DRAFTS ON LA FITTE.-NO. 1.

Vevay, October 28th, 1826. If you have any regard for your character as a merchant, pray pass the wine.

What connexion is there, may I ask, between the juice of the grape and my mercantile reputation, Ashley?

Why, in these times of distrust, to refuse honour to a draught of La Fitte is perilous in itself; but an entire stoppage of the circulating medium is still worse. What is there in the papers, Morris ?

One would think that from the host of English, Irish, Scotch and American journals, Galignani might find the means of adequately filling his diminutive sheet; yet really, except Bolivar, Lord Cochrane, and Mrs. Coutts, the most important paragraph is that which announces the "gradual recovery of the Countess of Eldon."

Would it might favour us with the news of the recovery of her lord from his doubtful malady; for instead of living here in the very Antipodes of all that is social, good, and honourable, the termination of my Chancery suit would enable me once more to enjoy the comforts of my home and native land; but so long as my funds are locked up in that infernal court-Rely upon it they do these things better in France, Morris.

Indeed, I shall do no such thing; I hate every thing French. Do you think they can parallel Lord Eldon in their whole empire? No, that I'll be sworn.

I know the meaning of that sneer, Ashley. It is not because I was once at Encombe, I say so.

Oh! I wholly acquit you of the imputation of being influenced in your opinions by the luxuries of Encombe; why, it is said, that the bottoms of the two eternal decanters of port and sherry have not been seen for years past; that they present a perfect Mediterranean tideless state of repose; no ebb or overflowings; like the two guineas in the pockets of the Vicar of Wakefield's daughters, or the ever-enduring dessert on the table of the author, D, (which was put on regularly for six months together) they stand changeless and undiminishedthe chroniclers of times long past, when first they received the gurgling fluid.

Nonsense, Ashley! sheer calumny; his Lordship has ever been a most temperate man.

Granted, but he makes as little allowance for his guests as his suitors: and a man may be deemed capable of relishing a glass of wine without being wholly a Porson. Why Royalty itself scarcely commanded vinous consideration with him, for when --arrived on a

visit at his mansion, of the half dozen ordered at the public-house at Corfe, three bottles were returned on the innkeeper's hands, after some days entertainment of the guest and a numerous suite.

Scan. Mag. Ashley; Scan. Mag. 'pon honour; there are few more liberal-minded men, I assure you. I will give you an instance. Was not Dick Wilson his secretary for many a year? although a more determined Whig never breathed; and while the master above was anathematizing Blue and buff by wholesale, Dick below was giving the

Tories in mass to Old Nick: then their tastes, in other respects, were as diametrically opposite as their politics, for while the employer declared he liked Catalani as little as he now does his Vice, there was Dick running mad to get Drury-lane ready for her reception. If you choose to believe every absurd story, there will be no end to it; why, there was the tale of the area-steps for instance.

No! no! that was old Serjeant Hill, I allow. Bosanquet, his next door neighbour, told me that himself.

What was the fact?

Why, old Hill had found that the process of rapping at his door tended to disturb the deep reflection in which, whether in court or chamber, street or field, he was continually involved; so, after much consideration, he adopted the expedient of descending by the steps of the area, and gaining, through the kitchen, his dining-room, where seating himself, dinner was regularly served without being commanded, and no unnecessary break could thus occur in his ideas. One day, however, he entered Bosanquet's house instead of his own; and although, during his progress, the servants strove to convince him of his mistake, the state of mental abstraction in which he was, his natural deafness, and the habit he had of tying the flaps of his shovel-hat with a handkerchief round his ears, rendered all their efforts unavailing. No writ of certiorari was ever more positive in establishing the seat of action elsewhere, than was the Serjeant in coolly taking his place at table. When Bosanquet learned the circumstances, he resolved to humour the joke; and, ordering dinner to be served, took his seat with Mrs. B. at table, without at all awaking their contemplative guest from his reverie. Something, however, in the quality of the meats, or, some deviation from ancient and systematic arrangement, at length awaked him, and he evinced such symptoms of surprise, as Dominie Sampson might have occasionally exhibited, at beholding those he deemed intruders; but, although he had employed much of the day in court with Bosanquet, he no farther recognized him or his lady than by muttering, in the terms of the year-book, a Gothic welcome, and, again relapsing into rumination, mechanically concluded his repast. The corporeal and moral necessities of the black-letter coif having been partially satiated, a lucid interval developed itself; when, after plea on the part of Bosanquet, answer by the Serjeant, reply, rejoinder, rebutter and surrebutter, the learned brother became convinced of his error, and with some confusion left the house to seek his den; in either case adopting the notable expedient of the areas in his way. It is said Hill was an excellent lawyer.

