JET. 23.] LORD COREHOUSE. 239 



days, Cranstoun (afterwards Lord Corehouse) stood 

 highest. He was a most accomplished lawyer in 

 every branch of jurisprudence, and his arguments 

 were admirable in all the qualities most fitted to that 

 kind of speaking. It was strictly and purely a legal 

 argument of unbroken fluency ; not so devoid of 

 ornament, but more various in illustration than Sir 

 William Grant's, which had copious illustration, but 

 taken almost entirely from legal topics. Cranstoun's 

 mind was enlarged by general education, as well as 

 disciplined by intercourse with speculative men, 

 especially with Dugald Stewart, who had married his 

 sister, and with whom he lived in constant and 

 familiar intercourse. He was allowed to be not only 

 at the head of legal arguments after Tait had left the 

 bar, but to be alone in his particular line ; for his 

 arguments, though never departing from the subject 

 of Scotch law, were illustrated by appeals to general 

 maxims of law. Out of the profession his wit was 

 eminent, and it was refined ; but he hardly ever took 

 advantage of it even as far as a sarcasm upon, or re- 

 ductio ad absurdum of, an opposite argument. When 

 on several occasions he was heard at the bar of the 

 House of Lords, he created such a sensation as I never 

 recollect among the great English conveyancers. I 

 heard Preston rising into enthusiasm in his admira- 

 tion at what he said possessed every one merit of 

 argument. A lay hearer gave a less judicious testi- 

 mony to his merits. Peel having once heard him, 

 said he was the first speaker since Pitt which was not 



