Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

ed fhould be advanced to adminiftration, and who held the reins of power at the diffolution of the laft Parlia

men'.

Since the change produced by the measure above ftated, no material alterations have taken place in cabinet arrangements, and Sir John Scott has hitherto perfevered in a uniformity of cond.&t. in the year 1788, he dit tinguished himself as the illuftrious father of the Declaratory Bil; an explanatory act, of which it may be faid, as it has of many commentaries upon Hozer, that it pointed out meanings and interpretations invented long after the orginal was digested, and gave the authors of the performance it pretended to elucidate, the honour (fuch as it was) inventious, about which, at the me it was compofed. they were not bold enough to think, even in their wildest dreams.

The confequences of this extraordinary mealure, were as advantageous to Mr Scott, as the bill itself was a larming to the friends of liberty. The latter, it is true, were left to mourn, in aftorifhment, the fecurity with which mcafars might be introduced by flow, Jefuitical and nefarious means, that woul have inftantly died in the luftre of open day.

Thele were fervices that never go unrewarded. In 1788, Mr Scott was knighted, and made Solicitor General.

Among the other patriotic meafures of Mr Pitt's administration, to the bonour of which Sir John Sectt may juftiy, in part, lay claim, we must not forget, that in him originated the legal doctrines and fubtleties of the regency Bill.

As a Parliamentary Speaker, Sir John Scott's merit, is very inferior to his profeffional ability as a pleader. The technical modes of speech, and the formalized habits of the courts, attach him fo ftrongly upon all occa fions, that he can never hope to charm a popular affembly, or command the applaufe of fenates. He wants the warmth and animation, the bold declamatory vehemence, that diftinguish the fenatorial rom the forenfic orator.

Sir John Scott always begins in the Houfe of Commons with a low and em baitaffed tremulation of voice, which fubfides very gradually, and fometimes not at all. He is always fhrewd, clear and fenfible, but very feldom energetic and impreffive-never animated.

As a private character, Sir John Scott is perfectly the gentleman; eafy, polite, and affable; neither affuming among his friends, difficult of accefs, or faftidiously referved to strangers, With the manners, he alfo blends the exterior of the gentleman,

TH

Character of Mr Anstruther.*

Adfiffet nova, qua Genitor produxerit ufus :
Vebemens liquidus, puroque fimillimus amni,
Fundel opes, Latiumque beabit divite Lingua:
Luxuriantia compefcet; nimis afpera fano
Levabit cultu; virtute carentia tollet:
Ludentis fpeciem dabit, ac torquebitur, ut qni
Nunc Satyrum, nunc agreftem, Cyclopa movetur.

HOR. EPIST.

HE multifarious Biographer is, in painter. The mere catching the fome particulars, not unlike the identity of ftriking features, is to both

almoft

From the fame.

almoft a work of mechanical eafe; but to give a varied attitude, and a ftill rarer character to the picture, is, to the one and the other, the knotted perplexity (trinoda neceffitas) of the art he cultivates.

The gentleman of whom we now attempt a faint sketch, will not, we hope, be afhamed to look on a portraiture handled with much faithfulnefs, though with little taile. In one thing, at leaft, we may take credit-that we fhall not fuffer by the teft of comparifon, as we believe he has not fat to another artist.

Mr. Anstruther is indebted to fortune for fome accidental advantages, that might have benefited more, had they fallen clfewhere, than where they did. It may fuit the booby heir of a rich house, to have his wants provided for, even before he knows that he has any; but genius in every clime, will force to her neceffities the tribute of the alien.

On the pride of birth much might here be arrogated. If to be defcended from one of the oldest families of an antient kingdom, were, in thefe times of happy illumination, any thing to boaft-He is the fon of Sir John Anftruther, Bart. of Fifefhire, in Scotland, who connects with a handfome Rent-Rol, confiderable parliamentary intereft.

At an early age, young Anfiru ther was recommended to Glafgow, and there to Dr. Miliar, the celebrated Profeffor of Humanity. They who were lucky enough to have brought hither any talents, might be affured, at leaft, not to leave the place with lefs knowledge than they came.-Our Tyro would, however, have bidden farewell to the academic walls, with little increased knowledge, but for the inceffant Induftry of his great preceptor; for he is fad to have been the id eft boy of his clafs. When recalled from college, he began, however, to feel the neceffity of an established purfuit, and a fixed attention to the

profecution of it. Left to himself, he did not long heftate where to determine-bit fixed at once on the study of the law.

In 1774, he was admitted of Lincoln's Inn-and called to the bar in Hillary Term 1779.

His progrefs in profeffional avocations, has been more obfervable for the certainty of the retainments of what it nas once poffeffed itfelf, than of quick attainments. Nor can it any way be at all impeach d for hav ing been pufhed by unfair and difre putable practice.

