majestic, winding courfe of the river is at the fame time seen, and on its fouthern bank, a lower eminence, interpofed before Moncrief-hill. The stranger may, with equal pleasure, ramble about and gaze around him, upon the other fides of this city. -Yet, after all, it must be confeiled AN ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM EARL OF MANSFIELD. that as Perth is feated, as it were, in the arena of an amphitheatre, it does not afford the best stations for seeing thefe environs to advantage. The profpects in this tract of country, as may naturally be supposed, are to be feen from the towering peaks, and the fwelling ridges fcattered thro' it. CONTINUED FROM VOL. I. PAGE 462. IN 1765, the Bishop of Gloucester (Warburton) republished his Divine Legation of Mofes, which he dedicated to Lord Mansfield in an addrefs, wherein, with great ability, he pointed out the rife and progrefs of the fpirit of irreligion and licentiousness which then prevailed. In the courfe of the narrative (which deferves at this time to be read) he mentions, as a peculiar fortunate circumftance, "that while every other part of the community feems to lie in face Romuli, the adminiftration of public juttice in England runs as pure as where nearest to its celeftial fource; purer than Plato dared venture to conceive it, even in his feigned Republic." He proceeds, "Now whether we are not to call this the interpofing hand of Providence; for I am fure all history doth not afford another instance of so much purity and integrity in one part, co-existing with fo many infirmities in the reft; or whether profounder politicians may not be able to discover fome hidden force, fome peculiar virtue in the effential parts, or in the well-adapted frame of our excellent Conflitution; in ei ther cafe, this fingular and fhining phænomenon hath afforded a chearful confolation to thinking men amidst all this dark afpect from our diforders and diftreffes." "But the Evil Genius of England. would not fuffer us to enjoy it long; for, as if envious of this laft fupport' of Government, he hath now inftigated his blackest agents to every extent of their malignity; who, after the moft villainous infults on all other orders and ranks in fociety, have at length proceeded to calumniate even the King's Supreme Court of Justice, under its ablest and most unblemished administration. "After this, who will not be tempted to defpair of his country, and fay with the good old man in the fcene "Ipfa fi cupiat falus "Servare, prorfus non poteft, hanc Familiam ?" "Athens, indeed, fell by degenerate manners like our own; but she fell the later, and with the lefs difhonour, for having always kept inviolable that reverence which the, and indeed all Greece, had been long accustomed to pay to her auguft Court of Areopagus. Of this modest referve, amidit a general diforder, we have a ftriking inftance in the conduct of one of the principal inftruments of her ruin. The witty' Ariftophanes began, as all fuch inftruments do (whether with wit or without) by deriding Virtue and Religion; and this in the brightest F 2 exemplar *xemplar of both, the godlike SoCrates. The libeller went on to attack all conditions of men. He calumniated the Magiftrates; he turned the Public Affemblies into ridicule; and, with the most beastly and blafphemous abufe, outraged their Priefts, their Altars, nay, the very established Gods themselves. But here he stopped; and, unawed by all befides, whether of divine or human, he did not dare to caft fo much as one licentious trait against that venerable Judicature; a circumftance which the readers of his witty ribaldry cannot but obferve with furprize and admiration,-not at the Poet's modefty, for he had none, but at the remaining virtue of a debauched and ruined people; who yet would not bear to fee that clear fountain of juftice defiled by the odious spawn of buffoons and libellers. of that heroic moderation fo neceffary to allay the violence of public dif orders: for to be moderate amidst party extremes requires no common degree of patriotic courage. Such characters rarely fail to perform much of the task for which they were fent; but never without finding the labour ill repaid, even by those in whofe fervice it was employed. That glory of the Priesthood left the world he had fo nobly benefited with this tender complaint-' Hoc tempore nihil fcribi aut agi protest quod non pateat calumnie; nec raro fit, ut dum agis circumfpectiffime utrumque partem offendas, quum in utraque fint qui pariter infaniant A complaint fated, alas, to be the motto of every man who greatly ferves his country." A change in the Administration took place in 1765, which introduced the Marquis of Rockingham and his friends to govern the country, and the meafures then adopted not agreeing with Lord Mansfield's fentiments, he for the first time became an opponent of Government. On the Bill for repealing the Stamp Act he spoke, and divided against it, and is fuppofed to have had fome hare in the compofition of the Protests on that occafion, though he did not fign them. In the fame year he is faid to have animadverted with no small degree of feverity on the incautious expreflions of Lord Camden on the affair of prohibiting the exportation of corn, that it was but a forty days tyranny at the outfide. In 1767, the Diffenters' Caufe was determined, in which Lord Mansfield delivered