CHAPTER XI. LIFE OF LORD ERSKINE CONTINUED. His com- Instances of Erskine's earnest and successful Advocacy; of his Jokes As Burke's name in the Senate, is the name of Buller in Westminster Hall. Few political questions of enduring interest have been discussed during the present century within the walls of St. Stephen's, in which appeals are not repeatedly made to the authority of the sagacious statesman, 'looking both before and after;' his warnings full of prescience, his sayings of comprehensive wisdom, and treasures of judgment and imagination, are lavishly drawn forth by each succeeding speaker, as certain to enforce conviction and conclusive of the debate. A similar respect is paid in our courts to the opinions of the judge. In discussing principles of law, his dicta, his doubts, more weighty than other men's certainties, the inclination of his opinion, though not always assented to, invariably command respect both from the bench and the bar. It is a grateful task, because full of promise for an active and industrious student, to trace the rapid and brilliant course to legal eminence of this able lawyer,—the alumnus and colleague of Lord Mansfield, -destined and worthy to have been his successor, the master spirit though not the chief of his court. Francis Buller was the second son of James Buller, of Spillington, Esquire, one of the members for Cornwall, by his second wife Jane, a daughter of Allan, Lord Bathurst, and was born at his father's seat, in 1746. The family, from its antiquity and alliances, had long been eminent among the ancient aristocracy of Devon and Cornwall. Notwithstanding the incredulity of country-gentlemen, some lawyers have pedigrees. The portrait of an ancestor in his judicial robes hung by the bed-side of the room in which he was born, and may have given the first chance impulse to his childish aspirations. He was placed in a private school in the west of England; and then, instead of being removed to the University, was transferred, as a younger son, to an attorney's office. He was determined to make himself thoroughly master of his profession, and, like a good artificer, in the words of Lord Bacon, did not dread "the smoke and tarnish of the furnace." On the 8th of February 1763, he was matriculated at the Inner Temple, and became a pupil of Mr. Ashurst, a celebrated special pleader, with whom he afterwards sat as colleague for many years upon the bench. The advantages to a pupil of a special pleader's chambers depend almost exclusively upon himself. The great majority may be characterized as westend, or drawing-room, pupils, and pay their hundred guineas, read the newspapers, discuss the topics of the day, copy a stray opinion, transcribe a declaration on a bill of exchange, make up a rubber at billiards, and exeunt. By students of this class was Buller tempted, but had too much firmness to yield to their temptations. In mature life, when in the company of a youth of sixteen, he cautioned him against being led astray by the examples or persuasion of others, and said, looking back with pardonable complacency to his own fortitude, "If I had listened to the advice of some of those who called themselves my friends when I was young, instead of being a judge of the Court of King's Bench, I should have died long ago a prisoner in the King's Bench." In the language of self-gratulating authority, he could repeat to a beginner the classical caution, Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam The first to enter, and the last to quit chambers, eager to unravel the mysteries of a subtle science, and delighted with its logical finesse, he soon proved himself a useful, and of course favourite pupil. At the expiration of two years he took out a certificate as special pleader, and being warmly recommended by his late tutor, he was soon fortunate enough, notwithstanding his extreme youth, to acquire a large practice and many pupils, but was not called to the bar till Easter Term, 1772. Precocious throughout, the future boy judge married, when only seventeen, Susannah, daughter and heiress of Francis Yarde, Esq., of Churston Ferrers, and St. Mary, Ottery, Devon. An only son, Francis, the second baronet, was the fruit of this marriage. The instant success in his profession of the juvenile bridegroom proved that he had not adventured on wedlock rashly. In a work, entitled "Strictures on the Lives of Lawyers," and written by a shrewd observer, it is asserted, that his accession to business was immediate, and his practice as a barrister considerable from the first. In term business he had no equal, and in every motion of consequence or special argument he was always engaged, and at home. Very early in life he seemed to have entered into a recognizance to think and talk of nothing but law, to make himself the Sulpitius or Coke of his age. His astonishing success introduced the custom of making special pleading an introduction to the profession. It had hitherto been the fashion for students to saunter through the courts, and to catch any stray fragment of legal law amid the intervals of gossip; a plan of desultory study still much in vogue with our professional friends on the other side the Channel. "For the talents of an advocate," says Espinasse*, "and legal acquirements, Buller soon ranked among the first of his day. To show the extent of his practice at the bar, it is only necessary to refer to Cowper's Reports, where there will be found few cases of any importance, in which his name does not appear; and his arguments were equally distinguished for research, ingenuity, and sound law." It has been asserted indeed, probably with truth, that he was more successful in his addresses to the bench than to jurors; he was unfortunate in his speeches to the passions, and could not make * Author of My Cotemporaries, in Fraser's Magazine. |