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Sir Thomas Lawrence, Pinx. 
 
 S. Ayling, Photo. 
 
 LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, 1801. 
 
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SELECT 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Note- Books of a Law Reporter. 
 
 WILLIAM HEATH l^NNET, Esq., 
 
 OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTEB-AT-LAW. 
 
 LONDON : 
 GEORGE EOUTLEDGE and SONS, 
 
 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL. 
 NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET. 
 
 1867. 
 
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f^6'6: 
 
 <z-\ 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PHINTED HY THOMAS SOOTT, WAKWIOK CCUBT, 
 
 HOLBOKN. 
 
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T° 
 
 THE EIGHT HONOEABLE 
 
 WILLIAM HENEY, BAEON LEIGH, 
 
 STONELEIGH, 
 
 LORD LIEUTENANT OP THE COUNTY OF •WABWIC!K ; 
 GUSTOS ROTULOBUMi TRUSTEE OF RUGBY SCHOOL, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 WITH HIS LOEDSHIP'S PEEMISSION, 
 
 Respectfully DteDicAXED, 
 
 THE ATJTHOE. 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 The following Sketches — for they pretend to little 
 more than the word imports — were, at the time 
 they were penned, thrown off without any intention 
 of seeking for literary fame as the result of their 
 publication. 
 
 I entreat my readers to bear this in remem- 
 brance. 
 
 The earlier ones appeared in a legal weekly 
 periodical at the end of last year, and were received 
 with some favour by many of its readers. 
 
 I was subsequently advised to collect them in a 
 separate form, to re-cast, and to enlarge them, as 
 better adapted for more general circulation and 
 perusal. This I have now done, and have added 
 perhaps the more attractive feature to the Essays — 
 Photographic Portraits of the eminent men upon 
 whose lives and talents I have thus ventured to 
 comment. 
 
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VI PREFACE. 
 
 Should tliese Sketches meet with the approba- 
 tion of the Public, there are some odd leaves in my 
 old Note-Books, which contain others, from which 
 I may at a future time make a selection. . 
 
 I have to offer my sincere thanks to many of 
 my Legal Friends, who have kindly assisted me in 
 this compilation. 
 
 In a work comprising many small facts and 
 dates, some inaccuracies in those respects may 
 probably have crept in ; any communication which 
 will enable me to rectify them will be thankfully 
 received. 
 
 Chancery Lane, 
 
 1st December, 1866. 
 
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CONTENTS. 
 
 Inteoduction. 
 
 Note-Books — Anecdote of the late Earl of Ellesmere— Yarmouth 
 Election Petition, 1835— Of Lord Chancellor Nottingham- 
 Reasons for Publishing — Reminiscences 1-5 
 
 Sketch I. 
 LOED ELLENBOEOUGH. 
 
 Birth, Parentage, and Education — Entered at Lincoln's Inn, 
 1776 — Engaged for the Defence of Warren Hastings — Hastings 
 the Friend of our Indian Empire — His Trial — Acquittal, 
 1795 — Lord Brougham's Remarks thereon — Ellenborough's 
 Speech — Attorney-General, 1801 — Appointed Lord Chief 
 Justice and Peer — Choice of his Title — Chief Justice fifteen 
 years — His Death in 1818 — His Person— Member of the 
 Volunteer Corps of Lincoln's Inn — Sayings of the Drill 
 Serjeant as to EUenborough — Mr. Mitford — Sir Vicary Gibhs 
 — Verdict obtained by the Writer, when a Youth, before 
 Lord EUenborough — Lord EUenborough and Erskine — 
 Anecdote — His fastidiousness as to Words — Letter of Lord 
 Eldon thereon — Extract from Diary of Sir Samuel Rorailly 
 as to the Bill for Stealing in a Shop — Deportment of Lord 
 EUenborough on the Bench — His Character ... ... 7-17 
 
 Sketch II. 
 SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 Introduction— Birth, Parentage, and Education— Circumstances 
 of his Early Youth as described by Himself— His Course of 
 
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VIU CONTENTS. 
 
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 Study — Placed in the Six Clerks' Office under Mr. Lally — 
 Description of him — M. Eoget — Entered at Gray's Inn — 
 Pupil of Jeffries Spranger — ;Chancellor Duguesseau — Effect 
 of Study on his Health — Bath Waters — Eiots of Lord George 
 Gordon, 1780 — Sentry at Gray's Inn Gate — Studies the Italian 
 Language as a Divermin — Proceeds to Geneva- Acquaintance 
 ■with Dumont, and friendship — D'Alembert and others- 
 Encouragement by Sensible Women — Called to the Bar, 1783 
 — Midland Circuit — Attendance in the Houses of Parliament 
 — His Letters at this Time — Quarter Sessions — Saying of Mr. 
 Justice Heath — Practice in Chancery — Promotion of Sir John 
 Scott — His Marriage, 1798— Circumstances of his first meeting 
 with Lady Eomilly, as related by himself — King's Counsel, 
 1800— Leader of the Equity Bar— Visit to Paris in 1802— 
 Chancellor of Durham, 1805 — Solicitor-General, 1806 — 
 Member for Queenborough — First took his Seat, March, 1806 
 — Dissolution of Parliament — Ceases to be Solicitor-General 
 — Returned for Horsham — Petition against — Returned for 
 Wareham — For Arundel — Nominated for Bristol — Unsuccess- 
 ful — Personal Anecdote — Case of Mary Ann Dix — Consistory 
 Court — Penance — Writ de Excommunicatio Capiendo — De 
 Heretico Comburendo^Dissolution of Parliament, 1818 — 
 Returned for Westminster — Anecdote of this Election — His 
 Death, November, 1818 — His Character as an Advocate — 
 His Dislike to his Profession — His Eloquence and Manner 
 of Delivery — Difference of his Manner in Court and in the 
 House of Commons — Huguenin v. Baseley — ^As a Jurist — 
 Essay on the Prison of the BicStre — Mirabeau — Tract on 
 "Duties of Juries in Cases of Libel" — Introduction to Lord 
 Lansdowne — Answer to Madan's "Thoughts on Executive 
 Justice" — Tract on the Criminal Laws, 1810— On Codification 
 of the Law — Edinburgh Review, No. 57 — Papers found after his 
 Death as to various contemplated Amendments of the Law, &c. 
 — As a Legislator — Subjects on which he attempted Reforms 
 — No Friend to Universal Suffrage or Annual Parliaments 
 — Speech on the Case of the Duke of York — Disinterested- 
 ness — -Last Speech in Parliament — Summary — Eloge de- 
 livered by Mr. Benjamin Constant before the Ath&e Royal 
 in Paris, 26 December, 1818 19-55 
 
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CONTENTS. Ix 
 
 Sketch HI. 
 LOED ELDON. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction, Birth, Parentage, and Education — Autobiogra- 
 phical Anecdotes of his early Life— Entered at University 
 CoUege, Oxford, May, 1766— Fellow, July, 1767— Prize Essay, 
 "The Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel" — 
 Jocose Letter to a Friend — Elopement and Marriage — ■ 
 November, 1772 — Miss Elizabeth Surtees- Reconciliation with 
 then- Parents — Deeds of Gift executed by them — Anecdote 
 as to their second Marriage Ceremony — Arrival at Oxford 
 — Entered as Student at the Middle Temple, January, 1773 
 — Anecdote of Dr. Johnson— Arrival in London — " First 
 Perch" — Pupil of Douane, the Conveyancer — Called to the 
 Bar, February, 1776 — First Fees — Joins the Northern Circuit 
 — Resolves to leave Tionion—Akroyd v. Smithson — Clitheroe 
 Election Petition — Remains in Town — Paucity of Written 
 Opinions on Cases — Reason — Anecdote of Mr. Rous and Mr. 
 Seijeant Heath — Patent of Precedency, June, 1783 — Returned 
 for Weobly — Maiden Speeches of Scott and Erskine same day 
 His Speech on the India Bill — Chancellor of Durham, March, 
 1787 — Solicitor-General same year — Malady of George III. — 
 His Advice thereupon — Increase of Business — Purchase of 
 an Estate at Eldon in Durham — Attorney-General, 1793 — 
 State of Domestic Politics — Paine's " Rights of Man" — " Age 
 of Reason" — Trials for Sedition — Home Tooke — Thelwall — 
 Hardy, &c. — Result — Anecdote of Pitt and Scott when 
 Attorney-General — Anecdote of Lord Macaulay and Richard 
 Groom, Esq. — India Board — Chief Justice of the Common 
 Pleas, July, 1799 — and Peer — Great Seal delivered to him by 
 George III. — High Steward of the University of Oxford — 
 Dissensions between George III. and the Prince of Wales — 
 Anecdote — Resigns the Chancellorship, February, 1806 — New 
 Ministry— "All the Talents"— Second time Lord Chancellor, 
 March, 1807 — Letters to his Nephews on the Study of the 
 Common Law — Noy's " Grounds and Maxims" — Perkin's 
 " Profitable Book" — His Influence in the Councils of Govern- 
 ment — Corn Law Riots, 1814— Attack on liis House— Escape 
 
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 therefrom — Creation of the Court of Vice-Chancellor — Present 
 at the Birth of Her present Majesty — Prophecy — Trial of 
 Queen Caroline — Created Earl — Anecdote as to Execution of 
 certain Deeds — "Equitable Loan Bill" — Anecdote — Advance- 
 ment of his Grandson on proceeding to College — Anecdote — 
 Attestation of his Will — Opposition to Measures in Parliament 
 ■ — Banquet at the Hall of the Middle Temple, aged 82 — Last 
 Address in the Lords — His Death, January, 1838 — His Cha- 
 racter as Judge and in private— His Defects as a Judge — Ob- 
 servations of Lord Brougham on Lord Eldon ... ... 57-96 
 
 Sketch IV. 
 LOED TEUKO. 
 
 Introduction — Birth —Parentage and Education — Repugnance to 
 his Profession — Anecdote — His Career a Useful Example to 
 Youth — Commences Practice as an Attorney and Solicitor — 
 Enters as a Student at the Inner Temple, March, 1811 — 
 Special Pleader — Called to the Bar, February, 1817 — Selected 
 as one of the Counsel for Queen Caroline, 1820 — Circumstances 
 antecedent to — Her coming to England — Treaty to remain 
 abroad — Arrival in England — ^Impromptu on the Eoyal Salute 
 at Dover — Arrival in London — Messages to both Houses of 
 Parliament — "Absolute Wisdom" — Bill of Pains and Penal- 
 ties introduced — Public Excitement — Counsel engaged — An 
 important Question put by Mr. Wilde to one of the Witnesses 
 for the Prosecution — Opinion of the Judges taken thereon — ■ 
 Serjeant-at-Law, 1824 — Anticipation of his Success by Lord 
 Eldon — Anecdote as to his Assiduity in a Case — Consultations 
 thereon — A similar Anecdote of Mr. Serjeant Copley- — Toss- 
 ing for the Serjeant's Retainer — Small v. 4fiooo<i— Practice to 
 launch a Cause for Plaintiff — Altercations with the Judges — 
 King's Serjeant, 1827 — Returned as Member for Newark, June, 
 1831 —Solicitor-General, 1839— Attorney-General, June, 1841 
 — Anecdote of his Conduct towards his Party on Vacancy on 
 the Bench — Returned for Worcester, 1841 — Member of Par- 
 liament thirteen years — Recapitulation of Measures in which 
 
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CONTENTS. xi 
 
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 ne took an active part— Carlow Election— O'Comiell—" The 
 Seijeant's Case"— Anecdotes— Note of Chief Justice Holt- 
 Concentration of the Courts of Justice— " People's Charter" 
 "Penny Postage"— Chief Mover to obtain this Change- 
 Appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas— and Privy 
 Councillor, July, 1846— Lord Chancellor, July, 1850— and 
 Peer— Died, November, 1855— His Marriages— His Character 
 as a Judge at Common Law and in Equity— His Judgments 
 as Chancellor— Dislike of Change in the Law— His Library 
 presented by Lady "Wilde to the House of Lords— Extracts 
 from a Lecture delivered by Sir John Taylor Coleridge, 
 D.C.L., September, 1859— Characters therein of Lord Truro 
 and Sir William FoUett— Conclusion 97-151 
 
 Sketch V. 
 LOED CAMPBELL. 
 
 Introduction — Personal Reminiscences few in number — Born 
 16th September, 1779, at Cupar, in Fife— Sent to the College 
 of St. Andrew's — Determination to "go South"— Left at nine- 
 teen years of age— Saying of a Fellow Traveller on his 
 Voyage to London— Enters at Lincoln's Inn as Student — 
 Pupil of Mr. Warren— Employed on the Morning Chronicle 
 Newspaper — Called to the Bar, 1806— His Reports of Cases 
 at Nisi Prius — The first who printed the Names of the 
 Solicitors in the Case — Marriage— King's Counsel, 1827 — 
 Candidate for Stafford, July, 1830 — His Great Object a 
 Measure for the General Registration of Deeds — Great Oppo- 
 sition to this — Resolution of certain Country Sohcitors, &c. — 
 Introduction of other Measures for the Amendment of the 
 Law — Supports the Governmfent on the Question of Parlia- 
 mentary Reform — Description of the Mode of Manufacturing 
 a Member — In 1832, votes for Abolition of Capital Punish- 
 ments — The Drama — Free Trade in Theatres — Remuneration 
 to Revising Barristers — Speech on Bill abolishing Court of 
 Exchequer in Scotland — Returned Member for Dudley —Soli- 
 citor General and Attorney-General — Returned for Edinburgli 
 
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xii CONTENTS. 
 
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 Principal Cases in which he was concerned— His Speeches 
 collected in 1842— Anecdote as to Christmas-box of Tea- 
 Appointment of Lord Chancellor in Ireland— Short Continu- 
 ance of the Office— Extract from the Law Magazine, 1853— 
 His " Lives of the Chancellors"— Chief Justice of the Queen's 
 Bench, 1850— Lord Chancellor in 1859- Death, 24th June, 
 1861— Remarks on his Character as Advocate and Judge- 
 Conclusion 153-176 
 
 Sketch VI. 
 LOED LYNDHUKST. 
 
 Introduction — Painting of his Father, " Boy with a Squirrel" — 
 Birth at Boston, 21st May, 1772— His Father leaves America 
 for England and Italy — Returns from thence — Takes up his 
 Residence at House in George Street, Hanover Square, in 
 which he and his Son, Lord Lyndhurst, lived and died — 
 Paintings of Mr. Copley the Father — Son sent to School at 
 Chiswick — Dr. Home — Enters at Trinity College^ Cambridge, 
 July 8, 1790— Second Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman, 1794 
 — Same year entered as Student at Lincoln's Inn — " Travelling 
 Bachelor" to the University, 1795 — Proceeds to America — His 
 Latin Letters from thence — Ti-anslation — Fond in after-life of 
 referring to these Travels — Returns to England, 1798 — Called 
 to the Bar, 1804^ Joins the Midland Circuit — Description of the 
 Men on the Circuit by Sir Samuel Romilly — Serjeant-at-Law, 
 1813 — His Political Opinions at this time— Remarks on the 
 Political State of the World at this Period — Spa-fields Riots, 
 1807 — Description of — Trials in consequence — Acquittal of 
 Watson — " Copley and Liberty" — Taken notice of by the 
 Ministry of the Day — Returned for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight 
 — Takes his Seat, March, 1818, age 46 — His first Address 
 there — Marriage — Appointed Solicitor-General, 1819 — Cri- 
 minal Information applied for by the Government against Mr. 
 O'Meara — Particulars of this Application — Author's Journey 
 to Paris on behalf of O'Meara — Anecdotes of Events there — 
 Loose Sheets of the Quarterly ZZeuieiu —Erasure of the Letter 
 
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CONTENTS. XIU 
 
 Page 
 
 " N" from the Public Buildings, &c. — Count Montholon— Count 
 Bertrand — Letter from him — Difficulties in obtaining Legaliza- 
 tion of Documents — Comte de Peyronnit — Notaries Public — 
 Effect of the Prudent Advice of Sir John Copley— Abandon- 
 ment of Proceedings against O'Meara — Appointed Attorney- 
 General, 1824 — Master of the EoUs, December, 1824— Lord 
 Chancellor, first time, April, 1827 — Previously returned for 
 Ashburton and for the University of Cambridge— Resigns the 
 Seals, 1830 — Chief Baron of the Exchequer — Lord Chancellor, 
 second time, 1834 — Resigns the Seals in 1835 — D.C.L. — 
 Second Marriage, 1837 — Lord High Steward of University, 
 1840— Fall of Lord Melbourne's Administration, 1841 — 
 Periodical Speeches of Lord Lyndhurst at the close of each 
 Session hastened the Dissolution of the Whig Ministry — Lord 
 Chancellor for the third time, 1841 — Continues so till 1846 — 
 Speech on the Eastern Question in his 83rd year — and on our 
 National Defences in the 88th year of his age — Death at the 
 age of 92, 12th October, 1863 — Remarks on his Character as 
 Advocate, Member of Parliament, and Judge — Recapitulation 
 of the Principal Causes in which he was concerned — and the 
 Legislative Measures when Peer and Lord Chancellor — In- 
 junction granted by him at the English Opera House — His 
 Love for Classical Studies and Fondness for Experimental 
 Chemistry to the last — Letter in reply to one on the Anniver- 
 sary of his Birthday, 1861 — Extracts from Sermon preached 
 after his Death at St. George's, Hanover Square ... 177-218 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 1.— SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 Translation of an Address, or Eloge, pronounced before the 
 Athln^e Royal in Paris, by M. Benjamin Constant, on the 
 26th December, 1818 i— xi 
 
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XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 No. 2. -LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 Page 
 
 Copies of Letters written by John Singleton Copley, Esq., from 
 America, as " Travelling Bachelor" to the University ,of 
 Cambridge, during the year 1795, addressed to the Vice- 
 Chancellor of that University xii— xx 
 
 No. 3.— LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 Speech in the House of Lords on the 18th August, 1836, being 
 the First of a Series of Annual Speeches which his Lordship 
 delivered at the close of several of the succeeding Sessions 
 of Parliament ... ... ... ... ... ... xxi — xxxiii 
 
 No. 4.— LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 Conclusion of Speech in the House of Lords on the 5th July, 
 1859, on the then State of our National Defences xxxiii — xxxviii 
 
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SELECT 
 
 Biographical Sketches 
 
 FKOM THE 
 
 NOTE-BOOKS OF A LAW EEPOETEE, 
 
 ♦ 
 
 Inteoduction. 
 
 Who shall describe in a few words the miscdlaneous 
 contents of a Law Reporter's Note-Book ? They are as 
 multifarious and varied as an auctioneer's catalogue. It 
 would be singularly wrong to suppose that they consist of 
 MS. notes alone ; Sketches of the physiognomies of the 
 Judges ; of some of his reporting friends at the Bar, if the 
 reporter has a, penchant that way; the coats of arms and 
 mottoes of preceding Judges ; and other trifles, fill up all 
 kinds of odd and vacant corners of a Note-book. One 
 friend, now a learned Judge at the Antipodes, carried with 
 him a collection of Sketches of all the celebrities of the 
 Chancery Bar ; another has in his note-books a most 
 complete assortment of all the witty remarks and sayings 
 of a learned Judge, which he entitles " Bruceiana." 
 
 A singular illustration of this practice of filling a 
 Note-book with Sketches of physiognomy occurs to my 
 
 B 
 
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2 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 recollection. The late Earl of EUesmere, when Lord 
 Francis Egerton, and sitting as Chairman of the Yarmouth 
 Election Committee of the House of Commons, in the 
 year 1835, sketched in a Note-book the countenances and 
 any peculiarity of almost every person engaged in the 
 investigation before him. Counsel, solicitors, witnesses, 
 agents — even the doorkeepers — ^were portrayed with 
 admirable fidelity and humorous zest. 
 
 The practice of entering in Note-books used by lawyers 
 in Court, matters totally foreign to merely legal cases is as 
 old as Lord Chancellor Nottingham, who related that he 
 had done so in 1656, and up to the time of the Restoration. 
 A collection of MS. notes by him, formerly in the posses- 
 sion of the late Mr. Hargreaves, not only comprises the 
 notes of Chancery cases taken by him for his own use and 
 study, but also matters of a very different character — such, 
 for instance, as the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery 
 with reference to Admiralty matters — and other points 
 equally foreign to a mere collection of Chancery cases ; 
 and this odd jumble of Latin and Norman French, not 
 then quite obsolete, is thus stated, " Vide mes notes, in 
 diebus illis.^'' 
 
 Another departure from the ordinary method of 
 reporting law cases is also to be seen in the foho published 
 in 1725, with the title of " Cases Decreed in the High 
 Court of Chancery during the Time of Sir Heneage 
 Finch," in which is this peculiarity — ^not met with in any 
 other book of reports — viz., that whenever the rule laid 
 
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INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 down or relied on by the Judge diiFera from the corres- 
 ponding rule of the Civil Law, the difference is noted in 
 the margin. Dom&t seems to have been his favourite 
 author for reference. 
 
 Having occasion lately to make a change of chambers, 
 my Note-books for the last twenty-five years had to be 
 collected together from all kinds of queer depositories, 
 and I was not a little startled at some of the Notes 
 formerly, and perhaps in an idle mood, jotted down. It 
 has occurred to me to select some of the more curious 
 ones, and make them available for my own curiosity, 
 perhaps for the edification as well as the amusement of 
 others. I have thought that the memoranda relating to 
 eminent Judges and other legal men with whom it has 
 been my fortune to come into communication may probably 
 prove worthy of a re-perusal ; and if, which I propose, 
 I shall be able in many instances to present anecdotes 
 of the struggles of talent — perseverance and ultimate 
 success in the Uves of those who have shed a refulgent 
 light upon the Bar of England within the last half century, 
 as incentives to those amongst my juniors who are pressing 
 forward in the same doubtful race, I consider such a 
 summary might be of considerable use. 
 
 From my position as the son of a London solicitor, 
 I was initiated very early in life into observance of the 
 habits and manners of legal men and a cognizance of legal 
 matters. I well remember the old Courts of law and 
 
 equity in Westminster Hall, when the phrase " on the 
 
 B 2 
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4 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 other side of the hall," in allusion to the relative positions 
 of those Courts, was not a fiction. 
 
 I pass up the venerable Hall with a degree of mournful 
 reflection that the only remains of those two Courts are the 
 effigies of some of our Saxon kings affixed to the wall on 
 each side of the staircase at the end, those on the left hand 
 having formed part of the Court of King's Bench, those 
 on the right that of the Court of Chancery, under which 
 the respective Judges sat. 
 
 The evening sittings at the Rolls, the last Ridings of the 
 different circuits, the old buildings abutting on the Temple 
 Gardens, consecrated to the mysteries of taxing costs, &c. ; 
 the military gatherings in those gardens under the appre- 
 hension of the then threatened invasion of England by 
 Napoleon, where literally the present Inns of Coiu-t Volun- 
 teers have trodden in the footsteps of their fathers ; and 
 many other matters now altogether amongst the things of 
 the past, present themselves most vividly to my recollection. 
 
 I first lisped my alphabet in a dame school in the 
 Temple, then held in rooms which were subsequently the 
 chambers of a living, learned and jocose Parliamentary 
 Counsel, and upon the site of which elegant chambers have 
 lately been erected. 
 
 How often have I paced those cloisters upon the site 
 of the old cloister walls of the Inner Temple Church, 
 burnt down by the Great Fire of London in 1666 — and 
 where youthful barristers — apprentiaii at legem — anciently 
 met of an afternoon to put cases to each other, and exercise 
 
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INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 themselves in elocution, and how often have I trudged, 
 with "satchel at my back, unwiUingly to the school" 
 of this old dame — wondering at the mercenary httle shops, 
 where blank latitats and other legal forms, parchment, 
 paper, &c., were sold, and which were then attached to the 
 walls, and formed part of the present Temple Church ! 
 
 At the time when I was first observant of the legal 
 luminaries who have passed away, the most prominent 
 Judges were Lord Eldon in the Court of Chancery ; Sir 
 William Grant at the EoUs, Lord Ellenborough, Chief 
 Justice of the King's Bench ; Sir James Mansfield and 
 Sir Soulden Lawrence amongst those in the Common 
 Pleas; in the Exchequer, Barons Graham, Hobart, Thomp- 
 son, and Wood (called at the Bar " the four boxes.") 
 These four were "Chatter-box," "Snuff-box," "Band- 
 box," and « Tinder-box." 
 
 Of many of these great men I have found memoranda 
 and anecdotes in my old Note-books, and where I have 
 in any case actually and personally taken part in matters 
 connected with them, I purpose to reproduce those memo- 
 randa, coupled with such information from public sources, 
 as wiU make my Notes and the statements referred to by 
 them cohere. In this form, I am vain enough to think, 
 they will afford, not only amusement, but in many cases a 
 considerable fund of useful information. 
 
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( 7 ) 
 
 Sketch I. 
 
 LORD ELLENBOROUGH. 
 
 It would be superfluous to say that the reputation of 
 his lordship's name and high character as a lawyer, his 
 decisions and formal judgments, have not yet passed away. 
 The former at Nisi Prius, reported by Espinasse and by 
 Campbell, and the latter in Banco in the current reports of 
 the time, are still repeatedly referred to with approbation 
 and applause. 
 
 Edward Law, Lord EUenborough, and Lord Chief 
 Justice of the Court of King's Bench, was the son of 
 Dr. Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, and bom at Salkeld 
 in Cumberland, in 1748. He was at the usual age placed 
 at the Charter-house School in London, and thence pro- 
 ceeded to Cambridge, where, in 1771, he obtained a prize 
 medal given by the Chancellor, and in 1773 a more 
 distinguished prize. He subsequently entered himself of 
 Lincola's Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1776. He 
 very early obtained his silk gown, through the instrumen- 
 tality it is said of the celebrated Mr. Justice BuUer. In 
 1785 he was engaged for the defence in the memorable im- 
 peachment and trial of Warren Hastings, who, as every one 
 knows, had been Governor-Greneral of India, and in the 
 writer's opinion was one of the greatest men of his own or 
 any other age — having held this most important government 
 for thirteen years under unexampled difficulties, and during 
 the most critical period of our establishment in India, and 
 
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8 LORD ELLENBOEOUGH, 
 
 during wMch he had raised the revenues of the East India 
 Company from £3,000,000 to £5,000,000 sterling per 
 annum. He was in truth emphatically the founder of our 
 great Indian Empire. He was recalled in 1785, and 
 immediately accused by the House of Commons of having 
 governed arbitrarily and tyrannically ; of having extorted 
 immense sums of money and jewels from the native 
 princes, and of accomplishing the ruin of some of them for 
 his own personal aggrandizement, — in short, of having 
 exercised oppression and cruelty of every description. 
 
 The general circumstances of this trial, which com- 
 menced in February, 1788, are well known. Burke, Fox, 
 Sheridan, and other eminent members of Parliament, 
 conducted the impeachment — ^fomented and disgraced as it 
 was by the passions of political parties. To the brilliant 
 and fervid eloquence, the searching sarcasms, and the 
 telling irony of these great orators were opposed the 
 logical, but simple and clear statements of Sir Edward 
 Law, Plumer, and Dallas, all afterwards elevated to the 
 Bench. The result was in favour of the accused. After 
 eight years of unceasing accusations and Htigation — the 
 trial only terminating in April, 1795, at a cost of upwards 
 of £80,000, and 148 days' trial — when Warren Hastings 
 was honourably acquitted. 
 
 Lord Brougham, in his Historical Sketches of Statesmen 
 in the Time of George III.^ speaking of Law's defence of 
 Warren Hastings, says : — " I have been so fortunate as to 
 obtain the shorthand writer's notes of Mr. Law's celebrated 
 defence of Hastings, and a careful perusal of it has fully 
 satisfied me that its merits fully answer its reputation, and 
 that his great forensic powers have not been overrated by 
 the general opinion of Westminster Hall. There is a 
 lucid order in the statement of his details, struggling as 
 he did with the vast compass and repulsive materials of his 
 
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LORD ELLENBOROUGH. 9 
 
 subject, and a plain manly vigour in the argument far 
 more valuable to his cause than any rhetorical display. 
 But there is also much of the purest and most effective 
 eloquence. The topics and the illustrations are felicitously 
 chosen ; the occasional figures are chastely but luminously 
 introduced ; the diction is pure and nervous, marked by 
 the love of strong and homely phrase which ever breathed 
 in his discourse ; the finer passages have rarely been sur- 
 passed by any effort of forensic power, and must have 
 produced a great effect under all the disadvantages of an 
 exhausted auditory and a wornout controversy, and would 
 have ranked with the most successful exhibitions of the 
 oratorical art had they been delivered in the early stage of 
 the trial, before all had become, for the reasons so skilfully 
 stated in the exordium, flat and lifeless." 
 
 His address concluded thus : — " My Lords, I last of 
 all present you with that praise which shall embalm his 
 memory when he shall be no more ; and, whilst he lives, 
 shall enable him to look down with indifference and with 
 scorn upon the most maHgnant efforts of his bitterest 
 enemies. The people of India in this respect well adopted 
 the practice of the Ancients in delaying their sacrifices to 
 heroes until after sunset. They waited not only till the 
 beams which had warmed and cherished them were with- 
 drawn, but they waited till the object of their regard had 
 well nigh set in dark clouds of disastrous night; they 
 waited till it was told, to the grief and astonishment of 
 their distant land, that the beneficent author of so much 
 good to them was arraigned by his countrymen as the 
 cause of their oppression, vexation, degradation and dis- 
 grace. Roused by these sad tidings, the rude but gratefiil 
 being who had been called by Mr. Hastings from the hills 
 and forests of Eajawhaum to abandon the abode of savage 
 life and taste the comforts of civilized existence — the 
 
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10 LORD ELLENBOEOUGH. 
 
 pilgrim who had been protected in his annual visits to the 
 hallowed shrine where his forefathers had worshipped — the 
 princes who had been raised up, established and protected 
 by his power — the humble citizen to whom he had commu- 
 nicated the invaluable blessings of a regular administration 
 of impartial and enlightened justice — each as he was 
 severally blessed, and each according to his several ritual, 
 invoked the sacred object of his faith and fear, in solemn 
 attestation of his thankftdness for that beneficent adminis- 
 tration which, under the providence of our common Father, 
 had been the appointed means of drawing down so many 
 blessings on their heads." 
 
 In 1801, Law was made Attomey-Greneral, and in the 
 following year succeeded, on the death of Lord Kenyon, 
 to the post of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. 
 He was also created a Baron, and chose his title of EUen- 
 borough from a small fishing village of that name near to 
 which some of his ancestors had formerly resided. He 
 held this high position fifteen years. In 1817, his health 
 failing, he resigned his ofiice of Chief Justice, and died 
 on the 13th December, 1818, in the seventy-first year of 
 his age. 
 
 In person Lord Ellenborough was singularly heavy and 
 awkward of movement. The word " ponderous " may be fitly 
 applied both to his appearance and the quality of his mind. 
 He had been a member of the volunteer corps then raised 
 by Lincoln's Inn. He seemed incapable of walking in a 
 perfectly straight line. The anecdote runs that it was said 
 of him by the drill-sergeant of that day, " that Mr. Law 
 was the only person he could never teach to march, and 
 that he would never make a soldier." 
 
 The same sergeant was also used to say of Mr. Mitford, 
 afterwards Lord Redesdale, author of the Pleadings in 
 Chancery, " that he could, never be made to hold up his 
 
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LOKD ELLENBOEOUaH. 11 
 
 head;" of Mr. Gibbs, afterwards Sir Vicary GIbbs and 
 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, " that he could never 
 make him turn out his toes." Sir William Grant, who had 
 been Attorney-General in Lower Canada, and carried arms 
 at the siege of Quebec, was commander of this loyal and 
 legal band. I well remember the marching and counter- 
 marching of this corps in Lincoln's Inn garden, which 
 was their usual parade ground, and where, as a lad, I have 
 picked up many a foil cartridge, which has served me for 
 subsequent sport. One circumstance struck my juvenile 
 mind very forcibly : I observed that whenever the word 
 was given for the corps ^' to stand at ease," the greater 
 part of them invariably " sat down upon the grass." 
 
 I can say, what I believe no living member of the Bar 
 can say, that it was my lot to obtain two verdicts of a 
 jury when Lord Ellenborough presided. Perhaps even the 
 late Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir F. Pollock, may 
 not have been retained in any case in which he obtained 
 the verdict of a jury presided over, as the Court of King's 
 Bench then was, by Lord EUenborough. The circum- 
 stances were certainly exceptional, and not likely to have 
 occurred very often. 
 
 Formerly at the sittings during Term at Guildhall, in 
 the City of London, only undefended causes were taken, 
 such as actions on bills of exchange, promissory notes, and 
 other similar inquiries — where, in fact, the proof of the 
 handwriting of the parties constituted the whole of the 
 evidence to be produced, hx the sittings in one of the 
 Terms, two undefended actions were to be tried on the 
 same bill of exchange, one against the acceptor, the other 
 against the first indorser. The plaintiffs were the then 
 large firm of Stock & Co., sugar-bakers, at Bristol. 
 When the cause was called on, the counsel retained by my 
 father to state the case — Mr. Comyn — was absent. He 
 
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12 LORD ELLENBOEOUGH. 
 
 immediately hurried out of Court, to endeavour to hasten 
 his counsel's appearance. The jury had been sworn, when 
 Lord EUenborough, observing me seated with the papers 
 before me, and the biU of exchange accidentally in my 
 hand, asked to look at it. It was accordingly handed up 
 to his lordship. He said, " Well, yoimg gentleman, where 
 is your witness ? Is there one ?" " Oh, yes, my lord ; it 
 is Mr. Thompson, who travelled all last night by mail from 
 Bristol, to be here in Court to-day" — a circumstance which 
 had awftdly impressed itself on my youthful mind as an 
 instance of almost supernatural locomotion. Lord E. — 
 "Did he, indeed? Is he here?" "Oh, yes, my lord." 
 "Let him be sworn." Lord E. — "Mr. Thompson, you 
 saw the defendant write his acceptance to this biU of ex- 
 change, perhaps ?" " Yes, my lord, I did." " Gentlemen 
 of the jury, this is an action upon a bill of exchange for 
 £250, stating the particulars of the dates, amounts, &c. 
 The defendant's acceptance to it is proved ; you wiU please 
 to find your verdict for the plaintiffs ; damages £250, costs 
 40«." The jury were again sworn. " Gentlemen of the 
 jury, this is a similar action on the same bill of exchange 
 against the indorser ; you will find your verdict for the 
 same amount." To me — " Young gentleman, you may 
 put up the papers." Almost before the last words were 
 uttered, in rushed Mr. Comyn, accompanied by the solicitor. 
 His lordship hurriedly stated what had occurred, hinting 
 at the juvenile appearance of the plaintiff's advocate. And 
 weU he might, for I had not in fact quitted school ; but 
 was spending one of the usual holidays at home. In strange 
 contrast to this anecdote is one often told of Lord EUen- 
 borough, when counsel in a case before his predecessor, Lord 
 Kenyon. It is well-known that no two men were less 
 alike, both in temper, appearance, and every qualification, 
 except, perhaps, as lawyers, than those two eminent men. 
 
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LOED ELLENBOEOUGH, 13 
 
 Kenyon was extremely discourteous to the Bar, and is said 
 to have had a special dislike to Mr. Law, and to have 
 shewn this dishke of him openly when practising before 
 him. Law was not insensible to these insults, although 
 from his innate sense of the demeanour which he conceived, 
 and justly, should be adopted by every advocate towards 
 the presiding Judge, he seldom resented, or seemed to 
 observe them. On one occasion, however, he did so, in the 
 most marked manner. He had been engaged in a cause 
 in opposition to Erskine, who had taken a deep interest in 
 the facts of the case, and spoke with great warmth and 
 fervour, not unmixed with several personal observations 
 and allusions regarding his opponent, Mr. Law. In reply- 
 ing to these observations, by a happy quotation of two Hues 
 from Yirgil, Law shewed at once in how small degree he 
 valued the power of his adversary, but how much more he 
 feared the hostility of the Judge. Turning to Erskine, and 
 in such tones as he alone could assume, he exclaimed, his 
 right hand stretched towards the bench, — 
 
 " Non me tua fervida terrent 
 Dicta ferox ! Dii me terrent at Jupiter hostis." 
 
 This anecdote has been given to the world in a some- 
 what diiferent form by Lord Brougham, in his Historical 
 Sketches,' lout was, I believe, first published by Espinasse, 
 in Fraser's Magazine. 
 
 To such of my young legal friends as may peruse these 
 lines, I would recommend a careful consideration of the 
 principal decisions of Lord EUenborough. They are to be 
 found in the usual Term Reports of the time. They are 
 clothed in a diction of remarkable force and discrimination. 
 The tone of his voice was also remarkably full and sono- 
 rous, and when excited, which was not unfrequently the 
 case, he was not sparing of emphatic words, and deHvered 
 them with corresponding energy, even in the House of 
 
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14 LORD ELLENBOEOUGH. 
 
 Lords. He was fastidious as to the application of particular 
 words, choosing the proper one with great tact. A singular 
 instance of his tenacity of opinion on this subject is related 
 of him. "When, in 1812, the Act was introduced by Sir 
 S. RomiUy in the Commons, which was to repeal an Act 
 of Elizabeth punishing with death soldiers and marines 
 found begging, an amendment of a single word was pro- 
 posed by Lord EUenborough in the Lords. The BUI, as it 
 passed the House of Commons, recited " that it was highly 
 expedient that the Act of Elizabeth should be repealed." 
 The word " highly" offended his lordship. A note written 
 by Lord Eldon to the author of the Bill, and handed down 
 to him in the Court of Chancery, was to the following 
 effect : — 
 
 " 18th March, 1812. 
 
 " The Bill about soldiers and sailors will pass our House 
 to-day. Lord EUenborough objected to the word ' highly,' 
 and said he would attend to move an amendment. The 
 preamble now stands that ' it is expedient to repeal,' 
 without the words ' highly expedient.' There seemed to 
 be a notion that this statute was impliedly repealed by 
 some other — what I know not, but I did not think it tanti 
 to have discussion upon it. A statute inflicting death may 
 be, and ought to be repealed, if it be in any degree 
 expedient, without it being highly so. We, therefore, so 
 settled the matter with the Chief Justice." 
 
 Lord EUenborough was equally severe in his conception 
 of the then state of the law with respect to the punishment 
 of death for what are now deemed trivial offences. The 
 progress of public opinion since that time has, upon this 
 subject, been almost incredible. 
 
 Li 1810, Sir S. RomiUy had introduced a Bill to abolish 
 capital pimishment for the crime of stealing privately to 
 the amount of five shillings in a shop. It was rejected in 
 
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LORD ELLENBOEOUGH. 15 
 
 the House of Lords, by a majority of 31 to 11. Sir S. 
 Eomilly, in the Diary of his Parliamentary Life, thus 
 describes the event: — 
 
 " The Ministers had procured a pretty full attendance 
 of Peers, considering the advanced season of the year, to 
 throw it out. Amongst them were no less than seven 
 prelates — ^the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of 
 London and Salisbury ; Dampier, Bishop of Ely ; 
 Luxmore, Bishop of Hereford ; Sparke, the new Bishop 
 of Chester ; and Porter, an Irish bishop. I rank these 
 prelates among the number who were solicited to vote 
 against the Bill, because I would rather be convinced 
 of their servility towards Government than that, recollect- 
 ing the mild doctrines of their religion, they could have 
 come down to the House spontaneously to vote that trans- 
 portation for life is not a sufficiently severe punishment for 
 the offence of pilfering what is of five shillings value, and 
 that nothing but the blood of the offender can afford an 
 adequate atonement for such a transgression. Lord EUen- 
 borough, the Lord Chancellor, and Lord Liverpool, were 
 the only Peers who spoke against the Bill, and Lord 
 Holland, Lord Erskine, Lord Lauderdale, Lord Lans- 
 downe, and Lord Suffolk for it. Lord Grey voted for the 
 Bill, but did not speak ; Lords Melville and Kedesdale 
 were among the silent voters against it. The argument 
 principally relied on by those who spoke against the Bill 
 was that innovations in criminal law were dangerous, and 
 that the present measure was part of a system to innovate 
 on the whole criminal code. It was said that the House 
 should consider not only the Bill itself, but the speculations 
 in criminal jurisprudence of the author of the Bill ; that 
 he had been the author of the Act passed two years ago to 
 abolish the punishment of death for the crime of picking 
 pockets, and that the consequence of abolishing that 
 
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16 LOED ELLENBOEOUGH. 
 
 punishment had been a very great Increase of the crime ; 
 so Lord EUenborough and the Lord Chancellor took upon 
 themselves to affirm the fact to be from information which 
 they said they had received; but how, it may well be 
 asked, and was, indeed, asked by Lord Lansdowne, in the 
 course of the debate, do they know that the crime has 
 increased? All they can know is that prosecutions are 
 much more frequent than they were before the Act passed, 
 and this, instead of affording any argument against the 
 
 Bill, proves its efficacy Lord EUenborough 
 
 said there was no knowing where this was to stop ; that he 
 supposed the next thing proposed would be to repeal the 
 law which punished with death the stealing to the amount 
 of five shillings in a dwelling-house^ no person being 
 therein, and then he declared that that Act affi3rded 
 security to the poor cottager that he should enjoy the fruits 
 of his labour, and he pathetically desaribed the situation of 
 the poor relying with confidence on the security the law 
 afforded them for the scanty comforts which they were 
 allowed. No person has, however, yet proposed to abolish 
 this law, and it is not very easy to see what there is 
 in common between the two laws except the words ' five 
 shillings.' However, whether similar or not, the law he 
 spoke of was not brought under the consideration of the 
 House by the Bill under debate. He spoke of transporta- 
 tion, the severest punishment which the Bill allowed to be 
 inflicted on the offender, as one which had few terrors 
 for those who violate the law, and described it as being 
 considered by them, and, as I understood him, as being 
 justly considered as only ' a summer airing by an easy 
 emigration to a milder climate.' The part, however, of 
 his speech which appeared to me to be the most objection- 
 able was that in which he said that he doubted whether 
 the Judges had not erred by too much lenity, and that it 
 
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LOED ELLENBOROUGH. 17 
 
 was probably that fault on their part which had encouraged 
 these attempts to alter the law. The inference to be drawn 
 from this Is pretty obvious, that in order to discourage such 
 attempts in future, and to deprive these lovers of innovation 
 of one of their arguments, ms., that the practice of the law 
 is on this subject at total variance with its theory, it may 
 be right to enforce the law more rigorously. I may by 
 this means (which Grod forbid) have been the cause of 
 increasing the very evils which I am most anxious to 
 diminish. I have, however, already had reason to suspect 
 that this may be the case." 
 
 On the Bench, the deportment of Lord Ellenborough 
 was dignified^ and always distinguished by a conciliatory 
 manner to the barristers practising before him. He always 
 manifested the utmost indignation at pedantry, assumed 
 gravity and conceit, of which latter he was profoundly 
 intolerant, and never failed to mark his sense of it. 
 
 He was unquestionably one of the most able, upright 
 and learned Judges who ever filled the post of Lord Chief 
 Justice of England ; his life as a man, a gentleman, and a 
 judge, may well be studied as an example ; and as a lawyer 
 many of his decisions, in cases which are now analogous 
 to those which the altered circumstances of society, science 
 and civilization have created, will go down to posterity as 
 landmarks of legal precision and ability. 
 
 To those who are desirous of being made acquainted 
 with the features and lineaments of this great Judge, I may 
 refer with confidence to the accompanying photograph, from 
 a print after the celebrated portrait of him by Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence, as being a most faithful resemblance. The 
 attitude on the bench, the searching eye, the ponderous 
 form of the head, even the curl of the band, are portrayed 
 with the greatest fidelity. 
 
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M. Cregan, Pinx. 
 
 S. Ayling, Plioto. 
 
 SOLICITOR-GENERAL, jbc, &G,, 1806, 
 
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( 19 
 
 Sketch II. 
 
 SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 The name of Sir Samuel Romilly, like the spell of an 
 enchanter, awakens every feeling that responds to all that 
 is good and noble and elevated in human nature. One 
 cannot but feel that the whole of his existence was devoted 
 to the benefit and amelioration of his species. 
 
 I have chosen him for the second sketch from my frag- 
 mentary Note-books. In doing so, I have borne in mind 
 the intention I have announced of collecting from them 
 anecdotes of the struggles of talent and perseverance and 
 of ultimate success in the lives of some of those who have 
 shed a refulgent light on the Bar of England within the 
 last half century, as an incentive to those juniors who are 
 pressing forward in the same doubtful race. 
 
 In the notes of the life of such a man both classes of 
 the profession have interest — the solicitor equally with the 
 advocate, — as well as the general public. 
 
 He was the third surviving child and second son of 
 Mr. Peter EomUly, and was born in the city of London 
 on the 1st of March, 1757. His father was descended 
 from a highly respectable Protestant family, who had 
 been obliged to quit their country — the south of France 
 — by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the great 
 Toleration Act of France, and who, for several years 
 preceding the birth of Romilly, had been settled in 
 
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20 SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 England.* The circumstances of Ms early youth, and 
 the characters of his parents, are feelingly portrayed by 
 himself in a narrative which he penned in 1796 ; and his 
 own position in life, and the progress he had made in his 
 profession, in another narrative, which he subsequently 
 composed in the year 1813. These have both been given 
 to the world in the " Memoirs of his Life, and a Selection 
 from his Correspondence," published by his sons long 
 after his death, namely, in 1840. 
 
 In the first, which appears to have been carefully cor- 
 rected by him in the latter period of his life, he details, in 
 the most feeling and interesting manner, his own thoughts 
 and reflections and the circumstances of his family till he 
 had arrived at the age of sixteen. At this period of his 
 life he says : — " But it is time to . say something of my 
 education, if the httle instruction I ever received from 
 masters deserves to be so called. My brother and myself 
 were sent, when we were very young, to a day-school in 
 our neighbourhood, of which the sole recormnendation 
 seems to have been that it had once been kept by a French 
 refugee, and that the sons of many refugees were still 
 scholars at it. All the learning which it afforded we were 
 to receive ; but the utmost that our master professed to 
 teach was reading, writing, arithmetic, French, and Latin, — 
 and the last was rather inserted in his bill of fare by way 
 of ornament, and to give a dignity and character to the 
 school, than that there was any capacity of teaching it, 
 either in our master or in any of his ushers." 
 
 After describing the character of this master, and stating 
 the intention of his father to place him with an attorney in 
 
 * It is singular to reflect how many distinguislied families' 
 in England have had their origin from the same cause. The 
 Fonblanques, the Barings, the Romillys, the Boui'dieus, and many- 
 others would make up a long list. 
 
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SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 21 
 
 the City, whose character is very humorously given, and 
 then of procuring for him a seat in the counting-house of 
 an emiaent mercantile firm there, both of which intentions 
 were however abandoned, — he describes his new employ- 
 ment in his father's business of a jeweller, and gives some 
 most interesting details in regard to his general course of 
 study, and the great efforts which he made for self- 
 improvement. This portion of his autobiography is very 
 delightful reading, conveying as it does a most useM 
 example of the success which has attended, and will ever 
 attend, a determined and persevering course of study. The 
 result was, that in the space of two years young Eomilly 
 had acquired a most excellent and useful education ; 
 which goes far to shew the superiority of voluntary self- 
 culture over the formal and rigid curriculum of public 
 schools. 
 
 Shortly after this, a change took place in his father's 
 pecuniary circumstances, from a legacy of considerable 
 amount which had been bequeathed to the family by a 
 relative of his mother ; and a second project was agitated 
 for placing him with Mr. Lally, one of the then six clerks 
 to the Court of Chancery, for a period of five years. Of 
 this gentleman Eomilly says : — " A strong natural under- 
 standing, improved by much reading and much knowledge 
 of the world, a high sense of honour, the purest integrity, 
 a very brilliant fancy, great talents for conversation, an 
 extraordinary flow of spirits, and a most convivial disposi- 
 tion, were the predominant characteristics of this amiable 
 and estimable man." It must be admitted that he was 
 singularly fortunate in his association with so talented and 
 benevolent an individual. In his employment he had the 
 opportunity of constantly frequenting the Court of Chancery, 
 attending the Masters' and other pubhc ofiices, — thus laying 
 the foundation of great practical knowledge of the mecha- 
 
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22 SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 nical and subordinate grounds of his profession. In these 
 occupations, however, he says he found no amusement. 
 During their continuance he made the acquaintance of the 
 Eev. John EogSt, the officiating clergyman of the French 
 chapel at which the family attended, and this gentleman 
 afterwards married his sister. Mr. Rog^t was a man of 
 taste, eloquence, and varied acquirements, and subse- 
 quently became the means, by his encouragement and 
 advice, of fixing in EomiUy the desire of distinguishing 
 himself at the Bar. His disinclination to take that part 
 of the legacy left to the family, before alluded to, to which 
 he was entitled, out of the hands of his father, in whose 
 business it had been invested, and with which it had been 
 intended he should have purchased a similar place in the 
 Six Clerks' Office to that which Mr. Lally then filled, was 
 an additional inducement to him to look to the Bar for profit 
 and distinction. He consequently entered himself of Gray's 
 Inn at the age of twenty-two, and became the pupil of 
 Mr. Jefiries Spranger, an eminent Equity draughtsman. 
 His studies to attain proficiency in this branch of his 
 profession seem to have been of the most intense and 
 persevering description. Amongst his other reading it 
 may be noticed that at this time the works of M. Thomas 
 had fallen into his hands ; he read with attention and much 
 interest his Moge of the Chancellor Duguesseau, and he 
 remarks, that " the career of glory which Thomas represents 
 that illustrious magistrate to have run, had excited, in a 
 very great degree, my ardour and ambition, and opened to 
 my imagination new paths of glory." 
 
