sofas, placed opposite each other, and held for a space some friendly conversation, probably turning upon former times and their present exhausted state. Wallace died in a few weeks, Dunning in the following August (1783), a few months after.

The books of course can never give a just idea of any advocate's powers as an arguer of cases, because all reports must greatly abridge the argument; all give it, or rather the heads of it, in the language of the reporter himself; and indeed little more is to be found than the points made and the authorities cited. This applies particularly to the reports before Durnford and East, with whom the less condensed and more prolix plan of reporting began. Burrows, Cowper, and Douglas, are much shorter than their successors, and though, in point of condensation, the two latter are better reporters than any since, they give still less a representation of an arguer's manner of arguing than the somewhat unbearable profusion of after times. It is, however, with all these disadvantages, impossible to doubt that Dunning's argument in the case of Combe v. Pitt (3 Bur. 1423.), which first established his fame in Westminster Hall, was a performance of very great merit, though the point was of the most inconsiderable magnitude, viz.: that a plea in abatement of another action brought in the same term, can only be supported by the date of its actual commencement being, de facto, prior. His arguments in the much more famous cases of Doe v. Fonnereau (2 Doug. 496.), and Le Caux v. Eden (2 Doug. 596.), appear to have been also of great ability. But in Combe v. Pitt, Lord Mansfield on a second argument being suggested, made answer that it was unnecessary, the first having been most satisfactory and full, with neither a word too much nor a word too little.

Dunning married, in 1780, the sister of the late Sir Francis Baring, and aunt of the present Lord

Ashburton, who on his creation in 1835, took the title of his uncle by marriage. Mr. Burke thus eulogized him at a period when hatred of all the Shelburne connexion had not as yet shut his eyes to real worth and sterling merit. After declaring his esteem for the man, he thus speaks of the lawyer:-"I am not afraid of offending a most learned body, and most jealous of its reputation for that learning, when I say he is the first of his profession. It is a point settled by those who settle everything else, and I must add (what I am enabled to say from my own long and close observation) that there is not a man of any profession, or in any situation, of a more erect and independent spirit, of a more proud honour, or more manly mind, or more firm determined integrity."

When the fierce hatred of Lord Shelburne burst forth among the Whigs; when he was the object of constant and unsparing attacks, somewhat of their abuse extended to his eminent partizans; Colonel Barré's pension, and Lord Ashburton's grant for life of the duchy, were assailed; but no one ventured to question the purity of the latter's whole personal, political, or professional conduct. The carelessness of those who compiled the Parliamentary History of those days, and who called Mr. Dunning Joseph, during the whole of these volumes, makes the debates speak in one passage of a conversation upon Colonel Barré's and Lord Ashburton's pensions; whence the writers already alluded to have chosen to assume that the latter had, like the former, a pension of £4000 ayear; a thing utterly false. He had, by grant of the Crown, the place of Chancellor of Lancaster for life-a grant perfectly lawful, and which was a poor compensation for the loss of twice as large an income at the bar. There can hardly be produced a second instance of so scandalous an inattention to accuracy, on the part of persons who choose to fasten on the untarnished honour of illustrious names, charges of

corruption and profligacy, and gross inconsistency, for which their own inexcusable inaccuracy and blunders are the only foundation.

The following letter, dated the 3d April, 1780, relates evidently to the return of Mr. Dunning from his marriage excursion, and also to the duel fought by Lord Shelburne on the 22d March, with Colonel Fullarton, and the wound which his Lordship received. The dispute arose on Lord Shelburne's remarking, in the House of Lords, that the corps raised by the colonel might very possibly be employed against the liberties of the country; whereupon that gentleman took offence, and used harsh language in the Commons; but not satisfied with that, he sent the earl a message. This invitation was accepted, as all explanation was very peremptorily and somewhat contemptuously refused. It seems the same tone was preserved in the field; for Lord S. seeing the colonel and his second, a Scotch peer, asked "which of the two gentlemen it was that he had to meet." The colonel was a very unknown personage, and filled no space in any eyes but his own. On the second fire he wounded his adversary, who, when accosted by his second, Lord Frederick Cavendish, refused to give up his pistol, saying "he had not fired it." He took his place again, and fired in the air. The adverse second then asked Lord S. if he would now retract or explain; but he said the matter had taken a different turn, and explanation was out of the question. However, he added, that he was ready to go on, "if the gentleman wished to continue," which was of course declined. Certainly no one ever behaved with greater courage or coolness in any circumstances-as all might expect who knew the fearless nature of the man-and it argued no little vanity in "the gentleman" to expect he ever should obtain any other satisfaction than a fight, which he probably thought it worth his while to have, as a rising young political dealer.

When the Earl's wound was known in the city, the corporation sent a respectful message to inquire after his safety-"highly endangered in consequence of his upright and spirited conduct in Parliament;" expressing themselves "anxious for the preservation of the valuable life of so true a friend of the people, and defender of the liberties of Englishmen." The late Mr. Bentham, a friend of Lord Shelburne, always regarded him in this light, and was wont to describe him " as the only minister he had ever known who did not fear the people."

"MY DEAR LORD,

"Putney, Monday morning, 11 o'clock, April 3, 1780.

"Your porter will, I fear, give but a bad impression of the future regularity of my family to his fellow-servants, when he comes to explain to them how it has happened that he has not been despatched earlier, which I find he was very impatient to be; and it is in justice to him that I give this note the date it bears.

"The companion of my journey, which ended here last night, and who will, I trust, be the companion of my journey through life, feels as she ought the honour your note so obligingly encourages her to hope for in Lady Shelburne's protection; and is impressed, as becomes her, with the respect due to Lady Shelburne's character. She joins with me in very sincere congratulations on your Lordship's safety, and rejoices in this signal proof that Providence has not yet abandoned this unhappy country.

"I should very much lament the loss of the letter your Lordship had the goodness to think of writing to me, under circumstances which added so much to its value, if I had not learnt from Colonel Barré that it was not to be sent to me, but in an event which I have the satisfaction to see the people at large show they have virtue enough to have learnt, with as much indignation as I should have done. Your Lordship will allow me to express the additional satisfaction your letter to Wilts has given me, by the proof it affords that your recovery is complete.

"I am in hopes of seeing Barré here soon, who, I fear, will not so readily admit, as your Lordship will, the apology I am obliged to make for being totally unprepared on every other subject, by the attention I have thought due to one.

"I am, my dear Lord, "Ever truly and faithfully yours, "J. DUNNING."

LORD PLUNKET.

IT is exceedingly to be lamented for the sake both of professional men and students of Rhetoric, that this great orator never completed the work upon which he had barely entered-the correction and publication of his speeches. Important as his services were to the state and to the Law, to the great cause of civil and religious liberty, and to the reform of our institutions on rational and moderate principles, his great fame rests upon his eloquence, in which he was surpassed by none in his own times, hardly by any orator of former ages.

The circumstances in which he was placed from his earliest years were exceedingly favourable to the attainment of that eminence, which he reached at an early period; his inflexible principles of toleration, and the severe discipline exercised over his imagination by his strong logical judgment, may be traced to one and the same source. The son of a most respectable Presbyterian pastor, he had from conviction after full examination of the differences between the Church and the sects, joined the establishment; and the kindness which he ever showed towards the communion that he had quitted, afforded the best proof of this step having been taken from conscientious feelings. No one, indeed, who either in public or in private heard him discuss such questions, could entertain a doubt that upon the most serious of all subjects he had feelings of more than ordinary earnestness. His