Mr Anft u her, in the declaration of his opinion as a lawyer, is flow; but to make ample amenis, he is for the most part, fure. He is confulted on all great questions of law, arifing in his own country, and has often evinced, by a large difplay of local learning, that a more able advocate could no where be engaged. haps there is no branch of pleading more honourable than that of Scotch Appeals; more lucrative, it may roundly be faid, there cannot be; and he is not without a proportionate divifion of diurnal bafinefs in the court where he is more especially called to practice.

Per

He had not been long on the books of Lincoln's Inn, when a profpect of a feat in the Houfe of Com mons prefented itfelf, too flattering to be refifted. He has been twice returned to Parliament.

His conduct in the Senate has been uniform. He conceived an early at tachment to Mr Fox and his politics, from which he has never fwerved in all the trying viciffitudes of his great leader's fortune. He is, to the party with whom he acts, an able coadjutor. In his arrangement of public concerns, in his eafy reference to remote facts, he affords a useful, though ta it af fiftance, to his more talkative anoc! ates; nor has he ever hurt the cause he efpo fed, when he ventured to rife in fupport of its merits.

[ocr errors]

His regular attendance in the pointed language. He is faid to afCommittee of Affairs of India, not fect the manner of Lord Loughbo ten years tedious procefs has been rough; and if fo, is certainly an adable to appal!. To his indefatigabili- mirable copy. As far as relates to ty, may be ascribed the honour of his action, he has fucceeded in the most being appointed by the Commons of exact refemblance; but he who looks England to fhate in the management for the further perfection of a vol me of the impeachment now carrying on, of harmonious voice, and the happy in their name, against Warren Haft- energy of animation, will be difapings, Efq. pointed. Whenever Mr Anftruther deviates from the even, didactic, kind of speaking, his communicative or gans fail him entirely. Somet.mes his voice is thickly choaked; at o thers, it uttes founds difcordant, and ungrateful to the ear of harmony.

The speech on the opening of the charge entrafted to his hands, was a grand fpecimen of oratorical abilities, and discovered a wonderful poffeffion of the fubject he was required to illuftrare. Where the prefent Lord Chancellor deigas to commend, it may very fairly be prefumed there is pofitive defert; and his Lordihip could not with hold his approbation on the spot.

His fpeeches on the Regency Bil, the Declaratory Act, and Mr Pitt's India Biil, did him equal ho

nour.

Mr Anftruther's oratory is by no means fhewy. His charateristic is forcible argument, conveyed in neat,

In perfon he is above the common ftature, and rather inclined to floop, probably from a fedentary habit. His impaired health may alfo, we fuppofe, be attributed to the fame caufe.

The concluding paragraph gives us more pleafure than all that have forgone; however in public life he may be admired of his numerous Partizans; it is far exceeded in the amiability and refpect of his private worth,

On the Variety of difpofition in Children.-By Mrs Macaulay Graham

THE HE difpofitions of children are various, and thefe varieties require to be attended to with care, or the fruits of education will be blafted; for that mode of treat acnt which would rear fome children up to honour and felicity, will be the ruin of others. This I take to be the fole caufe of that inequality of character and conduct which we da ly fee take place a mong the members of the fame family.

There are fome perfons who poffefs a phyfical prudence, which begins its operations with the first dawn of rea

fon. Whether this quality of the mind owes its origin to the flow motion of the animal fpirits, occafiening a cold phleg natic temperature, seldom difturbed by paffion? Whether it arifes from that equipoife of the affections, which prevents any fingle one from gaining a predominance? Whether it proceeds from a natural timidity of mind, from an anxious attention to felf-intereft, or from a natural fagacity, which points out with greater clearness, precifion, and celerity, the evil to be avoided, and the good to be purfued? Whether it arifes from any

From her "Letters on Education," just published.

one

one of thefe circumstances fingly, or from an union of two, or more of them, or from a happy combination of all? Certain it is, that the difference of character is great in this particular; and that fome perfons are born with the principles of this ufeful quality, without poffeffing great value of intellect, thining paris, or thofe energies of the mind which give birth to admirable actions.

Prudence has gained on thefe reafons, the appellation of common fenfe, though it is of fuch determined utili ty, that none would gain by its exchange for what is called fine fenfe. And as its opertaions begin early in life, parents are not liable to mi.take the tendency; but in order to make the most of their knowledge, it will be neceffary to obferve, that fine fenfe, when well managed, is better adapted to fofter the higher virtues of the foul, than common fenfe. The fime moderation which prevents thofe who are poffeffed of physical prudence from falling into great evils, will be obitacles to their purfuing virtue with any degree of warm:h. They will be apt to miftake the cat tion of wifdom for craft, fubdety, and deccit; and they will be fo far from attempting heroic virtue, that without care, their conduct will border on meannefs. Of fuch pupils then, who fhow fymptoms of poffeffing the quality of a phyfical prudence, the parent or tutor may reft fatisfied on the point of their worldly intereft; they ought confcquently to poftpone their lectures on difcretion, and endeavour to animate their feelings by ftimulating examples of great and towering virtue, and of thofe high and disinterested parts of conduct, where the nobler paflions take the lead, and where the interefts of felf are facrificed to equity or to general utility. When the cold infenfioility of fuch natures becomes animated, it will be then time enough to inculcate leffons of moral prudence, which is a very different thing from the quality above