 His unremitting study had however a very prejudicial 
 effect upon his health. He proceeded to Bath for the 
 benefit of drinking the waters there ; but, vmluckily, a law 
 library having been put up for sale by auction, he pui'chased 
 many of the books, renewed his studies, and aggravated 
 
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SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 23 
 
 his ailments, so much so, that he returned to London in the 
 greatest prostration and despondency. He, however, was 
 gradually attaining convalescence when the riots provoked 
 by Lord George Gordon, in 1780, broke out, and as one 
 of a volunteer corps of his Inn, he stood sentry at Gray's 
 Inn gate several nights under arms. This again threw him 
 back ; but even then, unable from ill-health and a restless 
 excitement to resume his legal studies, he, as a diversion^ 
 began to read and study the Italian language, and found, 
 he says, " considerable entertainment in the novelties which 
 the literature of Italy presented to him."* 
 
 Eventually family circumstances having rendered it 
 advisable that Romilly should accompany the infant child 
 and nm'se of his brother-in-law to Geneva, he started, as 
 was not at that time an unusual course, to proceed to 
 Switzerland by easy journeys of thirty miles a day ! He 
 passed a month at Geneva, his health daily improving ; he 
 mixed freely in society, and made many valuable acquaint- 
 ances with men who subsequently became eminent ; amongst 
 others, with Dumont. His acquaintance with this celebrated 
 man soon ripened into the most firm and sincere friendship, 
 which lasted during the remainder of their lives. He 
 returned home by way of Paris, and there also formed 
 friendships with D'Alembert, Diderot, and other men of 
 note; as also with a Madame Delessert, with whom he 
 subsequently maintained a long correspondence, and of 
 whom he gives a most flattering description. 
 
 On the subject of this friendship, one passage in the 
 second autobiographical sketch of his life is remarkable, and 
 
 * This forcibly recalls to my recollection a similar employment of 
 Sir Walter Scott, who, when fatigued and overburdened with the 
 composition — or rather the composition of the conclusion — of one 
 of his Scottish novels, began a new poem as a means of " refreshing 
 the machine," 
 
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24 SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 ought to be remembered ; it is : — " There is nothing, 
 indeed, by which I have through life more profited, than 
 by the just observations, the good opinion, and the sincere 
 and gentle encouragement of amiable and sensible women." 
 
 On his return to England he was called to the Bar of 
 Gray's Inn in Easter Term, 1783, choosing, as was then an 
 almost indispensable custom, a circuit ; this was the Midland 
 Circuit, upon which he entered in the spring of 1784. Of 
 the principal members of this circuit he gives an interesting 
 account. During the sittings of the two houses of Parlia- 
 ment, he at this time appears to have been a constant and 
 assiduous attendant, particularly in the House of Commons 
 of which he afterwards became so distinguished a member, 
 and to have transmitted, from time to time, to his friends 
 at Lausanne and elsewhere, the substance of the principal 
 arguments relied upon by the speakers on both sides of 
 a question, with his own remarks upon the peculiar style, 
 the tone of voice, the talents and the characters of the 
 principal members of the House. 
 
 He also furnished them with observations on the 
 passing topics of the day, entering very much into detail ; 
 and in animated and descriptive language, gave the 
 particulars of the riots of 1780, the part which he had 
 taken in them ; the origin, progress, and termination of 
 the French, Dutch, and American wars ; the state of India, 
 and other important political subjects. 
 
 For nearly ten years he derived little or no pecuniary 
 advantage from his attendance on the circuit ; but having 
 accidentally heard it remarked by Mr. Justice Heath — plain 
 John Heath, who strenuously refdsed to be knighted — that 
 " there was no use in going a circuit without attending 
 Sessions," he adopted that course, and joined the men 
 attending the Quarter Sessions at Warwick. Here his 
 business first began to Increase; indeed, he had not attended 
 
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SIB SAMUEL EOMILLY. 25 
 
 many times before he was employed in the principal business 
 there. This naturally increased his engagements on circuit 
 and in London. About the year 1797, he had acquired 
 distinction in the Court of Chancery, to the practice in 
 which he then began to limit his exertions ; and the 
 promotion of Sir John Scott (afterwards Lord Eldon) to 
 the bench of the Common Pleas in 1 799, opened to him a 
 new career of exertion and profit. 
 
 In January, 1798, Romilly married Anne, the eldest 
 daughter of W. Garbett, Esq., of Knill Court in Hereford- 
 shire. 
 
 The circumstances of their first meeting, subsequent 
 marriage, and uninterrupted domestic happiness, for a 
 period of upwards of twenty years, and their final repose 
 in one and the same grave, are truly romantic. 
 
 The narrator shall be Romilly himself. In 1817, he 
 thus expressed himself: — 
 
 " To what accidental causes are the most important 
 occurrences of our lives sometimes to be traced ! Some 
 miles from Bowood is the form of a white horse grotesquely 
 cut out upon the Downs, and forming a landmark to a 
 large extent of country." 
 
 " To that object it is that I owe all the real happiness 
 of my life. In the year 1796, I made a visit to Bowood. 
 My dear Anne, who had been staying there some weeks 
 with her father and her sisters, was about to leave it. The 
 day fixed for their departure was the eve of that on which 
 I arrived, and if nothing had occurred to disappoint their 
 purpose, I never should have seen her. But it happened 
 that on the preceding day she was one of an equestrian 
 party which was made to visit this curious object. She 
 overheated herself by her ride ; a violent cold and pain in 
 her face was the consequence ; the father found it indis- 
 pensably necessary to defer his journey for several days, 
 
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26 SIK SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 and In the meantime I arrived. I saw in her the most 
 beautiftd and accomplished creature that ever blessed the 
 sight and understanding of man : a most intelligent mind, 
 an uncommonly correct judgment, a lively imagination, a 
 cheerful disposition, a noble and generous way of thinking, 
 an elevation and heroism of character, and a warmth and 
 tenderness of affection, such as is rarely found even in her 
 sex, were among her extraordinary endowments. I was 
 captivated alike by the beauty of her person and the 
 cliarms of her mind. A mutual attachment was formed 
 between tis, and which at the end of little more than a 
 year was consecrated by marriage. All the happiness I 
 have known in her beloved society, all the many and 
 exquisite enjoyments which my dear children have afforded 
 me, even my extraordinary success in my profession, the 
 labours of which, if my life had not been so cheered and 
 exhilarated, I never could have undergone — aU are to be 
 traced to this trivial cause." 
 
 In a letter to a Mrs. G , in August, 1803, five years 
 
 after his marriage, he thus' refers to it : — "* * You must 
 admit that I do not stand In need of an excuse for being so 
 many hours separated firom one" (his wife) " with whom it 
 would be my greatest happiness to spend every moment of 
 my existence. Just at the present moment I am less 
 deserving of your compassion than at any other time. In 
 a few days my labours (In Com-t) wiU cease, and we hope 
 to quit London till the end of October. We shall first 
 pass ten days or a fortnight at Lord Lansdowne's, at 
 Bowood, a place which I now always visit with fi-esh 
 pleasure, as it was there I first saw my dear Anne and 
 every spot of that delightful abode brings to my recollection 
 scenes which were only an earnest of that unmixed 
 happiness which I have ever since enjoyed. * » « « 
 From Bowood we shall go into Herefordshire, Into a retreat 
 
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SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 27 
 
 which I think, if you were to see it, you would say it 
 was worthy of Switzerland." 
 
 In Michaelmas Term, 1800, he was advanced to the 
 rank of King's Counsel, and from that period to the day of 
 his death, was the undisputed leader of the Equity Bar. 
 
 In 1802, during the long vacation, he, with his wife, 
 made a hasty visit to Paris, diu-ing which he kept a diary of 
 the remarkable events then taking place, and wherein he 
 records, with great particularity, his visits to the several 
 Covu-ts of Law. One entry is too remarkable to be omitted, 
 as it shews that it had occm-red to his most practical and 
 benevolent mind, that the mode of conducting our own 
 criminal prosecutions, so far as regards the non-examination 
 of the prisoner, was by no means such — nor is it now — as 
 to be conducive to a thorough investigation of the truth. 
 After stating the facts of a case of forgery, tried before 
 the Tribunal Griminel, he says : " After every witness was 
 examined, an examination of the prisoner took place by the 
 judges. This would have much shocked most Englishmen, 
 who have very superstitious notions of the rights and 
 privileges of persons accused of crimes. It shoidd seem, 
 however, that if the great object of all trials be to discover 
 truth, to punish the guilty, and to afford security to the 
 innocent, the examination of the accused is the most im- 
 portant, and an indispensable part of every trial. I observed 
 one objection to it however, which is, that the judges often 
 endeavour to shew their ability, and gain the admiration 
 of the audience, by their mode of cross-examining the 
 prisoner. This necessarily makes them, as it were, parties, 
 and gives them an interest to convict." 
 
 In 1805, Romilly received the appointment of Chancellor 
 of Durham, presented to him by the then Bishop Barrington, 
 under the most pleasing and flattering circumstances. He 
 says : — " The bishop came to me one day below the Bar of 
 
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28 SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 the House of Lofds, after the business I was attending on 
 was conduded, and offered it to me, with many compliments 
 more flattering than the offer itself. Till then the bishop 
 had almost been a stranger to me ; I had indeed been 
 Counsel in different causes, both for him and against him, 
 but had never met him in company, and had spoken to him 
 only once before." Many earnest and powerful solicitations 
 had been made to the bishop on behalf of other persons ; 
 but it was with this limited knowledge of Eomilly that the 
 bishop appointed him. He accepted the appointment, and 
 thus comments upon it :■ — " Attorneys and Solicitors- 
 Generals had of late hardly thought themselves at liberty to 
 refuse it; and I was partly afraid of incurring the reproach 
 of being solely intent upon amassing a fortune by my 
 labours. I was actuated, too, by another, though not a 
 very powerful motive ; I was desirous of trying the experi- 
 ment how I should acquit myself, and how I should feel 
 in a judicial office." 
 
 In 1806, Eomilly was appointed Solicitor-General; from 
 that time he dates his pubhc and Parhamentary hfe ; he 
 thenceforward kept a diary, with notes of all important 
 transactions in which he became engaged, of great value to 
 those interested in a knowledge of the secret springs and 
 the progress of the public events of that time. 
 
 Shortly after his appointment as Solicitor-General, he 
 was elected member for Queenborough, and first took his 
 seat in the House of Commons on the 24th March, 1806. 
 On the same day he was appointed one of the committee to 
 manage the trial of Lord Melville. Within a day or two 
 afterwards, he assented, at the request of Mr. Wilberforce, 
 to speak and take an active part in the measures for the 
 abolition of the slave-trade. The first time he addressed 
 the House was on the 17th April, 1806, in committee upon 
 a Bill to declare that a witness could not by law refuse to 
 
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SIE SAMUEL EOMILLT. 29 
 
 answer a question on the ground that Ms answer might 
 subject him to a civil suit; and he was successM in 
 obtaining the rejection of a proviso introduced by the 
 then Master of the Rolls, Sir William Grant, that the 
 witness might object to answer any question which, as a 
 Defendant to a Bill of Equity, he would not be compelled 
 to answer. 
 
 At the dissolution, in November, 1806, he was again 
 elected member for the borough of Queenborough. In the 
 spring of the following year, on a change of administration, 
 he ceased to be Solicitor-General, being succeeded by Sir 
 Thomas Plumer, — and from that time was never again 
 in office. 
 
 After the dissolution of Parliament on the Catholic 
 question, he was, in May, 1807, elected for the borough of 
 Horsham, in the interest of the Duke of Norfolk ; and, in 
 his diary of the following month of July, in remarking on 
 the opposition offered to a Bill introduced by him to 
 dispense with the necessity of delivering office copies of 
 Bills in Chancery to Members, we find the following entry, 
 which may serve as an index to his general conduct on all 
 occasions where his intentions in favour of effecting 
 salutary reforms were opposed, with a probability of being 
 wholly thwarted : — " But we found that the Bill so altered 
 would meet with opposition, and would probably be lost ; 
 and / thought it hetter to do the little good that was allowed 
 me, rather than, iy atterrvpting too much, fail of doing 
 anything.'''' 
 
 In the early part of 1808, a petition having been pre- 
 sented against his election for Horsham, he was unseated 
 by the decision of the Committee ; and, in April following, 
 was elected for Wareham. From this time until the dis- 
 solution in 1812, he regularly attended his Parliamentary 
 duties, when, in October of that year, he was nominated 
 
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30 SIK SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 for Bristol, but was not returned ; and, shortly afterwards, 
 was elected member for Arundel. 
 
 The mention of these proceedings at Bristol reminds me 
 that it was at this period in order of date that I first 
 became personally known to Sir S. Romilly, and under 
 these circumstances : — 
 
 My father was legal agent for a very worthy but very 
 eccentric solicitor at Bristol, of the name of Vowles. He 
 was also a proctor in the Ecclesiastical Court there, and a 
 distributor of stamps for the Government. He was highly 
 respected, although, from his habits of forgetfabiess, 
 approaching to absence of mind, was the subject of 
 amusement to many. In fact he was the personification of 
 " Dominie Sampson." He was induced to interest himself 
 for a poor young woman of the name of Mary Ann Dix, 
 who, in January 1812, had been a prisoner in the gaol at 
 Bristol for nearly two years. She had been originally 
 summoned before the Episcopal Consistory Court for 
 defaming the character of a married woman of the name of 
 Duifey, with whom she had had a quarrel in the street. 
 
 She refused to retract this aspersion on her opponent's 
 fair fame, was pronounced to be contmnacious, and was 
 consequently sentenced to do penance in her parish church 
 of St. Mary Redcliffe, and pay some amount of costs 
 which her extreme poverty prevented her from doing. 
 She was herself a pauper, and her father also, but who had 
 managed to contribute to her maintenance in gaol from the 
 charity of others. This sentence of penance, although 
 pronounced in general terms, her friends could never 
 obtain from the ecclesiastical authorities how it was to be 
 complied with, except that she was to appear in a wliite 
 sheet in the church, with a burning candle in her hand, and 
 repeat some formula prescribed by the old law. This, 
 I believe, was the last sentence of penance ever pronounced 
 
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SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 31 
 
 in Protestant England. Still contumacious, sentence of 
 excommunication was putlicly proclaimed against her, and 
 she was taken into custody on the writ de excommunicatio 
 capiendo^ and had remained in gaol as before mentioned. 
 The next step in the series of Ecclesiastical censures and 
 punishments would have been to issue the writ de heretico 
 comburendo, then in full force. But to have exacted the 
 issuing of this writ, much more the carrying the exigency 
 of it into execution, would have pushed the joke a little too 
 far. In this dilemma, and as the Insolvent Acts then in 
 operation did not take cognizance of Ecclesiastical cases, it 
 was thought advisable to petition Parliament on the 
 subject, and our friend Mr. Vowles was deputed to attend 
 in London, and superintend the presentation of this 
 petition. It was by him entrusted to Sir S. Romilly, who 
 advised that it should be presented by Lord Folkestone as 
 a prelude to a debate upon the general abuses of the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts in the kingdom. I attended with my 
 father and Mr. Vowles at many of the meetings with Sir 
 S. Eomilly, in the discussions which took place in the 
 lobby of the old House of Commons, and other adjacent 
 places. He was pleased to notice me, and I was several 
 times patted on the head encouragingly by him. How 
 vivid is the remembrance of trifling circumstances affecting 
 us in early life, in comparison with that of more important 
 facts in a later period of our existence ! 
 
 In July, 1818, Parliament was again dissolved, when 
 Eomilly was urgently solicited to be a candidate for the 
 representation of a great number of places, — Liverpool, 
 Chester, London, and also for Westminster; with the 
 requisition from which last-named constituency he com- 
 plied, and, after the most exciting election which has 
 perhaps ever occurred in the memory of any one now 
 living, he was, on the fifteenth day, returned at the head 
 
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32 SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 of the poll, the numbers being nearly 6,000 in his favour, 
 although he had never used the slightest solicitation to any 
 voter, or even made his appearance on the hustings. It is 
 quite impossible to convey to those who did not witness 
 it, an adequate description of the popular enthusiasm with 
 which the issue of this prolonged contest was greeted by 
 the assembled multitudes ; and in a short speech — his first 
 appearance before the electors — Romilly expressed, in 
 strong and simple language, the feeUngs with which their 
 confidence had inspired him. 
 
 A memorandum in one of my Note-books reminds me 
 that a most zealous partisan of the Whigs, a solicitor, who 
 had himself formerly been in Par'liament for Ipswich, 
 a personal friend of Sir Samuel, was at that time one 
 of the Committee of Management of the Drury Lane 
 Theatre, and, wishing that Romilly should be accompanied 
 with aU possible iclat on his return home, had engaged a 
 magnificent band, and the whole of the supernumeraries of 
 the theatre, to make a numerous procession for his chairing 
 — but, when they arrived at Burlington House, the head- 
 quarters of the Whigs, and were forming for that purpose, 
 it was to their dismay discovered that the object of their 
 good intentions had, after concluding his address of thanks, 
 quietly left the house, and elbowed his way, unobserved, 
 through the dense crowds to his chambers in Lincoln's 
 Inn. 
 
 Sir Samuel Romilly did not, however, long survive 
 this election, or take his seat in the House as member for 
 Westminster, dying prematurely, at the very chmax of 
 his fame, on the morning of the 2nd November, 1818, the 
 first day of Michaelmas Term. I well remember that day, 
 happening to be in Court, — Lord Eldon, the Chancellor, 
 on the event being communicated to him, immediately 
 adjourned his sitting, and the Court was closed. Romilly 
 
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SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 33 
 
 ■was interred in the same grave with his wife at Knill, in 
 Herefordshire. 
 
 Having thus sketched the principal events in the life 
 of Romilly, I purpose making reference to his merits as 
 an advocate, a jurist, and a legislator. 
 
 The benevolent motives which governed his conduct in 
 these several characters appear in an unmistakable manner 
 from his autobiography, and his political diary. It would, 
 indeed, be beyond the scope of this slight memoir to par- 
 ticularize every occasion on which the knowledge, the 
 talents, and the perseverance of the eminent individual 
 now under notice, were exerted in the Forum or before 
 Parliament. In the first place, a few observations on his 
 character as an Advocate. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that Romilly never seems 
 to have cordially liked the profession he had chosen. His 
 correspondence with many persons after his entry at 
 Gray's Inn, extending from the year 1783 to 1800, amply 
 testifies to this curious fact, attaining, as he subsequently 
 did, almost the highest rank in that profession. His mind 
 was evidently pressed upon by topics of more general 
 application to the benefit of the hiunan race : The Aboli- 
 tion of the Slave-Trade — the Political Position of Europe 
 — the Works of Howard upon Prison Discipline — the 
 Disqualifications of the Roman Catholics — ^the earlier 
 Proceedings of the Great French Revolution — the In- 
 surrection of the Negroes at St. Domingo — the better 
 Education of the Lower Classes in England (at that time 
 a subject of conversation almost forbidden, — ^now the rage) 
 — ^in short, any philanthropic subjects, rather than the course 
 of his law studies, are the familiar topics of his letters ; 
 and it is somewhat singular that, neither in his correspon- 
 dence, in his diary, nor in any of his published writings, 
 
 D 
 
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34 SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 are there any allusions to legal publications, or to the 
 reports of the decisions of the Courts, which, however, 
 he must have read and carefully studied. In a letter to 
 a lady, dated December, 1791, he thus expresses himself: 
 " The most important transaction that has taken place in 
 my life for a long time, and one which, for a very powerful 
 reason, I ought to communicate to you, is that I have 
 changed my chambers, and that your future letters are 
 not to be addressed to Gray's Inn, but to Lincoln's Inn, 
 No. 2, New Square. I have changed much for the better, 
 as a situation for business ; but much for the worse, as far 
 as my own pleasure is concerned. Instead of having a 
 very pleasant garden under my windows, I have nothing 
 but houses before me, and I can't look any way without 
 seeing barristers or attorneys. This is another sacrifice 
 which I have made to a profession which nothing hut in- 
 evitable necessity forces me, to submit tOj which I every day 
 feel more and more that I am unfit for ^ and which I dislike 
 the more^ the more I meet with success in it." 
 
 By great industry and labour, nevertheless, Sir Samuel 
 attained such perfection in the practice of forensic eloquence 
 as rendered him one of the most elegant, the most refined, 
 at the same time the most nervous and forcible speaker at 
 the Equity bar in the past, and — (with all due deference be 
 it spoken, with a full consideration of the maxim that an 
 old man is necessarily laudator temporis acti) — in the present 
 age. It has been truly remarked of him, that in transact- 
 ing the most ordinary forensic business, there was a peculiar 
 grace about his manner, a gentlemanly ease, an unpre- 
 suming suavity that won the hearts of all his hearers. 
 One faculty of an advocate he possessed above all com- 
 petition : he never deviated from the point under discussion. 
 Although called upon, as he repeatedly was, to speak upon 
 the spur of the moment, and necessarily unprepared, he 
 
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SIR SAMUKL EOMILLY. 35 
 
 never wasted time by unnecessary or frivolous remarks, or 
 dwelt long upon matters of minor importance ; but kept 
 the question in hand as the landmark of his address. Having 
 in early life had many opportunities of hearing him both 
 in his Court and in the House of Commons, nothing struck 
 me at the time with more surprise, than the great diiference 
 between the character of his address at the Bar, and that 
 before the House of Commons. Somewhat apathetic in 
 manner, with downcast looks, and a tinge of melancholy 
 on his countenance, resting his hands upon his upright 
 brief, he poured forth the full and ready stream of language 
 apphcable to the case before the Court ; but in the House 
 of Commons, taking up the subject under discussion upon 
 the broadest grounds of public policy, with an earnest and 
 animated tone of voice, he stood erect, and was by no 
 means wanting in that energy of manner and action so 
 useful and becoming in a mixed popular assembly. Indeed 
 he was a splendid exception to the general rule, that 
 lawyers fail as Orators in Parliament. As a specimen of 
 his forensic abilities, I need only refer to one of the many 
 of his reported speeches, that on behalf of the plaintiff in 
 the well-known case of Huguenin v. Baseley^ in which the 
 Latin quotation from Cicero was so apt and descriptive of 
 the circumstances of the case. I may add that he was a 
 great master of sarcasm, and did not fail to use it on a 
 fitting occasion ; but that, as a general rule, he considered 
 it an imfair weapon and only to be sparingly used. 
 
 His character as a Jurist is so intimately blended with 
 his exertions as a legislator, that the two may be disposed 
 of by observations which apply equally to both ; I there- 
 fore reserve my remarks on this head ; it may be sufficient 
 to say that his ideas upon general jurisprudence, so far as 
 
 * 14 Ves. 273. 
 
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36 SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 they may be collected from his written and published works, 
 are to be found In those publications. His first essay was 
 written In 1788, being " Remarks on the Prison of the 
 BicStre in Paris." The circumstances attending the 
 publication of It were somewhat curious. Having made 
 the acquaintance of MIrabeau in Paris, on his return from 
 Switzerland, he had visited the prison of the BIcltre, and 
 was much shocked and disgusted with what he there saw, 
 both in the hospital and the prison. On mentioning to 
 MIrabeau, the following day, the Impressions they had 
 made on him, he was requested to put down the result 
 of his observations In writing. He soon afterwards did so ; 
 MIrabeau translated them Into French, and as was not 
 unusual with him, published them as his own, in the form 
 of a pamphlet, under the title of " Lettre d' un Voyageur 
 Anglais sur la Prison de BicStre." The work was sup- 
 pressed by the police in Paris, and Bomilly afterwards 
 published his original sketch as a translation of the French 
 pamphlet, and it appeared in a work of the time called 
 The Repository. The next was his Essay or Tract " On 
 the Constitutional Power and Duties of Juries in Cases of 
 Libel." This was published by the Constituent Society 
 and obtained for him his first Introduction to and patronage 
 of the then Lord Lansdowne. Another was his answer to 
 " Madan's Thoughts on Executive Justice," which combated 
 the doctrine put forth in that work, that certainty and the 
 rigid enforcement of the penal code as it then existed, 
 should be the guide for all judges and others in similar 
 positions. He also pubhshed in 1810 a tract or pamphlet 
 on the " Criminal Laws," of which a second edition was 
 called for in the following year. There is also a paper 
 written by him in 1816, on the " Codification of the Law." 
 It is to be found in the fifty-seventh number of the Edin- 
 hurgh Review^ and well deserves the attention of every one 
 
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SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 37 
 
 desirous of mformation upon this subject, more particularly 
 those engaged at the present time on the codification of 
 our laws. There were found amongst his papers, after his 
 death, various essays and papers upon legal, political, and 
 social subjects, as yet unpublished. There is also a paper 
 at the end of the third volume of the Memoirs of his Life 
 entitled, " Letters to C. ;" in which he passes in review 
 many projects for the public good. I have selected a few 
 of these ; they, however, require some master-mind to be 
 devoted to their consideration, and whose position and 
 influence might turn them to the advantage of the public. 
 These are: — "To Abolish certain Injurious Legal Fictions, 
 such as that lis pendens is notice to all the world ;" " To 
 establish a General Registry of Deeds ;" " That some 
 greater Form or Solemnity than is now necessary ought to 
 be required in Wills of Personal Estates;" " On the Promul- 
 gation of Laws ;" " On a Written Code of Laws;" " On 
 unauthorized Reports of Judicial Proceedings ;" " On 
 Divorces among the Poor ;" " On a Public Prosecutor ;" 
 " On the Regard to be had to Sex, Age, and Condition 
 of Life in inflicting Punishment ;" " On Transportation ;" 
 " On Confession and Denial after Conviction ;" " On 
 Judicial Superstition ;" " To Promote and Improve Public 
 Education in all Orders of Society ;" " To Reform the 
 Universities and to Establish in them New Professorships;" 
 and last, though not least, " The Abuses in the Eccle- 
 siastical Courts, and the Reformation of Ecclesiastical 
 Jurisdiction generally." 
 
 I approach his character as a Legislakir with considerable 
 distrust of my own ability to describe it. The subjects upon 
 whjch he spoke, and the measures which he introduced 
 into Parliament, were so 'numerous and varied, and his 
 success so infinitely beneath what he had a right to expect 
 from the uprightness of his motives, that I must confine 
 
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38 SIE SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 myself to a few. On the threshold of his entry into the 
 House of Commons, he was, as I have before mentioned, 
 appointed one of the managers on the trial of Lord 
 Melville, and to him was assigned the duty of summing up 
 the evidence which had been given in support of the 
 impeachment. This he did, and it was acknowledged on 
 all hands to have been a spirited and masterly performance. 
 It occupied nearly four hours in the delivery. 
 
 The subjects of the abolition of the slave-trade; the 
 severity of military and naval punishments ; the dis- 
 continuance of lotteries; the liberty of the press; the 
 diminution of the expense and shortening the duration of 
 proceedings in Chancery ; the amendment of the bankrupt 
 laws ; the reform of the Courts of Justice in Scotland ; the 
 making real estates assets for the payment of debts ; a 
 general registration of deeds ; the education of the poor ; 
 the diminution of taxes on law proceedings ; the sale of 
 seats in Parliament ; cruelty to animals ; the building of 
 penitentiary-houses; and the mischiefs of transportation; 
 the delays in the House of Lords ; the impropriety of 
 binding parish apprentices at a distance from their homes ; 
 the altering the punishment for high treason, and taking 
 away corruption of blood in cases of treason and felony ; — 
 are only a few of the many subjects upon which his learn- 
 ing, his zeal, and his patriotism were exerted. And above 
 and before all must be noticed, his untiring and unceasing 
 efforts to bring about the amelioration of the bloody 
 character of our criminal code as it then existed.* His 
 
 * It strikes the mind with horror to reflect that -when Sir Samuel 
 Romilly first commenced his praiseworthy exertions for the refor- 
 mation of the Criminal Code, he found on the Statute Book nearly 
 200 offences equally punishable with death ; and now it is seriously 
 discussed whether this punishment should not be altogether 
 abolished. 
 
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SIE SAMUEL ROMILLY. 39 
 
 exertions in this respect ought never to be forgotten, and it 
 is to he remembered that almost every suggestion of his 
 upon this subject has been happily carried out by subse- 
 quent legislative enactments. He himself was well aware 
 of the impossibility of accomplishing all he wished. He 
 said, " What I have it in contemplation to do, compared 
 with what should he done, is very little indeed." 
 
 I must not omit to allude, however briefly, to his 
 exertions in favom- of the reformation of the abuses of 
 Charities, and those in favour of Parliamentary Reform. 
 With regard to the latter, I cannot forbear quoting one 
 passage from his speech, in support of Sir F. Biu-dett's 
 motion for a coromittee on the state of the nation. He 
 said " I shall not vote for it from any vain hope of 
 popularity, — ^not from any expectation of being able to 
 gratify those who now influence public opinion on this 
 subject, but from a sincere, a deep-rooted conviction, that 
 some reform is necessary. I am a friend neither to 
 universal suffrage nor annual Parliaments ; I even doubt 
 whether I am prepared to go, all at once, so far as to make 
 the right of voting at elections co-extensive with taxation ; 
 but for some reform, for some material change in the 
 present system, I am, and long have been, a zealous 
 advocate. At an early period of my life, long before I had 
 a seat in Parliament, when from the gallery of this House 
 I first witnessed its deliberations, I heard Mr. Pitt, with all 
 the generous ardour of youth, and with the same eloquence 
 which distinguished his mature age, pleading the cause of 
 Parliamentary Reform, I became sensible of the necessity 
 of the measure. The impressions which were then made 
 on my mind have never been effiaced. Subsequent reflec- 
 tion and experience (more particularly since I have myself 
 become a member) have only served to confirm them." 
 
 Probably there never was an instance of such perfect 
 
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40 8IE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 disinterestedness and contempt for undue patronage as his 
 conduct on the discussion of the Duke of York's case, 
 where the whole body of the Court party and almost all the 
 influential lawyers were opposed to inquiry and punishment. 
 The following is from his Diary, under date the 13th 
 March, 1809 :— 
 
 " There is nothing so injudicious as to talk in the House 
 of Commons of a man's own disinterestedness ; it is the 
 topic which the House, with great reason, hears dwelt on 
 with the most impatience. I thought, however, I might, 
 on this occasion" (the conduct of the Duke of York), "be 
 allowed to observe that my vote did not concur with my 
 interest, and I concluded my speech with these words : 
 ' It has been observed by a learned gentleman' (Burton, 
 ' who was seventy years of age, and afflicted with blindness) 
 ■ in this debate, at the close of his speech, that he has nothing 
 to hope for or to fear on this side the grave. I cannot say 
 the same thing. Not labouring under the same affliction 
 as he does, and not arrived at the same period of life, I may 
 reasonably be allowed, for myself, and for those who are 
 most dear to me, to indulge in hopes of prosperity which is 
 yet to come. Reflecting, too, on the vicissitudes of human 
 life, I may entertain apprehensions of adversity and of 
 persecution which perhaps await me. I have, however, 
 the heartfelt satisfaction to reflect that it is not possible for 
 me to hope to derive, in any way, the most remote advan- 
 tage from the vote on this occasion which I shall give, and 
 from the part which I have thought it my duty to act.' " 
 
 Immediately after the delivery of this speech, he 
 received addresses and votes of thanks for his disLuterested 
 conduct from innumerable influential places, — ^from the 
 Livery and Common Council of London, the inhabitants 
 of Westminster and Southwark, the freeholders of Mid- 
 dlesex, the inhabitants of Norwich, Nottingham, Sheffield, 
 
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SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 41 
 
 Worcester, Eeading, Liverpool, and from public meetings 
 in many of the Counties. 
 
 I must conclude this faint outline of the character of 
 Romilly as a legislator by referring to the last speech 
 which he ever made in the House of Commons on a Bill 
 relating to the Law of Naturalization, and which gave 
 him an occasion to paint, in glowing terms, the misconduct 
 of the expiring Parliament. This has always been con- 
 sidered, though expressed in severe and even dark colours, 
 as unexampled amongst all the efforts of his eloquence. 
 He said : " Sir, I do not know what course the House is 
 about to adopt, although, from the eagerness with which 
 the question has been taken up on the other side, I cannot 
 help suspecting what that course will be, — a course utterly 
 unwarrantable as it regards the individuals more imme- 
 diately concerned, and wholly repugnant to the spirit of 
 all Parliamentary proceeding. Deeply involved as our 
 privileges are in the question, yet, as this Parliament will, 
 in all probability, be dissolved in a very short period, I 
 fear its last act wiU be an act of signal injustice. Such, 
 however, will be &fit close of the greater part of our pro- 
 ceedings. Apprehending that we are within a few hours 
 of the termination of our political existence, before the 
 moment of dissolution arrives, let us reflect on the deeds 
 for which we have to account. Let us recollect that we 
 are the Parliament which, for the first time In the history 
 of this country, twice suspended the Habeas Corpus Act 
 in a time of profound peace. Let us recollect that we 
 are the confiding Parliament, which intrusted his Majesty's 
 ministers with a power (emanating from that suspension) 
 that when it was no longer wanted, they might call Par- 
 liament together, and surrender it Into their hands, although 
 they subsequently acknowledged that the necessity of re- 
 taining that power had long ceased to exist. Let us recol- 
 
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42 SIB SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 lect that we are the same Parliament which consented to 
 indemnify his Majesty's ministers for those abuses and 
 violations of the law of which they had heen guilty in 
 the exercise of the authority thus vested in them ; that 
 we are the same Parliament which refiised to enquire into 
 the grievances stated in the numerous petitions under which 
 our table groaned ; that we turned a deaf ear to the com- 
 plaints of the oppressed, — that we even amused ourselves 
 with their suiferings. Let us recollect that we are the 
 same Parliament which sanctioned the employment of 
 spies and informers by the British Government, debasing 
 that Government, once so celebrated for good faith and 
 honour, into a condition lower in character than that of 
 the French police. Let us recollect that we are the same 
 Parliament which sanctioned the issuing of a circular 
 letter to the magistracy of the country by a Secretary 
 of State, urging them to commit and hold to bail for 
 libel before indictment found, and promulgating the opinions 
 of the King's Attorney and Solicitor-General as the law 
 of the land. Let us recollect that we are the same Par- 
 liament which sanctioned the shutting of the ports of this 
 once hospitable nation against unfortunate foreigners flying 
 from persecution in their own country. 
 
 " This, Sir, is what we have done ; and we are about 
 to crown the whole by the present most violent and un- 
 justifiable act. Who our successors may be I know not, 
 but God grant that this country may never see another 
 Parliament as regardless of the liberties and rights of the 
 people, and of the principles of general justice, as this 
 Parhament has been." 
 
 As a summary of this brief sketch of the life and 
 character of Sir Samuel Eomilly, I may say, that he never 
 had an enemy. He was revered at the Bar. No man, for 
 one moment, ever entertained the shadow of a doubt as to 
 
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SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 43 
 
 the complete purity of his motives. He was anxiously 
 and patiently listened to by an admiring Senate, consisting, 
 as it then did, of giants in intellectual power. He was 
 never unconcerned in any measure which affected the 
 happiness of individuals, the welfare of his country, and 
 the general interests of mankind. He was always a 
 zealous and consistent advocate for Peace. He was opposed 
 to the Com Laws (even in those days), and to all restric- 
 tions on commerce. He proved to demonstration how 
 much more effectually certainty, than the rigour of punish- 
 ment, operates in the suppression of crime. He possessed 
 a firm and innate love of liberty — and from this, as a fixed 
 and predominant principle, all his exertions flowed. Con- 
 sistency was the main feature of all his actions in public 
 and in private life ; and when a Counsel for the Crown, he 
 never ceased to be the Advocate of the People. It is 
 consolatory to reflect, that his exertions were not wholly 
 employed in vain ; that the fruits of many of those 
 blossoms which were so profusely shewn in his lifetime have 
 since ripened into mature fruit ; and that there is scarcely 
 one of the great improvements which now pervade our 
 political and social system which had not, in its inception, 
 presented itself to his capacious mind, and, at his instance, 
 been made the subject of public discussion, and consequent 
 legislation. I conclude in the words of a congenial spirit — 
 the good and philanthropic WUberforce : " He was a man 
 in whom public and private excellence were so united, 
 and so effectually balanced, that it is difficult to say which 
 had the predominance. Those who knew him only as a 
 member of Parliament will probably hold that his j)itblio 
 principles had the predominance ; while those who enjoyed 
 his friendship will feel satisfied that the general benevolence 
 of his views and projects was even exceeded by the 
 endearing qualities of his domestic life." 
 
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44 SIE SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 It has only to be added that the portrait presented of 
 this distinguished man is a faithful representation of his 
 countenance. 
 
 To the foregoing review of the life of Sir Samuel 
 Romilly, I am enabled, through the courtesy of a Bencher 
 of Lincoln's Inn, to append some extracts — in which I 
 think my readers will be interested — from an unpublished 
 MS., contained in the Library of Lincoln's Inn, being an 
 eloge pronounced on Eomilly by Mons. Benjamin Constant 
 before the Ath^n^e Royal in Paris, on the 26th December, 
 1818. The eminent individual just named thus commences 
 his oration : — 
 
 " Messieurs, — ^Vous avez d^sird qu'un des fondateurs 
 de I'Ath^n^e pronon<jat dans «ette enceinte I'^loge d'un 
 Stranger illustre, qui appartient &, tons les pays, parcequ'il 
 a bien m^rit^ de tous les pays, en defendant la cause de 
 I'humanit^, de la liberty, et de la justice. Vous avez 
 daign^ de me charger de ce soin, parceque, ayant moi- 
 m^me, durant I'^poque tristement c^lfebre de 1815 et 
 1816, ^t^ accueilli avec amiti^ par I'homme regrettable 
 auquel vous avez voulu d^cerner cet homage, j'ai vu de 
 plus prfes ses vertus privies, ses travaux patriotiques, et 
 la consideration dont tous les partis I'entouraient. L'un 
 des avantages d'un syst^me de liberty r^elle et paisible, 
 c'est que chaque parti fait r^ciproquement envers les 
 hommes ^minens de I'opinion contraire, ainsi h, r^com- 
 penser d'un suffrage noblement impartial I'int^grite du 
 caractfere, la puret^ des vues, et la superiority du talent. 
 Cet avantage survit m^me quelquefois §, la liberty qui 
 I'avait produit ; et cette contr^e, qui, pour avoir attentd 
 souvent aux droits des autres peuples, et avoir pr^tendu 
 se faire un monopole de ces droits qui appartiennent h, la 
 vaste famille de I'espfece humaine, voit, par une retribution 
 
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SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY, 45 
 
 r^mun^ratrice, sa propre constitution ^ranMe et presque 
 d^truite, conserve n^anmoins encore quelque temps la 
 tradition d'une ^quit^ g^n^reuse dans son int^rieur et 
 envers ses citoyens distingu^s." 
 
 Having thus introduced his subject, the eloquent 
 speaker, after touching upon the more striking incidents 
 in Romilly's career, and making pathetic allusion to his 
 domestic life, thus proceeds : — 
 
 " Le Chevalier E,omillj, dans sa quality priv^e de 
 juris-consulte, en consacrant ses talens k d^fendre des 
 causes particuli^res devant la Cour de Chancellerie et la 
 Chambre des Pairs, fut considdr^, presque dhs I'entr^e 
 de sa carri^re, comme I'oracle de la loi. Un homme qui 
 a occup^ pendant longtemps, et qui occupe aujourd'hui, 
 une place des plus ^minentes, a dit une fois d'un autre 
 homme, qui est tomb^ de la place plus ^minente encore, 
 k laquelle I'avaient port^ des facult^s prodigieuses, mais 
 d^sordonn^es, que cet homme ^tait la loi vivante. Ce 
 mot, qui est absurde quand on fait une flatterie pour un 
 despote, devient sublime, quand il se trouve §tre vrai, 
 pour un citoyen qui n'est investi que de I'empire de 
 la raison. Toute I'Angleterre I'appliquait au Chevalier 
 Komilly. Sa science immense, sa moderation, qui n'otait 
 rien si son energie, sa profonde sagacity, son ^quit^ in- 
 corruptible, donnaient aux opinions qu'il pr^sentait aux 
 juges, la force et la gravity d'une autorit^ judiciaire. En 
 se declarant en faveur d'une cause, il la d^montrait juste 
 d'avance, et son nom dictait, pour ainsi dire, I'arrSt qui 
 allait ©tre prononcd. 
 
 " J'arrive h sa carrifere publique. Un champ bien 
 plus vaste s'ouvre ici devant nous. Sans doute les vertus 
 privies sont dignes de toute notre v^n^ration, mais les 
 services rendus k un peuple entier se placent plus haut 
 encore. Heureux qui peut faire quelque bien k ses con- 
 
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46 SIK SAMUEL ROMILLT. 
 
 temporains ! Plus heureux qui peut en faire en m§me 
 temps k ses contemporains et aux generations qui se 
 succfedent ! La nature a ^tabll entre les generations une 
 noble correspondance ; elles s'edairent sans se voir, et 
 s'enrichissent sans se connattre. Les verites utiles fer- 
 ment unne masse eternelle k laquelle chaque individu 
 porte son tribut particulier, certain qu'aucune puissance 
 ne retranchera la moindre partie de cet imperissable 
 tresor. L'ami de la liberte et de la justice Ifegue de la 
 sorte aux sifecles futurs la precieuse partie de luimSme. 
 II la met k I'abri de I'injustice qui le meconnait, et de 
 I'oppression qui le menace : il la depose dans un sanctuaire 
 dont les passions avilissantes ou feroces ne sauraient ap- 
 procber. Celui qui par la meditation decouvre un seul prin- 
 cipe, celui dont la main trace une seule verite, celui dont 
 I'eioquence etablitvictorieusement une institution salutaire, 
 peut, sans inquietude, abandonner sa vie aux peuples ou 
 aux tyrans, souvent aussi injustes les uns que les autres. 
 II n'aura pas exister vainement ; sa pensee reste empreinte 
 sur I'ensemble indestructible, k la formation duquel rien 
 ne peut faire qu'il n'ait pas contrlbuer. 
 
 " L'idee dominante de Sir Samuel Eomilly et son 
 occupation principale, dons tout le cours de sa vie, farent 
 d'ameiiorer la loi criminelle d'Angleterre. Ici, messieurs, 
 je dois r clever une confusion d'idees trop babituelle qui 
 s'est glissee dans beaucoup d'esprits. Nous ne distinguons 
 pas suffisamment la legislation penale de I'Angleterre de 
 sa procedure criminelle. La legislation penale chez les 
 Anglais est barbare, comme celle de tons les peuples qui 
 ont conserve les lois des sifecles anterieurs, moins edaires 
 par consequent, moins humains, et moins justes ; mais les 
 formes de la procedure Anglaise, I'esprit qui anime les 
 juges, le pouvoir presque discretionnaire que I'excessive 
 severite de la legislation fait dans la pratique tomber en 
 
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SIK SAMUEL EOMILLY. 47 
 
 leurs mains, enfin, et plus que tout, I'institution de jury^ 
 corrigent cette legislation rigoureuse. 
 
 " Pour bien connaitre le syst^me de Sir Samuel 
 Romilly, il faudrait lire les observations qu'il publia en 
 1810 sur les lois criminelles de I'Angleterre. Vous y 
 verriez, messieurs, que dans aucun pays, une aussi grande 
 variety des actions humaines n'est punie de la perte de la 
 vie; que sous Henri VIII. soixante-douze mille personnes 
 p^rrient l^galement par la main du bourreau ; que sous 
 Elizabeth quatre cent personnes par an furent ex^cutdes. 
 Vous y verriez que I'acte de voler dans une boutique un 
 objet de plus de six livres de notre monnaie, ou m^me 
 quelquefois de la valeur de treize-pence, ou de vingt-six 
 sols de France, ou d'enlever des poules dans une cour 
 ferm^e, est un crime capital. Mais vous y verriez aussi 
 que, comme il arrive toujours quand les lois sont atroces, 
 ces lois ne sont pas execut^es, et que de 1803 k 1810, de 
 1,872 personnes mises en jugement pour ces actes, une 
 seule a subi la mort. 
 
 " Ce systfeme de maintenir une legislation fdroce en 
 principe, et de I'adoucir par la pratique, avait &ti d^fendu 
 par des ecrivaias c^l^bres. Tout ce qui existe, comme 
 tout ce qui a exists, a le privilege de trouver des d^fen- 
 seurs. Ces apologistes pr^tendaient qu'il est bon que la 
 loi ourdisse un vaste filet, envelloppant, sous le nom de 
 crimes, toutes les actions contraires &- I'ordre public, de 
 manifere k frapper tons les esprits d'une terreur uniforme ; 
 et que la pratique doit laisser ensuite, tant6t aux jur^s, qui 
 peuvent declarer qu'un fait d^montr^ n'est pas constant, 
 tantdt aux juges, qui peuvent. d^tourner I'application de 
 la loi, tant6t au monarque, d^positaire supreme de la 
 cl^mence, la faculty discretionnaire de modifier ces exces- 
 sives rigueurs. 
 
 " Le Chevalier Komilly prouve tr^s-bien qu'un pareil 
 
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48 SIB SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 systfeme n'est dans le fait qu'une suspension continuelle 
 de la loi ^crite, c'est-a,-dlre, un arbitraire organist, qui 
 vaut mieux, sans doute, que I'application impitoyable de 
 lois sanguinaires, mais qui jette une incertitude d^sas- 
 treuse sur toutes les suites des actions humaines, et 
 transforme la legislation p^nale en une loterie de mort, 
 oh les lots in^gaux sont d^partis suivant les difiKrens 
 caract^res des juges, leur disposition momentan^e, la 
 manifere dent ils sont frapp^s par les souvenirs du pass^, 
 ou vaincus par les Amotions pr^sentes, k I'instant oh. ils 
 prononcent I'arrSt redou table. 
 
 " II rend une justice ^clatante aux juges d'Angleterre, 
 et, malgr^ mon d^sir de ne pas ni'arr§ter inutilement 
 dans la carrifere assez longue que vous m'avez ordonn^ 
 de parcourir, je cfede au besoin de citer quelques unes de 
 ses paroles touchantes et vraies. 
 
 " ' Personne,' dit-il, ' ne pent assister aux stances de 
 nos cours criminelles, et observer la conduite de leurs 
 membres, sans Stre profond^ment ^mu du soin avec 
 lequel les juges s'efforcent de remplir leurs importans 
 devoirs envers le public, leur parfaite impartiality, leur 
 d^sir s6rieux d'^viter I'erreur et de prot^ger I'innocence 
 en poursuivant le crime, I'absence totale de toute distinc- 
 tion entre le riche et le pauvre, le puissant et I'opprim^, 
 sont des faits reconnus et dignement apprfeci^s par la 
 nation entifere. Sur ces points essentiels, tons nos juges 
 sont animus du m§me esprit, et, quelles que soient les 
 nuances de leurs opinions, ils marcbent sur la ligne de 
 I'int^gritd d'un pas uniforme.' Heureux le pays dans 
 lequel I'opposition pent temoigner ainsi en I'lionneur de 
 I'autoritd judiciaire ! Certes, la constitution Anglaise a 
 h^rite de beaucoup d'imperfections ; elle a subi beaucoup 
 d'alt^rations alarmantes. Mais I'administration de la 
 justice conserve n^anmoins des longues habitudes de la 
 
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SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY, 49 
 
 liberty, ses formes tut^laires, ses scruples d^licates, son 
 respect religleux pour le droit de la defense, et les 
 privileges sacr^s de malheur. En Angleterre jamais les 
 juges n'interrompent I'accus^, ou s'ils I'interrompent, c'est 
 pour I'^clairer, quand il se nult, et pour le preserver de 
 lui-mgme. lis ne lui refusent point la liberty de repondre ; 
 aprfes avoir complaisamment pr6t^ I'oreille k I'accusateur, 
 lis ne se font point un m^rlte de I'embarrasser par des 
 questions captieuses, par des apostrophes insultantes par 
 des commentaires ironiques, un infortun^ que trouble 
 d6jk sa position p^nible. lis n'infligent point un supplice 
 anticlp^ k celui qui n'est I'objet encore que de soupcjons, 
 erron^s peut-Stre, en le forcjant d'entendre en silence les 
 outrages que pourraient lui prodiguer la vanity, I'amour 
 miserable du succfes, la puerile ambition de se montrer 
 Eloquent, lorsqu'on ne devrait penser qu'^ Stre juste. 
 Aussi, les juges en Angleterre ne se plaignent-ils point 
 que I'ordre judiciaire ne soit pas suffisamment respects ; 
 les Jiommes n'ont jamais d'int^rit k rabaisser ce qui les 
 protfege, et I'instinct national respecte toujours ce qui est 
 respectable. Mais en faisant profession publiquement de 
 son estime pour les individus auxquels la distribution de 
 la justice est confine, Sir Samuel Romilly voulait que la 
 surety des citoyens d^pendlt des lois, et non pas des 
 hommes. II savait que les garanties qui ne r^posent que 
 sur des vertus personnelles sont pr^caires et insuffisantes, 
 et que I'ordre sociale existe pr^cis^ment pour que les 
 hommes ne se mettent pas k la place de la loi. 
 
