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tions of his own mind, will be expo. sed to the danger of mistaking and omitting many of the simple ele

ments.

If history be compared with any of the sciences which are so greatly cultivated, its advantages will appear more conspicuous than by any formal declaration in its favour. If they be estimated according to their comparative tendency to meliorate our condition in life, I make no doubt but that the verdict will be in favour of history. There are none of the sciences without their particular uses; but there are some which, on a strict comparison with others, have more the appearance of being food for curiosity than conducive to any good end. The science, which embraces the developement of the nature of man, and the deduc. tion of his duties, must, in the eye of every candid and judicious man, be of greater importance, than that which has for its object the proper. of vegetables. And even in the higher branches of natural philosophy, the conclusions at which we arrive, when considered with regard to their practical utility, are seldom worthy of the labour bestowed on them. In every addition we make to our knowledge of the laws of nature, an additional proof is supplied of the vast powers of the human mind. But knowledge is valuable only in proportion to its usefulness. Now, many of those discoveries which have astonished mankind, and are justly accounted as the high. est exertions of the human intellect, have little to recommend them, on the score of usefulness. As speculations, which enlarge the mind, they merit all the attention and praise which have been bestowed upon them, but can never be recommended as studies from which the greatest advantages accrue to mankind.

R.

To the Patron of Literature, the Editor of the Scots Magazine;-The Petition of the distressed Fraternity of Newspapers

HUMBLY SHEWETH,

THAT it is now 155 years since

the great ancestor of your pe titioners made his appearance in Scotland; since that, we have been yearly amending. And although we sometimes condescend to be venal, yet our use and influence have been generally acknowledged. We fly to the remotest corners of the kingdom, diffusing information and amusement in our progress. And if preserved a cording to our merits, we would form valuable sources of reference to the historian and the curious. But, alas! few, comparatively few of us, survive the week which gives us birth.Doomed to the most servile uses: instead of forming a valuable acqui sition to the library, we are employed in singing fowls, in packing snuff, sugar, tea, and tobacco: sometimes we are subservient to the purposes of the milliner, and inclose many a fine thing destined to decorate our fair readers: we sometimes convey novels for their perusal; and, what is not more strange than true, most of those novels round which we are wrapped to protect them from harm, would ( weighed in the scales of the candid be found egregiously wanting in tro value. Shocking to tell, we are of ten employed in services the most de grading: such as wiping the lather from the razor of a country barber, punctured by the new-mown bristles of some rustic ploughman. One use to which we are often applied, is so degrading that it cannot be so much as mentioned.

One of our predecessors conveyed a very accurate abstract of the trial of Viscount Melville; and wonderful it is, that interesting as the contents of that paper were, no favour

was

was shewn, it was doomed to the same servile purposes with those who had gone before. It seems as if a perse. cution were waged against our unfor. tunate fraternity, insomuch that it is rare to see a thousand of us in a regular series.

Antiquarians and historians, when wishing to elucidate some point in history, feel the want of informers like us; and is it not odd that we are thus doomed to oblivion as soon as read? The benefit which future ages would reap from us, were we preserved, would be incalculable. We form faithful recorders of the history, taste, amusements, and opinions of the times in which we exist: we may be stiled Epitomes of life: philosophers, by recurring to us, would be able to bring the manners of one age into contrast with those of another, thus giving useful lessons to mankind. And many of those phenomena of nature and art which surprize, are treated of by us with a minuteness which in a treatise would seem trifling.

There can be no saving in applying us to any of the uses before complained of. Will our readers consider that they pay 6d. for one of us? country readers pay the postage extra; whereas there is a sort of paper made for the very uses and purposes to which the complainers are applied. As the extensive circulation and character of the Scots Magazine are well known; by appearing in it our petition will acquire a degree of con fidence which it would otherwise want, and tend to make an old newspaper more respected than it has hitherto been.

We hope, Mr Editor, you will give our humble petition a place in your Magazine, and, by publishing our distressed state to the world, procure us a redress of those grievances under which we now labour.

And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

Biographical Account of the late LORD

THURLOW.

THIS Nobleman was born in 1735.

He was son of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow, rector of Ashfield, in Suffolk.

The family had not formerly risen to any distinction, and was rather in narrow circumstances, notwithstanding which his father found means to send two of his children to the university. Edward, the subject of this memoir,was sent to Cambridge, and placed under the inspection of Dr Smith. Here however his eacentricities are said to have been such, as to make it expedient for him to quit the university, in order to shun rustication, of which he was in danger. This circumstance prevented him from attaining any, either of the honours or emoluments which the college had to bestow.

