[156] A private letter from the claimant to James Murray, Esq., of Boston, dated London, June 15, 1772, carries us back to the times, and even to the court-room. "I am told," writes the claimant, "that some young counsel flourished away on the side of liberty, and acquired great honor. Dunning was dull and languid, and would have made a much better figure on that side also." Of course he would. After speaking of the "load of abuse thrown on L--d M----, for hesitating to pronounce judgment in favor of freedom," the claimant says, "Dunning has come in also for a pretty good share for taking the wrong side." (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for 1863-64, pp. 323, 324.) Abolitionists had begun to be critical. [157] Howell's State Trials, XX. 71-76. Passing from counsel to court, we find occasion for gratitude and sorrow. The three judges, Aston, Willes, and Ashhurst, who sat at the side of Lord Mansfield, were silent through the whole proceedings, overawed, perhaps, by his commanding authority, so that he alone seems to be present. Of large intellect, and extensive studies, running into all regions of learning,--with a silver-tongued voice, and an amenity of manner which gave constant charm to his presence,--with unsurpassed professional and political experience combined,--early companion of Pope, and early competitor of Pitt,--having already once refused the post of Prime Minister, and three times refused the post of Chancellor,--he stood forth, at the period when the poor slave was brought before him, an acknowledged master of jurisprudence, and, take him for all in all, the most finished magistrate England had then produced. But his character had one fatal defect, too common on the bench. He lacked _moral firmness_,--happily not lacking in Granville Sharp. Still more, he was not naturally on the side of Liberty, as becomes a great judge, but always, by blood and instinct, on the side of prerogative and power,--an offence for which he was arraigned by his contemporary, Junius, and for which posterity will hold him to strict account. But his luminous mind, prompt to perceive the force of principles, could not resist the array of argument now marshalled for Freedom. He saw clearly that a system like Slavery could not find home under the British Constitution, _which nowhere mentions the name Slave_; and yet he shrank from the sublime conclusion. More than once he coquetted with the merchants, who had the case so much at heart, and twice ignobly suggested that the claimant might avoid the decision of the great question, fraught with Freedom or Slavery to multitudes, simply by manumitting the individual. And when at last the case could not be arrested by any device, or be longer postponed,--when judgment was inevitable,--he came to the work, not warmly or generously, but in trembling obedience to the Truth, which waited to be declared.