 " n voulait done reformer la legislation p^nale de sa 
 patrie. Tl y a r^ussi, k quelques ^gards, et, sans sa mort 
 premature, la Grande Bretagne aurait vu probablement 
 s'effacer de son code beaucoup plus de s^v^ritds Inutiles, 
 beaucoup plus de dispositions d'une latitude effrayante, 
 beaucoup plus de statuts ou la legislature semble avoir 
 
 E 
 
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50 SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 oubli^ qu'une proportion Equitable entre les pelnes et les 
 debits est indispensable, pour que la justice ne devienne 
 pas impuissante, en r^voltant I'bumanit^. 
 
 " Mais ce n'^tait pas dans lea lois criminelles unique- 
 ment que le Chevalier Romilly d^sirait I'introduction 
 d'am^lioratlons importantes. II demandait le perfec- 
 tionnement de beaucoup d'autres parties des institutions 
 Anglaises. II r^clamait I'abolition de toutes les loi oil 
 I'intol^rance s'est r^fugi^e (chose strange) sous le pr^texte 
 de la liberty. II proposait une organisation plus ^gale et 
 moins oligarchique du systfeme Electoral. 
 
 " Ses id^es sur les r^formes ^taient toutefois exemptes 
 de cette impatience dangereuse qui, ne calculant pas I'^tat 
 de 1' opinion et les forces de la resistance, fatigue trop 
 souvent cette opinion par des essais prematures, et pro- 
 voque cette resistance par des violences intempestives. 
 Son principe general, comme il I'avait annonce en 1806, 
 dans la Chambre des Communes, c'etait qu'il faut tendre 
 toujours k adopter les lois h. I'esprit du sifecle et de la 
 nation, mais que les choses nuisibles meme demandent k 
 n'6tre detruites qu'avec prudence, parceque leur dur^e 
 les a iaevitablement combinees avec des choses qui sent 
 utiles. 
 
 " Maintenant, messieurs, nous aliens entrer dans une 
 carrifere nouvelle. Nous aliens suivre le Chevalier Romilly 
 dans une sphere — je ne dirai pas plus eiev^e que celle ou 
 je vous I'ai montre jusqu'ici, car il n'y a rien de plus 
 eieve que la defense de la vie des hommes — mais dans une 
 sphere plus propre h attirer sur lui I'attention publique ; 
 parcequ'il va etre appeie k infleur sur les mesures du 
 Gouvernement de sa patrie, et par consequent sur les 
 destinies de I'Europe entifere. 
 
 " Lorsque le desir de la paix (devenue I'opinion domi- 
 nante de la nation Anglaise) eut force la Cour, en 1806, 
 
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SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 51 
 
 h rouvrir k Charles Fox I'entr^e des conseils du roi, et a 
 composer un miuistfere dans lequel beaucoup de talens se 
 trouvaient r^unis, Sir Samuel fut nommd par le minlstfere 
 a la place de Soliciteur-G^n^ral de la Couronne, c'est-&,- 
 dire, k I'emploi qui correspond dans ce pays k celui de 
 Procureur-G^n^ral en France. Ce nom, messieurs, sugg^re 
 diverses id^es, suivant la diversity des temps, des hommes, 
 et des contr^es. Dans des temps facheux, sous Henri 
 VIII. par exemple, ou sous Louis XI., un Procureur- 
 G^n^ral pouvait Hre la terreur de I'innocence, I'effroi des 
 accuses, le fldau de la pens^e, I'ennemi des vdrit^s coura- 
 geuses, I'^mule de I'inquisiteur qui interprfete les phrases, 
 torture les mots, et proscrit les lumiferes. Dans des 
 temps meiUeurs, il peut 6tre I'organe impartiale de la 
 justice, le protecteur bienveillant de la faiblesse, le soutien 
 g^n^reux de I'ind^pendance des opinions. Chacun, en 
 acceptant cette place, choisit le rdle qui lui convient et 
 la reputation qu'il mdrite. Vous devinez sans peine quel 
 fut le choix du Chevalier RomiUy. Un seul fait suffit 
 pour vous faire connaltre sur quelle ligne il voulut marcher. 
 Durant une ann^e (au bout de laquelle il ddposa ses 
 fonctions parceque ses amis sortirent du ministfere) il n'y 
 eut un seul proems pour libelles. Et certes vous n'ignorez 
 ni la liberty dont jouissent, ni m§me la licence que se 
 donnent les ^crivains, oti, pour adopter I'expression in- 
 g6nieusement invent^e par les gens qui veulent agir sans 
 qu'on appeUe I'examen sur leurs actes, les pamphl^taires 
 Anglais. Cependant I'Angleterre fut-elle en p^ril? Non, 
 messieurs ; tant il est vrai que I'arbitraire qu'on invoque 
 comme un moyen de paix est la veritable et souvent 
 I'unique source des d^sordres ! 
 
 " Libre de toute place k la nomination de pouvoir. 
 Sir Samuel Romilly se livra tout entier k ses devoirs de 
 membre de la Chambre des Communes, devoirs augustes, 
 
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52 SIR SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 mission la plus pr^cieuse qu'un citoyen puisse remplir, et 
 selon moi, je I'avoue, la plus ^clatante qu'un ambitieux 
 puisse d^sirer. 
 
 " Si je voulais, messieurs, parcourir, m§me rapide- 
 ment, les divers objets que le Chevalier Komillj a traits 
 dans cette chambre, et sur lesquels U a rdclam^ toujours, 
 et fait triompher quelquefois, les principes de I'humanit^, 
 de la liberty, et de la justice, je vous retiendrais ici 
 pendant plusieurs lieures, ou je serais oblig^ de vous prier 
 de m'accorder plus d'une stance. C'est k regret que je 
 me refuse h retracer en detail tant de nobles travaux, tant 
 d'efforts ind^fatigables. Je cfede, pourtant, k cette n^- 
 cessit^ rigoureuse, et je ne vous montrerai pas Sir Samuel 
 Eomilly defendant la liberty de la presse, et la saintet^ du 
 jugement par jur^s, contre des eimemis que sont partout 
 les memos, et qui reproduisent partout les m§mes soph- 
 ismes. Mais je dois m'arreter sur son opinion relativement 
 au droit qu'ont les mandataires de la nation d'examiner 
 les jugemens rendus, et, pour me servir de ses propres 
 expressions, de surveiller les tribunaux. Oui, messieurs, 
 il pensait que le droit du parlement ^tait non seulement de 
 provoquer des r^formes dans les lois, mais de s'assurer 
 que les juges, et m^me les jur^s, leur restaient fid^es. 
 D'aprfes ces principes, il d^nonce le 20 Mai, 1818, la 
 sentence prononc^e par un j'wt/ en faveur d'un mattre 
 d'esclaves, qui avait inflig^ a une de ces malheureuses 
 victimes une chatiment plus cruel que la loi ne le permet, 
 A cette occasion, il fut oppos^ par plusieurs membres de 
 Communes qui ne partageaient point ses opinions habi- 
 tuelles, M. Wilberforce, parlant sur la quegtion, dit que 
 c'^tait un des plus prdcieux privileges de la Chambre — 
 protectrice de la liberty civile — d'exercer toutes les fois 
 qu'elle le jugerait n^cessaire le pouvoir de rechercher et de 
 contrdler la conduite de chaque cour de justice.. Un 
 
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SIB SAMUEL ROMILLY. 53 
 
 membre du Grouvernement — M. Goulburn — reconnut 
 pleinement Pautorit^ qu'avait la Chambre de faire des 
 ^nquets en toutes sortes de matlferes, quoique d^j^ d^cid^es 
 par les tribunaux. Tous les partis, en un mot, convinrent 
 ^galement de ce droit d 'investigation sur la mani^re dont 
 la justice ^tait administr^e. 
 
 " Qu'il me soit permis k ce propos de citer quelques 
 phrases d'un ouvrage dont I'auteur m^rite — comme 
 ^crivain, par son talens ; comme citoyen, par ses principes ; 
 comme d^put^, par son courage — tout notre estime te 
 tout notre respect. Je veux parler de celui qui le premier 
 a profdr^ h la tribune d'(inergiques paroles centre des 
 horreurs alors encore k demivoildes et dont I'indignation 
 vertueuse les a reprim^es par le seul effet d'une publicite 
 salutaire. A ces traits vous reconnaissez, messieurs, je 
 n'en puis douter, M. Camille Jordan. 
 
 " ' Voudrait-on Clever,' dit-il, ' k I'effiision du sang 
 innocent, commise par le glaive ^gar^ des lois, la seule 
 compensation que la Providence semble avoir ici-bas 
 mdnag^e pour le plus grand de malbeurs, celle de concourir 
 par les souvenirs m§mes qu'elle laisse k I'am^Horation des 
 formes et au soulagement des generations futures ? Quoi ! 
 parcequ'une terrible m^prise aurait eu lieu, il faudrait, 
 pour I'honneur de quelques juges, en rendre le renouvelle- 
 ment perp^tuel ? EUes devraient se fermer k jamais, ces 
 pages lugubres qui pr^sentent au l^gislateur constem^ les 
 plus utiles instructions pour la patrie, et pour I'humanite 
 toute entifere ! Voyez,' continue-t-il, ' I'dtat des contr^es 
 oil tout examen de la justice est, comme on le demande, 
 s^v^rement interdit. Alors, en Angleterre, sous le voile 
 d'un silence pr^tendu religieux, furent envelopp^s les 
 arrets de la Chambre Etoil^e, les persecutions judiciares de 
 Marie, les cruaut^s Idgales de Jeffries et de Kirk. Alors 
 en France, il fallut s'incliner et se taire de toutes ces com- 
 
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54 SIE SAMUEL EOMILLY. 
 
 missions extraordinaires qui ont souill^ de tant de proc^d^s 
 iniques les annales de notre justice criminelle.' 
 
 "Aiusi, messieurs, dans tons les pays, les hommes 
 lionn^tes, les grands et bons citoyens, les d^fenseurs de nos 
 liberies et de nos droits, s'entendent et se r^pondent. 
 Heurense sympathie, qui met en d^faut les sourds man- 
 oeuvres des ennemis du bien, et qui couvre de sa voix 
 puissante les vains murmures des factions vaLucues aussitdt 
 que d^marqudes." 
 
 The eloquent author whose words I have been here 
 quoting then enters upon a dissertation as to the merits 
 of Sir Samuel Romilly as a Member of Parliament, and 
 his conduct generally as a public man ; but it is thought 
 that sufficient has been presented to enable my readers to 
 judge of the character of this impassioned address, and 
 I therefore content myself with adding the concluding 
 passages of it : — 
 
 " Vous demeurez persuades, je le pense, que la mort de 
 Sir Samuel Eomilly est, non seulement pour I'Angleterre, 
 mais pour I'humanit^, une fatality cruelle. II r^unissait 
 deux choses, trop rarement combin^es — la science pratique 
 et la philosophic speculative ; la science pratique qui rend 
 la speculation applicable, et la philosophic qui rend la 
 pratique juste et eclair^e. II voulait la liberty, et, comme 
 tous ceux qui veulent sincferement la liberty, il ne voulait 
 pas le d^sordre; il voulait partir de ce qu'existait, pour 
 am^liorer et non pour d^truire; il voulait ^clairer I'autorite, 
 la restreindre dans ses bornes legitimes, non la renverser, 
 la concilier avec les droits de tous, et par \k lui donner 
 plus de dur^e ; preserver les gouvernemens du despotisme 
 qui perd la puissance, les peuples de I'anarchie qui perd la 
 liberty. Sa carrifere dtait d^plorablement interrompue; 
 mais ses travaux, sa gloire, son exemple nous restent. 
 Plus d'un malheureux, ^pargn^ par des lols qu'il a 
 
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SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. 55 
 
 adoTicies, plus d'un opprim^, garanti par les principes qu'il 
 a proclam^s, plus d'une nation peut-ltre, invoquant sa 
 m^moire illustre centre les abus de la force, les manceuvres 
 de la perfidie, ou I'insolence d'une victoire ^ph^mfere, 
 serviront long-temps encore h faire ch^rlr, k faire respecter, 
 k faire b^nir son nom. 
 
 " Au reste, messieurs, en mettant k part la cause 
 douloureuse et le genre deplorable de sa mort, vous trou- 
 verez peut-etre que ce n'est pas lui qu'il faut plaindre. La 
 carrifere des d^fenseurs de la liberty est rude et laborieuse. 
 lis rencontrent sans cesse la destin^e qui trompe leurs 
 esp^rances, et des calamit^s impr^vues qui d^vastent lea 
 champs qu'ils cultivent. Tantfit des crimes, plus souvent 
 des erreurs, quelquefois tout-&,-coup la peur ou I'ignorance, 
 les repoussent du but dont ils approchaient. Ne sont-ils 
 pas heureux de se r^poser dans la tombe, aprfes avoir fait 
 quelque bien ? 
 
 " Que ceux qui vivent cependant n'oublient pas que 
 leur devoir est trac^. lis ont re9U du ciel une mission 
 difficile, mais ils en sont responsables. Meme en succom- 
 bant, ils obtiennent I'approbation de tout ce qu'il y a de 
 vertueux sur la terre. lis plaident une noble cause en 
 presence du monde, et seconds par tons ses vceux ; qu'ils 
 ne se d^couragent done pas : aucun slfecle ne sera tellement 
 A6ah6nti:, qu'il pr^sente le genre humain tout entier tel 
 qu'il le faudrait pour le despotisme. L'avenir ne trahira 
 point I'espfece humaine ; il restera toujours de ces hommes 
 pour qui la justice est une passion, la defense du faible un 
 besoin. La nature a voulu cette succession: nul n'a 
 jamais pu I'interrompre, nul ne I'interrompra jamais; et si 
 beaucoup meurent k la peine, beaucoup d'autres viendront 
 aprfes eux qui recueilleront leur mandat, et qui poursuivront 
 leur ouvrage." 
 
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Sir Thomas Lawrence, Finx. 
 
 S. Ayling, Photo. 
 
 a ©SIM — ®<a,5as. ©s" aa.B©Kr. 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, &c,, tSOl, 
 
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( 57 ) 
 
 Sketch III. 
 
 LORD ELDON. 
 
 So much has been said and written of the character, legal 
 accomplishments, and political achievements of Lord Chan- 
 cellor Eldon, that I open my Note-books with some degree 
 of trepidation and diffidence for the purpose of culling 
 anecdotes of so eminent and distinguished a lawyer and 
 politician. But having been for several years in a con- 
 fidential position with the friend and solicitor of Lord 
 Eldon, during the later period of his life, in which I had 
 many opportunities of access to him, and of obtaining 
 a knowledge of his opinions and conduct upon several 
 important occasions, I have considered that such diffidence 
 should give way in my attempt to complete the series of 
 Sketches I have already announced. 
 
 In the prosecution of this plan I shall shortly recapitu- 
 late the principal facts of his progress as a Barrister, and 
 the final close of his career as Lord Chancellor and a Peer 
 of the reahn. I take the earlier part of these from sources 
 which, although open to all, have not, hitherto, I believe, 
 been so compendiously given. It is true many men of 
 inferior calibre have attained these high positions, but 
 scarcely one, except perhaps Lord Hardwicke — the son 
 of a peasant — has attained them under such trying and 
 momentous circumstances ; and not one, I believe, retained 
 them for so lengthened a period. 
 
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58 LORD ELDON. 
 
 John Scott, the son of Mr, William Scott, of New- 
 castle-upon-Tyne, had, at the commencement of his public 
 life, about as much reasonable expectation of becoming 
 Lord Protector, or King of these realms, as he had of 
 becoming Lord Chancellor of Great BritaLa. But by 
 dint of the greatest possible industry, perseverance, and 
 frugality, combined with a degree of shrewdness, know- 
 ledge of mankind, quickness of apprehension, and, on 
 important , occasions, promptitude of decision — which he 
 was not generally thought to possess — he did attain that 
 high and distinguished office, together with great wealth. 
 
 His father was a descendant of the family of the 
 Scotts, of Balweary, in the county of Fife, and was at 
 the time of his marriage with a Miss Atkinson, a coal- 
 fitter, or coal-broker, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They 
 seem to have been a long-lived couple ; the father at 
 the time of his death being seventy-nine years of age; 
 the mother at her death ninety-one. John Scott, the 
 subject of my sketch, was one of thirteen children by 
 this marriage, being the eighth of that number. He 
 was bom on the 4th June, 1761, and received the rudi- 
 ments of his education — as did also his brother William, 
 afterwards Sir William Scott, the celebrated and accom- 
 plished Judge of the Admiralty Court— at the Hye or 
 Grammar School at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, under the 
 guidance of a master nicknamed Dominie Warden. The 
 Dominie, however, was shortly afterwards displaced, and 
 was succeeded by a very learned and excellent man, the 
 Eev. Mr. Moises (of whom we shall hear hereafter), of 
 the University of Oxford. 
 
 In December, 1824, Lord Eldon, at the request and 
 for the amusement of his grandson, the late Earl, com- 
 menced a series of autobiographical anecdotes of his life, 
 not written in any particular order, but put down from 
 
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LORD ELDON. 59 
 
 recollection, and referring to subjects to which his attention 
 might from time to time be called by his grandson. 
 
 From these it would appear that nothing occurred in 
 his school-days to indicate the particular bent of his dispo- 
 sition or character beyond the usual average of schoolboys, 
 but he seems to have been continually getting into boyish 
 scrapes. The following quotation from these anecdotes 
 may be interesting : — 
 
 "I believe," he says, "no boy was ever so much 
 thrashed as I was. When we went to school, we" (his 
 brothers, William, Henry, and himself) " had to go by the 
 Stockbridge School. In going to school we seldom had 
 any time to spare, so Bill and Harry used to run as hard 
 as they could, and poor Jacky's" (his own) " legs not being 
 long or so strong, he was left behind. Now, you must 
 know there was eternal war waged between the head 
 school lads and all the boys of the other schools ; so the 
 Stockbridgers seized the opportunity of poor Jacky being 
 alone to give him a good drubbing. Then, on our way 
 home, Bill and Harry always thrashed them in return ; 
 and that was my revenge, but then it was a revenge that 
 
 did not cure my sore bones I was once the 
 
 seventeenth boy who was flogged" (by Mr. Moises, the 
 Master), " and richly did we merit it. There was an elderly 
 lady who lived in Westgate Street, whom we surrounded 
 in the street, and would not allow her to go either back- 
 ward or forward. She complained to Mr. Moises, and he 
 flogged us all. When he came to me, he exclaimed, 
 ' What I Jack Scott, were you there too ?' I was 
 obliged to say, * Yes, sir.' ' I will not stop,' replied he ; 
 ' you shall have it.' But I think I came off best, for his 
 arm was rather tired with the sixteen who went before 
 me." 
 
 He described many other floggings, and if the circum- 
 
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60 LOED ELDON. 
 
 stances for which the punishments were given were — as no 
 doubt they were — perfectly true in the main, he certainly 
 deserved them. 
 
 In May, 1766, he was matriculated at University 
 College, Oxford. He was not then fifteen years of age, 
 and his brother William, who had preceded him there, and 
 under whose tuition he was placed, used afterwards to say, 
 " I was quite ashamed of his appearance ; he looked such 
 a mere hoy." 
 
 In July, 1767, he was elected to a fellowship of his 
 college, on the resignation of a Mr. Rotherham. He had, 
 of course, but just completed his sixteenth year. 
 
 In Hilary Term, 1770, he took his bachelor's degree, 
 and in the following year carried off the Chambers' Prize 
 for a Latin composition in verse, the subject being " The 
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Travel." He 
 was still under twenty years of age. 
 
 A good example of the quiet joking in after life in 
 which Lord Eldon indulged may be found from an extract 
 of a letter which he at this time wrote to a coUege friend. 
 The subject is a description of the town of Newcastle : — 
 " Say, Muse, where shall I begin ? At the bridge. This 
 is an elegant structure of thirteen arches. The battlements 
 are beautified with towers, houses, &c., and, what is a very 
 extraordinary circumstance, it is built over a river. From 
 hence you proceed to the Sand-hiU. Here you have 
 presented to your view the Exchange, and Nelly's, Katy's, 
 and Harrison's Coffee-houses, from the windows of which 
 you may view the operations of shaving, turnip and carrot 
 selling, and the fish market, if you turn your eyes that 
 way. The quay is reckoned one of the best in England, 
 the water making the prospect very agreeable, and there is 
 no deficiency of wood, in the shape of planks, tar-barrels, 
 and trees of that kind. At the east end of this, passing 
 
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LORD ELDON. 61 
 
 through a magnificent arch, you come to a street called 
 Sandgate, which, whether you consider the elegance of the 
 buildhigs, or the number of the inhabitants, or that strict 
 regard to decency which they pay, is equalled by none in 
 the kingdom. From the before-mentioned quay, we may 
 ' say, are many lanes, most of which terminate in the 
 Butcher Bank, so called because it is a kind of hill, where 
 are sold daily, beef, mutton and veal." 
 
 Perhaps the most important step which a man can take 
 in life, and which, unlike most others, depends so much 
 upon his own personal act and consideration, is his 
 marriage. Education, his future course in life, his health, 
 and other similar circumstances, are traced out for him by 
 others ; but, in. England at least, his marriage rests almost 
 always with himself. If runaway marriages, as they are 
 termed, sometimes turn out unhappily, it is as certaiu that 
 many are the commencement of a long course of connubial 
 happiness. That of Lord Eldon was most assuredly one 
 of the latter. Early in the year 1772 he first saw Miss 
 Elizabeth Surtees, the daughter of a banker at Newcastle, 
 at Sedgefield Church, in the neighbourhood ; but their 
 subsequent meetings, and the resolve which he made of 
 declaring his passion for her, are somewhat of a mystery. 
 
 It is sufficient to say that she was persuaded to elope 
 with him from her father's house in the night of the 18th 
 November, 1772, by the accommodating assistance of a 
 ladder; they proceeded together to the Scottish border, 
 where they were married by a Scotch clergyman, at a 
 place called Blackshiels, he having written and left for his 
 father an explanatory letter, acquainting his family with 
 their intention. 
 
 This step Mr. Scott considered absolutely necessary, as 
 probably one of the other suitors, favoured by her family, 
 would have possessed himself of her hand. He had just 
 
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62 LORD ELDON. 
 
 completed his twenty-first and the lady her eighteenth 
 year, neither with the slightest means of future subsistence, 
 and only relying on Ms industry and talent to maintain 
 them. As may well be supposed, the marriage was highly 
 disapproved by both families. The young couple very 
 shortly afterwards returned to Newcastle, their funds 
 exhausted, and no home to go to. At this time the lady 
 was described as being very attractive in appearance ; 
 her form slender, and her steps light, retaining in after 
 years much of her youthful symmetry, never shewing the 
 least inclination for personal display. At the " Queen's 
 Head" they remained some days, where he received a 
 letter of forgiveness from his father, inviting them to his 
 house. The fathers of both had been on very intimate 
 terms, but the lady's father for some time continued 
 inexorable. He, however, relented ; and accepted the 
 proposition of the elder Scott, that for every £100 Mr. 
 Surtees would put down for his daughter, he, Mr. Scott 
 would contribute a like sum for his son. 
 
 On the 7th January, 1773, the reconciliation was com- 
 pleted, and it formed an important epoch in the life of the 
 future Lord Eldon. On that day two deeds of gift were 
 executed by the parents, stipulating for the payment of 
 the interest at 5 per cent, on two sums of £1,000 each, and 
 subsequently two other deeds were executed of the same 
 description and amount in their favour. 
 
 The mention of this fact reminds me of having seen 
 these same deeds of gift under somewhat peculiar circum- 
 stances. When Chancellor, Lord Eldon having contracted 
 to sell some landed property, it was necessary for the 
 verification of the abstract of his title to obtain certain 
 deeds from his bankers, Messrs. Childs, where they had 
 been deposited. Two boxes were sent up to his solicitor, 
 which were supposed to contain all the necessary deeds 
 
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LORD ELDON. 63 
 
 relating to the estate. This, however, did not prove to be 
 the case, as, on opening one of them, I only found two 
 legal instruments therein, and where they must have re- 
 posed side by side for very many years ; the one the deed 
 of gift by Lady Scott's father for the £100 per annum 
 before mentioned ; the other, the letters patent creating 
 him Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, dated in 
 July, 1779. 
 
 The ceremony of a second marriage was performed, 
 at the desire of their parents, at St. Nicholas's Church, 
 Newcastle, on the 1 9th January following ; and on the 
 completion of the ceremony the juvenile pair stepped into 
 their chaise, which carried them to the classic shades of 
 Oxford. Arrived there, he himself subsequently tells us 
 that he intended to apply for the first vacant college living, 
 "but that he should apply himself to the law as a last 
 resource if the Church failed him." On the 28th January, 
 1773, he entered himself as a student at the Middle Temple, 
 but retained his fellowship at Oxford for a year. This 
 was called the year of grace, with an option of accepting 
 any vacant living which might fall in, thus having as he 
 said himself, " two strings to his bow." He returned to 
 Oxford, and the most remarkable incident in his residence 
 there, seems to have been a meeting which casually took 
 place with the great Dr. Johnson. He thus described it : 
 " Walking in the garden with Mr. Robert Chambers (sub- 
 sequently Sir Robert Chambers, a judge in India), Chambers 
 was gathering snails, and throwing them over the wall 
 into his next neighbour's garden. For this Dr. Johnson 
 reproached him roughly, as being unmannerly and un- 
 neighbourly. Upon this Chambers said his neighbour 
 was a Dissenter. ' Oh ! if that is so,' said Dr. Johnson, 
 ' if that is so, Chambers, toss away, toss away as hard as 
 you can.' " 
 
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64 LORD ELDON. 
 
 During their residence ia Oxford, on the 8th March, a 
 son was born to them, who did not live to Inherit his 
 father's titles and honours. 
 
 Shortly afterwards they returned to London, and took 
 up their abode In a lodging in Cursitor Street. It Is 
 asserted In a work authorized by the family, that sub- 
 sequently, In a conversation with Mr. Pensam, his Re- 
 gistrar of Bankrupts, pointing to this house, Lord Eldon 
 said : " There was my first perch. Many a time I have 
 run down from thence to Fleet Market to get six penny- 
 worth of sprats for supper." The reader Is at liberty to 
 believe as much or as little of the latter part of this con- 
 versation as he thinks fit. 
 
 He had now seriously applied himself to the labours of 
 his profession, attending, without the usual fee, the chambers 
 of Mr. Douane, the conveyancer, assiduously reading and 
 copying precedents. He was never In the chambers of 
 any special pleader, or equity draftsman. His legal educa- 
 tion was obtained, as he afterwards said, "by copying 
 everything he could lay his hands on." 
 
 He was called to the Bar of the Middle Temple on the 
 9th February, 1776. In a conversation with his niece, 
 Mrs. Foster, In after life, he thus describes his entry upon 
 his profession: "When I was called to the Bar, Bessy" 
 (his wife) " and I thought all our troubles were over — 
 business was to pour ia, and we were to be rich almost 
 
 immediately The fees for the first twelve 
 
 months were to be divided between us ; those for the first 
 eleven months were to be mine, and the twelfth hers. 
 In the twelfth month I got half a guinea — eighteen pence 
 went for fees, and Bessy got nine shillings. In the other 
 eleven months I got not one shilling." 
 
 As an old reporter, I feel an interest in stating, that 
 the first reported case in which the name of Mr. Scott 
 
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LORD ELDON, 65 
 
 appears is Green v. Howard, 1 Bro. C. C. 31. He had 
 selected the Northern Circuit as his future field of operations, 
 and which he attended assiduously ; but after about four 
 years of unsuccesafal labour as a barrister, he determined 
 to quit his town life and practise as a provincial counsel La 
 Newcastle, his native place. This resolution was dis- 
 placed by two circumstances which now occurred, and 
 which had the most momentous bearing upon his future 
 professional life. One was his being instructed to appear 
 in the case of Akroyd v. Smtthson, as a junior counsel 
 with a consenting brief; and the other, the circumstances 
 attending his appearance before^ a Committee of the House 
 of Commons on an Election petition. 
 
 Although the history of Akroyd v. SmithsoUj 1 Bro. 
 C. C. 505, has been given in many publications, more 
 particularly in Mr. Horace Twiss's " Life of Lord Eldon," 
 from the recital of it by Lord Eldon himself only three 
 weeks before his death, a short statement of the facts may 
 not be uninteresting. 
 
 It was an administration suit. Amongst other circum- 
 stances of the case, the real estate of the testator was 
 directed by the will to be sold, his debts and certain 
 legacies to be paid, and shares of the residue given to two 
 of the legatees. These legatees predeceased the testator, 
 and their legacies had consequently lapsed. A brief was 
 given to Mr. Scott, with a guinea fee, to appear and 
 consent on the part of the heir-at-law, to the decree which 
 was anticipated. On considering the question, Scott came 
 to the conclusion that, by the law as it then stood, the heir- 
 at-law was entitled to these two shares as part of the realty 
 undisposed of. He suggested this to the party instructing 
 him, but his opinion was disregarded, and a decree was 
 pronounced at the EoUs, by Sir Thomas Sewell, who 
 considered that the surviving legatees took the whole 
 
 F 
 
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66 LOED ELDON. 
 
 residue. With other parts of the decree some of the 
 parties were dissatisfied, and an appeal to the Lord 
 Chancellor Thurlow was lodged. Mr. Scott had a second 
 brief with a guinea fee, to appear and consent for the heir- 
 at-law as before. The rest had better be told in the words 
 of Lord Eldon himself as given by Mr. Twiss : — " I told 
 my client if he meant by ' consent ' to give up the claim of 
 the heir to the lapsed shares, he must take his brief else- 
 where, for I would not hold it without arguing the point. 
 He said something about young men being obstinate, ' but 
 I must do as I thought right.'" In the meantime the town 
 agent had written to his principal in Newcastle, stating 
 these circumstances. The reply of this gentleman was, 
 " Do not send good money after bad ; let Mr. Scott have 
 a guinea to give consent, and, if he will argue, why let him 
 do so, but give him no more." He did, accordingly, argue 
 the point at great length ; the argument^which every 
 rising barrister should carefully read — is given at page 505 
 of the first volume of Brown. After the hearing of the 
 appeal, Lord Thurlow took three days for consideration, and 
 then delivered his judgment in accordance with Mr. Scott's 
 argument, although at first very much disposed to pro- 
 nounce a contrary decree. 
 
 As to the Clitheroe Election Petition, no abstruse point 
 of law had to be discussed. It was a common case to 
 unseat a Member on the usual grounds. The parties who 
 instructed Mr. Scott to appear waited upon him very early 
 in the morning of the day for which the first sitting of the 
 Committee was appointed to meet at ten o'clock. He 
 urged upon them the impossibility of his being prepared 
 by that hour to make himself master of the case, but 
 agreed, if that would suit their purpose, to state the facts 
 of it only. This they assented to, and the sitting com- 
 menced ; the result was, that the Committee continued to 
 
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LORD ELDON. 67 
 
 sit for fifteen days. The fees for these attendances, in 
 addition to 50 guineas on the brief, were 10 guineas each 
 day, and 5 guineas for a consultation each evening. Thus, 
 in a fortnight, was sown the acorn from which sprung a 
 most magnificent oak. 
 
 After these important events, he was strongly advised 
 not to quit London, and, relying upon this advice, more 
 particularly as it was the opinion of Mr. Mansfield (after- 
 wards Sir James Mansfield, Chief Justice of the Common 
 Pleas) that he should remain, he did so. In reference to 
 these circumstances ui after life, and his previous poverty, 
 he said, " There is nothing that does a young lawyer 
 so much good as to be half starved. It has a fine 
 effect." 
 
 It may be stated that, although the ultimate decision 
 in Akroyd v. Smithson was in direct opposition to the first 
 impression of the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, as before men- 
 tioned, that great man ever afterwards treated Mr. Scott 
 with the greatest distinction and respect, which eventually 
 ripened into a lasting fi-iendship. 
 
 It has been remarked that, although it was now well 
 known that Mr. Scott possessed a better-grounded and 
 more ample fund of legal knowledge, derived from his 
 great industry and reading, than almost any other member 
 of the Bar, the cases laid before him for his written opinions 
 were "few and far between." It may reasonably be ac- 
 counted for. Solicitors require their cases to be answered 
 speedily. Scott, however, to enable him to master the 
 subject-matter of any case laid before him, detained it 
 longer than usual, that he might read up every case and 
 text-book at all bearing upon the subject. This naturally 
 required considerable time, and the case remained un- 
 answered until perhaps the importance of the occasion, 
 which required any opinion at all, had passed away. 
 
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68 LORD ELDON. 
 
 Connected with this subject, I find a note in one of my 
 Note-books to this efi'ect : Some years since, Mr. Eous, a 
 great legal luminary in his day, was Standing Counsel, as 
 it is termed, to the late East India Company. A case was 
 laid before him, to advise the Company in an important 
 matter. He had given his opinion ; but recommended 
 that the case should also be laid before Mr. Serjeant 
 Heath — plain John Heath — then a very leading authority 
 upon commercial questions. It was accordingly laid before 
 him, and after the usual time answered. Meeting a few 
 days afterwards the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of 
 the Company at the India House, the Chairman remarked 
 how much obliged they had been by Mr. Heath's valuable 
 opinion. " Ah," said plain John, " confound that case. 
 It gave me more trouble and doubt than any case I ever 
 had laid before me." " Dear me," replied the Chairman, 
 " you surprise me. Your opinion was considered by us 
 all to be the most decided and well-reasoned opinion we 
 ever had ; no expression of doubt at all." " Of course 
 not," said Heath, " you paid me for my opinion, did you 
 not, not for my doubts ?" 
 
 On the anniversary of his thirty-second birthday (4th 
 June, 1783), Scott had granted to him a patent of pre- 
 cedency ; and on the 6th of the same month was returned 
 for the borough of Weobly, in Herefordshire, a pocket 
 borough, extinguished by the Eeform Act. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that the maiden speeches in 
 ParHament of both Scott and Erskine, for so many years 
 fierce opponents both in the Senate and at the Bar, were 
 made on the same day, the 28th November, 1783. They 
 were spoken in one of the debates on Mr. Fox's celebrated 
 India Bill, which sought to control the action of the Eastlndia 
 Directors in their political and mercantile characters. Scott's 
 was in favour of the exclusive privileges of the Company. 
 
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LORD ELDON. 69 
 
 Of the storm and excitement whicli arose throughout 
 the country during the discussions of this India Bill and the 
 commencement of the proceedings against and subsequent 
 impeachment of Warren Hastings, the Governor-General 
 of India, it is impossible at the present day to form an 
 adequate opinion; but, although a most tempting subject 
 to write upon, as Scott took no very active part in the 
 debates, I must necessarily pass them slightly over. He did, 
 however, on being called upon to express his opinion in 
 the House, on a debate which arose when Rous, the Coimsel 
 for the Company, and Erskine were heard at the Bar 
 against the Bill, proceed to argue the question on its 
 political, but still more fully on its legal and constitutional 
 merits. Of the political and legal parts of his speech the 
 interest has passed away with the occasion which produced 
 it ; but the constitutional passages of his argument, those 
 which relate to the general principles of declaratory legis- 
 lation, have a permanent value, and the perusal will repay 
 the industrious student in his investigation of constitutional 
 doctrines and maxims. 
 
 On the 1st March, 1787, he was appointed Chancellor 
 of the County Palatine of Durham, given to him by the 
 Chancellor Lord Thurlow. 
 
 In the following year Sir Archibald Macdonald having 
 been made Attorney - General, Scott was selected as 
 Solicitor-General, and on the 27th June of that year they 
 were knighted, much, it is said, to the annoyance of both 
 these learned persons. This was the first occasion on which 
 the holders of these high offices had been knighted. 
 
 He was re-elected for Weobly. 
 
 In 1788, commenced the malady which afflicted 
 George III., and serious discussions took place as to the 
 right of the Heir apparent, in the case of the incapacity of 
 the reigning Sovereign, to exercise the powers of the 
 
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70 LORD ELDON. 
 
 Crown. In these Lord Eldon took a most decided and 
 important part, even, it is said, to the advising the exercise 
 of the powers of the Sovereign when that Sovereign was 
 incapable of judging of the expediency or otherwise of 
 exercising those powers. 
 
 It is, however, unnecessary to dwell on this part of 
 Lord Eldon's career, as it does not especially belong to his 
 legal progress ; but, under similar circumstances, the 
 ground and motive of his advice ought not to be forgotten. 
 It was " that the personal capacity of the reigning monarch 
 was superseded — ^not so hispolitical capacity, that remaining 
 entire. The right which necessity creates is limited by the 
 same necessity." There is no doubt that the whole of the 
 action of the Government as to the Regency Bill and other 
 similar arrangements, was completely controlled by the 
 advice of their Solicitor-General. 
 
 On the 10th January, 1790, he was again returned for 
 Weobly. His professional business now very much in- 
 creased, and he took a new set of chambers, at No. 11, 
 New Square, Lincoln's Inn. He also purchased an estate 
 near the village of Eldon, in Durham, comprising the 
 Manor and about 1,300 acres of land, from which he 
 subsequently elected to take his title of Earl. 
 
 Early in 1793, Macdonald was appointed Lord Chief 
 Baron of the Exchequer, and Scott succeeded him in the 
 post of Attorney-General. He was again returned for 
 Weobly, and Sir John Mitford, afterwards Lord Eedesdale, 
 made Solicitor-General. 
 
 We now approach the most exciting and important 
 period of Lord Eldon's career as a practising Barrister, and 
 a short summary of it will be attempted. 
 
 The period between the time when Sir John Scott was 
 appointed Attorney-General in 1793, to that of his being 
 elevated to the Bench of the Common Pleas in July, 
 
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LORD ELDON. 7l 
 
 1799, was one of most fearM import to this country, as 
 well as to the Governments on the Continent; indeed, to 
 every part of the civilized world where relations with 
 Europe existed. To form even a very moderate estimate 
 of the gravity and importance of his position, it may he 
 convenient to recapitulate the prominent circumstances of 
 the time. The fury and heat of the first French Revolution 
 were at their height. The French had just brought their 
 King to the scaffold, and a scene of almost unearthly 
 hubbub and confusion presented itself to the horror and 
 indignation of the World. Priaciples were publicly dis- 
 seminated, and acts done tending to bring to an end all 
 order and good government. The poison had largely 
 infected our own coimtrymen. War against France had 
 been declared by this country. The works of Thomas 
 Paine — ^the son of a Quaker — particularly his " Rights of 
 Man," of which upwards of 50,000 copies had then been 
 sold, professing to be an answer to Burke's impassioned 
 "Essay on the French Revolution," had spread far and 
 wide the most pernicious doctrines of the assumed equality 
 of Man, and was an avowed instigation to the lower orders 
 to abridge the powers and privileges of the Nobility, and to 
 despoil men of wealth. The first part of his second equally 
 notorious work, " The Age of Reason," had been then 
 just published, he at the time being a member of the 
 French Convention, and the excitement and agitation in 
 the public mind created by these circumstances required 
 the exercise of the greatest possible courage, knowledge, 
 and judgment on the part of the law advisers of the 
 Crown. Matters had become so serious, that a Bill had 
 been introduced, entitled, "The Traitorous Correspon- 
 dence Bill," which sought to mitigate the evils arising 
 from the affiliated associations in France and England, 
 formed for the most treasonable purposes. Early in May, 
 
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72 LORD ELDON. 
 
 1793, had taken place the trial of Frost, a solicitor of 
 London, for seditious words spoken at a party in the Percy 
 Coffee House. The words were, "I am for equality. 
 I can see no reason why any man should not be upon 
 a footing with another; it is every man's birthright." 
 Being asked what he meant by equality, he replied, 
 " Why, I mean no King ; the constitution of this country 
 is a bad one." 
 
 The trials of Muir and fourteen others in Scotland for 
 seditious practices, who were all sentenced to transportation 
 for fourteen years, were not sufficient to stop these practices 
 in Scotland or in England. Traitorous meetings were 
 held and associations formed in several parts of the 
 country, more especially in London, under the guise of 
 Parliamentary Reform. 
 
 The passing of this Traitorous Correspondence BiU 
 was opposed by the united forces of the Opposition to the 
 Government, led by Fox and others, but eventually it 
 became law. In May of the following year a message 
 from the Crown was sent down to both Houses, urging 
 that more stringent measures should be passed ; and the 
 suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act was subsequently 
 moved by Pitt, and carried against the most vehement 
 opposition which could be shewn to it. This severe 
 measure was more immediately directed against the Kev. 
 Home Tooke, Hardy, Thelwall, and others who were 
 active members of what was called the " Corresponding 
 Society," which was in direct communication with the 
 French Democrats. A true bill against these men and 
 ten others indicted for treason, in compassing the death 
 of the King, was found at the Old Bailey on the 6th 
 October following. The trial of Hardy— the accused 
 having asserted and obtained the recognition of their right 
 to have the trials proceeded with separately — commenced 
 
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LOED ELDON. 73 
 
 on the 28th by a speech from Scott, as Attorney-General, 
 which occupied nine hours in the dehvery. Five days were 
 necessary to place all the evidence for the prosecution before 
 the jury. Hardy was defended by Erskine in a speech which, 
 as Home Tooke remarked at the time, "will live for ever." 
 The pith of it was, that there could be no constructive 
 treason from inferences which might be unfair, but only 
 from facts proved; that the traitorous intention of the accused 
 should be clearly ascertained and proved ; that it could not 
 be made out by cumulation of small facts, or by analogy. 
 He also drew the distinction between the King's person 
 and his ofl&ce, and contended that fair arguments to abolish 
 the latter did not constitute treason. The trial was con- 
 ducted in a most impartial and able manner by Chief 
 Justice Eyre ; and the jury, after three hours' consultation, 
 returned a verdict of " Not guilty." The excitement and 
 jubilation produced by this result, it is quite impossible at 
 this day to conceive. The malignant feelings of the mob 
 seemed concentrated on Scott (the Attorney-General), and 
 on each evening of the trial as he left the Court signals 
 were made to hoot and hiss him, which, however, he bore 
 with great courage and equanimity. 
 
 The Eev. Home Tooke was next put upon his trial. 
 The coimsel were the same, with the addition, on the part 
 of the Crown, of Mr. Spencer Perceval, afterwards Prime 
 Minister ; and whose subsequent melancholy death, by the 
 hand of an assassin, must be in the recollection of most 
 of us. This trial lasted eight days ; and the jury, after 
 eight minutes' consultation, also returned a verdict of 
 " Not guilty." 
 
 The Crown thereupon assented to an acquittal against 
 aU the other persons charged, with the exception of 
 Thelwall, against whom it was thought some additional 
 evidence could be adduced; but the jury — also in this 
 
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74 LORD ELDON. 
 
 case— after four days' trial, again returned their verdict, 
 " Not guilty." 
 
 Althougli the result of these several prosecutions were 
 so adverse to what was hoped for by the Government, 
 they had, nevertheless, a most beneficial effect. Men were 
 soon found to be much more cautious in their proceedings, 
 and a more wholesome state of political feeliag afterwards 
 appeared — attributable partly, no doubt, to the diaboUcal 
 atrocities committed by the miscreants in power at Paris. 
 
 On the 19th May, 1796, Parliament was dissolved, and 
 Scott returned as member for Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, 
 his colleague being the late Sir Francis Burdett. 
 
 From this time till his promotion to the Chief Justice- 
 ship of the Conunon Pleas he continued his Parliamentary 
 career through most stormy and agitating debates, during 
 all of which he maintained, on the high authority of the 
 late Mr. Wilberforce, " the most perfect independence of 
 character, assuming always the tone and stature of a man 
 who was conscious that he must shew he respects himself if 
 he wishes to be respected by others." 
 
 He continued sixteen years a Member of the House 
 of Commons, his last speech there being in May, 1799, 
 on a question brought forward on behalf of Colonel 
 Palmer, the originator of the mail coach system — now 
 displaced by one of surpassing speed and certainty — who 
 sought some compensation against the Post Office autho- 
 rities. His other speeches were principally on legal 
 subjects, at times taking his share in the debate on 
 questions of a more general and political character. 
 
 He was the mainspring of the Government upon all 
 legal subjects, and in almost daily communication with 
 Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister. The estimation in which 
 Scott was held by this great Minister may be fully under- 
 stood by a statement which Scott made in after life, when 
 
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LORD ELDON. 75 
 
 he said, — " Pitt has often sent for me on the morning of a 
 day on which a debate was to come on, and said to me, 
 'Attorney-General, you must speak on such an one's 
 motion to-night.' Upon my representing that I was 
 utterly ignorant of the subject, and could not possibly 
 he prepared to speak, he would say, ' Sit down, and I will 
 give you sufficient information.' Accordingly, in half 
 an hour, he would give me almost aU that was worth 
 knowing, in a clear, concise statement, and would conclude 
 by saying, ' There, you are now quite as able to debate the 
 subject as I am. You must follow Mr. So-and-so in the 
 debate.' " 
 
 A not dissimilar annecdote I may relate of my late 
 lamented friend the Solicitor to the Board of Control, and 
 Lord Macaulay, when President. When Indian matters of 
 more than usual importance were upon the tapis either in 
 Parliament or at the India House, Macaulay invariably 
 sent for the Solicitor, and would confidentially confer 
 with him upon the course to be adopted. Sitting in 
 his own chair, he desired the Solicitor to take another, 
 saying, " This subject is very perplexing ; I will tell you 
 the facts, the idea I have of the course to be pursued, and 
 several of the reasons and arguments in favour of that 
 course." He would then detail them at great length, and 
 with much fluency, and at the end would say, " Now, 
 Groom, take my chair, I take yours, and now I will teU 
 you all that I should say, and what arguments I should use 
 if I were in the House, and had to reply to my own 
 speech, and show the futility and inappropriateness of the 
 remedies proposed." This he did, at equal length and 
 the same fluency, until at last he had rendered it almost 
 doubtful what line of conduct was most suitable for the 
 occasion. He himself, however, had little hesitation in fact 
 as to what course of proceeding should be adopted. 
 
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76 LOED ELDON. 
 
 Scott's practice at the Equity Bar during all this time 
 had much increased, until at length it came to be 
 unprecedented, he being engaged in almost every cause 
 before the Court. His manner of addressing both the 
 House and the Lord Chancellor has been represented 
 as being very similar in their quiet and unpretentious 
 character, seldom rising to anything like energy or warmth, 
 always commencing with a low and embarrassed tremu- 
 lation of voice, which only subsided very gradually. Even 
 in the House, he was deficient in that warm, animated, and 
 bold declamatory vehemence which should distinguish the 
 senatorial from the forensic orator. In Court, he was 
 particularly distinguished for the aptitude and ingenuity of 
 his replies. 
 
 In July, 1799, he was promoted to the Chief Justice- 
 ship of the Common Pleas, in the room of C. J. Eyre. 
 This office he accepted with the condition, which was 
 insisted upon by George III. and by Mr. Pitt, that he 
 should also accept a peerage, as his assistance for carrying 
 the measures to be proposed by the Government would 
 be of great use in the House of Lords. On the 17th 
 July he was sworn of the Privy Council. Although he 
 retained the office of Chief Justice only until April, 1801, 
 he obtained great distinction as a Conunon Law Judge, 
 and his decisions are still occasionally referred to. 
 
 The Union with Ireland and England took place, as we 
 all know, in 1800. Lord Eldon, however, took little 
 or no part in the important debates which preceded this 
 measure. 
 
 On the 1st February, 1801, Pitt resigned his office 
 of Prime Minister on the Eoman Catholic question ; Eldon 
 consistently, and no doubt conscientiously, opposing all 
 concession of the claims put forth by the Koman Catholic 
 Association. 
 
