230 M U R 
heard and determined in the lioufe of lords, in eleven of 
which Mr. Murray was engaged. 
Among feveral interefting caufes in whicli he was em¬ 
ployed, one of the moftconfiderable was that of the provoft 
and corporation of Edinburgh, for the punifhtnent of 
whom, on-account of mifcondu£t in the cafe of captain 
Porteus, an aft of parliament was framed in 1737. Mr. 
Murray, who was their counfel, oppofed it with unwearied 
affiduity in both houles; and his exertions were fo much 
approved by the perfons concerned, that the freedom of 
the city of Edinburgh was prefented to him in a gold box. 
From his being cholen on this occafion as the defender of 
a caufe connected with difaffeftion to the government; 
from the known politics of the Stormont family ; and 
from the bequeft of an eftate to him by Mr. Vernon, a 
tradefman in London, of jacobitical principles; it may be 
inferred that at this time he was at lead fuppofed to be 
inclined to that party 5 but a fubfequent life fpent in 
office under the exifting government l'ufficiently oblite¬ 
rates any ftain of that kind contracted in his early years. 
In 1738 he married one of the daughters of the earl of 
Winchelfea, a connexion which was of fervice to his for¬ 
tune, and the fource of domeftic comfort during forty-fix 
years that they palled together. The chancery-bar was 
that to which he had hitherto confined his practice; but 
in 1742 his appointment to the office of folicitor-general 
gave a wider lcope to his profeffional talents. In the 
fame year he entered the houle of commons as reprefen- 
tative for Boroughbridge. From that time he became a 
ftrenuous defender of the duke of Newcaftle’s rniniftry ; 
and was often a fpeaker oppofed to Mr. Pitt, who then 
began to diftinguifh himfelf in parliament. At the trial 
of the rebel-lords in 174-6, he aCted in his office, and par¬ 
ticularly exerted himfelf in the impeachment of lord 
Lovat, whofe guilt he proved with great force of argu¬ 
ment, but in lb candid and gentleman-like a manner, 
that he received the acknowledgments of the culprit 
himfelf. Some years afterwards the inconfiderate talk of 
an old acquaintance involved him, together with Johnfon 
bilhop of Gloucefter, and Stone the prince’s tutor, in the 
charge of having long before drunk the pretender’s health 
in a private company. More attention was paid to this 
matter than it deferved ; and the parties exculpated them- 
felves as well as they could. The good king himfelf let 
in it the propereft light: “ Whatever they were (laid he) 
when they were Weftminfter boys, they are now my very 
good friends.” No ferious conlequences enfoed ; and in 
1754. Mr. Murray was promoted to the office of attorney- 
general. In 1756,. on the death of fir Dudley Ryder, he 
was railed to the high pod of chief-juftice of the King’s 
Bench, and at the fame time was advanced to the peerage 
by the dyle of Baron Mansfield of the county of Not¬ 
tingham. 
From this period lord Mansfield may be confidered as 
at the head of the judicature in this kingdom ; and, al¬ 
though his conduit and principles have undergone, fevere 
cenfure in the violent party-contentions which have agi¬ 
tated the nation during great part of the prefent reign, 
yet his character feems permanently eftablilhed as one of 
the molt able, the molt eloquent, the molt enlightened, 
and (in his legal capacity detached from his political) the 
3nolt upright, judges who have ever occupied that bench. 
His behaviour towards the gentlemen of the bar, and the 
fuitors to the court, w'as equally courteous, obliging, and 
dignified ; and no man was more attentive to the public 
accommodation in his difpatch of bufinefs. Elis quick- 
nels of apprehenfion, denoted by an eye of fire, enabled 
him at once to difcover where the force of a caufe lay. 
This he .Hated with fuch wonderful clearnefs, and placed 
in fo itriking a point of view, that a great orator pro¬ 
nounced his llatement of a cafe to be worth the argument 
of any other man. 