Mr Thurlow, on throwing off the academic gown, entered himself of the Society of the Inner Temple, and assumed that of a student of law*, about the year 1753. In this new situation he appears to have kept his terms, and to have eat his commons, to have been called to the bar, and to have paid his fees, in exact conformity to ancient usage in 1758. He was now, according to the phraseology of the Conrts, apprenticius ad legem, and if we are to believe the reports of his co-temporaries, like many other apprentices, he at times played truant, though we doubt not that he addicted himself by starts to professional studies, and it appears evident that a strong and vigorous mind like his was enabled, even by occasional application, to attain a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of our municipal laws.

Having

*This gown is now wore only in the Hall, during the time of dinner, but it formerly served as a passport to the Courts of Justice.

Having attained the degree of Utter Barrister, as by that time he was twenty three years of age, it may be supposed by those who have witnessed the latter part of his career, that Mr Thurlow must have soon distinguished himself both as a lawyer and an orator. But, on the contrary, he remained during a long period in obscurity, and seemed to be consigned to pass silently down the stream of oblivion, when he was rescu ed from the reproach of mediocrity, both in respect to talents and practice, by the lucky coincidence of one or two fortunate events.

Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Lord Grantley, at this period was the most prominent lawyer at the English bar. As his old antagonist, Serjeant Davy, was no more, and Mr Dunning (created in due time Lord Ashburton) had scarcely yet disclosed those great talents which at length placed him at the top of the profes sion, it was difficult, in the language of the day, to hit any one against him. Thurlow, who was better known at this period at Nando's than at Westminster Hall, had, however, found means to distinguish himself among his friends; and as his figure, his voice, and his manner,

were

known to be efficient, it was at last determined by a resolute attorney to entrust the conduct of an important cause to his care.

It was on this occasion, which probably proved decisive of his fate, that be entered the lists with a veteran, who had hitherto been considered as

the boldest practitioner at the English bar, and came off victorious; for after having given cut for cut, and blow for blow, he gained the battle, to the great joy of the bar, and of the bench too, perhaps, neither of which was displeased to behold a junior member contending for, and obtaining the well-merited applause of the public, by defeating a champion

of such renown.

The Douglas cause, on which oc casion Mr Thurlow happened to be on the fortunate side, opened a still wider field for his talents and abilities. He had then to contend in a great and popular cause, in behalf of the claims of a minor, in opposition to one of the most illustrious families in North Britain, and he acquitted him. self in such a manner as to enhance his reputation in no common degree, He deemed it necessary, however, in vindicating the legitimate pretensions of his noble client, to attack a gen tleman *, engaged on the other side, with some degree of asperity, and a challenge, followed by a meeting in the field, was the consequence.

The reputation of Mr Thurlow was thus raised suddenly, yet his prac tice was not, at that or any other time, considerable; and he would ne ver have attained, perhaps, the ho nours that now awaited him, but for the political influence of the Bedford party, then paramount to all other in terests.

He had just received a silk gown, when he obtained the favour of Lord Weymouth, who then occupied the important station of Secretary of State. In consequence of the patronage of that nobleman, with whom he spent many a social hour, Mr Thurlow, in March 1770, became in vested

*The person in question was the late Andrew Stuart, Esq. a descendant from a very ancient family in North Britain, and who, on the demise of the late Presentative of that Illustrious family, which tender, considered himself as the reprehad given so many kings to Scotland and England. He had been, we believe, what in the Scotch law is called one of the tutors and curators, or, in other words, guardian to the Duke of Hamilton, and, as such, took an active part in the Dou glas cause. In addition to a challenge to Mr Thurlow, he addressed a series of letters to Lord Mansfield, who was also supposed to have treated him cava. erly on the same occasion.

vested with the office of Solicitor General, in the place of John Dunning, Esq. and in January 1771 he succeeded William Delpey, Esq. afterwards created Lord Walsingham, as Attorney General.

The Bedford, or Bloomsbury party, then supported Lord North, and as very warm debates soon after arose on the subject of the American war, in which the minister was combated by the eloquence of Savile, Burke, and Fox, he found great advantage from being supported by the abilities of Thurlow, who zealously espoused that side of the question.

Such zeal, joined to such abilities, could not long pass unrewarded; and accordingly, on the 2d of June 1778, he was appointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, by virtue of which office, he, at a single bound, became the second subject in the kingdom. On the next day he was created a Peer of Great Britain, by the title of Lord Thurlow, Baron of Ashfield, in the county of Suffolk, with remainder, in case of default of issue male, to his nephews.

He continued to fulfil the duties of his arduous and important situation for five years, and during that period raised his second brother from an humbly rectory to the episcopal dignity. But when Lord North and Mr Fox united, and formed the coalition administration, he was obliged to retire, and on the 9th of April, 1783, the seals were put in commis

sion.

