Our knowledge of Lord Mansfield’s private history is very limited. His life however seems to have been spent in happiness and tranquillity, until the riots of 1780, in which his house, with its contents, was destroyed. Beside a valuable property in books, pictures, and furniture, he sustained that loss which, to a literary man, is irreparable,—the collected manuscripts of a laborious life. He bore this heavy calamity with honourable fortitude, and declined to accept of pecuniary compensation. To the application of government he returned this answer: “I think it does not become me to claim or expect reparation from the state. I have made up my mind to my misfortune as I ought, with this consolation, that it came from those whose object manifestly was general confusion and destruction at home, in addition to a dangerous and complicated war abroad. If I should lay before you any account or computation of the pecuniary damage I have sustained, it might seem a claim or expectation of being indemnified.” Shortly afterwards he appeared in the House of Lords, to justify the strong measures by which the riots had been quelled. “It was wonderful,” says Bishop Newton in his ‘Life and Anecdotes,’ “after such a shock as he had received, that he could so soon summon his faculties as to make one of the finest and ablest speeches that ever was heard in parliament, to justify the legality of the late proceedings on the part of government, to demonstrate that no royal prerogative had been exerted, no martial law had been exercised, nothing had been done but what every man, civil or military, had a right to do in the like cases. ‘I speak not from books,’ he said, ‘for books I have none;’ having been all consumed in the fire. The effects of his speech were the admiration and conviction of all who heard him, and put an end to the debate without division. Lord Mansfield never appeared greater in any action of his life.” No particular cause connected with the frenzy of the time can be assigned for this attack on the Chief Justice; he had not been active in supporting the measures for the relief of the Catholics, which produced this remarkable ebullition of folly and wickedness. But when once riot is afoot, the causes which have first stirred up men’s minds are readily forgotten; and the violence of party abuse with which Lord Mansfield had been assailed, and the unpopularity of the government, in which he was supposed to exercise a principal though secret influence, are sufficient to account for this calamity.
In 1776, Lord Mansfield, at his own request, was raised to the dignity of an earl. He had no children, and his object was to raise the rank of his paternal family in the person of his nephew Lord Stormont, to whom the succession was secured. In 1784, he was compelled to absent himself from his judicial duties for a season, and spent some time, with considerable benefit to his health, at Tunbridge Wells. He returned to his judicial employment and continued to exercise it with unclouded intellect, being only prevented by bodily infirmity from attending the court during the last year and a half that he held the office. In 1788 he resigned it, at the advanced age of eighty-four, having presided in the court of King’s Bench for the unprecedented period of thirty-two years, and being still in possession of a share of health and power of enjoyment which seldom fall to the lot of so advanced an age. He retained the perfect possession of his faculties until within a week of his death, which took place March 18, 1794, in the ninetieth year of his age.
In the case of this, as of many other eminent men, we may regret that so few particulars of their every-day manners have been preserved. In the relations of private life his conduct was exemplary; and the amenity of his manners, the playfulness of his wit, and his admirable qualifications as a companion, secured the affection of those who enjoyed his society. His talents as a speaker were set off by a graceful and attractive person, and a remarkably harmonious voice; qualifications greatly conducing to good delivery, which it is said he was in the habit of improving in youth, by sedulous cultivation under the direction of Pope.
A gentleman (Mr. Baillie), who had been deeply indebted to Lord Mansfield’s professional abilities, bequeathed 1500l. to erect a monument to his memory. The commission was entrusted to worthy hands, for it was given to Flaxman. A sketch of his work forms the vignette to this memoir.
The ‘Life of the Earl of Mansfield,’ by Mr. Halliday, is the only biographical account of this eminent lawyer which we know to exist. It is too manifestly panegyrical, and, as has been intimated, contains a very meagre account of the private history of its noble subject. It is mainly occupied by reports of Lord Mansfield’s speeches and judgments, and must therefore be chiefly acceptable to legal readers.
[Monument of Lord Mansfield in Westminster Abbey.]
Engraved by E. Scriven.
BRADLEY.
From the original Picture by Richardson in the possession of the Royal Society.
Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street.
