THE present illustrious peer owes his elevation to the law, the fountain from whence so many other great families have sprung. The names of Bacon, Hyde, Somers, Yorke, and Murray, are alone sufficient to cover this source with unfading rays of glory. Nor probably will LORD ELDON be sooner forgotten in the legal annals of his country.

WILLIAM SCOTT, a merchant of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in Northumberland, whose widow died July 18th, 1800, aged ninety-two, had three sons; first, Henry, a merchant at Newcastle; second, Sir William; third, John, the present peer.

Sir William Scott, second son, who presides over the courts of admiralty with such distinguished talents and integrity, was educated at University College, Oxford, of which he became Fellow; and where he obtained great reputation, and took the degree of LL. D. and was appointed Camden Professor of History, in which Gibbon has borne testimony, that "his lectures would compose, were they given to the public, a most valuable treatise." He has since arrived at the highest eminence in the civil law, in which he has for many years filled the important office of JUDGE OF THE HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY, where his decisions have acquired universal applause. He also represents the University of Oxford in parliament. He married Miss Bagenal, of Berkshire: by her, who died September 4th, 1809, he has a daughter, married to Colonel Townshend, of Honington in Warwickshire, and also sons.

Sir JOHN Scott, now LORD ELDON, was born about 1750,

educated at the University of Oxford, where he early discovered his talents and acquirements; and thence removed to the Middle Temple to study the law, where having been called to the bar, though it was sometime before his merits became known, yet as soon as an opportunity occurred of displaying his talents, he made a rapid progress at the Chancery bar, and particularly attracted the notice and countenance of Lord Chancellor Thurlow. He was soon rewarded with a silk gown, and brought into parliament for the borough of Weobley com. Hereford; and afterwards for Boroughbridge.

In 1788, he was appointed SOLICITOR-GENERAL; and in 1793, succeeded Sir Archibald Macdonald as ATTORNEY-Ge

NERAL.

In 1799, he was appointed CHIEF JUSTICE of the Common Pleas; and raised to the peerage by the title of LORD ELDON, of Eldon in the county of Durham, by patent dated July 18th of that year.

In 1801, he was appointed LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR, which he resigned in 1806; and to which he was again appointed in 1807, on the resignation of Lord Erskine.

It is most difficult to speak of those who are living without being suspected of flattery or detraction. When this virtuous and acute-minded man descends to the grave, the page of the historian and biographer will speak of him in the glowing colours which he deserves, unchecked by the fear of being censured for adulation. Of all who, in the long lapse of ages, have filled the sacred seat, on which he now sits, none ever had purer hands, none ever had a conscientious desire of equity more ardent and incessant than Lord Eldon. The amazing expanse of his views, the inexpressible niceness of his discrimination, his unrelaxing anxiety to do justice in every individual case, the kindness of his heart, and the ductility of his ideas, all insure that attention to every suitor, which must necessarily obtain the unbounded admiration and attachment of the virtuous and the wise. If there are those, to whose interests a more expeditious, more rash, and venturous, and less sparing mode of dispatching the decisions of the court would be more consonant, it only shews that in this frail world there are men, to whom a nice and sublime virtue is less pleasing, than a coarser or more common-place and unfeeling line of conduct. Lord Eldon's eloquence is rather adapted to cultivated and thinking minds, than to a popular audience. It generally addresses the understanding rather than the fancy. It frequently wants

fluency; but occasionally is tinged with a high degree of moral pathos.

His Lordship married Elizabeth, daughter of Aubone Surtees, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Esq. by whom he has had issue.

First, John Scott, M. P. for Boroughbridge, married, August 22d, 1804, Miss Ridley, only daughter of Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart. by whom he had issue JOHN, born in December, 1805. He died December 24th, 1805, and his widow re-married ..... Farrer, Esq. of Eltham in Kent.

in ......

........

1811,

Second, Elizabeth.

Third, William Henry.

Fourth, Frances.

Titles. John Scott, Knt. Lord Eldon, Lord High Chancellor of England.

Creation. By patent July 18th, 1799.

