lawyers attended, as soon as they had a gown to their backs. Well, I went, and it so happened, on that evening, I was the first, and the then Duke of Northumberland came second; he had just been at Bath, and he was expatiating upon the enjoyment he had had there. But,' added his Grace, there is one comfort I could not have. I like to read the newspapers at breakfast, and at Bath the post does not come in till one o'clock that was a drawback to my pleasure.'-'So,' said Lord Mansfield,' your Grace likes the comfort of reading the newspapers the comfort of reading the newspapers!- Mark my words. You and I shall not live to see it, but this young gentleman, Mr. Scott, may,—or it may be a little later, but, a little sooner or later, those newspapers, if they go on as they now do, will most assuredly write the Dukes of Northumberland out of their titles and possessions, and the country out of its King. Mark my words, for this will happen."" At the conclusion of this story Mr. Twiss throws in a sop to modern journalists, who, it seems, have greatly improved within these few years, and no longer menace the destruction of all institutions. Indeed it would be superfluous to employ two agents to effect one purpose, as Mr. Twiss sees something like the entire destruction of the constitution, not in the tone of the newspapers, nor yet in the concession of the Catholic claims, but in the sweeping away of such rotten boroughs as Weobly, which, by means of a Tory patron, first enabled Mr. John Scott to obtain a seat in Parliament. Newcastle. (probably on the 14th of March, 1781, the Committee Well! one morning about six o'clock" having been struck on the 13th,)" Mr. (afterwards Lord) Curzon, and four or five gentlemen, came to my door and woke me, and when I inquired what they wanted, they stated that the Clitheroe election case was to come on that morning at ten o'clock, before a committee of the House of Commons, that Mr. Cooper had written to say he was detained at Oxford by illness, and could not arrive to lead the cause, and that Mr. Hardinge, the next counsel, refused to do so, because he do you expect me to do, that you are here?' They anwas not prepared. Well, gentlemen,' said I, 'what swered, they did not know what to expect or to do, for the cause must come on at ten o'clock, and they were totally unprepared, and had been recommended to me as a young and promising counsel.' I answered, 'I dry statement of facts, if that will content you, gentlewill tell you what I can do: I can undertake to make a men, but more I cannot do, for I have no time to make myself acquainted with the law.' They said that must do. So I begged they would go down stairs, and let facts, and the cause went on for fifteen days. It found me get up as fast as I could. Well, I did state the me poor enough, but I began to be rich before it was done: they left me fifty guineas at the beginning; thea there were ten guineas every day, and five guiness could count. But better still, the length of the cause every evening for a consultation-more money than I gave me time to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the law." The remainder of the story is more circumstantially related by Mr. Farrer, from Lord Eldon's own narrative to him, communicated in the course of the conversation before referred to. Mr. Scott at first practised in the Court of King's Bench; but he fancied-and probably not without foundation-that Lord Mansfield, who presided in that Court, entertained some aristocratic partiality for young lawyers who had been educated at Westminster School and Christ Church; and accordingly Scott as prudently as it proved fortunately, passed over to the Chancery Court at the other side of the Hall. But the tide of good fortune did not set in all at once. From the letters of his brother to other members of the family, tioner was to reply, Hardinge came into the committee "On the morning on which the counsel for the petiit would appear that poor Jack was often most room, meaning to reply. I saw the members of the anxious, and almost despairing of making bread committee put their heads together, and then one of for his household by the law. them said, Mr. Hardinge, Mr. Scott opened this case, This portion of Lord Eldon's memoirs will be read with great in- think that, if he likes to reply, he ought to do so. Mr. and has attended it throughout, and the committee terest, and not without improvement by all young Scott, would you like to reply?" I answered, that I lawyers. Mr. Twiss might, with advantage, have, would do my best.' I began my speech with a very bad we think, suppressed some of the stale stories and joke. You must know that the leading counsel on the pointless jokes of the Anecdote Book-but we canother side, Douglas, afterwards Lord Glenbervie, had not number among these the histories of the actual committee, and had argued that the borough of Clithemade one of the longest speeches ever known before a cases which first drew Scott into