distinctness, every object on which it directly falls.

Lord Erskine is a character of another class, and whatever difference of
opinion may exist with respect to their professional abilities and
attainments, it will be allowed by those who contend that Eldon is the
better lawyer--that Erskine is the greater genius. Nature herself, with
a constellation in her hand, playfully illuminates his path to the temple
of reasonable justice; while Precedence with her guide-book, and Study
with a lantern, cautiously show the road in which the Chancellor warily
plods his weary way to that of legal Equity. The sedateness of Eldon is
so remarkable, that it is difficult to conceive that he was ever young;
but Erskine cannot grow old; his spirit is still glowing and flushed with
the enthusiasm of youth. When impassioned, his voice acquires a
singularly elevated and pathetic accent; and I can easily conceive the
irresistible effect he must have had on the minds of a jury, when he was
in the vigour of his physical powers, and the case required appeals of
tenderness or generosity. As a parliamentary orator, Earl Grey is
undoubtedly his superior; but there is something much less popular and
conciliating in his manner. His eloquence is heard to most advantage
when he is contemptuous; and he is then certainly dignified, ardent, and
emphatic; but it is apt, I should think, to impress those who hear him,
for the first time, with an idea that he is a very supercilious
personage, and this unfavourable impression is liable to be strengthened
by the elegant aristocratic languor of his appearance.

I think that you once told me you had some knowledge of the Marquis of
Lansdowne, when he was Lord Henry Petty. I can hardly hope that, after
an interval of so many years, you will recognise him in the following
sketch:--His appearance is much more that of a Whig than Lord Grey--stout
and sturdy--but still withal gentlemanly; and there is a pleasing
simplicity, with somewhat of good-nature, in the expression of his
countenance, that renders him, in a quiescent state, the more agreeable
character of the two. He speaks exceedingly well--clear, methodical, and
argumentative; but his eloquence, like himself, is not so graceful as it
is upon the whole manly; and there is a little tendency to verbosity in
his language, as there is to corpulency in his figure; but nothing
turgid, while it is entirely free from affectation. The character of
respectable