of the greatest injury to the national commerce and manufacturing interests of the several states, but the expense of maintaining a multitude of guards to prevent smuggling, and to secure the taxes levied upon commodities, was enormous, in proportion to the revenue collected, while the moral effect was at the same time exceedingly pernicious. "The fixed permanent allowance to Frankfort for a population of 60,000 to be deducted from the whole. 66 "The maintaining numerous lines or circles of customs necessary to secure any revenue from commodities entering or passing through the several small states of Germany, was found atIt may also be remarked that in the annual tended with such grievous inconvenience and and triennial congress of delegates from the seexpense, that in 1826 Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, veral states of the Union, which the convention Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, provides, shall meet for settling the accounts, Saxe-Altenburg, Schwartzburg-Sonderhausen, agreeing to alterations in the tariff, &c., Prussia Saxe-Rudolstadt, Anhalt-Dessau, Reuss-Schleitz, Reuss-Greitz, Reuss-Lobenstein-Ebersdorf, with a total population of 894,778, entered into a union for a general line of customs-barriers to surround their extreme frontier; and, after deducting the whole expense of collection, to divide the net revenue arising from the duties thus collected on the importation or transit of foreign commodities among the several states, in proportion to the respective population of each. This first union, which Prussia did not certainly originate, was called 'Der Mittel Verein,' or Central Association of Thuringia. In April, 1827, and January, 1828, Bavaria and Wurtemberg joined in a union of customs, with the view of not admitting any, except the small states enclosed or partly enclosed within those kingdoms, into the association. The duties in the tariff of this second union were, on woollens as high, and on many other articles nearly as high as those in the Prussian tariff. "Overtures were then made by Prussia to all the states of the Germanic Confederation, inviting them to join in one general union of customs, adopting her tariff for the whole. # * The kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Saxony, with Hesse-Darmstadt and HesseCassel, signed on the 22nd of March, 1833, the celebrated convention styled the Zoll-Verein, or Union of Customs;' the net revenue of which to be divided among the several states, strictly in proportion to the numbers of their respective populations. has only one vote like each of the other states. This was discreetly and gratuitously offered by Prussia to avoid wounding the dignity of the other sovereigns of the League. By looking at the geographical position of the several states of this Union, it will be seen that many of those have now no customs' frontier, and all the others, with the exception of Prussia, not half their former frontier, to guard against smuggling, or along which to maintain custom-houses; while all receive an equal share of the revenue, collected on goods entering along the general line of boundary. "The consequence is, that Prussia has sacrificed about two millions of dollars annually to the revenue of the other states, exclusive of fiscal loss sustained by the consumption of smuggled goods introduced along the Rhine and across the Lake of Constance, into Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria. "All the Thuringian states, Wurtemberg (except for a few miles along the Lake of Constance), Hesse Ducal, and Hesse Electoral, Nassau, and Frankfort, have no custom-house expenses whatever, except for warehousing. The treasuries of all, except Prussia, receive a much larger amount of customs' revenue than formerly, with the expense of collection so greatly reduced. All financiers know well the difficulty of replacing a once-established chief source of revenue. But an adjustment of the revenue as nearly as possible according to consumption will be soon attempted, and, in all probability, with success, by the delegates of the several states. It must now be evident to all that the spirit and object of this confederation have been to unite and strengthen Germany as one great nation, by throwing down those barricades of material warfare, and of international intercourse-the numerous lines of customs and "At the congress of the delegates from the customs' officers, which previously belted every several states of the Union held in the summer large and petty state in Germany, and the remoof 1836 at Munich, on the settlement of the ge- val of which has laid open an uninterupted interneral customs account, the expenses of collect-course from the frontiers of France and Belgium ing the revenue of the states of the Union was to those of Austria and Russia-from the Alps found to be about 15 per cent., and the division to the Baltic. of the net revenue was fixed in the following proportions : "The Thuringian and other states