notice, sometimes roe was not a borough by prescription, for it had its by his great legal knowledge, enterprising indus-origin within the memory of man. I began by saying, try, and confidence in his own resources, and not unfrequently by a lucky hit, or by good tact in the management of an ignorant jury. We might draw largely from the memorabilia of his first Northern circuits, but we deem it sufficient to direct the reader's attention to his adventures. Lawyers, old and young, seem to have been when on circuit a set of roistering fellows, strongly addicted to milk punch and bad practical jokes. These were still the days of High Jinks in both ends of the island. So slow was Mr. Scott's professional success that on being offered the Recordership of Newcastle he took a residence in that town with the view of permanently settling there, but in the meantime the following accident gave an entirely new colour to his prospects. Accident alone placed good fortune in his way, though to a man of less knowledge, promptitude, and perseverance, the happy chance would have been without value. He thus describes this decisive step in his onward progress, "I did not go the circuit one year, Mary," said Lord Eldon to Mrs. Forster, "because I could not afford it; I had borrowed of my brother for several circuits, with out getting adequate remuneration, and I had determined to quit London, because, I could not afford to stay in it. You know a house was taken for me at I will prove to the committee by the best evidence that that it had its origin before the memory of man. My the borough of Clitheroe is a borough by prescription; learned friend will admit the commencement of this borough was before the commencement of his speech ; but the commencement of his speech is beyond the memory of man-therefore the borough of Clitheroe must have commenced before the memory of man.' We were beaten in the committee by one vote. speech Mansfield, afterwards Sir James Mansfield, came After this up to me in Westminster Hall, and said he heard that I was going to leave London, but strongly advised me to had taken a house in Newcastle; that I had an increas remain in London. I told him that I could not; that I ing family; in short, that I was compelled to quit Ledon. Afterwards Wilson came to me, and pressed me in the same manner to remain in London; adding, what was very kind, that he would ensure me £400 the next Mansfield. However, I did remain in London; and year.' I gave him the same answer as I had given lived to make Mansfield Chief-justice of the Common Pleas, and Wilson a puisne judge. I can't understand." said Mr. Farrer to Lord Eldon,' why Hardinge refused to open the petition: do you know? Because he had not read his brief, I suppose,' was the reply." failed early in one department of his profession; Lord Eldon characteristically relates that he his growing celebrity at the bar drew to him many attorneys wanting opinions on cases. To them despatch was of more consequence than delibera tive judgment; and one of the most honest among | me at Hereford. I accordingly got upon a heap of them told Mr. Scott that they did not want opinions which had so many "ifs" in them-that they spoilt business. It seems to have been a constitutional or instinctive impossibility with Lord Eldon ever to form a rapid and decided judgment, except upon the means necessary to maintain his party in power, and himself as holder of the great seal. With whatever professions and protestations such measures might be coloured over, there was in such cases neither difficulty nor hesitation. Upon the formation of the Coalition Ministry of Lord North and Mr. Fox, on Lord Thurlow declining to continue chancellor, the great seal was put in commission. Silk gowns were offered to the most distinguished of the young lawyers, whom the new government perhaps wished to enlist in its service; and, among others, to Scott, Erskine, and Pigott. The latter gentlemen were his juniors; but from inadvertence, or perhaps from invidious motives, Scott learned that they were to have precedence of him; on which he sturdily stood up for his rights, declining the offered honour unless it were bestowed in the proper way. He carried his point, and obtained his silk gown; though the ministry, whatever it may have angled for, did not by this mark of respect gain an adherent. Scott's interests and prepossessions already inclined him to the other party; and he was early aware that an administration hateful to the king, and unpopular in the country, could not be of long duration. His politics were from this hour determined. He never was, in any proper sense, the minister of the country; he was the head, or rather the cement, of a party, and, what he loved to denominate himself, the "good king's servant," whether that good king was George III., George IV., or William IV., for so far as eagerness for service went, he was equally devoted to each of these sovereigns. Though his services were not put into requisition by