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    duty in placing his voters in the hospital * But if , oh the conti-ary , he continues to protect the prosecutors in spite of the evidence of their . guilt * which has excited the abhorrence of the numerous audience who crowd this Court ; if he keeps this injured man suspended * or dare to turn that suspension into a removal \ I shall

    then not scruple to Hectare him an accom * plice m * their guilt , a shameless oppressor , a disgrace to his rank , and a traitor to his trust . But , as I should he very sorry that the fortune of my brave and honourable friend should depend either on the exercise of Lord * s justice or the influence of his fears , I do most earnestly entreat the Court to mark the malignant object

    of this prosecution , and to defeat it , —I beseech you r my Lords , to consider that even by discharging the rule , and with costs , the defendant is neither protected nor restored . I trust , therefore , your Lordships will not rest satisfied with fulfilling your judicial duty ; but as the strongest evidence of the foulest abuses

    has by accident come collaterally before you , that you protect a brave and publicspirited-officer from the persecution this writing has brought upou him ^ and not suffer so dreadful an example to go abroad into the world , as the ruin of an upright mun for having faithfully discharged his duty . "

    We have heard it said that circumstances peculiarly favoured the daring of Lord Erskine ; that Lord Mansfield , though an artful , as well as able and eloquent man , was at the same time nervous and timid , as was proved by his excessive dread of Lord Chatham , who was inferior to himself in intellectual power ,

    though so much superior in courage ; and that if he had made a similar attempt to defy Lord Ellenborough , whose displeasure no one ever encountered without suffering from it , he would have been unsuccessful . But we think they who

    come to this conclusion , do not make sufficient allowance either for the peculiar buoyancy and , energy of Lord Erskine ' s character , or the deficiency in courage in those over whom Lord Ellenborough tyrannized . We do not believe that he

    could have trampled on Lord Erskine , any more than he could have trampled on Sir Samuel Romilly . It is not our . intention to follow Lord Erskine through his long and arduous forensic and political life . In this brief

    sketch we can merely notice some of its leading features . But , indeed , the public are top familiar with the splendid part he has acted , to render it necessary for us to enter with any particularity into his history . His name will always be associated

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    wnh the liberty of the press * Which be may be Baid to have preserved , > Wheft he commenced his career , a system was in force and gaining strength , which ?

    would have soon deprived Englishmen , of all that they had to distinguish them above other nations . The power claimed by the Judges of limiting the Juries to the mere fact of publication , and deciding themselves oa the character of the

    writing before the Court , would have soon rendered freedom of discussion a mere name . Till the accession of George the Th | rd , the Crown was on the side M liberty from the dread of a Pretender * but that danger to kingly power removed * the consequences which might have been anticipated followed . Shortly after this

    critical period of our history , Lord Erskine appeared , and in a succession of battles he nobly combated the spirit of the new sera , and at last secured to the Juries the decision of the law as well as the fact—a point which would be of the greatest consequence , were it not for the power which the Crown has obtained of influencing the nomination of juries . .

    This combat on one occasion we can * not pass over , as it serves particularly to illustrate that quality for which Lord Erskine was so distinguished . On the trial of the venerable Dean of St . Asaph , ( 1784 , ) who has survived his advocate .

    Judge Buller endeavoured to bully the jury into a verdict favourable to his views —Lord Erskine entered the lists with him , and was triumphant . The following is a specimen of the dialogue which passed between the parties : —

    " Mr , Justice Buller : I will take the verdict as they mean to give it ; it shall not be altered . Gentlemen , if I understand you right , your verdict is this—you mean to say guilty of publishing this libel ? —A Juror : No : the , pamphlet ; we dp not decide upon its being a libel .

    ** Mr . Justice Buller : You say Ije is guilty of publishing the pamphlet , and the meaning of the inuendoes is as stated in the indictment ? - —A Juror : Certainly . <* Mr . Erskiqe : is the word only to stand part of your verdict ?—A Juror : Certainly . " Mr . Erskine : Then I insist it shall be recorded .

    "Mr . Justice Buller : Then the verdict must be misunderstood . Let me understand the Jury * . . ; ; " Mr . Erskine : The Jury do understand their verdict . " Mr . Jusrice Buller : Sir , I will not be interrupted .

    " Mr . Erskine : 1 stand here as an Advocate for a brother citizen , and I desire that the word only may be recorded . « Mr . Justice Buller : « Sit down , Sir

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    43 Obifttary ^ ThQmas JLopd Ershine

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1824, page 48, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2520/page/48/