This state of affairs, however, proved but of short continuance; for the new administration was not sup. ported by the voice of the people, and it so happened, by a coincidence rather unusual, that the king was of the same mind. His Majesty was indeed peculiarly averse to the continuence of the junto in office, as the project of the East-India Bill seem. ed to be calculated to abridge the

royal prerogative, and create a new power in the constitution.

Mr Pitt, who had before acted as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne, now became first Lord of the Treasury and Premier, on which occasion he selected Lord Thurlow for the great seal, and that nobleman accordingly resumed his seat on the woolsack, on the 23d of December 1783, after a short interval of eight months and a fortnight.

After his resumption of the seals, Lord Thurlow continued for some time to support the administration, of which he himself constituted a conspicuous portion. He had now attained the summit of his ambition, for indeed he could climb no higher. and having received the reversion of a tellership, which soon after dropped, he was become perfectly independent, in point of fortune. He did not always accord, however, with the Premier; and as neither of these celebrated men was famed for a conciliatory spirit, it is not at all surprising that they should have, at length, agreed to separate. To those who were personally acquainted with them the wonder indeed was, that they should have remained so long as nine or ten years in the same cabinet.

At length, in 1793, Lord Thurlow resigned the high and important functions of Lord High Chancellor, and was succeeded by Lord Loughborough, afterwards Earl of Rosslyn.

From that period his Lordship frequented the House of Peers but seldom, and his health having become very precarious, the air of the town was supposed to be hurtful, so that, even during the winter, he seldom or never slept in his house in St James'ssquare.

Meanwhile, having purchased an estate in the neighbourhood of Dulwich, Lord Thurlow ordered a house to be built on a rising ground for his accommodation. A regular estimate

was

was accordingly made out by an eminent architect, and the mansion completed, but the final charge was so disproportionate to the sum originally proposed, that the noble lord exclaimed that he would never either enter or pay for it, but remain in his farm-house to the day of his death." As he had exhibited great attachment to the King, during the discussion of the Regency Bill, so he afterwards enjoyed the intimacy and the confidence of the Prince of Wales, and is supposed to have been the adviser of his Royal Highness on many. critical and important occasions. He was accustomed to meet him at the. hospitable house of the late Mr Macnamara, of Streatham, and was persuaded to sit to Rossi for a bust, which is now in Carleton House. For several years past his Lordship has divided his time between Dul wich and Brighton, at the latter of which he usually spent some of the summer months; during which he rode on the fine Sussex downs, enjoy. ed the bracing air of the sea, and occasionally saw and conversed with the

heir to the crown.

In summing up the character of Lord Thurlow, it will be found that this nobleman was entitled to much praise as a Chancellor. The inflexible integrity that governed his decisions was never once called in question, while the wisdom by which they were regulated has been always admired. He was eager to detect, to expose, and if possible, to punish the mal-practices of low attornies, and other retainers of the law, who are a disgrace and an opprobrium to the profession. He saw, and he lamented the frauds and chicanery frequently arising out of commissions of bankruptcy, and wished to restrain

*His celebrated exclamation of

"When I forsake my King in the hour of his distress, may God forsake me!" produced a wonderful effect.

them, although they were far less common than at present. He was particularly severe in the case of such adventurers as had carried off the wards of his court; and in respect to another class of persons, who were also under the immediate guardianship of the Chancellor, his conduct has been recently quoted with great applause by Lord Erskine. It was he indeed who first instituted the rule, that in respect to supposed lunatics, the onus probandi should attach to the plaintiff; whereas, when a statute had been once obtained, the proof of sanity was to rest with the defend.

ant.

The conduct of Lord Thurlow on the woolsack was dignified, yet the impatience of contradiction, or the access of disease, would sometimes produce irritation. But it is wonderful with what cordiality the public took his part, when a noble Duke, who had alluded to new fami lies and upstart lawyers, was reminded of the meretricious claims of one of his own ancestors, in a dignified and manly speech delivered by the subject of this memoir.

During the first time that he held the seals Lord Thurlow was accused of treating the gentlemen of the bar with a degree of roughness and severity, at which he himself, while in their situation, would have been the first to spurn. We have some reason to suppose, however, that on his return to office he altered his conduct in this instance, and ever after dis played more urbanity to that respectable class of men, out of which his own successors were destined to be chosen.

It is well known, that the patronage of an English Lord Chancellor, in respect to ecclesiastical affairs, is extensive. All vacant livings under a certain amount are in his gift, and his voice is, at the same time, attended to in respect to the disposal of the dignities of the church.

Through

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