EARLY LIFE. 87 



Of these, the most distinguished were, Lord Henry 

 Petty (afterwards Lansdowne), and Charles Kinnaird 

 (afterwards Lord Kinnaird), Lord Webb Seymour, 

 and somewhat later the two Grants, Glenelg, and his 

 brother Sir Eobert. Political differences ran high at 

 that time, and there was a personal quarrel with the 

 professors, who had accused us of French principles. 

 There was another quarrel from an attempt to exclude 

 William Adam, when Charles Hope (afterwards Lord 

 President) behaved as he always did, most honour- 

 ably, and with a total disregard of political differences. 

 Notwithstanding these impediments, great progress 

 was made in the practice of debating, which many of 

 us showed in after-life that we had well learned ; and 

 I remember Lord Medwyn, when he came to London 

 during the session of Parliament, saying, that when he 

 heard the debates he recognised his old brethren of 

 the Speculative as well as their speeches there. 4 " 



It is fit to mention that the great lights of the 

 Scotch bar at this time were Erskine, Tait, and Charles 

 Hope, as speakers ; Blair and Eoss, as lawyers.t Ad- 

 mirable as Harry Erskine was in all respects, both as 

 an advocate and a speaker, the person who struck me 

 most, and gave me the first conception of an orator, 

 was Hope. I had never been in London, and had heard 

 none of the great speakers. The effect produced on 

 me by Hope's eloquence was beyond anything I could 

 previously have conceived ; nor have I ever forgotten 



* See Appendix IX. 



f These will be found commented on in Chapter IV. 



