ERSKINE, John, of Carnock (1695-1768), an eminent writer on the law of Scotland and professor in the university of Edinburgh, was born in 1695. His father, LieutenantColonel John Erskine, son of Henry, second Lord Cardross, was a noted Whig and zealous Presbyterian, who made himself conspicuous at the Revolution by refusing to take the oath of abjuration notwithstanding his strong attachment to King William. John Erskine the younger was admitted a member of the faculty of advocates in 1719. Although he never enjoyed much practice at the bar, he acquired a high reputation as a sound and learned lawyer. In 1737 he was appointed professor of Scots law in the university of Edinburgh—a position which he proved to be peculiarly well fitted to adorn. In 1754 he published his Principles of the Law of Scotland. He retired from his chair in 1765; and during the remainder of his uneventful life he occupied himself with the preparation of his great work, the Institute of the Law of Scotland, which he did not live to publish. He died at Cardross on the 1st March 1768.

Erskine’s Institute, although it does not exhibit the grasp of principle which distinguished his great predecessor Lord Stair, is so conspicuous for learning, accuracy, and sound good sense, that it has always been esteemed of the highest authority on the law of Scotland. On one important branch indeed—commercial law—it is very defective, even when compared with Lord Stair’s much earlier work; but at the time when Erskine wrote commerce had declined in Scotland, while the forfeitures consequent on the rebellions of 1715 and 1745 had given a great impetus to feudal conveyancing; and the Institute naturally reflects this state of society. Nor does it profess to give a very extended exposition of criminal law; but on all the other branches of Scottish jurisprudence it is, even at the present day, the most trustworthy guide which the student can find. The Principles, although published first, is substantially an abridgment of the larger work, and is in some respects superior to it. More concise and direct, it gives an admirable exposition of the main principles of the law in a perspicuous and interesting manner. It was designed to supersede Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions as the class text-book; and it is a conclusive proof of its excellence that it still retains this place in the university.

The Institute first appeared in 1773, and has repeatedly been republished. The best edition is the last (1871), by Mr Badenach Nicolson, who has preserved the valuable and authoritative notes of Lord Ivory’s edition (1824-28). The last (15th) edition of the Principles is admirably edited by Mr Guthrie (1874).

ERSKINE, John, D.D. (1721-1803), son of the above, a minister of the Church of Scotland, was born on the 2d June 1721, It was his early desire to enter the church; and although, in deference to his father’s wish, he studied law for a time after completing his course in arts at the university of Edinburgh, he was eventually permitted to follow his own inclination. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Dunblane in 1743; and in May of the following year he was ordained minister of the important parish of Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow. In 1753 he was translated to Culross, in Fifeshire, from which he was removed in 1758 to the New Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh. In 1767 this was exchanged for the collegiate charge of the Old Greyfriars Church, where he became the colleague of Principal Robertson, the historian. Here he remained until his death, which took place on January 19, 1803. His writings consist chiefly of numerous controversial pamphlets on theological subjects, and their contents make it a matter of regret that he did not publish something which was the result of more extended labour, He carried on an extensive correspondence with many distinguished men in England, on the Continent, and in America. His sermons are clear, vigorous expositions of a moderate Calvinism, in which metaphysical argument and practical morality are happily blended. In church politics he was the leader of the evangelical party; but his high character and the benignity of his disposition secured for him the esteem of his opponents and the friendship of their leader, his colleague Dr Robertson. There is an excellent Life of Erskine by Sir H. Moncrieff Welwood (Edin. 1818), the appendix to which contains a complete list of his numerous writings.

ERSKINE, Ralph (1685-1752), brother of Ebenezer Erskine, was born 18th March 1685. After studying at the university of Edinburgh, he was licensed as a preacher in 1709, and in 1711 was ordained as assistant minister at Dunfermline. He homologated the protests which his brother laid on the table of the Assembly after being rebuked for his synod sermon, but he did not formally withdraw from the Establishment till 1737. He was also present, though not as a member, at the first meeting of the Associate Presbytery. When the severance took place on account of the oath administered to burgesses, he adhered, along with his brother, to the Burgher section. He died after a short illness on November 6, 1752. His works consist of sermons, poetical paraphrases, and gospel sonnets. The Gospel Sonnets have frequently appeared separately. His Life and Diary, edited by the Rev. D. Fraser, was published in 1842,

