524° 
I have seen an indignant savage chicf, 
surrounded by his subjects, and holding in 
his hand a bundle of sticks} the notes ef 
his unlettered ¢loquences “Who is it,’ 
said the jealous ruler ‘of a’ forest, en- 
croached upon by the restless foot of 
English adventure, ‘Who is it that 
causes these mountains to lift up theit) 
lofty heads? Who raises the winds of 
the winter, and calms them again ‘in the 
summer? The same Being who gave to 
you a country on your side of the water, 
and our’s to us on this.’” ‘This is, per- 
haps, a ‘species of rhetorical ornament 
more figurative than Our national clo- 
quence, which does not tolerate the 
boldness of the prosopopeia, scems 
strictly to admit; yet it is impossibje not 
to be struck with the sublimily of 
the passage, and the exertions of Mr. 
Erskine proeured the acquittal of the 
defendant. 
Mr. Erskine was elected member of 
parliament for Portsmouth in the year 
1783; an honour which he derived from 
the reputation he had acquired at the 
eourt-martial which sat there on the 
trial of Admiral Keppel. His political 
ebharacter may be extracted from his 
speeches in courts of justice, as well as 
from his uniform conduct in parliament ; 
and the merit of inflexible and active 
patriotism, and a rigid adherence to the 
principles of the Whig party, must ever 
be yielded to him. From no circum- 
stance of his life are greater and more 
permanent reputation derived by Mr. 
Erskine than in his struggles in des 
fence of the trial by jary. The law, as 
iit was finally expounded by Mr. Fox’s 
bill; had» been maintained by Mr. 
Erskine in the courts, and was seconded 
and supported by him ‘in parliament. 
A strange paradox had crept into jadi- 
eial ‘practice, which, restricting the 
power of juries’ in questions of libel to 
the arbitrary interpretation of ~the 
judges, reduced them in fact to a sha- 
dow and anullity. | It was reserved for 
Mr. Erskine, in his argument in support 
of a rule fora new trial in the Dean of 
St. Asaph’s case, to coneentrate all the 
doctrines, and ‘to combine all the reas 
sonings Which lay'seattered throughout 
so many volumes of legal learning. «In 
this elaborate argument, he triumphantly 
established his’ position, that juries were 
judges ‘of the law as well as the fact; 
and, upon the principles laid down in 
that speech, Mr. Fox framed his immor- 
tal bill; which Happily’ rescued the 
question from controversy by the esta- 
3 
Biographical Sketch of the late Thomas Lord Erskine. 
(Jan, t, 
blishment of a criterion, to which the 
powers and: duties of juries in libel cases. 
may ‘at alltimes! be referred. Onithe 
original’trial of ithe DeanofoSt. Asaph; 
at Shrewsbury; where: Mr. Erskine 
appeared sas° counsel for the’ dean, a 
special verdict was delivered bythe jury, 
finding the defendant'guilty’ only» of the 
fact of publishing: » Mr, Justice Buller, 
who presided at the trial, desited' them 
to re-considér it) as/it’ eould) not! be 
recorded inthe terms in whieh they*ex< 
pressed if. © On “this “oceasion’ Mr. 
Erskine: insisted that the verdict should 
be recorded as it was found. ‘This*was 
resisted by the jadge;, who; meeting with 
unusual opposition from) the counsel, 
peremptorily told him ‘to sit downyor he 
should compel him. ©‘ My: lord,” “re- 
turned Mr. Erskine, “1 will not sit 
down—your lordship may do your duty; 
buat I wilk do mine.” iRzovepenti 
The independence’ exhibited by Mri 
Erskine on every occasion, ‘threw upon 
him the defences of persons prosecuted 
for sedition or libel by government No. 
reasouing can be more unecandid, thamto 
infer that his political opinions: had’ ¢om- 
plete sympathy with those entertained 
by all the libellers who: resorted’ to “him 
for legal protection. As a servant ofthe 
public, a counsel is bound by the obliga- 
tions of professional honour to afford his 
assistance to those who engage him in 
their behalf. - It is the privilege of the 
accused, in a free country, to be heard 
impartially and equitably, and to ‘be 
tried by the: fair interpretation’) of the 
Jaws to which be is amenable. They 
who imagine that the advocate identifies 
with his own, tlie opinions and’ acts ‘of 
the party he is representing, are ‘carried. 
away by erroneous reasunings, tending, 
in their consequences, to deprive ‘the 
innocent of protection, by denying a fair 
measure of justice tothe guilty, His 
defence, however, of Paine, in Dee, 
1792, occasioned his sudden dismission 
from the office he: held ‘as: Attormey- 
General to tlie Prince of Wales bye 
The most brilliant event) ins Mr. 
Erskine’s professional life, was the part 
cast upon-him, in conjunetion with Mr. 
Gibbs, at the State ‘Trials in the year 
#794. -The accused persons looked to 
Mr) Erskine’ ‘as ‘their’ instrament! of 
safety, and ‘he undertook their several 
defences with an’ enthusiasm» whieh 
reridered him insensible'to the fatigues of 
a long and continued exertion: Nothing 
was omitted that coukl elucidate their 
innocence ; nothing overlooked) that 
could 
