has been recorded in page 381 [as above]. He died of inflammation of the bowels, at the house of his friend, Mr. Hill, at Chelsea. His age was about thirty-eight or thirty-nine, and he had been about twelve years at the bar. He was the son of a counsel of eminence residing at Norwich. He went to sea with Lord Nelson, and was present at the battle of the Nile, but he early quitted the naval profession for that of the law, though he retained much of the frankness and gaiety of manner which distinguish seamen, and the activity and strength of frame which a seaman’s habits create. He was afterwards Attorney General of the Bermudas, at the time when one of the Cockburn’s was governor. On the appointment of the late Mr. Serjeant Blossett to the Chief Justiceship of Bengal, Mr. Cooper, who was then rapidly rising on his circuit (the Norfolk) became one of the leaders; and at the two last assizes, was in every cause.

“He possessed great activity and versatility of mind; no one, according to the testimony of those who saw most of him, combined with a fluent and powerful eloquence, a better judgment and nicer skill in conducting a cause. But his best and highest forensic quality, and that which, combined with his talents, make the loss a national one, was his great moral and professional courage, his unshaken attachment to what he considered a good cause. No consideration ever warped him from his duty. He was proof not merely against those speculations on the best probable means of personal advancement which many men reject as well as he did, but against that desire of standing well with the judges, of getting the ear of the judge, of obtaining the sympathy of men of professional standing, which it requires much more firmness to resist; there was no one on whom a defendant

exposed to the enmity of government, or to the judges, or to any prejudices, could rely with greater certainty; that he would not be compromised or betrayed by his advocate. In a word, there was no man less of a sycophant. He had a confidence that he could make himself a name by his own merits, and he would have it.

“But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
And slits the thin spun life.”

The following verses, soon after my brother’s death, headed, “On the death of Henry Cooper, Esq.,” appeared in the provincial papers; they were composed by my mother, and had not only the tacit consent of all, but the universal praise, and that openly expressed, for their spirit and truthfulness which all felt, for all then knew and admired him they mourned.

The pride of the Circuit is gone,
The eloquent tongue is at rest;
The spirit so active is flown,
And still lies the quick heaving breast.

The mind so gigantic and strong,
Is vanish’d like vapour or breath;
And the fire that shone in his eye,
Is quenched by the cold hand of death.

Yet a balm to his friends shall arise,
That so soon he acquired a name;
For he dropp’d like a star from the skies,
Untarnished in lustre or fame.

The following verses also, on the death of my brother, appeared in the provincial papers, and were written by Frederic Wing, Esq., attorney-at-law, residing at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and headed, “On the death of the late Henry Cooper.”

“Ye friends of talent, genius, hither come,
And bend with fond regret o’er Cooper’s tomb;
Closed are those lips, and pow’rless that tongue,
On whose swift accents you’ve delighted hung.
Cold is that heart,—unthinking now, the brain,
But late the seat of thought’s mysterious train,
For by the stern, relentless hand of death,
Is stopt the inspiring, animating breath:
And he whose powers of rhetoric all could charm,
Fail’d to arrest the Tyrant’s conquering arm.
Cooper,—Farewell!—
Transient, yet splendid, was thy short career,
Unfading laurels twine thy early bier.
To mourn thy exit, how can we refrain,
For seldom shall we see thy like again!
Who, to deep learning, and the soundest sense,
Join’d the rare gift of matchless eloquence.
Thy wit most keen, thy penetration clear,
Thy satire poignant, made corruption fear.
And such thy knowledge of the human heart,
So prompt to see, and to unmask each art.
Oppression shrunk abash’d, while innocence
Call’d thee her champion—her sure defence.
Once more, farewell, long shall thy name be dear,
And oft shall Independence drop a tear
Of grateful memory o’er departed worth,
And selfish, wish thee back again to earth.
To abide the important issue of that cause,
Fix’d not by mortal, but celestial laws,
Thou’rt summon’d hence, may’st thou not plead in vain,
But from our Heavenly Judge acceptance gain,
And sure admittance to those courts on high,
Where term and time are lost in blest eternity.

APPENDIX.
THE LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE.
as commenced by my brother

Thomas Erskine, the only advocate, and, almost, the only orator, whose speeches are likely to survive the interest of the occasion that gave them birth in a country, where forensic litigation abounds, and political institutions render the study and exercise of eloquence important and necessary, was born on the in --- the year 175, at ---, in Scotland; he was the third son of the Earl of Buchan, by ---. This family is ancient, and connects, with its pedigree, the sovereigns, both of Scotland and England, related to the former. The marriage of the daughter of James the First with the Palatine, mixed his line with the descendants, and, consequently, united him with the family that now reigns in England. He thus brought with him to the profession of the bar, the advantage of all the prejudice in favour of illustrious descents, and found easier way yielded to his powerful talents by the diminution of envy which attended it.