BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 439
In politics Mr. Clerk was a keen Whig ; and in 1806, when that party came
into power for a short time, he was appointed Solicitor-General in the room of
Robert Blair of Aventoun. This appointment he held only during the limited
period of one year, while his friends were in office ; and his elevation to the
bench did not occur till 1823. In consequence of the infirmities of age, his
lordship resigned five years afterwards, and died at his house in Picardy Place,
on the 30th May 1832.
At the time Lord Eldin was raised to the bench he was advanced in years,
and a gradual decrease of business had previously given intimation that he had
ceased to be regarded by agents as the vigorous and energetic pleader he once
was. Perhaps at no period of his legal career would John Clerk ever have given
satisfaction as a judge ; for, with all his talent and professional skill, he was one
of those persons who could only see one side in a cause ; and although this may
be an advantage at the bai for the client, it is assuredly a serious disadvantage
on the bench for a suitor. As it was, no fair chance occurred to test the
judicial talents of this once distinguished barrister ; for his faculties at the date
of his elevation were seriously impaired-an assertion, the truth of which his
decisions afford ample proof. On one
occasion, shortly before his removal from the judgment-seat, a debate had been
partly heard before him one day and concluded the next. The astonishment
of counsel may be conceived, when, at the termination, the judge candidly
announced he did not know what the parties were talking about, and proposed
that they should recommence the debate, and repeat all they had previously said.
This was one of his last appearances in Court.
Mr. Clerk was not remarkable either for symmetry of person or beauty of
countenance. He was about as plain a looking man as could well be imagined.
His inattention to dress was proverbial. In walking he had a considerable halt,
one of his legs being shorter than the other. Proceeding down the High Street
one day from the Court of Session, he overheard a young lady saying to her
companion rather loudly, “ There goes Johnnie Clerk, the lame lawyer.” Upon
which be turned round, and, with his usual face of expression, said, “ No, madam ;
I may be a lame man, but not a lame lawyer 1,’
In Peter’s Letters occurs the following character of him while at the bar,
which, though a little exaggerated, is on the whole a fair portraiture :-
‘‘ By the unanimous consent of his brethren, bfr. John Clerk is the present Choryphaeus of
the bar-‘Juris consultomm mi seculi faeile primp.’ Others there are that surpass him in a
In 1797 Mr.
Smellie was employed to print a new edition of that work, with remarks by Admiral Rodney, whose
engagement at the Dover Bank, in 1782, was said to have been gained in consequence of following
the tactics recommended by Mr. Clerk, of whose manuscript he had obtained a perusal prior to that
period. Although Mr. Clerk had revised and corrected the whole of the proof-sheets with his own
hands, Mr. Smellie was surprised, on presenting hi account, to be told by Mr. Clerk that he had no
recollection of ever employing him to print the work ; and even after having been shown the proofsheets,
with his own corrections, he could hardly be persuaded of the fact. A similar instance of
forgetfulness is told of his son, Lord Eldin. He employed Nr. Hutchison to print a work for him,
and afterwards denied ever having done so.
Latterly his memory failed entirely.’
His father, the author of “Naval Tactics,” laboured under the same infirmity.
440 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
few particular points both of learning and of practice, but on the whole, his superiority is
entirely unrivalled and undisputed. Those who approach the nearest to him are indeed so much
his juniors, that he cannot fail to have an immense ascendancy over them, both from the actual
advantages of his longer study and experience, and, without offence to him or them be it added,
from the effects of their early admiration of him, while he was rn yet far above their sphere. Do
not suppose, however, that I mean to represent any part of the respect with which these gentlemen
treat their senior, as the result of empty prejudice. Never was any man less of a quack than
Mr. Clerk ; the very essence of his character is scorn of ornament, and utter loathing of affectation.
He is the plainest, the shrewdest, and the most sarcastic of men ; his sceptre owes the whole of
its power to its weight-nothing to glitter.
‘ I It is impossible to imagine a physiognomy more expressive of the character of a great lawyer
and barrister. The features are in theinselves good-at least a painter would call them so ; and
the upper part of the profile has as fine lines as could be wished. But then, how the habits of
the mind have stamped their traces on every part of his face ! What sharpness, what razor-like
sharpness, has indented itself about the wrinkles of his eyelids ; the eyes themselves, so quick, so
gray, such bafflers of scrutiny, such exquisite scrutinisers, how they change their expression-it
seems almost how they change their colour-shifting from contracted, concentrated blackness,
through every shade of brown, blue, green, and hazel, back into their open, gleaming gray again.
How they glisten into a smile of disdain !-Aristotle says, that all laughter springs from emotions
of conscious superiority. I never saw the Stagyrite so well illustrated as in the smile of this
gentleman, He seems to be affected with the most dclightful and balmy feelings, by the contemplation
of some soft-headed, prosing driveller racking his poor brain, or bellowing his lungs
out-all about something which he, the smiler, sees through so thoroughly, so distinctly.
Blunder follows blunder ; the mist thickens about the brain of the bewildered hammerer ; and
every plunge of the bogtrotter-every decpcning shade of his confusion-is attested by some
more copious infusion of Sardonic suavity into the horrible, ghastly, grinning smile of the happy
Mr. Clerk. How he chuckles over the solemn spoon whom he hath fairly got into his power.
When he rises at the conclusion of his display, he seems to collect himself like a kite above a
covey of partridges ; he is in no hurry to come down, but holds his victims ‘with his glittering
eye,’ and smiles sweetly, and yet more sweetly, the bitter assurance of their coming fate ; then
out he stretches his arm, as the kite may his wing, and changing the smile by degrees into a
frown, and drawing down his eyebrows from their altitude among the wrinkles of his forehead,
and making them to hang like fringes quite over his diminishing and brightening eyes, and
mingling a tincture of deeper scorn in the wave of his lips, and projecting his chin, and suffusing
his whole face with the very livery of wrath, how he pounces with a scream upon his prey-and
may the Lord have mercy upon their unhappy souls ! ”
Although his legal studies must have engrossed the greater part of his time,
Mr. Clerk still found leisure to indulge a taste for the fine arts. He occasionally
amused himself in drawing and painting. He was a skilful modeller ; and
even while seated on the bench with his colleagues, he was known to gratify
his fondness for the ludicrous, by pencilling any object that might strike his
fancy.’ In the course of his long life he had collected a very extensive selection
of paintings,’ sketches, and rare prints. At the saie of these, by auction, at
his lordship’s house in Picardy Place, a short time after his death, a serious
accident occurred. The floor of the apartment gave way, and the crowd of
purchasers were precipitated from the drawing-room to the dining-room flat, in
a previous part of this Work.
agent happened to call on him next day.
“I know not,” was the reply.
painting of a cat, which he said he would not have given one shilling for.
We believe he furnished Kay with the original sketch of the “Three Legal Devotees,” given in
Mr. Clerk had been paid a fee of one hundred guineas for pleading in a particular case. The
‘ I John,” said Clerk, ‘ I where do you think your fee is ? ”
“There it is,” said he. On looking up the agent perceived a small
