Mira, you think, takes up my thoughts were it not vain and light, I would fend you fome of her letters, and leave you to judge whether he does not deserve them all.

The poem on her, that you lik'd, was got out of her hands, and publifhed here in a New Mifcellany, without my knowledge; at which I am heartily vexed, as alfo another of a different kind, which makes a perfect contrast to it. They are the

HE year 1770 was alfo memo

on his Lordship's judicial character, both in the Houfes. of Lords and Commons. In one of thefe, the propriety of a direction given to the Jury in the Cafe of the King and Woodfall was called in queftion, which occafioned his Lordship to produce to the Houfe a copy of the unanimous opinion of the Court of King's Bench in that caufe; which, after being much canvaffed and oppofed, was fuffered to ftand its ground without being over-ruled. This celebrated opinion is printed at large in Debrett's Parliamentary Debates, Vol. V. p. 363, to which we mult refer our readers.

On the 19th of October 1776, his Lordflip was advanced to the dignity of an Earl of Great Britain, by the title of Earl of Mansfield, and to his male iilue; and for want of fuch iffue to Louifa Vifcourtefs Stormont, and to her heirs male by David Viscount Stormont her hufband. The fame title in 1792 was limited to Lord Stormont himself who has fince fucceeded to it.

best poems in the book, and printed there, as the Gentleman who publihed them told me fince, at her houfe: Pour faire bonne Bouche au Lecteur.

We come now to a period of his Lordship's life which furnishes an event difgraceful to the age and country in which the fact was committed. An union of Folly, Enthu

}

DAVID MALLOCH.

fiafm, and Knavery, had excited ain

of

people, that encouragements were given to the favourers and profeffors of the Roman Catholic Faith inconfiltent with religion and true policy. The Act of Parliament which excited the clamour had paffed with little oppofition, and had not received any extraordinary fupport from Lord Mansfield. The minds of the public were inflamed by artful mifreprefentations; the rage of a popular mob was foon directed towards the most eminent perfons. Accordingly, in the night between Tuesday the 6th and Wednesday the 7th of June, his Lordfhip's houfe in BloomsburySquare was attacked by a party of rioters, who, on the Friday and Tucfday preceding, had, to the a mount of many thousands, furrounded the avenues of both Houses of Parliament, under pretence of at tending Lord George Gordon when he prefented the Petition from the Proteftant Affociation. On Tuesday evening the prifon of Newgate had been thrown open, all the combustible part reduced to ashes, and the felons let loofe upon the public. It was after this attempt to deftroy the means of fecuring the victims of criminal juftice that the rioters af faulted the refidence of the Chief Magistrate

Magiftrate of the first criminal court in the kingdom, nor were they difperfed till they had burnt all the furniture, pictures, books, manufcripts, deeds, and in fhort every thing which fire could confume, in his Lordship's houfe, fo that nothing remained but the walls, which were feen next morning almost red-hot from the violence of the flames, prefenting a melancholy and awful ruin to the eyes of the paffengers.

On Wednesday the devaftation became almoft general throughout London. The houfes of many of the moft refpectable individuals had been previously attacked. That evening the Fleet and King's Bench prifons were fet on fire; the Bank of England, the Inns of Court, almost all the public buildings, were threatened with deftruction; and an univerfal conflagration must have taken place, if the King had not iffued a proclamation for the speedy and effectual interpofition of the military power. Till then, the foldiery had fcarcely dared to act offenfively; the ordinary Magiftrates were for the moft part deterred, or prevented by warious caufes, from giving their fanction to the employment of the troops; and in many places, the men under arms, with their officers at their head, though drawn up in the military order, did nothing more than preferve a place between the incendiaries and the crowd of fpectators, fo as to have the effect of enabling the former to demolish the houses and property of their fellow-fubjects without interruption.

So unexpected was this daring outrage on order and government, that it burst on Lord Mansfield without his being prepared in the Lightest manner to refift it. He efcaped with his life only, and retired to a place of fafety, where he remained until the 14th of June, the laft day of Term, when he again took his feat in the Court of King's

M

Bench. "The reverential filence," fays Mr Douglas," which was obferved when his Lordship resumed his place on the Bench, was expreffive of fentiments of condolence and respect, more affecting than the most eloquent addrefs the occation could have fuggefted."