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LORD ELDON. 77 
 
 The resignation of Pitt was accompanied by that of 
 the Chancellor, Lord Loughborough, who, however, con- 
 tinued to hold the Seals until the 14th February, to 
 enable him to dispose of some cases which had been heard 
 before him. On that day the Great Seal was delivered by 
 George III. to Lord Eldon, who, at the interview, is repre- 
 sented as having had his coat closely buttoned up to the 
 chin, with his right hand within, and, after a few words, 
 drawing the Seals from his left side, saying, " I give them 
 to jnufrom my heart." 
 
 The state of the health of His Majesty was at this 
 time very critical, and might have had something to do 
 with this somewhat singular action, and, in consequence, 
 Lord Eldon's resignation of the Chief Justiceship of 
 the Common Pleas was suspended. He was thus, for a 
 considerable time both Lord Chancellor and Chief Justice. 
 He exercised publicly the duties of both offices. This also 
 had been the case previously with Lord Hardwicke, who 
 had been Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice of the 
 King's Bench at the same time. The same also occurred 
 more recently in the case of Lord Lyndhurst, when Chief 
 Baron of the Exchequer. 
 
 On the 24th July following, Lord Eldon was chosen by 
 the Duke of Portland to be High Steward of the University 
 of Oxford. 
 
 He continued Lord Chancellor until February, 1806. 
 For some time previously to this, the dissensions between 
 the Prince of Wales (subsequently George IV.) and the 
 Princess of Wales had increased to such an extent as to 
 have been of serious injury to the Ministry and detriment to 
 public business, and almost all personal intercourse between 
 the Prince and his father (George III.) had ceased. On one 
 occasion, however, the Prince had made an appointment to 
 go to his father, in the hope that some of the difficulties 
 
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78 LOED ELDON. 
 
 between them, arising from this dehcate and distressing 
 subject might, if possible, be removed. Before, however, 
 the appointed time the Prince had changed his mind, and 
 desired the Chancellor to inform his father that he woxjld 
 not attend him. Lord Eldon thereupon ventured to 
 expostulate with His Royal Highness, and civilly but 
 seriously urged the propriety of keeping the appointment. 
 Upon this the Prince replied, with some rudeness, " Sir, 
 who gave you authority to advise me?" Upon this Lord 
 Eldon expressed his regret that he had offended His Royal 
 Highness in doing so ; " But then, sir," continued the 
 Chancellor, " I am His Majesty's Chancellor, and it is for 
 me to judge what messages I ought to take to His Majesty. 
 Toiu" Royal Highness must send some other messenger 
 with that communication ; I will not take it." 
 
 Other sources of vexation and trouble to the Ministry, 
 more particularly the impeachment of Lord Melville — 
 which rendered their position scarcely tenable — culmi- 
 nated in the death of Mr. Pitt in January, 1806. The 
 King was thereupon obliged to form another administra- 
 tion, in which Mr. Fox and some of his party were to 
 be admitted. This necessarily caused the resignation of 
 Lord Eldon as Chancellor. On the 4th February, 1806, 
 he addressed the Bar sitting as Chancellor, in a feeling 
 and affectionate speech, to which Sir Arthur Piggot, as 
 Attorney- General, on the part of the Bar, shortly rephed ; 
 and on the 7th he had an interview with his Majesty, to 
 dehver up the Seals. When he attended for this purpose, 
 it is recorded that George HI. said, " Lay them down on 
 the sofa ; I cannot take them from you. I admit you 
 cannot stay when all the rest have inm away." 
 
 Lord Eldon had often before regretted that he had 
 been persuaded to resign the office of Chief Justice of the 
 Common Pleas, saying that he " had never had a day pf 
 
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LORD ELDON. 79 
 
 real happiness since he had exchanged the office for that of 
 Lord Chancellor. As Chief Justice he had been com- 
 pletely happy." 
 
 He had now officiated as Lord Chancellor for about 
 five years, and was admitted on all hands to have done so 
 with consununate ability. It was imiversally allowed that 
 the business of the Court had been transacted most ad- 
 vantageously; his conduct of business in the House of 
 Lords sitting on Appeals had also given complete satisfac- 
 tion — so much so, that Lord Campbell, a Scotchman, and 
 by no means his admirer, admits that, as to ." Appeals in 
 the Lords, he, with hardly any assistance, pleased the 
 English, and the Scotch still more." Lord Grrenville now 
 became Prime Minister, Erskine Chancellor, and the reign 
 of the Whig Ministry of " All the talents " commenced. 
 It was, however, of short duration, continuing just one 
 year, one month, and one week. Its dissolution was brought 
 about by the members of the Whig Ministry declining to 
 give a written declaration to George III., that they would 
 propose no further concessions to the Roman Catholics, as 
 thinking such a proceeding whoUy inconsistent with their 
 duty to the Nation, and more avowedly from the cry which 
 was assiduously and purposely kept up from one extremity 
 of the kingdom to the other that the " Church was in 
 danger." To the Duke of Portland was assigned the 
 place of Prime Minister, and Lord Eldon took his former 
 seat as Chancellor. An extract from a letter to his 
 relative, Dr. Ridley, of the 31st March, 1807, explains 
 his feelings upon the subject : " The occurrence of again 
 taking the Great Seal gives me but one sentiment of 
 comfort, that it is possible I may be of use to others. 
 The death of my friend, Mr. Pitt, the loss of my poor dear 
 John, the anguish of mind in which I have been, and ever 
 must be when that loss occurs to me ; they have extiiiguished 
 
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80 LOED ELDON. 
 
 all ambition, and almost every wish of any kind in my 
 breast. I had become inured to retirement. . . . But 
 I cannot disobey my old and gracious master, struggling 
 for the established religion of my country." 
 
 On the following day the Seals were delivered to him, 
 and he took his seat in the afternoon of the same day as 
 Lord Chancellor, On the 2nd April, again writing upon 
 this subject, he says, " The King considers the struggle 
 as for his Throne, and he told me but yesterday, when I took 
 the Seal, that he did so consider it ; that he must be the 
 Protestant kyig of a Protestant country, or no kiag at all." 
 
 It may be noted here that, in this Administration the 
 Duke of Wellington, then Sir Arthur Wellesley, made his 
 entrance into poHtical life as Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
 
 The Session closed on the 27th April, 1807, and 
 Parliament met for the dispatch of business on the 26th 
 June following. About this time Lord Eldon addressed 
 a long letter to his relatives, the Messrs. Farrers, young 
 men about to enter upon their studies for the Bar ; and, 
 at the present time, when the fusion of Law and Equity- 
 is so urgently pressed and dilated upon, the advice of the 
 revered Lord Chancellor may not be altogether out of 
 place or useless. Amongst other things, he says, "I 
 know, from long personal observation and experience, that 
 the great defect of the Chancery Bar is its ignorance of 
 Common Law and Common Law practice ; yet, strange as 
 it should seem, almost without exception it is that gentle- 
 men go to a bar where they are to modify, qualify, and 
 soften the rigour of the Common Law, with very little 
 notion of its doctrines or practice." And, after referring 
 to the importance of a Chancery barrister being fully 
 acquainted with the principles and practice of conveyancing, 
 and recommending a diligent perusal and re-perusal of 
 " Coke upon Littleton," he adds, " If you promise me to 
 
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LORD ELDON. 81 
 
 read this, and tell me when you have begun upon it, I 
 shall venture to hope that, at my recommendation, you will 
 attack about half a dozen other very crabbed books, which 
 our Westminster Hall lawyers never look at." 
 
 One of these, no doubt, was the " Grounds and Maxims, 
 and also an Analysis of the English Laws. By William 
 Noy, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, Attorney- General, and of 
 the Privy Council to King Charles I. ;" a copy of which 
 is now lying on the table before me, with the book plate of 
 his Lordship within the cover, with its motto, " Sit sine 
 lobe &CMS," and his autograph of " Eldon," on the title- 
 page in his delicate Italian-like handwriting. No doubt, 
 also, another was, " A Profitable Book, treating of the 
 Laws of England, principally as they relate to Convey- 
 ancing, &c. By John Perkins, sometime Bencher of the 
 Inner Temple." 
 
 At the time of the accession of Lord Eldon a second 
 time to the woolsack, and from thence to nearly the end of 
 his career as Chancellor, he possessed more influence at 
 Court and in the Cabinet than any Chancellor had ever 
 done in England since the time of Wolsey. He also 
 possessed the unUmited confidence of the Bar, so that it 
 has been said, and I believe with truth, that on his return 
 to the Court of Chancery he was welcomed by all, even by 
 the Whig Chancery lawyers, as they had during the 
 thirteen months' cessation of his sitting found themselves 
 anything but comfortable. At the present day, the cases 
 reported in the thirteenth volume of " Vesey" (in which 
 are only a, few of his Lordship's judgments) are not in the 
 best repute. 
 
 Of course, it is not within the scope of these humble 
 Sketches to detail at length the particulars of the political 
 career of Lord Eldon ; but, as before mentioned, the 
 influence he possessed as affecting the Government of this 
 
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82 LOED ELDON. 
 
 country was almost unbounded. The circumstances of the 
 times up to the period of his finally ceasing to be 
 Chancellor in 1827, a continuous period of twenty-three 
 years, were momentous in the extreme, and the part which 
 he was called upon to fiU, one of most grave responsi- 
 bility. A few only of the chief circumstances will be 
 alluded to. The incapacity of the Sovereign George III. 
 to exercise the duties of his position ; the difficulties as 
 related to his intercourse with the Prince of Wales as 
 Regent ; and, on the death of George III., the struggle to 
 obtain the ascendancy in the counsels of the King, by the 
 great Whig party of that day ; the trying circumstances 
 attending the claims of the Princess of Wales to be recog- 
 nised as Queen ; the continued annoyances he experienced 
 from the attacks made upon him by reason of the alleged 
 delays in the Court of Chancery ; the Com Law Kiots of 
 1814, when he was personally insulted, and his house 
 attacked by the mob — are only a few of the trials which 
 he had to undergo. 
 
 His escape from his house in Bedford Square has been 
 often narrated. It is not perhaps so well known that after 
 he had seen his lady and household safe by their retreat into 
 the gardens of the British Museum, he returned to his house 
 during the attack, and with assistance captured two of the 
 rioters, and whilst bringing them in said, addressing them, 
 " If you don't mind what you are about, my lads, you'll all 
 come to be hanged." Upon which one of them retorted, 
 " Perhaps so, old chap ; but I think it looks tww as if you 
 will be hanged^rsi." He some time afterwards, in speaking 
 of the fray, said, " I assure you I had my misgivings that 
 he was in the right." 
 
 In 1813, he succeeded in carrying a measure then a 
 source of fierce debate as to its expediency — the creation of 
 the Vice-Chancellors' Court, and his appointment of Sir 
 
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LORD ELDON. 83 
 
 Thomas Plummer as the first Vice-Chancellor. In 1815, he 
 supported the Bill for the introduction of trial by jury in 
 civil suits in Scotland ; and in 1818 and subsequent years, 
 he signally frustrated repeated attempts to remove him 
 from the Chancellorship. His official duties called him to 
 Kensington Palace at the birth of Her present Majesty; 
 and the prophecy which he uttered immediately on his 
 return therefrom to his own house is not only very re- 
 markable, but almost literally true. He is said to have 
 taken down Shakespeare's " Henry VIH.," and recited 
 with much emphasis the following verses : — 
 
 This Royal Infant (Heaven still move about Her !) 
 
 Though in Her cradle, yet now promises 
 
 Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, 
 
 Which time shall bring to ripeness. 
 
 In Her days every man shall eat in safety 
 
 Under his own vine, what he plants, and sing 
 
 The merry song of Peace to all his neighbours. 
 
 I refer only to one more political fact — the trial, as it 
 was called, of Queen Caroline, — more technically, the 
 arguments of counsel, and the debates on the introduction 
 and progress of the " BiU of Pains and Penalties." In this 
 he took no very active part beyond what his duty as Lord 
 Chancellor, presiding over the House of Lords, required 
 of him. It was, however, on aU hands admitted that on 
 this most delicate, trying, and important occasion, con- 
 sidering his former relations with the Princess, his conduct 
 as superintending the proceedings of so sole^m a tribunal 
 was marked with the greatest impartiality and dignity. 
 Lord Campbell, by no means his panegyrist, bears ample 
 testimony to this. 
 
 The reader will find a more full account of the circum- 
 stances of this most remarkable proceeding in the following 
 Sketch of Lord Truro. 
 
 At the coronation of George IV. he was created an 
 
 G 2 
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84 LORD ELDON. 
 
 Earl, and on his taking his seat as such, was greeted and 
 welcomed by all his peers, amongst whom he was personally 
 greatly heloved. 
 
 It was during this latter period of his Chancellorship 
 that I had the opportunities I have referred to of seeing 
 his Lordship on several occasions. Once, it having been 
 neceesary to obtain the execution by His Lordship of some 
 family deeds of arrangement, to which the then Duke of 
 Northumberland and himself were necessary parties, I had 
 the honour of attending him in his private room, behind 
 the Court at Lincoln's Inn, for the purpose of getting his 
 signature to these deeds. They had previously been 
 executed by the Duke of Northumberland. 
 
 On my preparing the wax to make the necessary seal, 
 against which his Lordship's name was to be placed, I 
 asked him if he would allow me to make the impression of 
 one of his own seals upon the wax. He desired to look at 
 one of the deeds, and observing that the seal to the Duke's 
 name had been impressed with a common seal, he said, 
 " No ; I think, as Hugh Duke and Earl of Northumberland 
 has had a common seal impression, John Earl of Eldon 
 may do the same." A common ofEce seal was therefore 
 used. 
 
 The years 1824 and 1825 were as prolific in visionary 
 projects and speculations, under the title of Joint-stock 
 Companies, as they have ever been since; quite as much 
 so as in the railway mania of 1845, or even at the present 
 time — although, perhaps, not upon the gigantic scale since 
 ventured upon. They were, however, very numerous, and 
 quite as speculative. Amongst them was one designated 
 " The Equitable Loan Company," which sought, by the 
 usual means of directors, managers, solicitors, and share- 
 holders, (by way of dupes) to annihilate the business of the 
 pawnbrokers of London. This was to be a species of' 
 
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LORD ELDON. 85 
 
 English Mont de PiStS — indeed, founded upon the basis of 
 that Institution in Paris. The central depot was to be 
 the former College of Physicians in Warwick Lane, and 
 the charitable feelings of the Conununity were appealed to 
 for support. 
 
 The Directors of this scheme had begun by holding out 
 to the public, that they themselves were of the highest 
 honour, consequence, and character ; and that they were 
 engaged in a cause which was of the first importance to 
 the lower classes of the country. 
 
 On the 2nd April, 1825— it should have been " All 
 Fools' Day" — the first floiirish of trumpets in favour of 
 the Company had been blown in the shape of a long pa- 
 ragraph in one of the newspapers, stating the general 
 oppression of the poor — the universal rascality of the 
 pawnbrokers — and declaring that a new Institution was to 
 be formed for the benefit of the indigent poor. But 
 singularly enough, at the close of their prospectus, it was 
 said that a gain sufficient to remunerate the directors, 
 shareholders, &c. — not a trifling sum — was expected to be 
 made " from the sale of the unredeemed pledges." 
 
 This was the perfection of charity ! — here was kindness 
 and pity for the poor ! — to propose extracting their miser- 
 able property from them at so low a rate, that large sums 
 were to be made from the re-sale of it. 
 
 The Solicitor to this project was a weU-knowp religious 
 and philanthropic individual of the Wesleyan persuasion, 
 named Wilks, living near Finsbury Square. He was 
 most active and zealous in his office ; and, as a matter 
 of course, from the proceedings instituted by him, the 
 whole of the pawnbrokers of London were up in arms, 
 and, I may truly add, "eager for the fray." A BiU to 
 incorporate the Company had been introduced in the House 
 of Commons ; and it was to frustrate the passing of this 
 
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86 LORD ELDON. 
 
 Bill that the advice of Lord Eldon was sought as to the 
 general course to be adopted. It fell to my lot to have the 
 management of this opposition. The friends of the mea- 
 sure were all-powerftd in the Commons ; and it was only 
 from the impartiality and sense of justice of the House 
 of Lords that the opposers of the scheme had any chance 
 of success. The excited feeHngs of the public, and the 
 indignation created against the pawnbroking system, were 
 carried to that length by the parties to the measure, that 
 public meetings were held, at which the extortion and 
 greed of the pawnbrokers were denounced, ridiculously 
 exaggerated stories related, and men hired to parade the 
 public streets and thoroughfares with defamatory placards 
 surmounted by the three golden balls, the badge of the 
 Fraternity, dressed up in deep crape as moumuig. 
 
 This only increased the intensity of feeling on the part 
 of the pawnbrokers ; and enlisted on their side aU those 
 who had a detestation of self-interestedness, disguising 
 itself under the hypocritical cloak of charity towards the 
 poor. The battle was fought during two Sessions of 
 Parliament, and a very acrimonious combat it was. 
 The late Alderman Waithman early ranged himself on the 
 side of the pawnbrokers. He prevailed upon the Corpora- 
 tion of the City of London to petition against the Bill, 
 and personally undertook the advocacy of this petition 
 before the Committee of the Commons to whom the Bill 
 was referred, with the assistance of the eminent Mr. John 
 Fonblanque, the author of the " Treatise on Equity," and 
 the late Mr. Serjeant Andrews, who were professionally 
 engaged for the pawnbrokers as Petitioners against the 
 scheme. The Bill in each Session was hurried through the 
 Committees of the Commons, and passed the third reading 
 of that House both times. The contest was then trans- 
 ferred to the Lords, Witnesses after witnesses were 
 
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LOED ELDON, 87 
 
 examined and cross-examined at great length ; the chance 
 of success in defeating the measure being by delaying it, 
 so as to prevent its passing that House before the .close of 
 the Session. The then Lord Lauderdale was the active 
 friend of the pawnbrokers, and interposed every fair 
 obstacle that presented itself. He generally attended the 
 House dressed in an old tartan morning cloak, which the 
 wags facetiously called the " pawnbrokers' cloak." He, 
 however, one morning at the sitting of the Committee 
 found himself in this difficulty ; no Counsel appeared on the 
 part of the Petitioners against the Bill, and he requested 
 me to hasten with all dispatch into the Courts at West- 
 minster Hall, and catch an able man as a barrister, if 
 I could do so. At the extreme end of the second row in 
 the Court of King's Bench sat a barrister almost alone, 
 studiously perusing a ponderous brief, and, knowing him by 
 reputation, I accosted him, explained the difficidty, and 
 requested him, if he could, to come into the Committee-room, 
 and cross-examine some of the witnesses in favour of the 
 Bill. This he agreed to do, on my explaining shortly the 
 general character of the evidence which had been given, 
 and the line of cross-examination which had been adopted. 
 I did this during our trajM from the Court to the Com- 
 mittee-room. His attendance produced the effect required ; 
 and, of course, he held an additional brief on each day of 
 the subsequent sittings of the Committee, some ten or twelve. 
 The Coimsel was Mr. Frederick Pollock, lately the learned 
 Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and now Sir Frederick 
 Pollock, Baronet. 
 
 The second Session of Parliament was drawing to a 
 close, and we were au dSsespoir, when the measure was 
 signally defeated by the tact of the Lord Chancellor. A 
 copy of the deed of settlement of the proposed Company 
 was ordered to be delivered to the House by a certain day. 
 
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88 LORD ELDON. 
 
 THs was done at a subsequent evening sitting by 
 Mr. Wilks, the Solicitor for the Bill, at the bar of the 
 House. The Lord Chancellor himself came down from 
 the woolsack to receive it; he desired the Solicitor to 
 wait at the bar, taking back with him the copy of 
 the deed. 
 
 He shortly afterwards again came down, and asked 
 for Mr. Wilks. Lard Eldon: " Mr. Wilks, do you deliver 
 this copy of the deed pursuant to the order of the House, 
 as a full and true copy of it ?" Mr. Wilks : " Yes, my 
 Lord." Lard Eldon: "I don't think it can be a ftJl 
 copy, Mr. Wilks." Mr. Wilks: " I assure your Lordship 
 it is." Lard Eldon : " Has it never been executed by any 
 of the parties, Mr. Wilks? I see no names to it." 
 Mr. Wilks : " Yes, my Lord, it has been signed by very 
 many, but I thought that the mere list of names was 
 unnecessary." Lard Eldon : " Oh ! by no means, Mr. 
 Wilks. I cannot receive this as a true copy of the deed, 
 and must request you to present another, with the names of 
 all the gentlemen who have executed it." Mr. Wilks 
 retired from the bar somewhat abashed. His Lordship and 
 ourselves perfectly well knew who the principal parties 
 were who had executed this deed ; and, inasmuch as within 
 the first few names were those of Peter Moore, Esq., M.P., 
 John George Lambton, Esq., M.P., subsequently Earl of 
 Durham ; John Brogden, Esq., M.P., Chairman of the 
 Committees of the House, — and who subsequently lost that 
 position from the part which he took in another abortive 
 Company ; — and two other Members, who had, in fact, 
 constituted the Committee of the Commons, to whom the 
 Bill had in both Sessions (I think) been referred — Mr. 
 Wilks never appeared again at the bar with another and 
 full copy of the deed. The measure was consequently 
 defeated " by effluxion of time." 
 
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LOED ELDON. 89 
 
 In the House of Commons, after the bubble had burst, 
 Alderman Waithman, in addressing the House, and 
 alluding to this company, said, "Nay, the very shares upon 
 which an honourable Member originally qualified as a 
 Director were now in Ms''' (Alderman Waithman's) '■'■pocket, 
 and he believed they were pretty nearly the only shares of 
 the kind" (here the Alderman took them from his pocket 
 and shewed them to the House) " which had ever found 
 their way into that situation. From the first his opinion 
 had been that the ' Equitable Loan Bill' could never pass 
 through the House ; but the promoters of it had been 
 sanguine — they said : ' Oh, yes ! we are sure to get it 
 through ; we have got the Ministers, and have got a good 
 many of the Opposition, and' (they made the last com- 
 munication with a peculiar wink) 'we have secured the 
 Saints.'" 
 
 Mere scratches in a Note-book are sometimes most 
 forcible remembrancers. The simple words " minced veal 
 and sherry" remind me of the many times I have seen his 
 Lordship partake of this refection between four o'clock, 
 the hour of closing the business on the Appeals, and 
 five o'clock, the commencement of the sittings of the 
 House of Lords, as such. 
 
 Another circimistance, strongly impressed upon my 
 memory by another entry, is, as to the advancement of 
 his graiidson, then under age, on his proceeding to New 
 College, Oxford. Mr. Scott, then Viscount Encombe, 
 was of the age of eighteen, and having, shortly after the 
 death of his father, the eldest son of Lord Eldon, whose 
 loss he so deeply deplored, been made a ward in Chancery, 
 it was necessary that the amount of the allowance author- 
 ized by the Court for his maintenance and education 
 should be increased from £450 to £700 per annum, and 
 the advance of a sum of £500 in addition, to enable him 
 
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90 LORD ELDON, 
 
 to fit up and furnish rooms in New College before men- 
 tioned. The amount of the trust ftinds then in settlement 
 was at the time ahout £140^)00 Stock. The usual reference 
 to a Master had been made — Master Dowdeswell being the 
 Master — to report upon the propriety and necessity of the 
 amount of increased allowance, and the sum to be advanced 
 by the Trustees of the marriage settlement, on the grandson 
 proceeding to College. 
 
 Master Dowdeswell, with a due sense of the importance 
 and independence of his office of Master in Chancery, 
 declined to ask the Lord Chancellor — ^the Guardian of 
 the infant, and by whose exertions the whole expectant 
 fortune of his ward had been obtained — his opinion as 
 to the expediency of the increased allowance ; and, instead 
 of requesting a personal iuterview to receive this informa- 
 tion, required the facts and circumstances of the case to 
 be embodied in an affidavit, which was duly prepared and 
 deposed to by his Lordship and the Hon. Mrs. Farrer, 
 the mother of the ward, to authorize him to make the 
 necessary report, upon which this increase and advance 
 were made, and eventually ordered by the Court. 
 
 Only one other personal reminiscence worth narrating 
 remains. In the latter part of the year 1828, I was sum- 
 moned to attest the execution of his Lordship's WiU in 
 the parlour of his solicitor in Lincoln's Lin Fields. It 
 was unfolded on the table, and, to my great surprise, 
 consisted of a bundle of papers, all in his Lordship's 
 handwriting, and extending to a considerable length. 
 It appeared to have been composed, probably at Encombe, 
 during the long vacation, at various times ; the writing 
 being upon detached pieces of paper — some of it written 
 on the backs of the sheets, in admired confusion. 
 
 His Lordship, however, pronounced it to be his last 
 will and testament; and his execution of it was duly 
 
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LORD ELDON. 91 
 
 attested by the three then necessary witnesses, myself 
 the last. Immediately on this ceremony being completed, 
 his Solicitor, Mr.,Wilson said, "Now, my Lord, I will 
 forthwith take this in to Brodie" (the eminent Conveyancer, 
 and his next-door neighhoiu"), " and let him consider this 
 as instructions for a proper preparation of your Lordship's 
 will, for this will never do." Lord Eldon: " Well, 
 Wilson, do as you like with it, for perhaps you are right. 
 The anxiety of it will, at any rate, be off my shoulders — 
 and put it upon Brodie's." 
 
 This win was subsequently settled by Mr. Brodie upon 
 these instructions; but was not, however, the last will 
 which his Lordship executed, that being a document of 
 seventy-four brief sheets, and dated the 24th June, 1836. 
 
 From the time of Lord Eldon's ceasing to hold the 
 Seals as Chancellor, in 1827, to the period of his death, in 
 1838, a continued flood of democratic tendencies prevailed, 
 and the principles and objects of the Whigs, which he had 
 for so long a time successfully resisted, or, by his iufluence, 
 modified, had now taken complete possession of the country. 
 No doubt we look now upon his consistent and continuous 
 opposition to the progress of the measures then brought 
 forward as antiquated and, perhaps, shortsighted ; but may 
 it not be reasonably argued that much that he did and 
 organized in the way of opposition to them, tended — and 
 providentially so — to mitigate and turn aside much of the 
 evil which accompanied those measures, and that their 
 final success may be attributed to the more mature con- 
 sideration which, from the very circumstances of that 
 opposition, was bestowed upon them? 
 
 Li 1828, the year after his quitting office, was passed 
 the Act for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, 
 and other similar enactments. In 1829, the Roman 
 Catholic Relief Bill passed. In 1830 and 1831, the 
 
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92 LORD ELDON. 
 
 agitation and excitement of the Reform Bills attained their 
 climax, and their final adoption by the country was 
 completed. 
 
 To all of these — as he considered them, political revolu- 
 tions — he gave his most decided and strenuous opposition. 
 During their progress, he still, however, attended the 
 hearing of Appeals in the House of Lords; and his in- 
 fluence and opinions on all legal subjects which came 
 before that House continued, and were as great as they 
 ever had been. 
 
 The death of Lady Eldon, in 1830, to whom for so 
 many years he had been most fondly attached, also much 
 affected him — indeed, so much so, that it is said his grief 
 for her loss seriously affected his health ; and was the first 
 madermining of that constitution which had withstood so 
 many attacks. 
 
 In June, 1833, a grand banquet was given by the 
 Benchers of the Middle Temple in his honour. He was 
 then in his 82nd year, and responded to his health being 
 drimk with energy and feehng. This was said to be the 
 only instance of a health being drunk in that Hall, at any 
 of the regular dinners of the Society, up to that time, other 
 than that of a crowned potentate. 
 
 The 25th July, 1834, was the last time on which he 
 addressed the House of Lords, on the occasion of some 
 debate on the Great Western Railway Company's Bill. 
 His health thereafter gradually declined, and he died on the 
 13th January, 1838, at Encombe. He was buried in 
 Kingston Church, near Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire, 
 regretted and mourned by all. 
 
 It now only remains to offer a few observations on 
 the general character and attainments of this most 
 eminent Lawyer and profound Equity Judge. In doing 
 so, the opportunities I possessed of forming an opinion 
 
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LORD ELDON. 93 
 
 upon such a subject can alone be the excuse for so 
 humble an indiAddual as myself putting forth any such 
 recapitulation. 
 
 And first, as to his personal demeanour. His temper 
 was ever unruffled. To the almost continual exercise of 
 good hiunour and gentleness of manner were added lively 
 conversation, drawn from what appeared to be the sources 
 of an almost inexhaustible fiand of anecdote. He possessed 
 no mean powers of real wit ; and his repartee was delivered 
 in the most kind and delicate manner. His manners were 
 peculiarly attractive, and the smile upon his countenance 
 and the expression of the eye never failed of their desired 
 effect. 
 
 His private character was wholly blameless ; he was 
 most affectionately attached to his wife and all the members 
 of his family; and, although the world did not give him 
 credit for it, as his charities were unostentatious, he was by 
 no means parsimonious. Indeed, an instance within my 
 own knowledge, of a large pecuniary advance to a very 
 eminent member of the profession would alone warrant me 
 in this assertion. 
 
 That he was one of the most erudite constitutional 
 Lawyers — as the Constitution of this country was in his 
 time understood — there can be no doubt. The whole 
 course of his professional and senatorial life gave many 
 illustrations of this, tinctured perhaps at times with the 
 reverence for ancient maxims and doctrines, and a sincere 
 laudator temporis acti. 
 
 His career as a Common Law and Equity Judge was 
 distinguished by great and invaluable records of his pro- 
 found legal knowledge. He had all the natural and 
 acquired accomplishments which go to form the legal 
 character. He had great acuteness and quickness of 
 apprehension ; and his industry and labour in disposing 
 
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94 LOED ELDON. 
 
 of the cases -which came before him were most remark- 
 able. He seemed to possess a love of investigation and 
 research. His ingenuity and subtlety were apparently 
 inexhaustible; and he repeatedly would discover, when 
 all resources seemed to be at an end, some additional point 
 which had escaped the attention of all the Counsel before 
 him. His retentive memory aided him wonderfully on 
 these occasions. This was made applicable to the enuncia- 
 tion of the soundest principles, as well as to the most minute 
 details of the subject in hand. 
 
 But the reader may say, " Surely this great man was 
 not without defects?" Assuredly, he had some. His 
 ingenuity very often impaired the force of his arguments ; 
 his promptitude of decision, more especially as an Equity 
 Judge, was deficient. The postponement of the case 
 before a final decision was arrived at, worked at times 
 serious injury to the suitors in his Court. It has been 
 well observed, that he has not left behind him the record 
 of any one remarkable or striking speech, but many of 
 great learning, subtlety, and examples of labour ; indeed, 
 he seldom spoke without displaying great resources and 
 power. He did not appear to pay that exclusive attention 
 to the case before him which might have been expected. 
 The recollection of the requirements of his various other 
 official duties interfered with this attention. The reports 
 of his judgments, however, as given by " Vesey" and 
 others, shew that they were most learned and elaborate 
 performances. 
 
 His knowledge of Scotch law was most useful on Appeal 
 Cases in the Lords. Some of the greatest and most leading 
 cases were decided by him when sitting there ; but it was 
 generally remarked that he ended by affirming the decision 
 of the Court below. 
 
 To remove from myself any charge of exaggerated 
 
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LOED ELDON. 95 
 
 statement of character, I conclude by quoting that part 
 of it attributed to him by Lord Brougham, who on all 
 hands must be considered as a most impartial observer of 
 his great antagonist ! 
 
 He says : — " Lord Eldon, to great legal experience 
 and the most profound professional learning, united that 
 thorough knowledge of men, which lawyers who practise in 
 the Courts, and especially in the Courts of Common Law, 
 attain in a manner and with an accuracy hardly conceivable 
 by those out of the Profession, who fancy that it is only with 
 intercourse with Courts and Camps that a knowledge of the 
 world can be derived. He had a sagacity almost unrivalled, 
 and penetration of mind at once quick and sure, a shrewd- 
 ness so great as to pierce through each feature of his 
 pecidiarly intelligent countenance ; a subtlety so nimble 
 that it materially impaired the strength of his other 
 qualities by lending his ingenuity an edge sometimes too 
 fine for use. Yet this defect, the leading one of his 
 intellectual character, was confined to his professional 
 exertions. . . . The Judge so prone to doubt that he 
 could hardly bring his mind to decide one, was in aU that 
 particularly concerned his party or himself as ready to 
 take a line and to follow it with determination of purpose 
 as the least ingenious of ordinary politicians. The timidity, 
 too, of which he has been accused, and sometimes guilty, 
 was more frequently the result of the subtlety and refine- 
 ment before alluded to. At all events, no one knew 
 better when to cast it off, upon great occasions, where his 
 interest or power was in jeopardy. A less wavering actor, 
 indeed, one more ready at a moment's notice to go all 
 lengths for the attainment of his object, never appeared 
 upon the political or any other stage." 
 
 I cannot close ■ this sketch without one more allusion 
 to our great poet's knowledge of human character. 
 
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96 LORD ELDON, 
 
 Shakespeare seems to have foreshadowed that of our Lord 
 
 Eldon. To use his language, he was — 
 
 " Pleasant without scurrility— -witty without affectation — auda- 
 cious without impudence — and learned without being opiniative." 
 — Love's Labour Lost, Act iv., Sc. 1. 
 
 I may here remark that the portraits of this great 
 lawyer are numerous. The photograph given with the 
 present Sketch was taken from the celebrated print from 
 a painting by Sir T. Lawrence. Although not in official 
 costume, I have chosen it as being the most faithful likeness 
 of him which has been published. There was, however, 
 a sketch of him in oil made also by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 
 when only Mr. Scott, formerly in the possession of W. B. 
 Flexney, Esq., the Solicitor, which, to my apprehension 
 and recollection, was more truthful than even this. 
 
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Sir Francis Grantj Pins 
 
 S. Ayling, Photo. 
 
 s A ^ — a. © ®, 30 ^ ® 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, &C,, 185D, 
 
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( 97 ) 
 
 Sketch IV. 
 
 LORD TRURO. 
 
 "Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat 
 To peep at such a world ; to see the stir 
 Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd. 
 
 Coraper. 
 
 If the Poet experienced such pleasure from the contem- 
 plation of the active husy world, and congratulated himself 
 upon his absence from it, It must give still greater pleasure 
 to look upon and contemplate an active and useful life 
 brought to a successful close, apart and abstracted from 
 aU the heat and turmoil of actual professional strife, the 
 competition of rivals, and the anxieties and plausible 
 misgivings of admiring and approving friends. Such 
 pleasure the wri-ter experiences in reviewing the circum- 
 stances of the life of this most industrious lawyer and 
 eminent Counsel, and from the personal reminiscences of 
 his intercourse with a great mind, although that inter- 
 course was limited in its extent. 
 
 Within the whole range of the large circle of lawyers 
 who have obtained celebrity and wealth by unceasing pro- 
 fessional exertions, there is not one the contemplation of 
 whose career can convey such complete satisfaction to a 
 young and ambitious youth as that which I have here 
 attempted feebly to sketch. 
 
 If the maxim of Demosthenes for success in elocution 
 was " Action, action, action," the watchword for emulation 
 as a practical lawyer may well be " Industry, industry, 
 
 H 
 
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98 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 industry." To that almost exclusively may be attributed 
 the successful progress of Thomas Wilde — Lord Truro. 
 
 Of humble extraction, but of a family in its sphere 
 universally respected, when once his good fortune had 
 placed him in the proper groove, the rapid pace at which 
 he arrived at eminence at the Bar, on the Judgment-seat, 
 and in the Senate, was truly astonishing, even in the 
 present age of wonderful development and promotion. 
 
 It is by no means unworthy of remark, thalt this is 
 another memorable instance of the repugnance with which 
 a youth looks upon the position in which his ill-fortime, as 
 he supposes, has placed him, as being one of almost in- 
 surmountable disgust and regret at his trammelled existence; 
 and yet in after life attaining the greatest possible eminence 
 and prominence in that very profession or calling from 
 which he sought, and would have given up everything to 
 be released. The dislike which the illustrious Sir Samuel 
 Romilly entertained for the profession, even later in life, 
 has already been noticed. In his letter to a lady in 1791, 
 in stating to her that the change of his Chambers had 
 been much for the better as a situation for business, but 
 not as far as his own pleasure was concerned, he said: 
 " This is another sacrifice which I have made to a pro- 
 fession which nothing but inevitable necessity forces me 
 to submit to, which I every day feel more and more that 
 I am unfit for the more I meet with success in it." 
 
 This case can only be paralleled by the repugnance of 
 Mr. Wilde to his profession, who, when first articled to his 
 father as a solicitor, felt the drudgery of the office so great 
 that he actually quitted it in disgust, not intending to 
 return, sleeping in a small room in Austin Friars, and was 
 subsequently discovered, almost a boy, busily engaged in 
 the Long Room at the Custom House, making himself 
 acquainted with the mysteries of Tare and Tret, Cocquets 
 
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LOBD TEUEO. 99 
 
 and Averages, and the, to him, more alluring and enticing 
 pursuits of commercial business and enterprise. These 
 circumstances he communicated to me himself, many years 
 afterwards, when Attorney-General, and laughed heartily 
 at his boyish simphcity. But the perusal of this anecdote 
 will not surprise those who had the happiness to have 
 conversed fully and confidentially with him on general 
 subjects. Although seemingly a slave to his professional 
 duties In after life, even then his mind expanded itself as it 
 were ia the consideration and discussion of questions of 
 universal and momentous interest — as the Obligations of 
 this country towards our great and growing East India 
 possessions ; the Catholic Eelief Agitation ; the then 
 imminently serious consequences of the public excitement 
 consequent on the Prosecution of Queen Caroline ; the 
 Eeform Bill of 1830-31 ; and other similar and ever 
 memorable subjects. Nor was his conversation less enter- 
 taining or pleasing In female society. The affection and 
 personal attachment which were conspicuous In the two 
 highly educated and amiable ladies who were successively 
 his wives bear ample testimony to this fact. 
 
 To great natural acuteness was superadded In him 
 a desire and love of Investigation and of work which 
 nothing could daunt, and which enabled him to obtain the 
 mastery of the details and results of almost any subject to 
 which he thought proper to apply the energies of his com- 
 prehensive and powerful mind. 
 
 I offer no apology for holding up the example of this 
 great practical lawyer to the admiring gaze of the young 
 and ardent barrister and solicitor. There cannot be a 
 more useful and valuable study for those who are entering 
 upon the duties of those classes, nor a greater encourage- 
 ment to industry and integrity than the contemplation of 
 such a career. From a more worldly and material point 
 
 H 2 
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100 LORD TKUEO. 
 
 of view his success may to some be equally interesting. 
 The wealth which, from time to time, flowed through his 
 chambers would, if husbanded, have realized a princely 
 foT-tune, had it not been lessened by those continued acts 
 of benevolence and charity to which he was ever accessible, 
 and an absence of all sordid feelings with reference to the 
 accumulation of money. It has been said of him with 
 truth, that " in all the periods of his life, if for any purpose 
 of benevolence or of good works connected with public 
 principle, you asked him to subscribe, he let you assess 
 Mm, and gave frequently twice as much as was required." 
 But I must not anticipate matters of detail. 
 
 Thomas Wilde was the third son of Mr. Thomas 
 Wilde, an attorney and solicitor, of College Hill, and 
 formerly of Warwick Square, Newgate Street, in the City 
 of London, and of Saffron Walden, in Essex. He was 
 born in London on the 7th July, 1782. His grandfather 
 had filled the situation of officer to the Sheriffs of London 
 and Middlesex, and there may be yet living some octoge- 
 narians who may recollect him as designated " Gentleman 
 Wilde," from the courtesy of his demeanour and the com- 
 pleteness of his dress in the costume of the time, with 
 dress sword, bag-wig, lace-ruffles, shoe-buckles, &c., &c. 
 As before stated, the father was an eminent solicitor, and 
 enjoyed a very extensive practice. Thomas Wilde, the 
 son, was at the proper age sent as a scholar to St. Paul's 
 School, where he acquired the rudiments of a sound and 
 useful education, and which from its general and miscella- 
 neous character amply fitted him for the duties of his 
 subsequent life. He afterwards was articled to his father 
 as an attorney and solicitor, and after the escapade before 
 alluded to was induced to give his whole attention to 
 the various employments which make up the routine of an 
 attorney's office. 
 
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LORD TEUEO. 101 
 
 Here he continued until the term of his articles was 
 completed. He then, it is understood, from motives of 
 independence, declined the offer of a partnership made to 
 him by the House. He commenced practice on his own 
 accoxmt, and continued it with great success and increasing 
 business for several years. His success, indeed, in this 
 branch of the profession was very great, and it afforded 
 some surprise to his friends that he should have rehnquished 
 it, certain as he appeared to be of speedily acquiring a 
 large fortune, for the more speculative and treacherous, 
 although more brilliant, course as a barrister. Dts aliter 
 visum, and he entered himself as a student at the Inner 
 Temple in March, 1811, intending to pursue, and which he 
 did for some time, the more modest calling of Special 
 Pleader. He was, however, called to the Bar on the 
 7th February, 1817, then of the ripe age of thirty-five. 
 In the course of the three following years he had established 
 for himself the reputation of a first-rate Pleader. His 
 services were eagerly sought for and highly rewarded, his 
 practice in this branch of the Profession having been, it is 
 generally understood, the most lucrative of the day. 
 
 During the period before referred to, viz., from his 
 being called to the Bar imtil the year 1820, when it may 
 be said that Mr. Wilde made his first distinguished ap- 
 pearance as Counsel, his business gradually increased. 
 The observation and close attention which he had sedu- 
 lously bestowed on the demeanour and practice in Court 
 fas related to the management of causes), of such men as 
 Garrow, Scarlett, Hullock, Best, Shepherd, and others 
 of the first eminence, proved of the greatest advantage 
 to him in his practice as a Barrister ; and the prominent 
 part which he was now called upon to take, as these several 
 great practitioners disappeared from the arena of forensic 
 disputation, was the necessary consequence of such weU- 
 
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102 LOED TEUEO. 
 
 bestowed attention. His familiarity also with the details 
 of mercantile questions, and the minutias, if I may so call 
 them, of the unseen parts of practice of the attorney's 
 office, added materially to his efficiency and reputation 
 as a Pleader, and to his success at the Bar. His powers 
 of hard work, and the undivided attention to the case in 
 hand which he invariably gave to it, was soon observed 
 and duly appreciated by the Solicitors. His former con- 
 nection with many of these gentlemen, no doubt, helped 
 much to his success. These united circumstances led to 
 his great popularity amongst them, and his capacity was 
 unquestioned. 
 
 But now occurred that event which was the turning 
 point of his fortunes. In 1820, he was selected as the 
 junior of six men as Advocates of the cause of Queen 
 Caroline of Brunswick — Giants for opponents, as weU as 
 Giants with whom to be associated. 
 
 His position in this array of Counsel did not, of course, 
 allow him many opportimities of display before the House ; 
 but where points as to what was or was not legal evidence 
 arose, or the propriety of the examination of particular 
 witnesses was discussed, his advice was almost universally 
 followed. Indeed, the value of a careful and industrious 
 junior is well known to men who lead important cases; 
 and to such leaders as Brougham and Denman, not, it may 
 be said with all deference, the most astute of practitioners, 
 such a combination of sound and practical knowledge as 
 was possessed by their junior, was in truth, in the present 
 case, invaluable. 
 
 This Trial, as it was erroneously called, was of so 
 momentous a character, had such an effect upon the 
 fortunes of almost every person connected with it, and as 
 being one of the most extraordinary passages in our 
 country's domestic history during the last half-century. 
 
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LOED TEUEO. 103 
 
 that I make no excuse for recapitulating the principal 
 events of it as they occurred. 
 
 His Majesty George III. died in January, 1820, and as 
 a legal consequence the crown had devolved on his son 
 George IV. The latter had married in 1795 the Princess 
 Caroline Amelia of Brunswick. Lord Malmesbury, who 
 accompanied her from Brunswick, was prophetic on the 
 subject. He says, " It is impossible to conceive or foresee 
 any comfort from this connection, in which I lament very 
 much having taken any share, purely passive as it was." 
 Disagreements between them arose very shortly after this 
 inauspicious marriage, and they had for many years lived 
 apart. The wife possessed and made use of the most 
 unbounded liberty, living on the Continent and elsewhere, 
 as she chose, and associating with such persons as her 
 Inclinations, and probably her adverse circumstances, 
 prompted and necessitated. She was at this period living 
 near the South of France, and on the news of the old 
 King's death reaching her, she determined to proceed 
 on her journey towards England, without, perhaps, having 
 any very defined idea as to what course she should think 
 proper to adopt, but iatending to take advantage of such 
 circumstances as might from time to time arise in her 
 favour. In the meantime, two very opposite opinions as to 
 the propriety of her future conduct in this respect seem to 
 have prevailed in England — ^the one, that she should be 
 invited over and take possession of her share of the Boyal 
 oiEce, to which her position and marriage legally entitled 
 her ; the other, that a compromise should be effected, so 
 that she might not revisit this coxmtry, but continue, as she 
 had for so many years done, to reside abroad,*with increased 
 means for the gratification of her liberty — or license, as 
 some were pleased to designate it. Mr. Alderman Wood, 
 who had obtained a large share of popularity, not only 
 
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104 LORD TEURQ. 
 
 amongst the citizens of London, of wHch Corporation he 
 had been twice elected Mayor, but generally throughout 
 the country, entertained, with very many others, the first of 
 these opinions ; others, perhaps more cautious and far- 
 sighted, considered that it would be more advantageous for 
 herself and the country at large that she should continue 
 to remain abroad. Suffice it say, that the Alderman, 
 accompanied by Lady Anne Hamilton, who had been an 
 intimate acquaintance and friend of Her Majesty, imme- 
 diately left England, and proceeded to Montbard, in 
 Burgundy, meeting Her Majesty there on her journey 
 towards England, on the 28th May, 1820 ; no doubt, 
 with the intention of persuading her to continue her route 
 homewards. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr. Brougham, who was known for a 
 considerable period to have been Her Majesty's legal 
 adviser, had also determined to meet her, but, as it after- 
 wards appeared, with a very diflFerent intention and naission 
 — viz.^ as having been looked upon as the most proper person 
 to be the medium of a communication from the higher 
 powers to bring about an arrangement by which she should 
 not arrive in England, but continue absent from it. 
 
 In the afternoon of the 3rd June, Mr. Brougham met 
 Her Majesty at St. Omer's. He was accompanied by 
 Lord Hutchinson as bearer of certain propositions to open 
 a negotiation with the object before referred to. On the 
 following day, Mr. Brougham, at Her Majesty's desire, 
 requested from Lord Hutchinson the particulars in writing 
 of these propositions. These Lord Hutchinson decHned to 
 give, but forwarded a note to Mr. Brougham, stating that 
 he had only with him loose memoranda, the general effect, 
 however, of which was, that Her Majesty should receive 
 £50,000 per annum not to assume the title of Queen, nor 
 any title attached to that of the Eoyal Family of England, 
 
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LORD TKUEO, 105 
 
 not to reside in or even visit this country ; and concluding 
 that, if arrangements could not be opened upon this general 
 basis, and she should notwithstanding determine to cross 
 over to England, a message would be sent to both Houses 
 of Parliament, and ulterior proceedings inevitably be taken 
 thereupon. 
 
 Upon reading this communication she was highly in- 
 dignant, and asked Mr. Brougham for his advice. He is 
 said to have answered, " that the conditions alluded to were 
 such as he could not advise Her Majesty to accept ; but 
 remarked, that she best knew what was befitting her 
 situation — she was the only judge of the real state of her 
 case, and that it was for her to decide what was expedient 
 and most consistent with that knowledge." 
 
 Her Majesty scarcely hesitated a moment, but ordered 
 a letter to be sent to Lord Hutchinson, and immediately on 
 the spot dismissed all her foreign attendants, including 
 Bergami, her Grand Chamberlain, who was destined to 
 play so conspicuous a part in the future drama. Within 
 half an hour after the receipt of Lord Hutchinson's letter 
 she was on the road to Calais, very much to the astonish- 
 ment of all about her, including even her legal adviser, 
 Mr. Brougham, who had invited her to await the return 
 of a messenger from England. She had, however, con- 
 ceived the idea that she might possibly be interfered with 
 or stopped by the orders of the French Government, and 
 immediately resolved to depart. Arriving at Calais at 
 eleven o'clock at night, she embarked, and arrived in 
 Dover Eoads early in the following morning; she then 
 proceeded in an open boat and landed at the Pier about 
 one o'clock in the afternoon, amid great cheering from the 
 populace and a royal salute from the batteries of the castle. 
 The commandant was a Colonel Munro, and he found 
 himself in a most awkward predicament as to this salute ; 
 
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106 LORD TRURO. 
 
 he, however, satisfied his conscience as to the propriety of 
 commanding it to be made, and the delicacy of his position 
 was perhaps not Inaptly embodied in the following im- 
 promptu : — 
 
 When Queen Caroline from Calais bo fine, 
 
 "With Alderman Matthew came o'er ; 
 Good Colonel Munro was puzzled to know 
 
 The compliment proper to shew her. 
 
