debate--listened to with uninterrupted silence, and with the admiration
of both friends and foes. The above, with the exception of taking part
in the debate of the House of Commons, was an average day's work of the
late Sir William Follett! And was it not the life of a galley-slave
chained to the oar? He had, however, chosen it, and would not quit his
seat but at the icy touch of death. Such appears to be a fair and
temperate account of the real state of the case, with reference to Sir
William Follett's great anxiety to acquire money, and his over-eagerness
in accepting briefs. Great allowances ought undoubtedly to be made for
him, on the grounds above suggested; and, with reference to the former
case, another consideration occurs, which ought to have been already
more distinctly adverted to. Sir William Follett had a right to regard
his elevation to the peerage as a matter almost of course. Had he lived
possibly only a few months longer, he would, in all probability, have
become a peer of the realm; and he ought to be given credit for an
honourable ambition to avoid the imputation of having inflicted a pauper
peerage upon the country. Frail he knew his health to be; and
doubtlessly contemplated the necessity of providing suitably for the
family whom he was to leave behind him, and which he had ennobled. But
what was involved in providing, under such circumstances, "_suitably_"
for a noble family? What ample means would have to be secured by one who
had inherited no fortune himself, but was, on the contrary, the sole
architect of his fortunes? What prodigious efforts are necessary for a
lawyer to realise, by his own individual exertions, an amount which
would produce an income of five, four, or even three thousand a-year?
And let any one of common sense, and ordinary knowledge of the world,
ask himself--whether the highest of those amounts is more than barely
sufficient, without undue economy, to provide for a dowager peeress and
a young family! That such considerations were not lost sight of by Sir
William Follett, but, on the contrary, were stimulants to his intense,
unremitting, and exhausting labours, it is easy to understand; and they
sprang out of a high, and honourable, and a legitimate ambition. But
whatever weight may be attached to these considerations--and generosity
and forbearance towards the dead will attach great weight to them--they
are no answer to much of the charge brought against the late Sir William