which had not previously joined, except Lübeck, Bremen, Hamburg, and Mecklenburg, which had not joined, amounted to about 3,285,000. In 1841 Brunswick and Lippe-Schaumberg entered the league, and Luxemburg also joined in January, 1842. "These states have therefore established a free trade among themselves. The commodities of the one are interchanged for those of the other, without the payment of duties; and more than all, the free opportunity of interchanging ideas, and of receiving intelligence, is afforded and promoted, when passing to and fro, for the purpose of interchanging commodities: all these circumstances constituting the greatest material, of the Union." We have left ourselves no space for further comment, or we would willingly have extended this notice of a work, in which the most important statistical facts illustrate the soundest principles, to a complete analysis of its contents. We have said, however, enough to recommend it to the reader, and in so doing we discharge but a small portion of the obligation imposed upon every public writer by the invaluable labours of Mr. Macgregor, and his able advocacy of commercial freedom. E. moral, and civilized blessings ever enjoyed by ly, indeed, from great want-up to the high the German people. places of the people; and that wealth, and "With the feeling of convenience and interest honour, and ease, await the close of that caexperienced by the subjects of the other states, reposes the secret of Prussian power and influ-reer which, in its commencement, was atence over Germany, and of making the neces-tended by poverty, hidden in almost impenesary fiscal changes in the distribution of the du- trable obscurity, and doomed to severe and ties with this power, Prussia might safely re- unremitting labour. All these difficulties serve to herself but one vote among the states have apparently been vanquished by individual exertion, and the rewards appear the merited return to industry and unflinching perseverance. To the multitudes who read and therefore amusing; its very reality gives but for amusement, all this story is exciting, it a charm greater than any which belongs to fiction, and the "every-day" character of the incidents brings it so near to our homes as to make the tale a portion almost of our individual history. But there is far more to be learned from this history of an English lawyer's success than the mere routine of every-day life. The secret of that success is connected with the most intricate workings of that most complicated machine, our social and political system. It is not labour, and worth, and capacity alone, that conduct to ultimate triumph; "the race is not always to the swift, or the battle to the strong." Mediocrity is often successful, when the most untiring patience and labour are unable to rescue the greatest capacity and genius from hopeless obscurity; and a severe and scrupulous morality has but too often to yield pre-eminence to that pliant usefulness which is ever ready to perform what wealth and power command. In a scene so complicated as that in which a lawyer has now to move, various indeed are the ways which lead to fortune; and we would fain hope that the qualities, mental and moral, which during the last age were necessary to the attainment of the higher rewards which the profession holds out, are not now absolutely demanded.* We would believe that a purer morality, a more exalted tone of feeling, prevails among public men generally, and that they who, like distinguished lawyers, are placed in the full blaze of notoriety, must be influenced by the improved modes of thought and feeling which are now prevalent among the world ART. IX.-1. The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, with Selections from his Correspondence. By HORACE Twiss. Esq., Q. C. 3 vols. London: John Murray. THE history of the successful career of an English lawyer is always interesting and sometimes instructive. There is something of the spirit of romance in his early and painful struggles for mere subsistence, and we follow with anxiety all the various chances of his chequered fortune. We trace with eager curiosity the foundations of his success, slowly laid by laborious and patient study; we sympathize with the hopes and fears of the adventurous youth as he boldly prepares himself for the arduous contest in which he is about to engage; we see his sanguine expectations dashed in manhood by cold neglect, and his ardent spirit pining in what he begins to believe a hopeless obscurity. He is now on the brink of despair and failure. A lucky accident raises him from * A late appointment to the judicial bench, that despondency and neglect; the tide suddenly of Mr Elie, makes us hope that a death-blow has turns in his favour; his exertions are redou- been given to that system of legal appointments bled; his rewards and his success increase; Neither party feeling nor party convenience has had which was the disgrace of the late Administration. till at last, steadily