voted himself to it. The great practice which immediately followed the first manifestation of his talents, though it naturally increased his knowledge, took from him the opportunity of making those laborious investigations which are necessary to complete the character of a profound lawyer. Lord Ellenborough, on the contrary, has enjoyed every advantage of opportunity and training, and has, during the whole of his life, displayed an industry no less uncommon than the abilities by which it was directed.

Mr. Law's advancement to the great offices of the profession did not take place until long after he had been designed for them by the expectations of the public. These expectations were founded equally on his eminent talents, and on the soundness and extent of his legal knowledge. That they were so long defeated, is attributed to his having been regarded with unfavourable sentiments by the late administration. Immediately after its dissolution he was appointed attorney-general, and brought into the house of commons, where he was a frequent speaker in defence of ministerial measures. In this character it will be allowed that he performed important services, even by those whose opinions of the conduct and abilities. of the present ministers lead them to conclude that they want both defence and defenders.

At the bar and in the house of commons Lord Ellenborough was the same man. He transferred from the questions of law to those of politics the copiousness of matter, as well as the energy of thought and language, by which he had always been distinguished.

He

He likewise not unfrequently displayed in the course of debate, that irritability and warmth of temper which characterized him as a pleader. Unlike Mr. Erskine, who, while he reigns at the bar, maintains but a se→ condary character in the house of commons, Mr. Law always stood forward in the first rank, and never appeared inferior to the great reputation he had acquired. This difference cannot be resolved into that species of eloquence which Mr. Erskine has cultivated. In his speaking there is nothing of that which is peculiar to the bar: His subtilty, his wit, that rich colouring of sentiment and diction, which distinguishes his pleadings from all others, might be applied. with equal felicity to every subject of discussion.

Concerning the character of Lord Ellenborough's eloquence, it may be observed in general, that he appears to aim more at strength than at elegance. There is nothing, however, in the occasional roughness and negligence of his sentences which does not consist with delicacy of taste and refinement of knowledge. To him may be applied what Cicero observes of the great Roman orator Antonius,

"Verba ipsa non illa quidem elegantissimo sermone; itaque diligenter loquendi laude caruit, neque tamen est admodum inquinatè locatus.”

"His words were not selected according to the most elegant models of style; he therefore could not claim the honour of speaking eloquently; yet his language was not disagreeably coarse."

His faults seem to belong to a mind too highly occupied to avoid them; and, perhaps, if he had been.

more studied and graceful, his hearers would be less at leisure to receive the full force of those masculine ideas which constitute the distinguishing virtues of his speeches. The poignancy of his invectives has seldom been equalled, and it established a salutary dread among his brethren at the bar, which has since been extended to the members of the two houses, with whom he has had occasion to contend. The gravity and solemnity of his manner was best suited to important causes, but he shewed himself able to treat light matters with gaiety and wit; while at the same time it appeared more natural to him to be dignified than trifling.

The office of attorney-general is always understood to be a step to higher situations; and Mr. Law, on the death of Lord Kenyon, was appointed, in April 1802, chief justice of the court of King's-bench, and elcvated to a peerage. So rapid a rise, within a year, from the condition of a King's counsel to the second dignity of the law, cannot be paralleled by any other instance in the annals of the profession. The situation of the chief justice of the King's-bench, although in respect to rank and salary is the second among the dignities of the law, is in some points thought more desirable than the first. The Lord Chancellor, as a member of the ministry, is subject to the varieties of its fortune; while the judges cannot be removed from their offices, except in consequence of misbehaviour, or addresses from either of the two houses of parliament. It is likewise understood that the extensiveness of the Lord Chancellor's patronage is scarcely

adequate

adequate to the value of the few lucrative situations of which the chief justice of the King's-bench has the absolute disposal.

Lord Ellenborough has therefore attained what probably was the highest object of his ambition. The elevated station on which he is placed affords him all the enjoyments of dignity, and all the opportunities he can desire for the display and exertion of his powers. His two immediate predecessors were men with whom the greatest minds might be proud to rival. Lord Mansfield will always be considered not only among the first ornaments of his profession, but among those who have done honour to his country and to human nature; and Lord Kenyon's occasional violence and neglect of decorum, his deficiencics as an orator and a scholar, will not deprive him of that reverence which is due to the vigour of understanding, the extent of his professional acquirements, and the uniform ardour with which he supported the cause of religion and morality.

It is impossible to contemplate the life of this nobleman, without reflecting on the splendid prospects which animate the study of the law. By the mere exertion of his talents, without the interference of any extraordinary events, Lord Ellenborough has accumulated a great fortune, attained one of the most exalted stations in the empire, and acquired for himself, and will transmit to his children, the honours of the British peerage.

THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM, AND THE GRENVILLES.

THE philosophers of a former century for a long time occupied the attention of the public, respecting the doctrine of innate ideas. Notwithstanding it. seemed to be the more orthodox opinion, that knowledge was not intuitive, but acquired, yet there ap. pears to be an hereditary pre-disposition, both in nations and individuals, to transmit talents and abilities; and the character of those we are now about to treat of, furnishes an apposite proof of the fact,

There are only two branches of this family now living. The first is, the issue of the late Right Hon. George Grenville (the eldest brother of the late Earl Temple), who was minister of this country in the years 1763, 1764, and 1765, and who died in the month of November 1770; the other is, the issue of the Right Hon. James Grenville, second brother of the same nobleman. The descendants of George Grenville, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Windham, Bart, by his lady Catherine, daughter of Charles Duke of Somerset, are: George Grenville Nugent Temple, the present Marquis of Buckingham, who was born on the 17th day of June, 1753; was married on the 12th day of April, 1775, to Lady Mary-Elizabeth Nugent, daughter and heiress to the late Earl Nugent, by whom he has two sons, Richard Earl Temple, representative in parliament for the county of Buckingham, and Lord George Nugent Grenville, a young nobleman of great promise, and

also