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ELDON, JOHN SCOTT

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 168 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ELDON, See also:JOHN See also:SCOTT , 1st See also:EARL, OF (1751-1838), See also:lord high See also:chancellor of See also:England, was See also:born at See also:Newcastle on the 4th of See also:June 1751. His grandfather, See also:William Scott of See also:Sandgate, a suburb of Newcastle, was clerk to a " fitter "—a sort of See also:water-See also:carrier and See also:broker of coals. His See also:father, whose name also was William, began See also:life as an apprentice to a fitter, in which service he obtained the freedom of Newcastle, becoming a member of the gild of Hoastmen (See also:coal-fitters); later in life he became a See also:principal in the business, and attained a respectable position as a See also:merchant in Newcastle, accumulating See also:property See also:worth nearly £20,000. John Scott was educated at the See also:grammar school of his native See also:town. He was not remarkable at school for application to his studies, though his wonderful memory enabled him to make See also:good progress in them; he frequently played truant and was whipped for it, robbed orchards, and indulged in other questionable school-boy freaks; nor did he always come out of his scrapes with See also:honour and a See also:character for truthfulness. When he had finished his See also:education at the grammar school, his father thought of apprenticing him to his own business, to which an See also:elder See also:brother See also:Henry had already devoted himself; and it was only through the interference of his elder brother William (afterwards Lord See also:Stowell, q.v.), who had already obtained a fellowship at University See also:College, See also:Oxford, that it was ultimately resolved that he should continue the See also:prosecution of his studies. Accordingly, in 1766, John Scott entered University College with the view of taking See also:holy orders and obtaining a college living. In the See also:year following he obtained a fellowship, graduated B.A. in 1770, and in 1771 won the See also:prize for the See also:English See also:essay, the only university prize open in his See also:time for See also:general competition. His wife was the eldest daughter of Aubone See also:Surtees, a New-See also:castle banker. The Surtees See also:family objected to the match, and attempted to prevent it; but a strong See also:attachment had sprung up between them. On the 18th See also:November 1772 Scott, with the aid of a See also:ladder and an old friend, carried off the See also:lady from her father's See also:house in the Sandhill, across the border to Blackshiels, in See also:Scotland, where they were married. The father of the See also:bride-See also:groom objected not to his son's choice, but to the time he See also:chose to marry; for it was a blight on his son's prospects, depriving him of his fellowship and his See also:chance of See also:church preferment.

But while the bride's family refused to hold intercourse with the pair, Mr Scott, like a prudent See also:

man and an affectionate father, set himself to make the best of a See also:bad See also:matter, and received them kindly, settling on his son £2000. John returned with his wife to Oxford, and continued to hold his fellowship for what is called the year of See also:grace given after See also:marriage, and added to his income by acting as a private See also:tutor. After a time Mr Surtees was reconciled with his daughter, and made a liberal See also:settlement on her. John Scott's year of grace closed without any college living falling vacant; and with his fellowship he gave up the church and turned to the study of See also:law. He became a student at the See also:Middle See also:Temple in See also:January 1773. In 1776 he was called to the See also:bar, intending at first to establish himself as an See also:advocate in his native town, a See also:scheme which his See also:early success led him to abandon, and he soon settled to the practice of his profession in See also:London, and on the See also:northern See also:circuit. In the autumn of the year in which he was called to the bar his father died, leaving him a See also:legacy of £l000 over and above the £2000 previously settled on him. In his second year at the bar his prospects began to brighten. His brother William, who by this time held the See also:Camden professorship of See also:ancient See also:history, and enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with men of See also:eminence in London, was in a position materially to advance his interests. Among his See also:friends was the notorious See also:Andrew Bowes of Gibside, to the patrohage of whose house the rise of the Scott family was largely owing. Bowes having contested Newcastle and lost it, presented an See also:election See also:petition against the return of his opponent. See also:Young Scott was retained as junior counsel in the See also:case, and though he lost the petition he did not fail to improve the opportunity which it afforded for displaying his talents.

This engagement, in the commencement of his second year at the ba., See also:

anti the dropping in of occasional fees, must have raised his hopes; and he now abandoned the scheme of becoming a provincial See also:barrister. A year or two of dull drudgery and few fees followed, and he began to be much depressed. But in 1780 we find his prospects suddenly improved, by his See also:appearance in the case of Ackroyd v. See also:Smithson, which became a leading case settling a See also:rule of law; and young Scott, having lost his point in the inferior See also:court, insisted on arguing it, on See also:appeal, against the See also:opinion of his clients, and carried it before Lord See also:Thurlow, whose favourable See also:consideration he won by his able See also:argument. The same year Bowes again retained him in an election petition; and in the year following Scott greatly increased his reputation by his appearance as leading counsel in the See also:Clitheroe election petition. From this time his success was certain. In 1782 he obtained a See also:silk See also:gown, and was so far cured of his early modesty that he declined accepting the See also:king's counselship if See also:precedence over him were given to his junior, See also:Thomas (afterwards Lord) See also:Erskine, though the latter was the son of a peer and a most accomplished orator. He was now on the high way to See also:fortune. His See also:health, which had hitherto been but indifferent, strengthened with the demands made upon it; his talents, his See also:power of endurance, and his ambition all See also:expanded together. He enjoyed a considerable practice in the northern See also:part of his circuit, before See also:parliamentary committees and at the See also:chancery bar. By 1787 his practice at the See also:equity bar had so far increased that he was obliged to give up the eastern See also:half of his circuit (which embraced six counties) and attend it only at See also:Lancaster. In 1782 he entered See also:parliament for Lord See also:Weymouth's See also:close See also:borough of Weobley, which Lord Thurlow obtained for him without solicitation.

