On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
pcfties © f their fellow-citizens , but also for the brilliant wit , perfect integrity and i rresistible persuasion of their professional e xertions . Tbe conversational powers of JUr . Henry Erskine were of the first order —— prompt , g-eatle and luminous , his flashes of wit irradiated every countenance .
while Us amenity left no sting * behind . His epigrams and bon mots were innumerable j many of them are on record , and we trust that the elegant elusions of kis m , and his impromptus at table , will be collected by the biographer of his honourable life .
Mr . Erskine was called to the Scottish bar in 1768 . He was twice appointed Lord Advjocate , in 1782 and 1806 , under tbe Rockingham and the Grenville administrations . During' the years 1806 and 1807 , he sat in Parliament'for the Dunbar and Dumfries districts of boroughs .
In his long * and splendid career at the bar , Mr . Erskine was distinguished not only by the peculiar brilliancy of his wit , and gracefulness , ease and vivacity of bis eloquence , but by the still rarer power of Creeping those seduemg qualities-in perfect subordination -to bis judgment . sBy their
assistance he could not only make tbe most repulsive subjects agreeable , but the most abstruse , easy and intelligible . In his profession , indeed , all his wit was argument , and each of his delightful illustrations « . material ^ step inhrs reasoning . —To himself it seemed always as if they were recommended rather for their use than their
beauty ; and unquestionably they often enabled him to state a fine argument or a niee distinction , not only in a more striking and pleasing way , but actually with greater precision than could have been attained by the severer forms of reasoning . In this extraordinary talent , as well as
in the charming facility of his eloquence , and the constant radiance of good humour and gaiety which encircled his manner in debatej lie bad no rival in his own times , and has yet had no successor . That part of eloquence is now mute—that honour in abeyance .
As a politician , lie was eminently distinguished for tbe two great virtues of indexible steadiness to his principles , and invariable gentleness and urbanity in his manner of-asserting them . Such , indeed , ^* s tbe habitual sweetness of bis temper , " * ttd tbe fascination of his manners , that ttbongh placed by his rank and talent in -utei ttbuoxious station of a leader of
oppo-* 8 itton , ; afc -a , period when , political animosi'tws w « re- carried to a lamentable height , " **> individual , it is" believed , 'was ever known to speak or to think of him with *» By thing-approaching to personal hostility . l ** <| fc * Utfn , it "may be said with equal oo r-*** Be * s , t « hflUt 4 lio * igh baffled in * ome of fc > ¥ umuts , aarfd iwot quite iJuuMUwnrely
Untitled Article
disappointed of some of tbe honours to which his claim was universally admitted , he never allowed the slightest shade of discontent to rest upon his mind , nor the least drop of bitterness to mingle with h i ** blood . He was so utterly incapable of rancour , that even the rancorous felt tUat he ought not be made its victim .
He possessed , in ao eminent degree , that deep sense of revealed religion , and that zealous attachment to the Presbyterian establishment , which had long been hereditary in his family . His habits were always strictly moral and temperate , and in the latter part of his life evea abstemious . Though the life and the ornament of every society iuto which he entered , be was always
most happy and most delightful at home , where the buoyancy of his spirits and tbe kindness of his heart found all that they re ^ quired of exercise or enjoyment ; and though without taste for expensive pleasures in his o-wn person , he was ever most indulgent and munificent to his children , and a liberal benefactor to all who depended on bis bounty .
He finally retired from the exercise of that profession , the highest honours of which he had at least deserved , about the year 1812 , and spent the remainder of his d&y # in domestic retirement , at that beautiful villa which had been formed by his own taste , and in the improvement and adornment of which he found his latest -oooiipatien .
Passing , then , at once from all the bustle and excitement of a public life to a scene of comparative inactivity , he never felt one moment of ennui or dejection , but retained unimpaired , till within a day or two of his death , not only all his intellectual activity and social affections , but , when not under
the immediate afnictlen of a painful and incurable disease , all that gaiety of spirit , and all that playful and kindly sympathy with innocent enjoyment , which made him tf * e idol of the young , and the object of cordial attachment and unenvying admiration to his friends of all ages . —( Morning Chron . J
Untitled Article
Obituary *— -Hon * H&nry Erskine . —Miss A . L . O . Fisher . © fcf
Untitled Article
Oct . 14 , Anna Leonora Osbobnf Fisueb , eldest daughter of Thomas Escoliwe Fisher , of St . Ives , in tbe county of Huntingdon , solicitor . For some years past she had read and thought much on eternal things . Her character was always serious , and her reflections just and greatly above her years . During an illness of five months , though
frequently in great bodily pain , she shewed the greatest resignation to the ( Divine * Will , being convinced ^ she said , that heriliuesa was for her good . She always discoursed upon her own 'd eath with the greatest composure ; and exactly one week before her decease , she disposed of b «» rjajeney among twenty poor widows and others , with each of whom she took an affectionate farewell . She thanked God for tbe bless *
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 627, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/55/
-