The National Register.
London, England, 1816-12-30 00:00:00

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1816.

but, as an instanc.: :4' the effect of early education and
the practical utility of mathematical studies, we know
personally that his Lordship is now, like the late Mr.
Pill, a most ready calculator ; and, trifling as it may
' appear, yet in mercantile causes he evinces a rapidity in
this art which is not exAled by any of the practical mer-
chants at Guildhall. N e have heard it said, indeed,
that he feels sonic.. gratification in being able to outstrip
all the counsel in calculating mentally the amount of in-
terest upon a bill of exchange ; and, in like manner, we
have been told, that, nt n review at Walmcr Castle, Mr.
Pin astonished the oldest Generals at the rapidity with
which he glanced over the field, and told the spouse and
time, by calculation, which it would take to perfbrm cur-
twin man euvres with a given nutaber of troops.
Invigorated by such studies, his progress ia the law
was both easy, rapid, and certain. He was entered of
Lincoln's Inn, and placed as a pupil with the present
Mr. Baron Wood, a special pleader of great and deserved
eminence. Here his friends and associates were the late
Mr. Justice Lawrence, and Mr. Templer the late ami-
able master of the Crown Office. Lord Erskine, we be-
lieve, was not of the same standing.
The business of a special pleader is in general but little
understood by the public ; who, by the word pleadings,
commonly denote speeches at the bur, while the initiated
in the science give this title to the written documents
and records which state the rights and claims and the
technical defence of eitherparty in a style peculiar to the
law, by which it is endeavoured to concentrate into a
few points, of a definite and fixed nature, the grounds of
the litigation. These are stiled the declaration, the plea
or issue, the demurrer, the joinder, and the rejoinder,
with other titles which must sound perfectly untwuth to
the ears of refinement and delicate taste.
Mr. law not only studied special pleading as a science,
but practiced it as a gainful art, we believe, fin several
years before he was called to the bar. In this manner
he became acquainted with all the practical minutiae ne-
cessary in the conducting of a suit ; all the subtleties of
construction in the terms of law proceedings, and the
scrupulous accuracy which it is necessary to observe in
the framing of a record. At the same time he was gra-
dually introduced to an acquaintance with the attornim,
who were his clients, and who, by long observation of Ibis
lissiduitv and industrious lincutium, acquired confidence
in his skill and abilities.

In this practice Mr. Law -was very successful; and
after being called to the bar, in June 1780, we find
him, from the reports, to have been in considerable
practice both on the circuit, at London and in Westmin-
ster Hall. On the same circuit, we believe, his cotem-
pomries, as junior counsel, were Lord Auckland, Lord
Eldon, and Lord Alranky. The first soon quitted the
bar for a political career, in which he was eminently suc-
cessful, and the two latter shortly afterwards withdrew
entirely to Chancery practice.
At the same time Mr. Wallace was a leader on
the circuit. He was a nadir! of Cumberland, who rose
from the office of an Attorney's clerk to be the competi-
tor of the celebrated Dimming, and to be Attorney-
General. As the Bishop of Elpbin, brother to Mr. Law,
married a sister of Wallace's, it is supposed that this might
aid him in his early progress, but without abilities, no
such patronage could have been of lasting use to him.
Mr. Justice fuller, whether from connexions, or from
a high opinion of his abilities, seems to have patro-
nised him very early ; as did Mr. Justice /Mrs, who,
it is suspected, was often Indebted to him fist many
cases which his industry and learning furnished fur his
assistance.

In the case of Atkinson, who was convicted of perjury,
in an affidavit respecting the supply of corn to Govern-
ment, whiA was tried the 9th of July, 1783, Mr. Law
svgs the junior counsel ; and hi: name appears tin the
first time as counsel in an argument in Paz. v. Wherrie,
in Dutegiar's reports, from whiat it is clear that he
must have had some considerable business as early o the
year 1781. He was made fringes Counsel in June 1787,
only seven years after tangiaMed to the bar.
But what most advance] Niviscratation of Mr. Lorp,
was, the consnimums place which was given him in the
conducting of the defence of Warm, Wastingx, in 1788,
is which he was leading sound. assisted; by Mr. Palmer
and Mr. Dallas.; the termer 'al whom ;es now Vice-
Chancellor, and the latter a Judge in the Court of Cem-
mOn Pleas. To t::is cause he was introduced by the
refunl of Mr. Erskine to undertake it, lest it might in-
terfere too much with his causes in London, and at West-
minster. To Mr. Lew, who was then mostly inlsrac-
tire as a leading ectuawl on the Nuithern circuit, when,

Our Tang, ebninttutton anti 11 aino.