In parliament he gave a general and See also:

independent support to See also:Pitt. His first parliamentary speeches were directed against See also:Fox's See also:India See also:Bill. They were unsuccessful. In one he aimed at being brilliant; and becoming merely laboured and pedantic, he was covered with ridicule by See also:Sheridan, from whom he received a See also:lesson which he did not fail to turn to See also:account. In 1788 he was appointed See also:solicitor-general, and was knighted, and at the close of this year he attracted See also:attention by his speeches in support of Pitt's resolutions on the See also:state of the king (See also:George III., who then laboured under a See also:mental malady) and the delegation of his authority. It is said that he See also:drew the Regency Bill, which was introduced in 1789. In 1793 See also:Sir John Scott was promoted to the See also:office of See also:attorney-general, in which it See also:fell to him to conduct the memorable prosecutions for high See also:treason against See also:British sympathizers with See also:French republicanism, —amongst others, against the celebrated See also:Horne See also:Tooke. These prosecutions, in most cases, were no doubt instigated by Sir John Scott, and were the most important proceedings in which he was ever professionally engaged. He has See also:left on See also:record, in his See also:Anecdote See also:Book, a See also:defence of his conduct in regard to them. k full account of the principal trials, and of the various legislative See also:measures for repressing the expressions of popular opinion for which he was more or less responsible, will be found in See also:Twiss's Public and Private Life of the Lord Chancellor Eldon, and in the Lives of the Lord Chancellors, by Lord See also:Campbell. In 1799 the office of See also:chief See also:justice of the Court of See also:Common Pleas falling vacant, Sir John Scott's claim to it was not over-looked; and after seventeen years' service in the See also:Lower House, he entered the House of Peers as See also:Baron Eldon. In See also:February 1801 the See also:ministry of Pitt was succeeded by that of Addington, and the chief justice now ascended the See also:woolsack. The chancellor-See also:ship was given to him professedly on account of his notorious anti-See also:Catholic zeal.

From the See also:

peace of See also:Amiens (1802) till 1804 Lord Eldon appears to have interfered little in politics. In the latter year we find him conducting the negotiations which resulted in the dismissal of Addington and the recall of Pitt to office as See also:prime See also:minister. Lord Eldon was continued in office as chancellor under Pitt; but the new See also:administration was of See also:short duration, for on the 23rd of January 1806 Pitt died, worn out with the anxieties of office, and his ministry was succeeded by a See also:coalition, under Lord See also:Grenville. The See also:death of Fox, who became See also:foreign secretary and See also:leader of the House of See also:Commons,soon, however, See also:broke up the Grenville administration; and in the See also:spring of 1807 Lord Eldon once more, under Lord See also:Liverpool's administration, returned to the woolsack, which, from that time, he continued to occupy for about twenty years, swaying the See also:cabinet, and being in all but name prime minister of England. It was not till See also:April 1827, when the premiership, vacant through the See also:paralysis of Lord Liverpool, fell to See also:Canning, the chief advocate of See also:Roman Catholic emancipation, that Lord Eldon, in the seventy-See also:sixth year of his See also:age, finally resigned the chancellorship. When, after the two short administrations of Canning and Goderich, it fell to the See also:duke of See also:Wellington to construct a cabinet, Lord Eldon expected to be included, if not as chancellor, at least in some important office, but he was overlooked, at which he was much chagrined. Notwithstanding his frequent protests that he did not covet power, but longed for retirement, we find him again, so See also:late as 1835, within three years of his death, in hopes of office under See also:Peel. He spoke in parliament for the last time in See also:July 1834. In 1821 Lord Eldon had been created See also:Viscount Encombe and earl of Eldon by George IV., whom he managed to conciliate, partly, no doubt, by espousing his cause against his wife, whose advocate he had formerly been, and partly through his reputation for zeal against the Roman Catholics. In the same year his brother William, who from 1798 had filled the office of See also:judge of the High Court of See also:Admiralty, was raised to the See also:peerage under the See also:title of Lord Stowell. Lord Eldon's wife, his dear " Bessy, " his love for whom is a beautiful feature in his life, died before him, on the 28th of June 1831. By nature she was of See also:simple character, and by habits acquired during the early portion of her See also:husband's career almost a recluse.