ERSKINE, Thomas, Baron (1750-1823), probably the greatest forensic orator that Britain has produced, was the third and youngest son of Henry David, tenth earl of Buchan, and was born in Edinburgh on the 10th of January 1750. From an early age he showed a strong desire to enter one of the learned professions; but his father, whose means had barely permitted him to afford the expense of a liberal education for his two elder sons—one of whom, afterwards the well-known Harry Erskine, was studying for the Scotch bar—was unable to do more than give him a good school education at the High School of Edinburgh and the grammar school of St Andrews. He attended the university of St Andrews for one session, after which it was decided that he should join the navy; and in the spring of 1764 he left Scotland to serve as a midshipman on board the “Tartar.” His buoyancy of spirit and the opportunity for study which he had on board a man-of-war reconciled him to his new mode of life; but on finding, when he returned to this country after four years’ absence in North America and the West Indies, that there was little immediate chance of his rank of acting lieutenant being confirmed, he resolved to quit the service. He entered the army, purchasing a commission in the 1st Royals with the meagre patrimony which had been left to him. But promotion here was as slow as in the navy; while in 1770 he had added greatly to his difficulties by marrying the daughter of Mr Daniel Moore, M P for Marlow, an excellent wife, but as poor as himself. In these depressing circumstances he happened to be quartered where the assizes were being held, and lounging into court one day was invited to the bench by his father’s old friend Lord Mansfield. He was told that the barristers who were pleading were at the top of their profession, yet he felt that he could do as well, if not better, himself. He confided his plan to Lord Mansfield, who did not discourage him, and to his mother, a woman of remarkable determination of character, who strongly advised him to quit the army for the law. Accordingly on the 26th April 1775 he was admitted a student of Lincoln’s Inn. He also on the 13th of January following entered himself as a gentleman commoner on the books of Trinity College, Cambridge, but merely that by graduating he might be called two years earlier. He placed himself as a pupil under Mr Buller, and when that eminent lawyer was elevated to the bench, under Mr (afterwards Baron) Wood, and was called to the bar on the 3d July 1778. His success was immediate and brilliant. An accident was the means of giving him his first case, Rex v. Baillie, in which he appeared for Captain Baillie, the lieutenant-governor of Greenwich Hospital, who had published a pamphlet animadverting in severe terms upon the abuses which Lord Sandwich, the first lord of the Admiralty, had introduced into the management of the hospital, and against whom a rule had been obtained from the Court of King’s Bench to show cause why a criminal information for libel should not be filed. Erskine was the junior of five counsel; and it was his good fortune that the prolixity of his leaders consumed the whole of the first day, thereby giving the advantage of starting afresh next morning. He made use of this opportunity to deliver a speech of wonderful eloquence, skill, and courage, which captivated both the audience and the court. The rule was discharged, and Erskine’s fortune was made. He received, it is said, thirty retainers before he left the court. In 1781 he delivered another remarkable speech, in defence of Lord George Gordon—a speech which gave the death-blow to the doctrine of constructive treason. In 1783, when the Coalition Ministry came into power, he was returned to parliament as member for Portsmouth. His first speech in the House of Commons was a failure; and he never in parliamentary debate possessed anything like the influence he had at the bar. He lost his seat at the dissolution in the following year, and remained out of parliament until 1790, when he was again returned for Portsmouth. But his success at the bar continued unimpaired. In 1783 he received a patent of precedence. His first special retainer was in defence of Dr Shipley, dean of St Asaph, who was tried in 1784 before Mr Justice Buller at Shrewsbury for seditious libel—a case memorable for Erskine’s bold yet dignified vindication of the independence of the bar, and for the speech which he subsequently made before the court at Westminster against a motion for a new trial. In 1789 he was counsel for Stockdale, a bookseller, who was charged with seditious libel in publishing a pamphlet in favour of Warren Hastings, whose trial was then proceeding; and his speech on this occasion, probably his greatest effort, is a consummate specimen of the art of addressing a jury. Three years afterwards he brought down the opposition alike of friends and foes by defending Thomas Paine, author of The Hights of Man— holding that an advocate has no right, by refusing a brief, to convert himself into a judge. As a consequence he lost the office of attorney-general to the Prince of λVales, to which he had been appointed in 1786; the prince, however, subsequently made amends by making him his chancellor. Among Erskine’s later speeches may be mentioned those for Horne Tooke and the other advocates of parliamentary reform, and that for Hadfield, who was accused of shooting at the king. On the accession of the Grenville ministry in 1806, he was made lord chancellor, an office for which his training had in no way prepared him, but which he fortunately held only during the short period his party was in power. Of the remainder of his life it would be well if nothing could be said. Occasionally speaking in parliament, and hoping that he might return to office should the prince become regent, he gradually degenerated into a state of useless idleness. Never conspicuous for prudence, he aggravated his increasing poverty by an unfortunate second marriage. Once only—in his conduct in the case of Queen Caroline—does he recall his former self. He died at Almondel, Linlithgowshire, 17th November 1823, of inflammation in the chest, caught on the voyage to Scotland.

