You make it merely a case of conscience to agree with him, yet he never lets you go, until he has secured you, though he never thanks you for a verdict, well knowing you would not have given it, had he not compelled you. Sometimes, though rarely, he attains to eloquence not inferior to Erskine's, and then he is sure of his cause, for what can resist the arguments of Gibbs, backed with the eloquence of Erskine? Yet his eloquence is not an expansive eloquence, because it is not the eloquence of the heart, but that of the head. He cannot look all the jury in the face at the same moment; he does not regard the jury as one man, he feels as though he had twelve persons to convince: different from Erskine, who addresses the whole twelve, and persuades each individual that he is solicitous to convince him in particular. With Gibbs, human nature varies in different men, Erskine finds the tie of connexion, which governs the whole. While the one is labouring his point, the other has already touched you with his wand. Gibbs, like his countrymen, effects all that he does effect, by main force. Erskine and Garrow are dancing on the top of the fortification, while Gibbs is mining the foundation, and before Gibbs enters the city, it is already sacked. I speak of these great men addressing a jury: in addressing the judges, before whom nothing but law and argument can avail, or will be heard, before whom, the

most eloquent might as well speak in the dark, Gibbs rises preeminent. He assumes nothing, yet you perceive the very deportment of his body bespeaks a man sure of himself, who has sounded his position, and who stands ready to grasp the whole common law of England. When Gibbs shews himself before the judges, Garrow is out of court, or sits with his calimanco bag tied up, and Erskine, his antagonist, is as anxious and as busy as a general, fearful of a surprise.

The deeper the case, the more perplexed, the more original, and involved in law learning, the more firm his position, he is secure in himself, and less cautious of his competitor. He rises with a solemnity and moderation, which impress every one. His voice is strong, slow and well articulated; perfectly suited to a man, who, in pursuit of the light of reason, is willing that every word should be judged by the rules of precision. Without the appearance of arrangement, he has all the elegance of method, luminous, you see his path through the wilderness of the law, while in his rear follows a stream of connexion, thus attaining to all the interest of historical order, he gradually convinces until he challenges all he demanded.

His gestures are moderate, his countenance is never impassioned, he is never, like Erskine, agitated: he uses but one arm, and that never in a waving line :

his person is scarcely big enough to wield the weight of his mind. He admits little illustration, but depends on his last argument to illustrate the former. He never condescends to be witty, despises embellishment, would trample on all the flowers of May, discovers no learning foreign to the case, and indulges in no sally, except a strong and overwhelming irony, correspondent with the strength of his reasoning. In these moments, Erskine's self retires before him, like the shadow, which you have sometimes seen in a cloudy day, retreating over the hills, before the invading presence of the sun. But Erskine in his turn, rallies himself, and easily persuades all, that except in that particular case, he is superior to Gibbs, and though vanquished, he is prepared for another combat.

The judges, as judges, have doubtless, most rev. erence for Gibbs; it is evident they look up to him with veneration, and are disposed to suspect their own, rather than his judgment. Yet this man, a plebeian, is candidate for nothing. While Erskine, the son of an Earl, is candidate for the Lord High Chancellorship. I say not this in disrespect to Erskine, who honours England more than England can ever honour him.

Adieu.

LETTER XXXIX.

LONDON, SEPTEMBER 5th.

GARROW is not a lawyer, nor is he, in the extensive sense of the word, an orator; yet not less extraordinary, than Erskine or Gibbs.

His person is respectable, rather rawboned, his face a square flat, his complexion a dry, brown red, his forehead high, which appears higher through a total defect of eyebrows, his chin is triangular, and a little prominent.

I am not sure that I have been correctly informed; if I have, the history of this man is singular. Garrow, the son of a country clergyman, was considered in his childhood, a dead weight on society. Until the age of thirteen he was a cowboy; and at that age, his intellects promised nothing. His father sent him, about that period, at a venture, to London. What occupation he followed I know not; but he found his way at length to the nightly debating societies, at which he soon discovered a wonderful readiness in reply, and a copious flow of original matter, which his want of education rendered all his

own.

He entered on the study of the law, I suspect, under unfavourable circumstances, for he commenced at the Old Bailey. Hence, if human nature wore but one aspect, Garrow would naturally paint it black-Most men in the profession of law, if they have ability, attain eminence by degrees. A lawyer never appears full grown at once, like an air balloon, or a new created Lord. He is obliged to arrive at certainty through the labyrinths of uncertainty. Garrow, though he became famous, soon as he shewed himself, did not depend on his acquisitions, for celebrity.

As counsellor for felons* at the Old Bailey, he was necessarily a spectator of human depravity, from its first moment of lax principle to the last degree of abandoned practice. The criminal code of law, in this country, is so disproportioned, so barbarous, so unnatural, that Garrow might frequently deem it a matter of principle to save the guilty. Hence, the more desperate the situation of the felon, the more severely would he tax his ingenuity.

I will give you two instances, the latter of which myself heard Garrow relate in the King's Bench. The first occurred in a criminal, the other in a civil, action.

*I have hinted before, that a felon is not allowed counsel to address the jury in his behalf: but he is allowed counsel to cross examine the evidence, and to take every possible advantage which may offer.