 For, thought he, in my haste, there may be some mistake 
 I'd commit if I now should salute her ; 
 
 As it's very well known that King George on his throne 
 Wouldn't very much care should I shoot her. 
 
 So, after much doubt, and puzzling about, 
 
 The best thing I can do in this case ; 
 Whilst she is at large, I'U my duty discharge 
 
 By firing the guns in her face. 
 
 Continuing her route, she slept at Canterbury, and 
 arrived in London during the evening of June 6th, taking 
 up her abode at Alderman Wood's house in South Audley- 
 street, where she was greeted by the populace by a forced 
 illumination of the houses in the neighbourhood. It must 
 be observed that four months had elapsed since the death 
 of George III., and there can be little doubt from what 
 subsequently occurred that the propositions hinted at as 
 to Her Majesty's residence abroad might have been entered 
 upon, and possibly carried out, had not the advice and 
 energetic character of Alderman Wood prevailed. A note 
 of the propositions before referred to had been furnished 
 to Mr. Brougham, and was in his possession, it is said, at 
 the time of his meeting Her Majesty at St. Omer, but 
 he did not communicate the contents of it to her. 
 
 It may also , be remarked that the appointments of 
 Mr. Brougham and Mr. Denman, Her Majesty's Attorney 
 and Solicitor-General, had been previously accepted by 
 the proper authorities in April preceding, and they had 
 
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LOBD TEURO. 107 
 
 taken their seats at the Bar in Easter Term aa such, 
 sitting next to the King's Coimsel. 
 
 A message to both Houses of Parliament was Imme- 
 diately dispatched, and a formidable and mysterious Green 
 Bag laid upon their respective tables. Lord Liverpool, in 
 the Lords, moved for a select committee to take Into 
 consideration the contents of their Green Bag, which was 
 ordered to meet on the morrow. The same course was 
 taken in the Commons. There the commencement of the 
 exasperation which afterwards arose immediately broke out 
 by acrimonious speeches from Mr, Grey Bennet, Mr. 
 Creevy, and Sir Robert Wilson. 
 
 On June 7, a letter from Queen Caroline to the House 
 of Commons was read by Mr. Brougham, who had now 
 determined to enter enthusiastically into her cause. In 
 this she referred to the messages to the Houses, and In 
 replying to a speech of Lord Castlereagh on this subject, 
 Mr. Brougham said, " Li Her Majesty's then situation she 
 could scarcely be blamed for what she had done" (coming 
 to England), " or for listening to certain recommendations 
 which he was persuaded were well meant^ although he 
 admitted they were not those of absolute wisdom.''^ 
 
 This, as is well known, passed into a popular phrase 
 as applicable to the worthy Alderman. Much negotiation 
 and many conferences followed with a view of averting the 
 disclosures which these mysterious Green Bags were to 
 make. The most conspicuous and memorable speech of 
 the day in the House of Commons was deUvered by Sir 
 Francis Burdett, by no means a timid advocate on any 
 occasion where popular agitation was the object ; but even 
 he deprecated the opening of the Bag, concluding his 
 speech by saying, " From the mouth of that Bag It was the 
 interest of all parties that the seal should never be taken." 
 
 That, however, did take place, and on the 5th July a 
 
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108 LOED TRUKO.' 
 
 Bill -was introduced by the Government, the title of which 
 amply indicated its object. It was named, " A BiU to 
 deprive Her Majesty Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of the 
 title, prerogative, rights, privileges, and pretensions of 
 Queen Consort of this realm, and to dissolve the marriage 
 between His Majesty and the said Queen." 
 
 This was openly professed to be founded on the un- 
 becoming and degrading intimacy between her and one 
 Bartolomeo Bergami, and an adulterous intercourse with 
 him. 
 
 The second reading of the BiU had been appointed for 
 the 17th August, and great popular excitement prevailed. 
 Her Majesty, who was then residing at Brandenburg 
 House, near Putney, had pubUcly declared that she would 
 be present during all the proceedings of this trial, having 
 for that purpose and greater convenience hired the house 
 of Lady Francis, the widow of the celebrated Sir Philip 
 Francis, in St. James's Square. On the opening day she 
 proceeded to the House of Lords in a state carriage built 
 expressly for the occasion, followed by an enormous crowd, 
 and entering the House, attended by Lady Anne Hamilton, 
 took her seat in an arm chair on the right of the Throne. 
 On that day. Chief Justice Abbott, (afterwards Lord 
 Tenterden) and Justices Dallas, Holroyd, and Best, Barons 
 Bichards and Garrow, took their seats on the woolsack as 
 Judges in attendance on their Lordships. 
 
 The Counsel for the King were His Majesty's Advocate^ 
 Sir Christopher Eobinson ; the Attorney-General, Sir 
 Robert Gififord, afterwards Lord Gifford, Master of the 
 Eolls ; the Solicitor-General, Sir John S. Copley, after- 
 wards Lord Lyndhurst, Master of the Eolls and Lord 
 Chancellor ; Dr. W. Adams ; and Mr. James Parke, now 
 Lord Wensleydale — in support of the BUI. 
 
 Her Majesty's Attorney-General,Mr. Henry Brougham, 
 
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LORD TEUEO. 109 
 
 afterwards Lord Chancellor; her Solicitor-General, Mr. 
 Thomas Denman, afterwards Chief Justice of the Queen's 
 Bench; Dr. Lushington, now Judge of the Admiralty- 
 Court; Mr. John Williams, afterwards a Judge; Mr. 
 Tindal, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas ; 
 and Mr. Thomas "Wilde, also afterwards Chief Justice 
 of the Common Pleas and Lord Chancellor — who were to 
 argue and conduct the proceedings in opposition to it. 
 
 Two questions were then propounded to the Judges for 
 their opinion, as a foimdation for proceeding by BUI, who 
 answered that High-treason^ as contemplated by the statute 
 of Edward III., had not been committed, assuming the 
 facts alleged to be proved. 
 
 The ultimate result of these proceedings is well known. 
 It is not intended to tire the reader by a fiirther recapitula- 
 tion of them. On the sixth day of the defence (October 
 9th) Dr. Holland was examined before the House by 
 Mr. Wilde, this being the first public part that he took in 
 these proceedings. 
 
 On the twelfth day of the defence (October 16th) a 
 question was propounded by Mr. Wilde to a witness of the 
 name of Omati, who had been a clerk to an advocate at 
 Milan, which in its result was of the greatest importance, 
 as having caused much discussion at the time, and a 
 reference to the Judges for their opinion, and which 
 opinion, as expounded by them, is now one of our funda- 
 mental rules of evidence. This witness having spoken to 
 
 the delivery of certain papers by him to one , was 
 
 asked by Mr. Wilde whether this person had offered him 
 (the witness) " any inducement to bring these papers ?" 
 This was objected to by Sir John Copley (Lyndhurst) on 
 the part of the King, and a most able argument ensued, in 
 which the propriety of the question was strenuously 
 supported by Mr. Wilde. His leader (Mr. Brougham) 
 
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110 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 afterwards highly eulogised this argument. The question 
 was thereupon referred to the Judges, who took time 
 to consider their judgment, Chief Justice Abbott declaring 
 that it was a question entirely new, and of the highest 
 importance. 
 
 The question propounded to the Judges, founded upon 
 the interrogatory so put to the witness Omati, and the 
 opinion of the Judges, are given in ftdl in 2 Brod. and 
 Bing.^ 302, 
 
 After three years of increasing practice and reputation 
 as a Common Law barrister, Mr. Wilde was in Easter 
 Term, 1824, called to the degree of Serjeant-at-law, He 
 had then recently distinguished himself in a very able 
 argument in a Bankruptcy Case before Lord Chancellor 
 Eldon ; the record of which, however, it is to be regretted, 
 does not appear in in the authorized Bankruptcy Reports 
 of the time by Messrs. Glyn and Jameson, When Mr. 
 Wilde attended at the Chancellor's house to have the 
 ceremony of affixing the coif completed, the Chancellor in 
 congratulating him on his promotion, said, " You vnU rise 
 high in the Court of Common Pleas ; but you will never 
 make a greater display than you did last week in my 
 Court." It was no barren prophecy. He did rise rapidly 
 to the lead in the Common Pleas. His business also upon 
 the Western Circuit which he had chosen, was also of the 
 first class, and most lucrative. It has been most truly 
 said that, "this eminence he owed to no unworthy arts, 
 whether of courting professional men, or of undertaking a 
 part of the attorney's duty, though, from his experience 
 in that walk of the profession, no one was better able to 
 render such extra assistance to his clients ; but his absolute 
 devotion to the cause in every instance, whether the subject 
 matter of it were great or small, his imwearied painstaking 
 with all its details — his anxiety — ^his over anxiety re- 
 
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LORD TEUEO. Ill 
 
 specting it at each stage of its progress, impressing his 
 client with the feeling that it was the only cause he was 
 engaged in, and not giving such impression designedly and 
 with a view to court their approbation, but because his 
 absorption in the cause and each of its minute particulars 
 was real — as it was entire — this made, and necessarily 
 made him such an advocate as every one deemed to be 
 above all price." 
 
 A remarkable instance of his devotion to the cause in 
 hand and the interest of his clients came subsequently 
 under my own observation. In an issue which had been 
 referred jfrom the Court of Chancery to be tried by a 
 special jury at law, referring to partnership transactions of 
 very long standing, and iu which several hundred thousands 
 of pounds were in question, between a mercantile firm in 
 England and the West Indies, and which involved two 
 great questions — one as to the proportion of profits to 
 which the representatives of a deceased partner were 
 entitled, a wealthy uncle and a poor nephew having been 
 the partners, and in which there had been no articles of 
 partnership ; the other, as to the amount of the partnership 
 assets which had been blended with other fiinds. There 
 was a goodly array of Counsel engaged in the cause, but 
 the Serjeant, as leader, required separate consultations at 
 his then chambers in the Temple, to be attended only by an 
 experienced accountant, who had been in the service of the 
 partnership for many years, and myself, as Junior Counsel. 
 He also required that the original books of account, 
 journals, ledgers, waste-book, cash-book, &c., &c., should 
 be daily brought to him for reference and inspection. I 
 say daily, for these consultations extended to nearly a 
 week, and usually lasted from 10 o'clock in the morning 
 until late in the evening, with only an hour's interruption 
 for refreshment. The mastery which he obtained oVer 
 
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112 LOED TRUEO. 
 
 these complicated transactions and accounts by this pro- 
 ceeding — examining and proving every item with his own 
 eyes in the original books, turning from waste-book to 
 journal, from journal to ledger, and so forth — was complete, 
 and the result was, as might have been anticipated, a 
 triumphant result, after tw;o verdicts by special juries of 
 merchants of the City of London. 
 
 A similar anecdote may be related of another learned 
 Serjeant (afterwards Lord Lyndhurst), that almost one of 
 the first causes in which he held a brief was one in which 
 the validity of the patent for weaving stockings then taken 
 out by Messrs. Beardmore, of Nottingham, was in question. 
 To make himself master of the subject, Mr. Serjeant 
 Copley went down to Nottingham, and actually wove with 
 his own hands part of a stocking, but in this instance the 
 practical knowledge attained by this manual operation was 
 adverse to tho-probable success of his clients' case. 
 
 In mentioning the former anecdote, it occurs to my 
 recollection to note a circumstance ■W^hich shews the great 
 reputation in which the professional services of Mr. Serjeant 
 Wilde were held. As before mentioned, the cause was 
 referred from Chancery by the then Yice-Chancellor Sir 
 Lancelot Shadwell ; and during the argument before him 
 the Counsel on the part of the Plaintiff, the present Lord 
 Justice Knight Bruce, observing the probable result as to 
 a reference at law, beckoned to the solicitor's clerk, and 
 requested him instantly to run down to the Temple, and 
 retain Mr. Serjeant Wilde. The same thought occurred 
 to the leader on the opposite side, the late Lord Chancellor 
 Campbell, and he desired his client to make all speed and 
 retain the learned Serjeant. The plaintiff's solicitor's 
 clerk, however, was first at the Chambers in the Temple, 
 with the formal retainer; but, unfortunately, he had not 
 with him sufficient cash to pUy the usual fee. The de- 
 
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LOED TEUEO. 113 
 
 fendant's solicitor's clerk arrived two mimites afterwards 
 with the formal retainer, and had the necessary fee. A 
 discussion then arose as to which party had the right of 
 retainer. The Serjeant's clerk, however, satisfied of the 
 solvency of the plaintiffs' solicitors, at least to the extent 
 of a guinea fee, decided that the plaintiffs had the right. 
 The defendant's soHcitor's clerk thereupon coolly proposed 
 that they should toss for the Serjeant^-a proposition which 
 the other indignantly repelled. 
 
 Great advocate and able man as he was, he still 
 entertained some of those then too prevalent and ex- 
 aggerated notions of the expense, delay, obscturlty, and 
 uncertainty of all Chancery proceedings. For, although 
 true it Was that very much of these existed, still those 
 solicitors who knew how properly to prosecute their causes, 
 and were desirous of a speedy determination of them were 
 perfectly able when so disposed to bring them to a close. 
 It must, however, be acknowledged that too many separate 
 interests existed to render this very frequent. 
 
 In his address to a Jury, in his reply in the cause before 
 referred to, the learned Serjeant resorted to a species of 
 ocular inspection by the Jury, not imlike that which was 
 so common before the Roman Tribunals, where a mother 
 dressed in deep mourning with her attending children were 
 brought In weeping before the Judges, to move their pity 
 and commiseration. The proceedings In the suit In 
 Chancery had been going on, " on the accounts," as it 
 was called. In the Master's Office for nearly twenty-five 
 years ; the pleadings, as my more elderly readers may 
 recollect, were very different in point of length from those 
 of the present time. Each folio of 90 words was written 
 upon a separate stamped sheet, and the bulk and mass of 
 paper alone thus accumulated in such a case was some- 
 thing terrific. 
 
 I 
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114 LOKD TRURO. 
 
 The Serjeant caused fi vast pile of these pleadings and 
 official papers to be heaped up before him, and addressing 
 the Jury with vehemence, implored and beseeched them to 
 release his unfortunate clients from the further burthen of 
 this intolerable load of litigation and consequent expence.* 
 
 But the Serjeant's assiduity and industry, perhaps, 
 reached its highest point of development in his treatment 
 of the great cause of Small v. Atwood. 
 
 This was a case of colossal proportions, and continued 
 its progress for nearly seven years. 
 
 It was a Bill filed on the Equity side of the Court of 
 Exchequer in June, 1826, by Small and others, styling 
 themselves " The British Iron Company," against Atwood 
 and others, of whom they had purchased certain lands 
 and iron works, called the Dudley Iron Works, in Stafford- 
 shire and Warwickshire. It prayed to set aside three 
 agreements for the sale of the works, on the ground of 
 fraud, misrepresentation, and collusion; and for an ac- 
 count. It may be noticed in passing, that the Bill was 
 signed by Mr. Bickersteth (afterwards Lord Langdale) and 
 Mr. Sutton Sharpe. The evidence in support of it was 
 of the most voluminous character. The answer and 
 evidence of the defendants corresponded in length and 
 importance. The mass of papers printed and written 
 was such, that in the subsequent appeal to the House of 
 Lords, it had become so enormous, that the copies de- 
 livered to the Peers amounted to upwards of 10,000 
 brief sheets. 
 
 The arguments in the Court of Exchequer commenced 
 
 * In an early stage of this very case on an interlocutory applica- 
 tion, it was sworn that an office copy of the defendant's Answer 
 alone, if all the schedules of accounts were appended to it) would cost 
 upwards of £19,000. — See Eowe v. Cfudgeon, George Cooper's 
 Reports. 
 
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LORD TEUEO. 115 
 
 on the 7th November, 1831, and occupied twenty-six days. 
 Lord Lyndhurst, the Chief Baron, took a whole year to 
 consider his judgment, being pronounced on the 1st 
 November, 1832, and which declared that the agreements 
 were void, on the ground of fraudulent misrepresentations, 
 and were ordered to be delivered up to be cancelled, and 
 directed the accounts as prayed. 
 
 Thereupon Mr. Atwood, the principal defendant, ap- 
 pealed to the House of Lords, and Serjeant Wilde agreed 
 to accept the management and conduct of the case. 
 
 The brief delivered to him was contained in several 
 large wooden boxes of papers, with a commensurate fee 
 of 4,000 guineas marked upon it. He devoted himself 
 exclusively to the case, not going circuit, and putting 
 aside much other business. 
 
 The Appeal came on for hearing in the House of Lords 
 in the Session of 1835. It was argued by the Serjeant 
 and Mr. Wakefield on the part of the appellant, for 
 fourteen days ; and the present Lord Justice Knight 
 Bruce, and Mr. James Wigram, afterwards a Vice- 
 ChanceUor, on the part of the respondents, occupied 
 four more days in that Session, but had not concluded 
 their case when it closed. In the ensuing one (1836) the 
 case occupied thirty days ; Lord Cottenham on both 
 • occasions being Lord Chancellor. 
 
 In March, 1838, the judgment of the House was pro- 
 nounced, reversing the decision of the Court of Ex- 
 chequer, and, of course, being in favour of the appellant, 
 the Serjeant's client. There can be no question that this 
 favourable result was mainly attributable to the wonderful 
 industry, and mastery of the many most complicated 
 facts and calculations to which the Serjeant had devoted 
 himself. Lord Lyndhurst's speech in support of his 
 decision in the Court of Exchequer was a masterpiece of 
 
 I 2 
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116 LORD TRURO. 
 
 elocution and reasoning ; but although supported by the 
 late Lord Wynford in dissenting from the judgment of 
 the majority of the Peers, it could not prevail against 
 the facts of the case, and the speeches of the Lord 
 Chancellor Oottenham, the Earl of Devon, and Lord 
 Brougham, as opposed to them prevailed. 
 
 Under the former decree, £10,000 had been paid by 
 the appellant in the shape of costs, and a sum of £49,000 
 consols, and £1,500 cash were ordered to be repaid to him. 
 
 The great anxiety which the Serjeant bestowed on 
 every cause in which he was engaged has, however, been 
 objected to him as being a defect in his advocacy, and 
 as generating a custom of overdoing matters, so to speak. 
 
 It was said that the habits of the attorney had never 
 quitted him ; that he regarded every point in a cause as 
 not only equally material, but as the pivot on which the 
 whole turned. There can, however, be no doubt that he 
 was a most powerful, because a thoroughly well-informed, 
 speaker, as to the subject in hand ; such being, un- 
 questionably, one of the chief grounds of successful 
 oratory. 
 
 To the higher or grander flights of oratory the 
 Serjeant never pretended to aspire; but was content 
 to be considered an efficient and business-like speaker. 
 He never sought self-display — the bane of many an able 
 man — the necessary accompaniment of a shallow one. 
 He never, for the sake of amusement, endeavoured to 
 enlist the applause or attention of the bystanders ; nor 
 wandered, however tempting the occasion might be which 
 presented itself, to deviate from the line of conduct he had 
 prescribed to himself in the management of the case. 
 
 His usual practice was, as he himself expressed it, to 
 launch a plaintiif's case in the most simple manner, at 
 the same time with the most complete narrative of the 
 
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LOED TKURO. 117 
 
 facts, reserving himself for his reply, when he could 
 exhibit all the force of argument and energy of diction 
 which the occasion should warrant. He never con- 
 descended to mis-state, or give a false colour to a fact, 
 or suggest or misquote a date, which too many at the Bar 
 consider only a venial sin, but upon which very often the 
 most important results depend. In short, he identified 
 himself for the moment with his client and his cause, 
 and usually with success. It occasionally led him into 
 asperities with the presiding Judge, which at times 
 degenerated into unseemly squabbles. This, in fact, 
 arose from excess of zeal for his client, and not from 
 any improper prejudice against the Judge, as conceiving 
 him inefficient or partial. It must, however, be admitted 
 that the feeling was sometimes carried too far, and 
 evinced itself, perhaps, too conspicuously on several 
 occasions before Chief Justice Best, and was the founda- 
 tion of many Bar witticisms at the time — such as that he 
 had always in his bag blank exceptions to the ruling of 
 this Judge, — that he desiderated the impeachment and 
 decapitation of another, — and others of a similar charE^cter, 
 I well recollect tlie Chief Justice Best, after one of these 
 altercations, saying to a mutual friend, " that, although 
 he sat as Chief Justice on the Bench, the ruling spirit of 
 his Court was Mr. Serjeant Wilde." 
 
 But, in whatever character the listener observed him, 
 whether as forwarding a 'ponderous argument before the 
 Court in banc, in his altercations with a presiding Judge 
 at Nisi Prius, or as appealing to the feelings and common 
 sense of a jury — he could not doubt for one moment but 
 that the Advocate's whole soul was in the cause, and from 
 this he never swerved. No personal feeling lasted for a 
 moment after the cause was terminated ; and he entered 
 upon a fresh one with the same zeal and fervour as in the 
 
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118 LORD TEUKO. 
 
 preceding one. I sincerely believe that no advocate of 
 past or present times can be named whose clients so 
 seldom suffered from any peculiarities of their Counsel as 
 Mr. Serjeant Wilde. 
 
 This excess of zeal, however, could not but tell 
 disadvantageously on his physical powers, and had its 
 usual exhausting effects. I have seen him enter his 
 Court at its sitting bearing unmistakable marks upon his 
 countenance, and from his general personal appearance, 
 that he could have passed but a very short time of the 
 preceding night in sleep. 
 
 He was made King's Serjeant in Trinity Term, 
 1827. 
 
 I now approach his character from another point of 
 view, I mean the political one. 
 
 He first took his seat in the House of Commons as 
 Member for Newark, (after three ineffectual attempts to 
 represent that borough,) on the opening of the Session in 
 June, 1831, a most momentous period for the commence- 
 ment of a political career : this seat he lost at the General 
 Election in the following year ; but was again returned 
 for the same borough in 1835, 1837, and 1839. In 
 December, 1839, on the vacancy occasioned by the 
 promotion of Sir E. M. Eolfe (now Lord Cranworth) to 
 be one of the Barons of the Exchequer, he was appointed 
 Solicitor-General, and received the honour of knighthood. 
 He was advanced to the Attorney-Generalship in June, 
 1841, in the place of the late Lord Campbell, then appointed 
 Lord Chancellor for Ireland. 
 
 A circumstance which at this time occurred, and 
 which redounded very much to his honour, as shewing 
 his faithful adherence to his political party, may here 
 be mentioned. When the Melbourne Ministry was 
 tottering to its fall, a vacancy occurred on the Bench, 
 
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LORD TRURO. 119 
 
 and as Attorney-General he had a right, almost as a 
 matter of course, to expect the appointment. His health, 
 also, at this time was not such as his friends could have 
 wished, and his medical advisers and others advised his 
 retirement from the more active and laborious duties 
 of his profession, which his removal to the Bench would 
 have allowed him. It would, however, have been con- 
 sidered a great loss to the Government if they were to 
 be deprived of his assistance as a supporter of their 
 measures, and of his professional services. The Lord 
 Chancellor (Cottenham) had been apprised of his willing- 
 ness to accept the appointment of puisne Judge, but 
 his illness prevented the usual official communications 
 being made to him as Chancellor, and the Serjeant 
 consequently had an interview on the subject with 
 Lord Melbourne as Premier. The anecdote runs, that 
 upon the Serjeant's entering the room Lord Melbourne 
 said, " Of course you must have the Judgeship, but 
 there will be an end of the Government; for nobody 
 else but yourself can carry Newark — and whether Erie 
 or Talfourd succeed you, we lose another seat, which, 
 with the majority of four or five which we now only have, 
 it would be fatal." The Serjeant at once felt that in 
 such a state of circumstances he ought not to accept the 
 post, and unhesitatingly replied that he did not wait upon 
 his Lordship upon such an errand — but that he intended 
 to remain a Law Officer of the Crown. It is said that 
 Lord Melbourne felt acutely this truly noble conduct, 
 and the position in which he himself was placed by thus 
 being obliged to hesitate to press the vacant Judgeship on 
 the Serjeant ; and he was understood to have said the 
 same evening, "that it was about the most painful thing he 
 had ever endured, — and that office was not worth having 
 at such a price," The confidential returns of the Secretary 
 
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120 LOKD TRUKO. 
 
 to the Treasury — the whipper-in of the party— were, 
 however, too correct, and left no doubt upon the minds 
 of either, as to the danger of the Government being 
 placed in a minority. 
 
 At the General Election of 1841, he was returned for 
 the City of Worcester ; and thus, until created Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas in July, 1846, his par-, 
 iiamentary and political career as Member of the House 
 of Commons, and holding more or less an official position 
 with the Whig Governments of the day, may be said to 
 have continued for about thirteen years. His political 
 feelings and associations had been very early formed, 
 and they were unequivocally and strongly on the Liber-al , 
 side, as furthering, in his opinion, the development of 
 progress, in all the relations of social, political, and 
 domestic questions. 
 
 I propose to recapitulate the principal measures and 
 questions in which he took an active part during these 
 thirteen years. 
 
 He had scarcely entered the House before an oppor- 
 tunity presented itself for his addressing it. 
 
 On the 11th July, 1831, in a Committee of Supply, 
 the case of compensation to Sir Abraham Bradley King, 
 who had held the patent office of Stationer to His Majesty 
 in Ireland, was mooted. Sir Abraham had resigned his 
 patent on a promise of compensation, but irregularities 
 in his office had been discovered, and the £2,500 per 
 annum which it was alleged had been oifered to him 
 formed one of the items of supply. The grant to this 
 extent, was opposed by Lord Althorp, then the Leader of 
 the Opposition. Serjeant Wilde, in addressing the Com- 
 mittee, stated that It was a strict question of justice, and 
 asked what right, In the then state of the country, when 
 a loud call for economy had been raised, the House had to 
 
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LORD TKURO. 121 
 
 grant by way of indulgence and liberality so large a sum 
 of money, contending that nothing had been done by thi» 
 officer which could deserve it. He was, however, in a 
 minority on a division ; the grant of the sum of £2,500 
 for the then current year as compensation to Sir Abraham 
 being carried. In the next week he again addressed the 
 House on the same subject, and on the same day, when in 
 a Qommittee of Supply another case of compensation 
 was mooted, as to the annual charge of £75,000 for 
 pensioners on the Civil List. This grant the Serjeant 
 supported, remarking that, although pledged to economy, 
 he felt himself bound in humanity and justice not to vote 
 ^against the grant proposed. On this occasion he was in a 
 majority of 101. Again, on the 21st July, when the case 
 of the Deacles, in Hampshire, who had formed part of a 
 mob for the destruction of agricultural machinery, — and a 
 motion for the removal of the Magistrates, on the ground 
 of oppression, was brought forward ; he strongly defended 
 these magistrates, as he had, in fact, assisted the Attorney- 
 General in the prosecution of the Petitioners ; and the 
 motion was negatived. In the following months he took 
 a prominent part in almost all the discussions which arose 
 on various clauses in the great Reform Bill, then pending 
 in the House of Commons, always advocating the Liberal 
 tendency of those clauses which eventually became law. 
 He was not backward to address the House on other 
 occasions — more espedally deprecating the influence of 
 Peers at elections, and on other constitutional subjects as 
 they occurred ; but his speech of the Session was in 
 favour of the proposed alterations in the Bankruptcy 
 Laws, which, whether for good or ill, completely changed 
 the system of the administration of those laws in this 
 Kingdom. The abolition of the offices of the Seventy 
 Commissioners, or Septuagint, as they were irreverently 
 
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122 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 called, was by these effected, and other reforms introduced 
 which, alas! have now almost all passed away. But 
 it is a singular fact that, in this present Session of 1866, 
 the Bankruptcy Bill, lately before the country, was only 
 a resuscitation of the better part of the Bankruptcy Law 
 as it had previously stood — I mean by allowing the more 
 active interference of the creditors themselves in the 
 administration of a bankrupt's estate, which to a gr^at 
 extent was a component part of the old system. 
 
 Parliament was shortly afterwards, on the 20th 
 October, prorogued, but another Session commenced on 
 the 6th December following, with a Speech from the 
 Throne ; this Session continuing until the following 
 August. In this he took a very prominent part on the 
 question of the abolition of slavery in the West India 
 Colonies, advocating the abolition, and supporting the 
 proposal for compensation to the amount of £20,000,000 
 sterling to the proprietors of West India estates and 
 their incumbrancers. He was in a majority on an 
 Amendment to this effect, proposed by Lord Althorp — the 
 Serjeant acting in the division as teller for his party. 
 
 As before stated, at the General Election in the 
 following year he failed to be returned for Newark, but 
 continued a most lucrative and successful practice at the 
 Bar. He was, however, again returned for that borough 
 in 1835. 
 
 The Session of this Parliament was opened on the 
 19th February, and in the early part of it he addressed 
 the House in a most able and comprehensive speech on the 
 state of the Church Establishment in Ireland. Shortly 
 afterwards, commenced the debates on the Ipswich Election 
 Petition, and the committal of several persons who were 
 alleged to have been guilty of illegal and corrupt practices 
 there, ordered. On this occasion he supported the motion 
 
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LORD TEUEO. 123 
 
 which was made, for the taking into custody those, 
 who had absconded to prevent service of the Speaker's 
 warrant upon them. This, however, is a scandalous hlot 
 in our Parliamentary history of the time, but, as many 
 of the parties said to have been implicated are now living, 
 I pass it by without further comment. 
 
 He subsequently advocated the re-appointment of the 
 Committee for the purpose of investigating the claims of 
 the Baron de Bode, to participate in the division of the 
 funds which had been contributed by France to compen- 
 sate British subjects for their properties destroyed in the 
 furore of the Great French Revolution. This was a most 
 complicated case, but the Serjeant stated to the House 
 that he had been able to master its details, and considered 
 it one of very great hardship. Again, he took an active 
 part in the discussions in the House to commit one of the 
 persons summoned to give evidence before the Great 
 Yarmouth Election Committee, urging moderation, and 
 suggesting that the witness should be called in, and 
 admonished that his refusal to be examined on the ground 
 of probable self-conviction, was premature. 
 
 A great legal principle was during the debate thus 
 stated by him — that a witness must at least be sworn, if 
 legally summoned, before he could object to be examined — 
 stating the rule as laid down in an address by Lord 
 Tenterden, to a reluctant witness, on a celebrated occasion. 
 " Sir," said Lord Tenterden, " you must be sworn ; and 
 then, if there is any question put to you which you think 
 would criminate you, you must appeal to me." The 
 milder course suggested by the Serjeant was adopted by 
 the House. 
 
 Li the following Session of 1836, another great oc- 
 casion presented itself for the exercise of similar judicious 
 advice. I mean the great scandal of the Carlow Election 
 
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124 LOED TEUKO. 
 
 Petition. The Petition alleged that the celebrated 
 O'Connell had been guilty of corruption, and committed 
 a flagrant breach of Parliamentary privilege, by accepting 
 a bribe of £2,000 from a Mr. Raphael, then one of the 
 Sheriffs of the city of London, to obtain the election of 
 the latter as Member for Carlow. The main ground for the 
 charge was a letter to Mr. Charles Pearson, the then 
 City Solicitor, in which O'Connell had proposed that Mr. 
 Raphael should pay £1,000 down, and another like sum on 
 his being returr,ed for Carlow. The question was the 
 ultimate destination of this money. The Serjeant had 
 been associated by the House as nominee on the part of 
 O'Connell in the investigation upon which a Committee 
 had entered ; and to his efforts before this Committee 
 may be attributed the acquittal of O'Connell from the 
 more serious part of the charge. On the 21st April, on 
 a motion made, that the agreement between the parties 
 was a high breach of privilege, — in a clear, lucid, and 
 most able statement, he placed before the House the 
 whole facts of the case, which resulted in a long series of 
 resolutions being moved by several Members to the effect 
 that Mr. O'Connell Jiad committed a breach of privilege. 
 These, however, were passed by on a motion to proceed 
 with the orders of the day ; and the question was not 
 subsequently mooted. The Serjeant himself did not vote ; 
 but Umited his exertions to explain, as nominee of the 
 House on the part of O'Connell, fully to the House what 
 had occurred in the Committee, and the real nature of 
 the evidence which was adduced before it, which amounted- 
 in effect to a verdict of acquittal of Mr. O'Connell from 
 all improper motives. 
 
 The death of William IV., which took place on the 
 20th June, 1837, opened a new field for his legal and 
 political exertions — the first Parliament of Her present 
 
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LORD TRURO. 125 
 
 Majesty opening on the 15th November of that year. 
 Early in the following one another case of breach of 
 privilege was mooted. A Mr. Poulter, a barrister, and 
 an ejected Member for Shaftesbury, had written a letter 
 to the Morning Ghronide, impugning the conduct of the 
 Members of the Election Committee, who had reported his 
 election to have been void. On the appearance of this 
 gentleman at the Bar, by order of the House, he made 
 a skilfiil address in explanation of the circumstances, 
 and the Serjeant delivered a sensible and forcible speech, 
 advocating the postponement of the measure for a week, — 
 in which time the exasperation had evaporated, and the 
 matter was allowed to drop. 
 
 Another memorable instance of the Serjeant's great 
 industry, and at the same time an independence of 
 character not often atewn, was the manner in which he 
 threw himself, if I may be allowed the expression, into 
 what was known as " The Serjeants' Case." 
 
 The discussions on this subject arose in the following 
 way. The Court of Common Pleas, as my legal friends 
 well know, was, before the year 1834, a closed Court to 
 all legal practitioners as advocates ; except those who had 
 obtained the status of Serjeant-at-law. This, in those 
 days of eagerness for reform, — or change in every depart- 
 ment, — was a privilege which Lord Brougham, then Lord 
 Chancellor, was determined to have abolished, and the 
 Court thrown open to all the Bar. It is understood that 
 the circumstance which first called Lord Brougham's 
 energies into action upon this subject was a retort from the 
 Serjeant in a playful conversation at one of the Bench 
 dinners, daring him (Lord Brougham) to do anything that 
 should be the means of opening the Court. Upon this his 
 Lordship replied to this eiFect — for the exact words were 
 not so courteous — " that he was determined the Coui't 
 
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126 LORD TRUEO. 
 
 should be an open one." Thereupon, within a short time 
 afterwards, being with the King (William IV.) at Windsor, 
 his Lordship obtained the signature of His Majesty to a 
 warrant or mandate, bearing date the 24th April, 1834, 
 the principal provision of which was, that " His Majesty 
 did order and direct that the right of practising, pleading, 
 and audience, in Our Court of Common Pleas during Term 
 time, shall upon and from the 1st day of Trinity Term now 
 next ensuing, cease to be exercised exclusively by the 
 Serjeants-at-law ; and that upon and from that day, Our 
 Counsel learned in the law, and all other barristers-at-law, 
 shall and may according to their respective rank and 
 seniority, have and exercise equal right and privilege of 
 practising, pleading, and audience in the said Court of 
 Common Pleas at Westminster with the Serjeants-at-law." 
 
 This was addressed " To the Right Honourable 
 Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux, Our Chancellor of 
 Great Britain." 
 
 It only bore the Sign Manual, — was not sealed with 
 any seal or signet, — and was not countersigned by any 
 known public or other officer. 
 
 On the communication of this mandate to the Judges 
 of the Common Pleas, the Court was opened to all who 
 had been called to the Bar, to plead therein as the 
 Serjeants until that time for several centuries previously 
 had done. As may well be imagined, this was considered 
 as a severe attack upon the long standing privilege of the 
 learned Serjeants, then consisting of about 20 in number j 
 but no active measures were taken to change the new 
 system during the reign of the King. Immediately, 
 however, on his death, which took place in* June, 1837, 
 and the consequent accession of Her present Majesty, 
 Meetings of the Serjeants were held, at which Serjeant 
 Wilde took the most active part, and it was determined 
 
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LORD TRURO. 127 
 
 to petition the Queen in Council, impeaching the 
 legality of this Warrant as being an excess of authority 
 by the late Sovereign, not recognized by any Law, Act 
 of Parliament, or other Ordinance ; and a violation of the 
 Constitution — the effect of which would be to abolish 
 the order of Serjeant-at-law altogether. A petition 
 signed by five of the Serjeants — Taddy, Wilde, Spankie, 
 Atcherley, and Mereweather, who had taken no rank 
 under the aforesaid warrant, was accordingly prepared 
 and presented to Her Majesty, praying that she would 
 be pleased to cause the legality and expediency of the 
 said document to be duly investigated under Her sanc- 
 tion and direction. The petition was accompanied by 
 a memorial addressed to the then Lord Chancellor, 
 Cottenham, setting forth the reasons for presenting it. 
 It was, as a matter of course, referred to the Privy 
 Council for discussion and determination ; Sir William 
 Follett and Mr. Charles Austin were selected to advocate 
 the Serjeants' Cause before this Tribunal. I had the 
 honour, in a humble degree, of assisting In preparing 
 the necessary Instructions for Counsel, and the collection 
 and arrangement of ancient documents for the coming 
 discussion. Mr., afterwards Serjeant Manning, who 
 subsequently published a volume detailing the facts of 
 the case, the arguments of Counsel, and the result, which 
 he entitled " Serviens ad Legem" was, however, the most 
 effective assistant in this labour of love ; and the know- 
 ledge which he possessed of old legal literature and black 
 letter law relating to the usage of the Courts In ancient 
 times, was of the greatest possible service to the cause. 
 For very many evenings before the time appointed for the 
 hearing we met at the Serjeant's chambers in Serjeants' 
 Inn, Fleet Street ; there, the progress made In looking up 
 old documentary evidence and other particulars was from 
 
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128 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 time to time discussed, and plans of operation determined 
 on. Those who usually attended were the Serjeant himself, 
 Serjeants Taddy and Bompas, Manning, and myself, and 
 we seldom separated before midnight. In a comer of the 
 Serjeant's room was deposited in his wicker basket the 
 smallest dog then to be found in England, and the 
 Serjeant's lady, who was almost Invariably waiting in her 
 carriage till the close of our sittings to take the learned 
 Serjeant home, was attended by .the largest dog that 
 could at that time be found. The discussions at these 
 consultations, as may be assumed, were not of the most 
 lively description, and one learned Serjeant (Bompas), 
 who, however, took a deep Interest In the success of the 
 Appeal to the Privy Oonncll, usually reposed in an arm 
 chair, and committed himself to pleasant dreams during 
 the consultation. He usually came in a haCkney vehicle 
 which continued In waiting for him until we separated. 
 One evening he had forgotten that any such conveyance 
 was In attendance," and walked unthinkingly away. 
 Jarvey, however, was at his post the following evening, 
 and had the effrontery to assure the learned Serjeant 
 that he had waited for him all through the night and the 
 greater part of the following day. He demanded a 
 corresponding fare, and to a certain extent, I believe, 
 succeeded in obtaining it. 
 
 The brief for Counsel, as It was thus settled piecemeal, 
 was sent in detached portions to Sir W. FoUett (then 
 on the Western Circuit) for perusal, and, on being told 
 that as he read It In his travelling chariot at night, he 
 sometimes fell asleep, Serjeant Wilde observed, " Silly 
 fellow ! what can he want with sleep ?" 
 
 Having returned home more early than usual from 
 one of these consultations, and just stepping Into bed, 
 I was surprised, about half-past eleven o'clock, to hear a 
 
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LORD TRURO. 129 
 
 loud ringing at the door-bell, and, upon enquiry, found 
 it proceeded from one of the Serjeant's servants, who had 
 been despatched with a note from him, asking me for the 
 name, &c., of a reported case, which had been the subject 
 of deliberation at the conference, as he had neglected to 
 make a note of it at the time. This I had fortunately 
 jotted down. 
 
 The Appeal came on to be heard before the Privy 
 Council, on the 10th January, 1839, at which were present 
 Lord Cottenham (then Lord Chancellor), Lord Wynford 
 (formerly Mr. Serjeant Best), Lord Brougham; Lord 
 Denman, then Lord Chief Justice; Lord Langdale, Master 
 of the Rolls ; Sir Lancelot Shadwell, Vice-Chancellor ; 
 Lord Chief Justice Tindal ; Lord Abinger, (formerly 
 Mr. Scarlett) then Chief Baron of the Exchequer; 
 Mr. Baron Parke (now Lord Wensleydale) ; Justices 
 Vaughan, Bosanquet (formerly Serjeant), and Erskine; 
 and the present Sir Stephen Lushington, Judge of the 
 Admiralty Court. After most forcible and learned 
 addresses from Sir W. Follett and Mr. Austin — not un- 
 frequently interrupted by Lord Brougham, who, as before 
 mentioned, had obtained His Majesty's warrant for 
 opening the Court — and after hearing the then Attorney 
 and Solicitor-General (Campbell and the present Lord 
 Cranworth) in answer, and Mr. Austin in reply, the 
 Council adjourned the matter until the first day of the then 
 next Easter Term, being the 9th of May, 1839. Shortly 
 before the end of this Term, the solicitors who had 
 presented the Petition on the part of the Serjeants 
 informed Mr. Greville, the Clerk of the Council, by letter 
 of the 4th May, 1839, that it was the intention of the 
 Petitioners to attend their Lordships for the purpose of 
 receiving the judgment of the Council. In answer, a 
 communication by letter of the 6th May was received 
 
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130 LORD TRURO. 
 
 from Mr. Greville, stating that no judgment would be 
 given until farther notice. 
 
 A subsequent Act of Parliament was passed which 
 allowed all members of the Bar to practise in the Court of 
 Common Pleas. 
 
 I cannot omit mentioning a remarkable instance of 
 promptitude in action suggested by the Serjeant, In a case 
 personal to myself. I was at this time a Candidate before 
 the Court of Directors of the East India Company for a 
 legal appointment then vacant at Calcutta, and to which in a 
 conversation I had with him, the Serjeant thought I had a 
 fair claim. The post was nominally in the gift of the Chair- 
 man of the Company ; but knowing the dilatory progress 
 of matters In Leadenhall Street, the Serjeant advised me 
 Instantly to proceed to the India House, to request an 
 Immediate interview with the Chairman, Sir Henry WiUock, 
 although unknown to him, and to state my case — that 
 whilst I should be gone, he himself would write such a 
 letter as might be of considerable service to me on my 
 canvass ; and this, on my return from the City, I fotmd he 
 had done. 
 
 It failed however to ensure success, the post being given 
 to one, whom I can hardly call a competitor, as he never 
 solicited the place, but whose name was introduced to the 
 East India Company by a relative who had been Governor- 
 General of India. The learned gentleman was subsequently 
 promoted to the Indian Bench, and now sits as one of 
 Her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council on Indian 
 Appeals, whilst I — qui sdbe — am perhaps the happier of 
 the two in penning these lines. 
 
 Early in 1837 commenced the pubUc excitement, and a 
 series of debates and resolutions in the House, arising out 
 of the attempt of Stockdale, the bookseller, to establish a 
 right for any subject of the realm to print and publish the 
 
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LORD THUKO. 131 
 
 papers and proceedings in ParKament, more especially those 
 of the House of Commons. This the House sternly 
 resented, and Stockdale having brought an action in the 
 Court of Queen's Bench, against Mr. Hansard the then 
 printer to the House, to establish this right, the Commons 
 interfered by resolutions, declaring that the bringing such 
 action was a high breach of privilege. They, however, 
 allowed their officers to plead to the action. 
 
 Stockdale recovered damages, in this the first action, for 
 £100 and costs. Then commenced the contest in earnest. 
 Stockdale proceeded to reap the fruits of his judgment, by 
 issuing out execution against the goods of the defendants 
 in the usual way directed to the Sheriif. The Sheriff was 
 therefore warned not to proceed with the execution ; but 
 bound to do so by law, he did so, and was declared guilty of 
 a breach of the privileges of the House and ordered to be 
 taken into custody. The same harsh measures were taken 
 against Stockdale himself, and his solicitor, a Mr. Howard. 
 A second action was brought, and ended in a verdict and 
 judgment for £600 against the Officers of the House. The 
 same vindictive proceedings on the part of the House were 
 resorted to, the Serjeant fulminating against the authority 
 of the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, and their 
 subordinates. Even the son of Mr. Howard and a clerk of 
 his, who had done some acts in furtherance of the judgment 
 of the Court, were committed for contempt. A third action 
 was brought after repeated warnings from the House, that 
 it was at his peril that the Plaintiff would proceed, and the 
 matter seemed to take most enormous proportions when 
 common sense stepped in to the rescue ; and a Bill was, 
 early in 1840, introduced to put a stop to these very 
 damaging proceedings. 
 
 There could not be a doubt that the one branch of the 
 
 Constitution (the Commons) had no privilege, which was 
 
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132 LORD TRURO. 
 
 not recognized by the law of the land as declared by some 
 Court of Justice. That Court must Inquire whether the 
 privilege was a reasonable one, and it was a duty which 
 the Judges owed to their country, which considered them 
 the greatest patriots for performing it, as it had been 
 performed by the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, 
 Lord Denman at the head of it. 
 
 The Act as ultimately passed was 3 Vict., c. 9, being 
 " An Act to give summary Protection to Persons employed 
 in the Publication of Parliamentary Papers." The effect 
 of it being, to stay the proceedings in the actions then in 
 progress, and provisions enacted to meet future similar 
 cases. 
 
 The Serjeant (as Solicitor-General) carried his per- 
 tinacity so far as to say the day before the Act received 
 the Royal Assent (the 16th April, 1840), " that the Lords' 
 Amendments to the Bill coming down to the House as it 
 did, appeared to him to be tenfold more objectionable than 
 it was on leaving that House ; and that the decision 
 of the Court of Queen's Bench was, he would venture to 
 say, inconsistent with a higher stream of authority than 
 any to which a judicial bench had ever before opposed 
 itself," and that if the amendments of the Lords were agreed 
 to by the House, it would for ever lose its place in the 
 Constitution. The Court of Queen's Bench had laid down 
 not only that the House of Commons had not the privilege 
 of printing, but that the Court had a right — as well as all 
 other Courts in the kingdom — to review every privilege 
 which the House of Commons claimed. 
 
 On the contrary, Lord Denman averred in the Lords, 
 that Stockdale had a right to bring his action, and said 
 " that he would not admit the principle which had been laid 
 down by the Lord Chancellor, that Stockdale was bound 
 not to proceed after he had received notice from the 
 
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LOKD TKUEO. 133 
 
 House of Commons. He would not permit it to be 
 supposed, that any one of the Queen's subjects was to be 
 restrained by an Order of the House of Commons — or 
 of the House of Lords — not to proceed with an action, 
 brought to enforce a right acknowledged by the law."* 
 
 * It has many times forced itself upon my consideration that the 
 general line of conduct pursued: by Lord Denman in the cause of 
 Stochdale v. Hansard, bears a strong resemblance to that of Chief 
 Justice Holt, under somewhat analogous circumstances. The spirit 
 which pervaded the whole life and conduct of Holt was a firm 
 determination to act up to and declare what he considered to be the 
 law of the land, as evidenced by the traditions of the common law, 
 and declared and confirmed by legislative enactments, and that no 
 threat or power, from whatever quarter it might come, would have 
 been able to move him from this direct and straightforward purpose ; 
 and such was that of Lord Denman. A very short recapitulation of 
 his (Holt's) history may be acceptable. 
 
 Holt was born at Thame, in Oxfordshire, in December, 1642, the 
 son of a serjeant-at-law and bencher of Gray's Inn, a staunch 
 adherent of the High Court party. Educated at the Free School of 
 Abingdon, the son at the age of sixteen went as gentleman commoner 
 to Oriel College, Oxford, and subsequently became a student at 
 Gray's Inn, under the tuition of his father. He had been in his 
 youth the " wildest of the wild," but a change came over his conduct 
 when preparing himself for his profession, and it passed into that of 
 extreme industry and application. He was called to the Bar in 
 February, 1663, but his name does not appear in any of the reports 
 of the time until 1676. He attained however to great practice in 
 his profession for ten years before the Revolution of 1688. In causes 
 which were then of frequent occurrence between the Crown and the 
 Subject, he was always retained for the latter. In all the State trials 
 in the latter part of the reign of Charles II. he was always in oppo- 
 sition to the Court interest. In the great case of " monopolies," 
 The East India Company v. Sandys, he was retained to oppose what 
 was considered a monopoly countenanced by the Court. At the 
 accession of James II. he received promotion and was Recorder of 
 London in 1686. He was not however engaged in the great case of 
 the seven Bishops. In December, 1688, he was chosen assessor to 
 the House of Lords, as the judges had formerly been, and shortly 
 afterwards became Member of the House of Commons for Beeralston, 
 
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134 LOKD TRUllO. 
 
