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to counteract the reigning power in her compofition. She therefore is faid to have addreffed her husband in terms of which, leaving the flowery and ornamental parts to conjecture, if the reader fhould be a fingle, or to comparifon fhould he be a married man, this is faid to have been the fubftance: "That he hoped he would do nothing against his confcience for fear of any danger or prejudice to him or his family and that the would be contented to fuffer want or any mifery with him, rather than be an occafion for him to do or fay any thing against his judgment.”

Upon this, and fome other encouragements of the like nature, this great Law yer totally changed (once more) his purpofe, and his arguments, and, when it came to his turn to fpeak, exprefsly declared his opinion to be against the King, to the aftonishment of every one except his friend Hutton, who followed him on the fame fide: while the other Judges, who had either no confciences or no wives, or whole wives were no politicians, continued firm in the opinions which they had figned. In confequence of which, the point thus argued was, after eight months of contention, eftablished t.

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Whitlock's Memoirs, p. 24.

+ Coke's Detection, 3d edition, p. 259.

fo confpicuous for their utility, that we may conclude, if his attention to œconomy did not make him a better man, the knowledge of human nature which it introduced into his mind, the effect it had upon the particular habits of his life, certainly made him a better author.

However invidious the talk might be, it is certain, that, were it not alfo as ungrateful as invidious, we might, by looking into the minds of eminent men, as exhibited in their works, and accurately confidering them, in all probability difcover the ruling paffion or foible of each; but I conceive, except fome turpitude attached to the objects of our enquiry, and it was undertaken for fome moral purpofe, it would afford as little pleasure to the fpeculator as to the public: therefore waving all further obfervations, I fhall pursue the object for which they were made; namely, the introduction of a short anecdote of the learned phyfician to whom I have alluded.

Dr. Radcliff, who refided in Bloomfbury-fquare, had found it neceffary to employ a pavior, either to amend the way before his house, or his back premifes. When the job was completed, the man called for his money: the Doctor was from home: he returned early in the morning; at noon; in the evening: fill the answer was to the fame effect: his employer was either abroad vifiting his patients, engaged in company, or fo immer fed in bufinefs, that he could not be spoken with.

What was now to be done? The Pavior took the refolution one morning, when he had called and received the old anfwer, that the Doctor was not at home, to wait in the Square until he returned. He did fo, and, fortunately, caught him just as he ftepped out of his chariot. He prefented his bill. The Doctor, as the faying is, "made wry faces," and feemed to take the prefcription with great reluctance. At length, when he had thoroughly examined it, he said,

"What an enormous charge is here ? You expect to be paid, do you? You

Mr. Juftice Crooke and Mr. Juftice Hutton were both puifre Judges. It appears by their fignatures to orders, dated Hilary Term 1627, and the 15th April, 6 Car. I. for the government of the Inns of Court and Chancery, that they had been a confiderable time on the Bench.

TH

VESTIGES,

COLLECTED AND RECOLLEcted,
BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ.

MR. JUSTICE CROOKE.

NUMBER XIX.

HIS learned Judge has, by hiftorians, been cenfured for a versatility which can scarcely be termed profeffional, becaufe, although an advocate pleading for his client may, and, fuch is the nature of things, must, be allowed confiderable latitude; though he muft, in the course of his exertions, be imagined to see the same objects in different points of view, as he may, at different periods, be engaged on fides of the fame question diametrically oppofite, and because he is, both by law and reafon, fuppofed to be placed in exactly the fame fituation with the perfon whofe caufe he is either urging or defending, and is, for the minute, believed to have adopted the fame fentiments, the fame prejudices, to be furnished with the fame excuses, and, with fuperior talents, to be equally interested in a keen investigation of the cafe as his client would have been if he had stood in his place and spoken in perfon, as was perhaps the original practice, instead of availing himself of that brilliant, that illuminated affiftance, which the Bar never fails to fupply. This may briefly account for that verfatility of difpofition, or rather of pleading, which has been fometimes drawn forth as a fubject of obfervation, by thofe that had more wit than either judgment or difcretion. But although, as was observed, we may excuse, nay applaud, the exertions of advocates, frequently made against the grain; though we may admire their happy turns, and elegant apologies, for purfuing a profeffional line, which certainly does not demand any, it feems much more difficult, when we meet upon the hiftorical record any part of the conduct of a judge that amounts to a waiver, to treat it with that charitable indulgence which we owe to each other as human beings with regard to fentiments, because we may fuppofe those exalted perfons who know their opinions have, in many cafes, the force

