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eldest brother, who became the famous Premier—the Lord North—of the
time of the American war. Lord Brougham says that all contemporaries
agree in representing his talents as having shone with a great and steady
lustre during that singularly trying period. He speaks of a wit that never
failed him, and a suavity of temper that could never be ruffled, as peculiar
qualities in which he, and indeed all his family (his immediate family),
excelled most other men. The admirable description of Lord North by his
daughter, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, that is appended to his biography by Lord
Brougham, is sufficient proof of that lady's high ability.
There is yet another great legal family, related to the Norths, whose place
in the pedigree I do not know: it is that of the Hydes, and includes the
illustrious first Earl of Clarendon. It appears that the Lord Chief Justice
Hyde used to take kindly notice of the Lord Keeper, Francis North, when a
young rising barrister, and allude to his kinship, and call him “cousin.”
It is want of space, not want of material, that compels me to conclude the
description of the able relatives of the Norths and Montagus. But I am sure
I have said enough to prove the assertion with which I prefaced it, that
natural gifts of an exceedingly high order were inherited by a very large
number of the members of the family, and that these owed their reputations
to their abilities, and not to family support.
Another test of the truth of the hereditary character of ability is to see
whether the near relations of very eminent men are more frequently
eminent than those who are more remote. Table II. (p. 61) answers this
question with great distinctness in the way I have already explained. It
shows that the near relations of the Judges are far richer in ability than the
more remote—so much so, that the fact of being born in the fourth degree
of relationship
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