marriage vow is less regarded, or that domestic happiness is less generally enjoyed in that state, than in any other section of our country. Besides questions of marriage and divorce, the Consistory Court is called to determine respecting faculties for alterations in churches, and for erecting tombs and monuments; to correct clergymen and other persons for brawling and chiding in churches or church-yards, (and, among divers other affairs of ecclesiastical cognizance,) to supervise and control the proceedings of churchwardens in regard to sacred music, and the burial of the dead. Little needs be said of the manner in which Dr. Haggard has accomplished his part of the labour of compiling these volumes. We see nothing that calls for censure, and much which deserves commendation. The opinions of the court occupy most of his pages and those which are devoted to statements of the cases and of the arguments of counsel, are not, as too often happens in modern volumes of reports, filled out in a spirit of book-making, but contain succinct accounts of facts, reasonings, and authorities. We applaud, in an especial manner, the reporter's obedience to the injunction of Lord Bacon-de advocatorum perorationibus, sileto and earnestly recommend similar obedience to all reporters in our own country, whether official or volunteers. To the fame of Sir William Scott, it is not in our power to make any addition. It has diffused itself throughout the civilized world, and is as imperishable as are any human memorials of genius, letters, and wisdom. His services in the High Court of Admiralty, where he has presided for more than thirty years, have probably never been surpassed; whether we regard the splendour with which they illustrate their author-the success with which they have educed, and fixed on an immoveable basis, many of the most valuable principles of international jurisprudence, or their commanding and salutary influence upon the great community of Christian nations. The profound learning and elegant scholarship of this great man, appear, perhaps, more inwrought, and blended with the movements of his own mind, in his judgments in the Court of Admiralty, than in those which he pronounced in the Consistory Court of London. The latter, however, will afford most grati * "Germani semper perpetuam, dùm vixerint conjuges, habuerunt eorum societatem, nunquam soluta divortiorum ac repudiorum libertate usi, licet justas semper agnoverint divortii causas, veluti adulterium in primis, insidias vitæ, et reliq. Hodie, posteaquam planè adhuc alia accesserunt indissolubilis ex jure canonico et ecclesiastico rationes, hoc potiùs quam patrio jure, æstimandæ sunt solvendi inter vivos matrimonii causa. Sufficit hic, ordinarium dissolvendæ societatis conjugalis modum esse mortem alterutrius conjugis." PUTTERI, Elementa Juris Germanici Privati Hodierni, 1756. See also Tacitus de Mor. Germ. c. 20. HEINECCIUS, Elem. Jur. Germ. Lib. i. tit. 14. fication to mere literary readers: and even to mere professional men, we should hope that the infusion of classical imagery and recollections would not render a judicial opinion less acceptable or useful. The exuberant erudition of Lord Coke was sadly wasted upon his Reports and Institutes: Lord Bacon employed his mighty mind and its acquisitions chiefly in other departments of study and writing-and neither was distinguished by a cultivated taste. The pedantic jargon of their contemporaries, as displayed in prefaces and dedications of Reports, and the sorry rhetoric of the next generation of writers on legal topics-the exclusive devotion of still later lawyers of eminence to their own profession, and the proverbial unacquaintance of numerous judges with every thing pertaining to modern literature-have produced an extensive and too plausible belief that legal science and elegant literature are incompatible, or are allied, if at all, by a most remote affinity. The author of the Commentaries on the Laws of England, and the writer of the Essay on the Law of Bailments, were accomplished scholars-and Sir William Scott, omnibus togæ dotibus, ingenii ac studiorum eminentissimus sæculi sui, qui nihil in vita nisi laudandum dixit, has so united the severity of judicial research with the graces of lettered refinement, as to refute the charge which has long been preferred against the profession, and also, we trust, to incite in our country those lofty aspirations after permanent professional celebrity, which the peerage can never confer nor reward, and which exceeds in lustre even the glories of regal Egyptian ancestry, Which, for ten thousand rolling years renown'd, And ends among the gods. ART. V. A History of the Right Honourable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham: containing his Speeches in Parliament; a considerable portion of his Correspondence when Secretary of State, upon French, Spanish, and American Affairs, never before published; with an account of the principal Events and Persons of his Time, connected with his Life, Sentiments, and Administrations. By the Rev. FRANCIS THACKERAY, A. M. In two vols. Quarto. London. 1827. A GOOD biography of the illustrious Earl of Chatham, has long been a desideratum in the literature of England. The lives of his son, of Fox, of Burke, and Sheridan, have been recorded, though not with abilities adequate to the task; but no one, compe tent to such an undertaking, has essayed, before the present author, to hold up to view the exalted merits and varied excellences of the first of modern Britons. In proportion to the greatness of the subject, should always be the talent of the artist. Mr. Thackeray deserves credit even for having attempted this arduous task, for having faithfully collected and well arranged all that he could find of the public life, and somewhat of the private history of this exalted man. He does not seem to have had much assistance from the family, and it has not been in his power to quote, or to introduce much private correspondence or domestic anecdote. With the exception of official letters from the public offices to which he had a permitted access, he communicates very little that has not been already in print. But almost all that is in print is so scattered and so difficult to trace, that we feel indebted to him for presenting the whole together. The narrative between the reported speeches, which latter form a great proportion of the work, goes forward in a plain, straight road; and the style, although not very ornate, is too good to provoke fastidiousness, and too clear to produce embarrassment. As an honest chronicler, he quietly and unpretendingly conducts us from one event to another, and seldom interrupts the continuous chain by digressive remarks. Although every where conscious of the height and splendour of his subject, he does not suffer his admiration to dazzle him, and when he thinks that he feels the necessity of vindication, in respect to any public measures of his hero, he is moderate, clear, and