 The Solicitor - General (Wilde) and the Attorney- 
 General (Campbell) again differed in opinion on this 
 occasion, and, on a division, a majority of 40 confirmed the 
 Lords' Amendments. 
 
 In the end, on the following day, the 15th April, 
 the Sheriff (Evans) was discharged from further attendance 
 on the House, and Howard junior, and Pearce, the clerk, 
 were also ordered to be discharged out of custody, on 
 motions by Sir R. Inglis, supported by Lord John EusseU ; 
 but a motion to discharge Howard, the attorney, did not 
 meet with the same success. He and Stockdale remained 
 in custody till the close of the Session. 
 
 Warburton, the Member for Bridport, summed up the 
 whole affair in the most laconic manner by then asking, 
 " Li what way the privileges of the House had been 
 vindicated ?" 
 
 These debates continued during several succeeding 
 Sessions, until finally disposed of by the passing of an Act 
 of Parliament, after three years' acrimonious contention 
 between the House and the Judges of the Court of Queen's 
 Bench as before mentioned. 
 
 in Cornwall. Immediately afterwards he was added to the committee 
 to manage the conferences with the Lords as to the vacancy of the 
 Throne hy the flight of James II., and his argmnent vipon the decla- 
 ration of rights is a .subject for deep consideration and study for 
 the legal student. He was appointed Chief Justice in May, 1689, 
 and continued such for 21 years. He was one of our greatest 
 constitutional lawyers, and his resistance to the House of Lords 
 for questioning one of his judgments-at-law, as an interference with 
 their privileges, bears a striking resemblance to that of Lord Denman 
 in resisting the unconstitutional claim of the House of Commons, 
 to put aside all law and right of the subject, in the celebrated case of 
 Stockdale v. Hansard. 
 
 For the further details of Holt's conduct on this occasion, the 
 reader is referred to what was said of it by Lord Ellenborough, as 
 reported in Burdett v. Abbott, 14, East's Reports, p. 150. 
 
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LORD TRUEO. 135 
 
 Into these debates the Serjeant entered with his wonted 
 energy, when he had once taken up any question in 
 earnest ; and, as he may be said to have led a large party 
 in the House and Nation — so energetic was his advocacy 
 on one side of this important and legal controversy, but ia 
 which, however, I must in all truth say it always appeared 
 to myself and many that the learned Serjeant took the 
 wrong side — I have thought a short statement of the facts 
 of the case not uninteresting. 
 
 In the Session which commenced in January, 1841, 
 the Serjeant again sat for Newark. In the April follow- 
 ing, he brought forward a motion, which afforded him an 
 opportunity of developing his favourite scheme, for the 
 creation of new Courts of. Justice to be erected in the 
 neighbourhood of Lincoln's Inn Fields— a scheme which, 
 thanks to the perseverance of many influential persons 
 who have succeeded him, has now attained a solid founda- 
 tion ; the completion of which is no longer matter of 
 doubt, and, it is believed, with a success which the measures 
 already taken seem fully to warrant. This was the first 
 serious mooting of the question of the consolidation of 
 the Courts of Law and Equity in the same locality. At 
 the conclusion of his speech on this subject, in which he 
 explained the details of his scheme, and which, in a re- 
 markable manner, shadowed forth the very plans now in 
 course of execution, Mr. Joseph Hume made a remark 
 extremely characteristic of the general career of that 
 honorable Member. He said, " He was glad to perceive 
 that common sense had at last found its way amongst 
 the lawyers. He highly approved of the project of the 
 learned Seijeant ; but he had himself proposed precisely 
 the same thing in 1836." 
 
 Subsequently the Serjeant exerted himself in the 
 discussions respecting the propositions whldi sought com- 
 
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136 LOED TEURO. 
 
 pensation from the Danish Government, for the daims of 
 British merchants — familiarly called the " Danish claims." 
 
 In June, this Parliament was dissolved ; and at the 
 General Election which ensued, Serjeant Wilde was re- 
 turned as Member for the city of Worcester. This Par- 
 liament was opened on the 19th August, and his first 
 essay therein was in favour of his former client, Mr. Vizard, 
 Queen Caroline's solicitor, who had been appointed solicitor 
 to the Home Office ; considered by some to have been a 
 political job, and which called forth some warm discussions. 
 
 The political and legal changes which had then recently 
 taken place, such as Lord Campbell's appointment to the 
 Irish Chancellorship, and others of a similar character, 
 created much animadversion at the time ; and the retention 
 of his seat for Eipon by Sir Edward Sugden, who had 
 been appointed Lord Chancellor for teland In succession 
 to the short reign of Lord Campbell, was much com- 
 mented upon In the House, and elsewhere. The Serjeant 
 spoke warmly upon the subject as being most unconstitu- 
 tional, and in the course of one of the debates, in which 
 some personalities had passed between Sir Edward and the 
 Serjeant, the latter said " he would repeat those expressions 
 of courtesy towards him (Sir Edward Sugden) which he 
 had before used, although he knew that his right honorable 
 friend had a very peculiar method of acknowledging any 
 courtesies." On the following day the subject was renewed, 
 but tenninated on the announcement of the intended 
 departure of Sir Edward Sugden for his residence in 
 Dublin. 
 
 The succeeding Sessions of 1842-3 were not remarkable 
 for any great activity or prominency in any important debate 
 on the Serjeant's part ; but subjects of very considerable 
 Importance were discussed. The principal of them in 
 which he took part were the following : — The remarkable 
 
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LORD TRUEO. 137 
 
 case of the forgery of Exchequer Bills by Beaumont 
 Smith, during the debates upon which he offered many 
 useful suggestions for the prevention of such irregularities 
 for the future. The resolutions moved by the late Lord 
 Francis Egerton as to the right of petitioning — on the 
 presentation of what was called the " People's Charter," 
 accompanied by an enormous mob, being a monster peti- 
 tion signed it was alleged by 3,315,752 persons — and 
 which was so bulky that the doorway of the House was 
 not wide enough to receive it, and it was, consequently, 
 obliged to be unrolled before being carried in. Another 
 occasion was the motion that the Attorney-General should 
 be directed by the House to prosecute some of the 
 witnesses before the Ipswich Election Committee, when 
 his expression " of the awful moment for the country 
 which then existed, and that the extent of the bribery and 
 corruption at elections rendered it somewhat fearful," may 
 well be applied to the present time, when the Election 
 Committees of the late Session (1866) have disclosed such 
 almost incredible scenes of bribery, corruption and riot. 
 It was truly said in the course of the debate, confirming 
 the saying of a great constitutional writer, that, " the sign 
 of the ruin of this country would be when the consti- 
 tuency was more corrupt than its representatives." 
 
 An instance of his independent spirit and kindly nature 
 also at this time occurred, when, exception having been 
 taken to some words spoken by Sir Robert Peel, his 
 political adversary — as having been an insult to the 
 people — he gallantly came to the rescue of Sir Robert, 
 and in a remarkable speech succeeded in putting a very 
 different construction upon the words which had been 
 used, and which had the effect of turning the tide of 
 popular indignation which had set in against that illus- 
 trious patriotic statesman. 
 
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138 LOKD TEUEO. 
 
 During the Session of 1843, lie took the most active 
 and decided part in advocating the claims of Kowland 
 HiQ, the author of our present Penny Postage System, to 
 have an investigation and enquiry instituted as to the 
 feasibility of his plan for a thorough reform of the 
 Postage Administration throughout the kingdom. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to express in adequate terms the 
 sense which all those must have who possessed any 
 knowledge of the old system, of the wonderful change 
 which has taken place in consequence of Sir Eowland 
 Hill's exertions in this respect. When once established, it 
 not only spread itself to the neighbouring kingdoms of 
 the Continent of Europe ; but is now almost universally 
 adopted in every quarter of the globe. But like many 
 great discoveries and improvements it had to overcome 
 serious obstacles, and almost insuperable prejudices to 
 encounter, before it was carried into effect. The principal 
 difficulty in all such cases is to find some one with talent, 
 position, energy of character, and determined wiU, to step 
 in and be the first to set the machinery of a new project 
 in motion. Such was the want in the present case. 
 Serjeant Wilde was precisely the instrument to carry 
 such a work through with success. After a most carefiil 
 and anxious investigation into the details of the scheme, 
 he boldly stepped forth, and on the 27th June, 1843, 
 presented a petition from Eowland HOI to the House 
 praying for enquiry, and upon this moved " that a Select 
 Committee should be appointed to inquire into the 
 progress which had been made in carrying into effect the 
 recommendations of Mr. Rowland Hill for Post Office 
 Improvements." This he introduced by a long and able 
 speech, going into minute detail of the calculations which 
 had been made upon this subject. 
 
 Without wishing to detract in the smallest degree 
 
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LORD TRURO. 139 
 
 from the credit which the establishment of the general 
 principle of the penny postage as advocated and persisted 
 in by Sir Rowland Hill has attained, I must remark, from 
 my own knowledge, that he was very ably and usefully 
 assisted in those calculations — upon which, indeed, the 
 success of the proposed alterations mainly rested — by 
 Mr. John Lawford, an eminent solicitor in the City, and 
 another gentleman in the house of Baring, Brothers & Co., 
 who very much facilitated and confirmed the conclusions 
 at which Mr. HUl had arrived. 
 
 As a matter of course, the motion in the House for a 
 Committee of Inquiry was only faintly approved by the 
 then Chancellor of the Exchequer and by the authorities 
 of the Post Office, and was even opposed by some others 
 of the Members of the Government. In the course of 
 the debate he most truly said that it was a matter in 
 which the British public were deeply interested, in 
 relation to their trade, their commercial prosperity, and 
 their domestic happiness. The motion was finally agreed 
 to, and was the first and most important step in this great 
 national improvement for the transmission of our corres- 
 pondence; and it is truly remarkable that that result 
 which was predicted, viz.^ that the change of the system 
 would cause a loss to the revenue of a million per annum, 
 has now become so productive that it has been seriously 
 contemplated by our late Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 Mr. Gladstone — and no doubt will be seriously considered 
 by our present one, Mr. Disraeli — to appropriate the 
 surplus revenue of the Post Office to a reduction of the 
 National Debt, or in some other way to make it conduce 
 to the interests of the financial requirements of the 
 State. 
 
 In the then following Sessions, viz.^ 1844-45 and 46, 
 although overwhelmed with his private practice, he found 
 
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140 LORD TRUEO. 
 
 time to make himself acquainted with and assist at the 
 discussion of many other important subjects ; such as the 
 Oaths Bill, the Eegistration of Voters Bill, the Repeal 
 Agitation in Ireland — the China Opium Compensation 
 Debates— the Slave Trade Suppression Bill — the Dissen- 
 ters' Chapel Suits Bill, in which " he took an especial 
 interest — the Reversal of the Judgment by the House of 
 Lords m the O'Connell Case — the Opening of Letters at 
 the Post Office — the great question as to Broad and Narrow 
 Gauges on Railways — and many others, which it would be 
 tedious to mention. 
 
 Lideed, during the whole time of his sitting as a Member 
 of the House of Commons, he was a most able, painstaking 
 and useful Member of it ; advocating unceasingly those 
 liberal measures which he thought conduced to the general 
 welfare of the community. 
 
 But a period was now drawing nigh, when advancement 
 to a higher post was to take place. On the restoration of 
 the Whig Ministry to power in June, 1846, he resumed 
 his post of Attorney-General, which he had quitted in 
 1841. This, however, he continued to hold but a very 
 short time — the death of Sir Nicholas C. Tindal, Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas, occurring in about a week 
 after this his second appointment, he was promoted to that 
 high position, was sworn in as a Member of the Privy 
 Council, and took his seat as Chief Justice on the 6th 
 July. He occupied this distinguished situation about four 
 years ; and the suavity of manner with which he conducted 
 the business of his Court, and the judgments which he had 
 to pronounce gave — as it was to be expected they would 
 do — universal satisfaction. His quick apprehension of 
 disputed points of practice, and immediate decision of 
 them, was one of the remarkable results of his early train- 
 -ing in that direction. 
 
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LORD TRURO. 141 
 
 On the formation of Lord John Eussell's Administra- 
 tion, in July, 1850, the Seals were delivered to him as Lord 
 Chancellor. These he accepted with very great reluctance. 
 He was also created a Peer by the title of Baron Truro of 
 Bowe's Manor, in the county of Middlesex. He filled with 
 great ability this most important and exalted office for 
 nearly two years, when, in 1852, the Conservative Party 
 agaiQ succeeded in obtaining office, and Lord St. Leonards 
 was appointed Chancellor in his place. Of course. Lord 
 Truro continued to sit in the Lords as a Baron, until 
 disabled from attending by his last illness, which lasted 
 for nearly two years, and which consequently necessitated 
 his absence from the House of Lords for the two Sessions 
 before his death. 
 
 He died on the 11th November, 1855, at his house in 
 Eaton Square, in the 74th year of his age, after a 
 protracted illness and much suffering, which he bore with 
 great firmness and equanimity. 
 
 He was twice married — firstly, to Mrs. Devaynes, the 
 widow of WiUiam Devaynes, Esq., the principal in the 
 great City and East India firm of Devaynes and Noble, 
 the bankers, on the 18th April, 1813, but who died in 
 1840. By her he had a large family. He married, 
 secondly, the Lady Augusta Emma d'Est^, the daughter 
 of the late Duke of Sussex. 
 
 She survived Lord Truro several years, and has only 
 recently deceased. 
 
 The personal attachment of both these ladies to the 
 object of my Sketch was most affectionate, and must be 
 accepted as the most convincing proof of the amiability of 
 his nature, his social and mental acquirements, and the 
 attractive powers of his conversation. 
 
 Thinking that, in the course of the preceding pages, I 
 have sufficiently commented upon his capacity and practice 
 
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142 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 as a Pleader and Counsel at the Bar, it only remains to 
 offer a few remarks upon his character on the Bench 
 as a Judge at Law and in Equity. 
 
 He took with him to the Bench the same indefatigable 
 industry and inexhaustible patience which had distinguished 
 him at the Bar. As Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 
 his character as a Judge fully bore out his eminence as a 
 Pleader. His first object as a Judge seems to have been 
 an earnest desire to arrive at what was really the true 
 state of the facts of a case, and to obtain this, however 
 complicated and entangled those facts were, his industry 
 was ceaseless, and seldom failed to enable him to arrive 
 at the truth. 
 
 The forms of pleading — the anxiety of a Counsel to 
 make his own case appear in the best light, and the natural 
 bias which he has iu favour of the client, who, for the time, 
 has intrusted perhaps his dearest interests to his keeping, 
 impels an Advocate to omit or to slur over some of the 
 important facts of his case. This has the effect of giving 
 a wrong colour to what is in reality the truth of the 
 case. This the experience of the Judge can alone rectify, 
 and in this respect the experience of Lord Truro was 
 unceasingly called into action. 
 
 There was never any doubt of his capacity to deal with 
 the facts, and to apply the rules of Law and Equity to 
 them when once ascertained, and the impartiality and 
 purity of his intentions were well known and confided in. 
 The only drawback to the exercise of these high quaHfica- 
 tions was the delay with which they were accompanied, 
 and this, no doubt, is a very material drawback to the due 
 administration of Justice. But the delay in his case was 
 not wilful, it arose wholly from his anxiety to arrive at the 
 truth. The same defect, if defect it was, prevailed with 
 him as a Judge as it did in his advocacy as a Pleader ; an 
 
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LORD TRURO. 143 
 
 over elaboration of the more immaterial facts of the case, 
 a dwelling upon minute circumstances -which in the opinion 
 of his hearers he enlarged upon into undue importance, as 
 bearing upon the general subject and the decision to be 
 arrived at. 
 
 Again, as a Judge he had no preferences amongst the 
 Advocates pleading before him. There was no one who 
 could be spoken of as having " the ear of the Court." 
 This has been not wholly imknown amongst us — and 
 I may remark that this undue preference works serious 
 injury to all parties concerned, more especially to the 
 parties to the cause whose interests are thus fearfully 
 prejudiced. If there was anything observable in Lord 
 Truro's demeanour as a Judge in this respect, it was 
 rather in his leaning in an opposite direction, for it has 
 been repeatedly my passing thoughts when observing the 
 progress of cases before him, that he was rather disposed 
 to keep " a tight hand," if I may so express myself, upon 
 those Advocates who, from their great practice and un- 
 doubted reputation at the Bar, might be supposed to have 
 an undue influence with the Judge. 
 
 In other respects all seemed to be upon an equality 
 before him, and as much attention paid to the youngest 
 aspirant as to the most experienced practitioner. 
 
 The same general remarks are applicable to Lord 
 Truro's conduct and demeanour, his indefatigable industry 
 and painstaking investigation of all the cases which came 
 before him as Lord Chancellor. Although the Common 
 Law and its practice had been in early years his almost 
 exclusive study, he brought to the consideration of Equity 
 cases the same clearness of apprehension and perception 
 of the issues raised by the pleadings and evidence, and of 
 the principles of Equity which were applicable to the cases 
 before him, as when Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 
 
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144 LORD TRURO. 
 
 Indeed, it may be considered as one of the cardinal 
 points in the composition of the character of an Equity- 
 Judge, that he should know and be well acquainted with 
 what the Common Law is, before he can enter upon the 
 investigation and exercise of equitable discretion as con- 
 tained in the recognized principles of Equity, which 
 enable the Judge to rectify and modify the harshness of 
 the principles of the Common Law. The want of this 
 strict Common Law knowledge and experience in Equity 
 practitioners, was well understood and explained by Lord 
 Eldon, — and his letters to his nephews, which I have before 
 alluded to, when recommending to them the study of Real 
 Property Law, and the principles of Conveyancing, 
 sufficiently testify to his right appreciation of the benefit 
 of this knowledge to the Chancery Practitioner. 
 
 Lord Truro's judgments as Chancellor were well con- 
 sidered, indeed with almost painful labour and exactitude, 
 to which his secretaries now living can bear ample testi- 
 mony. They were drawn up in writing after the most 
 mature consideration of all the facts of the case. 
 
 It has been said, and with some degree of correctness, 
 that Lord Truro at no time of his professional career was 
 a Law Reformer. 
 
 With the vast experience which he had, no one was 
 better able fully to realize the truth that change is not 
 reform ; and inasmuch as he believed many of the pro- 
 posed law reforms, as they were called, partook of an 
 anxiety for change rather than for reform or to improve, 
 this was undoubtedly the fact. The distinction and success 
 which he had attained in his early career were the fruits 
 of technical learning ; and his practice in Bankruptcy, and 
 as a solicitor in the Master's Offices in Chancery, indisposed 
 him to accept, without great reluctance, the changes con- 
 templated and proposed in these directions. And I sincerely 
 
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LORD TEUEO. 145 
 
 believe that it may very well be doubted whether that 
 change ia the administration of the Bankruptcy Law, 
 when the lists of Commissioners were dispensed with, — apd 
 in those laws themselves — and the abolishing the office of 
 Master in Chancery — are such miracles of reform and im- 
 provement, as the authors of those changes and the public 
 at large were disposed to look at with exultation. 
 
 The present state of the law as relates to Bankruptcy 
 is confessedly admitted, both by the Profession and the 
 public, to be in the very worst possible condition ; and the 
 choking up and overflow of business in the offices of the 
 Chief Clerks to the Equity Judges, who have assumed the 
 duties of the former Masters, is a deplorable state of things, 
 and deprecated by all who know anything of the matter. 
 In my humble opinion there never was a greater fallacy, 
 than the notion that an Equity Judge should "work out 
 his own decrees," as it is somewhat ridiculously termed. It 
 is as if a Common Law Judge should, immediately after a 
 verdict, step into the shoes of the Sheriff of the County, 
 and superintend the details of that Sheriff's duties. 
 
 StQl, when once convinced that the changes proposed 
 might be beneficial, or that it was expedient that public 
 opinion upon the subject should be complied with, no one 
 was more anxious and ready than Lord Truro, when he 
 had the power, to lend a helping hand to those more im- 
 mediately engaged In bringing about Law Reform. 
 
 To him we owe the granting of the Commission which 
 inquired into the jurisdiction, pleading, and practice in the 
 Court of Chancery, and their valuable Report, also the 
 Acts subsequently passed to carry into effect the measures 
 pointed out by that Report. The suppression of payment 
 by fees in the various offices of the Courts of Justice, and 
 the substitution of stamps for that purpose, was. In truth, a 
 great reform. The salaries of the Judges were placed 
 
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146 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 npon a more equitable and liberal footing. The institution 
 of the Court of the Lords Justices in matters of Appeal — 
 thus allowing the Chancellor more time for the exercise of 
 his duties as a Member of the Government, and a Peer 
 of Parliament — were a few of the many beneficial changes 
 which the public enjoy, and owe to him or to his zealous 
 co-operation. His opposition, however, to the enlarged 
 views of the admissibility of evidence which, a few years 
 back, if offered, would without fail have been rejected, and 
 to the Bills introduced by Lords Brougham and Denman, 
 making such evidence admissible, is not, however, to be 
 disputed; and It was owing, probably, to that pertiuaclty 
 and tenacity which formed part of his nature, to which his 
 struggles in the great question of Stochdale v. Hansard^ 
 before alluded to, as an example, may be attributed. 
 
 Shortly after his death. Lady Truro presented to the 
 House of Lords her husband's valuable and extensive 
 library of books and legal works, as a nucleus towards 
 the formation of a collection of judicial records for the 
 use of the Members of the House. This gift was graciously 
 accepted by the House ; and on the communication of this 
 her wish, by Lord Lansdowne, in March, 1859, many of 
 the Peers embraced the opportunity to pass very high 
 eulogiums on the virtues and character of the deceased 
 Peer. These, I believe, wiU, on perusal, ftiUy confirm what 
 I have ventured to narrate as to the Industry, purity of 
 motive, and benevolence of his character, In the several 
 circumstances to which I have referred. 
 
 In addition to these, and since the foregoing sheets 
 were In the press, I have received the permission of Sir 
 John Taylor Coleridge, D.C.L., late one of the Judges 
 of the Court of Queen's Bench, to append the following 
 extracts from a lecture delivered by Sir John at the 
 
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LORD TRURO. 147 
 
 Autumnal Session of the Exeter Literary Society, on 
 the 28th September, 1859. The lecture bore the title 
 of "My Recollections of the Western Circuit;" and 
 amongst many allusions to the Members of the Western 
 Circuit, with whom he had been associated, he notices 
 with especial prominence two who had been distinguished 
 ornaments of It— Lord Truro and Sir William Follett. 
 The remarks as to the former, are in accordance with 
 what I had before written ; and as Sir WiUiam Follett 
 was the firm and sworn friend of Lord Truro, although 
 often his opponent at the Bar, I have taken the Kberty 
 of inserting those relating to him. He says : — 
 
 " . . . . Wilde departed after having achieved 
 the highest honours of the profession ; and Follett the 
 too early victim of his own great success. 
 
 " I may be pardoned a few words on each of these dis- 
 tinguished individuals. Wilde was, indeed, a remarkable 
 man ; he had an Intellect acute even to subtlety ; but 
 somewhat wanting in the breadth a more complete educa- 
 tion, and more general acquaintance with literature might 
 have given. His reading, indeed, was most limited in kind 
 and quantity ; he had Industry which nothing could weary — 
 courage which nothing could daunt — ^perseverance which 
 shrunk from no difficulty. Thus by nature of a some- 
 what ungainly figure, and aspect far from prepossessing, 
 with a decided stammer in his articulation, he made him- 
 self a very influential speaker ; his action was graceful, 
 his declamation very seldom impeded, and his voice by 
 no means disagreeable — always clear in his statement — 
 and close in his reasoning ; he sometimes rose with the 
 occasion to a high strain of eloquence. He was complained 
 of as wearisome in the length of his examinations and of 
 his speeches ; but this was not because he indulged in 
 useless repetition, but because he saw every point in the 
 
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148 LORD TRURO. 
 
 CEise, and would not, or was unable to discriminate between 
 the great and the small. He would throw overboard 
 nothing ; the verdict was his object, and whether he won 
 it on a bye point, or on the broad merits, was nearly 
 indifferent to him. When a case took an unexpected turn, 
 he was not quick in changing his front, and adopting a 
 new line. In a great case he was seldom free from the 
 appearance of labour and sense of difficulty ; and in this 
 respect unfavourably distinguished from Sir James Scarlett 
 and FoUett, who always seemed to move at ease under the 
 heaviest burthens. As an Advocate no one ever more 
 faithfully discharged his duty to his client, compared with 
 this his own comfort, pleasures, health, weighed nothing. 
 It was difficult for such a man always to deal quite candidly 
 with his opponent ; yet I am bound to say that he was a 
 fair and honorable practitioner, whose word might be 
 implicitly relied on. I remember a saying of his which 
 is worth repeating in any assembly of men engaged in 
 the conflicts of the world. ' I never,' said he, ' despise any 
 opponent, so as to become careless ; I never fear any, so 
 as to become unnerved.' Respecting, as I do sincerely, 
 the attorneys as a class, I may yet say it was his mis- 
 fortune to have practised as an attorney so long as he did ; 
 no doubt it conduced in many ways to his early and great 
 success, but it prejudiced him when that success was attained. 
 The difficulties which he had encountered and overcome in 
 early life left their impress too tightly and closely on his 
 whole nature, when he should have had a more unfettered 
 step, and taken a wider view ; and his mind was so intensely 
 fixed on details at the age when our faculties are most 
 expansive and supple, that he had not afterwards the ftdl 
 power of embracing the entirety of a great subject, which 
 even at the Bar was often required of him, and which 
 hia station made afterwards indispensable to perfect 
 
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LORD TEUEO. 149 
 
 success — a power which, under other circumstances, would 
 surely have been found in one who had his strength and 
 grasp of intellect. 
 
 "Let me add, in conclusion, what is even of more 
 importance than all his success in life, that he was a 
 liberal, kindhearted man, a fast friend ; and that, when it 
 fell to his lot to dispense patronage, especially in the 
 Church, no man made his appointments with less reference 
 to party politics, or a more sincere desire of choosing his 
 objects well. 
 
 " With Follett I had more familiar relations. I saw his 
 whole course, standing near to it in its commencement and 
 up to my quitting the Bar; I was deeply interested in 
 observing it, and I early predicted his future eminence. 
 No man, I suppose, ever had, or desired to have, success 
 more complete in proportion to the time he was in the 
 Profession : had his health been continued to him, he 
 would have entirely filled up the place at the Bar which 
 Sir James Scarlett had left, and, I think, still leaves 
 unfilled ; he wanted his literature, his science, his variety 
 of legal learning, and his great experience not only in 
 legal practice but in general life ; but he was his equal in 
 the ready appreciation of facts, and in the soundness of his 
 legal principles. He would, I think, have become even a 
 better speaker, for he was equally natural, and apparently 
 free from artifice, and yet was more capable of earnest and 
 sustained declamation ; his voice was sweet, his action good. 
 In the conduct of a case he was singularly ingenious, 
 handy, self-possessed, and free from embarrassment, when 
 things took an unexpected turn ; he never seemed to 
 labour, never to be negligent or indifierent. The charac- 
 teristic power of his mind lay in his sound common sense ; 
 he disregarded subtle and merely formal distinctions, and 
 seized on the governing fact^ of every case, and the 
 
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150 LORD TEUEO. 
 
 principle in every decision. He was popular as a Junior 
 and still more so as a Leader — his sweetness and simplicity, 
 and heartiness of manner ensured this ; his thoroughly 
 good temper, and when it was needed, his hearty friend- 
 liness. No man seemed to grudge him his great success. 
 I once appeared before him as Assessor to the Lord 
 Warden in an important Stannary Cause, and saw him as 
 a Judge ; I believe that had he lived to preside either in 
 Law or Equity, he would have earned a reputation not 
 inferior to that of any one who had preceded him. But 
 his frame was not a strong one, and he taxed it beyond 
 the endurance of the strongest. I think the last time I 
 saw him in public was in the House of Lords in the Sussex 
 Peerage Case,* when in remarkable condescension to his 
 infirmities, the seats of the Peers and Judges were brought 
 down near to the Bar; behind it a stool was placed on 
 which he sat during his argument. 
 
 " I say nothing of him as a Member of the Lower House ; 
 many of you know what a position he fiUed there. It is 
 much to be lamented that neither as a Lawyer or a 
 Legislator has he left any lasting monument behind him of 
 his great abilities ; the gainful business of the day swallowed 
 him up. Like ' a weU-graced actor,' the admired one of his 
 day, he lives only in the recollections of one fleeting 
 generation who saw him — we have a distinct idea of him, 
 as our fathers had of Garrick ; henceforward a mere tra- 
 dition of him will remain — tradition becoming every year 
 more uncertain, obscure, indiscriminate." 
 
 In conclusion, I only refer to the accompanying photo- 
 
 * My readers may remember that Serjeant Wilde conducted 
 this cause on the part of Colonel d'Este, the brother of Lady 
 Truro. 
 
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LOED TEUEO. 151 
 
 graph as being a striking likeness of this very eminent 
 Lawyer and excellent man, remarking that to the print 
 from which it was taken, now in the Benchers' Koom at 
 Lincohi's Inn, is attached his Lordship's signature as a 
 token of his approval of it. 
 
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Sir Francis Grant, Pinx. 
 
 S. Ayling, Photo. 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, &e.. 1859. 
 
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( 153 ) 
 
 Sketch V. 
 
 LORD CAMPBELL, 
 
 It may, at first sight, appear to be almost an act of 
 presumption to attempt a sketch of the life of one who 
 was himself the author of the " Lives of all the Lord 
 Chancellors and those of all the Chief Justices of England," 
 but if ever a humble tribute was due to the patient per- 
 severance and unceasing industry of any one, it is most 
 certainly due to the subject of my present sketch — John, 
 Lord Campbell. It has so happened that my personal 
 reminiscences are few in number — scarcely perhaps worthy 
 of a recital, but as one of a host of distinguished men, 
 appearing about the same time in the legal hemisphere, it 
 is not to be supposed that his career was unnoticed, or 
 that some of the peculiarities of his advance to the highest 
 honours of the Profession did not leave their impress upon 
 my mind. 
 
 It has often occurred to me when meeting him, as I 
 have done repeatedly, plodding his weary way of an 
 evening from Westminster back to his Chambers in the 
 Temple, that he might be likened to a traveller who 
 having a journey of one or two hundred miles before him, 
 terminating in a laborious and tiresome ascent, thought it 
 totally imnecessary to measure the trajSt by miles, but did 
 so by inches, and that each inch passed was one more sure 
 and certain step to the attainment of the end of his 
 labours. 
 
 It has been said of him, " that he was a striking example 
 
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154 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 of industry and integrity, conducting to eminent success, 
 and of political consistency based on enlightened and 
 moderate views — ^views at all times compatible witb a 
 generous toleration of the sentiments entertained by others, 
 and commanding general confidence and esteem." 
 
 I do not profess to be an unconditional subscriber to 
 these laudatory comments, thinking these qualifications 
 appeared in a much more striking light in the lives of 
 some of those whom I have hereinbefore presumed to 
 sketch. 
 
 Plain John Campbell — his own description of himself 
 before the electors of Edinburgh when a candidate for 
 their suflFrages in May, 1834 — was born on the 16th 
 September, 1779, at Cupar, in Fife, being the second son 
 of the Kev. Dr. George Campbell, for more than fifty 
 years pastor of the congregation of that place. The son 
 was at the usual age placed at the college of St. Andrew's, 
 and was contemporary there with the subsequently cele- 
 brated Dr. Thomas Chalmers. No doubt he there imbibed 
 all the rudiments of a practical, careful, and sound education. 
 The determination, however, that the young Scotchman 
 should " go South" seems to have been very early formed, 
 as he appears to have left the North for the Capital of 
 England when of the age of nineteen. He is said to 
 have been passenger in the same " smack" with a no less 
 celebrated author in after time, who remarked at the end 
 of the voyage that whatever pursuit in life young Campbell 
 should be pleased to choose, even if it were that of a 
 dancing master, he would most certainly succeed in it. 
 
 On his arrival in London he seems to have immediately 
 entered himself a Student of Lincoln's Inn ; the entry of 
 his admission there as such bearing date the 5th November, 
 1800. He, at the same time, became the pupil of Mr. 
 Warren, then in great repute as a Special Pleader, and 
 
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LOED CAMPBELL. 155 
 
 under whose instructions many eminent men received the 
 rudiments and foundation of their legal education. 
 
 Without presuming to suppose that he was in the con- 
 dition of Scott's " Richard Moniplies," he himself tells us, 
 that he was at this time " poor and obscure ;" but his 
 indomitable energy never failed him, and having formed 
 an acquaintance with the then proprietors of the Morning 
 Chronicle newspaper, he was employed by them in various 
 ways upon that publication, amongst others as Theatrical 
 Critic ; and whatever he undertook, there is no doubt he 
 most conscientiously and with diligence performed. 
 
 He was called to the Bar of Lincoln's Inn, in Michael- 
 mas Term, 1806, and shortly afterwards commenced his 
 attendance in Court, as a Law Reporter. 
 
 His " Reports of Cases," which extend from Michaelmas 
 Term, 1807, to the Sittings after Hilary Term, 1816, 
 published subsequently in four volumes, were ia their 
 day invaluable to the Legal Profession, and even now are 
 often quoted in the Courts. They bear unmistakable 
 marks of intense industry and judicious selection, and 
 were highly approved of and encouraged by Lord EUen- 
 borough. There is a story told of him, which is believed 
 to be correct, that he put by themselves ia a drawer, all 
 the decisions which he at the time considered to be had law, 
 and refrained from reporting the cases in which they were 
 pronounced. 
 
 During these nine years, business gradually but steadily 
 flowed in, and he began to have considerable practice in 
 Criminal Cases at the Old Bailey, to which circumstance 
 he adverted with becoming pride in the House of Commons, 
 in 1836. 
 
 This accumulation of business prevented his continuing 
 his Reports, and they terminated as before mentioned in 
 1816. He was the first who printed the names of the 
 
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156 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 Solicitors in the cause at the end of the Report, and was 
 attacked on that account as having done so from interested 
 motives to please the Solicitors, and attract business to 
 himself ; but there can be no question that it was, and is, 
 a most useful and judicious plan, as in after years, when an 
 Advocate or Solicitor may have a somewhat similar case 
 before him, it is sometimes of the greatest consequence to 
 get access to the papers in the case reported, and which 
 can readily be supplied by the Solicitors so indicated, or 
 their successors. The practice has been adopted by our 
 present high authorities In law reporting, and to them, at 
 least. It cannot be supposed that any Interested views can 
 for a moment be attributed. 
 
 From this time he pursued the even tenor of his way, 
 awaiting without misgiving the arrival of the turning poiat 
 which always attends the advance of a successftd barrister. 
 It was a course of patient, quiet, professional Industry, of 
 laborious diligence, and self-restraint. 
 
 The turning point before alluded to was unquestionably 
 his marriage in 1821 with Mary Elizabeth, the eldest 
 daughter of the then leader of the Profession, Sir James 
 Scarlett, afterwards Lord Ablnger. To this he owed In a 
 very great measure his subsequent elevation and prosperity. 
 
 He received his silk gown In Trinity Term, 1827, and 
 was thereupon elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, having 
 never been distinguished behind the Bar, but was well 
 known as a painstaking and efficient junior. Thence- 
 forward his business and his ambition began to increase, 
 and he seriously turned his thoughts towards Parliamentary 
 honours. 
 
 On the death of George IV., In June, 1830, he became 
 a candidate in the foUowiag month for the representation 
 of the borough of Stafford, and was most warmly supported 
 In his canvass there by his relative Major Scarlett. He 
 
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LOED CAMPBELL. 157 
 
 succeeded in being returned as one of its members, being 
 at this time forty-niae years of age. He sat for this 
 borough during the years 1830 and 1831. 
 
 On his entry into the House of Commons he became a 
 shrewd observer of all its forms and modes of proceeding, 
 and soon made himself fully acquainted with them. He 
 was at first singularly cautious as to addressing the 
 assembly, but watched carefully and anxiously for a fitting 
 opportunity to do so. His sedulous attention to his Parlia- 
 mentary duties, and shrewd common sense soon however 
 marked him out as an advantageous and useful ally of the 
 Whig party, and it was early foretold that he would be 
 one of its most prominent members. 
 
 The primary and great object of his ambition appears, 
 at this time, to have been to originate and carry through 
 a measure — one of great importance — for the general regis- 
 tration of deeds. He had already, in 1828, been appointed 
 to the head of the Commission which had been constituted 
 with a view to enquire into the feasibility of various 
 plans which had been suggested for this purpose. The 
 Commission had made a very valuable report upon the sub- 
 ject, and in favour of the principle of a general registration. 
 He, accordingly, on the first day of the Session, the 21st 
 of December, 1831, brought in his Bill " For establish- 
 ing a General Register for all Deeds and Instruments 
 affecting Real Property in England and Wales." The 
 principle of his Bill he described as being, that some one 
 public place should be provided where all deeds and docu- 
 ments affecting real property should be registered and open 
 to inspection, and that, in the details to work out this 
 principle, simplicity and brevity had been most anxiously 
 studied, in adapting the BiU to the then existing regulations. 
 The introduction of this measure produced, as a necessary 
 consequence, the opposition of the landed interest throughout 
 
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158 LORD CAMPBELL, 
 
 the country, and of all those who, as Solicitors or Convey- 
 ancers, thought they would be aflfected by its provisions. 
 He had to complain in the House, so early as the following 
 February, that gross misrepresentations had gone forth 
 respecting the nature of his Bill. It is hardly necessary 
 at this time, to state of what the details of this measure 
 consisted — the principle having since, by the great exer- 
 tions and talents of Lord Westbury, been so triumphantly 
 vindicated, and the general object of Campbell's Bill 
 attained under the sanction of the legislature, as a means 
 for voluntary registration on the part of the public. The 
 complaints which Mr. Campbell made of the misrepresenta- 
 tions propagated against his Bill was not without suflScient 
 foundation, and, as a specimen of his opponents' proceedings, 
 he read to the House a resolution which had been published 
 in one of the provincial newspapers of the day, to this 
 effect : — " Resolved, that Attorneys, Solicitors, and Convey- 
 ancers have a vested right in all the lands in England, which 
 will be greatly prejudiced by Mr. Campbell's Register BiU, 
 and that the said Bill be therefore opposed as tyrannical, 
 unjust, and unconstitutional." The opposition, however, 
 was too powerful, and he was eventually obliged to withdraw 
 the Bill. He seems to have been greatly disappointed at 
 this result, and at the indifference vnth which the question 
 had been received by all parties, on both sides of the 
 House, and he vented his disappointment in several speeches, 
 the tenor of which was, that "he was the victim of an 
 organized opposition." 
 
 He shortly afterward introduced Bills for the amendment 
 of the law, which met with more success. To amend the 
 law respecting inheritance and descent — ^respecting dower 
 — the courtesy of England — fines and recoveries — and 
 limitations of actions. These were all most important 
 measures — well considered by the Commission on Real 
 
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LORD CAMPBELL. 159 
 
 Property Law, from which they had, in fact, emanated, 
 and, in a clear lucid manner, he explained their several 
 provisions, and the benefits which would accrue to the 
 general public from their enactment. These have become 
 part of the law of the land, and their importance recog- 
 nized by every one. Indeed, a more convincing proof could 
 not be adduced of their contemplated beneficial efiect, than 
 by the fact, that the introduction of these BiUs was seconded 
 by Sir Edward Sugden, and supported by Sir Charles 
 Wetherell and Sir Kobert Peel, aU then in opposition to 
 the Government. 
 
 In the same month, he first announced himself as one of 
 the decided supporters of the then great Government measure 
 introduced by Lord John KusseU — the Reform Bill, — and 
 to his energetic support of this measure may, in a great 
 measure, be ascribed his subsequent and early promotion. 
 In support of his argument, however, when announcing his 
 adhesion to Eeform and the necessity for the passing of the 
 BiU before the country — he made a statement in a manner 
 which, to ears polite, must have sounded somewhat strangely. 
 He said he had lately been visiting several Counties, and he 
 there found all classes, high and low, rich and poor, quite in 
 favour of the BiU. The people approved of it because they 
 hoped that it would have the effect of giving them " cheaper 
 lyread andheer, and higher wages." On the second reading, 
 he niade a most effective and lengthy speech in favour of the 
 Bill. His description of the mode in which a Member of 
 Parliament had been theretofore manufactured, is a good 
 sample of Lord Campbell's jocular strain, which, however, 
 it must be confessed was, upon the whole, rather heavy. 
 He said the mode was this : — " A Solicitor of Lincoln's Inn 
 took down with him six friends In a post-chaise — ^that Is, he 
 took six pieces of parchment, which would constitute as many 
 voters, and by the aid of these pieces of parchment, the 
 
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160 LOED CAMPBELL. 
 
 Member was made. The six bits of parchment were 
 delivered to the nominal voters — the election took place — 
 the Members were returned, and the bits of parchment were 
 replaced in the green bag — the Solicitor and his friends 
 replaced themselves in the post-chaise, and returned to Lon- 
 don, having performed the duties of electors of Old Sarum, 
 and sent a representative to that House, not one inhabitant 
 or resident in Old Sarum having had anything to do with- 
 the matter." And, doubtless, it would have been a marvel 
 if they had — ^inasmuch as the only house at Old Sarum was 
 a pubhc-house, inhabited by its solitary landlord and his 
 family. 
 
 He also took a very active and prominent part — and 
 this, no doubt, he did with an object — ^in the discussions 
 which arose on the clauses of the Reform Bill, as they were 
 presented by Government for the consideration of the 
 House — never failing to give them the most favourable 
 construction which they would bear, and shewing himself 
 to the world more as a partisan of the Government, than 
 an independent Member of Parliament. On one occasion, 
 in answer to a phiUipIc of Mr. O'Connell to the effect that 
 the public were dissatisfied with the slow progress which 
 the Bill had made, Mr. Campbell said, he felt it his duty to 
 declare that, in his opinion, the complaints of unreasonable 
 delay were most unfounded. The people were not aware 
 of the difficulties which arose in discussing the BiU. They 
 should consider, that schedules A and B had been passed in 
 as short a time, as it had before taken Parliament to disfran- 
 chise a single Borough. If the people were patient, and 
 placed confidence in the House, they would soon find cause 
 to be satisfied. 
 
 In May, 1832, he voted in favour of the Abolition of 
 Capital Pimishments, and on Sir Edward Bulwer's motion 
 for a Commission "to inquire into the Law respecting 
 
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LORD CAMPBELL. ^ 161 
 
 Dramatic Performances, and the performance of the 
 Drama," with a view to the abolition of the grant of 
 patents to the two principal theatres, he voted for the 
 appointment of the Committee, saying, that there should 
 be " free-trade in theatres, as well as in everything else." 
 He was also in favour of the abolition of the tax on News- ■ 
 papers, remarking, that he hoped to see the day when, as 
 in the time of the Spectator and Tatler^ they would be pub- 
 lished at the price of one halfpenny each, and which desire 
 he lived to see realized. On a question, that the public had 
 a right to be present at the sittings of all Courts of Justice, 
 he said, that there should be no appearance of anything 
 approaching to secrecy in their Courts — ^particularly the 
 Coroner's Court — ^that the Court of King's Bench had 
 recently decided, that Magistrates sitting in Petty Session 
 formed an open Court, and that the public were entitled 
 to admission, blackguards and all. On the clause which 
 provided that the Revising Barristers should be remunerated 
 by a payment at the rate of five pounds per day, he observed 
 that pounds were wholly imknown in Westminster Hall. 
 He thought the alteration, from guineas to pounds, would 
 excite an insurrection amongst the Members of the Bar, 
 and moved that it shoi;Jd be five guineas per day. This 
 amendment was adopted by the House. 
 
 In September, 1831, he again Introduced a Bill for 
 the General Eegistration of Deeds. 
 
 On the discussion of the Bill brought In by the Govern- 
 ment, for abolishing the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, 
 he said, he highly approved of the measure, and that his 
 vote would be a perfectly disinterested one, because the 
 office of Chief Baron was one which he was, by law, com- 
 petent to hold, and the duties of which, perhaps, without 
 overweening confidence^ he might consider himself not un- 
 qualified to discharge, and it would, undoubtedly, be very 
 
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162 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 agreeable, if, in his old age, he should be appointed to an 
 oflfice which, with a salary of £4,000 a year, would impose 
 upon him no further trouble than to dispose of five causes in 
 four years. That, certainly, would be otium cum dignitate. 
 
 On many other occasions, during these two first years 
 of his Parliamentary life, he interposed several judicious 
 remarks and comments upon various subjects then of press- 
 ing interest — such as the Pilgrim Tax in India, when he 
 asserted a truism which should never be lost sight of, that 
 conversion to Christianity was not to be enforced by penal- 
 ties and severities, and that a due deference should be paid 
 to the reUgious feelings and habits of the natives — the Case 
 of Bribery at Liverpool — the Commutation of Tithes, and 
 others which have passed, or are passing, into oblivion. 
 
 But now commenced an era in which he was to be 
 called to more onerous and responsible duties. 
 
 On the 7th of May, 1832, the "Whig Government, 
 led by Lord Grey, resigned oflS.ce, on being left in a 
 minority in the Lords, on a clause in the Eeform Bill. 
 They, however, speedily resumed the Government on their 
 own terms — that was, the passing of the Reform Bill, 
 without further opposition. A Dissolution of Parliament 
 consequently took place, and Mr. Campbell was returned 
 Member for Dudley, in Worcestershire. In December of 
 that year, he was selected to fill the ofiice of Solicitor- 
 General, and knighted. This oflfice he held until Feb- 
 ruary, 1834, retaining his seat for Dudley. He was then 
 appointed Attorney-General. He thereupon appeared again 
 before his former constituents, at Dudley, but failed in 
 obtaining their suffrages — certain intemperate expressions, 
 at his former election, having displeased many of the in- 
 influential electors, who now seriously resented them to 
 his prejudice. He was, however, returned for Edinburgh, 
 and held the distinguished post of Attorney-General, with 
 
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LOKD CAMPBELL. 163 
 
 a slight Interruption in 1835, until June, 1844. He was, 
 therefore, a Member of the House of Commons for about 
 fifteen years, and Law Adviser of the Government, as 
 Solicitor and Attorney-General, for about twelve years. 
 
 As Member of Parliament, the part which he took in 
 the discussion of the several subjects introduced during the 
 years 1830, 1831, and 1832, was by far the most import- 
 ant in his Parliamentary career, and although he did not 
 shrink from taking his due share in subsequent years, 
 in the discussion of various measures before the House, his 
 official duties were, perhaps, of so onerous a character as 
 to limit the scope of his Parliamentary labours. 
 
 His success at the Bar during this period was all that a 
 prosperous Barrister could desire. His career was not bril- 
 liant, but eminently practical and remunerative. The 
 causes in which he was employed were, many of them, of 
 considerable pubUc interest at the time, such as: — The case 
 of Norton v. Lord Melbourne^ then Prime Minister — the trial 
 of Medhurst — The Queen v. Lawson (the case of the Times 
 n6wspaper)^-and that in the House of Lords, on the trial 
 of Lord Cardigan, for firing, with a loaded pistol, at 
 Mr. Tuckett, — in other words, a regular duel between these 
 parties, on Wimbledon Common — the prosecutions before 
 the Special Commission, at Monmouth, in January, 1840 — 
 his speech for the Crown on the trial of Hetherington, for 
 a blasphemous libel, as vilifying the Christian religion, and 
 others. 
 
 To those of my readers who are inclined to know more 
 of the particulars of these several trials, the part which 
 Sir John Campbell took in them, and the speeches de- 
 livered, I would refer them to the Collection of his Speeches, 
 published by him in 1842. 
 
 During the period of his holding the office of Attorney- 
 General, I find an anecdote in one of my note books to 
 
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164 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 the following effect : — It was a custom of the East India 
 Company, and which had existed almost from the time of 
 its first Charter, in the reign of EHzabeth, that presents 
 of small chests of a peculiar kind of tea should be made, 
 at Christmas, to several members of the Government, and, 
 amongst others, to the Attorney and Solicitor-General for 
 the time being, and aU those who had held those offices. 
 In the year 1833, an Act was passed which abolished aU 
 the exclusive commercial privileges of the East India Com- 
 pany, and it went on to direct a sale and conversion, of all 
 their warehouses, stock-in-trade, &c., &c., into cash, so 
 completely so, that whereas, theretofore, not a pound of 
 tea could be purchased in all .Great Britain but what had 
 previously passed through the Company's Warehouses, and 
 been disposed of at their periodical sales, a single chest was 
 not shortly afterwards to be found in their stores. The 
 Bm, when introduced, had passed through its various stages, 
 not without considerable opposition on the part of the 
 Company; and the law officers of the Crown, Sir John 
 Campbell being Attorney-General, were continually con- 
 sulted, and made acquainted with every phase of the 
 contested Bill, and various voluminous papers from time 
 to time laid before them. It might naturally have been 
 supposed that the Attorney-General was cognizant of the 
 effect of these enactments. The Act received the Royal 
 assent on the 28th of August, and, forthwith, came into 
 operation. Upon some important legal question, in which 
 the Company was interested, it was necessary to have a 
 consultation, at the house of Sir John Campbell, when 
 Attorney-General, in Spring Gardens. We had hardly 
 commenced a statement of the facts of the case in hand, 
 when the Attorney-General, interrupting, said to the Com- 
 pany's SoUcitor, " By-the-bye, L , you have never sent 
 
 me my Christmas-box — my chest of tea. How is that?" 
 
