Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir John Eardley Wilmot: Late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and One of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council : with Some Original Letters

Front Cover
J. Nichols, 1811 - 241 pages
 

Selected pages

Contents


Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 15 - ... to make strict and diligent search for the authors, printers and publishers of a seditious and treasonable paper, intitled, The North Briton, No. 45, Saturday April 23, 1763, printed for G. Kearsley in Ludgate-street, London, and them, or any of them, having found, to apprehend and seize, together with their papers...
Page 54 - The gather'd wisdom of a thousand years,"— if you will allow me to parody a line of Pope. I do not see why the study of the law is called dry and unpleasant ; and I very much suspect that it seems so to those only who would think any study unpleasant, which required a great application of the mind, and exertion of the memory.
Page 64 - You do very right to shew me every side of your mind, because it enables me to take your natural disposition and wishes along with me in your future destination. " From the picture drawn of your mind in your letter, I am satisfied the Law is the Profession you will like the best, because it leaves you a freer agent than any other, and bottoms your fortune upon your own labour and industry ; and in case the infirmity in your speech should negative the Bar; yet the knowledge you must acquire in preparing...
Page 32 - Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat, Vel Pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras, 25 Pallentes umbras Erebi noctemque profundam, Ante, Pudor, quam te violo, aut tua jura resolvo. Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores Abstulit ; ille habeat secum servetque sepulchro.
Page 13 - my son, I will tell you a secret worth your knowing and remembering ; the elevation I have met with in life, particularly this last instance of it, has not been owing to any superior merit or abilities, but to my humility, to my not having set up myself above others, and to an uniform endeavour to pass through life, void of offence towards God and man.
Page 5 - ... he looked upon the independence and uprightness of the judges, as essential to the impartial administration of justice ; as one of the best securities of the rights and liberties of his subjects; and as most conducive to the honour of the crown.
Page 35 - ... how to resent in the most effectual manner. After relating the particulars to Sir Eardley, he asked if he did not think it would be manly to resent it? "Yes," said Sir Eardley, " it would doubtless be manly to resent it, but it would be godlike to forgive it.
Page 2 - The acting junior of the commission is a spectre I started at, but the sustaining the office alone I must and will refuse at all events. I will not give up the peace of my mind to any earthly consideration whatever. Bread and water are nectar and ambrosia when contrasted with the supremacy of a court of justice.
Page 5 - It was an image of the last day, when there shall be no distinction of persons, for my robes did not make way for me. I believe an earthquake arose in the minds of most people, and there was an apprehension of the fall of the whole hall.
Page 5 - Between two and three, as we were trying causes, a stack of chimneys blew upon the top of that part of the hall where I was sitting, and beat the roof down upon us, but, as I sat up close to the wall, I have escaped without the least hurt. When I saw it begin to yield and open, I despaired of my own life, and the lives of all within the compass of the roof.

Bibliographic information