The Green Bag VOL. XX.
No. 12
BOSTON
DECEMBER, 1908
THE FORENSIC ELOQUENCE OF THOMAS LORI ERSKINE BY EMORY SPEER, LL. D. THE invincible D'Artagnan, Dumas' hero whom Thackeray declared the most fascinating of all characters in fiction, is made to exclaim, "The times are always good when we are young." Retrospective contemplation may therefore be too opti mistic of the past and too pessimistic of the present. The poet has said in substance, "Memory stands side-ways, half covered with flowers, and betrays every rose, but secretes every thorn." It is perhaps ascribable to this delusive attribute of memory that I have fallen into the possibly erroneous conclusion that we do not hear the fascinating, persuasive, melodious oratory in the courts which our fathers, and some of us in our youth, heard with instruction and exceeding delight. Let each ripe member of this body (and none of us are overripe) reflect upon the advocacy of the great lawyers who, in his own state, charmed his young manhood, and then determine if a word in season may not be said to our young brothers not yet ripe — brothers who may yet with safety "tarry in Jericho until their beards be grown" and who are to maintain the no blesse of the robe in the generation we may not know. May we not urge upon them the study of that "Power above power of Heavenly Eloquence, that with the strong rein of commanding words doth master, sway, and move the eminence of men's affections." It is said by the historian Hume that he who would teach eloquence must do it chiefly by example. The brevity essential
to this occasion compels me to restrict my suggestions to one example, — to that illustrious member of the English bar who yet maintains leadership in the noble pro fession of advocacy. "As an advocate in the forum," said Lord Campbell, "I hold him to be without an eqfeal in ancient or modern times. He had no less power with the court than with the jury." I mean the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Erskine, Lord Chancellor. A complete life of this master of forensic eloquence has not yet been written. In this neglect he has shared, it is true, the common fate of many eminent lawyers, the best and greatest of whom, Nottingham, Somers and man}' in our own land, have failed to obtain a faithful or enthusiastic chronicler. His ancestors for four hundred years had performed the highest duties of the subject, but his father, Henry David Erskine. Earl of Buc-an, had an income no greater t.-ian two hundred pounds a year. It followed that the future leader of the English Bar could not be regularly trained for either of the learned professions. He received the rudiments of classical educa tion at the High School of Edinburgh and the University of St. Andrews. In 1764 he went to see as a Midshipman in a ship com manded by a nephew of Lord Mansfield, then Chief Justice of England. His ship having been paid off. at the age of eighteen Erskine obtained a commission as Ensign in the "Royals" or First Regi ment of Foot. Two years later, he com mitted what some have termed an act of