Many important points occurred for his opinion and 
determination in his high office. It has been, indeed, a 
kind of era of Englilh jurifprudence, particularly with 
RAY. 
refpedt to the law of maritime infurance, and the parochial 
poor-law 7 , which have been in a manner created by his de- 
cifions. That the rule of equity was his chief guide in 
thefe cafes can fcarcely be confidered as a juft ground of 
cenfure, where the common law was defective or contra¬ 
dictory ; whether in other inllances he did not too much 
difregard precedent, and incline rather to make law than 
to interpret it, mult be left to the adepts of the fcience to 
determine. In many inllances ^his ideas of legiflation 
were large and liberal. He was especially a friend to reli¬ 
gious toleration, and on various occafions he let himfelf 
againft vexatious profecutions founded upon intolerant 
law's. In 1767 he greatly diftinguillied himfelf by his 
found and forcible reafoning in favour of the dilfenters, 
whom the mean and unjuft politics of the corporation of 
London had habitually fubjefted to the fine for refufing 
to ferve the office of IherifF, w’hilft they lay under the fe¬ 
vere penalties of the teft and corporation'afts Ihould they 
have ferved it without a religious qualification, with 
which they could not confcientioully comply. Elis ex- 
pofure of the tyrannical injuftice of fuch a dilemma car¬ 
ried with it a conviction that put an end to the practice ; 
as related more particularly under Liberty of Consci¬ 
ence, vol. xii. p. 589. 
It mult not, however, be concealed, that lord Mansfield 
was, in politics, a favourer of high maxims in govern¬ 
ment, and direftly hoftile to thofe popular principles which 
w'ere the fubjefit of fo much contention in the early part 
of this reign. He maintained that the jury, in all cafes of 
libel, were only judges of the fafitof publication, and had 
nothing to do with the law as to libel or not; and, in all 
the great caufes concerning the liberty of the prefs, he 
ever attached himfelf to the court, fo that, as it has been 
well faid, “ his condufit as a politician will probably not 
be dwelt upon by an encomiaft, as that part of his public 
life which does him molt honour.” In 1776, he was ad¬ 
vanced to the dignity of an earldom, with the remainder 
to the Stormont family, as he had no iffue of his own. 
At this period the popular difputes w'ere fubfiding, and 
he probably expected to wear his well-earned honours in 
peace; but the difgraceful riots in 1780 brought upon 
him a ftorm for which he was totally unprepared. Al¬ 
though the part he had taken in the liberal bill for the re¬ 
lief of the Roman catholics was by no means confpicuous, 
yet, as the head of. the executive jultice of the kingdom, 
lie was marked out for the attacks of a mob, who had, 
finally, no other objefit than the fubverfion of all law and 
order. According to Murphy, his lordfliip made his 
efcape, in difguile, before the flames blazed out. His 
lioufe in Bloomfbury-fquare was, with all its furniture, 
pictures, books, manufcripts, and other valuables, en¬ 
tirely confumed by fire. He bore his calamity with great 
equanimity, and refilled to take any fteps for procuring a 
compenfation for his lofles. He once, in the lioufe of 
lords, made a very pathetic alluiion to it, when, having 
given his opinion upon a legal matter, he faid “ I fpeak 
this not from books, for books I have none !” No man 
was, in all refpefits, better qualified to enjoy the otiam 
cum dignitate than lord Mansfield ; yet he was not in lialle 
to withdraw himfelf from fcenes of bufinefs, and he con¬ 
tinued on the bench till 1788, when he refigned his feat, 
having filled it with diftinguhhed reputation for thirty- 
two years. A refpedtfnl and afteftionate addrefs from 
the bar, figned by all the counfel who had praftifed in the 
court during the time he was on the bench, was tranf- 
mitted to him by Mr. Erlkin.e: in this addrefs they lay, 
“ We defire, in this manner, aftefticnately to allure your 
lordfliip, that we regret, with a juft lenfibility, the lofs of 
a magilirate, whole confpicuous and exalted talents con¬ 
ferred dignity upon the pi'ofeffion ; whole enlightened 
and regular adminiftration of jultice made its duties lei’s 
difficult and laborious, and whofe manners rendered them 
pleafant and refpe&able.” 
The faculties of earl Mansfield flail 'JCominued clear, 
though their vigour was abated; and he retained his re¬ 
collection 
