Lords was the Bill for abolishing the Slave Trade; and of his speech on this occasion, which seems to have been elaborate and eloquent, the following is the only record extant: "Lord Ellenborough supported the bill in a variety of argu tremely sorry for it, and ask your pardon most readily for the manner in which I have executed my purpose. But for the matter of it, I am so conscious that I never acted by you or anybody under a more sincere impression of personal regard, than in writing that letter, that though I must be sorry for my failure, I should even now reproach myself if I had not sent it. "When I referred to the sentiments of the public being against the Government upon this question, I ought certainly to have been aware that nothing is more difficult than to collect with any accuracy the public opinion. But I did so refer to them because I had conversed with, and collected the sentiments of, many persons wholly unconnected with party, of different descriptions, some of them members of our own profession (whose judgments form no unimportant criterion), and also of several persons friendly to the present Government, and I have not met with a single one who has doubted of the impropriety of the appointment. You say that you are yet to learn that the judgment of persons who consider the question without party bias, is against you.' I fully believe that you are so, and it was my belief of this which is my only justification for troubling you with my letter. Your situation is so elevated that you have no chance of obtaining information upon such a subject, unless some real friend will, as I have done, risk, with the hope of serving you, the chance of offending. I have exposed myself to that chance and I fear have been unfortunate. Even now I doubt whether you distinguish between the illegality, which you certainly may strongly contest, and the impropriety of this appointment, its inexpediency, its tendency to diminish (not the true upright and independent administration of justice, for in your instance I am sure that will never be), but the satisfactory administration of it in the opinion, or, if you please, the prejudices of the people. It was this impropriety that I stated (in terms which I wish I had not used because they offended you) could not be maintained in argument. I will however trouble you no further, and should be ashamed of having troubled you so long, but for the concluding sentence of your note, in which, in expressing a strong sense of my former kindness, you too plainly imply that in this instance you suppose me to have departed from it. And I thought it but due to that kindness and friendship which I wished still to retain, or recover, not to spare myself any trouble in endeavoring to remove as far as I can the unfavorable impression you have received. I hardly know how to hope that, under the immediate effect of present impressions, your opinion of my former letter can be changed. I hope however you will do me the favor to keep what I have written, and if when temporary feelings may have passed by, you will fairly ask yourself what possible motive I could have had to have written an unpleasant letter to you on this or any other subject, except that which I profess, I think you will be convinced that you can find no trace of any intentional departure from the most friendly kindness and good will in anything I have done. "I am, my dear Lord, Very sincerely yours, LORD ELLENBOROUGH TO MR. PERCEVAL. 66 I received your letter this morning as I was setting out for Guildhall, or would have immediately thanked you for the kind terms in which it is written and the friendly spirit it breathes. Nothing will give me I assure you more pain ments, and, adverting to the speech of a noble and learned Lord (Eldon), expressed his astonishment that any noble Lord who had supported and approved of the same measure, in the shape of an order of council, should oppose this bill, unless it was that they proceeded from different men. The ex-Chancellor and the Chief Justice thereupon got into a sharp altercation, which was put an end to by Lord Lauderdale requiring the clerk at the table to read the Standing Order against taxing speeches." Lord Ellenborough regularly attended the trial of Lord Melville, and as to the 2d, 3d, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Articles, laying his hand on his breast, said with great emphasis and solemnity, “GUILTY, UPON MY HONOR." The acquittal of the noble Viscount upon the 2d Article, charging him with having connived at the improper drawing of money by Mr. Trotter, without alleging that he himself derived any profit from the money so drawn, showed that impeachment can no longer be relied upon for the conviction of state offences, and can only be considered a test of party strength. Almost all good Tories said NOT GUILTY, and the independent course taken by Lord Ellenborough very much raised him in public estimation.2 The following letter shows that he acted cordially with Mr. Fox, and was confidentially consulted by that great statesman in the attempt then made to bring about a pacification with Napoleon contrary to the wishes of the King: "Secret and Confidential. The Many thanks to you, my dear Lord, for your note. argument is quite satisfactory, and I should hope Holland would not be a point on which there would be much difficulty. I have heard something to-day which makes me apprehend that internal difficulties, and those from the highest quarter, will be the great than that events should occasion an interruption of that confidence and regard between us from which I had long derived so much satisfaction, and which I had once hoped would endure as long as we both live. I cannot but acknowledge that the admonitions to retire and some other expressions in your letter appeared to me of an harsher tone and temper than you would, I thought, on consideration have been pleased with yourself or have adopted in any communication with me, but they excited more of sorrow than anger in my mind. Upon the principal question between us I forbear to say one word-in the position in which it at present stands it cannot be further touched by either of us with any degree of delicacy. "I remain, with a sincere regard for your character and conduct which I feel neither time nor events ever can efface. 