VOL. XLV. JAN. 1804.

and effect of law, never did, at any period, adopt them haftily, nor, which feems a much more difficult task, refcind them without due confideration. Yet it does appear, casting a retrospective glance at that turbulent period when it would feem that the whole pandemonium had been indulged with a holiday, in order to harafs and deftroy that excellent and amiable Monarch, the unfortunate Charles, that the fcience of waivering had mounted from the Bar to the Bench, and was, in colours glaring and strong, alluding to their fanguine and fable tints, and, alas! too permanent with refpect to their durability, exhibited in the conduct of the Judge, or rather Judges, who are the subject of this short notice.

When the legality of collecting shipmoney was agitated, and the King fent his letter containing queries to the Judges, ten of them gave their anfwer in favour of its faid legality, while the other two, Grooke and Hutton, diffented at first, but in a short time being convinced, they owned it to be lawful, and, with the rest of their brethren, fubfcribed to that opinion*.

In this form the matter refted. This ex parte opinion of the Judges being acted upon as the law of the land, pro-duced the famous cafe of the King and Hampden, refpecting which, when it came, upon demurrer, to be argued in the Exchequer Chamber, the only two that diffented were Mr. Justice Crooke and Mr. Justice Hutton. "The former," fays Whitlock, "had, with his reverend brethren, refolved to give judgment in favour of the King, and to that purpose having examined every point with the utmost accuracy, he had prepared his argument: but a few days before the cafe was to come on, having hinted his" perfeverance in opinion to fome relations, it came to the ears of his wife," who, though a good and pious Lady, it appears, had a fmall spice of republicanifm, fome mall defirę * Collier.

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to counteract the reigning power in her compofition. She therefore is faid to have addreffed her husband in terms of which, leaving the flowery and ornamental parts to conjecture, if the reader fhould be a fingle, or to comparifon fhould he be a married man, this is faid to have been the fubftance: "That he hoped he would do nothing against his confcience for fear of any danger or prejudice to him or his family and that the would be contented to fuffer want or any mifery with him, rather than be an occafion for him to do or fay any thing against his judgment.”

Upon this, and fome other encouragements of the like nature, this great Law yer totally changed (once more) his purpose, and his arguments, and, when it came to his turn to speak, exprefsly declared his opinion to be against the King, to the aftonishment of every one except his friend Hutton, who followed him on the fame fide: while the other Judges, who had either no confciences or no wives, or whole wives were no politicians, continued firm in the opinions which they had figned. In confequence of which, the point thus argued was, after eight months of contention, established ‡.

DR. RADCLIFF.

It is ftated, among the other eccentricities of this truly ingenious and eminent phyfician, that although, in many infances of importance, he was liberal and generous to an excefs, yet, in faller matters, he had a habit of fometimes fhrinking from his creditors, and frequently appeared to pay his bills with reluctance.

Men of genius, minds of fuperior intelligence, have often been remarked for their peculiarities. No one, from the broad and general outline of the character of the Dean of St. Patrick, could fuppofe, that in its interior rami. fications could be developed any traits of partimony; yet when we accurately diffect its minute parts, thefe features are difcernable, but fo blended and interwoven with a fingular caft of humour, fo gilded by pleafantry, or

Whitlock's Memoirs, p. 24.

+ Coke's Detection, 3d edition, p. 259.

fo confpicuous for their utility, that we may conclude, if his attention to economy did not make him a better man, the knowledge of human nature which it introduced into his mind, the effect it had upon the particular habits of his life, certainly made him a better author.

However invidious the talk might be, it is certain, that, were it not alfo as ungrateful as invidious, we might, by looking into the minds of eminent men, as exhibited in their works, and accurately confidering them, in all probability difcover the ruling paffion or foible of each; but I conceive, except fome turpitude attached to the objects of our enquiry, and it was undertaken for fome moral purpofe, it would afford as little pleasure to the fpeculator as to the public: therefore waving all further obfervations, I fhall purfue the object for which they were made; namely, the introduction of a short anecdote of the learned phyfician to whom I have alluded.

