104 



LORD EL DON. 



future life but the most abject poverty. But, happily for the object 

 of their predictions, a brighter day was rapidly approaching, when 

 gloomy forebodings were to be falsified, and when mutual affection 

 and patience, learning and diligence, were to be amply rewarded. 



At the time Mr. Scott was called to the bar, the profession was 

 differently constituted to what it is at present. The Court of 

 Chancery claimed the privilege of sending from their bar even the 

 common law judges, and it was also customary for the Chancery 

 practitioner to go the circuit. Mr. Scott selected the northern, and 

 during three years of punctual attendance he was so far successful as 

 to have numbered some eight or ten causes in which he was engaged. 

 This progress was by no means calculated to flatter his prospects, or 

 add to his resources ; on the contrary, it tended to banish hope, and 

 seriously to affect his limited income. The expense of going the 

 circuit was very great, although at that time the assizes in four of the 

 northern towns were held only once during the year. Yet the single 

 journey was a severe tax, and the difficulty of keeping in the train of 

 the judges was occasionally surmounted by travelling peripatetically. 

 The difficulties of a young barrister, struggling with a want of 

 means, is a source of melancholy reflection. Many a bright genius, 

 good lawyer, and orator, have sunk beneath the weight of its multi- 

 farious and oppressive difficulties. Not possessed of fortune or per- 

 severance, they have either quitted the profession or the higher 

 courts, and dwindled down into the practice, fame, and emoluments 

 of country practitioners ; where their highest prospects their only 

 advancement must be the admiration of a bench of country squires, 

 or an elevation as deputy chairman of quarter sessions. 



Mr. Scott severely felt the difficulties he had to encounter ; they 

 seriously affected his health, and appeared to undermine that perse- 

 verance which he so remarkably possesses. It was during a depres- 

 sion of spirits, almost amounting to despondency, that he fortunately 

 secured the friendship of a young Irishman, who generously opened 

 his well-filled purse to alleviate the difficulties of his friend. It was 

 owing to assistance thus afforded that Mr. Scott was enabled to 

 attend the circuit ; but he was still unfortunate, and it was not until 

 after repeated loans had vanished that a gleam of hope cheered his 

 gloomy prospects. In the absence of a leading counsel he was called 

 on to conduct a case at York. He pleaded the importance of his 

 senior, and with great humility suggested tha propriety of postponing 

 the cause. The court overruled the objection, and ordered Mr. Scott 

 to proceed, or the next case to be called. Mr. Scott did proceed, and 

 won the cause. From this moment Mr. Scott became a rising man. 

 He, however, was not deluged with business on the circuit, but was 

 amply supplied at chambers ; which, perhaps, is the surest test of 

 merit, and the most certain and speedy path to fame and emolument. 

 The well-known accuracy, the reputed diligence, and the punctuality 

 with which Mr. Scott discharged his professional engagements, became 

 at last the theme of attornies ; and, as he was to be found both early 

 and late in his chambers, and easily accessible, he began to reap the 

 substantial fruits of his industry and learning. A multiplicity 

 of business soon occupied his attention, and he deemed it requisite to 