"The amount of that part of Lord Mansfield's lofs which might have been estimated, and was capa ble of a compenfation in money, is known to have been, very great. This he had a right to recover aagainst the Hundred. Many others had taken that course, but his Lordship thought it more confiftent with the dignity of his character not to resort to the indemnification provided by the Legiflature. His fentiments on the fubject of a reparation from the State were communicated to the Board of Works in a letter dated 18th July 1780, written in confequence of an application which they had made to him (as one of the principal fufferers,) pursuant to directions from the Treafury founded on a vote of the House of Commons, requesting him to ftate the nature and amount of his lofs. In that letter, after fome introductory expreffions of civility to the Surveyor General, to whom it was addressed, his Lordship fays," Befides what is irreparable, my pecuniary lofs is great. I apprehended no danger, and therefore took no precaution. But, how great foever that loss may be, I think it does not become me to claim or expect reparation from the State. I have made up my mind to my misfortune, as I ought, with this confolation, that it came from those whofe object manifeftly was general confufion and destruction at home, in addition to a dangerous and complicated war abroad. If I should lay before you any account or computation of the pecuniary damage I have fuftained, it might feem a claim or expectation of being indemnified. 2 Therefore

Therefore you will have no further trouble upon this from, &c.

MANSFIELD.

From this time the luftre of Lord Mansfield continued to shine with unclouded brightness until the end of his political life, unless his opposition to the measures of the prefent adminitration at the early period of their appointment shall be thought to detract in fome small degree from his merit. It is certain many of his admirers faw with concern a connection with the opponents of Government at that juncture fcarce compatible with the dignity of the Chief Juftice of Great Britain. At length infirmities preffed upon him, and he became unable to attend his duty with the fame punctuality and affiduity with which he had been accuftomed. It has been fuppofed that he held his office after he was difabled from executing the duties of it from a wish to fecure the fucceffion of it to a very particular friend. Be this as it may, the Chief Justice continued in his office until the month of June 1788, when he sent in his refig

nation.

From this period the bodily powers of his Lordship continued to decline; his mental faculties however remained without decay almost to the laft. During this time he was particularly inquifitive and anxious about the proceedings in France, and felt his fenfibility, in common with every good man, wounded by the horrible inftance of democratic infatuation in the murder of the innocent Louis the XVIth. He lived juft long enough to express his fatisfaction at the check given to the French by the Prince Cobourg in March laft; on the 20th of which month, after continuing fome days in a state of infenfibility, he departed this life, at the age of 88 years.

"In his political oratory," fays a writer of the present times," he was not without a rival, no one had the

honour of furpassing him; and let it be remembered, that his competitor was PITT.

"The rhetorician that addreffed himself to Tully in these memorable words,-Demofthenes tibi præripuit ne primus effes Orator, tu illi ne folus-anticipated their application to Mansfield and Pitt.-If the one poffeffed Demofthenean fire and energy, the other was at least a Cicero Their oratory differed in species, but was equal in merit. There was at least no fuperiority on the fide of Pitt. Mansfield's eloquence was not indeed of that daring, bold, declamatory kind, fo irrefiftibly powerful in the momentary buftle of popular affemblies; but it was poffeflive of that pure and Attic spirit, and seductive power of perfuafion, that delights, inftructs, and eventually triumphs. It has been very beautifully and justly compared to a river, that meanders through verdant meads and flowery gardens, reflecting in its crystal bofom the varied objects that adorn its banks, and refreshing the country through which it flows.

"To illustrate his oratory by example would require voluminous tranfcripts from the records of Parliament; and it is unneceffary, as we can appeal to living recollection.

66

Having added weight and dig. nity to the feat of Attorney and Solicitor General, his reputation as a Speaker, a Lawyer, and a Politician, elevated him to the Peerage, and the exalted poft of Chief Juftice of England. He afcended to the dignities of State by rapid ftrides: they were not bestowed by the caprice of partyfavour or affection. They were (as was faid of Pliny) liberal difpenfa tions of power upon an object that knew how to add new luftre to that power, by the rational exertion of

his own.

"Here we can fpeak of this great man within our own recollection ; and however party prejudices may adopt