Two of their sons reached maturity—John, who died in 1805, and William Henry John, who died unmarried in 1832. Lord Eldon himself survived almost all his immediate relations. His brother William died in 1836. He himself died in London on the 13th of January 1838, leaving behind him two daughters, Lady Frances Bankes and Lady See also:

Elizabeth See also:Repton, and a See also:grandson John (1805-1854), who succeeded him as second earl, the title subsequently passing to the latter's son John (b. 1846). Lord Eldon was no legislator—his one aim in politics was to keep in office, and maintain things as he found them; and almost the only See also:laws he helped to pass were laws for popular See also:coercion. For nearly See also:forty years he fought against every improvement in law, or in the constitution—calling See also:God to See also:witness, on the smallest proposal of reform, that he foresaw from it the downfall of his See also:country. Without any See also:political principles, properly so called, and without See also:interest in or knowledge of foreign affairs, he maintained himself and his party in power for an unprecedented See also:period by his See also:great tact, and in virtue of his two great political properties—of zeal against every See also:species of reform, and zeal against the Roman Catholics. To pass from his political to his judicial character is to shift to ground on which his greatness is universally acknowledged. His judgments, which have received as much praise for their accuracy as abuse for their clumsiness and uncouthness, fill a small library. But though intimately acquainted with every nook and cranny of the English law, he never carried his studies into foreign See also:fields, from which to enrich our legal literature; and it must be added that against the excellence of his judgments, in too many cases, must be set off the hardships, worse than injustice, that arose from his protracted delays in pronouncing them. A consummate judge and the narrowest of politicians, he was doubt on the See also:bench, and promptness itself in the political See also:arena.

For literature, as for See also:

art, he had no feeling. What intervals of leisure he enjoyed from the cares of office he filled up with See also:newspapers and the See also:gossip of old cronies. Nor were his intimate associates men of refinement and See also:taste; they were rather good See also:fellows who quietly enjoyed a good See also:bottle and a joke; he uniformly avoided en-counters of wit with his equals. He is said to have been parsimonious, and certainly he was quicker to receive than to reciprocate hospitalities; but his mean See also:establishment and mode of life are explained by the retired habits of his wife, and her dislike of See also:company. His See also:manners were very winning and courtly, and in the circle of his immediate relatives he is said to have always been lovable and beloved. " In his See also:person," says Lord Campbell, " Lord Eldon was about the middle See also:size, his figure See also:light and athletic, his features See also:regular and handsome, his See also:eye See also:bright and full, his smile remarkably benevolent, and his whole appearance prepossessing. The advance of years rather increased than detracted from these See also:personal advantages. As he sat on the See also:judgment-seat, ` the deep thought betrayed in his furrowed brow—the large eyebrows, overhanging eyes that seemed to regard more what was taking See also:place within than around him—his calmness, that would have assumed a character of sternness but for its perfect placidity—his dignity, repose and See also:venerable age, tended at once to win confidence and to inspire respect ' (Townsend). He had a See also:voice both sweet and deep-toned, and its effect was not injured by his Northumbrian See also:burr, which, though strong, was entirely See also:free from harshness and vulgarity." AUTxoxrrIES.—Horace Twiss, Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon (1844); W. E. Surtees, See also:Sketch of the Lives of Lords Stowell and Eldon (1846); Lord Campbell, Lives of the Chancellors; W. C.

Townsend, Lives of Twelve Eminent See also:

Judges (1846) ; Greville See also:Memoirs. EL DORADO (Span. " the gilded one "), a name applied, first, to the king or chief See also:priest of a See also:South See also:American tribe who was said to See also:cover himself with See also:gold dust at a yearly religious festival held i near See also:Santa Fe de See also:Bogota; next, to a legendary See also:city called Manoa or Omoa; and lastly, to a mythical country in which gold and See also:precious stones were found in fabulous abundance. The See also:legend, which has never been traced to its ultimate source, had many variants, especially as regards the situation attributed to Manoa. It induced many See also:Spanish explorers to See also:lead expeditions in See also:search of treasure, but all failed. Among the most famous were the expedition undertaken by Diego de Ordaz, whose See also:lieutenant Martinez claimed to have been rescued from shipwreck, conveyed inland, and entertained at Omoa by " El Dorado " himself (1531) ; and the journeys of Orellana (1540-1541), who passed down the Rio Napo to the valley of the See also:Amazon; that of See also:Philip von See also:Hutten (1541-1545), who led an exploring party from See also:Coro on the See also:coast of See also:Caracas; and of Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada (1569), who started from Santa Fe de Bogota. Sir See also:Walter See also:Raleigh, who resumed the search in 1595, described Manoa as a city on See also:Lake Parima in See also:Guiana. This lake was marked on English and other maps until its existence was disproved by A. von See also:Humboldt (1769-1859). Meanwhile the name of El Dorado came to be used metaphorically of any place where See also:wealth could be rapidly acquired. It was given to a See also:county in See also:California, and to towns and cities in various states. In literature frequent allusion is made to the legend, perhaps the best-known references being those in See also:Milton's See also:Paradise Lost (vi. 411) and See also:Voltaire's Candide (chs.

18, 19). See A. F. A. See also:

Bandelier, The Gilded Man, El Dorado (New See also:York, 1893).

End of Article: ELDON, JOHN SCOTT

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