(6) HISHORT of the SOClZrr. 



Account of Lord "who had oiice indulged fo much in gaiety and amufement, and 

 who was fo much fitted by nature to fhine among the gay and 

 the amuling, to devote himfelf now to bufinefs with a rigid at- 

 tention and pund:uaHty not always met with even among men 

 of the mofl grave and ferious difpofitions. His fpeeches and 

 his papers were held in equal eftimation. His general method 

 in both was, to ftate the fact which gave origin to the caufe 

 fimply and perfpicuoufly, and then to apply thofe principles 

 and arguments in law which bore upon the cafe, from which 

 he drew the conclufion in favour of his client. When the cafe 

 admitted of it, he was fond of illuflrating his argument by 

 fome appolite claiTical allufion, or fome anecdote of ancient or 

 modern times, with which his memory was abundantly flored. 

 His exprefTion was always elegant, and when the fubjedl called 

 for it, rofe to a degree of animation and eloquence much be- 

 yond what bufmefs-men might think neceffary in a mere legal 

 pleading. He excelled particularly in that indignant tone in 

 which a good man rebukes injuftice or oppreflion, and that pa- 

 thetic in which he pleads the caufe of the unfortunate ; a flyle 

 which his own mind, nice as it was in honour, and open to 

 companion, naturally prompted. 



The laborious employments of his profefHon did not fo en- 

 tirely engrofs him as to preclude his indulging in the elegant 

 amufements of polite literature. He was one of that fociety of 

 gentlemen, who, in 1779, fet on foot the periodical paper, 

 publilhed at Edinburgh, during that and the fucceeding year, 

 under the title of the Mirror, and who afterwards gave to the 

 world another work of a limilar kind, the Lounger, publilh- 

 ed at Edinburgh in 1785 and 1786. To thefe^ publications he 

 was a very valuable contributor, being the author of ten pa- 

 pers in the Mirror and nine in the Lounger. His papers are 

 diftinguifhed by an eafe and gentlemanlike turn of expreiliqn, 

 hy a delicate and polilhed irony, by a flrain of manly, ho- 

 nourable 