a fpeech which has fince been printed, and the events of the fucceeding year were the caufes of the public Prints being deluged with The Speeches in the Debate were never printed, but the fubftance of them all was confolidated in a pamphlet published at the time, entitled, "A Speech against the Sufpending and Difpenfing Prerogative," 8vo. fince reprinted in Debrett's De bates, Vol IV. p. 384. with torrents of abuse on the Chief Justice. In that year was the General Election. Mr Wilkes, returned from abroad, became a candidate for the City of London, and afterwards was chofen Reprefentative for the county of Middlefex. Having been outlawed fome years before, he now applied for a reverfal of that proceeding. On the 8th of June. the confideration of it came before the Court of King's Bench, when the Judges delivered their opinions very fully, and were unanimous that the outlawry was illegal, and muft be reversed. On this occafion Lord Mansfield took the opportunity of entering into a full statement of the cafe, and a justification of his own conduct. The reader will find the cafe reported by Sir James Burrow, from whom we shall extract the following, which appears to have been the most important part of his Lordfhip's fpeech. "It is fit to take fome notice of the various terrors hung out; the numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the Hall, out of all reach of hearing what paffes in Court; and the tumults which in other places have fhamefully infulted all order and government. Audacious addreffes in print dictate to us, from those they call the People, the Judgment to be given now, and afterwards upon the conviction Reafons of policy are urged, from danger to the kingdom by commotions and general confufion. "Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and refpectable audience to let the whole world know, all fuch attempts are vain. Unless we have been able to find an error which will bear us out to reverse the outlawry, it must be affirmed. The Conftitution does not allo reafons of State to influence our judgment: God forbid it fhould! We must not regard political confe } quences, how formidable foever they may be, we are bound to fay, Fiat Juftitia, ruat Cælum. The Constitution trufts the King with reafons of State and Policy: He may pardon offences; it is his to judge whether the Law or the Criminal thould yield. We have no election. None of us encouraged or approved the commiffion of either of the crimes of which the defender is convicted: None of us had any hand in his being profecuted. As to myself, I took no part (in another place) in the Addreffes for that profecution. We did not advife or affift the defender to fly from justice: it was his own act, and he must take the confequences. None of us have been confulted, or had any thing to do with the prefent profecution. It is not in our power to ftop it: it was not in our power to bring it on. We cannot pardon. We are to fay what we take the law to be. If we do not speak our real opinions, we prevaricate with God and our own confcience. "I pafs over many anonymous letters I have received; those in print are public; and fome of them have been brought judicially before the Court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do my duty unawed. What am I to fear? That mendax infamia from the prefs, which daily coins falfe facts and falfe motives? The lies of calumny carry no terror to me. I truft, that my temper of mind, and the colour and conduct of my life, have given me a fuit of armour against thefe arrows. If, during this King's Reign, I have ever fupported his Government, and affifted his meafures, I have done it without any other reward than the consciousness of doing what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon the points themselves, without any collateral views. I honour the King, and refpect the people. Put many things acquired by the favour of : of either are, in my account, objects not worth ambition. I with Popularity but it is that popularity which follows; not that which is run after. -It is that popularity which, fooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will not do that which my confcience tells me is wrong upon this occafion, to gain the huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which come from the preis. I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it thould draw on me the whole artillery of libels, all that falfehood and malice can invent, or the credulity of a deluded populace can fwallow. I can fay with a great Magistrate, upon an occafion and under circumstances not unlike, "Ego hoc animo femper fui, ut invidiam virtute partam, gloriam, non invidiam putarem." : "The threats go further than abufe Perfonal violence is denounced. I do not believe it: it is not the genius of the worst men of this country in the worst of times. But I have fet my mind at reft. The last end that can happen to any man never comes too foon, if he falls in fupport of the Law and liberty of his country, (for, Liberty is fynonymous to Law and Government.) Such a fhock, too, must be productive of public good: It might awake the better part of the kingdom out of that lethargy which feems to have benumbed them; and bring the mad part back to their feníes, as men intoxicated are fometimes stunned into fobriety. "Once for all, let it be understood, that no endeavours of this