1 Parl. Deb. vol. vii. p. 234. "ELLENBOROUGH. "Most faithfully yours, 2 29 St. Tr. 549-1482. est. I hope nothing will prevent your attending, Monday, at eleven, for a consultation of greater importance in all its consequences never did nor never can occur. Shall we shut the door for ever to peace with France? Shall we admit that a council and ministers are nothing? that the opinion of the K. is everything, from what suggestions soever he may have formed that opinion? These are questions of some moment. Let us act honorably and fairly (in as conciliating a manner as possible, I agree). We may be foiled, the country may be ruined, but we cannot be dishonored. I am, with great regard, my dear Lord, "Yours ever, "St. Anne's Hill, Saturday evening." “C. J. Fox. On the death of Mr. Fox, Lord Ellenborough continued a cabinet minister, under Lord Grenville, till the entire dissolution of the [MARCH, 1807.] his objection to Roman Catholics sitting in Parlia government of All the Talents. Notwithstanding ment, he had given his consent in the Cabinet to the little bill (which produced such great effects) for permitting Roman Catholics to hold the rank of field officers in the army; but when the rupture actually took place, his sympathies were with the King, and he declared it to be not unreasonable or unconstitutional that the King's ministers should be required to pledge themselves to propose no farther concessions to the Roman Catholics. However, the Chief Justice parted on good terms with Lord Grenville, who gave him the following testimony to his honorable conduct while they had acted together in the Cabinet: 'Lord Ellenborough had once looked favorably on the claims of the Irish Roman Catholics, but had become much afraid of them by the representations of his brother, the Bishop of Elphin, who had been exposed to serious perils in the Irish rebellion of 1798, in which he displayed great gallantry. When Lord Cornwallis, during the insurrection, was riding with his staff at the head of a column in march, the first object he saw through the haze, one morning, was the Bishop on horseback, coming to join him, with a sword by his side, and pistols in his holsters. This same Bishop carried off in his carriage, from his own door, a country neighbor, who he heard was to join the rebels the next day, and drove him 20 miles, into Dublin. He had induced him to enter by courteously offering him a lift, but the moment the door of the carriage was closed upon his friend, he collared him, and told him he was his prisoner, and the coachman, having his orders, whipped his horses into a gallop. The Bishop had all the qualities of a Christian pastor, but it was thought that, if in the law, he would have made a still better Chief Justice than his brother Edward, although it is rather doubtful whether Edward, in the church, would have displayed the mild virtues expected in a Bishop. "MY DEAR LORD: "Downing Street, March 13, 1807. "The matter which has of late occupied our attention, is now brought to a state which appears to leave no possibility of the further continuance of the government. Although I have the misfortune of differing from your Lordship on the expediency of the measures which have been in question, yet the frank and honorable conduct which has at all times marked every part of the share which you have taken in the deliberations and measures of the government, while it subsisted, makes me extremely anxious to have, if possible, the satisfaction of conversing with you to-morrow morning, previous to my going to the Queen's house, in order that I may have the opportunity of stating to you the course which we have taken during the last two days, and the grounds on which we have acted. "Whatever be the course of the events to which these transactions may lead, I shall ever retain a strong sense of the conduct which you have held on all occasions during the time that we have acted together, and a sincere respect for your character. "I have the honor to be, my dear Lord, "Most truly and faithfully, "Your most obedient humble servant, "GRENVILLE." Henceforth, Lord Ellenborough, estranging himself entirely from the Whigs, entered into a still closer alliance with Lord Sidmouth, and, till his friend and patron again returned to office under Lord Liverpool, joined the small Addingtonian opposition in the House of Lords. Accordingly, on the motion for the restoration ofthe Danish Fleet, he declared "that in his opinion there was no act that had [FEB. 18.] ever been committed by the Government of this country which so much disgraced its character and stained its honor as the expedition to Copenhagen; as an Englishman he felt dishonored whenever the national honor was tarnished; the expedition reminded him of Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark.' He thought the object it had in view was most unjustifiable, and that even the success of that object would bring great calamity upon the country. When necessity was pleaded, noble Lords should recollect that this plea rested on an overwhelming inevitable urgency to do a particular act-not on mere predominating convenience. Many persons considered it justification enough that it might be very convenient for the country in this instance to apply to its own use what belonged in full property to another. This doctrine he was so much in the habit of reprobating at the Old Bailey, that he could not help expressing himself with some warmth when he found it set up and acted upon by their Lordships." Having defended the Bill by which the Attorney-General was empowered to hold bail in cases prosecuted by him, and Earl Stanhope having said that such language might have been expected from Jeffreys or Scroggs, Lord Ellenborough thus retorted: "My Lords, from my station as Chief Justice of England I am entitled to some degree of respect; but I have been grossly calumniated by a member of this House, who has compared me to monsters who in former reigns disgraced the seat of justice-such as Scroggs and Jeffreys. I shall treat the calumny and the calumniator with contempt." Earl Stanhope: "I meant no such comparison, and if the noble and learned Lord from intimate acquaintance has found a resemblance, this must be one of his singularities; but his rash precipitancy in misapplying what fell from me, convinces me that it might be dangerous to delegate the power created by the Bill even to the noble and learned Lord." 112 The Bill passed, but, being most unnecessary and most odious, it was not acted upon by any Attorney-General, not even by Sir Vicary Gibbs, its author, who, by his oppressive multiplication of ex-officio informations, brought himself and his office into sad disrepute. One of these informations, which excited much interest, was [FEB. 1810.] Chronicle. He was a gentleman of considerable tafiled against Mr. Perry, the proprietor of the Morning lents and high honor, who did much to raise to respectability and distinction the profession of a journalist in this country. He abstained from all attacks on private character; he was never influenced by any mercenary motive; and his paper, although strongly opposed to the Tory Government, steadily adhered to true constitutional principles. An article in the Morning Chronicle, after calmly discussing the Catholic question, thus concluded: "What a crowd of blessings rush upon one's mind that might be bestowed upon the country in the event of a total change of system! Of all monarchs indeed since the Revolution, the successor |