ERSKIKE, JOHN. 



E3PARTBRO, JOAQUIX BALDOMERO. 



Mr. Enkioe entered a " protest," in which he was joined by several of 

 Us brethren. He wa afterwards auipended from hi* functions. The 

 Assembly subsequently endeavoured to smooth the way for hi* resto- 

 rati n, but he declined to take advantage of it, and he and his friends, 

 including hi* brother Ralph, formally seceded in 1736. When the 

 Secession was divided into the two secU of Burgher* and Anti- Burgher*, 

 Mr. Erskiuc and his brother were of the Burgher party. He died on 

 the 22nd of June 1756. The Secession Church, re-united by the 

 joBCtiou of the Burgher* and Anti Burgher* in 1820, remained a 

 di.tu.cl body till 1847, when a onion being effected with the Relief 

 Synod (a body which arose from Mr. Gillospie's secession from the 

 established church of Scotland in 1752), the aggregate body assumed 

 the name of the United Presbyterian Church. 



lULi-ii ERSKIXK, his brother, was the author of ' Gospel Sonnets,' 

 d other religious works, but his celebrity chiefly rests on his 

 fl 1 ***"** with his brother Ebenczer in the founding of the sect of the 

 Seceders in Scotland. He wu bom on the 18th of March 1685, 

 became clergyman of the pariah of Dunfennline in 1711, and died 

 OB the 6th of November 1763. 



EKSKINE, JOHN, a writer on kw, was born in the year 1C95. 

 His father was the honourable John Erskine, son of Lord Cardross, 

 and he was thus the ooutin-german of Lord Chancellor Erskine. 

 Knkine's life was that of a reduce student, and was marked by few 

 incidents. In 1719 he became a member of the faculty of advocates, 

 bat be doe* not appear to have had much practice. In 1737, he was 

 appointed professor of Soots Law in the university of Edinburgh. In 

 1764, be published ' Principle* of the Law of Scotland ' in 1 vol. Svo, 

 a work remarkable for its lucid arrangement, and for the terseness 

 and clearnes* of its exposition of the leading principles of the law. 

 It was destined to be a text-book for his students, but became a 

 leading law authority. It passed through several' editions, the last 

 of which was edited in 1827, by Professor More, the present (1856) 

 occupant of Erskine's chair. Erskine retired from his professorship 

 in 1760, and died at his own estate of Cardross in 1765. He bad 

 employed his years of retirement in expanding the matter of his 

 'Principles' into a larger work, which he left behind him nearly 

 finished, and which was published in 1773, in 2 vols. folio, with the 

 title, 'An Institute of the Law of Scotland.' This work has been 

 repeatedly repubUsbed with notes, bringing down the law to the* 

 date* of the respective editions. It is the great oracle of Scottish 

 law, an authority almost without appeal, and as firmly established as 

 Coke upon Littleton ' is in England. It is of little value in respect 

 of it* constitutional law, which the author seems not to hare been 

 capable of observing otherwise than in mere detail Owing to the 

 increase of commerce and manufacture* in Scotland, the portion 

 reUUng to these subject* is meagre and antiquated. In all things 

 however relating to the rights of persons arising from their i 

 to each other, aud in the jwculiar rules of the feudal system in Scot- 

 law!, the work continue* to be of great value, and to be as useful to 

 the practical lawyer as in its profundity of research and clearness of 

 detail it is an object of admiration to the theoretical student. 



EltsKINK, JOHN, an ecclesiastical leader, son of the preceding, 

 was born on the 2od of June 1721. He was licensed as a preacher in 

 1743, and in 1744 obtained the charge of the parish of Kirkintillocb, 

 ear Glasgow. In 1763 he received the degree of D.D. from the 

 university of Glasgow. In 1767 he was appointed one of the ministers 

 of the collegiate church of the Greyfriars in Edinburgh. He had for 

 his colleague Dr. HoberUon the historian, who was leader of tli 

 moderate- party in church politics, or that body which had the least 

 affection for the predominant characteristics of the Presbyterian 

 reed and polity, while Erskine was the leader of the popular 

 Evangelical, or as it wo* sometimes called Orthodox party the same 

 which in 1848 seceded from the Church of Scotland, and formed the 

 44 Free Church." Krakine was an active popular preacher and leader, 

 and the titles of the books and pamphlets written by him would fill 

 a considerable space. He died on th 19th of January 1S<>3. HU 

 emery U 1011 revered by hi* own party. 



(Acoxmt of tkt Lift and Wrilingi of John Enkine, by Sir Henry 

 Moncrief Wellwood.) 



EKSKINE, THOMAS, LORD, was the third and youngest son of 

 David, earl of Buchan. He was born in 174s, and received the rudi 

 * of bis education partly in the high-school of Edinburgh, and 

 pertly at the University of St. Andrews. In 1764 ho entered the navy 

 ea rakkUpinati, but not thinking hi* prospect* of promotion in thai 

 service sufficiently good, he accepted a commission in the first regiment 

 foot in 1768. In 1770 he married France*, daughter of Danie 

 Meore, M.P. for Marlow, and noon after went with his regiment to 

 Minorca, Opon his return to England in 1772, lie appears to have 

 jMome remarkable for the brilliancy of bis conversational talents. 

