Resuming his way, the young hero reached Gretna Green, probably with as mixed emotions as many who have since halted there to enact in haste a scene to be repented of at leisure. Here he stayed for the night; and, spurring on next day, was struck with wonder at the fortifications of Carlisle, which in a few years inspired with very different feelings those Caledonian cousins whom he was required, as Solicitor-General, to prosecute for treason against King George. Pursuing his course, he arrived at his destination in safety, and was received with great kindness by a thriving apothecary; who having, like the pony that had carried the young adventurer, been born and bred on the Stormont estate, was all anxiety to be of service to a scion of the renowned family. This wary Scot assisted him to dispose of his travelling nag, advanced money to attire him in fitting costume, installed him with the head-master of Westminster School, and lodged him. with a trustworthy dame in its vicinity.

Thus situated, Murray applied himself with exemplary steadiness to his books. The schoolboys were at first inclined to laugh at and mimic his accent, and torment him with the customary jokes about his impoverished country; but he at once repelled them with that calm, proud dignity, against which, more than half a century later, the vehement and sounding billows of Lord Chatham's splendid eloquence exerted and exhausted their utmost force in vain. The school, luckily, never had been in a better condition than when he entered it. The number of boys was five hundred; their daily in-structors were eminent scholars, and they were ex-amined at elections by Bishops Atterbury and Smal-ridge. The emulation incited was great beyond all precedent; and Murray's talents soon shone conspicuously. He took infinite pains to excel in his declamations, and thus laid the foundation of that felicitous oratory, by which he rose to the highest honours of his profession, excited and swayed one house of Parliament, and charmed and graced the other. His success in classical studies was also striking; and, at the end of a year, he was worthily elected a King's Scholar, though perhaps indebted for being so to the Jacobite influence used in his behalf.

During one of the vacations, having availed himself of an invitation to spend his time at the house of one of his titled countrywomen, she, observing him with a pen in his hand, and apparently in deep meditation, inquired if he was writing his theme, and what, in plain English, it was.

"What's that to you?" was the ready reply.

"How can you be so rude?" demanded her astonished ladyship. "I asked you very civilly a plain question, and did not expect from a school-boy so pert an answer."

"Indeed, my lady!" was the rejoinder of the sage young Pict: "I can only assure you once more, What is that to you?" The theme being in reality Quid ad te pertinet?

At the election in May, 1723, after a rigorous Examination, he made good at Westminster the pleasing promise he had given at Perth, and was first on the list of King's Scholars who were to be sent on that foundation to Christ Church; but his prospects were at this time sadly and unex-pectedly overcast. Considering himself destined for the bar, he had been in the habit of visiting Westminster Hall, hearing the most eminent pleaders, and, in fact, believed himself to have, as he himself expressed it, "a calling for the profession of the law;" hut his father, finding that the ex-pense of a legal education was more than he could, without great inconvenience, afford, had come to the conclusion that there was no other course open for him than to take orders in the Church. Murray felt the necessity of this, but he felt it with sorrow, and respectfully bowed to a decision which he could not decorously attempt to control. However, having about the time of his removal to Oxford casually mentioned his disappointment to one of his friends, the son of a recently-created peer, the latter, at whose country-house Murray had spent some of his holidays, being aware of his remarkable genius, and desirous that it should have a fair stage, kindly encouraged him to enter upon a legal career, and with great delicacy volunteered to assist him with the requisite means until he met with that success which he believed him certain, ere long, to command. This offer, freely and generously made, was frankly and gratefully accepted, and with the consent of his family, Murray, while yet an undergra-duate at Oxford, was entered at Lincoln's Inn, about the beginning of 1724, though he did not commence keeping his terms till he had taken his bachelor's degree.

He remained at Oxford four years, during which he pursued his studies with the view of qualifying for the chosen profession he was so highly to adorn. Avoiding the temptations of port, which were all too strong for some of his able but imprudent contemporaries, he manifested great regularity in his attendance at chapel and lecture, and devoted himself with exemplary ardour to oratory — the charmed weapon with which he was to accomplish his triumphs over men and fortune. In 1727 his future antagonist, Pitt, being one of the com-petitors, he gained the prize for a Latin poem on the death of George I, whose praise he of course unhesitatingly sung, notwithstanding the Jacobite prepossessions which he had imbibed in childhood. It is improbable that, after arriving at manhood, he ever allowed them to influence his fine intellect, except, indeed, on those rare occasions when, in moments of excitement, old associations coming round him in their most attractive form, he gave vent to his natural sentiments in expressions that were afterwards unfairly and unsparingly used by his puissant political foe as instruments of attack.

Having taken his degree, he removed to Lincoln's inn, and set himself with zeal and earnestness to acquire a knowledge of his profession. He attended a debating society, where points of law were discussed, and frequented the Courts at Westminster for the purpose of listening to the judges. In 1730 he was called to the bar, to which he brought literary taste, great accomplishments, extraordinary eloquence, and an ardent ambition to excel.

Though he was two long years without being employed in any cause of importance, neither the prospect of political nor literary honours could then or in after years, when the premiership was within his grasp, seduce him from allegiance to his jealous mistress. At length his celebrated address in the case of Cibber v. Slopper, admirably calculated to show his power of sneaking and knowledge of life, placed him above all rivals, and he perseveringly pursued his first forensic success.

In 1742 he was appointed Solicitor-General, and immediately proved himself one of the most brilliant debaters in the House of Commons, where, with rare exceptional cases, he was found fully a match for the first Pitt. "They alone," wrote Lord Chesterfield, "can influence or quiet the House; they alone are attended to in that numerous and noisy assembly; you might hear a pin fall while either of them is speaking."

In 1754 he became Attorney-General, and two years after was created a peer, and raised to the high position of Chief-Justice of the King's Bench. He held and dignified the latter office till 1788, when he resigned it from age and infirmity, having repeatedly declined the Great Seal. His long, prosperous, and glorious life, terminated on the 20th of March, 1793, and his remains having been placed in Westminster Abbey, a monument was erected to his memory by a client for whom his eloquence had, when he was at the bar, recovered a valuable estate.

The life of this illustrious lawyer is fraught with instruction to youth. The high talents with which Providence had blessed him could have availed little, but for the diligence and determination with which he cultivated, improved, and exercised them. His original position was certainly rather unfavourable than otherwise to the attainment of such distinction as he acquired; and it was only the resolute and untiring energy he practised that led him to an elevation, such as no natural abilities will ever enable their possessor to reach, without the application of the great and vital element of all true success — in-domitable perseverance.