Your loving old
G.P.
15
MY DEAR ANTONY,
Born in the same year as was Grattan, namely, in 1750, Lord Erskine
adorned the profession of the Bar with an eloquence that never
exhibited the slight tendency to be ponderous which sometimes was
displayed by his contemporaries.
Grace and refinement shine out in every one of his great speeches.
He was a young scion of the great house of Buchan, being the third son
of the tenth Earl. After being in the Navy for four years he left it
for the Army, and six years later he went to Trinity College,
Cambridge, and took his degree; thence he came to the Bar in 1778, and
at once displayed the most conspicuous ability as an advocate.
He appeared for Horne Tooke in a six-day trial for high treason, which
ended in an acquittal.
In 1806 he became Lord Chancellor and a peer.
I quote an indignant warning to the aristocracy of England which flamed
forth in one of his great speeches:--
"Let the aristocracy of England, which trembles so much for
itself, take heed to its own security; let the nobles of England,
if they mean to preserve that pre-eminence which, in some shape or
other, must exist in every social community, take care to support
it by aiming at that which is creative, and alone creative, of
real superiority.
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