Dr. Radcliff, who refided in Bloomf bury-fquare, had found it neceffary to employ a pavior, either to amend the way before his houfe, or his back premiles. When the job was completed, the man called for his money: the Doctor was from home: he returned early in the morning; at noon; in the evening: till the antwer was to the fame effect: his employer was either abroad vifiting his patients, engaged in company, or fo immer fed in bufinefs, that he could not be spoken with.

What was now to be done? The Pavior took the refolution one morning, when he had called and received the old anfwer, that the Doctor was not at home, to wait in the Square until he returned. He did fo, and, fortunately, caught him just as he ftepped out of his chariot. He prefented his bill. The Doctor, as the faying is, "made wry faces," and feemed to take the prefcription with great reluctance. At length, when he had thoroughly examined it, he said,

"What an enormous charge is here? You expect to be paid, do you? You

Mr. Juftice Crooke and Mr. Juftice Hutton were both puifne Judges. It appears by their fignatures to orders, dated Hilary Teim 1627, and the 15th April, 6 Car. I. for the government of the Inns of Court and Chancery, that they had been a confiderable time on the Bench.

have a pretty knack at making bills, Mr. Pavior; and for what? Never was a worfe job done. You have fpoilt my pavement, and then covered it with earth, merely to hide your bungling work."

"Ah! Doctor! Doctor!" said the man, "there have been many worfe jobs done than this: but if it were as bad as you fay, you well know, that mine is not the only bungling work that is covered with earth."

"Oh! you dog!" returned Radcliff," you are a wit, I fee, and confequently poor. Come into the house, and I'll pay you your money.

HENRY VAUGHAN, COMEDIAN. This actor, who never rofe above the inferior rank of his profeffion, was bro

ther to Mrs. Pritchard, and originally brought up to his father's bufinefs, fan-painting*. It has been iftated,

that Garrick was of opinion that he had talents to have aicended much higher in the theatrical feale, and it is certain he had opportunities afforded him for their exertion; but indolence, inattention, and, after fome years continuance, a diiguft to the Stage, are faid to have represed his genius There were two parts in the performance of which, I have been informed, he thone with unrivalled excellence. Thele were, Peter, in Romeo and Juliet, and Teter, in the Sufpicious Hutband ; therefore, unlefs, like his predeceffor, Mr. William Peer †, his faid talents were confined indeed, we may reafonably fuppofe, had his application been equal

This was formerly a bufinefs of confiderable importance, as may be gathered from the ufe that was made of this little inftrument by the poets, dramatic and periodical writers, at the conclusion of the feventeenth, and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. In the Spectator it is frequently mentioned; and the Freeholder has a project for making it ferviceable to the Proteftant caufe. I have formerly feen very beautiful hiftorical pictures upon fan-mounts; and there is ftill extant a print of one prefented to Maria Theresa, the Emprefs, defigned by Marcus Tufcher, on which is delineated, most exquisitely, the entrance of the Grand Duke of Tuscany into Florence. In this print it is curious enough to oblerve, that fashionable abfurdity has never been confined to any particular kingdom, for the men all wear large fpectacles as a part of their drefs, which was then, as I have been told, the cultom, not only at the Imperial and Papal courts, but in all the elegant cities of Italy.

It is pleafing to contemplate and commemorate merit, though the fcale of its exertions be ever fo confined, and its scene of action ever lo contracted.

This idea, I conceive, once operated upon the mind of Sir Richard Steel, and induced him to dedicate feveral pages of his Guardian (No. 82) to the memory of Mr. William Peer, of the Theatre Royal, who (though not mentioned by Cibber) · was, he fays, "an Actor at the time of the Rettoration, and took his theatrical degree with Betterton, Kynalton, and Harris. Mr. W. Peer," he continues, diftinguished himself particularly in two characters which no man ever could touch but himself;" one was, the prologue to the mock-play in Hamlet; and the other, the Apothecary in Caius Marius, as it is called by Otway, to the introduction of which piece we might apply a line of the Poet he plundered by way of excule, and which he has put into the mouth of this chara&ter;

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"My poverty, but not my will confents;"

which certainly must have been the cafe with poor Otway, whofe elevated gerius, while it taught him to lock down with contempt on the low icurrility of the highborn Rochester, as exhibited in "The Seffion of the Poets," was, at the period we are confidering, perhaps too feverely, ftimulated by neceffity, to give him time to contemplate the immorality of obtruding upon the town, as his own, a dramatic piece, which, in its construction, scenes, and language, is fo evidently a tran cript from Romeo and Juliet, that we are now amazed the public thould be to little acquainted with the original as to fuffer it to país. Rowe had not that excuse to make which, through his unfortunate hite, might have been urged by Otway; yet, if I recollect right, he was nearly as much obliged to the Fatal Dowry of Mallenger and Field for the principal part of his Fair Penitent. But to return to Peer. was" (ays Steel) an odd excellency, and a very particular circumstance, that his whole action of life depended upon fpeaking five lines better than any man cite in the

C 2

world."

equal to his genius, he would have attained to confiderable eminence.