advancing, he trium- any influence in raising Mr. Elie to his present phantly grasps the honours of his profession, high office; and Sir Robert Peel, by disregarding becomes at once an important functionary, all such considerations, and looking only to the legal engaged in the great business of a great na- qualifications of the various gentlemen from whom tion, and finds that the dull drudgery of his he was to make choice, has done great honour to himself and his Administration, and has also set a youth has been the fortunate means of lifting wholesome example, from which no future Minister him from a lowly condition-not unfrequent-will be able safely to depart. I d 0 D a W C at large. Of the future, however, we cannot John Scott, Earl of Eldon, and Lord speak but with conjecture; of the past, the Chancellor of England, was the son of Mr. certain evidence is before us; and in the William Scott, of Newcastle, really a trades "His residence," says Mr. Twiss, was at Newcastle, and his principal business was that of a coal-fitter. The coal-fitter is the factor the shipper, taking the shipper's order for the commodity, supplying the cargo to him, and receiving from him the price of it for the owner; and this employment, as it involves considerable trust, is of proportionate respectability." who conducts the sales between the owner and R 'Life of Lord Eldon,' as written by his ad-man of that town. State. in Neither Mr. Twiss nor Lord Eldon's de scendants have been satisfied with this plain and true statement, but have endeavoured, idly enough, to make out a noble genealogy for the Chancellor by connecting him with the Scotts of Balweary. "The family of Lord Chancellor Eldon appears to have branched from the Scotts of Balweary; and accordingly, soon after his elevation to the peerage, the arms of the Scotts of Balweary, with certain honourable augmentations, were granted and confirmed to the descendants of his father.”—P. 21, vol. I. For this assertion there is not a shadow The tale, in itself interesting and instructive, has lost none of its attractions from the manner of the biographer. Mr. Twiss, indeed, has written with a strong bias in favour of his hero; and his own political opinions necessarily affect many of the judgments he passes on men and things. These opinions are diametrically opposed to those which we deem correct; but they never to us appear put forth unfairly or offensively; while his partiality to the subject of his story gives of evidence; and Mr. Twiss, wisely conanimation and interest to the whole narratent with making it, does not attempt to suptive. A cold and scrupulous biography, written without passion or kindness, may be port it by any proof. The name of Scott perhaps very instructive, but is, neverthe- (a very common one) was held by a certain less, seldom agreeable. A carping, snarl- ancient family of Balweary, and also by certain ing, or hesitating friend seems always an of the present time in Newpersons castle therefore the latter are descendants sidious enemy, and you read with doubt and of the former. This is the pedigree. "There suspicion what has been written without is a river in Macedon," &c. generosity or good will. On some of the opinions expressed by Mr. Twiss we shall hereafter have to animadvert; but viewing his work as the history of a celebrated man, by a friend and admirer, it deserves liberal commendation. Great industry and great fairness are shown throughout; while the open and candid avowal of old-fashioned Toryism, in these days of evasive Conservatism and unintelligible liberality, gives every reader at once to understand what he has to expect, puts him on his guard as to all the judgments he meets with, and conciliates his favour by setting him at his ease.* William Scott, however humbly descended, was destined in his descendants to be doubly ennobled. His eldest son, William Lord Stowell; and John, his eighth child by Scott, was afterwards the justly celebrated his second marriage, was the more known Lord Chancellor Eldon. himself:-"I was born, I believe, on the Lord Eldon characteristically states of 4th of June, 1751." It appears from the Newcastle, that he was baptized on the 4th register of the parish church of All Saints, of the following July. This is too much like taking the portrait of a sloven, after the manner of a regular portrait-painter: the old coat, worn-out hat, the ill-tied neck cloth, the hair and beard, all in disorder,―all, in fact, that is characteristic of the man, disappear, silk and velvet, smooth and decorous, take their place, and we have a dapper picture, without spirit or truth. The coarse sketch, dashed off without a scrupulous regard to decorum, is a better likeness, and tells a truer tale. Yet, at the present time, we hardly know how the difficulty before Mr. Twiss could Every biography is, or ought to be, a collection of anecdotes. The three volumes before us contain a large body, grave and gay, chiefly, indeed, professional, but necessarily, from the various