ealing
powerfully to his love of family and offspring--a long life's evening of
tranquillity, of unspeakable enjoyment, might have rewarded a day of
great, yet not excessive, labour. He might also have devoted his
powerful talents to the public benefit, in such a way as to secure the
lasting gratitude and admiration of posterity, by remedying some great
existing defect in his country's jurisprudence, by making some solid
contribution to the safeguards of the constitution. But did he ever do
so? All his great experience, talents, and learning, might never have
existed, for any trace of them remaining in the records of his country's
constitution. What page in the statute-book attests his handiwork? And
what did he ever do to advance the interests of the profession to which
he belonged? These are questions asked with sorrowful sincerity and
reluctance, and with every disposition to make the amplest allowances
for those failings of Sir William Follett, which undoubtedly detracted
somewhat from his excellence and eminence. He was a man of modest, mild,
inoffensive character, who spoke ill of, and did harm to, no one; but,
at the same time, was not distinguished by that active and energetic
benevolence, liberality, and generosity, which secure for the memory of
their exhibitant, ardent, enduring gratitude and reverence. His
excellence was of a negative, rather than a positive kind. He did harm
to no one, when he might have done so with impunity, and was possibly
sometimes tempted to do so; but then he did not do good, at all events,
to the extent which might have been expected from him. He was, however,
by no means of a mean or selfish nature; but in his excessive, and to a
certain extent pardonable, eagerness to make what he deemed a suitable
provision for himself and his family, gave himself the appearance of
being comparatively indifferent to the interests or welfare of others.
It is, however, only fair to his memory to acknowledge, that legal
eminence is too often liable to the same imputations--that professional
pursuits have certainly a strong tendency to warp amiable and generous
natures--to keep the eye of ambition, amidst the intense fires of
rivalry and opposition, fixed exclusively upon one object--the interest
and advancement of the individual. Nothing can effectually control or
counteract this tendency, but a lively and constant sense of religious
principle; which enlarges the heart till it can _love our neighbour