kind will influence any man who at present fits here. If they had any effect, it would be contrary to their intent : Leaning against their impreffion might give a bias the other way. But I hope, and I know, that I have fortitude enough to refift even that weaknets. No libels, no threats, nothing that has happened, nothing that can happen, will weigh a feather against allowing the defendant, upon this and every other question, not only the whole advantage he is entitled to from fubftantial Law and Juftice, but every benefit from the most critical nicety of form, which any other defender could claim under the like objection. The only effect I feel is an anxiety to be able to explain the grounds upon which we proceed; fo as to fatisfy all mankind, that a flaw of form given way to in this cafe, could not have been got over in any other." In January 1770, Lord Mansfield again was offered the Great Seal, which was given to Mr Charles York; and in Hilary Term 1771 he a third time declined the same offer, and the Seal was entrusted to Lord Bathurst. (TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT.) COMPARISON OF BIOGRAPHY WITH HISTORY AND RO MANCE. OF F all the kinds of writing which relate to the actions of mankind, I believe the most generally ufeful is Biography, or that which exhibits the lives of fingle men. What ever superior advantages example has above precept, all these are poffeffed by this kind of writing. Biography, FROM CHRISTIE'S MISCELLANIES, &c. when properly executed, will do more than Hiftory can do, and more than Romance ever has done. Hiftory furnishes examples only for the highest ranks of fociety; and the perufal of romances will always be accompanied, in the minds of grownup people, with a certain confciouf nefs nefs of the want of reality, which will prevent it from making any fteady and ferious impreffions. Whenever high virtue is attributed to a fictitious being, the mind is apt to fuggeft tacitly, "this is above na ture." Hiftory, being chiefly concerned with the actions of kings and great men, cannot be fo useful to the generality of mankind as Biography, because it relates not to the scenes in which they are immediately engaged, nor delineates thofe walks of life in which they are obliged to trudge. And thus, as it is lefs important, I believe it would alfo be lefs attracting, if their judgments were more true; if they confidered what objects really merited their attention, and did not fervilely gaze at the objects which others gaze at, and admire many things for no better reason than because others admire them. . lological, biographical, and even theological. A queftion naturally occurs here, whether it would not be better to keep different branches of knowledge feparate, than thus to mix all things with all? Viewing only the propriety of the thing itself, and the intereft of men of science, Í am inclined to think it would; but, on the other hand, when I confider, that the great defign of all writing is, or ought to be, the inftruction of mankind; that historical facis alone are not fufficient for the inftruction of thofe who do not poffefs fome higher knowledge;-that the generality of men are deftitute of fuch knowledge, and not likely otherwife to attain it; because, being accuftomed to abftract reafoning, they can fcarce be fuppofed to have refolution to go through books purely philofophical, even if they had leifure, and could underftand them for all thefe reafons, I am inclined to believe, that the prefent mode of writing hiftory is commendable, as it affords an opportuni ty of doing what is very defirable, namely, cf conveying a portion of fublimer knowledge to the body of mankind, in an intelligible manner, and of rendering it agreeable, by a mixture of hiftorical facts and relations. : When mankind fhall thoroughly understand the dignity of their own nature, they will perceive, how much more interesting is the hiftory of a wife and virtuous citizen, than that of most heroes :-They will difcover more utility in contemplating the character of a good man in private life, than that of moft kings. It is a juft obfervation of an eminent writ-, er, that a little reflection on the real defigns and views of most statesmen and conquerors, muft needs take away much of the pleafure, which otherwise the idea of their fagacity, forefight, and comprehenfion, would give to a virtuous and benevolent mind. Let the Diary of Lord Melcombe, and the various collections we have lately had of State Papers, bear evidence to the truth of his obfervation. In modern times Hiftory has become more interefting, by deviating from its own peculiar province, and taking in other fubjects. The great hiftorical works of the prefent age contain remarks and information phi Wherefore, I do not join with thofe who cenfure what are called, "Philofophic Hiftories." Nor have I any quarrel with thefe works, except where their Authors omit to give the public a full and accurate Index, when I think they are highly reprehenfible. For as the title-page conveys no idea of the multifarious ductions, the omiffion of a good Index is an inexcufable neglect, and an unpardonable inftance of want of refpect in an author to the public. pro Formerly I think we had more of Biographic writing, in proportion, than we have at prefent. And I earneftly wish fome of our modern hiftorians would empley their talents and |