90 



ERSKINE ERYSIPELAS. 



much eloquence ami spirit on this occasion, that, on 

 leaving the court, he received thirty retainers from 

 attorneys who happened to be present. This occur- 

 rence took place in the Michaelmas following the 

 Trinity terra in whicli he had been admitted ; and, in 

 a few months afterwards, he was equally favoured by 

 being chosen to appear at the bar of the house of 

 commons, as counsel for Mr Carnan, the bookseller, 

 against a bill introduced by lord North, then prime 

 minister, to restore to the universities the monopoly 

 in almanacks, which Mr Carnan had succeeded in 

 abolishing by legal judgment. His speech in opposi- 

 tion to this impolitic proposal was much admired, 

 and. the bill being lost by a considerable majority, 

 his reputation became so established, that he was 



hei ceforward engaged either for plaintiffor defendant 

 in the most important causes duri 

 twenty-five years. 



luring a practice of 



In May, 1783, he received a silk gown, and, the 

 same year, was elected member of parliament for 

 Portsmouth. The latter honour he acquired from 

 the reputation he obtained there when acting as 

 counsel on the celebrated trial of admiral Keppel ; 

 and he was unanimously rechosen for the same 

 borough on every succeeding election, until raised to 

 the peerage. The rights of juries he firmly main- 

 tained on all occasions, but particularly in the cele- 

 brated trial of the dean of St Asaph for libel, when 

 justice Buller refused to receive the verdict of 

 "guilty of publishing only," as returned by the jury. 

 In 1789, he found another fortunate opportunity for 

 the display of his peculiar eloquence, in a defence of 

 Mr Stockdale, the bookseller, for publishing what 

 was charged as a libellous pamphlet in favour of Mi- 

 Hastings, whose situation at the time (being then 

 about to take his trial) gave him admirable scope for 

 the animated appeal to feeling, by which his oratory 

 was so felicitously distinguished. In 1792, being 

 employed to defend Thomas Paine, when prosecuted 

 for the second part of his Rights of Man, he declared 

 that, waiving all personal convictions, he deemed it 

 right, as an English advocate, to obey the call : by 

 the maintenance of which principle, he lost his office 

 of attorney-general to the prince of Wales. The 

 most arduous effort, however, in his professional life, 

 arose out of the part cast upon him, in conjunction 

 with Mr, afterwards Sir Vicary Gibbs, in the trials 

 of Hardy, Tooke, and others, for high treason, in 

 1794. These trials lasted for several weeks; and 

 the ability displayed by Mr Erskine on this eventful 

 occasion was admired and acknowledged by all 

 parties. He was a warm partisan of Mr Fox, and a 

 strenuous opposer of the war with France ; on which 

 subject he imbodied his sentiments in a pamphlet, 

 entitled A View of the Causes and Consequences of 

 the War with France ; when such was the attraction 

 of hi-! name, that it ran through the unprecedented 

 number of forty-eight editions. In 1802, the prince 

 of Wales not only restored him to his office or attor- 

 ney-general, but made him keeper of his seals for the 

 duchy of Cornwall. On the death of Mr Pitt, in 

 1806, when lord Grenville received the commands of 

 George III. to form a new administration, Mr 

 Erskine was created a peer by the title of lord 

 Erskine, of Restormel castle, in Cornwall, and raised 

 to the dignity of lord high chancellor of Great 

 Britain ; but was soon removed by the dissolution of 

 the brief administration of which he formed a part. 



Owing to a decay in fortune, originating in an 

 unfortunate landed purchase, and a great fall of 

 income from the loss of professional emoluments, the 

 latter years of his life were, notwithstanding the 

 extreme buoyancy of his spirits, exceedingly imbit- 

 tered. Nor were these difficulties abated by the 

 circumstance of an unhappy second marriage, and 



some eccentricity of conduct, exceedingly incompnt! 

 ble with his age and station. In his leisure, he 

 amused himself by editing several of the state trials. 

 The preface to Mr Fox's Speeches was also written 

 by him, as well as a political romance, in two 

 volumes, entitled Armata, and some pamphlets in 

 support of the Greek cause. He died in 1823, of an 

 hill; i mm; it ion of the chest. 



The talents of lord Erskine were peculiarly those of 

 the accomplished advocate, in which character he 

 exhibited a power of commanding, at the instant, all 

 the resources of his mind, and a dexterity of applying 

 them, which no one at the English bar ever exceeded! 

 This faculty, united with great spirit and courage, 

 rendered him peculiarly able on the defensive side of 

 political persecution ; and some leading, but disputed 

 constitutional doctrines have been firmly established 

 by his exertions. As a senatorial orator, his claims 

 were but secondary ; nor as a political writer is he 

 entitled to much distinction. Many of Erskine's 

 speeches at the bar have been published under the 

 following titles : Speeches of the Hon. Thomas 

 Erskine, now Lord Erskine, when at the Bar, on 

 Subjects connected with the Liberty of the Press and 

 against Constructive Treasons, in 4 vols. 2d edition, 

 London, 1813 ; and Speeches of Lord Erskine, when 

 at the Bar, on Miscellaneous Subjects, 1810, by 

 Ridgway. 



ERUPTION, in medicine ; a sudden and copious 

 excretion of humours, and the same with exanthema, 

 or breaking out; as the pustules of the plague, 

 small-pox, measles, &c. 



ERWIN OF STEINBACH; a celebrated archi- 

 tect in the 13th century. See Strasburg, Minster of. 



ERYNGO (eryngium} ; a genus of plants belong- 

 ing to the natural order umbelliferee. The species 

 are herbaceous, and have something of the aspect of 

 the thistle ; the leaves are alternate, simple, or di- 

 vided, and are furnished with spines on their mar- 

 gins ; the flowers are sessile, often of a bluish colour, 

 capitate,and surrounded by a common receptacle. The 

 E. campestre was formerly much employed in Europe 

 as a tonic, and as proper to excite appetite ; but its 

 virtues are feeble, and it lias now gone out of use, 

 except as a sweetmeat. 



ERYSIPELAS (from tya, I draw, and <r;u?, ad- 

 joining ; named from the neighbouring parts being 

 affected by the eruption) ; the rose or St Anthony's 

 fire. This disease is an inflammatory affection, prin 

 cipally of the skin, when it makes its appearance 

 externally, and of the mucous membrane, when it is 

 seated internally ; and is more liable to attack women 

 and children, and those of an irritable habit, than 

 those of a plethoric and robust constitution. Erysi- 

 pelas sometimes returns periodically, attacking the 

 patient once or twice a-year, or even once every 

 month ; and then, by its repeated attacks, it often 

 gradually exhausts the strength, especially if the 

 patient be old and of a bad habit. Every part of 

 the body is equally liable to it ; but it more fre- 

 quently appears on the face, legs, and feet, than any- 

 where else, when seated externally. It is brought 

 on by all the causes that are apt to excite inflamma- 

 tion, such as injuries of all kinds, the external appli- 

 cation of stimulants, exposure to cold, and obstructed 

 perspirations ; and it may likewise be occasioned by 

 a certain matter generated within the body, and 

 thrown out on its surface. A particular state of the 

 atmosphere seems sometimes to render it epidemical. 

 A species of erysipelatous inflammation, which most 

 usually attacks the trunk of the body, is that vul- 

 garly known by the name of shingles, being a cor- 

 ruption of the French word ceingle, which implies a 

 belt. Instead of appearing a uniform inflamed sur- 

 face, it consists of a number of little pimples extend- 



