. 
17G8eh; Marriages and Deaths, in and near London. 
but it has been ufual for the city, if they ap- . 
prove of their recorder’s conduct, to grant 
him an additional allowance; generally to 
double it. This, however, was not all the 
advantage which Mr. Adair reaped from his 
appointment; for he immediately came into. 
very extenfive prattice in his profeflion, which 
has been conftantly increafing to the time of 
his death. He has not only had the moft 
profitable ftation at the Cgmmon Pleas bar, 
but had aHo acquired the character of being 
the beft orator and moft judicious advocate 
in that court, perhaps of the whole bar, 
with the exception only of the wonderful 
Erskine. Mr. Adair has occafionally held a 
feat in parliament: in that which expired in 
1780, he was returned during a fhort time 
for Cockermouth, a borough under the in- 
fluence of the prefent Lord Lonfdaie, as his 
lordfhip was then in the, patriotic intereft, 
and Mr. Adair was at that-time a patriot 
alfo. In the laft parliament he was returned 
for Higham Ferrers, in the intereft of Earl 
Fitzwilliam, who, at that time, was con- 
ceived to bein the whig, or patriotic intereft. 
At a meeting of the frecholders of the county 
of Middlefex in 1784, we find Mr. Adair - 
taking an aétive part in favour of his politi- 
cal friends, and from that time, till the late 
unnatural and difgraceful divifion, he was a 
fteady adherent to them. Some time fince, 
he refigned the recorderfhip of London, the 
_ reafons afligned for which, were various. By 
his friends it was afferted, that he had io much 
bufinefs upon his head he could not attend to 
the duties of his office; by others, that his 
political fentiments did not accord with thofe 
of the majority of the court of aldermen, and 
that confequently he found his fituation un- 
pleafant. . The unhappy event of the French 
revolution, occafioned Mr. Adair foon after 
to abandon his old principles altogether; pai- 
fionately confounding the accidental and per- 
verted, with the effential confequences of 
political freedom, he became a violent alarm- 
ift, and voted with the miniftry in moft cafes, 
efpecially in thofe which referred to the pre- 
fent fatal war with France. From his. in- 
tereftedeconnections with Earl Fitzwilliam, 
he, however, voted with his lordfhip in all 
queftions relative to Irifh affairs. Mr. Adair 
was, for a fhort time, council to the board 
of ordnance, and by the fame intereft he was 
promoted to be one of his majefty’s ferjeants 
at law. In the latter -capacity, he was re- 
tained to carry on the proiecution againft one 
of the perfons accufed of high treafon, at the 
late unfuccefsful ftate trials at the Old Bailey; 
and here the learned ferjeant is faid greatly 
to have outfhined all the other lawyers, who 
acted on the fame fide. On another occafion, 
however, he was induced, by a family con- 
nection, to advocate with Mr. Erikine, in 
the caufe of Mr. Stone, who had been un- 
deftly accufed of a criminal correfpondence 
with Mr. Jackfon, of Dublin. Mr. Adair’s 
ambition, it is faid, was to be lord chancel- 
lor of Ireland; to this he directed his views, 
149 
and, at different periods, his hopes have been 
almoft realifed.. He was, however, taken off 
by a fudden death, and has left a widow and 
amiable family. ‘Thislearned and able laws 
yer, was the author of two tracts, one en- 
titled, ** Thoughts on the Difmiffion of Officers 
for their Conduét in Parliament,’ in which he 
‘admits the right of the crown to difmifs, but 
contends, that the exercife of that right 
fhould never be exercifed, unlefs the officer 
has mifbehaved in his immediate duty. The 
other pamphlet was entitled, ¢* Obferwations 
on the Power of Alienation of the Crown, before 
the firft of Queen Anne.” ‘This was written on 
the affair of the grace of royalty in Cumber- 
land, which had from the revolution been 
inthe family of the Duke of Portland, but 
which was granted to the prefent Earl of 
Lonfdale, then Sir James Lowther. Thefe 
pamphlets evinced at once his great contitu- 
tional knowledge, and the correétncis of his 
legal opinions. | 
In Dublin, the Right Hon. John Scott, 
earl of Clonmell, lord chief juttice of the 
King’s Bench of the kingdom of Ireland. 
He was an infance of a man rifing to rank 
and fortune with little to recommend him 
than a ‘* matchle/s intrepidity of Face, and 
with very moderate ability. His father was 
dn hone‘ Irith yeoman, who being willing to 
make his fon a man of more confequence than 
himfelf, fent him to England to ftudy the 
law, but was fo little able to fupport him 
there, that Scott owed this favour to Mr. 
Carlton, a merchant, fatherof the prefent 
judge of that name: a-~gentleman who af- 
terwards failed in bufinefs, and towbom Mr. 
Scott in his profperity, gratefully alloweda 
very handfome ftipend. Being called to the 
bar, Scott repaired to his native country, 
Ireland, to practice, when he attached him- 
{elf “to the minifterial party, and after long 
folicitation, was favoured with a filk gown, 
as king’s council. He afterwards fucceffive- _ 
ly attained the pofts ef folicitor-general, at- 
* torney-general, and chief juftice of the court 
of King’s bench, judge of the ‘exchequer 
chamber, and clerk of the pleas in the ex- 
cheguer in'Ireland, in which latter offices he 
died ; he was alfo a privy counfellor, and 
fucceflively promoted to be baron Farlsfort, 
vifcount and earl of Clenmell, and has left 
to his family a very good fortune. Before 
his promotion to the peerage, he was mem- 
ber of parliament for the manor of Mullingar, 
in the county of Weftmeath. Inthe houfe, 
he had more than once altercatioas with the 
ate Henry Flood, but was greatly igferier te 
that gentleman as afpeaker. He of courfe 
always fteadily fupported the. miniferial fide. 
Lord Clonmell was-born in 1735, and ia 
1768, married mifs Catherine, daughter of 
Thomas Matthew, efq. a relation of the 
prefentlord vifcount Landaff, and after her 
death, he married Mifs Margaret Lawlets, 
fitter of the prefent lord Cloncurry, by whom 
he has his fucceflor, andtwo other ions, and 
a daughter. 