positions in life occupied by Lord Eldon, extending to other and multifarious subjects. The delicacy of modern manners, we suspect, has robbed many of them of their original flavour; and, as they now stand, they hardly body forth, as they might have done, the days of our fathers and grandfathers.have been avoided. Although Mr. Scott's condition was hum-, him to be a candidate for the fellowship in Oxble, his means, for his position, were ample. ford, which he afterwards obtained. His influThe education of his children was thus fully ence in that station procured for me the fellowprovided for and carefully conducted. In ship in Oxford, which I afterwards obtained. To Newcastle, as in so many other towns, a and in our future success in it. both, these fellowships were of great use in life,. We owe much, free grammar school had been established therefore, to what it is to be wished nobody should by private munificence during the early profit by, viz., Rebellion."-P. 51, vol i. years of the Reformation. In the years 1525 and 1533, Thomas Horsley, Mayor of Newcastle, founded a Hye School, "to be free for any within or without that town." This became, during the reign of Elizabeth, a Royal Grammar School, and at the time when the young Scotts received their education there, it was conducted by the Rev. Hugh Moises, a worthy and efficient teacher. Of the advantages derived by himself and brothers from this excellent instructor, Lord Eldon ever after retained a grateful remembrance. The next important event in the life of the future Chancellor, was his marriage with Miss Elizabeth Surtees, in the year 1772, she being only eighteen, and he twenty-one years of age. With the true perversity of love, young Scott's choice was nearly a penniless beauty, and he had nothing. They had faith, however, in good fortune, and believed that their parents, who were in reality well able to assist them, would not allow them to suffer many of the ills of poverty. On the 18th of November, 1772, young Scott ran off to Scotland with his confiding mistress, who stole by night from her father's house, descending from a window by a ladder. They travelled all night, and were married the next morning at Blackshiels, by a minister of the Scottish church, and next day found themselves, like runaway children, far from home, without a penny in their pockets. This imprudent step led indeed to important results, being, in fact, the immediate cause of the change in Scott's purposes in life, forcing him to the bar, and thus compelling him to enter upon a career which ended in the highest honours, and great possessions. The chances were, however, against so happy a result, and we can easily understand how the parents on both sides were alarmed by the precipitate proceeding of their children. It appears that, although John Scott's family were aware of the mutual attachment existing between him and Miss Surtees, the lady's relations had no suspicion of what was about to happen. The father of Miss Surtees was at that time in a position superior to that of the Scotts, and his wealth was supposed to be much greater than that of the coal-fitter. There is now reason indeed to believe, that the humbler was the richer man, and that some of the objections felt to the marriage by the family of Miss Surtees arose from "His birth in the county of Durham qualified the necessity which thereby arose of making William Scott, his elder by five years and a half, having by accident been born, not in Northumberland, but in Durham,* was enabled, in consequence, to stand for a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. This was gained by young Scott. At nineteen years of age, he was elected Fellow of University College, and before he was twenty was appointed a college tutor. This extraordinary success, on the part of the elder brother, led to John's also finishing his education at Oxford. His father intending to make John a coal-fitter, like himself, informed his son William of his determination. William objected, saying: "Send Jack up to me, I can do better for him." So Jack was sent to Oxford, and placed under the care and guidance of his fortunate and highly instructed brother. Under this excellent instruction he made great progress, and in a little more than a year after his arrival at the University, in July, 1767, he was elected a fellow of University College. He was at this time sixteen years of age. In the Anecdote Book,'† Lord Eldon, after adverting to the circumstances of the rebellion (of 1745) which occasioned Mrs. Scott to leave Newcastle for the adjoining county, when about to give birth to William, says: *On the advance of the Pretender's army to Newcastle, Mrs. Scott, being then with child, retired to the country-house of Mr. Scott, situate in Haworth, in Durham, where she was confined, and brought forth twins, the elder of whom was William, afterwards Lord Stowell. "A manuscript book of anecdotes and observations, noted down by Lord Eldon himself, in his later years, for