That he certainly was. He was the last connecting link of our own with ages long gone by; he had been formed by converse with books, not men-by books which our junior Templars dare not now wield; and by them his mind and manners had been so framed and fashioned, that had the day's usages permitted, he would have spoken in Norman French, with haply here and there some new-fangled English term of the time of Elizabeth. Yet he was a good man; of great singleness of heart and temper, and of almost infantine simplicity out of his study. Then he had a standing jest for the benchers' table during term: a famous and right marvellous history of one of his own immediate pre

decessors," tempore Jacobi primi." Lord, it was but yesterday to him! "How as the Serjeant wenned him unto Westminster, dreaming of his quodlibets, with his knave running by his steed, came there on the hither side of the village of Charing a discharged lance knight of Hogsden, a base fellow yclad in buff, to his encounter, who vi et armis' would have effected battery; then, how the varlet man, with 'the savour of a strong spirit,' brake the rook's rapier with his proper cudgel; and how there came up an archer and a mace, and the right royal bastinado given to the scurvy rogue."

That is something like his address to the Hertfordshire hunt, when the animal took refuge in his garden at Elstree; and the Serjeant, regardless of the bellowing of hounds and the cries of horsemen, treated them with a good hour's discourse of law on the subject of the chace. But to return to our subject, you would wish to persuade one that Eldon never decided without doubting in his life.

Pardon me there: the means by which they say he obtained his wife showed decision enough; and notwithstanding the ne exeat of her wealthy father, the lady resolved to be Scot-free. Strange the reverses of fortune! for it is reported, that the then briefless barrister, that Dives so despised, was doomed some years subsequently, and in his pride of place, to affix the great seal to a commission awarded against him who had once scorned his connexion. But it is still more singular, if it be true as reported, that the brother peers received the greater part of their education at the free-school of Carlisle. However, I will admit he merits his high distinctions; and, whatever be those faults it is now too late to remedy, his name will be long an honour to his land; and even, while I deprecate some qualities that belong to him, I am free to confess that a better lawyer or more conscientious man never filled the seat he occupies; and that, when he does decide, he brings great erudition, pure and unbiassed feeling, and perspicuous judgment to the task. What sort of a place is Encombe, Morris?

It is so long since I have been there, I can scarce venture to describe it. You know it lies near the Isle of Portland. After arriving at the magnificent and picturesque ruins of Corfe Castle and the town near, of which the walls of grey stone are strictly in keeping with the decayed fortress and the wild and dreary scene around, you ascend a steep and lengthened hill, at whose summit is a small rude village. There, I remember, I enjoyed the bright beams of day, while far beneath me the clouds shut out the lower land from view, and the thunder peal below, with one continuous unbroken roar (different in sound from all I had before witnessed), attested the violence of the storm, beyond the reach of which I was placed. From the village you begin to descend a rapid and rugged road, that winds between rocks of considerable height, excluding every prospect, and which has been formed by many and impetuous torrents, until, at the foot of the ravine, you emerge on a wide and verdant plain, gradually declining from the amphitheatre of rocks that incloses it on the land-side to the water's-edge. In the centre stands a large and noble mansion surrounded by richly-cultivated land; the rude barrier of high rocks behind, the waters of the channel extended far before; romantic in itself, still more romantic as beheld from sea, and not wanting the requisite attribute of romancesomewhat of peril; for, I remember, during the war, a French privateer

was enabled to stand in so close, that his Lordship was obliged to recur to the armoury (with which the mansion is provided), and, with no thought of flight, prepare with his servants to show fight in case of an attack; however she soon sheered off. A pretty business if the great seal and its keeper had been carried captive and landed at Morlaix or at Brest!

Heavens and earth! I am in a perspiration at the very idea; why Brougham himself would have wept, and the Morning Chronicle have for once abused the invader that had robbed it of its prey. What would Bonaparte have done with him? he would have been a greater puzzler than Madame de Stael herself. And only to conceive that after declaring the nation of shopkeepers, by his Berlin and Milan decrees, to be out and out bankrupts, if the Emperor should coolly oblige his prisoner to clap the great seal itself to the act! Do pass the wine, Morris; the idea makes one absolutely shudder, as old Judge Grose used always to observe, with a real genuine effective shudder, that made his neighbour the Chief Justice tremble on his seat.

