I'Jgi. ANEC. OF THE LATE EARL OF ERROL. 31^ 



opinion, and could not avoid efteeming the men they 

 had formerly detefted. Even the reprimands, or the 

 advices with which their decifions were often accom- 

 panied, had a wonderful effedl: in cherifhing principles 

 ofjuflice, order, and oecononiy in the minds of thofe 

 who heard them. Every tranfaiftion of this court thus 

 tended, in the happieft manner, to bring together two 

 orders of men that had been accidentally eftranged from 

 each other by erroneous ideas, .which the fpirit of the 

 times had engendered. 



In promoting thefe great and beneficent obje£ls, and 

 in the enjoyment of the peaceful ferenity of domeftic 

 tranquillity, were fpent the lad fifteen or fixteen years 

 of the life of Lord Errol. Unfortunate it was for Aber- 

 deenfliire that this period was fo fhort ; for had the fame 

 fyftem of management been rigidly adhered to for half 

 2 century, the beneficial changes it would have pro- 

 duced would have been inconceivably great. But no- 

 thing in this world is permanent. Lord Errol's friends 

 beheld, with regret, that his health was impaired. — 

 During ,the laft two years of his life efpecially, his de- 



covcry of wages due to him. — When the mafter was called on to ftate 

 his reafons for refufing this demand, he fa.id, the fervant had killed a 

 mare to him, and that he flopped the wages as a fmall indejBnification 

 for the lofs he had thus fuftained. — ^The fervant immediately made an-r 

 fwer, with great energy and native fimplicity of expreffion, " It is true, 

 Sir, I did kill your marc ; but I hope in God no man /hail ever be able 

 to make mc do the like in future. — You know wtU, and all the fervants 

 about the houfc know it alfo, that I told you repeatedly, that if you 

 perfifted in caufing the heart to work fo much, and would not allow her 

 to get more food, flie would certainly die ; but you always infifted that 

 what I faid was nonfenfe, and obliged me to go on, till, God forgive 

 me for it ! I was forced to drive the poor beaft till fhe died : — but ne- 

 ver fhall any other man compel me to do the like, if I fhould beg my 

 bread for it." — The tear flood in the poor fellow's eye while he uttered 

 this. — ^The other fervants concurred unanimoufly in afl'erting the fame 

 thing. — The mafter was ordered to pay the full w.iges, and all txpeiices, 

 and he was, bendcs, fined as far as the powers of the juftices allow- 

 ed them to go. — He was alfo fevorcly reprimanded for the brutahty 

 and injuftice of his condud, the judges only regretting that their powers 

 did not extend fo far as to permit them to aw^rd a piopcr pumlhnicjil, 

 —It is ncedlcfii to add that this was a very popular decifion. 



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