The National Register.
London, England, 1817-01-20 00:00:00

MONDAY, JANU.

.1' 1.0, 1817.

ranging amidst the mountains after the cattle, and
now musing ou some rocky crag as the sheep and the
herds fed below him. •
Elgin, the neighbouring tom, was then famous for
its grammar school, and thither he and a younger bro-
ther, who was formerly collectorat Martinico, were sent
for their education, and boarded at the house of Mr.
John Irvine, nephew to a worthy and respectable clergy..
man of that place. Mr. Milne and Mr. Sheryl' were
successively his instructors therC; rind though neither of
them lived to witness the advarement and experience
the gratitude of their scholar in 'his subsequent eleva-
tion, he has paid the just tribute of thankful recollection
fur the benefits derived from them, by recently contri-
buting to the rebuilding' of the school, the funds of the
institution being found inadequate to the purpose. •

After a short residence at aria, Mr. (inAsir com-
pleted his education at King'st'alege, Aberdeen, and
had, like many of his countrymen, a profession and fur-
tune to seek. In this he was luckily assisted by an
uncle, who having gained wealth in commercial pur-
suits, and purchased an estate at Elehies in the county
of Moray, where he had been born, gained his admis-
sion to the Inns of Court, and at lust procured his call
to the Bar.

At that time it was much the fashion for young men
of rank and education, to appear at those public debat-
ing societies, which have, since the French Revolution,
been classed with the clubs of the Jacobins, and ren-
dered almost contagious to the reputation of their fre-
quenters. Mr. GRANT, it is said, made his first ap-
pearance as a speaker at the Mini's-hend, in Newgate-
street ; but from his retired habits and unostentatious,
not to say backward manner, upon all subsequent occa-
sions, we presume, that he attained none of that cele-
brity, which attached to the names of Ikirke, Garrom,
Dallas, and, to b.! just, we must add Adolphus ! ! The
charact or of Mr.(;a A si T a eloquence could never have
been enthusiastically vehement, sweetly splendid in fi-
gure, or acrimoniously pungent in sarcasm, to a sufficient
degree to suit the vitiated tastes of a popular assembly,
though we are as certain that there, a:: well as in the
senate, he would have been at ail times listened to
with profound attention, for the depth of his views,
the extent of his information, the clearness of his me-
thod, the ti rce of his arruinents, and the unembarrassed
,rood sense and ease of his manner and language.
His first exertion as an advocate was in the House
of Peers, upon an appeal from the Courts in Smarm,/ ;
and we are told, that he confessed he was " rather inti-
midated at appearing betiire so august an assembly."
We doubt not but this was stiil fly the fact, and but
that we think persons of the cool terperament and cor-
rect judgment of Sir W. GRANT, either fed or appear to
feel, less than others, and to act more steadily, we should
readily credit the narration, if he had declared that his
f.eling upon such an occasion, were all but overwhelm-
ing to his talents.
That Mr. GRANT'S success was not at this time
rapid or even promising we are well assured. Remark-
able for taciturnity in ordinary society, it is said of'
hint, that he travelled the home circuit some years
Vithont speaking once in or out of Court, and such were
his habits of retirement and meditation, that we have
been inflamed at the lodgings where he took up his
rest, fur all that time, he was neither visited by client
nor associate, and never relaxed into any ordinary chat
with his landlord, as with men of freer habits we have
found by no means unfrequent..
With such habits which bespeak modesty, timidity,
or conscious superiority, and are the very reverse vof the
pliant sycophancy, which is attributed to so many of his
countrymen by the Satirist who wrote the Man of the
World, be was certainly ill-formed to shine at Nisi
Prins, :and would have been long in seeking advance-
ment at the Chancery Bar.
At length, soon after the iloseriwn war broke out,
Mr. GRANT quitted England and emlairked for Canada,
where he arrived at the critical period when the capi-
tal was threatened with a siege by the celebrated Ge-
neral Munlgcnnes;y, who, assisted by Arnold, remarkable
afterwards fur his desertion, after a rapid march over an
immense tract of country, appeared, durinr• the winter,
before the walls of Quebec, and commenced military
operations against that city. Many of' the inhabitants
took to flight, and the remainder were struck with ccn-
sternation at the event so unexpected, ill a climate au