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LOED CAMPBELL. 165 
 
 Of course the explanation was, that there was not a single 
 pound of tea in all the India House, and Mr. Attorney had 
 to endure the sly jokes and suppressed laughter of all pre- 
 sent cognizant of this fact. Indeed, their dearth of tea 
 was so completely and literally the case that, having to 
 settle the draft of a long Answer in Chancery, with the 
 then Secretary, Sir James C. Melvill, we were obliged to 
 refresh ourselves with coffee^ as no tea was to be had. 
 
 I reserve a few observations, as concluding remarks, 
 on his character and career as Barrister, and as to the event 
 which closed his career as such. This was, in its nature, 
 so very extraordinary and unprecedented, that we may 
 well wish "never to see the like again." I mean his 
 appointment to the Bench as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. 
 To avoid error, I abridge the account of it which appeared 
 at the time in a contemporary legal publication, believing 
 it, as I do, to be substantially correct. The publication 
 alluded to was the Law Magazine and Law Review.^ for 
 February, 1853 :— 
 
 " The circumstances connected with the transaction to 
 which we refer were, at the time, the subject of much 
 remark, and cannot be remembered without a smile. 
 The Cabinet, upon the popularity and prosperity of 
 which depended aU the hopes of its indefatigable 
 Attorney-General, finding itself, about the middle of the 
 year 1841 in an exceedingly precarious position, naturally 
 felt anxious to provide for the dignity and emolument of 
 a high legal functionary, who had long and zealously 
 served the state. The plan originally proposed for the 
 attainment of this end was the enactment of a Statute 
 "For facilitating the Administration of Justice in Equity;" 
 but unfortunately it had been found necessary, in the pre- 
 ceding year, to abandon that scheme in consequence of 
 difiSculties arising with reference to a satisfactory distribu- 
 
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166 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 tion of the patronage which must have been created by 
 the success of the measure. The subject, however, was 
 once more submitted to the consideration of the House 
 of Commons by Lord John Russell, who, when he found 
 that Parliament would not admit of its provisions being 
 brought into operation until a few months had elapsed, 
 with some impatience and haste threw up the Bill. 
 
 " The simple and fair suggestion made to the Minister 
 was, that the appointments under the Act should be de- 
 ferred until a new Parhament had assembled. It was 
 neither desirable, nor consistent with political usage, that 
 a new and untried modification of the judicial system of 
 the country should be carried into effect by a Ministry 
 which was on the eve of retiring from power, and of being 
 thus withdrawn from all ofiicial responsibilty; and, accord- 
 ingly, the current of public opinion ran very strongly 
 against the motives of the Ministry in its mode of dealing 
 with its own "Administration of Justice BiU." The 
 Ministry could not but anticipate their speedy fall. That, 
 however, was no good reason for a vigorous Attorney- 
 General permitting himself to be buried in its ruins ; and 
 yet such had very nearly been the fate of Sir John 
 Campbell. Confiding in the goodwill and power of the 
 Minister to elevate him to judicid.1 station, he had taken 
 no precautions to secure his re-election as representative 
 of Edinburgh; so that when the "Administration of 
 Justice BiU" was withdrawn, he stood, as perhaps he 
 would have said, " Betwixt the de'il and the deep sea." 
 But hope had not expired, for Lord Plunkett was still 
 ahve. K the Irish Chancellor, venerable for his years, 
 his eloquence, and the association of his name with much 
 that is great in the intellectual history of his country, 
 could be quietly moved aside, Sir John Campbell might 
 take his place, and the political puzzle be solved. The 
 
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LORD CAMPBELL. 167 
 
 most distlnguislied Member of the English Bar might well 
 have been proud to hold the seals which dropped from the 
 hands of one of Ireland's true patriots and orators ; but, on 
 this occasion, those seals were vjrested from his grasp. The 
 negotiation which was immediately opened with his Lord- 
 ship, on the part of the Government, proved in the first 
 instance unsuccessM. Lord Plunkett considered it due to 
 the character of the Irish Bar to decline being a party to any 
 arrangement by which Sir John Campbell, however emi- 
 nent he might be for his knowledge of the Common Law, 
 should be placed at the head of the Equity branch of juris- 
 prudence in Ireland; while, at the same time, he felt the 
 greatest reluctance to sanction a series of proceedings which 
 the public could not but consider as a flagrant job. The 
 affair began to assume a serious aspect; the Government 
 was urgent, the Irish Chancellor was perverse, and the 
 English Attorney-General was uneasy about the possible 
 issue of the conflict. Never had a servant of the Crown 
 discharged his official duties with more learning and tact, 
 with more ability and zeal, than had Sir John Campbell 
 duriag five long and laborious years. His right, according 
 to political and professional etiquette, to advancement was 
 unquestionable ; his claims were paramount, and such the 
 Ministry admitted them to be; but men of honour in- 
 stinctively shrink from undue precipitancy in unceremo- 
 niously dismissing one public servant simply to make room 
 for another. No time, however, could be lost, and more 
 energetic measures were accordingly adopted. There was 
 Indignation in Dublin and distraction in Edinburgh : even 
 the address of his colleague, Mr. Macaulay, had been for a 
 few days withheld, in the hope of his receiving Intelligence 
 as to the course contemplated by the Attorney-General, 
 with a view to their starting fairly abreast and reaching the 
 goal togetljer In triumph. 
 
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168 , LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 " It was at this critical moment that Lord Ebrington 
 appeared upon the scene, and succeeded in extorting jfrom 
 Lord Plunkett the resignation of his high office. The 
 communication of the Lord Lieutenant, though in form a 
 request, was in substance and spirit a command. No Judge, 
 no man of honour, could, without degradation, hold for a 
 single day the Irish Seals after having received the letter 
 of Lord Ebrington, who requested as a particular favour to 
 himself that Lord Plunkett should resign, and condescended 
 to enforce his application by an allusion, in no ambiguous 
 terms, to the many favours which had been conferred by 
 the Government upon the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. A 
 remonstrance from such a quarter, and couched in such 
 language, was decisive. Lord Plunkett inunediately put 
 himself into communication with Lord Melbourne, and 
 forwarded to the Home Office his resignation of the Irish 
 Seals. 
 
 " That the official position of Sir John Campbell was 
 at this period sufficiently perplexing may be inferred from 
 the fact that on the 17th of June he solicited the suffrages 
 of the citizens of Edinburgh, and on the 18th he was 
 actually Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Within a few days 
 he was elevated to the Peerage. 
 
 " In the meantime Lord Plunkett was not allowed to 
 withdraw in silence : words of respect and sympathy 
 met him on all hands ; and if any circumstance could 
 have soothed the irritation and chagrin produced on 
 his mind by the haste and wanton harshness with which 
 .his resignation was pressed upon him, he must have been 
 in some measure reconciled to his lot by the language 
 addressed to him, on the part of the Irish Bar, by 
 Mr. Serjeant Greene, who, as representing that body, 
 expressed the deep sense which every member enter- 
 tained of the ability, learning, patience, and assiduity 
 
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LORD CAMPBELL. 169 
 
 wUcli had marked hia lordship's admlniatration of the 
 high office which he had so long filled with honour to 
 himself and to the Profession. In the course of the very 
 brief remarks which dropped from his Lordship in reply, 
 he, after alluding to the fact that the advanced period of 
 life at which he had arrived must, of itself, have induced 
 him at no distant period, and independently of the events 
 which had happened, to retire from public life, observed : 
 ' With regard to the particular circumstances which have 
 occasioned my retirement, I think it a duty which I owe 
 to myself, and to the Members of the Bar to state, that 
 for my retirement, on this occasion, I am not in the 
 smallest degree answerable. I have neither directly 
 nor indirectly sanctioned it, and in giving my assent to 
 the proposal which was made to me of retiring, I was 
 governed solely by its having been requested of me as 
 a personal favour to do so by a person to whom I owe 
 such deep obligations that an irresistible sense of grati- 
 tude made it impossible for me to do anything but what 
 I have done.' 
 
 "The exit necessary to the regular development 
 of the plot in the progress of this politico-judicial inter- 
 lude having been arranged, the piece, supported by 
 the coolness and skill of the actors, ran on smoothly 
 and successfully to its very pleasant dinouement — the re- 
 tirement of the hero into private life, with a pension 
 of £4,000 per annum.* The very strong feeling of dis- 
 satisfaction which prevailed among professional men In 
 Ireland could not be concealed. The junior members of 
 the Irish Bar were roused into indignation at a proceeding 
 which they chose to Interpret as an insult to their 
 
 * This, however, was literally the fact, although it is uhderstood 
 that Sir John Campbell declined to receive— and never did receive— 
 this retiring pension. 
 
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170 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 entire bodjj nor were they altogether restrained from 
 the expression of their sentiments by their graver and 
 more calculating seniors. With more zeal than discre- 
 tion, a requisition, to which the latter class declined 
 being a party, was prepared and signed by the young 
 Barristers ; and in furtherance of it, a meeting was 
 held at the " Four Courts," with a view to taking into 
 consideration the measures which ought to be adopted 
 in consequence of the appointment of Lord Campbell to 
 the Irish Seals. These gentlemen repudiated the notion 
 that their remonstrance could be regarded as unconsti- 
 tutional; it was, they maintained, demanded by every 
 consideration of self-defence, inasmuch as the privileges 
 of the Bar had been infringed. Whatever difference 
 of opinion may exist concerning the policy or impru- 
 dence of the course pursued by these individuals, and 
 the principle of selection which they would have pre- 
 scribed to the Ministry of the day, there can be no 
 doubt that in Dublin a very strong feeling prevailed 
 against the appointment of Lord Campbell to the tish 
 Seals. Those who were unwilling to withhold from him 
 the tribute of praise which he had earned by his industry 
 and talents, could not be reconciled to the unscrupulous 
 precipitancy vdth which the arrangements had been con- 
 cluded. The notoriously precarious position of the 
 Cabinet gave much meaning and weight to the storm 
 of discontent, amounting in some instances to disgust, 
 which burst forth from the public press of England 
 and Ireland. So deep was the unfavourable impression 
 produced upon the minds of Tory, Whig, and Radical, 
 that much lukewarmness was anticipated on behalf of 
 the Ministerial interest at the elections, which were not 
 far distant. But while all these explosions of patriotic 
 and professional wrath had well-nigh frightened the isle 
 
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LOSD CAilPBELL. 171 
 
 from its propriety, Lord Campbell was quietly preparing 
 himself for a visit to Ireland ; a visit which he knew was 
 to be a very short one, and which, although it could not 
 fail to assume, with reference to some of its accompani- 
 ments, a sort of mock solemnity, he further knew was to 
 be followed by a speedy retirement and a substantial 
 reward. Accordingly, on the 28th of June, Lord Camp- 
 bell landed at Kingston, and proceeded to the Irish capital. 
 On the 2nd of July the inner and outer Bars of the Court 
 of Chancery were crowded with members of the Profes- 
 sion, all anxious to catch a glimpse of Lord Plunkett's 
 successor. The new Chancellor having entered the 
 Court, about eleven o'clock, intimated that he could only 
 hear short causes before closing the sittings : he heard one 
 or two such causes ; and, on the following day, along with 
 the sittings, closed the judicial career in Ireland of Lord 
 Campbell. 
 
 " Before the end of July he had taken his departure 
 for England, leaving behind him not one single trace of 
 official duties discharged or public benefits conferred. At 
 the conclusion of the sittings, no doubt after Term, he 
 delivered an address to the Bar on the necessity of reform 
 in the administration of justice in Courts of Equity, a topic 
 which must have sounded strangely in the ears of men who 
 had recently avowed — whether correctly or in error, is 
 quite another question — that they had no confidence in his 
 knowledge of the science which it was his duty to expound 
 and apply. The vague general remarks which on this 
 occasion fell from his Lordship formed a striking contrast 
 to the pointed and well-chosen sentences of valedictory 
 respect which he had, a few months before, in the name of 
 the Bar, with much simplicity, feeling, and discrimination, 
 addressed to Mr. Justice Littledale, on the occasion of the 
 retirement of that venerable Judge from the Bench. 
 
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172- LOBD CAMPBELL. 
 
 " The whole of these proceedings were questionable in 
 their inception, precipitate in their progress, and extremely 
 ludicrous in their close." 
 
 It will thus he seen that his Lordship held the Seals in 
 Ireland for the lengthened period of sixteen days. He 
 accordingly returned to England, and, as a Peer of the 
 Realm, discharged his duties eifectively ; his assistance in 
 the Appeal Cases from Scotland being most beneficial to 
 the suitors, giving satisfaction to the public. But he now 
 gave an example of industry in a new sphere. He 
 commenced the composition of the three series of his work, 
 " The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the 
 Great Seal of England, &c., by John Campbell, A.M., 
 F.R.S.E.," which met with great success. The first 
 edition was published in 1845, and those of " The Lives 
 of the Chief Justices in England from the Norman Con- 
 quest to the Death of Lord Mansfield," in 1849. 
 
 It may be sufficient to say of these well-known " Lives" 
 they do not come up to the expectations which, from the 
 position of the author, and his early literary pursuits, 
 might have been reasonably expected. 
 
 I assent most fully to the following critique of them : — 
 
 " These works acquired a greater popularity than 
 might have been expected, and indeed they are written in 
 a sufficiently flowing and readable style. Lord Campbell 
 was not only fond of literature, but he had a keen relish 
 for popularity. He did his best to accumulate anecdotes 
 and dash off graphic sketches, like the regular ' light 
 writers' of his time, and he achieved considerable success 
 In this new sphere. But accuracy is not by any means a 
 characteristic of these ' Lives,' and there are other faults in 
 them which detract from their merit. The style, though 
 lively, is loose and sometimes even vulgar, and the gossip 
 of each period about the great men of whom Lord 
 
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LORD CAMPBELL. 173 
 
 Campbell is writing, is produced 'wdth a gusto which says 
 little for his delicacy of taste, and argues perhaps some 
 want of real kindness and generosity." 
 
 Various charges of unscrupulous appropriation of the 
 labours of others in the composition of these ' Lives' have 
 been made against Lord Campbell, and not without reason. 
 Such as they are, however, they were the result of private 
 meditation and as a recreation, and did not interfere with 
 his public duties as a Peer of Parliament, and Judge of 
 Appeal Cases in the House of Lords. 
 
 It was his good fortune that an opportunity presented 
 itself for again appearing before the public in a more 
 exalted position. The health of Lord Denman, the Chief 
 Justice of the Queen's Bench, failed him in the early part 
 of the year 1850, and compelled him to relinquish the 
 duties of the oiEce. He resigned in Hilary Term of that 
 year, and Lord Campbell was thereupon appointed to 
 succeed him. He took his seat in Court as Lord Chief 
 Justice on the first day of Easter Term following. For this 
 oflSce he was peculiarly well qualified — his great experience 
 at the Bar, his legal knowledge derived from much con- 
 templation and reading ; his phlegmatic and unimpassioned 
 temperament ; his clear and rapid appreciation of the 
 prominent points of a case, and his unwearied attention 
 to the proceedings before him, soon gained the confidence 
 of the Bar, and the unhesitating acknowledgment of his 
 great merits as a Judge by the public. His great urbanity 
 to the Members of the Bar, of whatever standing, is not 
 to be forgotten. This general bearing as Lord Chief Justice 
 contributed much to the acquiescence of lawyers in the 
 integrity of his character, and the correctness of his legal 
 decisions as being both sound and indisputable. 
 
 His conduct, however, of Causes at Nisi Prius has been 
 found fault with. Although apparently allowing the Jury 
 
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174 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 to form an impartial judgment upon the facts of the case 
 before them, it has been thought that he descended to some 
 art ui an endeavour to bring them over to the judgment 
 which he individually had formed as to the result of the 
 evidence ; and by undue emphasis upon certain passages, 
 and an approving or contemptuous motion of his hand or 
 otherwise, when recapitulating the evidence, he plainly, — 
 indeed too plainly, — indicated his own view of the case. 
 
 He held this distinguished post about nine years, when 
 by one of those political crises, which startle the public, 
 but which in our history are of continual occurrence. Lord 
 Campbell was entrusted with the Great Seal as Lord 
 Chancellor in 1859. This he continued to hold till his 
 death, on the 24th June, 1861, at the mature age of 
 81 years, having sat in his Court on the day preceding 
 his decease, and appearing in his usual health and vigour 
 of mind. 
 
 A few passing remarks as to his character as Advocate,, 
 and as a Judge of a Court of Law, and in Equity. 
 
 His occupation as a Law Reporter in early life was 
 of the very greatest importance to his future progress 
 as a sound and efficient lawyer. The attention required, 
 and the regular attendance in Court which the occupation 
 prescribes, can only be duly estimated by those who, like 
 myself, have closely pursued it. Campbell's Reports are 
 models of correctness and propriety of selection, and 
 have always been held in great repute. So recently 
 as June in the present year (1866), Lord Cranworth, as 
 Lord Chancellor, in the important appeal case of Williams 
 V. Bailey ^ va. the House of Lords, spoke highly of them. 
 Alluding to a dictum of Lord EUenborough in a case at 
 Nisi Prius, as reported by Campbell, he said : — " On all 
 occasions, I have found in looking at the reports by 
 the late Lord Campbell of Lord EUenborough's de- 
 
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LORD CAMPBELL. 175 
 
 cisions, that they really do, in the fewest possible words, 
 often lay down the law even more distinctly and ac- 
 curately than it is to be found in many lengthened 
 Keports, and what is so laid down has been subsequently 
 recognized as giving a true view of the law, as applied 
 to the facts of the case. 
 
 His character as an Advocate was not without blemishes. 
 The same remarks which I have ventured to make on his 
 manner when sitting at Nisi Prius with the assistance of a 
 Jury, will in a great measure apply to him as a pleader. 
 He had to be most closely watched. He was not over 
 scrupulous as to a correct statement of the facts of a case — 
 a date mis-stated, or slurred over, when it suited his purpose, 
 was by no means an uncommon practice with him. There 
 could not be a greater contrast in this respect than that of 
 Serjeant Wilde and Sir John Campbell under similar 
 circumstances. The former boldly stated the fact, although 
 It might make against his cause or his client; but by 
 some suggestion of an incorrectness in the statement, or 
 date, or by some amplification or argument skilfully urged, 
 he evaded or turned aside the pernicious effect which 
 might be produced if the fact or date were suffered to 
 remain unnoticed. 
 
 In other respects, as an Advocate, his pleading was 
 most energetic and straightforward — but was never re- 
 markable for warmth, or any approach to Inspiration, or 
 genius ; his reasoning was careful, and seemed to arise 
 naturally from a correct apprehension and estimate of the 
 facts of the case — never enlivened, however, by one smart 
 touch of satire or playful irony, and any attempt at such, 
 which he was often In the habit of making, fell heavily 
 from his lips. 
 
 As a Judge at Common Law, he was everything which 
 could be desired. His patience was exemplary, and his 
 
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176 LORD CAMPBELL. 
 
 decisions were clearly those of a mind well stored with 
 legal and forensic knowledge. 
 
 The time during which he occupied the seat of Chan- 
 cellor, was too short to enable him to display any of those 
 peculiar qualities which are indispensable in an Equity 
 Judge; but his shrewd good common sense, and clear 
 understanding, prevented him from committing any 
 egregious or palpable mistakes. His experience, also, in 
 the House of Lords, as Judge of the Appeal Cases from 
 Scotland, in which the rules of the Civil Law are so 
 prominent, enabled him to appreciate those subtleties 
 which, to minds imbued with the stereotyped rules of the 
 Common Law of England, find much difficulty in under- 
 standing. On the whole, he was a laborious, painstaking, 
 carefiil lawyer, and his perseverance and Industry, highly 
 to be commended. 
 
 Li the accompanying photograph, which is a correct 
 representation of his features, many of these characteristics 
 can, I think, be traced. 
 
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S. Ayling, Photo. 
 
 aSStH 3SSr<SIUffiT®M — It.©®.® JL,TI 
 LORD CHANCELLOR, £c., £c,, 1827, 
 
 iHirs.si". 
 
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( 177 ) 
 
 Sketch VI. 
 
 LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 Who has not seen and admired Landseer's Interesting 
 painting of " A Piper and a Pair of Nut-crackers ?" — in 
 other words, the Piping-bullfinch and two nut-cracking 
 Squirrels ? — or at least contemplated the beautiful engrav- 
 ing of that picture so prominent at present in the shop- 
 window of every printseller ? And who would have pro- 
 phecied — now nearly a century since — that the exhibition 
 to the British public of another picture of " A Boy and 
 Squirrel," would have been the proximate cause of the 
 introduction into English life and society of one of the 
 greatest orators, most consummate lawyers, and gifted 
 statesmen, that this or any other age or country ever 
 produced ? But so it was. 
 
 Mr. Copley, the father of the subject of my present 
 sketch, was an artist by profession in America ; and about 
 the year 1772 was the painter of a work which he called 
 " A Boy with a Squirrel." This he sent to England for 
 exhibition in London, where it was exceedingly admired 
 and much spoken of. The favourable notice thus taken 
 of his work was the Inducement to the painter to leave his 
 native country, and, with his wife and family, to come to 
 England, where he hoped to obtain reputation and wealth 
 in his profession. 
 
 John Singleton Copley, afterwards Lord Lyndhurst, 
 Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Master of the Edlls, and 
 three times Lord Chancellor of England, was born on the 
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17S LOKD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 21st May, 1772, at Boston, In America ; and was one of 
 the family so brought to England by his father, the painter, 
 landing at Dover, in June, 1775. This was on the father's 
 intended journey to Italy, where he meant to complete, and 
 where he did in fact complete, his pi-ofessional studies. On 
 his return from thence, about three years afterwards, he 
 took up his residence with his wife and infant family, 
 at the house in George Street, Hanover Square, in 
 which he lived until his own death in 1814 ; and in 
 which his illustrious son continued to reside until his 
 decease in 1863 — thus continuing in the same house 
 about 86 years. 
 
 It is a rare occiirrence in the present day for a family 
 to remain in the same locality for so lengthened a period. 
 It was not, however, by any means formerly uncommon, 
 especially in the City of London, where a very old and 
 esteemed friend of my own — an eminent merchant — was 
 born in a house in Lime Street (in which his father 
 before him had for many years Hved), and continued to 
 reside in the same house until the day of his death, at 
 the mature age of eighty-six. 
 
 Some of the paintings of Lord Lyndhurst's father, and 
 the masterly engravings of them by several eminent en- 
 gravers, have spread his fame throughout the world. The 
 ' principal one, and perhaps the best, is that of the " Death 
 of Major Pierson" in resisting the attack of the insurgent 
 French on the Island of Jersey, now in the South 
 Kensington Museum. The expressions, attitudes, and 
 grouping of the whole of the figures are of the first order. 
 Another is " The Death," (or rather the sudden illness) 
 "of the great Lord Chatham in the House of Lords;" 
 another, " The Siege of Gibraltar," now in the Council 
 Chamber of the City of London, and other works of a 
 similar character. 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 179 
 
 It has been said, that the talented son of the painter 
 was originally intended to have pursued his father's pro- 
 fession, that he attended, with that view, the lectures of 
 the eccentric " Barry," and other masters of that time. 
 However that may have been, young Copley was early 
 sent to a private school at Manor House, Chiswick, in the 
 neighbourhood of London, and received the rudiments of 
 his education there, under the tuition of Dr. Home (the 
 master), and father of another legal luminary, the late 
 Sir William Home, Attorney- General, and first Member 
 for Marylebone under the Reform Act of 1832, until, at 
 the age of eighteen, he was sent to Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. The following is a copy of the entry in the 
 books of the College of his admission there : — 
 
 " July 8, 1 790. — Admissus est Pensionarius Johannes 
 Singleton Copley, filius Johannis Singleton Copley, de 
 Boston, in America, h scholS, apud Chiswick, in Middle- 
 sexi4, sub praesidio Doctoris Home, annos natus 18. 
 
 " Magisteo Jones, Tutore." 
 
 In 1794, he came out Second Wrangler and Smith's 
 Prizeman, and on the 17th of May of the same year entered 
 himself as a student at Lincoln's Inn. He returned and 
 resided at Cambridge, and in the following year, 1795, he 
 obtained the advantage of being appointed one of the 
 " Travelling Bachelors" of the University. This he did 
 for the purpose of availing himself of the opportunity 
 it afforded of re-visiting his native country. He imme- 
 diately proceeded thither, with Volney, the celebrated 
 author of " The Euins of Empires," as his companion. 
 
 As we all know, the formal " Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence" by the United States took place in 1776, but 
 the resolution to declare themselves independent had been 
 for several years debated by the General Congress at 
 
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180 LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 Philadelphia whh a view to that important proceeding. 
 President Adams subsequently, alluding to this most im- 
 portant crisis in the history of his country, describes these 
 debates as referring to "the greatest question debated in 
 America, and as great as ever was or will be debated 
 among men." The result was the resolution of Congress 
 before referred to, passed unanimously on the 2nd July, 
 1776, which declared, " That these United Colonies are and 
 of right ought to be free and independent States." The 
 2nd July, adds the same statesman, " will be the most 
 memorable epoch in the annals of America. I am apt to 
 believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations 
 as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be com- 
 memorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of 
 devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized 
 with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, beUs, 
 bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to 
 the other, jfrojn. this time forth for evermore.'''' 
 
 This most solemn act, it will be seen, was completed 
 four years after young Copley's original departure from 
 America, and he now returns to it at the age of twenty- 
 three, with the express intention — indeed his acceptance of 
 the office of " Travelling Bachelor" prescribed to him the 
 duty — of carefully observing, and duly reporting to the 
 University everything of importance which he saw. This 
 he was to do by addressing Latin letters to the Vice- 
 Chancellor of the University. 
 
 America had at this period commenced her career of 
 " go ahead " propensities, which subsequently so mar- 
 vellously altered the whole aspect of its material, as well 
 as its political and constitutional status. 
 
 At the kind suggestion of Dr. Cookson, the late Vice- 
 Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, assented to 
 and approved of by Dr. Cartmell, the present Vice- 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 181 
 
 Chancellor, I am enabled to present my readers with 
 copies of these Latin letters so written by young Copley 
 during the year 1795, when on his travels in America, and 
 transmitted by him from thence to the University during 
 that year. 
 
 An old joke exists in the University of Cambridge that 
 " a TravelUng Bachelor" of the University considered he 
 had fulfilled the' stipulations which the founders had attached 
 to the endowment as to writing home Latin letters con- 
 veying the impressions of his travels, by writing merely 
 " Vidi hemes /" — ^but, as will be seen, this was by no means 
 young Copley's understanding of his duty. The letters 
 are three in number, and must I conceive prove extremely 
 interesting to every one, referring as they do to facts at that 
 time patent to all the world, many of them now forgotten, 
 of some of which no record remains, and indulging in 
 predictions of the future greatness of the United States of 
 America, and giving the reasons for those predictions, — 
 which indicate the great observation, thoughtftdness, and 
 grasp of mind of the writer at this early period of his life, 
 confirmed as they subsequently were by his statesmanlike 
 qualities, his business habits, and general observation of 
 human nature. 
 
 I have considered it advisable for several reasons to 
 give a very free and familiar translation of these letters, — 
 endeavouring as far as I can to convey the general scope 
 and tenor of them without descending to a servile imitation, 
 and as I print the Latin text by way of Appendix, I leave 
 it to more erudite scholars to satisfy themselves, if so 
 disposed, with a translation of their own. 
 
 They are all without precise dates, but are addressed to 
 the Eev. Eichard Bellward, who was Vice-Chancellor of 
 the University for the year 1795, and are preserved 
 amongst the records of that year. 
 
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182 LOED LYNDHURST. 
 
 The first appears from the tenor of it to have been 
 written at Washington shortly after his arrival there, and 
 is to the following effect : — 
 
 " To the Rev. Bichard Bellward, D.D.^ 
 
 "Most Worthy Vice- Chancellor of the Uimersity of Carntridge. 
 
 " Whilst travelling in this country, it has often occurred 
 to me how much the journey would tend to my benefit, if 
 I were able to write you anything which should be worthy 
 of your perusal. To the best of my ability I will endeavour 
 to communicate in my letters a few matters which appear 
 to me worthy of notice, so that you may have some idea 
 of the position of affairs in this Republic. And from 
 what place can I more appropriately commence than from 
 that city which is destined to be the chief seat of the 
 American Government? 
 
 " The Federal city, Washington, is situated on an angle 
 formed by the branches of the river Potomac, one on the 
 Eastern side, the other on the Western, which here form a 
 junction. 
 
 ■" On the Eastern side the course of the river is short — 
 the Western branch (having its source in the Alleghany 
 Mountains) and stretching about 360 miles, empties itself 
 into the river Chesapeake. On the side where the Federal 
 city rises the river takes a sudden bend to the Southward, 
 so that you can almost fancy that the river flows out of the 
 city in a direct course : at this place the river is about 
 a mile in breadth, and from which the town of Alexandria 
 may be seen in the distance. Under the walls of Wash- 
 ington is situated Georgetown. On the banks of the 
 Potomac, on either side, are open fields, the soil of which 
 is everywhere fertile. It however happens that there 
 •are considerable obstructions in most of the rivers of 
 America, and the Potomac is by no means free from these 
 
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LOED LYNDHUEST. 183 
 
 hindrances, wliich however a Company constituted for the 
 purpose is striving to remove. 
 
 " At ahout three miles from the Federal city occurs 
 the first fall of the river, with a descent of about 36 feet 
 in the three miles. Here a canal with three branches, and 
 which was completed about a year ago, assists the naviga- 
 tion. A few miles higher up the stream shallows are inter- 
 posed and other rapids, by which witlin the space of one mile 
 the river has afall of 76 feet; but, '■^ Labor omnia vincit" and 
 in the course of one year, the whole of the river has been 
 rendered navigable for the transit of flat-bottomed boats, 
 which carry from 100 to 200 measures [modtos) each being 
 equivalent to If cwt. Starting from about 50 miles 
 beyond Fort Cumberland, they are drifted down to Wash-' 
 ington by the descending current, a distance of 230 miles. 
 The charge for the carriage of a measure is a little over 
 one dollar. 
 
 " The place chosen for the site of Washington is a 
 rising ground advantageously situated; almost In the centre 
 stands the Capitol, from whence you have an extensive 
 view over the river, and the far-off plains of Virginia in 
 the distance. This building will be about 300 feet in 
 length, with columns of the Corinthian order. As yet 
 the foundations only are laid, the building only partly 
 shewing itself. At about a mile distant is the residence 
 reserved for the use of the President ; this building is 
 composed of square blocks of stone (dug out of the quarries 
 of Aquia, as are the stones of the Capitol), so placed as to 
 produce an appearance of considerable magnificence. 
 Adjacent to this are very pleasant gardens of about 100 
 acres in extent, and which are intended for the enjoyment 
 of the Citizens ; whatever Is useful as well as ornamental, 
 is everywhere observable throughout the whole city. The 
 
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184 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 streets are 90 feet wide, and often 190 feet. There is also 
 
 a regulation that the houses of the Citizens should be from 
 
 35 to 45 feet in height. 
 
 " Hi sunt certi denique fines, 
 Quos ultra citraque nequit consietere tectum." 
 
 Rows of trees are planted along the streets which will some 
 
 day protect the inhabitants from the heat of the sun. 
 
 " Hsec turn nomina erunt. nunc sunt sine nomine terrae." 
 
 " The recent character of American institutions warns 
 the people to be frugal. Enough money was obtained 
 from the sale of land upon which Washington is to be 
 built for the erection of the Capitol and other public 
 buildings; but that detestable pest " speculation," crept in 
 amongst those who had the control of this sum, and 
 the fiind is now so much diminished, that the completion 
 of the public works is impeded for want of money. It 
 may not be immaterial here to mention that some building 
 land, containing about 550,000 square feet, produced only 
 a little over 1,000 dollars. 
 
 " Having obtained a Fahrenheit thermometer, and 
 placed it in the shade for several days, observing it daily, 
 I found that the average greatest heat for three days, at 
 Georgetown was 82°. I intend to test the fruitfulness of 
 the soil from the species and size of the trees ; and, if 
 by any other means I shall be able to arrive at a result 
 upon this subject, I shall adopt them. 
 
 " Georgetown has grown with the growth of the 
 Republic ; the greater part of the houses appear to have 
 been built within these few years; they are almost all 
 built of bricks and are scattered about the hill sides. 
 
 " The Republic has taken into its grave consideration 
 the education of its youth — a College having been insti- 
 tuted with that object for several years at Georgetown 
 
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LORD LYNDHURST, 185 
 
 and now it has teen found necessary to erect additional 
 buildings, the dormitory in which is 155 feet long by 
 40 feet in breadth. You may judge from this the number 
 of pupils expected. 
 
 " Alexandria extends itself along the level plain on 
 the banks of the Potomac. There is a wonderful scarcity 
 of trees about the city on all sides, and far and wide the 
 plain is covered with short grass. The streets which are of 
 a very convenient width, intersect each other at right 
 angles. The houses are for the most part built of bricks ; 
 the city itself is clean and replete with every convenience; 
 it numbers from 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants — I was most 
 courteously entertained by them. The Alexandrians 
 export tobacco and flour (brought into the town on waggons) 
 ia return for manufactured goods. They send- many 
 articles to Baltimore and Philadelphia, and some even to 
 the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 " The Americans celebrate their ' Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence' on the 4th of July, which is everywhere 
 celebrated by sports and rejoicings. 
 
 " The civic soldiery are continued from year to year. 
 On this occasion the Alexandrians invited to dinner 
 Washington himself, who resides about 10 miles off. I was 
 "present at the hanquet and saw the President of the Bepuhlic; 
 he participated in the happiness of the Citizens^ and added 
 to it hy his genial and benevolent good humour. 
 
 " And now, Reverend Sir, I conclude, awaiting the 
 time when I shall have something more to communicate. 
 I could wish this letter were better worth your considera- 
 tion, and more worthy of the University, I doubt not 
 but that your indulgence and pardon will be extended to 
 its defects. 
 
 " I am, with all respect, yours, 
 
 ■ ' " John Copley." 
 
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186 LOED LYNDHUEST. 
 
 The second letter has heen thus freely translated : — 
 
 " To the Bev. Richard Bellward^ D.D.^ 
 
 "Most Worthy Vice- Chancellor of ihe University oj Cambridge. 
 
 " Although I can scarcely do otherwise than relinquish 
 the hope that my observations may be approved of by you 
 and the University, yet the shame of appearing idle 
 prompts me to offer to your notice whatever information I 
 may possess in the shape of notes. 
 
 " If nothing else, I may still be able to communicate to 
 you some facts with which you may Hke to be made ac- 
 quainted, and since truth is at all times usefiil, my letters 
 may possibly, on this account, afford you some satisfaction. 
 
 " I have already written concerning Ahoaandria^ which 
 however has nothing in particular to distinguish it from 
 others of the American maritime towns. Trade and 
 political subjects [which latter however have all a mercantile 
 aspect) are before all others attended to. It is seldom that 
 literature or philosophical enquiries are made subjects of 
 discussion, and it would be difficult to find here a Hterary 
 person, such as would be so considered in Europe. Those 
 who apply themselves to mercantile pursuits are generally the 
 richest and most esteemed throughout the whole of America. 
 The luxury of these persons however, and their houses and 
 domestic conveniences — in short (if you except slavery) 
 whatever is adapted to make life enjoyable, approaches 
 very nearly the English mode of life. 
 
 We went to Mount Vernon for the purpose of paying 
 our respects to the President of the Republic. Between 
 that place and Alexandria are open fields, not remarkable 
 for any particular beauty ; the soil is barren, the roads 
 rough and hilly ; the gardens even of the Presidential 
 residence display neither culture nor beauty. 
 
 " The House, however, built of stone, much worn by 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 187 
 
 time, situated on Hgh ground, is large, and commands a 
 view of the mighty Potomac^ stretched out at no great 
 distance, and of the ships sailing to and fro between 
 Alexandria and the ocean.* 
 
 " We found the President courteous^ hospitable, and face- 
 tioiis. He freely discoursed upon many subjects, such as 
 the house, the gardens, and the circumjacent country. The 
 house presents no appearance of luxury — the simple, honest 
 character of Washington is alone conspicuous. 
 
 " In the President's house were some chiefs of the 
 native tribe of the Catawbas. These men were short of 
 stature, their limbs small, and they displayed In their 
 looks marks of fear; indeed, where there is a feeling of 
 danger, fear will shew Itself. It has been observed that 
 the Catawba tribe Is diminishing in number. Turning 
 their attention to agriculture, they have lost their courage 
 and other qualifications peculiar to barbarians, whilst they 
 have not acquired the arts of civilised life. It Is not, there- 
 fore, to be wondered at that filth and laziness prevail 
 amongst them, though, In former times, the Catawbas 
 were noted for their ferocity. 
 
 " Between the Catawbas and the natives of Delaware 
 there was an ancient feud. They often went Immense 
 distances to attack each other, considering It an honourable 
 
 ♦ It may be noticed, that Washington was at this time about 
 sixty-three years of age. This description of his residence at Mount 
 Vernon, agrees in its main features with that given by his biographer, 
 Washington Irving, many years afterwards. It is as follows : — ■ 
 " Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potomac, called so after the 
 celebrated Admiral Vernon, under whom an uncle of Washington 
 served. It is situated on a woody ridge. The mansion was beautifully 
 situated on a swelling height crowned with wood, and commanding 
 a magnificent view up and down the Potomac. The grounds about 
 it were kid out somewhat in the English taste. . . . Alexandria 
 is ten miles from Mount Vernon." 
 
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188 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 and praiseworthy act if they could kill a few of their 
 enemies, 
 
 " The speeches of these barbarians have something in 
 them approaching the sublime. Some one enquiring of a 
 Catawban why they undertook so many and such long 
 journeys, " The circuit of the earth is less than we might 
 make with ease" replied the barbarian, rising on his feet,, 
 and wildly stretching out his arms. Journeys which 
 the civilized man would consider endless, the native, who is 
 accustomed to travel, and who steadily makes his way by 
 stony and rocky paths, looks upon as trifling, 
 
 " In my former letter, I have referred to the lesser 
 Falls of the Potomac, which are distant about three miles 
 from Georgetown. The lofty banks, fringed with woods 
 and rocks, effectually restrain the current of the often raging 
 waters. Where the falls are, the river is about 130 feet 
 broad, and the overhanging rocks will easily sustain the 
 arching of the bridge of a single span which is about to 
 be carried over the canal by the Potomac Company. This 
 canal, which commences in Maryland, will be about two 
 miles long, 4 feet high, and 12 wide. The boats employed 
 in navigating the Potomac are about 50 feet long and 6 feet 
 broad. These boats glide quickly down the stream, but 
 against it they only move, with the assistance of poles at 
 about two miles per hour. Each boat requires seven men 
 to manage it. They run from Fort Cumberland to the 
 Greater Fall, which is about 20 miles above Georgetown 
 in three days. The return voyage is scarcely accomplished 
 in 12 days. Each boat carries 100 and sometimes 200 
 Casks. 
 
 To Washington is to be attributed the improved navi- 
 gation of the Potomac. Having secured peace, he betook 
 himself to Mount Vernon, and there planned and superin- 
 tended the establishment of the Potomac Canal Company. 
 
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LORD LYNDHUKST, 189 
 
 Their works (like those of all new Companies) have 
 proceeded slowly — hut so beneficial Jias the project turned 
 out that^ as years pass on^ the Americans will be easily 
 stimulated to undertake similar works. 
 
 " I must now conclude. If I have sometimes taken 
 account of minor things, my reason for so doing has 
 heen that the character of a place may frequently be 
 better understood from the relation of apparent trifles. 
 As I before expressed a hope, so do I now, that your 
 indulgence will be a protection to, and excuse for, my 
 deficiencies. In this hope I find a solace which Inspired 
 me on leaving England, where formerly I delighted 
 " ' Inter sylvas Academi quserere verum.' 
 
 " I am, yours, with all respect, 
 
 "John Copley." 
 
 The next letter Is to the following eifect : — 
 
 " To the Rev. and very learned Richard Rellward, D.D.^ 
 " Most Worthy Vice- Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. 
 
 " Reverend Sir, 
 
 " To those particulars which I have for- 
 merly written concerning America, I now add a few 
 others. This Is prescribed to me as much from the benefit 
 which I have received as from the office which I hold; 
 not presuming, however, ambitiously to hope that I 
 can add anything with which you may not be already 
 acquainted, or that I shall be able, with all the care 
 I may bestow upon it (however much I may wish 
 it) to offer anything worthy your leisure or perusal; 
 nevertheless, what I have seen and have participated in 
 I now hasten to communicate, however simple the 
 narration. 
 
 " Having quitted Virginia, already sufficiently explored 
 
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190 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 by travellers, and having crossed the Ohio, we came amongst 
 the native tribes of this part of the country. By the peace 
 which has lately been made with these Indians (for so these 
 people are called), all danger is removed, and we wandered 
 leisurely through the scattered villages between Kentucky 
 and Upper Canada. All this region, both in its climate 
 and country, is delightful. It possesses no high mountains, 
 but is ornamented with immense trees, of different species. 
 It is, however, damp, and in some parts where the land is 
 still uncultivated, stagnant marshes exist. The rivers flow 
 gently along, taking their com-se at times through wood- 
 land, at others through extensive plains. Formerly, it 
 appears, wild animals abounded, the woods were filled with 
 birds, and great herds of oxen and deer wandered through 
 these immense pastures. This is not so at present. The 
 wild animals have disappeared before the husbandman, who 
 is already advancing upon this region on three sides. 
 Serious evils to the natives have been introduced by this 
 proximity. Drunkenness, hunger, and various kinds of 
 diseases are rife amongst them. Their means of sustenance 
 are daily decreasing, and unless they migrate across the 
 Mississippi, they cannot escape. But what sensible man 
 can regret this ? Where now a very few and sgualid savages 
 wander^ innumerable colonists will shortly live and flourish^ 
 and in the next generation^ cities^ letters^ and the useful arts 
 will he introduced, 
 
 " I incline to the opinion of those who think that the 
 native Americans came originally from Asia. Towards the 
 north, the two continents approximate, and either join or 
 are only separated by a short space ; and the restless dispo- 
 sition of man is easily impelled to seek new abodes. The 
 natives are also of the same colour as those of Sarmatia, 
 dark eyes and dark hair being peculiar to each. These 
 Indians also have many and totally different dialects. 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 191 
 
 Hence, many infer that this is not the result of accident, 
 nor that the tribes arrived by one and the same immigration^ 
 but that they entered America by a way well known and 
 very frequently 'used. The ■Ullages are generally situated 
 on the banks of the rivers, or even upon the islands formed 
 by them, on account of the fishing or the fruitfuhiess of the 
 soil, and boats furnish a convenient means of travel to those 
 who go to a distance upon hunting excursions in the auturan. 
 The inhabitants use rough logs of wood, or bark as materials 
 for building their huts, covering them on the outside with 
 skins. They have their fireplace in the centre of the 
 building, the smoke passing out through a hole in the roof. 
 They sleep upon the skins of oxen or bears, and, except 
 when threatened by enemies, they suspend their fruits from 
 the beams, or hide them near the roof. Should they antici- 
 pate an irruption of their foes, they open subterraneous 
 passages, lined with bark, and covered with dung, as a 
 receptacle for their fruits. Formerly, they clothed them- 
 selves with skins, now they are habited in wooUen garments, 
 which they purchase from our people, in exchange for 
 various commodities. They all wear a tunic, and a kind 
 of boot. They have also a cloak, which they bind 
 about their loins with a thong. This covers the shoidders 
 and, when requisite on accoimt of the cold, the head. The 
 dress of the women is similar to that of the men, except 
 that they have under garments, reaching down to the middle 
 of the leg. Both sexes wear bracelets on their arms, and 
 ornaments in their ears and nose. They fit collars to their 
 necks, and paint their faces. Moreover, the men having 
 cut the hair from each side of the head, draw back that 
 which is left in the middle, and tie it in a knot on the top.* 
 They extract the hairs, one by one, from the body and chin. 
 
 * " Tacitus Germ. :" chap. 38. 
 
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192 LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 They delight greatly in small mirrors, which they carry 
 with them even while hunting. They always pass the 
 winter in the chase ; the rest of the year, when not engaged 
 in war, they while away in sleeping and eating. The men 
 do nothing, hut leave the care of domestic and agricultural 
 affairs to the women. Those who border upon our people 
 purchase horses and cows, they rear poultry, and, imitating 
 our example, set out orchards. In other respects, they do 
 not differ from the other tribes. They smoke their 
 meat. The earth, broken by the women with hoes, 
 produces for them corn and pulse. They weave mats, and 
 make and ornament their shoes and vestments with won- 
 derful art. They take their food greedily, sitting in the 
 porch of their dwelling, and freely give to their neighbours 
 and the passers-by. So long as they have anything to 
 drink, like aU barbstrians, they exercise no moderation. 
 Hence, frequent quarrels and woxmds ensue at their drinking 
 parties. But at these feasts there is always some one, either 
 a male or female, who sedulously refrains from drinking, 
 in order to take care of the others, and prevent evil. They 
 consider it discreditable to avenge on a sober man an injury 
 committed by him when in liquor. The youth play with 
 lances, and with such earnestness that wounds are some- 
 times inflicted, which are, however, received without anger 
 or hatred. They gamble eagerly and rashly. It is won- 
 derful with what bowlings and gestures of the body the 
 bystanders invoke their gods, as they favour one side or the 
 other — the players, however, accept good or ill fortune with 
 the same equanimity. 
 
 "Every nation {tribe) is divided into villages and districts, 
 the sovereign power remaining in one family, by succession. 
 The authority, however, which depends rather upon persua- 
 sion than command, has regard, mainly, to external matters. 
 Their chiefs are chosen on account of their valour, and it 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 193 
 
 frequently happens, and Indeed it is most probable, that the 
 king is elected as chief. A council also of old men and 
 warriors is held, whenever pubhc matters are discussed. The 
 greatest order prevails at these assemblies, and profound 
 silence. There is much good reason and shrewdness in their 
 speeches, their eloquence, — sometimes of an ordinary 
 character, — at others sublime. If the opinion expressed be 
 approved of, they applaud it as good and just, and, as indi- 
 cating their assent, they utter a sound somewhat like ' OahP 
 They preserve the decrees of the council and other public 
 matters, by inscribing them on split shells, fastened to- 
 gether with flax. These are called Wampum, and are 
 delivered into the custody of the women, who carefully 
 keep them as public records. The men are not coerced 
 by force or law. If war be decreed, each man is at liberty 
 to arm, or to refdse. Murders, unless compensated for by a 
 given sum, are avenged by the nearest relatives of the de- 
 ceased. Sorcery is held in the greatest abhorrence, and 
 those suspected of this crime are immediately hurried away, 
 and put to a most cruel death. The relatives of a thief 
 banish him, as having brought a disgrace upon the family. 
 But these crimes are rare, and, as Tacitus says of the 
 Germans, ' Gtoodi principles have greater force here than 
 good laws elsewhere.' 
 
 "The matrimonial institutions of these tribes are various, 
 and differ amongst themselves. A man may take to himself 
 one or more wives, according to the custom of his tribe. 
 Presents are made, both to the parents and the bride — 
 amongst these, a kettle, an axe, and a belt fit for carrying 
 weights, to remind her of her future labours. Although 
 divorce Is allowable by mutual consent, yet it is very rare 
 amongst them. The husband may punish adultery in the 
 wife, by expelling her verbally from his home. It Is not, 
 however, unusual for the husband to connive at this crime 
 
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194 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 to please a favoured guest. Single females have great 
 license in this respect, as there is no punishment for prosti- 
 tution, nor does it incur disgrace. 
 
