facultate Q. Varius consecutus est, vastus homo atque fœdus, eandem Novius intelligit, illa ipsa facultate, quamcunque habet, se esse in Senatu consecutum 'Ellum, confidens, catus : Cum faciem videas, videtur esse quantivis preti: The characters of Lord Thurlow drawn by his contemporaries are to be received with some caution. He was a man who principally depended for his reputation upon those external demonstrations of character by which the world is frequently misled. When applied to him, the motto of Lord Somers, prodesse quam conspici, must be reversed. His language, his manners, and his demeanour constituted the principal ingredients of the character attributed to him by his contemporaries. In his haughty contempt of the opinions of others lay the wisdom and value of his own; in the dogmatical and peremptory tone of his judgments resided a great part of their profundity and learning; and in his rude and repulsive manners might be discovered the secret of his supposed honesty. But, deprived of these adventitious colourings, his character is seen under a very different aspect; and, when no longer awed by the terrors of his aspect, we are astonished to discover how small was the spirit which dwelt within. To the qualities of a statesman he had no pretensions; and, by the sullen indifference with which he regarded the proceedings of the cabinet, he seems to have admitted his incapacity. During the course of a long official life, he does not appear to have originated any one great measure for the benefit of his country. The strongest political feeling which he exhibited was an attachment to the person of his sovereign; and yet we have seen how easily that sentiment yielded to apprehensions for the safety of his own interests. Throughout the whole of his political career the welfare of the country was a secondary object in his estimation. He neither felt nor professed to feel the high dictates of patriotism. In morals his character was lax; and it is singular that a man whose reputation on that head was so indifferent, should have acquired the personal friendship of George III. The boldness and resolution with which he grasped honours which ought to have been committed to nobler and purer hands, and the magnanimous bravery with which he asserted his pretensions to retain them, are, perhaps, the only qualities which can excite the admiration of an impartial enquirer into his character. His opinions and conduct, especially in the earlier part of his life, were violently opposed to all popular doctrines, of which and of their supporters he uniformly spoke in terms of contempt and derision. In earlier times he would have formed a fit instrument to carry into effect the high and arbitrary principles of the court, and might have been suitably associated in the councils of Laud and of Strafford. At a later period of life, and especially after his breaking with Mr. Pitt, and his expulsion from office, he assumed a more liberal tone in politics, and opposed some of the attempts made by the minister to circumscribe the liberties of the people. Of the eloquence of Lord Thurlow, and of his manner in debate, Mr. Butler has given a striking account *: "At times Lord Thurlow was superlatively great. It was the good fortune of the Reminiscent to hear his celebrated reply to the Duke of Grafton, during the enquiry into Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich hospital. His grace's action and delivery, when he addressed the house, were singularly dignified and graceful; but his matter was not equal to his manner. He reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission into the peerage: particular circumstances caused Lord Thurlow's reply to make a deep impression on the Reminiscent. His lordship had spoken too often, and began to be heard with a civil but visible impatience. Under these circumstances he was attacked in the manner we have mentioned. He rose from the woolsack, and advanced slowly to the place from which the chancellor generally addresses the house, then fixing on the duke the look of Jove when he grasps Reminis. vol. i. P. 199. the thunder, I am amazed,' he said, in a level tone of voice, at the attack the noble duke has made on me. Yes, my lords,' considerably raising his voice,' I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke cannot look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer who owes his seat in this house to his successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honourable to owe it to these, as to being the accident of an accident? To all these noble lords the language of the noble duke is as applicable and as insulting as it is to myself. But I don't fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the peerage more than I do ; — but, my lords, I must say, that the peerage solicited me, not I the peerage. Nay more, I can say, and will say, that as a peer of parliament, as speaker of this right honourable house, as keeper of the great seal, as guardian of his majesty's conscience, as lord high chancellor of England, nay, even in that character alone