country affords. He vigilantly feized every occafion for the exercise of his abilities, as a lawyer and a pleader; and foon convinced the world that he was determined to become a steady practitioner.

Having obtained in marriage the only daughter of Mr. Fullerton, a lady of a refpectable family, and who brought him a very handsome fortune, that event tended happily to confirm him in thofe habits of affiduity, for which he had begun before to be diftinguished.

Every fucceffive year now encreafed his employment at the bar, and he was foon accounted, if not the very firft, at least in the foremoft rank. Eminent as a wit, and an advocate, his political fentiments could not long be a matter of indifference to the circle in which he moved. Like: his brother, the Earl of Buchan, he avowed himself a staunch and ardent Whig, and naturally gained the notice and the friendship of the most illustrious votaries of Whiggifm, as well in England as in Scotland.

After the conclufion of the American war, when Charles Fox, along with that great political party of which he was the informing and guiding genius, were, for a fhort time, mafters of the energies of the British government, Henry Erskine was the man whom they chofe as the confidential lawyer of their administration in Scotland. They accordingly haftened to appoint him Lord Advocate; and so splendid was his reputation as a lawyer, and fo liberal his cha racter as a man of integrity and honour, that the voice even of his political enemies, could scarcely refrain from applauding the nomination.

But Fox and his party were quickly driven from the helm ; and Erskine was difmiffed from his official fituation, to make room for one who was, indeed, a very worthy young man, but deftitute alike of powerful talents, and juridical experiThis lofs, however, could neither degrade the character of Erskine, nor leffen his practice at the bar. He had before been, and he still continued to be, the lawyer,

ence.

whom,

whom, on every great occafion, both parties were anxious. to retain as their firft counsel.

Upon a vacancy in the office of Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, of which he has fince been so shamefully bereft, that respectable body, perhaps the most illustrious juridical corporation in Europe, bestowed the office on Henry Erskine, with an eagerness which feemed to demonstrate, that they conferred equal honour on him and themselves by the choice.

.

Although a man of wit and talents, he has not been so imprudent as to lavish his honourable gains in a careless profufion of expence, instead of accumulating them for a patrimony to his children. Neither did the fatal fchifm in the Whig party, in confequence of the diverfity of fentiments with which the events of the French revolution were beheld in Britain, betray him into any political inconsistency. On the contrary, he ftill firmly adhered to those principles of freedom, which Fox and himfelf had been accustomed to confider as the genuine grounds of the British revolution in 1688.

Since the commencement of the prefent war, a period, during which the collifions of party-fpirit are become more fierce and violent than before, various practices, too mean and dishonourable to be worthy of aught but contemptuous oblivion, have been recurred to, in order to hurt the character and diminish the practice of Henry Erskine, by men who could not win his virtue to their fide, and who were defirous to diminish that afcendancy to which they could not afpire in the career of generous emulation. But talents, fortune, and character, fuch as his, may defpife calumny, and smile at the impotence of malice.

LORD

LORD CHARLEMONT.

WHEN high rank is united with great virtues, and both are embellished by learning, taste, and talents, we then fee man in his proudeft form; we overlook or forget all that is weak, frail, and mortal, in his nature, and look up to him as a being of a fuperior order, Such a character is the Earl of Charlemont; a nobleman, on whom, even in times of the most imminent danger, neither turbulence, faction, nor flander, has dared to caft an afperfion.

Of his Lordship's early life, a great part was spent abroad; charmed with the arts, the climate, and the language of Italy, it was for many years his favourite refidence. With the rest of the world, however, he was intimately acquainted; as at every court which a young nobleman generally vifits, he spent more than the usual time. In all, he was respected and beloved; and he has been heard to fay, that when he returned home, there was not a country in Europe in which he was not more known, and had not more of those connections which sweeten life, than in his native Ireland!

Home, however, his lordship did at length return, at about the age of thirty, and is faid to have been haftened by a disorder contracted, as is fupposed from poison, administered by the jealousy of a woman with whom he had an amorous intercourfe. Of this diforder, the malignity had baffled the efficacy of all the medical skill which his lordship found abroad, and it remained for the honour of an Irish physician, if not radically to remove the disease, at least to alleviate its force, and preferve a life which was to be the ornament and pride of his country. That phyfician was the celebrated Dr. Lucas, a man diftinguished, not more by the fuccefs of his medical exertions in his lordship's cafe, than by the zeal and energy which he has difplayed as a political writer, and a popular representative.

Having

Having thus recovered a moderate share of health by the skill of this Irish patriot, and prescribed for himself a degree of temperance and ftrictness of regimen which few men would have had the steadiness to obferve, his lordship began to think of an heir. He married Mifs Hickman, daughter of Thomas Hickman of the Co. Clare, Esq. a lady poffeffed of good fenfe, and a most amiable difpofition. In confequence of this marriage, his lordship has several children, the eldest of whom (Francis William) is Lord Caulfield, a young nobleman of whom it is reasonable to hope, that he will emulate the virtues of his father, he is at prefent Knight of the fhire for the Co. Armagh, and an active and popular member of the Houfe of Commons.

Lord Charlemont, having felt, from his early residence abroad, the mortification of being a ftranger in his native country, refolved that his fon should have a domestic education. Lord Caulfield was therefore educated at the college of Dublin, where he distinguished himself, not more for the possession of a sound and masculine understanding, than for carly industry, and mild, and conciliating manners.

From the moment in which Lord Charlemont first embarked in public life, he has invariably promoted the best interests of the country. He affected not, however, in any inftance, that popularity which follows rather the fhewy and infincere profeflions of the demagogue, than the wife and well-judged meafures of him who ferves his country more from a motive of duty than a thirst of fame. With him, patriotism was a virtue which he practised for its own fake, and without attention to any confequences, except the approbation of his own mind, and a strict attention to the public welfare.

That his political conduct has uniformly refulted from the pureft motives, nothing, perhaps, could more ftrongly prove, than the manner in which his Bourough of Charlemont has been reprefented. Though his lordship does not poffefs

wealth

wealth fufficient to render the feptennial receipt of 5000 1. (the usual price for two mif-representatives!) an object of no importance, yet, in no one inftance, has he yielded to the impulfe of venality; for he has never fold, to the highest bidder, the office of Legiflator for his country! In the reprefentatives of his Borough, his lordship required only talents and virtue; and it has been his peculiar good fortune to have always felected men eminently poffeffed of both.

Among thofe who have reprefented Charlemont fince it fell into his lordship's hands, Mr. Grattan is the most confpicuous. And it was the member for this Borough, who wrought the independance of Ireland. In the Houfe of Peers, his lordship contributed to that great event, if not by his eloquence, for he is not a public speaker, at least by his vote, his influence, and his example.

Thefe virtues and fervices of Lord Charlemont were neither unobferved nor unrewarded by the public. He was accordingly raised by the unanimous voice of the people, more fully and faithfully expreffed than it had been on any other occafion, to the moft honourable fituation which it was in their power to bestow, that of commander-in-chief of an army self-appointed, and felf-paid, consisting of 80,000 freemen, including all the gentry and the nobility of the kingdom. To this command of the Old Volunteer army of Ireland, he was for feveral years fucceffively elected; nor did this relation between that extraordinary body of men and his lordship cease, until a difference of political opinion had arifen, which induced him to refign. That difference arofe on the question of admitting the Catholics to participate in the of the ftate. The idea was first broached in an power addrefs from the volunteers of Ulfter to his lordship, at a time when they had been reviewed by him in the neighbourhood of Belfaft. He in very plain, but very polite and ref

pectful