Friday. He paid visits to several other friends on that morning, returned to his house, in Bedford Square, to dinner, and afterwards amused himself for a short time in playing at piquet with his niece. She observed some change in his countenance, and hinted her apprehension that he was unwell; he acknowledged that he felt himself seized with a degree of languor and faintness for which he could not account, went to bed, and early the next morning expired without a groan, the immortal spirit having departed so easily that those who stood around could not ascertain the exact moment of its departure. He died on the 5th of June 1800, at the comparatively early age of fifty-four. His body was interred, without pomp, in the churchyard of Saint Andrew's, Holborn.

He had married very early in life, before attaining his majority, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his -son, Sir John Buller Yarde, who had exchanged his surname for property of considerable value. His wealth was estimated at above eighty thousand pounds, for the accumulation of a greater part of which he was indebted to his professional income. He had been bequeathed the sum of two thousand pounds by Lord Mansfield, in acknowledgment of his having performed the larger portion of his judicial duties during the last three years of his life; a munificent legacy in the opinion of many, but which, if considered as a debt, (and so, we believe, the noble lord always held it,) appears to have been made matter of very nice calculation. Sir Francis was a man of unexpensive habits, and for several years led a life of seclusion at Turnham Green, but one Armstrong, a sheriff's officer, having retired on his gains, and built a house next door, the judge, who did not like to be thus elbowed by a subaltern of the law, withdrew to the more congenial region of Bedford Square.

In person he was below the middle stature, and of spare habit, but his countenance was remarkably handsome, and beaming with intelligence. The large lustrous eye, and commanding forehead, gave noble witness of the soul within. In private life, he united an amiable temper with the most frank and conciliating manners; his flowing courtesy was

calculated to put the young and diffident at their ease, and make those of less polished demeanour feel quite at home in his company. There is a tradition on the Oxford Circuit, that he once met at the first assize town with a very unsophisticated sheriff, who bluntly demanded of his lordship, as he was stepping into his carriage, whether he was a bonâ fide judge, -(the worthy functionary made but one syllable of fide), as they had been so often fobbed off with serjeants in those parts. When satisfied on this important particular, he took his seat aside of the judge. A grave severity on the countenance of Mr. Justice Buller occasioned some misgivings in the mind of the sheriff, who expressed his fear that he had unwittingly done something wrong. "It is certainly," said his lordship, with a smile, "against etiquette on these occasions for the sheriff to take his seat fronting the horses, unless," he put his hand on the gentleman, who was starting up,-"unless invited by the judge as I now invite you." Cradock tells a story of a learned predecessor's encounter with another sheriff, not unamusing. The world was then not so highly refined as at present. After the usual opening of common topics, such as the roads and the weather, the high sheriff began to feel himself a little more emboldened, and ventured to ask his lordship whether, at the last place, he had gone to see the elephant. The judge, with great good humour, replied, "Why no, Mr. High Sheriff, I cannot say that I did, for a little difficulty occurred; we both came into town in form, with the trumpet sounding before us, and there was a point of ceremony to be settled, which should visit first.”

To the glowing merits of Sir Francis Buller, both in public and private, there was, however, a back ground of shadow. The almost perfect portraiture of a judge, which the pages of Durnford and East present, was disfigured by an appetency for political intrigue, and his somewhat unscrupulous use of borough influence for purposes of party. His many virtues in domestic life were also tarnished by an inordinate love of money and passion for high play, a failing which betrayed him more than once into situations unbecoming his dignity. To his excellent social qualities a blemish has been also affixed by the late Sir Samuel Romilly, upon much slighter

evidence.

That grave and censorious critic has thus recorded the circumstance which led to the charge in his diary:"A person of the name of Hardy, who served Mirabeau in the capacity of amanuensis, having abruptly left him, though his wages remained unpaid, suspicion naturally fell on him, and the count prosecuted him at the Old Bailey. The evidence was very slight, and the man was properly acquitted, but nothing at all discreditable to Mirabeau appeared. What was my astonishment, therefore, some years afterwards, when Mirabeau had by his conduct in the National Assembly drawn the attention of all England upon him, to hear, as I did, that Mr. Justice Buller had stated in different companies, that Mirabeau had had the villany, when his servant demanded his wages of him and threatened him with an arrest, to charge him with a felony, for which there was so little foundation that it was proved upon the trial that Mirabeau had never been possessed of so many shirts as he had accused his servant of stealing. That Mr. Justice Buller deliberately circulated these untruths, knowing them to be such, I do not believe. He had a very imperfect recollection of the trial, although he had himself presided at it; he fancied what he had stated; he did not give himself the trouble of looking back to his notes; and it did not seem to him to be very important that he should be scrupulously exact respecting a man who had already so bad a reputation, and who would not be the better or the worse for what was thought of him in England."

