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    tein of rigid econoniy , audit is said even acted £ S tutor himself to his brothers . The system vf economy which circumstances then rendered necessary , became habitual to Lord Buchan , who is now in the receipt of a considerable income .

    A profession was the only resource for both the younger brothers , and it is singular that each should have been the most eloquent man , of his day > of the Bar to which he belonged . Thomas , however , was not at first destined for a learned profession ; he went to sea with

    Sir John Lindsay , a nephew of the Earl of Mansfield ; he quitted the ^ navy , in consequence , as is said , of his slender chance of obtaining promotion in it , having never riseo higher than midshipman * though he served as a lieutenant , through the friendship of his commanding officer .

    - —On quitting the navy , he entered , in 1768 , into the army as an ensign in the Scots Royals , or First Regiment of Foot , and continued in the service about six years . It is said that iewas impelled £ o quit the service and betake himself to the Bar by the intreaties of his mother ^ who deemed this career more suitable to

    the genius of her son . He was about twenty-six when he commenced his legal studies . He entered as a Fellow Commoner of Trinity College , Cambridge , in the year 1777 , and at the same time entered himself on the books of Lincoln ' s

    Inn . In order to acquire a knowledge of the technical part of his profession , he became a pupil of Judge Buller , then an eminent Special Pleader . He had to encounter all the evils of poverty during hk legal studies , for he had married while a

    soldier , and his wife had even accompanied him to Minorca , in which island h £ passed three years with bis regiment . On the promotion of Mr . Buller to the Bench , he went into the office of Mr . Wood , in which he continued a year after he had been in considerable business at

    the Bar , to which he was called in Tn < - ¦ nity Term , 1778 . We have heard it observed , by a Barrister of great eminence , that those who enter the Bar late in life are much mor £

    likely to succeed than those who ente * very early . When a suitable occasion is presented to a very young man , his want of judgment and knowledge of the world seldom allows him to avail himself of it

    as he ought . The mortification caused by an early unsuccessful attempt throws often a damp over the spirits against which the individual is unable to struggle . Lord Erskine , Sir Saiuuel Roniilly , and some other distinguished lwunes , ivere cited in proof of the « t » seytlan . With respect to his Lordship , he certainly contrived to signalize hiiftself iMkvety first

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    opportunity that presented itself , and that ? opportunity was soon afforded . Captain Baillie , who had b&en removed from the superintendencb of Greenwich Hospital by the famous or infamous Earl of

    Sandwich , then First ; Lord of the Admiralty , and one of the Governors of the Hospital , was charged with having published a libel on the management of that Institution , and the Attorney-General was instructed to move for leave to file a criminal

    information against him . Lord Erskine , whose tact was equal to his courage , saw , that by dragging Lord Sandwich into court ^ the real instigator of the proceedings ^ though not the prosecutor , the power of the individual whom he assailed would fix the attention of the world on his first

    effort , and secure that sympathy which never fails to be awarded to the display of courage , while his abilities at the same time commanded their admiration . * The defendant ^ ' ( Captain Baillie , ) " said his Lordship , was not a disappointed malicious informer , prying into official abuses , because without office himself , but

    himself a inah in office—not troublesomely inquisitive into other men ' s departments , but conscientiously correcting his own , doing it pursuant to the rules of law , and what heightens the character , doing it at the risk of Jiis office , from which the effrontery of power has already suspended him without proof of his guilt—a conduct

    not only unjust £ nd illiberal , but highly disrespectful to this Court , whose Judges sit in the double capacity of ministers of the law , and governors of this sacred and abused institution . Indeed , Lord *— has , in my opinion , acted such & part * * *

    ( Here Lord Mansfield observing the Counsel heated with his subject , and growing personal on the First Lord of the Admiralty , told him Lord —— - — - was not before the Court . ) "I know that he is not formally before the Court , but for that very reason I will bring him before the Court ; he has placed these men in the front of the battle

    in hopes to escape under their shelter , but I will not join in battle with them ; their vices , though screwed up to the highest pitch of human depravity , are not of dignity enough to vindicate the combat with me . I will drag him- to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity . 1 assert that the Earl of has but one

    road to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace , &nd that is by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutois and restoring Captain Bnillie to his command . If he does this , then his offence will be no more than the too common one of having suffered his own persoual interest to prevail over his public

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    Obituary ^ Thomas Xw 4 ^ jMj& 4

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1824, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2520/page/47/