The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born 1751. Died 1838. Aged 87.] A great lawyer. His legal learning, it is said, has never been surpassed, If it has been equalled. For many years of his long life he sat on the judgment seat, and in the councils of his Sovereign. But the fame of Eldon as a politician has not survived him. He was narrow-minded and narrow-hearted. Lord Brougham has summed up his political faith when he says, “he was alike the determined enemy of all who would either invade the institution, or extirpate the abuse.” He worshipped things as they were. Whatever existed--whether a rotten borough, a sanguinary enactment, or an unjust civil disability--to the mind of Lord Eldon it formed part of the “British Constitution,” and that Constitution had in his eye a sanctity, like religion. No argument was admitted against this iron and immovable belief. Hence, though all men respected his sincerity, all enlightened men pitied his bigotry, and felt it as a public relief when he departed in his ripe old age. He was the last great man of the remorselessly obstructive school to which he belonged. As Lord Chancellor, his decisions have obtained great respect, but he was generally so long in arriving at them, and hesitation and doubt formed so marked a characteristic of his judicial character, that the pecuniary losses and human misery for which he became responsible were considerable. Lord Eldon was of humble origin, and his chances of promotion seemed in early life so remote, that he was actually at the minute of quitting London in despair when he received the brief that took him on to fortune. [By Chantrey.]