Learned in the Law; Or, Examples and Encouragements from the Lives of Eminent Lawyers

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1882. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... 1650-1716. -HE greatest lawyer of his generation, one of the most distinguished men of his age, and foremost in the ranks of our great English statesmen, upon the career and character of John, Earl Somers, it is possible to look with almost unalloyed satisfaction. I shall begin my sketch of this illustrious man--who may almost be called the founder of our constitutional monarchy; who at any rate laid, broad and firm, the substructure on which that admirable edifice has been raised --by bringing together the worthiest and most notable of the eulogiums that have been heaped upon his memory. For the convenience of space, I shall sometimes have to condense them, but, so far as possible, I shall give them in their original form. Sir James Mackintosh will be regarded as a competent critic, and in his opinion, Lord Somers nearly realised the perfect model of a wise statesman in a free community. His wish was public liberty; he employed every talent and resource which was necessary for his end, and not prohibited by the rules of morality. His regulating principle was usefulness. His quiet and refined mind rather shrunk from popular applause. He preserved the most intrepid steadiness, with a disposition so mild, that his friends thought its mildness excessive, and his enemies supposed that it could be scarcely natural.* Earl Russell, as a Whig leader, and a strenuous advocate of civil and religious freedom, deserves a respectful hearing. Somers, he says.f is a bright example of a statesman who could live in times of revolution without rancour; who could hold the highest posts in a court without meanness; and who could unite mildness and charity to his opponents with the firmest attachment to the great principles of liberty, civil and religious, which he had...