distinct. William Pitt was born in the year 1708. At an early age he was sent to Eton, a seminary which has long sustained a great pre-eminence among those institutions which the nobility and gentry of England employ to prepare their children for the University. Doctor Bland was at that time the head master of this school, and is said to have highly valued the attainments of his pupil. George, afterwards Lord Lyttleton, Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Henry Fielding, &c., were amongst his fellow-scholars. Whether he took part in the usual sports and amusements of young people, we are not informed; but since he was even at this early stage of life attacked by that disorder which finally destroyed him, we may reasonably infer that his attention to study was seldom suspended by his participation in athletic sports. At the age of eighteen he was removed to Oxford; here he continued his labours with great earnestness and success; and a copy of Latin verses on the death of George I., quoted by our author, evinces a correct acquaintance with the language, and a certain degree of poetic power. The gout attacked him with increased violence at Oxford, and his biographer conjectures it was the cause of his quitting the University without taking a degree; a supposition not very reasonable, since his progress in literary acquirements does not seem to have been impeded by it. On his leaving college, he visited some parts of the continent, and soon after his return, he was, by the kindness of his elder brother, brought into the House of Commons, as a member for the borough of Old Sarum, which was at that time the property of the Pitt family. His elder brother, Thomas Pitt, who lived till the year 1760, appears to have passed through life with no other celebrity than that of his relationship to our great statesman; but he enjoyed the advantage of succeeding to a considerable paternal estate, which he left several children to inherit:-the fortune of William Pitt was moderate. Our author, without appearing to have taken much pains to ascertain it precisely, vaguely estimates it at £4000; and adds, that the necessity of obtaining some honourable, employment, by which his income might be augmented, occasioned him to obtain a cornetey in a regiment of horse. Very little pains would have enabled Mr. Thackeray to fix both the time. when this, the only military commission that Pitt ever held, was acquired, and when it was taken from him. Even as to the manner of losing it, we are left in the dark; if he was merely desired to sell out, he could have obtained the price he had given; but if it was abruptly taken from him, his slender fortune must have suffered considerably. At the age of forty-six, he married Lady Hesther Grenville. He was, at that time, in possession of the office of Paymaster General; and when he was, by a sudden ministerial revolution, deprived of that support, he had a pension of £1000 per annum conferred on him. These provisions, with the legacy of £10,000 from the Dutchess of Marlborough, "for his merit in the noble defence of the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his country"-must have preserved him from being a burthen on his wealthy brother. To the only son of that brother, he appears to have been most affectionately attached; and several letters to him, while at school and college, teeming with the soundest advice, conveyed in the kindest manner, are inserted in the work. When he afterwards became a father, and had placed his brilliant son at Cambridge, his letters to the latter were probably more frequent. The industry of Doctor Tomline has collected four of them, one of which is published by our author. Nothing can be more tender and affectionate. But they do not, like those to his nephew, contain any advice or directions as to his studies; and we are told by Doctor Tomline, that Lord Chatham interfered no farther with them than to recommend the perusal of Thucydides and Polybius. The eldest son, who succeeded to the title of Chatham, has been distinguished for little but the unfortunate expedition to Walcheren; and James, the youngest, who entered into the navy, died at an early age, though not till he had attained the rank of post captain. There were two daughters, one of whom married Lord Stanhope, and the other, the second son of Lord Eliot. Lady Chatham, who is represented as a woman of great merit, survived her husband about twenty-five years. With this family Mr. Pitt seems to have enjoyed entire domestic happiness. Lord Waldegrave, one of his most bitter enemies in public life, has left testimony on this subject in his Memoirs, which deserves to be transcribed: "However his private character is irreproachable; he is incapable of a treacherous or ungenerous action, and in the common offices of life is justly esteemed a man of veracity and a man of honour. "He mixes little in company, confining his society to a small juncto of his relations, with a few obsequious friends who consult him as an oracle, admire his superior understanding, and never presume to have an opinion of their own. "This separation from the world is not entirely owing to pride, or an unsociable temper, as it proceeds partly from bad health and a weak constitution; but he may find it an impassable barrier in the road of his amibition," &c. We will not extend the extract, but we recommend the perusal of these autograph Memoirs to such of our readers as have a curiosity to learn the intrigues of George the Second's Court at this period, through the medium of an able man, but a rancorous opponent of Pitt, Lyttleton, &c. The public life of William Pitt may be divided into three great periods. First. That portion of time, when, as a member of the House of Commons, he opposed the administration of Sir Robert Walpole and his immediate successors, followed by his holding a subordinate station for about nine years. Secondly. His own administration for about five years. Thirdly. The residue of his life, during part of which he was an inefficient member of the ministry, and afterwards, although still oppressed by great bodily infirmity, a distinguished and unrivalled advocate of the soundest principles of liberty and jus tice. It will be our endeavour, to give a short and impartial view of his conduct and character in each of these relations. The real strength of the people of England, the effectual power to control their chief magistrate when arbitrary and unconstitutional measures are attempted, were more fully and soberly manifested on the revolution of 1688, than at any antecedent period of their history. It is true, that at that juncture the mass of the people was more excited by religious prejudice, than by a sense of existing political evil; the Roman Catholic religion was looked at with a sort of undefined abhorrence, and the supremacy of the Protestant Church was deemed by them essential to the preservation of their civil rights. Men of a higher order, with VOL. II.NO. 3. 14 |