THE CHARACTER

OF

JOHN LORD ASHBURTON.

THE publick are here presented not with a fine picture, but a faithful portrait, with the character of a memorable and illuftrious man, not in the ftyle of panegyrick on a monument, but in the language of fober truth, which friendship itself could not induce the writer to violate.

JOHN DUNNING (a name to which no title could add luftre) poffeffed profeffional talents which may truly be called inimitable; for, befides their fuperlative excellence, they were peculiarly his own; and as it would scarcely be poffible to copy them, so it is hardly probable that nature or education will give them to another. His language was always pure, always elegant; and the best words dropped easily from his lips into the best places with a fluency at all times aftonishing, and, when he had perfect health, really melodious: his style of speaking consisted of all the turns, oppofitions, and figures, which

the old Rhetoricians taught, and which Cicero frequently practifed, but which the auftere and folemn fpirit of Demosthenes refused to adopt from his first mafter, and feldom admitted into his orations, political or forenfick.

Many at the bar and on the bench thought this a vitiated style; but, though diffatisfied as criticks, yet, to the confufion of all criticism, they were transported as hearers. That faculty, however, in which no mortal ever furpaffed him, and which all found irrefiftible, was his wit. This relieved the weary, calmed the resentful, and animated the drowsy: this drew smiles even from fuch as were the objects of it; fcattered flowers over a defert; and, like fun-beams fparkling on a lake, gave spirit and vivacity to the dulleft and least interesting cause. Not that his accomplishments, as an advocate, confifted principally in volubility of fpeech or liveliness of raillery. He was endued with an intellect, sedate, yet penetrating; clear, yet profound; fubtle, yet ftrong. His knowledge too was equal to his imagination, and his memory to his knowledge. He was no lefs deeply learned in the fublime principles of jurifprudence and the particular laws of his country, than accurately skilled in the minute, but useful, practice of all our different courts. In the nice conduct of a complicated

cause, no particle of evidence could escape his vigilant attention, no fhade of argument could elude his comprehensive reason. Perhaps the vivacity of his imagination sometimes prompted him to sport where it would have been wifer to argue; and, perhaps, the exactness of his memory fometimes induced him to answer fuch remarks as hardly deferved notice, and to enlarge on fmall circumstances which added little to the weight of his argument: but those only who have experienced can, in any degree, conceive the difficulty of exerting all the mental faculties in one inftant, when the least deliberation might lose the tide of action irrecoverably. The people feldom err in appreciating the character of speakers; and thofe clients who were too late to engage DUNNING on their fide, never thought themselves fecure of fuccefs, while those against whom he was engaged were always apprehenfive of a defeat.

As a lawyer, he knew that Britain could only be happily governed on the principles of her conftitution, or publick law; that the regal power was limited, and popular rights ascertained by it; but that the ariftocracy had no other power than that which too naturally refults from property, and which laws ought rather to weaken than fortify: he was, therefore, an equal fupporter of

just prerogative, and of national freedom, weighing both in the noble balance of our recorded constitution. An able and aspiring statesman, who profeffed the fame principles, had the wifdom to folicit, and the merit to obtain, the friendfhip of this great man; and a connection, planted originally on the firm ground of fimilarity in political fentiments, ripened into personal affection which nothing but death could have diffolved or impaired. Whether in his ministerial station he might not fuffer a few prejudices infenfibly to creep on his mind, as the best men have fuffered because they were men, may admit of a doubt; but, if even prejudiced, he was never uncandid, and though pertinacious in all his opinions, he had great indulgence for fuch as differed from him.

His fenfe of honour was lofty and heroick; his integrity stern and inflexible; and though he had a ftrong inclination to fplendour of life, with a taste for all the elegancies of society, yet no love of dignity, of wealth, or of pleasure, could have tempted him to deviate, in a single inftance, from the ftraight line of truth and honefty. He carried his democratical principles even into focial life, where he claimed no more of the conversation than his juft fhare, and was always candidly attentive, when it was his turn to be a hearer. His enmities were ftrong, yet placable;

but his friendships were eternal; and if his affec tions ever fubdued his judgment, it must have been in cafes, where the fame or intereft of `a friend were nearly concerned. The veneration with which he conftantly treated his father, whom his fortunes and reputation had made the happiest of mortals, could be equalled only by the amiable tendernefs which he fhewed as a parent. He used to speak with wonder and abhorrence of Swift, who was not ashamed to leave a written declaration, "that he could never be fond of children;" and with applause of the caliph, who, on the eve of a decifive battle, which was won by his valour and wisdom, amufed himself in his tent with feeing his children ride on his feymitar, and play with his turban, and difmiffed a general, as unlikely to treat the army with lenity, who durft reprove

him for fo natural and innocent a recreation.

For fome months before his death, the nursery had been his chief delight, and gave him more pleasure than the cabinet could have afforded: but this parental affection, which had been a fource of fo much felicity, was probably a caufe of his fatal illness. He had loft one fon, and expected to lose the other, when the author of this painful tribute to his memory parted from him with tears in his eyes, little hoping to fee him again in a perishable state.-As he perceives,