habits of intimacy, his Lordship has always exhibited a marked predilection in favour of popular rights, more especially a reform in Parliament. Young, arden', e'oquent, with a heart undebauched by long possession of power, and hands unstained with corruption, it is to be hoped that he will one day hold a dignified situation in the Cabinet of his country. He has already given hostages for his principles, and will not forget that he is looked up to by the people:

"Tu Marcellus eris!"

In point of person, and even of dress, as well as address, he not a little resembles the late Mr. Fox. He is like his uncle too, addicted to agriculture, and farms all the land round Holland-house, Kensington.

Lady Holland is a very accomplished woman, and allowed to speak Italian in a superior style to any other English woman now living. She was originally a Miss Vassal, the only daughter of the late

-Vassal, Esq. of Golden-square, a gentleman who possessed a very large fortune in the West-Indies. Her ladyship had been married to the late Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart. in 1786, when only fifteen years of age, and as they lived unhappily together, a separation ensued. Lady H. was united to Lord Holland in July 1797, and has had two sons by that nobleman, one of whom only, Henry-Edward, sur

197

SIR WILLIAM GRANT, KNT.

MASTER OF THE ROLLS.

THE laws of Scotland are essentially different from those of England. The attainment of justice is undoubtedly the aim and end of both, but the means are wonderfully dissimilar. * It was, and is still, owing perhaps to this disparity, that so few Scotchmen have been bred to the English bar; more especially as to those who addict themselves to the study of jurisprudence, Edinburgh (thanks to the

* The procrastination usually attendant on a suit before the Court of Session, has long become proverbial, and indeed we cannot pay any compliment to the celerity and dispatch of our own Chancery. The truth is, that the business of both is conducted according to the principles of the civil law, in consequence of which, instead of the parties coming before a judge, after a little prefatory special pleading to obtain a verdict, as in our municipal tribunals, a world of time clapses, and a great waste of paper takes place, before it is possible to become acquainted with the subject in contest, although, in Scotland, a large portion of the process is printed, and bound in volumes. Blackstone, who was a Common Lawyer, mentions, with great exultation in his Commentaries, a suit relative to a cow in North Britain which occupied a longer space in litigation than what was spent in the siege of Troy, and was at length ended by an appeal to the House of Peers.

We understand that it is but a short time since a nobleman, not unskilled in the jurisprudence of his native country, concluded a contest of ten years, the sole object of which was to oblige one of his stewards, or factors, to render an account of receipts and disbursements.

spirit of litigation, said to be engendered by a dereliction of the trial by jury!) presents nearly as rich a harvest as London. Almost every man of fortune, indeed, in North Britain, studies the civil law at an university, and then takes his degree as a member of the college of advocates: this has become, in some measure, necessary; for as suits are frequent, and much depends on the mere technical skill with which they are carried on, a certain degree of knowledge is absolutely requisite for the management of landed property.

Although the practice of the law, on the south side of the Tweed, may be considered as a short and certain road to the first honours and offices of the state, but five natives of North Britain have pursued this favourite path with equal ardour and success. The Earl of Mansfield was the first Caledonian who became Chief Justice of England; but the Woolsack and the Chancery.Bench, those two grand professional prizes, were never obtained until the time of Mr. Wedderburne, who, by a singular train of good fortune, and a certain happy flexibility of talents, after occupying, in succession, the offices of Solicitor and Attorney-general, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and a Commissioner of the Great Seal, finally became Lord Chancellor, and was at the same time ennobled.

Mr. now Lord Erskine, having tried both the sea and land service in vain, fortunately fixed on the law, at the express recommendation of his mother, the late Countess of Buchan, and at the conclusion

of a long and fortunate career, without the intervention of any intermediate employment, except the office of chancellor to the Prince of Wales in 1806, beheld himself, per saltum, the first lay subject in the kingdom, after the Princes of the Blood Royal.

Two other instances remain on record; the one in the person of the Right Honourable Sir Archibald Macdonald, Knt. now lord chief baron of the Exchequer, who, of noble descent himself, intermarried with a powerful English family. The other is the subject of the present memoir, and he, without family influence, or bymeneal connexion, has risen to a high and honourable station in the practice of English jurisprudence.

Sir William Grant is a native of the portion of Great Britain, if not best known by that appellation, at least most properly denominated the Northern Highlands. He was born on the banks of the Spey, at a place called Elchies, about the year 1754, or 1755. As Elgin, a neighbouring town, was then famous for its grammar school, he and his brother were sent thither, and boarded at the house of Mr. John Irvine, nephew to a worthy and respectable clergyman at that place. Both Mr. Milne and Mr. Sheriff, in their turn, presided over the institution just alluded to, about that period, but neither of them lived long enough to witness the advancement of their pupil, who, however, has not

*

* This gentleman, who is younger than Sir William, was formerly collector of Martinico. Their father, who was originally bred to agricultural pursuits, died collector of the Isle of Man,

been unmindful of the seminary whence he derived the rudiments of his future knowledge. To his credit be it recorded, that a few years since, when the provost and magistrates, who are the curators of the schools, found it convenient, in consequence of the narrowness of their revenues, to rebuild the edifice, he was one of the first to step forward, and contribute to so laudable a plan.

But it

After a short residence at Elgin, Mr. Grant repaired, we believe, to the King's College of Old Aberdeen, where he completed his education. He had now a profession, and it may also be added, without any circumlocution, a fortune to seek. so happened that an uncle, after a long residence in England, had obtained a considerable fortune by commercial pursuits. This gentleman, who soon after purchased the estate of Elchies, in the county of Moray, where he had been born, interposed on this occasion, and on his arrival in London, he was immediately entered of one of the inns of court.

It was a well known practice in former times, and which is but too little attended to at present, for gentlemen intended for the bar to commence their oratorial career at some celebrated debating society. It is in the recollection of several persons still alive, that Mr. Burke first addressed himself to an audience at the Robin Hood; and it is but a few years since Mr. Dallas, now Chief Justice of Chester, made his debut at Coach-makers' Hall, while Mr. Garrow, at present attorney general to the Prince of Wales, &c. at the same time opened at the