LORDS STOWELL AND ELDON.

William, Lord Stowell, the eldest son of Mr. John Scott, coal-fitter, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was born under circumstances which had a remarkable effect on his early prospects, and his fortune in after life. In 1745, the city of Edinburgh having surrendered to the army of the Pretender, his road to London lay through Newcastle, the town-walls of which bristled with cannon, and the place was otherwise prepared for a siege. Mrs. Scott was at this time in such a condition as made her anxious to be removed to a more quiet place. This, however, was a matter of some difficulty; for Mr. Scott's house was situated in one of the narrow lanes of Newcastle, between which and the river Tyne ran the townwall, the gates of which were closed and fortified. In this dilemma, Mrs. Scott was placed in a basket, and, by aid of a rope, hoisted over the wall to the water-side, whence a boat conveyed her to Heworth, a village about four miles from Newcastle, but on the southern bank of the town, within the county palatine of Durham, where, within two hours after the above removal, Mrs. Scott gave birth to the twins, William and Barbara. Lord Stowell having been thus born in the county of Durham, was eligible for a scholarship, which fell vacant for that diocese, in Corpus Christi College, Oxford: this he succeeded in obtaining; and thereby laid the foundation, not only of his own, but of his still more successful brother (Lord Eldon's) prosperity.

Lord Eldon's birth-place no longer exists; but the ancient and picturesque house on Sandhill (No. 41, now inhabited by a grocer), from which the future Chancellor stole his young bride, yet remains. "The lattice by which Miss Surtees escaped has a blue pane of glass in the centre, to distinguish it from the rest of the window. The biographer of Lord Eldon, in describing the attractions of the lady, says 'her form was slender.' It must have been so, or she could not have got through so narrow an aperture."

Tyne-side has long been celebrated for the excellence of its port wine from the date of the Methuen Treaty to the present time its coal-trade has brought to its wharves the best of Portugal's vintage. When Lord Eldon had mounted to the woolsack, he showed little anxiety to strengthen his

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connexion with his birth-place; but he knew well what it was good for, and to the last he had the choicest of his beloved port, as well as his coals, from the black city. Good wine needs no bush when the Chancellor's butler put Newcastle port on the table, the host had no need to recommend it to his guests by declaring its vintage, or mentioning the name of his wine-merchant.

Much has been said of the brothers, Lords Stowell and Eldon, their chances and successes, and plodding industry. But the supposed marvel is at an end when we learn that the property left by his father to Lord Stowell amounted to 25,000l.; and Lord Eldon had as fair a start in point of birth and connexion as nineteen out of twenty of his contemporaries. We do not say this to detract from their merits, but to fix the precise value of the examples they hold up.

Lord Eldon had no particular liking for work. "I have now (he said late in life) a letter in which Lord Thurlow promised me a commissionership of bankruptcy, when it would have been most valuable to me in point of income; he never gave it to me, and he always said it was a favour to me to withhold it. What he meant was, that he had learnt (a clear truth) that I was by nature very indolent, and it was only want that could make me industrious." On another occasion, he wrote as follows to a ward of his court :-" You will shortly become entitled to a small property, which will prove to you either a blessing or a curse, according as you use it. It was, perhaps, fortunate for me that I was not situated in my early life as you are now. I had not, like you, a small fortune to look to. I had nothing to depend upon but my own exertions, and, so far from considering this a misfortune, I now esteem it a blessing; for if I had possessed the same means which you now enjoy, I should, in all probability, not be where I now am. I would, therefore, caution you not to let this little property turn your mind from more important objects, but rather let it stimulate you to cultivate your abilities, and to advance yourself in society."

As for the self-accusation of indolence, it is not at all unusual to find an extraordinary capacity for mental labour combined with an extreme reluctance to undertake it. Dr. Johnson, for example, seldom put pen to paper except to get

money when he wanted it. He complained that the setting his mind in motion was always attended with pain, though, when it was thoroughly warmed and in full play, the excitement was pleasurable. In the same spirit, Sir Walter Scott declared he could never work so well as when the printingmachine was "banging at his heels." Perhaps John Scott felt the same; or, to take a more obvious solution, perhaps Lord Thurlow got up the charge as the best excuse for his own breach of promise, and Lord Eldon assented to it, without reflecting that all of us are by nature indolent, if this means that we are frequently disinclined to work.

LORD ELDON'S EDUCATION.