 (WrualTs Memoir*,' vol. I , p. 162, and Boswell* ' Life of Johnson, 

 Mder April 6, 177S.) In 1776 he commenced the study of the law 

 end entered himaelf a student of Lincoln's Inn, and also as a fellow 

 oaUBoBer of Trinity College, Cambridge, but only for the purpose o 

 obtaining a degree, and thereby saving the additional term of two 

 y****. uonng which his name must otherwise have remained on the 

 books of Lincoln's Inn. He became the pupil of Mr. Buller, and after 

 wards of Mr. Wood, both of whom were subsequently railed to the 

 In Trinity term 1778 Mr. Enkine was called to the bar 



where his SUOOSM was as rapid as it was brilliant In the same term 

 ho was employed ai one of the counsel for Captain Baillie, lieutenant- 

 governor of Greenwich Hospital, who was prosecuted for an alleged 

 libel on the other officers of that establishment. The prosecution was 

 in fact instituted by Lord Sandwich, then at the head of the admi- 

 ralty, who, it appeared, had abused the charity by appointing landmen 

 as pensioners, to serve his own electioneering purpotws. Mr. Kukino's 

 loquent and indignant speech st onoo established his reputation ; 

 uch indeed was its instantaneous effect thst thirty retainers were 

 >resented to him before he left the court. Hi* practice and reputa- 

 ion increased so rapidly that in 1788, when he had been scarcely five 

 ears at the bar, he received a patent of precedence at the suggestion 

 Lord Mansfield, who then presided in the court of King's Bench, 

 n the same year Mr. Erskino was returned member for Portsmouth, 

 hrongb the interest of Mr. Fox, with the immediate view of support- 

 ng that minister's famous India Bill. In the House of Commons 

 lowever bis success by no means equalled the expectations which his 

 riends had formed, though his parliamentary speeches would sppear 

 to have been far above mediocrity. In the same year also he was 

 made attorney-general to the Prince of Wales, an appointment which 

 le was called upon to resign in 1792, in consequence of his refusing to 

 abandon the defence of Thomas Paine when he was prosecuted for his 

 mblication ' The Kights of Man.' In 1802 he was made chancellor 

 of the duchy of Cornwall ; and in 1806, on the formation of the Qren- 

 ville ministry, he was appointed lord chancellor, and raised to the 

 Mortge by the title of Baron Erskine, of Restormel Castle, in Corn- 

 vail. His tenure of office was however brief, for on the dissolution of 

 .he ministry in 1807 he retired from public life. After this period 

 !x>rd Enkine seldom appeared in his place in the House of Lords, but 

 n 1820 he took a prominent part on the occasion of the trial of Queen 

 Caroline. 



In the later years of hid life he was harassed by pecuniary embarrass- 

 ments, arising from the loss of his large professional income, and an 

 unfortunate investment of the fruits of his industry in land. His first 

 wife died in 1805, and an ill-assorted second marriage increased tm 

 domestic disquietudes, injured bis reputation, and gave pnin to Ms 

 Mends. His later years were marked by eccentricities, which seemed 

 to indicate mental disease. He died November 17th, 1S23. 



Lord Krskine's talents were peculiarly those of an accomplished and 

 dexterous advocate : his eloquence formed an era at the bar, and his 

 addresses to juries captivated their understandings, their imaginations, 

 and their passions ; they were not marked by beauty of diction, rich- 

 ness of ornament, or felicity of illustration, but by strength, vigour, 

 and simplicity, and a perfect freedom from colloquial vulgarums. A 

 remarkable feature in his speeches is an exact and sedulous adherence 

 to some one great principle which he laid down, and to which all his 

 efforts were referrible and subsidiary. As the principle thai proposed 

 was founded on truth and justice, whatever might be his ingenuity in 

 applying it to the particular case, it naturally gave to his addr 

 air of honesty and sincerity which had great influence with the jury. 

 His extraordinary talent was developed by the times in which he 

 lived ; his indignant eloquence was called forth in defence of those 

 individuals in whose persons the court and the government attacked 

 the liberty of the press and constitutional freedom. The public mind 

 was in a state of ferment from the recent events of the French revolu- 

 tion ; and the government, in their hatred of the great principles of 

 liberty then being established, forgot that actions, not principles, are 

 the proper subjects for prosecution. As counsel for the defendants in 

 these political prosecutions, Lord Erskine made his noblest and most 

 successful efforts ; fearless and zealous in the cause of his client, he spoke 

 homo truths without using unnecessary violence or low invective. 



Lord Erskine has left few productions in writing ; the principal are 

 the ' Preface to Fox's Speeches,' the political romance called ' Armata,' 

 and a pamphlet entitled ' View of the Causes and Consequences of the 

 War with France,' which passed through forty-eight edition*. His 

 speeches have been published in 5 Tola, Svo. Lord Enkine is not to 

 bo considered as a literary man ; but with a scanty stock of what is 

 usually called literature, he was one of our purest classical speakers 

 and writers. His study was confined to a few of the greatest models, 

 and these he almost knew by heart. He greatly admired the writings 

 of Burke, and frequently quoted them in his speeches. 



ESCULAPIUS. [Aooumm.1 



ESPARTERO, JOAQUIN BALDOMERO, was born February 27, 

 1793, at Granritula, a village about six miles south-wort from Almagro, 

 in the modern Spanish province of Cindad Real (old province of La 

 Manchs). His father was a carretero, a maker of carts and similar 

 vehicles, and had nine children, who were all respectably brought up. 

 Baldomero, being while young of delicate constitution, was destined 

 to literary occupation, and was well instructed in Latin by an ecclesi- 

 astic of his native village. In 1806 he was sent to Almagro, which had 

 then a university, in which be studied two years. Having accompanied 

 an rider brother into Andalucia in 1808, be entered as a common soldier 

 the infantry regiment of Ciudad Real, which was then at Seville ; but 

 in 1809 he was removed into the Batallon Sagradoof the University of 

 Toledo, which consisted for the most part of students from that city. 

 v\ ),. n the French Invaded Andalucia, the central junta took refuge in 

 Cadiz, and this battalion went with it Soon afterwards a military 

 school was established at Cadiz, into which Espartcro obtained 



