LORD ERSKINE which almost instantly he was to become the most distinguished ornament. Erskine was doubtless excited to this daring by the success of a brother, Henry, or "Harry" Erskine, as he was called, who had for some years been the brightest and wittiest mem ber of the Scottish Bar. Of the latter I have somewhere read this anecdote: A maiden lady, of an uncertain age, of the name of Tickell, had brought suit against Donald and McLean. Henry Erskine ap peared for the autumnal virgin. "Who are the parties in this case, Mr. Erskine?" inquired the crusty old Scotch Judge. Reversing the order for the sake of the joke, Erskine brightly replied, "Donald and McLean, the defendants, Tickell, the plain tiff, my Lord. ' ' Roars of laughter followed, when the Judge said, "Tickle her yourself, Harry, ye can do it as well as I." This was a ticklish case and obviously must not be regarded as a precedent by the younger members of this association. Thomas Erskine was soon to be at the end of his difficulties and privations. " I had scarcely a shilling in my pocket," he said, "when I got my first retainer." "It was sent me by Captain Baillie of the Navy, who held an office at the Board of Green wich Hospital, and I was to make answer in the Michaelmas Term, to an order calling on him to show cause why a criminal information for a libel, reflecting on Lord Sandwich's conduct as Governor in that charity, should not be filed against him. I had met during the long vacation this Captain Bai'.lie at a friend's table, and after dinner, I expressed myself with some warmth, probably with some eloquence, on the corruption of Lord Sandwich as First Lord of the Admiralty, and then adverted to the scandalous practices imputed to him with regard to Greenwich Hospital. BaiMie nudged the person who sat next to him and asked who I was. Being told that I had just been called to the bar, and had been formerly in the Navy, Bai"ie exclaimed with an oath, 'Then I'll have him for my
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counsel!' I trudged down to Westminster Hall when I got the brief, and being the junior of five, who would be heard before me, never dreamt that the court would hear me at all. The argument came on. Hargrave, who led, was unwell. Lord Mansfield said that the remaining counsel should be heard the next morning ... I had the whole night to arrange, in my chambers, what I had to say." Another account states that "the next morning the court was crowded and the Solicitor General was expected to speak in support of the rule, and just as Lord Mansfield was about to call upon him to proceed, Erskine arose, unknown to every individual in the room, except His Lordship, and said in a mild but firm tone, ' My Lord, I am also of counsel for the author of this supposed libel and when a British subject is brought before a court of justice only for having ventured to attack abuses which owe their continuance to the danger of attacking them, ... I cannot relinquish the privilege of doing justice to such merit, I will not give up even my share of the honor of repelling and exposing so odious a prose cution." The whole audience was hushed into a pin-fall silence.' After an argument of amazing eloquence he concluded: "If he keeps this injured man suspended, or dares to turn that suspension into a removal, I shall then not scruple to declare him a shameless oppressor, a disgrace to his rank and a traitor to his trust. . . . Fine and imprisonment! The man deserves a palace instead of a prison who prevents the palace, built by the public bounty of his country, from being converted into a dungeon, and who sacrifices his own secur ity to the interests of humanity and virtue." It is not surprising that Lord Campbell should have pronounced this "the most wonderful forensic effort which we have in our annals. " The decision was for Erskine's client. The rule was dismissed with costs. It is probably true that never did a single speech so completely insure'professional success.