The brothers, William and John Scott, received their early education at the Grammar-school of Newcastle. Lord Collingwood was John Scott's classical fellow. "We were placed at that school," said Lord Eldon, "because neither his father nor mine could afford to place us elsewhere." They lay under no disadvantage on that account, and Lord Eldon felt that they did not. He was always eager to do justice to the merits of his old master, the Rev. Mr. Moises, and told, with evident satisfaction, the anecdote of the King (George III.), expressing his surprise how a naval officer could write so excellent a despatch as that which contained Collingwood's account of the battle of Trafalgar, and suddenly adding, "but I find he was educated by Moises."

The foundation of the two brothers' fortune was laid by William (Lord Stowell), who, in his sixteenth year, obtained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford: he soon wrote home for his brother, advising that he should be sent up to him. This was done, and he was entered a commoner of University College. He took his bachelor's degree in February, 1770. "An examination for a degree at Oxford," he used to say, 66 was a farce in my time. I was examined in Hebrew and in History. 'What is the Hebrew for the place of a skull ?' I replied, 'Golgotha.' 'Who founded University College?' I stated (though, by the way, the point is sometimes doubted) that King Alfred founded it.' Very well, sir,' said the examiner, 'you are competent for your degree.'"

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In the year following he won the Chancellor's prize for the best composition in English prose-the subject being the Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel." It would be unreasonable to expect any depth of thought on such a subject from an untravelled lad, and the essay is never wanting in good sense; but the style is turgid, and the clumsy construction of the sentences would lead us to infer that Mr. Moises had taken less pains with John Scott than with Collingwood, did we not bear in mind how intimately style is connected with character. He who thinks decidedly, will write clearly, if not forcibly; he who has made up his mind what he is going to say, can say it; and the difference between Lord Eldon's and Lord Collingwood's mode of writing is neither more nor less than that which existed to the last between the energetic seaman and the hesitating judge. Lord Eldon's style did not improve materially in after-life. It ceased to be turgid, but it never ceased to be confused and ungrammatical. He might have said of grammar what the roué Duc de Richelieu said of spelling,—“ We quarrelled at the outset of life, and never made up our differences."-Edinburgh Review, No. 163.

LORD ELDON'S MARRIAGE.

The young John Scott eloped to Scotland with Miss Betty Surtees, a beautiful girl of Newcastle, and married her. Neither of them had sixpence, independent of their parents: the Newcastle gossip was that the poor lad was undone ; and his own brother condemned it as a very foolish act, adding that John was completely ruined, nor can any thing now save him from beggary. He was obliged to relinquish his fellowship; but, in the year of grace allowed him, he began the study of the law, with the view (to use his own words,) of having two strings to his bow: while keeping his terms at the Temple, he continued his residence at Oxford, employed partly as tor at University College, and partly as DeputyProfessor of Law, for which service he received 607. a-year. Soon after the marriage, the law professor sent Mr. Scott the fest lecture, which he had to read immediately to the students, hich he began without knowing a single word that was ii. I was upon the statute of young men running away wit.. mardens. In after-life, Lord Eldon, in relating the above,

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used to say, "Fancy me reading with about one hundred and forty boys and young men all giggling at the Professor. Such a tittering audience no one ever had." He used also to say the church was "his first mistress ;" and it was not until all chance of a college living was at an end that he decided “to pursue a profession which had much less of his affection and respect."

When he had become Chancellor, Lord Eldon's care and vigilance in preventing elopements among the young ladies who were wards in Chancery, did not protect him against a domestic visitation of a similar description. His eldest

daughter, Elizabeth, after some unsuccessful attempts to obtain his consent to her marriage with Mr. George Stanley Repton, made her escape from Lord Eldon's house in Bedford Square, on the morning of the 27th of November, 1817; and, the bridegroom having made all requisite preparation, they were married by licence at St. George's, Hanover Square. Although in this instance the lady had only followed the example of her father and mother, yet the head of the law would not allow the validity of his own precedent; and it was not until the year 1820 that a reconciliation took place.

LORD ELDON'S MAXIMS.

"I have seen it remarked," says Lord Eldon in his AnecdoteBook, "that something which in early youth captivates attention, influences future life in all stages. When I left school in 1766 to go to Oxford, I came up from Newcastle to London in a coach, then denominated, on account of its quick travelling as travelling was then estimated, a fly; being, as well as I remember, nevertheless, three or four days and nights on the road: there was no such velocity as to endanger overturning or other mischief. On the panels of the carriage were painted the words 'Sat cito, si sat bene:' words which made a most lasting impression on my mind, and have had their influence upon my conduct in all subsequent life. Their effect was heightened by circumstances during and immediately after the journey. Upon the journey a Quaker, who was a fellow-traveller, stopped the coach at the inn at Tuxford, desired the chamber-maid to come to the coach-door, and gave her a sixpence, telling her that he forgot to give it her