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perception of their effect either upon the jury, the enemy, or the judge. Indeed he used to choose his seat while he ruled the Great Circuit (the Northern) second to that of which he had a rightful possession by his rank; he preferred the seat on the judge's left, because standing there he had the judge always in his eye as he spoke, and could shape his course with the jury by the effect he found he produced on My Lord. Then his reasoning powers were of a high order; they would have been of a higher, if he had not been too subtle and too fond of refining; so that his shot occasionally went over the head both of court and jury, to the no little comfort of his adversaries. But when he had a great case in hand, or an uphill battle to fight, his argumentation was exceedingly powerful. Nor did he ever lessen its force either by diffusiveness or by repetition, or by the introduction of vulgar or puerile matter; his classical habits and correct taste preserved him from the one, his love of the verdict from the other. His language was choice; it was elegant, it was simple, it was not ambitious. Illustration he was a master of, unless when the love of refining was his own master, and then his illustration rather clouded than enlightened. He had considerable powers of wit and humour, without too much indulging in their display; and no man had a more quick sense and more keen relish of both. Hence he ever avoided the risks of any ridicule, and when treated with it himself showed plainly how much he felt and how little he approved its application. The greater feats of oratory he hardly ever tried. He had no deep declamation, no impassioned effusion. He indulged in no stirring appeals either to pity or terror: he used no tropes or figures; he never soared so high as to lose sight of the ground, and so never feared to fall. But he was an admirable speaker, and for all cases except such as occur once in the course of several years, he was quite as great a speaker as could be desired. No man who understood what was

going on in a trial ever saw the least defect in his oratory; and none could qualify the praise all gave his skill and his knowledge by a reflection on his rhetoric.

That skill and that knowledge were truly admirable. It really was impossible to figure anything more consummate than this great advocate's address in the conduct of a cause. All the qualities which we set out with describing as going to form the Nisi Prius leader he possessed in unmeasured profusion. His sagacity, his sure tact, his circumspection, his provident care, his sudden sense of danger to his own case, his instantaneous perception of a weak point in his adversary's, all made him the most difficult person to contend against that perhaps ever appeared in Westminster Hall, when the object was to get or to prevent a verdict; and that is the only object of the advocate who faithfully represents his client, and sinks himself in that representative character. It is needless to add that no man ever was more renowned as a verdict-getter to use the phrase of the Nisi Prius courts.

A country attorney perhaps paid him the highest compliment once when he was undervaluing his qualifications, and said:"Really there is nothing in a man getting so many verdicts who always has the luck to be on the right side of the cause." This reminds one of Partridge in 'Tom Jones,' who thought Garrick was a poor actor, for any one could do all he did"he was nothing of an actor at all."* His weight with the court and jury was not unhappily expressed by another person when asked at what he rated Mr. Scarlett's value-" A thirteenth juryman"-was the answer. A remarkable instance is remembered in Westminster Hall of his acting in the face of the jury, at the critical moment of their beginning to consider their verdict.

*"He the best player!" said Partridge with a contemptuous sneer. "Why I could act as well as he myself. I am sure if I had seen a ghost I should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did." -Tom Jones, book xvi. c. 5.

He had defended a gentleman of rank and fortune against a charge of an odious description. He had performed his part with even more than his accustomed zeal and skill. As soon as the judge had summed up, he tied up his papers deliberately, and with a face, smiling and easy, but carefully turned towards the jury, he rose and said, loud enough to be generally heard, that he was engaged to dinner, and in so clear a case there was no occasion for him to wait what must be the certain event. He then retired deliberately, bowing to the court. The prosecuting counsel were astonished at the excess of confidence or of effrontery,-nor was it lost upon the jury, who began their deliberation. But one of the juniors having occasion to leave the court, found that all this confidence and fearlessness had never crossed its threshold-for behind the door stood Sir James Scarlett trembling with anxiety, his face the colour of his brief, and awaiting the result of "the clearest case in the world" in breathless suspense. This very eminent person was born in the island of Jamaica, where his highly respectable family had long been settled and were considerable planters. In the colony he passed his earliest years; but he afterwards was brought to the mother country, and in a truly disinterested manner he gave up his share of the family inheritance to the convenience of his relatives. West Indian connexion, however, never biassed his mind on the great question of the African Slave Trade, -though from that connexion he had been always employed as counsel for the traders and planters. Once only, it was upon the famous case of Smith the missionary in 1824, he showed some leaning in the wrong direction, and having stated that he had always been an abolitionist, it became necessary to mention that he was also a West Indian-a disclosure which he could apparently well have spared. At Cambridge, having been a fellow commoner, he took no honour, according to the truly absurd system which excludes from

