address to the king to be prosecuted. At that period the law relative to libels was by no means so accurately fixed or agreed upon as it is at present: and lord Mansfield, according to what he considered to be the true state of the law on this subject as it then existed, uniformly told the different juries in these causes, that if they were satisfied that the fact of publishing was proved against the defendants, and the publication itself bore the sense ascribed to it in the indictment or information, they were bound to pronounce a verdict of Guilty; and that the criminal intention of the defendants, and the libellous purport of the writing, were questions wholly for the consideration of the court. This doctrine drew on his lordship much opposition, and many attacks, from the popular writers of that time, and gave rise to a long contest which happily terminated in the libel-act passed in the year 1790; which has fixed the liberty of the press on the firmest foundation, by giving the jury authority in cases of libel to pronounce a verdict from a consideration of all the circumstances of the case. Let it be remembered that the British nation is chiefly indebted for this act to the patriotic exertions of Mr. Fox.

In the year 1771, on a vacancy of the office of lordchancellor, his majesty was pleased to offer the great seal to lord Mansfield, who however declined accepting it. In 1776 his nephew, lord Stormont, married; and on this event lord Mansfield, seeing himself at an advanced age without children, obtained for himself the dignity of an earldom, to descend to the heirs male of that nobleman.

An act of parliament passing in 1770, which had for its object to extend the principle of toleration, excited in the minds of some ignorant persons an idea that it would afford dangerous privileges and encouragement to the Roman-catholics; and this notion produced in Londən the most disgraceful riot that ever agitated a civilized

His

country. A vast mob assembled in St. George's Fields: which, after proceeding in a tumultuous manner to the parliament-house with a petition against the obnoxious bill, dispersed in different parties about the metropolis; and for three days not only committed horrid and unexampled devastations against the chapels, and the houses of the principal professors of the Romish religion, but even destroyed several of the jails, and thus liberated the prisoners, and directed their savage and brutal violence against the residences of the great supporters of law and government. Lord Mansfield was in this respect too conspicuous a character not to attract their notice. house, with all its contents, was reduced to a heap of ashes; his lordship himself escaping only with his life: and the destruction of his inestimable collection of books and manuscripts on this occasion must for ever be deplored as an irreparable loss to society. With a true magnanimity, however, and a consciousness that the infinitely greatest part of his loss was of such a nature as money could not supply, his lordship declined to accept any pecuniary compensation from the national justice; and behaved with such dignified moderation, that his greatest enemies were ashamed of their violence.

After holding his high office for thirty-two years, perhaps with greater reputation and splendour to himself and advantage to his country than any of his predecessors, lord Mansfield found in his age and bodily infirmities powerful inducements to resign; which he accordingly did in the summer of 1788. On this event, he received a very affectionate and pathetic address from the bar, signed by the counsel who had practised in the court of king's-bench during some part of the period in which he presided there; regretting with a just sensibility the loss of a magistrate whose conspicuous and exalted talents conferred dignity upon the profession of the law, whose enlightened and regular administration of justice made its

duties less difficult and laborious, and whose manners rendered them pleasant and respectable.

His lordship's advanced and very industrious life left him now the prospect of but a few years of that tranquil retirement which his merits, and his services to his country, made it the universal wish that he should be long able to enjoy. After thus spending little more than four years, (during the whole of which term, amidst the decay of his corporeal vigour, that of his mind remained unabated to his last hour,) he died on the 20th of March, 1793, at the great age of eighty-eight; and a few days afterwards was buried in Westminster-abbey.

Like all other truly great men, lord Mansfield was equally so in his moral and his professional character. He was a sincere Christian without either bigotry or hypocrisy. He frequently received the sacrament, both before and after he was ultimately confined to his house by infirmity; and there was constantly that decorum, that exemplary regularity, to be seen in every department of his household, which would have done credit to the palace of an archbishop.

Considering his lordship's judicial decisions separately, it will appear that on all occasions he was perfectly master of the case before him; and apprised of every principle of law, and every former adjudication, immediately or remotely applicable to its elucidation. Considering them collectively, they form a complete code of jurisprudence on some of the most important branches of our law; a system founded on principles equally liberal and just, admirably suited to the genius and circumstance of the age, and happily blending the venerable doctrines of the old law, with the learning and refinement of modern times: the work of a mind nobly gifted by nature, and informed with every kind of learning which could serve for use and ornament.

His great wisdom shed an uncommon lustre over his

admonitions, his advice, and his decisions in the public courts; and gave them their due weight. All he said and did will be held in deserved admiration as long as the love of our excellent laws, as long as the fascinations of eloquence, shall be deemed worthy of pre-eminence, or possess any charms to please.

CONTAINING

A BRIEF CHRONOLOGICAL VIEW

OF

ENGLISH HISTORY.

EGBERT, seventeenth king of the West Saxons, be gan his reign in 799. He conquered Kent, and laid the foundation of the sole monarchy of England in 823, which put an end to the Saxon Heptarchy, and was solemnly crowned at Winchester, when, by his edict, in 827, he ordered all the south of the island to be called England. He died Feb. 4, 837, and was buried at Winchester.

ETHELWOLF, eldest son of Egbert, succeeded his father, notwithstanding, at the time of Egbert's death, he was bishop of Winchester. In 846 he ordained tithes to be collected, and exempted the clergy from regal tributes. He visited Rome in 847, confirmed the grant of Peterpence, and agreed to pay Rome 300 marks per annum. His son Ethelbald obliged him to divide the Sovereignty with him, 856. He died Jan. 13, 857, and was buried at Winchester.

ETHELBALD II. eldest son of Ethelwolf, succeeded in 857. He died Dec. 20, 860, and was buried at Sher borne, but removed to Salisbury.

ETHELBERT II. second son of Ethelwolf, suc ceeded in 860, and was greatly harassed by the Danes, who were repulsed and vanquished. He died in 866, was buried at Sherborne, and was succeeded by

ETHELRED I. third son of Ethelwoif, who began his reign in 866, when the Danes again harassed his kingdom. In 870, they destroyed the monasteries of Bradney, Crowland, Peterborough, Ely, and Huntingdon, when the nuns of Coldingham defaced themselves to avoid pollution; and in East Anglia they murdered Edmund, at Edmundsbury, in Suffolk. Ethelred overthew the nes, 871, at Assendon. He fought nine battles with