y and versatility of mind; no one, according
to the testimony of those who saw most of him, combined with a fluent and
powerful eloquence, a better judgment and nicer skill in conducting a
cause. But his best and highest forensic quality, and that which,
combined with his talents, make the loss a national one, was his great
moral and professional courage, his unshaken attachment to what he
considered a good cause. No consideration ever warped him from his duty.
He was proof not merely against those speculations on the best probable
means of personal advancement which many men reject as well as he did,
but against that desire of standing well with the judges, of getting the
ear of the judge, of obtaining the sympathy of men of professional
standing, which it requires much more firmness to resist; there was no
one on whom a defendant exposed to the enmity of government, or to the
judges, or to any prejudices, could rely with greater certainty; that he
would not be compromised or betrayed by his advocate. In a word, there
was no man less of a sycophant. He had a confidence that he could make
himself a name by his own merits, and he would have it.

"But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
And slits the thin spun life."

The following verses, soon after my brother's death, headed, "On the
death of Henry Cooper, Esq.," appeared in the provincial papers; they
were composed by my mother, and had not only the tacit consent of all,
but the universal praise, and that openly expressed, for their spirit and
truthfulness which all felt, for all then knew and admired him they
mourned.

The pride of the Circuit is gone,
The eloquent tongue is at rest;
The spirit so active is flown,
And still lies the quick heaving breast.

The mind so gigantic and strong,
Is vanish'd like vapour or breath;
And the fire that shone in his eye,
Is quenched by the cold hand of death.

Yet a balm to his friends shall arise,
That so soon he acquired a name;
For he dropp'd like a star from the skies,
Untarnished in lustre or fame.

The following verses also, on the death of my brother, appeared in the
provincial papers, and were written by Frederic Wing, Esq., attorney-at-
law, residing at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and headed, "On the death of
the late Henry Cooper."

"Ye friends of talent, genius, hither come,
And bend with