the newest beauty, and pointed the sharpest epigram. His rank and his university reputation gave him at once a position which his grace of manner and force of character justified and confirmed. An acquaintance with Pope, begun at Westminster, now ripened into a steady friendship; the famous poet took a special interest in the brilliant young advocate, which the latter repaid by a strong and genuine admiration. "Mr. Pope," says Bishop Warburton, "had all the warmth of affection for this great lawyer; and indeed," he adds, "no man ever more deserved to have a poet for his friend, in the obtaining of which, as neither vanity, party, nor fear had a share, so he supported his title to it by all the offices of a generous and true friendship." A pleasant story is told by one of Mansfield's biographers,* to the effect that, "One day he was suprised by a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn, who took the liberty of entering his room without the ceremonious introduction of a servant, in the singular act of practising the graces of a speaker at a glass, while Pope sate by, in the character of a friendly preceptor." The anecdote is interesting, as showing with what care and attention to details the young lawyer prepared himself for the great part he intended to play.

On the 24th of June, 1730, Murray took his degree of M.A. He then went on a long-vacation tour through France and Italy, and on his return was called to the bar in Lincoln's Inn Hall (November 23). For two years and more he failed to obtain a brief; but his strong resolution did not desert him, and he would not allow his want of success to quench his ambition or divert his intellectual energies into any other channel of advance

* Holliday, p. 24.

ment. He knew exactly the limit of his powers, and felt that by the law he must rise or fall. So, in his chambers, at 5 King's Bench Walk, in the Temple, he steadily waited for the clients that never came,-for the opportunity of distinction that, however long deferred, he was sure would one day be his; and in the interval he widened his knowledge of classical and contemporary literature, and compiled two letters "On the Study of Ancient and Modern History," which prove that in historical composition he might have attained to no ordinary excellence.

It is said that he never knew the difference between total destitution and an income of £2000 a-year.* There would seem to be some exaggeration in this statement, though it is ascribed to Lord Mansfield himself; but in his case, as in the case of so many eminent lawyers, it is certainly true that his rise into distinction was sudden. As early as 1732 he was engaged in an important appeal, in which both the Attorney and Solicitor General were employed, and in the two following years he was frequently retained in similar cases before the House of Lords; but it was his appearance as counsel, in 1737, against a bill introduced to disfranchise the city of Edinburgh on account of the Porteous riots, which first attached celebrity to his name. The measure was defeated; and Edinburgh conferred the honour of her freedom upon the successful advocate, who, it was freely predicted, was destined to increase the fame of his native land by the splendour of his abilities. By this time his reputation was so great that Pope selected him to receive the dedication of his "Imitations of Horace," and addressed him in a passage of the most elegant flattery, in

* Mr. Buller, in Seward's "Anecdotes,” iv. 492.
+ Sixth Epistle of the First Book.

which he alludes, it is said, to his friend's having unsuccessfully solicited the hand of a lady of large fortune and great beauty*—

"Go, then, and if you can admire the state
Of beaming diamonds and reflected plate,
Procure a taste to double the surprise,

And gaze on Parian charms with learned eyes;
Be struck with bright brocade or Tyrian dye,
Our birth-day nobles' splendid livery.
If not so pleased, at council-board rejoice
To see their judgments hang upon thy voice;
From morn to night, at Senate, Rolls, and Hall,
Plead much, read more, dine late, or not at all.
But wherefore all this labour, all this strife—
For fame, for riches, for a noble wife?
Shall one whom nature, learning, birth, conspired
To form, not to admire, but be admired,

Sigh while his Chloe, blind to wit and worth,
Weds the rich dulness of some son of earth?

Yet, time ennobles or degrades each line :
It brightened Craggs's, and may darken thine.
And what is fame? The meanest have their day;
The greatest can but blaze and pass away.
Grand as thou art, with all the power of words,
So known, so honoured in the House of Lords t-
Conspicuous scene!—another yet is nigh,
More silent far, where kings and poets lie;
Where Murray, long enough his country's pride,
Shall be no more than Tully or than Hyde."

Murray at this time retired to a small cottage on the banks of the Thames, near Twickenham; not, as Lord

The rejection came from the lady's family, not from the lady, and was based on his narrowness of income.

+ An unfortunate instance of bathos, which Colley Cibber happily ridiculed :—

"Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks ;
And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks."

Campbell suggests, "that he might nourish his regrets," spend his vacation in the enjoyment This incident inspired his poet-friend

bnt that he might of rural pleasures.

to apply to him, in graceful style, Horace's "Ode to Venus":

"Again? new tumults in my breast?

Ah, spare me, Venus !—let me, let me rest!

I am not now, alas! the man

As in the gentle reign of my Queen Anne.

Oh, sound no more thy soft alarms,

Nor circle sober fifty with thy charms.

Mother too fierce of dear desires,

Turn, turn to willing hearts your wanton fires;

To number five direct your doves,

There spread round Murray all your blooming loves,

Noble and young, who strikes the heart

With every sprightly, every decent part;
Equal the injured to defend,

To charm the mistress or to fire the friend;
He, with a hundred hearts refined,

Shall stretch thy conquests over half the kind.
To him each rival shall submit,

Make but his riches equal to his wit.
Then shall thy form the marble grace—

Thy Grecian form-and Chloe lend the face;
His house, embosomed in the grove,

Sacred to social life and social love,

Shall glitter in the pendent green,

Where Thames reflects the visionary scene:

Thither the silver-sounding lyres

Shall call the smiling Loves and young Desires

There every Grace and Muse shall throng,

Exalt the dance, or animate the song ;

There youths and nymphs, in consort gay,

Shall hail the rising, close the parting day."

I shall not apologise for the length of my quotation;

* Odes, Vol. IV., Cde i.

the reader will be delighted at the opportunity of perusing verses so elegant and so polished.

The seal was set upon Murray's professional reputation by his successful defence of Mrs. Cibber, the celebrated actress, in the action brought against her by her husband, Theophilus, the scoundrel son of Colley Cibber, for adultery with a Colonel Sloper. That Mrs. Cibber was not immaculate need hardly be said; but her husband was an infamous wretch, and the willing instrument of his own dishonour. Murray's speech for the defence was a marvel of forensic eloquence. He had found his opportunity, and he made the most of it. The next day he was the most famous advocate in England; "henceforth," he says, "business poured in upon me from all quarters, and from a few hundred pounds in the year, I fortunately found myself in the receipt of thousands."

Among others, the Duchess of Marlborough was eager to secure his services, and sent him a general retainer, with a fee of one thousand guineas. With superb selfdenial, he returned her nine hundred and ninety-five, remarking that "the professional fee, with a general retainer, will neither be less nor more than five guineas.” She was a very inconsiderate client, and expected him to be at her call on all occasions. Late one night, returning to his chambers, he found a handsome equipage at the door, and the pavement thronged with footmen and pages holding lighted torches in their hands. The Duchess was seated in the advocate's own chair, and, on his entrance, greeted him with the characteristic reproach, "Young man, if you mean to rise in the world, you must not sup out."

Another night she called when he was not at home, and after waiting for some hours, left in great dudgeon. Said