his grandson's use and amusement." -Preface, p. 7. provision for her. Such, at least, was old "The father of the bride was so much dis pleased, that for some time he would not even 25 hance went up to him one day on the Exchange, say- Temple, in January, 1773: on the 13th of February of that year, he took his degree of Master of Arts. In November of the same year his fellowship was given up, and he was obliged steadily to apply himself to the law as a profession. "I have married rashly," said he, in a letter to a friend," and I have neither house nor home to offer to my wife; but it is my determination to work hard to provide for the woman I love, as soon as I can find the means of so doing." The fortune of the young couple was certainly slender, but we very much suspect the early difficulties and poverty of the success- During this time he experienced great peful lawyer to have been in after years uncon- kindness from several of his friends, and was sciously exaggerated by himself, from a de-enabled, by the interest of one of them, to sire to impart an air of romance to his early have apartments in New Inn Hall, at Oxford. struggles as well as to enhance his own He, while a student, also lectured on law, as merit in resisting, and ultimately overcoming, all the obstacles which lay in his path to for were Is tune. "On the 7th of January, 1773, Mr. Surtees and Mr. Scott entered into articles, to which the young couple were parties, and by which Mr. Surtees covenanted to pay Mr. John Scott 1,000%. as the portion of his daughter, with 5 per cent., until payment; and certain trusts were therein declared of a sum of 2,000l., for which Mr. Scott had given his bond to the trustees as the portion Some years afterwards, on the 17th of August, 1781, another instrument was executed, by which Mr. Surtees bound himself to pay a second portion of 1,000Z., in addition to the like amount settled by him in the before-mentioned articles. Each of these two sums carried interest at 5 per cent."-P. 81, vol. I. of his son. On the death of old Mr. Scott, in 1776, his eldest son, William, according to Lord Eldon's own account, became possessed of between 24,000l. and 25,000. John had an additional 1,000l., so that his estate at this time was 4,000l., and was in 1781 increased a deputy for Sir Robert Chambers, the Vinerian professor, "and for this service he appears to have had 607. a year." Lord Eldon, in after years, was accustomed to relate the following story respecting his first appearance in the character of professor : "The most awkward thing that ever occurred to me was this:-Immediately after I was married, I was appointed Deputy Professor of Law at Oxford; and the law professor sent me the first lecture, which I had to read immediately to the students, and which I began without knowing a single word that was in it. It was upon the statute of young men running away with maidens. Fancy me reading with about one hundred and forty boys and young men giggling at the professor. Such a tittering audience no one ever had."-P. 91, vol. I. The years necessary to be passed as a student Scott employed in the laborious study the chambers of Mr. Duane, a conveyancer. of his profession. He spent six months in "He was a Roman Catholic, a most excelby the 1,000l. paid by Mr. Surtees, thus mak- He received Scott without any fee, an inlent and worthy man," said Lord Eldon. thing it 5,000%. William Scott was ever a stance of liberality, however, by no means kind and generous brother, so that we can hardly believe any of the more direful ills of rare in the profession, but deserving to be recorded in the present instance, being deempoverty to have visited the abode of the young ed "a great kindness" by the future Chanpeople. When surrounded by all the appli- cellor and the most sturdy enemy of the ances which great wealth and great power could supply, the scanty income of his early days must have appeared to Scott more scanty than it did when youth and love gave him power to face and to conquer the difficulties before him. the His marriage forced Scott to give up his fellowship, and thus precluded him from all chance of preferment in the church. Had any living fallen vacant, however, during his year of grace, his intention was to enter the church, and take the preferment. The year passed away without any such fortunate accident as he would then have believed it. He had entered as a student of the Middle emancipation of that class of religionists to which this worthy and early benefactor belonged. The political leanings of Scott were plain at this time, viz., the year 1775. He was ever the opponent of freedom, though his characteristic prudence induced him, when struggling for business, to keep his real opinions to himself; and he appears, besides, whatever he might have thought, not to have felt very strongly upon such mat ters: "I do not see your name," he writes to his brother Henry, "among the addressers: surely the friends of government are more numerous |
