Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the great and the good of all nations and all times; comprising sketches of eminent statesmen, philosophers, heroes, artists, reformers, philanthropists, mechanics, navigators, authors, poets, divines, soldiers, savans, etc . uently in that of Mr. (afterward baron)Wood. He was called to the bar in 1778, and obtained immediate May, 1783, he received a silk gown, and the same year was elected mem-ber of parliament for Portsmouth, and unanimously rechosen for the same bor-ough on every succeeding election, until raised to the peerage. In 1792, bein
Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the great and the good of all nations and all times; comprising sketches of eminent statesmen, philosophers, heroes, artists, reformers, philanthropists, mechanics, navigators, authors, poets, divines, soldiers, savans, etc . uently in that of Mr. (afterward baron)Wood. He was called to the bar in 1778, and obtained immediate May, 1783, he received a silk gown, and the same year was elected mem-ber of parliament for Portsmouth, and unanimously rechosen for the same bor-ough on every succeeding election, until raised to the peerage. In 1792, being employed to defend Thomas Paine, when prosecuted for thesecond part of his Rights of Man, he declared that, waiving all personalconvictions, he deemed it right, as an English advocate, to obey the call : bythe maintenance of which principle, he lost his office of attorney-general to theprince of Wales (afterward George IV.). The most arduous effort, however,in his professional life, axose out of the part cast upon him, in conjunction with 400 LORD ERSKINE. mimm&m^i ppHpHRMPi « : .-.,r ! • ^ S1! •:! i. !.;i/. • i i l-i. v/ ;- , ;-:J •• r. i;1!,!1 •, • t1 i;;lli ilil ; • Statue of Lord Erskine, by Chantrey, in Lincolns Inn ChapeL. LORD ERSKINE. 401 Mr. (afterward Sir Vicary) Gibbs, in the trials of Hardy, Tooke, and others,for high-treason, in 1794. These trials lasted for several weeks, and the abil-ity displayed by Mr. Erskine on this eventful occasion was admired and ac-knowledged by all parties. He was a strenuous opposer of the war withFrance; and wrote a pamphlet, entitled A View of the Causes and Conse-quences of the War with France ; when such was the nttraction of his name,that it ran through the unprecedented number of forty-eight editions ! In 1802,the prince of Wales not only restored him to his office of attorney-general, butmade him keeper of his seals for the duchy of Cornwall. On the death of Mr. Pitt, in 1806, when Lord Grenville received th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