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•

PRICE a

l he was opposed to Mr. Sedeant Cocked!, it was not at
first supposed to Le of so much inconvenience to be
called to attend the House of Lords almost daily ac it was
to the great leader of the London causes, but we have
heard that it so much interfered with his other business,
that he would have given a large sum rather than have
been so employed.
Arrayed against him were Messrs- nttrke, Fox,
Sheridan, and Anstruther. The former of whom,
though not practically lawyers, possessed such various
talents, and such unrivalled eloquence, that it required
more than. common fortitude and ability to make any
head against them ; and it is probable, that compared
with the splendid imagery of Burke, the fer✓id energy
of Far, and the wit and eloquence of Sheridan, which,
it in said, surpassed all that was ever delivered by ancient
and by modern orators, Mr. Law found it difficult to
arrest the attention of the audience to the legal wen-
racy, and minute detail of a speech upon evidence made
some years after the witnesses had been examined. Burke
seems to have treated him with personal severity, and
Sheridan, feeling probably the advantage which his prac-
tical knowledge gave him, endeavoured to ridicule, in
his reply, not only the rause, but the lawyer and the
profession. The counsel having complained of the
length of the trial, and the speeches' of the managers,
were themselves driven unavoidably into long replies;
upon which Sheridan said, they gave examples of brevity
by a five hours lamentation upon prolixity, and *sated
days in special pleading upon tropes and figures, or in read-
ing indictments against a metaphor. We, however, have
always thought this jeering of the wit unjust and utis-
placed, because it is impossible to answer a wandering
and verbose declamation, without many times deviat-
ing from the line of conciseness in pursuit of the adver-
sary, to whom alone the fault must be attributed; and
a counsel in reply, is bound in justice to his client, to
answer every point of the opening speech or of the evi-
dence that can be opposed, even plausibly.
From this time till he was made Attorney-General in
1801, Mr. Law was the leader of the Northern circuit,
and was in most of the great insurance causes in Lon-
don. As opposed to Mr. Erskine, he had the advantage
of superior knowledge, but fell short of the fascinating
powers of his eloquence, in which, at nisi priors, Erskine
was unrivalled. On the circuit, Mr. Law must have
greatly surpassed all competitors ; Mr. Serjeant (Aitken,
being remarkable fur a coarse stile of debating, rather
than of speaking, without any classical elegance; but i:
was a stile which had considerable weight with a ceun-
try jury.
In replies. Mr. Lair was always nervous, clear, pro-
found, and fluent, and on occasions, remarkably happy
in classical allusions, and in points of severe retort.
Knowing that Lord Kenyan treated his opponent with
peculiar favour, Mr. Law in reply to Mr. Erskine, loot-
ing up to the Bench with the confidence and dignity
which he always appeared to fuel, repeated the following
lines front Virgil:—

---- Non me ma feint& turrrnt,
Dicta, ferns ; di me terrunt et delorrEn IlOotiS. •
And we remember, that in answering some affidavits
in a cause in which Crossly and Holloway mutually
recriminated, and his adversary had urged much the ay.-
&city of Mr. Law's clients in theif affidavits, he paro-
died most happily a line of one of our best poets, t.::-
claiming, that the court had received a marl lesson or
Tare
most impressive kind ftmu those whose clients must
1 Imre felt u crick in the neck, whenever the Kubjeet was
mentioned, but who had now been the first to declare,
and it might be in the spirit of prophecy in regard to
their own &nine, that the paths of infamy lend but to
the pillory and the wallows. When Attorney-lier.orodr
(to which office he was appointed in 18(f f. awl k*litool
upon the occasion,) we remember him to have designated
:he statutes against fbrestalling, as insane statutes; by
which, in modern times, London would, if they were
inforved, be in continuo' dan#4..-r of :Jarring, front the
want of due eneouragement fin the market by the monied
speculators. This was the language not of n lawyer, but
of a political economist, and evinced that he who could
use it in a Court of Justice knew how to distin.rnibh the
pedantry and the prejudice film the wisdom of our too-
cestors.
... co / I'l,,
-
Ile continneol in this office lout one year. Towaids "-
• -,
the conclusion of it, he argued the case of Haws-ail v., -
•
Creav, in which be succeeded in dividing the cot .. k
.
in his favour against the Lord Chief Justice, who ' 1,...4L
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• 'toaster. the iniettoott ate I,lnttuare does not al Arm 'sae.
ass ooay alarmed b; tbo. Gods, and if Jupiter be mine aril.

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