BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 379
Parliament upon charges of undue appropriation. He was eminently successful
in the vindication of Lord Clive, and obtained a verdict of acquittal. His
appearance in the House of Lords, as one of the counsel in the great Douglas
cause, tended greatly to increase his professional reputation, and secured for
him the friendship of Lords Bute and Mansfield. Shortly after the decision
of this appeal, Mr. Wedderburn was brought into Parliament for the Tnverary
district of burghs, which he represented for several years; and, in 1774, having
been chosen for two English boroughs, he became member for Oakhampton.
In the House of Commons he proved himself an able debater,’ and was one of
the chief defenders of the Grafton administration, in opposition to Burke, who
had thrown all the force of his eloquence into the Rockingham interest.
The ready talent and acute and logical reasoning of Wedderburn were
fully appreciated by the party with which he witg associated. His rise was
accordingly rapid. In 1771 he was promoted to the office of Solicitor-General;
and in 17 7 3 succeeded Thurlow as Attorney-General. While holding this
appointment in 1774, he appeared, in opposition to the famous Dr. Franklin,
before the Privy Council in favour of the Governors of Massachusetts Bay,
whom the Americans, and Franklin, as their representative, were petitioning to
depose. The speech of Wedderburn before the Council has been censured for
its “ sweeping bitterness ” towards the philosopher ;’ but it is at the same time
an excellent specimen of his eloquence, and quite in keeping with his known
sentiments relative to the unhappy American disputes.
Much praise is conceded to the Attorney-General for the promptness and
decision of character which he manifested during the memorable riots in London
of 1780. All the municipal force of the city had been overpowered, and
the capital was in the hands of a lawless mob. In this emergency the King
summoned a meeting of the Privy Council; and the question was-whether
military force could be constitutionally employed without the delay and forms
necessary in common cases of riot? Wedderburn at once gave his opinion in
the affirmative. “ Is that your declaration as Attorney-General’?” inquired the
King. “Yes, Sire, decidedly so.” “Then let it so be,” said his Majesty.
Wedderburn instantly drew up the order of Council accordingly, and in a few
hours the riots were quelled, and the capital, already partially in flames, saved
from inevitable destruction.
Immediately after this event Mr. Wedderburn was appointed Chief Justice
of the Court of Common Pleas, in the room of Lord Walsingham, and created
a Peer by the title of Baron Loughborough of Loughborough, in the county of
Leicester. In the capacity of Chief Justice his lordship presided at the trial of
the rioters, of whom twenty-six were condemned and executed. His charge to
the jurors on this occasion has been eulogised by some as replete with “reasoned
It is singular that lawyers usually are very ineffective in the House of Commons. Of this Lord
Erskmwne of the best pleaders of his time-was a signal instance. Within our own period, the
only barristers who have been successful a8 parliamentary orators, are Sir William Follett, Sergeant
Jackson, and Mr. Frederick Shaw.