His

academical competition all persons of the higher rank. He cultivated, however, classical literature with success; and his taste as well as his knowledge on such subjects may be perceived in the valuable Note which he added to Mr. Brougham's Inaugural Discourse on Ancient Eloquence in 1825.

He was very early called to the Bar; and came into a certain share of business almost immediately, though then only twenty-two years of age. He chose the Northern Circuit, and on Mr. Law, afterwards Chief Justice and a Peer, taking the office of Attorney-General, he shared in the practice which his promotion scattered. Serjeant Cockell, Mr. Park, and Mr. Topping were the leaders who chiefly commanded the business, and it was not till the Serjeant retired, in 1810, that Mr. Scarlett was considerably advanced. His rank of King's Counsel being so long delayed was extremely prejudicial to him; this delay enabled inferior men to keep above him; and it arose from a circumstance honourable in the highest degree to him, discreditable in a nearly equal proportion to others. He happened to be a steady and conscientious Whig; his opinions were early formed, and firmly maintained. He refused all the professional advantages which the intimate personal friendship of Mr. Perceval might have given him. Nor can there be a douht that but for his party connexions he must have risen to the office of Attorney-General twelve or fifteen years earlier than he held it, and been Chief Justice of England when Lord Ellenborough resigned in 1818. Instead of obtaining such promotion, he was prevented from even having the fair prospect of elevation to rankalmost a matter of course and all but a thing of strict right-because his political adversaries were determined to keep down a very capable Whig and protect less capable Tories. This was to a certain degree the case with Sir Samuel Romilly; it has since been still more the case with others; and such refusals of rank,

though they more directly oppress the individual kept down, yet operate to oppress all who are his seniors at the Bar and are not qualified to act as leaders. Mr. Brougham's being refused his rank when the Queen died in 1821 threw ten or twelve of his seniors out of business, because he could lead, and did lead, in a stuff gown, while they could hold no briefs with him. He only received a patent of precedency in 1827 during the Junction Ministry of Mr. Canning, and then, as is understood, he was with difficulty induced to take the rank, having long since made his footing secure without it. Mr. Scarlett ought to have been made certainly in 1810, when Serjeant Cockell died-possibly earlier. He only was made when Mr. Park went upon the bench in 1816, and when Lord Eldon had no longer the power of withholding his silk gown. He had for some years been second leader all round the Circuit in a stuff gown.

The first remark which occurs upon this load under which Mr. Scarlett as well as those other lawyers. laboured-and he more than they because its pressure was more injurious-is, that the injustice of which they were the object and might have been the victims was peculiar to his case, and that the blame of it belonged in an especial manner to Lord Eldon. That Lord Loughborough was culpable in respect to Sir Samuel Romilly is certain, though in a lesser degree. No such injury was inflicted upon his seniors as those of Mr. Scarlett, Mr. Brougham, and Mr. Denman suffered, and suffered for no fault of theirs, but for the political sins of their juniors at the Bar. Serjeant Clayton and Mr. Walton, and many provincial barristers were no Whigs that they should be punished by their own Tory leaders. Mr. Littledale was no Whig that Lord Eldon should deprive him of business. But if they had been all out of the question, the three leaders themselves were most wrongfully treated in being deprived of their professional rights merely because their political opinions differed from those of

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