'Scotch Law' — Lord Colonsay

Plate No. 254 from the Statesmen series, captioned "Scotch Law" beneath the subject's name. Ward's caricature shows an elderly man in a dark frock coat seated on a tufted leather bench, a top hat beside him stuffed with legal papers — the badge of a working lawyer-peer. The white judicial wig frames a gaunt, heavily lined face with a prominent nose and jutting chin, rendered in the exaggerated profile typical of Spy's lithographic style. No ethnic caricature is present; the distortions are purely those of age and professional type. Lord Colonsay (Duncan McNeill, 1793–1874) was a Scottish advocate who rose to Lord President of the Court of Session and later a Law Lord — hence the Scotch Law caption, noting his specialist jurisdiction in Scottish jurisprudence within the House of Lords.