He was, in early life, an eccentric, and indeed a diffipated character; confequently he was very frequently in fcrapes, from fome of which he had not always ingenuity fufficient to extricate himfelf. An inftance of this nature, which, while it ftrongly marked this propensity of his mind, afforded the town fome amufement, was once in circulation.

About the years 1744 or 1745, William Vaughan, with a young man of the name of Blacket, who, like himself, had more humour than grace in his compofition, allured, perhaps, by the bounty of two guineas paid upon the drum-head, and a crown to drink his Majesty's health, a very large bounty at that time, took it into their heads

to enlist into the Guards.

When Mrs. Pritchard was apprized of this exploit of her brother William, though he had always fhewn a great affection for him, he had been, in

confequence, fo haraffed by his freaks and extravagance, that, after advising with her friends, the refolved he thould remain, at least for fome time, in the fituation which he had chofen.

Accordingly these two geniuses, as foon as they had learned their exercife, which, as they were both elegant figures and famous fencers, was an eafy tafk, were taken into the ranks, and ftationed at the Barracks in the Savoy, and foon after, the prifon being very full, and fome of its inmates having attempted to efcape, pofted as fentinels in the church, or rather chapel yard, which at that time was enclofed and bounded by the walls of the prifon. The entrance to this difmal place was through a dark passage and an iron gate, which at periods, when the riotous behaviour of the prifoners, or the circumstances of the times, excited vigilance, was, at night, always locked upon the fentinels, and the key carried to the guard-house.

The winter of the year in which

world." Yet if Steel had more accurately confidered human nature, he would have found that tuch characters are not very uncommon. To fay nothing of a conftellation of inferior beings who moved in the fame orbit with himfelf, and whofe fplendour, nay whofe very exiftence, depended, to speak in plain English, on being able to utter thofe two important monofyllables, Aye! and No! with tolerable propriety, he would, if he had defcended to common life, have found, that every neighbourhood abounded with men who obtained the reputation of convivial talents, and Cometimes more folid advantages, merely by finging one fong or telling one story over and over again, which he must have obferved they did at the fame kind of meetings, and to nearly the fame, or a majority of the fame company, for a long feries of years, Indeed, had he been difpofed to carry this difquifition ftill further, he might have obferved, that perfons with thefe contracted talents, men who could only do one thing, however trifling in itself, well, were, in a commercial nation, generally deemed the most useful, and had been fometimes the moft fuccessful, members of fociety.

Thefe men, who have at all periods made a confiderable part of the community, excite no envy by the fplendour of their abilities; and while, like Mr. William Peer, they are contented to leave the principal characters of the great drama to other more enterprising members, they endeavour to fill thofe inferior parts which, like pegs in a building, connect and bind the piece together with propriety.

It is further flated, with respect to Peer, that being promoted to the poft of property-man, he was rendered fo comfortable in his fituation, that he unfortunately grew fat, and being confequently no longer deemed a fit reprefentative of the flarved Apothecary, found himself cut out of almost three of the five lines which it had been the business of his life to repeat; he therefore took this circumftance fo much to heart, that it is fuppofed to have caufed or accelerated his death.

Seriously, and, after the last word, we ought to be ferious, this little anecdote of Peer will ferve to fhew how, under the management of the celebrated actors that in his time held the patent, the most minute circumftances respecting character and propriety in dramatic reprefentations, were attended to. It appears they were not altogether fo fortunate in the choice of his fucceffor, Mr. William Purville, who suffered the fun, the moor, and the world, to be deftroyed by highwaymen, as he was fuperinterding their conveyance to Oxford in Widow Bartlet's waggon. Whether the county was fued for the damage? and, if so, Whether the fuit has ended? has not yet come to light,

they

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