453. John Philpot Curran. Lawyer.
[Born near Cork, 1750. Died in London, 1817. Aged 67.]
Of very humble parentage. Obtaining a sizarship, he received his education at Trinity College, Dublin, free of expense. He went to London, and entered himself as student at one of the Inns of Court. Called to the bar in 1775. His brilliant qualities soon brought him into notice. He was employed to defend various persons charged with political offences, and his eloquence, his wit, his withering sarcasm, and touching pathos, carried all before them. In 1784, he obtained a silk gown, and took his seat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Doneraile. When the Whigs came into office in 1806, he was made Master of the Rolls in Ireland. This office he held until 1814, when he resigned it and secured a pension of 3000l. a-year. He then visited England, and took up his residence in London, where he died. He was a popular advocate, and a most successful debater. His personal appearance was as deficient in grace as his intellectual powers were splendid. His country, which loved him when living, lamented him when dead, and perpetuated her love and her grief by the erection of a public monument to his memory.
[By Christopher Moore. 1841. Executed for his monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.]
454. Lord Eldon. High Chancellor of England.
[Born 1751. Died 1838. Aged 87.]
A great lawyer. His legal learning, it is said, has never been surpassed, If it has been equalled. For many years of his long life he sat on the judgment seat, and in the councils of his Sovereign. But the fame of Eldon as a politician has not survived him. He was narrow-minded and narrow-hearted. Lord Brougham has summed up his political faith when he says, “he was alike the determined enemy of all who would either invade the institution, or extirpate the abuse.” He worshipped things as they were. Whatever existed—whether a rotten borough, a sanguinary enactment, or an unjust civil disability—to the mind of Lord Eldon it formed part of the “British Constitution,” and that Constitution had in his eye a sanctity, like religion. No argument was admitted against this iron and immovable belief. Hence, though all men respected his sincerity, all enlightened men pitied his bigotry, and felt it as a public relief when he departed in his ripe old age. He was the last great man of the remorselessly obstructive school to which he belonged. As Lord Chancellor, his decisions have obtained great respect, but he was generally so long in arriving at them, and hesitation and doubt formed so marked a characteristic of his judicial character, that the pecuniary losses and human misery for which he became responsible were considerable. Lord Eldon was of humble origin, and his chances of promotion seemed in early life so remote, that he was actually at the minute of quitting London in despair when he received the brief that took him on to fortune.
[By Chantrey.]
455. Horatio Nelson. Lord High Admiral.
[Born at Burnham-Thorpe, in Norfolk, 1758. Died at Trafalgar, 1805. Aged 47.]