Laugh as you may, Ashley, it was as flat a "ne exeat regno" as he ever put wax to. Chancellors can show pluck as well as other men :— there was Lord Loughborough himself took a musquet as a private in the Bloomsbury and Inns of Court Association; and as for Lord Erskine, he was bred to the trade.

True, and took it up again at the threatened invasion, when he commanded the Temple corps, the "Devil's own," as it was slanderously termed.* You know Barrow the barrister? a good lawyer, but no soldier; never could he be brought properly to manœuvre, and when he failed in bringing his company into line, Erskine was obliged to call out fifty times, Wheel-Barrow, before he could get him to order; however, if the lawyers were otherwise awkward, they were capital at a charge. Poor Erskine! he had many faults, but a kind heart and boyish fancy even to the last ;-vanity, no doubt, overweening vanity; but, so tempered by generous feeling to all others, that one might scarce reprove it. He was no man's enemy but his own; and with all his frailties and foibles, will be by many long remembered as a charitable man and a sincere friend; yet there was, in the quicksilver workings of his spirit, the Yorick recklessness and sportful gaiety of idea, that would have its fling in a way which was not always consonant to the dignity of the high station he held.

But he was a good judge, was he not?

Yes, his perception was clear and rapid; he was honest and warmhearted; resolved without effort, and fearless in doing what he deemed right; but the man was too often mixed up with the judge.

"Thank God, were it but for this!" he exclaimed, as he left the woolsack on announcing the royal assent for the last time. It was to the bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and it was in the very sincerity of his heart he spoke.

I remember, however, that some days after, his feelings were not of so acquiescent a character. It was in 1806, when, on failing to

Jekyll used to say he did it in revenge at Bonaparte's merely observing on his introduction to him at the Tuileries in 1802, “Ah! vous êtes légiste!" rather laconic certainly. 2 P

Dec.-VOL. XVII. NO. LXXII.

carry the Catholic question, the Whigs' last hour as a ministry approached; and, as soon as substitutes could be provided, they expected their dismissal. It was looked upon as so imminent, that Temple (he was then so called) had secured his stationery. Lord Erskine was upon the bench, when a written order was delivered him to repair to St. James's in a few hours from its receipt. All were in silent attention while the letter was perused; Piggott, whose place of attorney-general was, in a pecuniary point of view, convenient enough, looked blank and mortified and feverish; Romilly his colleague, who well knew what his powers might ever command, and on whom place sate like a pack-saddle on Pavilion or Eclipse, was there with contemptuous loftiness on his imposing features; Perceval, who was then to exchange the barrister's gown for the robe of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, had a perking smile upon his pallid and childish-looking face, for he was one of the Ins-(of the two last one died by his own, the other by an assassin's hand);-Leach's red traits quivered with petulance and anger, for he then was one of the Outs; when the Chancellor, as he folded the letter, addressed the bar in observing, that "Should he be summoned from the world as hastily as he then had been from the station he occupied in it, he hoped he might be enabled to afford his God an account as clear and honest as that he was called upon to render to his king." But it was all a mistake: he remained in some time longer; more last words were necessary; it was like Romeo Coates's dying scene, encored; another speech was made, to which poor Piggott, as father of the bar, replied in the name of the profession, and as he expressed regret at the Chancellor's retirement from office, on which his own was consequent, the look was beautifully suited to the expression; and if ever, as Sheridan has it, "words came red-hot from the heart," it was then.

Do you remember, on moving for a criminal information against some one (I forget who) for offering provocation to fight a duel, Erskine's quoting a case in point, that of Seward and Popham, to which he gave effect by pronouncing it "Sword and Pop-him?”

Then there was the worried dog he rescued from a crowd of mischievous urchins in Lincoln's-inn Fields, who pronounced it mad, and which he carried in triumph to his house, asserting, that as Chancellor he was ex-officio "guardian of all lunatics." On his last visit to Scotland, the vessel got aground at the entrance of the port of Leith, when he wrote some couplets, wherein, after expressing his respect for "the Edinburgh Bar," he concludes:

"But, muttering curses through my teeth,

I hate this shallow bar of Leith."

The last time I saw him, Ashley, was at the Bank of England, shortly previous to his death. I had business there; and in waiting I observed in the crowd a man of needy appearance, with an old threadbare striped great-coat, making up in its excess of quantity what it wanted in quality; a hat conformable to his habiliment; a tattered cotton umbrella under one arm, while the other was extended to require gold in change for a five-pound note, for which he awaited patiently as the puppy of a jack-in-office eyed the ex-chancellor of Great Britain keenly and inquiringly. A rude common man near him made