STONVELL, BARON.
John Scott was educated under the Rev. Hugh Moises, at the grammar-school, New castle, and as a boy gave no promise of his subsequent splendid career. On finishing his education under Mr. Moises, he, on 15th May, 1766, entered University college, with a view to the church; the following year he obtained a fellowship, and in the summer of 1771, won the prize for the English essay, but did not otherwise distinguish himself. A clandestine marriage, into which he entered with a Miss Surtees in 1772, nearly ruined him; however, by the advice of his brother, he returned with his wife to the university. Here, during the year of grace, he lived on his fellowship and gains as a private tutor; and the year expiring without a church living falling vacant, he betook himself to the study of law. In 1776, he was called to the bar. By this time, his wife's friends had become reconciled to her, and made her some provision; and by the death of his father, in the year of his passing at the bar, E. found himself in possession of £3,000. On his own and wife's money, he found he could just manage to live, and so settled on the northern circuit. His success on his first circuit was not great; but in his second year his prospects, through the aid of his brother and friends, began to brighten. It was not, however, till 1780, that prosperity could be said to have dawned upon him. A. happy chance then occurred of showing both his talents and powers of work. The result was speedy affluence. Business poured in upon him; and by 1787, his practice at the equity bar had so increased, that he was forced to give up the eastern half of his circuit.
With success in his profession, E.'s ambition expanded, and he became political. A silk-gown, and then, through the favor of lord Thurlow, a seat in parliament, were but steps toward knighthood and the post of solicitor-general conferred on him by Pitt. From this point, his progress was secure, and effected much in the way in which politi cal lawyers usually succeed. In 1793, he became attorney-general. In 1799, the office of chief-justice of the court of common pleas falling vacant, his claim to it was not overlooked; and after 17 years' service in the house of commons, he entered the house of peers as baron Eldon. In 1801, on the formation of the Addington ministry, E. ascended the woolsack—a post given to him nominally because of his great anti-Catholic zeal, but really because of his part in the intrigue which ousted his old patron Pitt from office. From this time till 1827, with little intermission, E. continued to occupy the woolsack under successive governments. He was in succession chancellor under Addington, Pitt, and lord Liverpool; and when, after the two brief administrations of Canning and Goderich, the duke of Wellington constructed a cabinet, E. again expected the woolsack, and resented his non-appointment to it. His love of office indeed con
tinued to the last, and in 1835, we find him actually in hopes of office under Peel. In 1834, lie ceased to speak in parliament. In 1821, E. was made an earl by George IV.; and in the same year, his brother William was raised to the peerage under the title of lord Stowell. In 1831, he lost by death his wife, his "beloved Bessy." His brother William died in 1836. He himself, after outliving almost all his immediate relations, died in his 87th year, Jan. 3, 1838, leaving behind him a fortune of over half a million sterling.
E. is said to have been a man of very winning and courtly manners, and of a hand some, prepossessing appearance. In the circle of his friends he is said to have been irresistible, and probably to the charms of his manner his success in life was somewhat owing. His career amply proves that he was a man of the greatest talent, sagacity, and power of managing men. He was undoubtedly a great lawyer, and his judgments, which have been much praised for their accuracy, fill a small library; at the same time, lie took so long to arrive at them, that he has been charged with having caused more injustice by delay than worse judges by the iniquity of their decisions. For literature, as for art, he had no feeling, and the style of his decisions is generally detestable. He was a great drinker, though drink seems never to have unfitted him for work; and is said, when he went into retirement, to have spent his time over the newspapers and the gossip of old cronies, preferring their company to that of men of refinement and taste. Undoubtedly, the best of him is seen in his private relations. His love of and devotion to "Bossy" his wife was truly beautiful. As a public man, he is far from estimable. He was a great canter, whose life was a succession of intrigues and duplicities. Ile was no statesman; his one aim in politics was power, and his name is unassociated with even a single law intended purely for the public good. For forty years, he was a lead ing enemy of reform and religious liberty. The champion of the church, he never attended on public worship. Without political principles, his whole stock in trade, as a politician, was zeal against the Roman Catholics,'which, however, proved enough, in the then state of society. He is said to have added parsimony to his other defects; but while various circumstances, besides the amount of the fortune which he accumulated, favor this charge, it is probable that his apparent parsimony rose out of habits formed in his family while he was yet struggling; and it is certain he was capable of generous actions. See Twiss's admirable book, Public and Private Life of the Lord Chancellor Eldon; Life of Lord Eldon, by lord Campbell; Sketch of the Lives of Lords Stowell and Eldon, by Dr. W. E. Surtees.