The judge had previously suffered both from attacks of gout and a slight stroke of paralysis, which left its usual mark in a partial failure of memory. His consequent mistakes in summing up, confounding occasionally the witness with the defendant, have been noticed and maliciously exaggerated in memoirs of the time. To the effects of illness, and not to habitual carelessness of narrative, may justly be attributed a mistake, which when explained discovers so slight a speck on the surface of his social good qualities that an unfriendly spectator must use the microscope to detect it. One amiable trait of Mr. Justice Buller deserves especial mention. He was the active and zealous patron of many young men in the profession, whose studies he promoted,

Holcroft's Life of Public Characters.

without regarding his own time or trouble, by the kindest attention and the most willing assistance. By a short note of compliment, or scattering a few words of praise, he has cheered the hearts of many who were drooping under discouragement, and, by inspiring self-confidence, has lifted them to eminence. He befriended Fearne, soothed the sensitive spirit of Hargrave, and caused the promotion of Gibbs. To Law, when smarting under the wayward displeasure of Lord Kenyon, he displayed the most marked attention, and, by his frequent commendations, upheld the fame of that able lawyer when it might otherwise have been overborne by prejudice. To Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden, he was a still more efficient patron. Abbott (according to Sir E. Brydges) having become a member of his household as tutor to his sons, with the intention of afterwards taking orders, Mr. Justice Buller detected his admirable legal talents, persuaded him to choose the law as his profession, furnished him with the funds for entering an attorney's office, and thus became the fortunate means of giving to the court which he loved one of the ablest chiefs that ever presided over it.*

It is pleasant, in reviewing the lives of those great judges 'who have ennobled Westminster Hall, to notice the alacrity with which, having profited so much themselves from generous patronage, they have sought out and cherished latent or rising talent at the bar. With an anxious care, similar to that of the priests of old, who watched over the young ministering at the altar, that the sacred fire might never be extinguished, they appear to have been always on the search for lawyers worthy to be their successors, and deserving promotion, under whose administration those laws which they treasured as their inheritance might be handed down pure and untarnished. Nor has their solicitude been unrewarded. Mansfield, Buller, Kenyon, Ellenborough, Tenterden,—these form a series of names and titles, which shed a lustre round the law and its professors; and their memories, we may rest assured, in the proud language of Milton, God and good men will not let die.'

* Sir E. Brydge's Autobiography.

CHAPTER II.

THE LIFE OF LORD KENYON.

It is related in the amusing life of Sir Leoline Jenkins that the French courtiers seemed to entertain but a mean opinion of the old-fashioned judge, being not a man of finesse, or of easy carriage and assurance,' and that one of them, more conceited than the rest, asked him in what place or country he was born? Sir Leoline answered that he was a CambroBriton; but the Frenchman being still at a loss, desired to hear some of the language of the place, and the expression he chose was, "Nid with y bag mae adnabod cyffyldy," which is a Welsh proverb signifying that the goodness of a woodcock is not to be known by his bill. The quaint truth of this national adage was not more applicable to the homely, but excellent, Admiralty judge than to the subject of the present memoir. Seldom have great talents and profound acquirements been arrayed in a more ungainly garb, or more disfigured by an uncouth address. But in retracing his course we shall discover concealed, beneath obvious defects of speech, and mien, and manner, the presence of those qualities which entitle their possessor to rank among the best and most able of our lawyers.

Lloyd Kenyon, second son of Lloyd Kenyon, by Jane, daughter of Robert Eddowes, of Eagle Hall, in Cheshire, Esq., was born at Greddington, in Flintshire, on the 5th of October 1732. His father lived independently on a small income as a country gentleman, and held that brevet rank which is conferred by a commission of the peace. He had become possessed of the estate of Greddington by marriage, having resided before at the Bryn, in the same parish of Hanmer, where his father had set the example of acquiring property in wedlock, and domiciled himself with the heiress of Mr. Luke Lloyd. Though somewhat reduced in fortune,