JET. 23.] LORD GILLIES. 231 



However, if I were to name the most consummate 

 exhibition of forensic talent that I ever witnessed, 

 whether in the skilful conduct of the argument, the 

 felicity of the copious illustrations, the cogency of the 

 reasoning, or the dexterous appeal to the prejudices 

 of the Court, I should without hesitation at once 

 point to his address (hearing in presence) on Hait- 

 ian d's case ; and were my friend Lauderdale alive, to 

 him I should appeal, for he heard it with me, and 

 came away declaring that his brother Thomas (Lord 

 Erskine) never surpassed nay, he thought, never 

 equalled it. 



Gillies was a speaker of a different cast, but of great 

 excellence. He reasoned clearly and powerfully, but 

 he also had great resources of declamation and of 

 sarcasm. I heard his speech on the great case of Sir 

 John Henderson, the first occasion on which he dis- 

 tinguished himself for mere oratory, and which drew 

 from Hope and others the expression that they had 

 been taken by surprise. The cause was remarkable : 

 Sir John taking occasion to throw out a challenge 

 to Hope, who said he trusted he had the courage 

 to refuse as well as accept such a defiance. Indeed 

 he had fought a few years before a duel with Wylde 

 (afterwards professor of civil law), for whom Burke 

 had conceived the greatest admiration in consequence 

 of his book on the French Eevolution, cried up as a 

 triumphant answer to Mackintosh's ' Vindicise Gal- 

 licse.' It was one great drawback upon Gillies that 

 he saw all things with the eyes of the Edinburgh 



