silk gowns, were to be sworn in on the Friday, he
instantly retracted his acceptance, as, "he could not submit to any
waiver of his professional rank." The lords-commissioners called him
before them, and argued the matter pressingly. But he would not give
way. At last, as the patents for the two other counsel had already
passed the great seal, they were sworn in on the Friday; but a patent of
precedence was given to Scott, by which he took rank before them. The
day of his patent was the 4th of June 1783: he was then thirty-two years
old. Late in life, a friend asked whether he thought it was important
thus to insist on retaining his rank. Eldon, with the experience of half
a century, answered with great earnestness, "It was every thing. I owed
my future success to it." There is a moral in the words of Wiseman--"The
man who begins by humiliation, will soon find that the world will judge
of him by his own deed."

Lord Eldon, in one of those conversations, strikingly remarked a similar
conduct in the celebrated Lord Collingwood, who had been his
schoolfellow. "Medals were given," said his lordship, "on the 1st of
June, but not to him. When the medal was sent to him for Cape St
Vincent, he returned it, saying that he felt conscious he had done his
duty as well on the 1st of June as at Cape St Vincent; and that, if he
did not merit the first medal, neither could he merit the second. He was
quite right," said Lord Eldon, "he would have both or neither. Both were
sent to him."

Parliament now opened to his ambition. Lord Thurlow, at Lord Weymouth's
request, offered him Weobly, a borough in his patronage, (extinguished
by the Reform Act of 1832.) Scott accepted the offer, on the condition
that he should be left independent in his opinions. Thurlow said the "he
had stipulated that already." Scott went down to the borough
accordingly, made a "long speech," which the electors said they expected
from him, "as he was a lawyer: it being also a treat which they had not
enjoyed for thirty years." Lord Surrey, (afterwards Duke of Norfolk,) a
prodigious reformer--a profession which, however, did not prevent him
from constantly dabbling in the intrigues of electioneering--had
harangued against him at Hereford, while Scott retorted at Weobly by
smartly saying--"That though then unknown to them, he hoped he should
entitle himself to more of their confidence, than if, being the son of
the first Duke of England, he had held himself out to t