Turton, his physician, he thus broke off a discussion respecting his symptoms: "Instead of dwelling on an old man's pulse, let me ask you, dear Doctor, what you think of this wonderful French Revolution? Dr. Turton: "It is more material to know what your Lordship thinks of it." Lord Mansfield: "My dear Turton, how can any two reasonable men think differently on the subject? A nation which, for more than twelve centuries, has made a conspicuous figure in the annals of Europe: a nation where the polite arts first flourished in the northern hemisphere, and found an asylum against the barbarous incursions of the Goths and Vandals: a nation whose philosophers and men of science cherished and improved civilisation, and grafted on the feudal system, the best of all systems, their laws respecting the descents and various modifications of territorial property:-to think that a nation like this should not, in the course of so many centuries, have learned something worth preserving, should not have hit upon some little code of laws, or a few principles sufficient to form one! Idiots! who, instead of retaining what was valuable, sound, and energetic in their constitution, have at once sunk into barbarity, lost sight of first principles, and brought forward a farrago of laws fit for Botany Bay! It is enough to fill the mind with astonishment and abhorrence! A constitution like this may survive that of an old man, but nothing less than a miracle can protect and transmit it down to posterity!" Horrors broke out and succeeded each other even more rapidly than he had anticipated; and, old as he was, he lived to hear the news that, every vestige of liberty being extinguished in France, the Reign of Terror was inundating the country with blood, and Louis XVI., the constitutional king, was executed on the scaffold as a malefactor. By Lord Mansfield's advice, his nephew, Lord Stormont, henceforth took an active part in the debates of the House of Lords, as a defender of the Government; saying, "that he was called upon, not by dislike of one set of public men or preference of another, but by the duty of averting the danger which threatened the constitution of the country, to range himself under the broad banner of the law, and to add one to the great phalanx that was to shield it from the poisoned arrows directed against it." * Mr. Pitt now voluntarily offered the new grant of the earldom of Mansfield, with a direct remainder, to Lord Stormont, without which this nobleman would never have been a British peer. The ex-Chief Justice was probably the more gratified by the coalition which took place with a portion of the Whigs as it led to the dismission of Lord Thurlow, whom he had ever disliked, and the transfer of the great seal to Wedderburn, for whom he felt kindness, notwithstanding the political lubricity which had marked the career of this splendid adventurer and had brought some disgrace on their common country. But the hour was at hand in which to the dying Lord His continuing powers of Mansfield all worldly speculations were vanity, and he had only to think of the awful change memory. by which he was to enter into a new state of existence. So completely had he retained his mental faculties, that, only a few days before his last illness, his niece, Lady Anne, having in his hearing asked a gentleman what was the meaning of the word psephismata in Mr. Burke's book on the French Revolution, and the answer being that it must be a misprint for sophismata, the old Westminster scholar said "No, psephismata is right;" and he not only explained the meaning of the word with critical accuracy, but quoted offhand a long passage from Demosthenes to illustrate it. Though never afraid of death, towards which he looked with composure and confidence, he was always afraid of suffering pro formá, as he expressed it; and a few years previously he had with much earnestness exacted a solemn promise from the physician who *29 Parl. Hist. 1571. attended him, "that he would not unnecessarily torment him, but that, when he from experience should think his time was come, he would let him die quietly." The time had arrived when this injunction was to be obeyed. On Sunday, the 10th of March, 1793, although the night before he had been quite cheerful, and His last had with clearness expounded to Lord Stor- illness. mont the merits of a law case then depending in the House of Lords, he did not talk at breakfast as usual, but seemed heavy, and complained of being very sleepy. He was placed in bed, and, his pulse being low, stimulants and cordials were ordered for him. On Monday he was rather better, and on Tuesday he desired to be taken up and carried to his chair; but he soon wished again to be in bed, and said, "Let me sleep! let me sleep!" It might have been expected that, in the wandering of his thoughts which followed, he might have conceived himself in some of the most exciting scenes of his past life, and that he might have addressed some taunt to Lord Chatham respecting the action for damages to be brought against the House of Commons, -or, like Lord Tenterden, he might have desired the jury to consider whether the publication and the innuendoes were proved on a trial for libel, cautioning them to leave the question of libel or no libel for the Court. But he never spoke more. On his return to bed he breathed freely and softly like a child, and with as calm and serene a countenance as in his best health, though apparently ever after void of consciousness. An attempt to give him nourishment having failed, his mouth was merely moistened with a feather dipped in wine and water. In this state he languished free from pain till the night of Wednesday the 20th of March, when he expired without a groan "in a good old age, full of days, riches, and His death. broad banner of the law, and to add one to the great phalanx that was to shield it from the poisoned arrows directed against it." * Mr. Pitt now voluntarily offered the new grant of the earldom of Mansfield, with a direct remainder, to Lord Stormont, without which this nobleman would never have been a British peer. The ex-Chief Justice was probably the more gratified by the coalition which took place with a portion of the Whigs as it led to the dismission of Lord Thurlow, whom he had ever disliked, and the transfer of the great seal to Wedderburn, for whom he felt kindness, notwithstanding the political lubricity which had marked the career of this splendid adventurer and had brought some disgrace on their common country. But the hour was at hand in which to the dying Lord Mansfield all worldly speculations were vanity, His continuing powers of and he had only to think of the awful change memory. by which he was to enter into a new state of existence. So completely had he retained his mental faculties, that, only a few days before his last illness, his niece, Lady Anne, having in his hearing asked a gentleman what was the meaning of the word psephismata in Mr. Burke's book on the French Revolution, and the answer being that it must be a misprint for sophismata, the old Westminster scholar said "No, psephismata is right;" and he not only explained the meaning of the word with critical accuracy, but quoted offhand a long passage from Demosthenes to illustrate it. Though never afraid of death, towards which he looked with composure and confidence, he was always afraid of suffering pro formá, as he expressed it; and a few years previously he had with much earnestness exacted a solemn promise from the physician who *29 Parl. Hist. 1571. attended him, “that he would not unnecessarily torment him, but that, when he from experience should think his time was come, he would let him die quietly." The time had arrived when this injunction was to be obeyed. On Sunday, the 10th of March, 1793, although the night before he had been quite cheerful, and His last had with clearness expounded to Lord Stor- illness. mont the merits of a law case then depending in the House of Lords, he did not talk at breakfast as usual, but seemed heavy, and complained of being very sleepy. He was placed in bed, and, his pulse being low, stimulants and cordials were ordered for him. On Monday he was rather better, and on Tuesday he desired to be taken up and carried to his chair; but he soon wished again to be in bed, and said, "Let me sleep! let me sleep!" It might have been expected that, in the wandering of his thoughts which followed, he might have conceived himself in some of the most exciting scenes of his past life, and that he might have addressed some taunt to Lord Chatham respecting the action for damages to be brought against the House of Commons, -or, like Lord Tenterden, he might have desired the jury to consider whether the publication and the innuendoes were proved on a trial for libel, cautioning them to leave the question of libel or no libel for the Court. But he never spoke more. On his return to bed he breathed freely and softly like a child, and with as calm and serene a countenance as in his best health, though apparently ever after void of consciousness. An attempt to give him nourishment having failed, his mouth was merely moistened with a feather dipped in wine and water. In this state he languished free from pain till the night of Wednesday the 20th of March, when he expired without a groan "in a good old age, full of days, riches, and His death. |