Arms. Argent, three lions heads erased, gules, between the two at top an anchor, sable; on a chief wavy, azure, a portcullis with chain, or; a mullet for difference.

Crest. A lion's head erased, gules, charged on the neck with a portcullis chained, or, and a mullet, argent.

Supporters. Two lions guardant, proper, gorged with a portcullis and chained, or, with a shield, argent, charged with a circle of laurel leaves, vert.

Motto. SED SINE LABE DECUS.

Chief Seat. Newby Park, Yorkshire.

a See a high panegyric on him, concordant with the opinions here extracted from the Biographical Peerage, in a speech of Sir Samuel Romilly, in a debate in the House of Commons in the early part of the present year, 1811.

JOHN FITZGIBBON, Esq. an eminent lawyer at the Irish bar, died April 11th, 1780, aged seventy-two, having had by the daughter of John Grove, Esq. of Ballihimock, two sons and three daughters. Arabella, married James St. John Jeffries, Esq. of BlarneyCastle.

Elizabeth, married June 12th, 1763, the Hon. William Beresford, archbishop of Tuam.

Eleanor, married Dominick Trant, Esq.

The other son died young.

JOHN Fitzgibbon, only surviving son, FIRST LORD FITZGIBBON, and Earl of Clare, was born 1749, educated at the universities of Dublin and Oxford, and afterwards entered upon the study of the law, of which profession he became the great ornament in his native country.

In 1784, he was appointed ATTORNEY-GENERAL on the elevation of Mr. Scott to the Bench, and, on the decease of Lord Chancellor Lifford, 1789, he was appointed LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND, and was raised, on June 16th, 1789, to the dignity of the peerage by the title of Baron Fitzgibbon of Lower Connello. To these dignities were added the titles of Viscount Clare, December 20th, 1793, and Earl of Clare, June 10th, 1795; and the English Barony of FITZGIBBON OF SIDBURY, com. Devon, Sep. tember 24th, 1799.

In the elevated situation of Chancellor, he uniformly acted with a manly decision and ability, that extorted applause even

from his political adversaries; he banished chicanery and unnecessary delay from his court, and was, on every emergency, the firm and undaunted supporter of the constitution of the British realms. But these exertions were too much for his strength. He enjoyed his last honours scarcely a year and half.

His Lordship had been for some time in a declining state of health before his death; but latterly, his disease assumed so alarming an aspect, that his physicians thought proper to recommend a more genial climate; and in conformity with this recommendation, he had arrived in Dublin from his country seat at Mountshannon in January, 1802, designing to proceed immediately to Bath, or if his strength permitted, to the south of France. The immediate cause of his death was the loss of a great quantity of blood while at Mountshannon, which was followed by such extreme weakness, that upon his arrival at Dublin on the 25th, there was reason to fear he could not survive the ensuing day; on Wednesday these alarming appearances increased so much, that upon a consultation of physicians he was given over. Even on being made acquainted with this melancholy truth, the firmness of his Lordship's mind did not forsake him. To prevent any impediment to the public business, he directed the law officers to be called, and from his bed administered to them the necessary oaths. Soon after his Lordship fell into lethargic slumber, and continued motionless until Thursday, January 28th, when he ceased to breathe.

On the 31st, his remains were interred in St. Peter's church, Dublin; the gentlemen of the law to the number of six hundred, and seventy-four of the nobility and gentry, making up the procession. The pall was borne by the Marquis of Ely, the Earl of Shannon, and the Lords Kilwarden and Tyrawley. a

It cannot be denied that his Lordship was a man of superior talents, and great vigour of mind and temper, suited to the trying crisis in which he acted so conspicuous a part on the theatre of public affairs.

His Lordship married, July 1st, 1786, Miss Whaley, daughter of Richard Chapel Whaley, Esq. of Whaley-abbey in Ireland, by whom he had issue,

First, John, present peer.

Second, Richard Hobart Fitzgibbon, born October 2d, 1793, an ensign in the first regiment of foot-guards.

a Gent. Mag. 1802.