Of the men who, in England, have profited by, and contributed to, the grandeur of the law, hardly one has exercised more influence, or radiated with greater brilliancy, than the "silver-tongued Mansfield;" though his birth was certainly not such as to promise any intellectual struggles more important than some very disagreeable ones with pride and poverty.

The fifth Viscount Stormont, a Scottish peer, with a long pedigree and a small estate, had married the only daughter of Scott of Scotstarvet, representative of the male line of Buccleuch; and by this lady had no less than fourteen children, of whom the fourth son was destined to become Chief-Justice of England, one of her most splendid orators, and the framer of that commercial code which is not the exclusive possession of any single nation, hut the common property and invaluable heritage of all.

William Murray was born on the 2d of March, 1705, at the ruinous castle of Scone, built on the site of the ancient abbey in which the kings of Scotland had been crowned from times of fabulous antiquity. He is stated to have been a very fine child, but there is no mention of prophetic hope having raised around his cradle any of those visions which might have charmed the imagination of a fond parent, when keeping watch at the couch of an infant destined to shine among his legal contemporaries, like the moon among the lesser lights. His earliest years were passed under the care of his nurse, on the banks of the majestic Tay; but its fair and pic-turesque scenery, which, in another age, had kindled the enthusiasm of Roman soldiers, seems to have made no lasting impression on his memory, as no lingering affection for his childish haunts ever brought him back to them, after he had entered on the captivating career of ambition.

When very young he began to receive the rudiments of his education at a school in Perth, about a mile and a half from his father's residence, to which, with a satchel on his shoulders, he went daily, sometimes on foot, and sometimes on the back of a shaggy pony. Here he commenced his studious preparation for "drinking champagne with the wits," and being "honoured in the House of Lords," by applying himself with so much diligence to his books, as altogether to escape the infliction of the peculiar instrument of punishment which is defied, dreaded, and felt by the schoolboys of his country. He was already remarkable for the clearness of intellect, powers of application, and regularity of conduct, which characterised his subsequent career, contributed to his great success, and lent lustre to his high position. His knowledge of Latin ere long enabled him to translate Horace and Sallust with ease, to converse in the language with fluency, and to prove his proficiency by writing both in prose and verse. His companions, the sons of the provincial gentry and of the local tradesmen, had equal advantages with himself; but he soon showed his superiority, and was generally at the head of his class.

In 1713 Lord and Lady Stormont, for purposes of economy, removed from Scone to a small house in the county of Dumfries, leaving Willie (as the future Chief-Justice was familiarly named) and a younger brother in charge of the master of the grammar-school, who received for their board a yearly payment in money and a certain quantity of oatmeal, which, although at the time provokingly considered in England as the food of horses, was, it would seem, in the shape of porridge, one of the principal items of the daily fare set before the incipient luminary of the law and his numerous brothers and sisters in their early years. When he had raised himself to high and enviable office, these circumstances connected with his early training furnished an inexhaustible armoury of ridicule to his enemies; but he wrapped himself up in a dignified indifference, which defied their utmost efforts, as effectually as ever the iron panoply of his ancestors had resisted more substantial weapons of offence.

When he was approaching his fourteenth year, it was intended that he should go to complete his edu-cation at the University of St. Andrew's; but this scheme was fortunately frustrated by the interference of his elder brother, who gave effect to the Jacobite opinions of his family, and passed his life in exile under the title of Earl of Dunbar. This gentleman, who was possessed of high and brilliant abilities, having received a most favourable account of his young kinsman's talents, was anxious to enlist him in the service of the ill-fated Stuarts. For that purpose he could conceive no better means than having him educated under the auspices of the bold and ac-complished Bishop Atterbury, then Dean of West-minster; and therefore by letter represented to his father the great advantages that would attend his being brought up there, the probability of his being put on the foundation as a King's Scholar, and the certainty of his getting a scholarship at Oxford. Thus urged and advised, Lord Stormont resolved to send him to Westminster School; and it was an-nounced to the "boy of quality," as he was after-wards tauntingly termed, that he was to delight his young eyes with the wonders of the rich South and of the marvellous city of London, instead of consorting, and enduring poverty, with the high-cheeked and unpliable-featured students who paced the cloistered hall of St. Andrew's.

His parents at that time looked to the English bar as the sphere in which he was to display, and profit by, the talents with which he had been gifted; and it was arranged that he should, without delay, set out for the region where Hope beckoned him. Those were not, however, the days of quick and convenient locomotion. Even post-horses had not come into fashion; and the adventurous youths who doffed the kilt and put on Christian breeches to seek fortune in the South, and to be satirised by Churchill and abused by Johnson, were limited in their choice of a conveyance to an Edinburgh coach, which started once a-month, and professed to arrive in London before the tenth day after its departure, and the traders that sailed from Leith two or three times a month, and were sometimes six weeks on the voyage. Such being the means of public travelling, it was deemed advisable that the young aspirant to legal distinction should perform the journey on the back of a pony bred by his noble father, which was to be sold on arrival, that the amount obtained for it might assist in defraying his expenses in London.

Thus mounted, he left old Perth and his youthful comrades on a spring morning, in the expectation of peaching Edinburgh the same day with ease and safety; but, when near the end of Ms journey, the pony became lame, so that he was under the necessity of leaving it behind, and travelling the remainder of the distance to the Scottish capital on foot. There having fully equipped and accoutred himself, and had his steed brought to him in a sound condition, he pursued his way to the frontier to bid fare-well to his relatives. An aged ash-tree is still pointed out, under whose shade tradition asserts that he took leave of his father. Doubtless the parting would be somewhat painful on both sides, and it was the last; for, though they survived many years, he never saw either of his parents again. Henceforth melior fortuna parente might have been his motto. Perhaps anticipations of splendid success in store for him mingled with the anxiety which they would naturally feel at his being thus launched on the world; and, with all chances against him, Murray realised the most sanguine dreams which parental affection could possibly have led them to indulge in.