in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered, as a MAN, I am at this moment as respectable, -I beg leave to add,—I am at this time as much respected, as the proudest peer I now look down upon.' The effect of this speech, both within the walls of parliament and out of them, was prodigious. It gave Lord Thurlow an ascendancy in the house which no chancellor had ever possessed it invested him, in public opinion, with a character of independence and honour; and this, though he was ever on the unpopular side in politics, made him always popular with the people. "On many other occasions his lordship appeared to advantage; but, speaking generally, it was only on great occasions that he signalised himself. He was a kind of guarda costa vessel, which cannot meet every turn and winding of a frigate that assails her, but, when the opportunity offers, pours a broadside which seldom fails of sinking the assailant. "His lordship, however, possessed a weapon which he often brought into action with great skill and effect. He would appear to be ignorant upon the subject in debate, and with affected respect, but visible derision, to seek for information upon it, pointing out, with a kind of dry solemn humour, contradictions and absurdities, which he professed his own inability to explain, and calling upon his adversaries for their explanation. It was a kind of masked battery of the most searching questions, and distressing observations: it often discomfited his adversary, and seldom failed to force him into a very embarrassing position of defence; it was the more effective, as, when he was playing it off, his lordship showed he had the command of much more formidable artillery." The same writer tells us, that though Lord Thurlow spoke slowly and deliberately, yet his periods were strangely confused, and often ungrammatical. Of his lordship's speeches from the bench, he says, "they were strongly marked by depth of legal knowledge and force of expression, and by the overwhelming power with which he propounded the result; but they were too often enveloped in obscurity, and sometimes reason was rather silenced than convinced.* The legal talents and acquirements of Lord Thurlow have been the subject of frequent panegyric; but it may, perhaps, be questioned, whether in all cases those eulogiums are just. It has been said,-but with what truth it is difficult to form an opinion, that his lordship was much indebted to Mr. Hargrave for the learning by which his judgments were sometimes distinguished; and that Mr. Hargrave received a handsome remuneration for these services. "As lord chancellor," says a writert, who was personally acquainted with his lordship," from a well-placed confidence in Mr. Hargrave, who was indefatigable in his service, he had occasion to give himself less trouble than any other man in that high station. An old free-speaking companion of his, well known at Lincoln's Inn, would sometimes say to me, I met the great law lion this morning going to Westminster; but Reminis, vol. i. p. 142. + Cradock's Mem. vol. i. p. 79. he was so busily reading in the coach what his provider had supplied him with, that he took no notice of me."" The ardent zeal with which Lord Thurlow contested the great question of the regency, led him, if we may credit the narrative of one who was a party to the debate, to be guilty of an act of great disingenuousness. Dr. Watson, the Bishop of Landaff, in the course of a speech, in which he supported the claims of the Prince of Wales, incidentally cited a passage from Grotius, with regard to the definition of the word right. "The chancellor, in his reply," says the bishop in his memoirs, "boldly asserted that he perfectly well remembered the passage I had quoted from Grotius, and that it solely respected natural, but was inapplicable to civil, rights. Lord Loughborough, the first time I saw him after the debate, assured me that before he went to sleep that 'night he had looked into Grotius, and was astonished to find that the chancellor, in contradicting me, had presumed on the ignorance of the house, and that my quotation was perfectly correct. What miserable shifts do great men submit to, in supporting their parties! The Chancellor Thurlow," continues the bishop, was an able and upright judge; but, as the speaker of the house of lords, he was domineering and insincere. It was said of him, that in the cabinet he opposed every thing, proposed nothing, and was ready to support any thing. I remember Lord Camden's saying to me one night, when the chancellor was speaking contrary, as he thought, to his own conviction: There, now! I could not do that he is supporting what he does not believe a word of.' : Like Johnson, Lord Thurlow was remarkable for the rudeness which he occasionally exhibited in society, and which was frequently accompanied with vulgarity. "Many stories of Thurlow's rudeness," says Mr. Cradockt, "have been in general circulation; but it should be fairly stated, that he was ever more cautious of speaking offensively amongst inferiors than amongst the great, Life of Bishop Watson, p. 221. + Memoirs, vol. i. p. 73. |