Erskine no doubt owed much to the period in which he lived. In another age his highest distinction would probably have been the barren and evanescent reputation of a successful verdict-getter. The political trials in which he was engaged not only handed him down to posterity as the vindicator of his country’s liberties, but by inspiring him with the consciousness that he was defending his country and its constitution as much as if he were speaking in parliament or fighting in the field, developed, in a way that no ordinary trial could have done, that impassioned eloquence and undaunted courage which so often carried audience and jury and even court along with him. As a judge he did not succeed; and it has been questioned whether under any circumstances he could have succeeded. For the office of chancellor he was plainly unfit; but it is difficult to believe that one who for so long was the ornament of the bar of the King’s Bench could have presided over that court without adding fresh lustre to his name. As a lawyer he was well read, but by no means profound. His strength lay in the keenness of his reasoning faculty, in his dexterity and the ability with which he disentangled complicated masses of evidence, and above all in his unrivalled power of fixing and commanding the attention of juries. To no department of knowledge but law had he applied himself systematically, with the single exception of English literature, of which he acquired a thorough mastery in early life, at intervals of leisure in college, on board ship, or in the army. Vanity is said to have been his ruling personal characteristic; but those who knew him, while they admit the fault, say that in him it never took an offensive form, even in old age, while the singular grace and attractiveness of his manner endeared him to all with whom he came in contact.

In 1772 Erskine published Observations on the Prevailing Abuses in the British Army, a pamphlet which had a large circulation, and in later life, Armata, an imitation of Gulliver’s Travels. His most noted speeches have repeatedly appeared in a collected form. There is a good account of his life in Lord Campbell’s Chancellors, and an interesting estimate of his character in Lord Abinger’s recently published Memoir.

ERSKINE, Thomas, of Linlathen (1788-1870), a writer on theology and religion, son of David Erskine, writer to the signet in Edinburgh, and of Anne Graham, of the Grahams of Airth, was born 13th October 1788. He was a descendant of the earl of Mar, regent of Scotland in the reign of James VI., a grandson of John Erskine of Carnock, and a nephew of the Rev. Dr John Erskine, both noticed above. After being educated at the High School of Edinburgh and at Durham, he attended the literary and law classes at the university of Edinburgh; and becoming in 1810 a member of the Edinburgh faculty of advocates, he for some time enjoyed the intimate acquaintance of Cockburn, Jeffrey, Scott, and the other distinguished men whose talents then lent an unusual lustre to the Scotch bar. On the death of his elder brother in 1816 he succeeded to the family estate of Linlathen, near Dundee, and retired from the bar— occupying the chief portion of his subsequent life in the management of his estate, in the intercourse of a few select friends, and in the discussion—either by conversation, by letters, or by literary publications—of those religious topics which he considered to have a vital relation to man’s highest welfare. The writings of Erskine are perhaps deficient in robustness of thought, but they are clothed in a graceful style, and possess a certain originality and interest, due chiefly to his strong earnestness, unaffected sincerity, and fine moral insight. His theological views have a considerable similarity to those of Frederick Denison Maurice, who acknowledges having been indebted to him for his first true conception of the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice. Erskine had little interest in the “historical criticism” of Christianity, and regarded as the only proper criterion of its truth its conformity or nonconformity with man’s spiritual nature, and its adaptability or non-adaptability to man’s universal and deepest spiritual needs. He considered the incarnation of Christ as the necessary manifestation to man of an eternal sonship in the divine nature, apart from which those filial qualities which God demands from man could have no sanction; and by faith as used in Scripture he understood to be meant a certaiu moral or spiritual condition which virtually implied salvation, because it implied the existence of a principle of spiritual life possessed of an immortal power. This faith, he believed, could be properly awakened only by the manifestation, through Christ, of love as the law of life, and as identical with an eternal righteousness which it was God’s purpose to bestow on every individual soul. During the last 33 years of his life Mr Erskine did not engage in any literary efforts. He spent the summer generally at Linlathen, and the winter either at Edinburgh, Paris, Geneva, or Lausanne. On the Continent he enjoyed the society of, among others, Mdme. Vernet, the duchess de Broglie, the younger Mdme. de Staël, and M. Vinet of Lausanne, and among his most intimate friends in this country were Edward Irving, Frederick Maurice, Dean Stanley, Bishop Ewing, Dr John Brown, and Thomas Carlyle. He exercised considerable influence over the whole circle of his acquaintance by his unassuming earnestness in advocating his religious views, and by the rare qualities of his personal character. He died at Edinburgh 20th March 1870.

His principal works are Remarks on the Internal Evidence for the Truth of Revealed Religion (1820), an Essay on Faith (1822), and the Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel (1828). These have all passed through several editions, and have also been translated into French. He is also the author of the Brazen Serpent (1831), the Doctrine of Election (1839), several “Introductory Essays" to editions of Christian Authors, and a posthumous work entitled Spiritual Order and Other Papers (1871). Two vols, of his letters, edited by William Hanna, D.D., with reminiscences by Dean Stanley and Principal Shairp, appeared in 1877.