the last, the fault was none of his. Shortly after this, the prospects of the Coalition Ministry being desperate from the first, Mr. Scott formally enlisted with the other party, taking the bounty from his patron, Lord Thurlow, in the shape of the Earl of Weymouth's now extinct borough of Weobly. Mr. Twiss takes care to inform the reader that the young political adventurer stipulated for entire independence as a representative of the people. This might as well have been let alone all such matters between Whig or Tory patrons and their party nominees being delicately understood. Mr. Scott's first election affords an amusing description of how things were managed in the good old times, the departure of which he so pathetically lamented at the close of his life. "When I got to Weobly," he says, I inquired what was the usual mode of proceeding there, and I was told that I was to go first to the house that contained the prettiest girl in the place, and give her a kiss. This, I thought, was a very pleasant beginning. I did so; and then went to the different voters. When I presented myself on the hustings, a very old man addressed me, stating that I was, as he understood, a lawyer, and ought to be able to give them a speech, which was what they had not heard from the hustings for thirty years; and he adverted to what Lord Surrey had said about stones, and made them as good a speech upon politics in general, as I could, and it had either the merit or demerit of being a long one. My audience liked it, on account, among other things, of its length. I concluded by drawing their attention to Lord Surrey's speech. I admitted that I was unknown to them. I said that I had explained my public principles, and how I meant mised; and that, though then unknown to them, I to act in parliament; that I should do all I had prohoped I should entitle myself to more of their confidence and regard than I could have claimed if, being the son of the first duke in England, I had held myself out as into the first town of the county, drunk, upon a cider a reformer whilst riding, as the Earl of Surrey rode, cask, and talking, in that state, of reform. My audience liked the speech, and I ended, as I had begun, by kissing the prettiest girl in the place: very pleasant, indeed. Lord Surrey had often been my client, even at that early period of my life. He had heard of, or read, my speech; and, when I met him afterwards in town, he good-humouredly said, I have had enough of meddling with you; I shall trouble you no more.' Of this visit to Weobly the Anecdote Book further relates what follows: "I lodged at the vicar's, Mr. Bridge's. He had a daughter, a young child, and he said to me, 'Who knows but you may come to be chancellor. As my girl can probably marry nobody but a clergyman, promise me you will give her husband a living when you have the Seals.' I said, Mr. Bridge, my promise is not worth half a crown, but you may have my promise." " Miss Bridge lived to claim the fulfilment of this promise, which the Chancellor honourably redeemof the bountiful mother who bestows so many good ed; though no doubt with an eye to the interests gifts on her dutiful sons. The Anecdote Book gives a pleasant story which is highly creditable to the sincerity and good nature of Lord North, who never said any thing about his conscience or lofty sense of duty. "On some occasion Lord North had made himself a party, at the prince's desire, to reconcile the king and the prince, relative to some matter which had caused some uneasy feelings between them. Lord North succeeded; and called upon the prince to inform him of that, and addressed him to this effect: Now let me self differently. Do so on all accounts: do so for your beseech your royal highness in future to conduct yourown sake; do so for your excellent father's sake; do so for the sake of that good natured man Lord North, and don't oblige him again to tell the king, your good father, so many lies as he has been obliged to tell him this morning." " In a few years the Pitt government had so well proved the metal of their man that, on a vacancy occurring, Mr. Scott was appointed Solicitor-genehappens to be regarded, against which he enterral, and knighted, an honour or infliction as it tained an affected horror. Of this unwelcome distinction he thus writes to his brother : "Dear Harry, I kissed the king's hand yesterday as his sword upon my shoulder, and bid Sir John arise. At solicitor-general. The king, in spite of my teeth, laid this last instance of his royal favour, I have been much disconcerted; but I cannot help myself, so I sing, Oho, the delight To be a gallant knight!' I was completely taken in, having no idea that the king had any such intention. My wife is persecuted with her new title, and we laugh at her from morning till evening. Be so good as, with my best love, to communicate this intelligence to my brother and sisters. Bessy joins in affection to your wife and Mary; and I am, "Yours faithfully, J. SCOTT." |