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Indiana University Studies 
Erskine (1750-1823). Thomas Erskine also was born in 
Edinburgh. From 1764-1768 he was a midshipman and vis- 
ited America. In 1768 he entered the army and became lieu- 
tenant in 1773; but he sold his lieutenancy and entered 
Lincoln’s Inn in 1775 and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1776. 
He was called to the bar in 1778. By this time his circum- 
stances had become very straitened. He had married in 1770. 
His first case was a defense of Captain Baillie, and his ora- 
tion against Lord Sandwich was so great that retainers 
came in from all sides. He became affluent and connected 
with all important litigation thereafter. He was given a 
patent of precedence only five years after his admission to the 
bar. He became a member of Parliament and supported Fox 
so hard that on the accession of Pitt he was made “one of 
Fox’s martyrs”. His oratory was better in the courtroom 
than in Parliament. His arguments in libel suits in favor of 
the jury’s power led to the enactment of Fox’s Libel Act in 
1792. He was attorney-general to the Prince of Wales, but 
was asked by him to resign in 1793 because he insisted upon 
defending Paine’s Rights of Man. He argued against con- 
structive treason in the case of Tooke et al . ; and not only got 
their acquittal, but freedom of speech and of the press in Eng- 
land. On Pitt’s death he was made lord high chancellor 
(1806), and made a most satisfactory record, but kept the 
office only fourteen months, giving up the Great Seal because 
George III refused to sanction the bill giving Roman Catholics 
commissions in the army (altho he had been adverse to the 
measure) . During the next fifteen years he was a man of 
the world, but in 1817 he appeared against restrictive meas- 
ures. In 1820 he defended Queen Caroline and in his last 
speech in Parliament sounded the deathknell of bills of pains 
and penalties. He was courteous, witty, and honorable, but 
inclined to self-glorification, and lost his wealth in specula- 
tion. He was a lover of freedom, advocated protection for 
farmers, gave us liberty of speech and of the press, and re- 
forms of the law of slander and libel. He was one of Eng- 
land’s greatest orators and dedicated his great abilities to 
causes that were often unpopular but always the most noble. 
Lord Stowell (1745-1836). William Scott (Lord Stowell) 
was the eldest brother of John Scott (Lord Eldon). He was 
a reader in ancient history at Oxford, a friend of Dr. Johnson, 
