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To Erskine
"To Erskine" or "To the Hon Mr Erskine" was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in November 1794. The subject of the poem is Thomas Erskine, a lawyer and member of the Whig party that successfully served in the defense of three political radicals during the 1794 Treason Trials. Coleridge admired Erskine's defense and praised Erskine's refusal to accept money for his service. The poem was published in the 1 December 1794 ''Morning Chronicle'' as part of the ''Sonnets on Eminent Characters'' series. It was later included in various collections of Coleridge's poetry published later.
==Background==
"To Erskine" was first published in the 1 December 1794 ''Morning Chronicle''. The sonnet was prefaced with a note addressed to the editor reading: "If, Sir, the following Poems will not disgrace your poetical department, I will transmit you a series of ''Sonnets'' (as it is the fashion to call them), addressed, like these, to eminent Contemporaries."〔Mays 2001 qtd p. 155〕 Following the poem was a note by the editor that read, "Our elegant Correspondent will highly gratify every reader of taste by the continuance of his exquisitely beautiful productions. No. II. shall appear on an early day."〔 Coleridge did not particularly like "To Erskine", but did rework the poem for his 1796 collection of poems and the poem was included in the 1803 edition and three others that followed.〔Mays 2001 p. 155〕
Erskine, a member of the Whig party, was a lawyer that served as a defender during the 1794 Treason Trials, a series of trials in which those of liberal/radical political beliefs were charged with treason for their published views. As a defender for those tried, notably Thomas Hardy, John Thelwall, and John Horne Tooke, he gave speeches that Coleridge admired.〔Mays 2001 p. 156〕 The trials were viewed by newspapers as a spectacle that attracted a lot of public attention. Those who were paid to serve for either side were ridiculed and mocked as if they were performers. Even the ''Morning Chronicle'' put forth a story that described an individual being paid to join a particular side: a group of people were paid to burn an effigy of one side and then paid to burn an effigy of the other side. Erskine, unlike others, did not accept money to defend those put on trial for treason.〔Pascoe 1997 pp. 46–47〕 His reason for waiving his attorney fee was: "The situation of the unfortunate prisoners entitles them to every degree of tenderness and attention, and their inability to render me any professional compensation, does not remove them at a greater distance from one."〔Pascoe 1997 qtd p. 47〕
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