Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/853

829 E L D O N 829 In the autumn of the year in wnich he was called to the bar his father died, leaving him a legacy of &amp;lt;1000 over and above the 2000 previously settled on him. He was already an excellent lawyer, and succeeded fairly well on his first circuit, though not so well as to satisfy him of the safety of attempting a London career. He therefore took a house in Newcastle, with the view of establishing himself there, but still delayed to leave London; and his prospects there suddenly improving, he assigned the Newcastle house to his brother Henry. In his second year at the bar his prospects began to brighten. His brother William, who by this time held the Camden professorship of ancient history, and enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with men of eminence in London, was in a position materially to advance his interests. Among his friends was the notorious Bowes of Gibside, to the patronage of whose house the rise of the Scott family was largely owing. Bowes having con tested Newcastle and lost it, presented an election petition against the return of his opponent. Young Scott was re tained as junior counsel in the case, and though he lost the petition he did not fail to improve the opportunity which it afforded for displaying his talents. This engagement, in the commencement of his second year at the bar, and the dropping In of occasional fees, must have raised his hopes ; and he now abandoned the scheme of becoming a provincial barrister. A year or two of dull drudgery and few fees followed, and he began to be much depressed. But in 1780 we find his prospects suddenly improved, by his appearance in the case of Ackroyd v. Smithsou, which became a leading case settling a rule of law ; and young Scott, having lost his point in the inferior court, insisted on arguing it, on appeal, against the opinion of his clients, and carried it before Lord Thurlow, whose favourable con sideration he wan by his able argument. The same year Bowes again retained him in an election petition; and in the year following Scott greatly increased his reputation by his appearance as leading counsel in the Clitheroe election petition. From this time his success was certain. In two years he obtained a silk gown, and was so far cured of his early modesty that he declined accepting the king s counselship if precedence over him were given to his junior, Mr Erskine, though the latter was the son of a peer and a most accomplished orator. He was now on the high way to fortune. His health, which had hitherto been but indifferent, strengthened with the demands made upon it ; his .talents, his power of endurance, and his ambition all expanded together. He enjoyed a considerable practice in the northern part of his circuit, before parliamentary com mittees, and at the Chancery bar, and was in sight of the honours and emoluments of the solicitor and attorney generalships. By 1787 his practice at the Equity bar had so far increased that he was obliged to give up the eastern half of his circuit (which embraced six counties), and attend it only at Lancaster. Shortly after taking the silk gown, he entered Parliament for Lord Weymouth s close borough of AVeobley, which Lord Thurlow obtained for him without solicitation. In Parliament he gave a general and independent support to Pitt. His first parliamentary speeches were directed against Fox s India Bill. They were unsuccessful. In one he aimed at being brilliant ; and becoming merely laboured and pedantic, he was covered with ridicule by Sheridan, from whom he received a lesson which he did not fail to turn to account. In 1788 Pitt conferred upon him the honour of knighthood and the office of solicitor- general ; and at the close of this year he attracted attention by his speeches in support of Pitt s resolutions on the state of the king (George III., who then laboured under a mental malady) and the delegation of his authority. It is said that he drew the Regency Bill, which was introduced in 1789. In 1793 Sir John Scott was promoted to the office of attorney-general, in which it fell to him to conduct the memorable prosecutions for high treason against British sympathizers with French republicanism, amongst others, against the celebrated Home Tooke. These prosecutions, in most cases, were no doubt instigated by Sir John Scott, and were the most important proceedings in which he was ever professionally engaged. He has left on record, in his Anecdote Book, a defence of his conduct in regard to them. A full account of the principal trials, arid of the various legislative measures for repressing the expressions of popular opinion for which he wasjnore or less responsible, will be found in Twiss s Public and Private Life of the Lord Chancellor Eldon, and in the Lives of the Lord Chancellors, by Lord Campbell. In 1799 the office of chief-justice of the Court of Common Pleas falling vacant, Sir John Scott s claim to it was not overlooked ; and after seventeen years service in the Lower House, he entered the House of Peers as Baron Eldou. In February 1801, the ministry of Pitt was succeeded by that of Addington, and the chief-justice now ascended the woolsack. The chancellorship was given to him professedly on account of his notorious anti-Catholic zeal. From the Peace of Amiens (1801) till 1804, Lord Eldon appears to have interfered little in politics. In the latter year we find him conducting the negotiations which resulted in the dismissal of Addington and the recall of Pitt to office as prime minister. Lord Eldon was continued in office as chancellor under Pitt ; but the new administration was of short duration, for on the 23d of January 1806 Pitt died, worn out with the anxieties of office, and his ministry was succeeded by a coalition, under Lord Grenville. The death of Fox, who became foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons, soon, however, broke up the Grenville administration ; and in the spring of 1807, Lord Eldon once more, under Lord Liverpool s administration, returned to the woolsack, which, from that time, he con tinued to occupy for about twenty years, swaying the Cabinet, and being in all but name prime minister of England. It was not till April 1827, when the premier ship, vacant through the paralysis of Lord Liverpool, fell to Mr Canning, the chief advocate of Roman Catholic emancipation, that Lord Eldon, in the seventy-sixth yeai of his age, finally resigned the chancellorship. When, after the two short administrations of Canning and Goderich, it fell to the duke of Wellington to construct a Cabinet, Lord Eldon expected to be included, if not as chancellor, at least in some important office, but he was overlooked, at which he was much chagrined. Notwith standing his frequent protests that he did not covet power, but longed for retirement, we find him again, so late as 1835, within three years of his death, in hopes of office under Peel. He spoke in Parliament for the last time in July 1834. In 1821 Lord Eldon had been created earl by George IV., whom he managed to conciliate, partly, no doubt, by espousing his cause against his wife, whose advocate he had formerly been, and partly through his reputation for zeal against the Roman Catholics. In the same year, his brother William, who from 1798 had filled the office of judge of the High Court of Admiralty, was raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Stowell. Lord Eldon s wife, his dear &quot; Bessy,&quot; his love for whom is a beautiful feature in his life, died before him, on the 28th June 1831. By nature she was of simple character, and by habits acquired during the early portion of her husband s career almost a recluse. Two of their sons reached maturity, John, who died in 1805, and William Henry John, who died unmarried in 1832. Lord Eldon himself survived almost all his immediate relations. His brother William died in 1836. He him