mentioned, as it depends on knowledge gained by experience or inftruction; and is never inimical, but favourable to virtue. For it is the ufe. of the understanding in regard to all the rules of rectitude, in improving all our accomplishments and talents, and employing them ufefully to ourfelves and others. It is watchful in attending to the datates of reafon, amidft the clamours of paflion; and laftly, it proceeds upon a judicious love of virtue, with fuch a careful examination of all its interefts, as to fuffer no eager purfuits of fome parts of it to be injurious to others.

There are other characters fo oppofite to the naturally rudent, that difcretion find no place in their compofition. Thefe perfons in general have quick and lively parts, great activity of mind, with exquifite fenfibility; and their firits move with a velocity that deftroys all that frigidity which is fo favourable to the operation of the underftanding. Thus their imagination is liable, not only to be inflamed, but deceived; every impreffion made on it from external objects, or which arifes from the action of the mind, is received with a vivacity that must be inconceivable to thofe of flower feelings; and their paffions are always ready to rife in an uproar, whenever they are ftimulated by defire. These characters, when they come under the tuition of very wife perfons, or are uncommonly favoured by accident, become of cx.enfive utility, and rife to the highest fame; but for want of the fime circumstances of fortune, they oftener act a mad and a ridiculous port in the worid, and become objects of its defion and perfecution.

As thefe characters form a contraft to thofe who are endowed with the quality of a phyfical prudence, it will be neceffary to give them a contrary treatment. Inftead of endeavouring to encreafe fenfibility, or exalt the pallions of the mind, every fimulus to delire fhould be kept as

much

much out of the way as poffible, till they feize every opportunity which^ the understanding has had time to the abfence of thofe they ftand in awe ftrengthen, and till it has gained the of prefents, to break through the rules' habit of exerting its powers: other which authority obliges them to fol. wife it will be ever borne down by the low. They are never left to themtorrent of pallion, and kept under by felves without entering into fome unthe tyranny of imagination. The lucky courfe of action, and this not mind fhould be kept active without proceeding from any vicious turn in intenfenefs. The examples fet forth their affections, but from an irregular for admiration, fhould be exact pictu- imagination, which is ever prompting res of practical imitation. Such an them to a mischievous activity. This example as Genlis' Laggaray would turn of difpofition, in all probability, drive thefe inflammable tempers into proceeds from fome capital defects in enthufiafm or defpair. The fecrets the conftitution, which affect the due of their heart fhould be drawn from circulation of the animal fpirits, and them by fuch winning arts of feeming thofe finer juices which act on the confidence, and real tender.cfs, as brain. Thus the imagination grows fhould induce them to throw off eve- irregular. Thus the ideas prefented ry difguife. Obfervations on the ad- to the mind, lofe their due magnitude, vantage of difcretion, and the evils and become liable to distortion. The which attend temerity, should be remedy for fuch evils lies in a strict made on every opportunity which care of the bodily health, particularly prefents itflf; and thefe propofitions in an attention to the rendering it fhould be varioutly illuftrated by ap- robuft and equal. The mind ought pofite examples, drawn from ancient to be kept perpetually engaged in times, from the characters and con- thofe innocent occupations which aduct of acquaintances, and from the mufe without tranfporting. Inarucftories and anecdotes of the prefent tion itself fhould wear the face of ga day. iety. A full confidence fhould be acquired, folicitude avoided, and when the time of adolefcence comes on, very ftrenuous endeavours should be made to give the pupil an infight into the Mechanifm of the human mind, and the methods of difciplining it.

In fuch difpofitions as I have juft now defcribed, is often engrafted a whimsical turn of imagination, which is fometimes an attendant on original genius; but which, for want of a pio per attention and management, moft commonly degenerates into the worlt fpecies of mental difeafe, viz. an infanity, which carrying the appearance of foundne's in all the ordinary tranfactions of life, only fhews itself when the mind is oppref-d by a combination of unfavourable circumitances, and gives the colour of criminality to actions which really refult from the dilordered ftate of the mental organs.

Children of this caft commonly fhow the turn of their difpofition early. Th fullies of childhood are tinctured with fingularity; their fpirits flow unequally. So times very high, and low in the fame porportion,

Mr Locke gives fome directions for the management of the flow and infentible mind, and Madame Genlis for correcting an indolent one; but I imagine, that the qualities given in thefe three defcriptions, as they have b en placed by me, or as they may be found otherwife blended and mixed in the variety which nature produces, give the ftamp of character to all haman beings; and the judgment of the parent or tutor must be guided by their experience, which will reach them to adapt their conduct to the different modifications formed by the various mixtures of thefe qualities, and their different degrees. Fortuna

tely

« ForrigeFortsæt »