 " They believe there is one God of infinite power and 
 goodness, hut they also believe in another Being, the cause 
 of all evil. To him they offer up prayers, to avert his 
 anger. Of the former they have no fear, for they believe 
 it to be his nature, of his own free-will, to bestow good 
 upon mortals. Moreover, each has his own particular 
 Deity. To these they give various forms, and make rude 
 and ridiculous images of them, which they call Manitous. 
 These they always carry about with them, as a protection 
 from evil. They sometimes abstain from food and drink 
 for many days, as a religious observance, and, in the mean- 
 time, they notice their dreams with the greatest solicitude. 
 They believe that, after death, there is another existence, 
 similar to the present. They fancy a new and secret 
 region, genial and fertile, replete with every kind of wild 
 animal. They, therefore, bury, with the dead man, his 
 weapons, and other things which he used when living (for 
 they think that all things have both life and spirit), that he 
 may use them in his new country. There, they believe, 
 (and this is no slight inducement to valour) that honours 
 and other rewards are bestowed, according to the skiU in 
 war and hunting which the deceased has shewn in this life. 
 They also believe, that there the same desires and joys are 
 felt as here. The same individual, amongst these Indians, 
 IS both priest and physician ; for, although they treat wounds 
 and diseases with much success, yet they think that there is 
 no power in medicine, without the aid of incantations and 
 other rites. They also predict future events, indifferent to 
 occasional failure. 
 
 " There is no moderation in their quarrels, no length of 
 time or distance lessens their hatred and thirst for revenge. 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 195 
 
 The five most famous tribes, which are located near the 
 Lake Ontario, were wont to make war beyond the Missis- 
 sippi, and to traverse annually this immense distance. 
 Often a solitary individual, leaving his companions, would 
 traverse immense forests in order to take his enemy un- 
 awares. He would climb mountains, swim across rivers, 
 and undergo every fatigue, so long as there was a chance 
 of slaking his thirst for blood. Before the coming 
 of our people, they fought at a distance with bows and 
 arrows, and hand-to-hand with hatchets made of stone, 
 and these they never threw in vain after a retreating 
 enemy. Now, however, by means of barter, they buy 
 fire-arms, and, like us, make use of them both in war and 
 the chase. Their custom is, never to fight in the open 
 country, or against a disciplined army. They think there 
 is no glory in receiving a wound — they consider it more 
 an act of madness than of courage^ to run the risk of heing 
 wounded. The greatest glory they consider is due to the 
 chief who craftily plans an ambush, strikes his enemy when 
 sleeping, devastates fields and villages by fire, brings away a 
 great number of captives, and leads home his men safe and 
 sound. Their custom Is to scalp the slain, and when the 
 victors return to their country, they raise as many shouts 
 as there are scalps, and utter other indications of barbarous 
 joy. If they perceive no chance of victory, they think It 
 prudent to retreat and flee. In their retreat, they display 
 the greatest art and cunning, — for Indians, whether taught 
 by nature or experience, are wonderfully acute In tracking 
 fugitives. If a son has lost a parent, or a parent a son, or 
 a wife her husband, each chooses from amongst the cap- 
 tives an individual to replace the deceased. The person 
 so chosen forthwith changes his country and household 
 gods, as if partaking of a new nature, and, forgetting 
 his recent hatred, embraces his new friends with the 
 
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196 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 greatest affection. The rest of the captives perish by 
 a cruel death. These wretches are tortured in every way 
 which the ingenuity and ferocity of barbarians can contrive. 
 They are flayed alive, their eyes gouged out, their limbs 
 and their extremities consumed by a slow fire. The cap- 
 tive himself bears these things with the greatest fortitude ; 
 shewing no sign of pain, he chaunts his own brave deeds, 
 and bitterly reproaches the bystanders as cowards and 
 unwarlike ; until, at length, he dies by a wound inflicted by 
 one whom he has angered by his reproaches. 
 
 " These notes. Rev. Sir, concerning the manners and 
 customs of the Indians, I have selected from many facts, 
 as being most worthy of remark, and I now transmit 
 them to you. 
 
 " I am, with all respect, yours, 
 
 "John S. Copley." 
 
 Lord Lyndhurst was, as may be very naturally expected, 
 fond, in after life, of referring to the circumstances of this 
 journey to America, and it may be conceived with what ani- 
 mation and fervour he would have described his reminiscences 
 of it. He returned to " Old England" in 1798, and after 
 residing some considerable time at the University, keeping 
 his Terms, as it is called, in Lincoln's Inn Hall, he was called 
 to the Bar of that Inn in Trinity Term, 1804, ten years 
 after his original admission as student. He forthwith joined 
 the Midland Circuit. On this Circuit, as I have already 
 mentioned, Eomilly had commenced his legal training, and 
 as other talented juniors were their companions, the con- 
 tention of aspiring spirits must no doubt have been 
 sufficiently keen and Interesting. Eomilly has graphically 
 described the principal men then on Circuit, and the 
 sketch which he gives of their personal histories and his 
 own feelings at the time, in his Autobiographical Sketch 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 197 
 
 of 1813, will be found most interesting and worthy of 
 perusal. Like Eomilly, however, Copley was destined to 
 remain a spectator rather than an actor on the busy scene 
 for many weary years before attracting much public notice, 
 and I well remember him in the old Court of Common 
 Pleas, always occupying the same seat, at the extremity of 
 the second circle of the Bar, without paper or book before 
 him, but looking intently — I had almost said savagely (for 
 his look to me at this time bore somewhat the appearance 
 of that of an eagle) — at the Bench before him, watching 
 even the least movement of a witness or other party in the 
 cause, or treasuring up the developments of the legal 
 arguments brought forward by the eminent men who then 
 formed the Inner Circle of the Bar of learned Serjeants. 
 
 He in time, however, became the leader of his Circuit, 
 where he evinced an early talent for the investigation ot 
 the relevancy of evidence, and had much success before 
 Juries. He was raised to the dignity of the Coif in 1813, 
 and as usual was " rung out" of Lincoln's Inn. It is cus- 
 tomary on a Member of this Inn being made " Serjeant- 
 at-law" to eject him in the most amicable manner from the 
 Society, ringing the Chapel bell, and at the same time 
 presenting him with an embroidered purse with a substan- 
 tial enclosure, as a retaining fee for his future services as 
 Serjeant, if the Society should need them. 
 
 With reference to his political opinions at this period, 
 and recollecting hiswell-known and often acknowledged high 
 Tory principles in after life, it is not a little singular that he 
 should have been what now would be called an advanced 
 Liberal — a short time since a very decided Radical ; but so 
 it almost invariably comes to pass, that in our maturer years 
 we gradually come to like — perhaps to be enamoured of — 
 Conservatism in its theory and practice. A forcible example 
 of this cannot more completely illustrate the universality 
 
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198 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 of this opinion, than that of the democratic Sir Francis 
 Burdett, who, the idol of the mob, and borne away as 
 prisoner by an escort of Life Guards to the Tower of London 
 for seditious practices, became afterwards the most thorough 
 Conservative of his time. 
 
 We may yet see another forcible example in our own 
 days. 
 
 Li 1813, however, the political state of England — indeed 
 
 that of the whole Continent of Europe and of the World, 
 
 was sufficiently alarming — " the coming events which 
 
 were then casting their shadows before," the revulsion 
 
 of popular feeling which everywhere developed itself, and 
 
 which terminated in hurling the first Napoleon from his 
 
 mighty eminence, might have been sufficient reason for a 
 return to sober sense, from the allurements of the aU but 
 
 triumphant ascendancy of democracy. 
 
 But now took place that event in the Serjeant's legal 
 
 career which, as I have said before, is in some unexpected 
 
 way, and in almost every case of success at the Bar, the 
 
 turning-point in a Barrister's life. This was the Spa-Fields 
 
 riots in 1817. It raises a smile to remember that what 
 
 were called the Spa-Fields in those days, and which took 
 
 their name from a mineral water or Spa, called the Clerks' 
 
 Well, which formerly existed in the neighbourhood — are 
 
 now one mass of bricks in the shape of houses and streets ; 
 
 the same of Moorfields in the heart of the City, which have 
 
 long since undergone a like transformation. It was wittily 
 
 said at the time of this latter change, that there were no 
 
 more fields in London. It may now be said in a much 
 
 more extended sense of the equivoque. The pleasant 
 
 outlets in the Metropolis, and the admirable way in 
 
 which the parks and other open spaces in the suburbs 
 
 are now planted and tended, amply replace those dingy 
 
 and almost barren fields. 
 
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LORD LYNDHURST. 199 
 
 But to return to the riots of November, and December 
 1816-17. There can be no doubt that a most serious and 
 complicated plot, for purposes of insurrection and riot in 
 the Metropolis, had been formed, digested, and intended 
 to be carried out. Seditious private meetings had been 
 held, and consultations had, the principal movers in which 
 were a medical man of the name of Watson, and his son — 
 Arthur Thistlewood, Hooper, Preston, and others, and 
 which resulted in the calling by placards and adver- 
 tisements, a public meeting to be held in these Fields, 
 of " Distressed Manufacturers, Mariners, Artisans, and 
 others, to take into consideration the propriety of petition- 
 ing the Prince Regent and the Legislature, to adopt im- 
 mediately such means as will relieve the misery which now 
 overwhelms them." Such was the tenor of one of these 
 placards. The whole was evidently merely a cloak for 
 ulterior and violent proceedings in which the lower orders 
 were to take an active part. A meeting was consequently 
 held, at which the celebrated Henry Hunt was to have 
 been the Chairman. 
 
 Most inflammatory addresses were made by Watson 
 the elder, his son, and other orators, inciting the mob to 
 take matters into their own hands. Arms and pikes had 
 been stowed away in the waggon from which the ad- 
 dresses were delivered, and these having been given out to 
 many of the mob, they proceeded in the most tumultuous 
 and riotous manner to the City — intending, it was alleged, 
 to have surprised the Bank of England, the Tower of 
 London, and other public establishments. Their progress 
 was however stayed by an accident. A part of the plan 
 was to attack the gunsmiths' shops in the line of route, 
 and having proceeded to that of a Mr. Beckwith, on Snow 
 Hill, they took forcible possession of the arms there. 
 Mr. Beckwith, however, energetically interfered to prevent 
 
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200 LORD LTNDHUEST. 
 
 the spoliation of his property, and in the scuffle which 
 ensued, a pistol, in the hands of the younger Watson, was 
 discharged, wounding Mr. Beckwith most seriously. 
 
 It was however doubtful whether the wounds which 
 he received were not the result of an accident, rather 
 than of a wilful attempt, on the part of young Watson 
 to assassinate Mr. Beckwith. Suffice it to say, that this 
 occurrence seemed to bring the major part of the crowd to 
 their senses ; and having been interfered with by the Peace 
 Officers of the City, the crowd dispersed in various 
 directions without committing much mischief, but causing 
 great apprehension and dismay, and a total cessation of 
 business in the City. 
 
 The younger Watson fled from justice, and eluded all 
 the effijrts of the police to apprehend him, hiding securely 
 in the classic purlieus of Greystoke Place, Fetter Lane, 
 next to the very house in which the treasonable consultations 
 were said to have been held, and the designs concocted ; 
 until an opportunity presented itself for his quitting the 
 country. The principal instigators and leaders in these riots 
 were the elder Watson, Thistlewood, Hooper, and Preston, as 
 before mentioned, who were apprehended, indicted, and 
 tried for high treason in levying war agaiast the King. 
 They separated in their defences, which they had a right to 
 do, were arraigned separately, the Crown selecting to try the 
 elder Watson first. The trial came on before Lord Ellen- 
 borough presiding over a Special Commission, in the month 
 of June following,* and to the no little surprise of every 
 one, the elder Watson and Arthur Thistlewood, the prin- 
 cipal conspirators, were to be defended by the Arch-Tory 
 Sir Charles Wetherell, and the milder one, the subject of 
 my sketch, Mr. Serjeant Copley. To the animated and fiery 
 
 * 32 Howell's State Trials. 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 201 
 
 eloquence of Sir Charles were added the cool clear head and 
 judicious conduct of his junior on this memorable trial, which 
 lasted from the 9th to the 17th of June ; and whether from 
 the prejudice in the minds of London jurors of the time 
 against everything having the appearance of aristocratic 
 oppression, or from some other cause — certainly not from 
 a defect of evidence, the prisoner Watson was acquitted. 
 No evidence was offered against the other parties accused. 
 The tact and admirable manner in which the learned Ser- 
 jeant cross-examined many of the principal witnesses for 
 the prosecution, and the cool and able manner in which he 
 addressed the jury, were a theme of admiration in every 
 one's mouth, and to Copley was in an eminent degree 
 attributed the successful result of their client's defence. 
 Indeed the populace shewed their sense of his merits, and 
 carried their enthusiasm to that extent as to wear in their 
 hats and at their button-holes ribands, upon which were 
 printed or written " Copley and Liberty." 
 
 But the result of this trial, and the Serjeant's con- 
 sequent fame had a much more important influence upon 
 his future prospects, by enlisting the sympathies on his 
 behalf of certain members of the Government, who felt 
 the need which they might possibly have of such tran- 
 scendent abilities. Certain it is that on another occasion 
 when he defended a certain Colonel Maceroni, both the 
 Duke of Wellington and Lord Liverpool were present as 
 witnesses ; and it is as certain that very shortly afterwards 
 Mr. Serjeant Copley was returned member for Yarmouth, 
 in the Isle of Wight, a pocket borough, under the influence 
 of the Government, brought about it is said after a direct 
 application to him to give his services and assistance in 
 favour of the future measures of the Tory Government. 
 
 He accordingly took his seat in the House in March, 
 1818, at the mature age of 46, and was not long there 
 
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202 LORD LYNDHUEST, 
 
 before he found ample opportunities in those stormy and 
 critical times, for the exercise and display of his unparal- 
 leled energy of character, tempered by the cool discretion 
 and self reliance which endured to the last, and carried 
 him through his early and subsequent legal and political 
 efforts so triumphantly. 
 
 His first address to the House was on the occasion of 
 the proposition to extend the duration of the Alien Bill of 
 1793 — a harsh measure, and one which gave great offence 
 to the public, as placing in the hands of the Executive 
 powers of deportation which might be dangerously and 
 unscrupulously employed. This speech was greatly eu- 
 logized by Sir James Mackintosh, and was made in reply 
 to a stirring appeal by Eomilly against the proposition. 
 The new Member's efforts on this occasion completely 
 turned the tide of popular favour which had formerly so 
 conspicuously existed, and the word " turncoat" was the 
 mildest term with which his name was now associated. 
 
 Early in 1819 he had married Sarah, the beautiful and 
 accomplished widow of a Colonel Thomas, a gallant oiEcer 
 who had perished on the Field of Waterloo. 
 
 In the Autumn he was appointed Solicitor-General in 
 the room of Sir Robert Gifford, and as usual knighted. 
 
 During the time he held the office of Solicitor-General, 
 a circumstance took place which, but for the judicious course 
 which he advised, might have brought a very great scandal 
 on the Government. 
 
 As I was personally cognizant of the facts of the case, 
 I may shortly narrate them. 
 
 Napoleon the First died at St. Helena in 1821, and the 
 restrictions to which he been subjected by the Governor, 
 Sir Hudson Lowe, were by some considered as most harsh 
 and cruel, indeed many persons went the length of saying 
 that the death of the illustrious exile had been accelerated 
 
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LORD LYNDHURST. 203 
 
 by the severity of these regulations. Mr. O'Meara, the 
 snrgeon who had jresided at St. Helena with the sanction 
 of the British Government, as the medical attendant of 
 Napoleon for about three years, had shortly afterwards 
 thought proper to publish a work which he entitled " Napo- 
 leon in Exile, or a Voice from St. Helena," in which 
 he gave a minute account of these restrictions and petty 
 annoyances as they occurred from day to day, and com- 
 mented upon, and embodied the comments of others 
 composing the suite of Napoleon, as to the unnecessary 
 harshness and cruelty of these restrictions, — and on the 
 general conduct of the Governor. 
 
 This book caused an extraordinary sensation in the 
 minds of the public, and Its revelations were very damaging 
 to the British Government and its subordinate officers. 
 Accordingly the law officers of the Crown, at the instance 
 of Sir H. Lowe, applied to the Court of King's Bench for 
 a criminal Information against O'Meara as the author of 
 the work, for gross and scandalous representations as to 
 the conduct of Sir H. Lowe in his capacity of Governor of 
 St. Helena. Affidavits made by Sir H. Lowe and others 
 had been filed charging gross falsehood on the part of 
 O'Meara, as contained In certain specified passages of his 
 book, and a rule nisi for a criminal information had there- 
 upon been applied for and granted by the Court. 
 
 It was to deny the facts contained In their depositions, 
 to rebut the charges, and bring out the truth by counter 
 depositions, to be made by all those who had been at Saint 
 Helena in the suite of Napoleon, that I was despatched 
 to Paris to obtain this opposing evidence on behalf of 
 O'Meara. The persons then in Paris who had formed the 
 suite of Napoleon were Count Bertrand and his wife, the 
 Count de las Cases and his son, the Baron de las Cases, 
 Count Montholon, Marchand, Napoleon's valet, St. Denis, 
 
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204 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 Pierrot, Archambaud, Courtot, Chandellier, Novarre, and 
 Josephine, servants in the establishment at St. Helena, and 
 Antomarchi, the Italian physician who attended Napoleon 
 in his last moments. 
 
 It was by no means a journey to be contemplated 
 without the risk of some personal inconveniences, but youth 
 is audacious, and I departed from London on the 25th 
 March, 1823, with the above object. The first thing which 
 rivetted my attention on my arrival in Paris on the 
 morning of the 27th, was the process of obliteration and 
 erasure of the letter " N," then going on, from the key- 
 stones of the bridges and other public buildings — a feeble 
 eifort of spite by the then French Government against the 
 memory of Napoleon,-^-and it immediately occurred to me 
 that audacity was to be tempered by caution. 
 
 As Count Montholon was the most important witness 
 on the part of O'Meara, and one of the executors of 
 Napoleon's Will, I forthwith waited upon him, and having 
 taken notes of the deposition which he could make, I 
 departed with an arrangement for the following day to go 
 more at length into the subject. I accordingly attended 
 the appointment, but to my utter consternation, the Count 
 received me in the coolest manner possible, scarcely 
 deigning to be civil. Upon my remonstrating and request- 
 ing to know the reason of this altered behaviour, he put 
 into my hands the loose sheets of a portion of the then 
 forthcoming number of the Quarterly Review.'^ These 
 sheets, he told me, had been anonymously forwarded to 
 him from London, and which he had just received. In 
 
 * Vol. xxviii., Qaar. Rev., p. 219. In the course of this article, 
 it was stated that Sir H. Lowe had acted throughout the most trying 
 and difficult situations with temper, justice, integrity, and sagacity, and 
 that those who countenanced and encouraged O'Meara would be 
 covered with ridicule ! 
 
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LORD LYNDHUEST. 205 
 
 them the most cutting remarks were made against Mr. 
 O'Meara, charging him with having been a spy upon the 
 French party at St. Helena ; and as a proof of this, setting 
 out copies of letters, in one of which It was alleged that 
 O'Meara In writing had designated Montholon as a " coward 
 and a liar" and this he had written home to the British 
 Government at the very time of his residence at St. 
 Helena, in attendance on Napoleon. The Count's coolness 
 was sufficiently explained, and I thought I saw a termi- 
 nation of the object of my journey. But I rallied, and in 
 very bad, because only schoolboy French, I took upon 
 me to advert in no measured terms on the dastardly 
 conduct of some member connected with the Government 
 in forwarding those sheets, and my indignation was pointed 
 at Mr. John Wilson Crocker, the then secretary to the 
 Admiralty, an acknowledged contributor to the Quarterly 
 Review^ and a partisan of the Government, as the party 
 who had thus surreptitiously done this to poison the 
 mind of the Count against O'Meara, and prevent his 
 giving that testimony to the truth of his book, which 
 it was well known he was disposed to do, and to obtain 
 which I had been despatched to France. The Count was 
 pleased with my zeal, although not perhaps so much so 
 with my bad French ; but he put aside his ill-humour, 
 and entered into the composition of his deposition with 
 alacrity. 
 
 Before this was finally completed a ridiculous incident 
 occurred. The Count In noting down an expression of 
 Napoleon's, that Sir H. Lowe would be as much his mur- 
 derer as were the persons who had despatched our Richard 
 the Second in Berkeley Castle, had forgotten the names of 
 the actors in that tragedy, and particularly that of the man 
 who heated the bar of iron. During the latter part of the day 
 he recollected that Napoleon had indicated them by name ; 
 
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206 LORD LYNDHUEST. 
 
 and he sent a messenger to me in all haste, then seated 
 very quietly at the Theatre, in the evening, to say, that 
 " Goumey and Maltravers" were the parties Napoleon had 
 named, — and these names were shouted out by his mes- 
 senger to the no little surprise of the company in the same 
 box with me. 
 
 Things, after this, went more smoothly, and in a few 
 days I obtained the depositions of almost all the persons I 
 have before named. I met, however, with two rather 
 serious obstacles. The one was the refusal of the Countess 
 Bertrand, who was English by birth, to make any deposition 
 at all, although she had, at a previous interview with me, 
 consented to do so, exclaiming that the whole of O'Meara's 
 book was " all true, from the first sheet to the last." 
 Upon my pressing my request to her husband, Count 
 Bertrand, by letter, that the Countess should be allowed to 
 give her testimony, I received the following epistle : — 
 
 « Paris, 4 Avril, 1823. 
 " Monsieur, 
 
 " Par votre lettre d'hier jeudi, vous demandez i, ma 
 fenune qu'eUe se constitue t^moin dans un proems relatif k 
 un livre qui tend i, flgtrir la m^moire de Napoleon. J'ai 
 invito ma femme a se refuser & toute provocation pareille, 
 persuade que je.suis, qu'en agissant ainsi, eUe se conduira 
 avec conscience, honneur et dignity. 
 
 " J'ai I'honneur d'etre, avec consideration, 
 " Monsieur, 
 " Votre tr^s humble et tres obeissant serviteur, 
 
 " Le Cte. Bertrand." 
 
 I confess I entertained a different opiaion from that 
 of the gallant Marshal, as to what constituted conscience^ 
 honneur, et digniti — in the circumstances referred to. 
 
 Another obstacle was the persistence of Antomarchi, 
 
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LOED LYNDHUEST. 207 
 
 the physician, in designating Napoleon — " I'Empereur Na- 
 poleon." This title was wholly ignored by the then French 
 Government, and in truth it was stated, and perhaps cor- 
 rectly, that it had never been officially recognized by our 
 own. Be that as it may, the use of the title of Emperor 
 was at this time strictly forbidden in France, and I had 
 to persuade, and succeeded in getting the consent of 
 Montholon, and all the other witnesses, to use the designa- 
 tion of " General Buonaparte," in speaking of Napoleon, 
 AntomarchI alone was inexorable on this point, and al- 
 though aware that I ran considerable risk if it should be 
 discovered that I had about me papers in which this title 
 was given to him, the deposition of AntomarchI was too 
 important to my cause to have foregone obtaining it. I 
 consequently prepared It, and it now stands on the records 
 of the Court of Queen's Bench, as the " Emperor Napoleon" 
 in his deposition. But an almost insurmountable difficulty 
 arising from this circumstance, had to be encountered. AU 
 these depositions were reduced Into what are called 
 " Notarial Actes," to be verified by the signature and seal 
 of office of a Notary Public. There were then but few 
 Notaries in Paris; I believe the number was limited to 
 twelve ; they had to pay heavily for their licences to practise, 
 which were liable to be cancelled by the Government, if 
 anything appeared in these Actes contrary to law. Every- 
 one to whom I applied to pass them through the ne- 
 cessary offices, — amongst others that of the Garde de 
 Sceaux, then held by that staunch adherent of the Bourbons, 
 Comte de Peyronn§t, — refused to interfere. I, at last, at the 
 suggestion, and with the assistance of M. Merllhou, the 
 most distinguished member of the French Bar, at the time, 
 and afterwards Juge d'Instruction under Louis Philippe's 
 Goverjmient, caught one of the name of Vilcocq — and he 
 would only obtain the legalization of these documents by 
 
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208 LORD LYNDHUKST, 
 
 the aid of his clerk, a M. Charles. The following is cha- 
 racteristic : — 
 
 " Monsieur, — M. Vilcocq est absent ; mais il m'a chargd 
 de faire I'acte dont vous lui avez parl^. J'aurai I'honneur 
 de me rendre demain matin chez vous a cet effet. Je suis 
 tr^s parfaitement, Monsieur, 
 
 " Votre tr^s humhle Serviteur, 
 
 " Ad. Chaeles. 
 " 9th AvrU." " Ppl. Clerc de M. Vilcocq. 
 
 M. Charles had recourse to a skilful manoeuvre to pass 
 these " Notarial Actes." The difficulty was to prevent M. 
 Peyronnet, who had to countersign these documents, from 
 too strictly perusing them ; for should his eye alight upon 
 the awful words "Empereur Napoleon," in Antomarchi's de- 
 position, everybody concerned would probably shortly after- 
 wards have found themselves in the castle of Ham, where 
 he, the Comte de Peyronn^t himself, was subsequently a 
 State prisoner. M. Charles, therefore, accumulated a goodly 
 number of these Notarial Actes, and placing them together, 
 put them en masse before the all-powerful Garde de Sceatcx. 
 Thus the one in which Antomarchi had used the words 
 fortunately passed unnoticed, and was formally legalized. 
 But something warned me that I was not yet out of danger, 
 and I hurried to take my place in the diligence, for Calais. 
 Luckily I found an English lady returning to England, who 
 with great kindness, and aware of their importance, took 
 charge of these precious documents, and concealed them 
 about her person. And it was fortunate for me that she had 
 consented so to do, as on my arrival at Calais a telegraphic 
 message had been received, to forbid my departure, and to 
 make strict search for these very papers. The secret had 
 by some means oozed out, and the consequent order for 
 search directed. Although personally most strictly ex- 
 amined at the Mairie, — to which I objected strenuously, 
 
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LOED LYNDHUEST. 209 
 
 except in the presence of our Consul, there being nothing 
 to implicate me discovered, I was suffered to depart, but 
 not until the following day. 
 
 But here some fastidious reader may exclaim, " What 
 upon earth has all this Vil-cocq and a bull story to do with 
 Lord Lyndhurst ?" Much : a day had been fixed by the Court 
 of King's Bench to shew cause against the rule nisi for a 
 criminal information against O'Meara being made absolute : 
 and copies of these depositions had been given to the 
 Solicitors of the Government. The contents of them were 
 conclusive against the expediency and propriety of the 
 criminal information being proceeded with ; and Sir John 
 Copley, as Solicitor-General, to whose care it was under- 
 stood the case had been entrusted by the Government, 
 strongly advised that all the proceedings should at once be 
 stayed. In consequence, on the day appointed for the 
 hearing, a legal quibble was started by the Junior Law 
 Officer of the Crown, that their own application had been 
 Informal in the first instance, it having been made more 
 than two months after the offence alleged, and consequently 
 the Crown consented to the discharge of the rule nisi 
 without any argument. Thus terminated this unpleasant 
 affair without the public exposure which the ventilation of 
 these French depositions would have raised, — and a great 
 public scandal prudently avoided by the tact and foresight 
 of the learned Solicitor-General. 
 
 On the removal of Sir Robert GIfford to the Bench of 
 the Common Pleas, in 1824, the place of Attorney-General 
 was bestowed on Serjeant Copley. In September, 1826, he 
 was appointed Master of the Rolls, still retaining his seat in 
 the House of Commons, an anomaly which still remains, but 
 ought no longer to exist, the duties of each being clearly 
 incompatible with the exercise of both. The custody of the 
 Great Seal was first intrusted to him in April, 1827 : thus, 
 
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210 LOED LYNDHUE3T. 
 
 for about nine years, he gave the benefit of his valuable 
 services as Member of Parliament and legal officer to the 
 Tory Governments of the day, as their fortunes fluctuated. 
 
 It should have been before stated, that, shortly after 
 being returned for Yarmouth, he was, on the resignation 
 of his seat for that borough, returned for Ashburton, in 
 Devonshire. This place he continued to represent until 
 1826, when he was returned Member for the University of 
 Cambridge, with Lord Palmerston as his coadjutor. 
 
 During the period of his first holding the Seals as 
 Lord Chancellor, many important legal and other measures 
 were discussed, and passed both Houses of Parliament. In 
 1830, Lord Grey succeeded to the Premiership, and, as a 
 matter of course. Lord Lyndhurst resigned the Seals ; but 
 by an arrangement honourable to all parties, he was 
 appointed Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer. This 
 post he held about four years, and it was well known at 
 the time, and is in fact a matter of legal history, that 
 he completely changed the character of that Court; for 
 whereas before his appointment it had fallen into disrepute 
 with legal practitioners, and little business was attracted 
 to it, it then became one of the most efficient Courts in 
 Westminster Hall, and his decisions there secured un- 
 qualified approbation. 
 
 The Whig Government was again displaced in 1834 ; 
 and at the express desire of the King, in the formation of 
 the new Ministry consequent on that event. Lord Lyndhurst 
 was, for the second time, appointed Lord Chancellor. He 
 resigned the office of Chief Baron of the Court of Ex- 
 chequer in December, 1834. That Government, however, 
 was of very short duration ; and he was again under the 
 necessity of resigning the Seals in 1835. Previously, in 
 1834, he had had the degree of Hon. D.C.L. conferred 
 upon him by the University of Cambridge. 
 
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LOBD LYNDHUEST. 211 
 
 In August, 1837, he married his second wife, Georgiana, 
 the daughter of Louis Goldsmith, Esq., an eminent poli- 
 tical writer. By his first marriage he had two children, 
 daughters. By his second marriage, a daughter, the 
 Honourable Georgiana Susan, now the wife of Charles 
 Du Cane, Esq., the Member for North Essex. 
 
 In 1840, he was appointed Lord High Steward of the 
 University of Cambridge, which he had entered as a 
 Commoner just half a century previously. 
 
 Lord Melbourne's Administration remained in power 
 until 1841. The downfall of it then took place, and the 
 hastening of this event may be attributed, in a great 
 measure, to the series of damaging speeches which Lord 
 Lyndhurst was In the habit of delivering at the close of 
 each Session, recapitulating, as they did, the blunders and 
 shortcomings of the Whig party during the preceding 
 Session. These he commenced on the 18th August, 1836, 
 and continued them for many subsequent years. It has 
 been said that the Idea of thus winding up the Session to 
 the disparagement of the Whig party was a suggestion 
 made to Lord Lyndhurst by Mr. Disraeli. It may be so, 
 but It certainly had been put in practice long before by 
 Sir Samuel RomUly, and the extract from a speech of his, 
 at page 41 ante, in my faint sketch of that eminent man, 
 fiilly warrants me in this assertion. 
 
 The General Election of 1841 again raised the Con- 
 servatives to power. Sir Robert Peel taking the lead as 
 Premier, as a natural consequence ; Lord Lyndhurst, being 
 at the very zenith of his fame as a lawyer and statesman, 
 was again appointed to the office of Lord Chancellor, and 
 so he continued until 1846, when he was again, with his 
 party, obliged to quit office, and which he never resumed. 
 
 From 1846 to 1854 he seldom addressed the House of 
 Lords, but his efforts for the benefit of his country in 
 
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212 LOBD LYNDHUHST. 
 
 forwarding legal measures were unceasing. And these 
 were not alone the subjects of his meritorious political 
 exertions. In the latter year he took a most active part 
 in the discussions upon what was then, and still is, called 
 the Eastern Question, and the consequent war with Russia, 
 being at that time in the 83rd year of his age. On the 
 19th of June he delivered a remarkable speech — one ever 
 to be held in remembrance. 
 
 Again, in 1859, he came forward on a most solemn and 
 alarming occasion, in relation to our national defences ; 
 and it is mainly owing to him that the country now finds 
 itself in the position in which it is, from the voluntary en- 
 rolment of its citizens as volunteers, to repel any future 
 aggression from a foreign foe. 
 
 In the 92nd year of his age, his illustrious and useful 
 existence was brought to a calm and dignified close, de- 
 parting this life on the 12th October, 1863, at the house in 
 which he and his family had so long resided, in George 
 Street, Hanover Square. He was buried in the Cemetery 
 at Highgate. 
 
 A few remarks on his character as a lawyer^ a member 
 of Parliament^ and a statesman. 
 
 It must be admitted that upon his entry into hfe, 
 young Copley was possessed of advantages and surrounded 
 by circumstances combining in a remarkable manner to 
 accelerate the development of his character, and the 
 furtherance of his future prospects. In person he was 
 eminently handsome — his voice strong and melodious — ^with 
 an eye deeply set, and from which nothing escaped — with 
 a dignified presence far in advance of his years; his intellect 
 clear, his memory most tenacious, and his thirst for 
 knowledge unbounded. 
 
 His education had been well grounded at the Preparatory 
 School at Chiswick, then in high repute, and the circle of 
 
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LORD LTNDHUEST. 213 
 
 his father's friends and acquaintances at home was composed 
 of many of the most learned, distinguished and polished 
 members of society of both sexes. On his entry at 
 Cambridge he found there professors of Greek, Latin, 
 Mathematics and Classics — the most distinguished in their 
 day. The world was upon the eve of the most stirring and 
 remarkable events which have ever taken place in its 
 history. Men's minds were striving for information, and 
 more complete knowledge in every direction. In the arts 
 and sciences — ^In languages — in political combinations — in 
 mechanical contrivances — in a war of antagonistic princi- 
 ples of democracy against authority, and of every description 
 of philosophical and even occult studies. With a social 
 position, under such advantages as these, It Is not to be 
 wondered at that he was gradually moulded to shine 
 fprth. In every respect, a remarkable and distinguished 
 character. 
 
 When he had once chosen for himself the profession of 
 the Law — for It is said that he long hesitated to decide — 
 the charms of scientific and mechanical pursuits, striving, 
 as in the picture by Sir Joshua of Garrick between Tragedy 
 and Comedy, to mark him for their own — he pursued his 
 legal studies with avidity and great perseverance. Called 
 to the Bar at comparatively a mature age, and after much 
 experience of the world and practising as Barrister for about 
 twenty-three years, we find him during the latter part of 
 that time conducting trials and advocating causes of the 
 most momentous character. It Is only necessary to allude 
 in passing to those of his former client, Thistlewood, for 
 his participation in the Cato Street Conspiracy — his 
 conduct during the proceedings of what was called the 
 Queen's Trial, and very many others which It would be 
 tedious to mention. In all he shone most conspicuously. 
 For lucidity in the statement of the facts of a case he was 
 
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214 LOED LTNDHUEST, 
 
 pre-eminent; in the collocation of those facta, and the 
 memory he evinced in recapitulating their importance and 
 their respective bearings he was unapproached, and his 
 language and the arguments he was in the habit of using, 
 characterized by a precision, indeed a severity of style, very 
 uncommon. He never, under any circumstances, betrayed 
 a want of temper, but preserved that equable and serene 
 deportment which always enabled him to take advantage 
 of every point as it arose which would tell in favour of his 
 client, and also to interpose judicious and unexpected 
 remarks which, at the moment, were of the greatest value 
 to his cause. Indeed, his self-possession and self-respect 
 were such that during the whole course of the Queen's Trial 
 he so comported himself as to avoid any participation in 
 the obloquy which attended that unfortunate proceeding. 
 
 As a Member of the Lower House he did not shine so 
 conspicuously. He was, however, of great use to his party 
 in the discussions which ensued after his entrance there, 
 in relation to the seditious meetings then taking place all 
 over the country, and the sanguinary scenes at Manchester, 
 known as the Field of Peterloo, in the conflict between 
 the yeomanry and the populace, — in the debates on the 
 Amendments of the Practice in the Courts of Equity, 
 particularly his speeches on that subject in 1826-7, in the 
 latter of which he developed a very judicious plan for the 
 future practice of the Court of Chancery — ^his speech 
 against the Catholic Emancipation Bill, which, however, 
 he lived to retract — and others, show him to have been a 
 zealous advocate of the measures of his party ; but always 
 more immediately favourable to such improvements, both 
 in the Civil and Legal departments, as in his opinion ad- 
 vanced the welfare of the community, and were called 
 for by the altered circumstances of society and the advance 
 of civilization. 
 
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LORD LTNDHUEST. 215 
 
 As a Judge in the Exchequer, at the EoUa, and a 
 Lord Chancellor, his clear appreciation of the really 
 important facts in the case before him was always manifest. 
 The judgment in the case of Freeman v. Fairlie^ at the 
 RoUs, called the Pottah case, and in which the complicated 
 question of Land Tenure in India, under grants from the then 
 governing power, the East India Company, was mooted 
 and decided. Hia judgment in the ever memorable case 
 of Small V. Atwood, when Chief Baron — ^his remarkable 
 judgment in the Dyce Sombre case in Chancery, which took 
 nearly an hour in the delivery, and during which he made 
 no use of any note or paper in the cause, trusting to his 
 memory alone for a retention of the facts, and the effect of 
 the documents and correspondence which had been pro- 
 duced, — that upon the claim of Lord Canterbury, as 
 Speaker of the House of Commons for compensation in 
 respect of damage done to his property at the fire and 
 destruction of both Houses of Parliament in 1834, were 
 among the most worthy to be noticed. 
 
 A reference to one of my old Note Books reminds me, 
 as an instance of his great attention to the duties of his 
 elevated post of Chancellor, and of his condescension in 
 the exercise of it, that I applied to him for an order for 
 a special injimction upon some occasion which has now 
 escaped my memory, when his Lordship retired from the 
 front of his box, at the English Opera House, in which 
 he was witnessing and enjoying the ftm of the elder 
 Mathews, in one of his " At Homes," into a seat at 
 back of the box, and listening to my statement of the 
 facts of the case, granted the injunction. 
 
 But it was as Peer and Legislator that his superiority 
 became most observable, and the greatness of his character 
 shone forth in its fullest lustre. The measures which he 
 introduced or zealously advocated are of so recent a date 
 
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216 LORD LYNDHUE8T. 
 
 that it is almost unnecessary to recapitulate them, I 
 cannot, however, omit reference to the many and great 
 reforms which were carried into effect during his continu- 
 ance as Peer and Chancellor in the Civil and Criminal 
 Jurisprudence of the country ; his impartial exercise of his 
 Church patronage ; the advancement of merit ; and the 
 promotion of the best men to judicial and ecclesiastical 
 positions in the State, — ^particularly the elevation of the 
 witty and Reverend Sydney Smith, although diametrically 
 opposed to him and his party in politics, to preferment in 
 the Cathedral Chapter of Bristol. His exertions for the 
 Amelioration of the Laws of Bankruptcy and Lunacy, — for 
 the Settling of the Laws as respected Leasehold Tenures 
 in Ireland, — ^the Registration of Titles, — the Privileges and 
 Proceedings of the House of Lords, — the Removal of Jewish 
 Disabilities, and other important measures will never be 
 forgotten by his countrymen. 
 
 Indeed, his prominence in debate, and the active part 
 which he took in the Upper House, just previously to 1846, 
 upon almost every subject, pointed him out as being the 
 political leader of the Conservative Party in the country ; 
 and, it was at one time thought that it was not by any 
 means unlikely that he would be called upon by his Sove- 
 reign to fill the distinguished post of Premier, with an 
 Earldom as an accompaniment. 
 
 From this time, when his official life may be said to have 
 terminated, he did not cease to attend to his Parliamentary 
 duties, and yet, notwithstanding the advance of age, his 
 attention to them never relaxed. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most remarkable speeches ever 
 delivered in the House of Lords, was made by him in 
 1859, being then in his 88th year, on the subject of 
 " Our National Defences," a full extract from which I 
 have given in the Appendix. 
 
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LOED LYNDHURST. 217 
 
 He retained his love for classical studies and his fond- 
 ness for experimental chemistry to the last, thus mingling 
 the severer occupations of his mind with pleasant and 
 useftil recreation. In this respect, acting up to the spirit 
 of the advice and injunction of the learned Sir Heneage 
 Finch, in the time of James I. — " That a lawyer ought to 
 read all^he^morning, and talk all the afternoon." 
 
 But I am warned that I must draw my remarks to a 
 conclusion, regretting as I most sincerely do, that they are 
 not more worthy the subject of them. 
 
 Lord Lyndhurst's love for social intercourse and the 
 
 amenities and elegancies of society endured to the last; 
 
 his constitution good, and his intellect as clear and acute 
 
 as ever. Even so late as in the 90th year of bis age, on 
 
 the anniversary of his birthday, an old friend having 
 
 written him a congratulatory letter on that event, and 
 
 stating that he should, at the proper time, drink his 
 
 health in a bumper of wine, he returned the following 
 
 acknowledgment of it : — 
 
 " George Street, May 21, 1861. 
 " Dear Mr. Collins, 
 
 " Accept my best thanks for your congratulations 
 
 and kind wishes. I have no objection to their being 
 
 associated with a bumper of wine; and as reciprocity is 
 
 the order of the day, I shall in return propose and drink 
 
 your health in^a glass of sparkling champagne. 
 
 " Yours faithfiiUy, 
 
 " Ltndhuest." 
 
 My readers must not from this conclude that other 
 thoughts did* not occupy, or had not for a long time 
 previously occupied, the mind of this most distinguished 
 man. I am indebted to a cotemporary publication for the 
 following extract'^from a sermon preached by the Eev. Mr. 
 Howarth, the Eector of St. George's, Hanover Square, 
 
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218 LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 on the Sunday after Lord Lyndhurst's death, the 18th 
 October, 1863 :— 
 
 " The path of life," said Mr. Howarth, " in which his 
 lot was cast is, doubtless, full of peril and temptation, if 
 from no other cause, from the overwhelming labour of 
 thought, and absorption of time, in the weightiest secular 
 affairs. Although a life has been spent in great and useful 
 labours, poignant regrets have often saddened its closing 
 years. If such regrets were felt by this distinguished 
 public servant they were more than equalled by his grati- 
 tude to God for the unusual prolongation of those years of 
 retirement which placed it ru his power to redeem the time.. 
 And faithfully and diligently have those years been spent. 
 And as the day closed around him so did the earnestness 
 of his preparation for the night that cometh increase. 
 When he had brought that wondrous intellect to bear 
 exclusively upon the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, 
 searching out Scriptural truth with that apprehensive 
 quickness with which he had been used to search out all 
 other truth, it was striking to see him bow down before 
 he wisdom of the Supreme Mind, anxious only to bring 
 every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 
 And the moral process was as striking as the mental. The 
 natural dispositions of a kind and lo-nng spirit were exalted 
 into living Christian graces. Wife, children, servants, 
 friends, all had their portion in that overflowing tenderness 
 of heart ; so that, when the inevitable hour drew nigh, he 
 was happy in himself and in all around him. ' Happy, 
 supremely happy ! ' were the last sounds that came from 
 his lips. Those who loved him have the inexpressible 
 comfort of reflecting that his repentance was fervent, his 
 humility deep, his faith stedfast, and his hope serene." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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APPENDIX. 
 
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APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I.— SIE SAMUEL ROMILLY. 
 
 Translation of an Address or Eloge, pronounced before the 
 Athenee Royal in Paris, hy M. Benjamin Constant, on the 
 2&th December, 1818. See ante p. 42. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " You have expressed a wish that one of the founders of 
 this Institution (the Athdn^e Koyal) should pronounce in this 
 assembly, the eulogy of an illustrious Foreigner, who belongs to all 
 nations, because he has deserved well of all as the defender of the 
 cause of Humanity — of Liberty, — and of Justice. You have con- 
 descended to commit to me this duty, as having been, during the 
 disastrous and remarkable period of 1815 and 1816, favoured with 
 the friendship of the lamented man, to whom you desire to render 
 this homage. I had then the opportunity of becoming personally 
 acquainted with his private virtues — his patriotic labours, and the 
 estimation in which he was held by all parties. One of the 
 advantages of real and peaceful liberty is, that each party may 
 form opposite opinions of eminent men, and thus insure by a 
 thoroughly impartial suflfrage, integrity of character, purity of 
 views, and superiority of talent. This advantage even sometimes 
 survives that liberty which produced it : and this Country which has 
 often interfered with the rights of other Peoples, and assumed to 
 monopolize those rights which, in truth, belong to the whole human 
 race, sees by a species of retributive justice, her own Constitution 
 embrangled, and all but destroyed, yet preserving for a time the 
 tradition of an equitable generosity at home, and towards distin- 
 guished citizens. 
 
 " Sir Samuel Romilly in his private character of Advocate, in 
 dedicating his talents to the conduct of causes before the Court 
 
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IV APPENDIX. 
 
 of Chancery and the House of Lords, was looked upon almost from 
 the commencement of his career as an oracle of the law. A man 
 who has occupied for a considerable period, and who still occupies 
 an exalted situation, once said of another, who had fallen from a 
 still more eminent position, to which he had brought prodigious but 
 irregular talents, that he was ' a living law.'' This saying, which is 
 absurd when applied as flattery to a living despot becomes sublime, 
 when found to be true, and appHcable to a citizen, whose only empire 
 is that of reason. All England applied this to Sir Samuel RomiUy. 
 His vast knowledge, his moderation, which did not diminish his 
 energy, his profound sagacity, his incorruptible integrity, gave to his 
 advocacy before the Judges the force and weight of a judicial 
 authority. By declaring himself in favour of any particular cause 
 he shewed at once that it was a just one, and his name alone had an 
 effect, if I may so say, on the judgment about to be pronounced. 
 
 iff f^ 'K T^ tIT Tie TF ^ 
 
 " I come now to his public career : a much more extensive field 
 opens to our view. Doubtless private virtues are worthy of all 
 veneration, but services rendered to a Nation partake of a higher 
 character. Happy is he who can benefit his cotemporaries ! Still 
 happier he who can at the same time confer benefits upon succeeding 
 generations ! Nature has established a link between succeeding 
 generations, they enlighten each other without perceiving it, and 
 enrich each other without being aware of it. Useful truths form 
 an everlasting store house to which each individual carries his own 
 contribution, assured that no power can take away the smallest 
 particle of this imperishable treasure. The friend of liberty and of 
 justice, bequeaths, as it were, the precious part of himself to future 
 ages. He places it beyond the reach of injustice which may have 
 disowned it, and of oppression which menaced it : he deposits it 
 in a sanctuary where neither degrading nor ferocious passions can 
 approach it. 
 
 " He who by meditation discovers a new principle, he whose hand 
 traces a single truth, who by his eloquence triumphantly establishes 
 a wholesome institution may, without fear, abandon life to democrats 
 and to tyrants — the one as often unjust as the other. He will not 
 have lived in vain; his intellect remains impressed upon the in- 
 destructible whole, to the formation of which he has thus 
 contributed. 
 
 "The all-absorbing thought of Sir Samuel Komilly, and the 
 
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APPENDIX. V 
 
 principal occupation of his life, were to ameliorate the Criminal Law 
 of England. And here, Gentlemen, I must clear up a confusion of 
 ideas which very naturally has been entertained by many. We do 
 not distinguish sufficiently between the penal legislation of England 
 and its criminal procedure. Penal legislation amongst the English 
 is barbarous — as it is with all nations who have preserved their 
 aBcient laws — consequently less enlightened — less humane, and less 
 just; but the forms of English procedure, the spirit which animates 
 her Judges, the almost discretionary power which the extreme 
 severity of her legislation has established in practice, and with which 
 the Judges are entrusted, and more than anything else the institu- 
 tion of ' the Jury,' corrects this rigorous legislation. 
 
 " PuUy to understand the system of Sir Samuel Eorailly, it is 
 necessary to peruse the observations which he published in 1810 
 upon the Criminal Law of England. You will there find, Gentlemen, 
 that in no other country were so many various Acts punishable with 
 death; that under Henry VIII., 72,000 persons perished legally 
 by the hand of the executioner — that under Elizabeth 400 persons 
 annually were executed. You will there find that the act of stealing 
 in a shop, anything of the value of six livres of our money, and even 
 sometimes when only of the value of thirteen pence, or twenty-six 
 sous of France, or to steal fowls in an enclosed court yard, was a 
 capital crime. But you will there also find, as always happens when 
 the law is extravagantly severe, that these laws were not put in 
 force — and that from 1803 to 1810, out of 1,872 persons found 
 guilty of these acts, only one was put to death. 
 
 " This system of keeping up in -principle a barbarous legislation, 
 and softening it in practice has been defended by very celebrated 
 writers. 
 
 " Everything, however, in existence, as well as everything which 
 has existed, has the privilege of finding advocates. These apologists 
 pretend that it is beneficial that the law should form a vast network, 
 enclosing under the denomination of crime, all acts contrary to 
 public order, in such a way as to strike terror into all — and that the 
 application of the law should be afterwards left— either to the Jury, 
 who may by their verdict declare that the act alleged has not been 
 proved — or to the Judges, who may turn aside the strict application 
 of the law — or to the Sovereign, the supreme depository of Mercy — 
 who has the ultimate discretion of alleviating its excessive rigour. 
 
 " Sir Samuel Romilly proved to demonstration that this system was 
 
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VI APPENDIX. 
 
 in fact only a continued suspension of the written law, that is to say, 
 an organized arbitrary power, which no doubt was better than the 
 merciless application of sanguinary laws, but which casts a disastrous 
 uncertainty upon human actions, and transforms penal legislation 
 into a lottery of death, where the unequal lots are distributed 
 according to the different characters of the Judges — their disposition 
 of the moment, the manner with which the remembrances of the 
 past may strike them, or, actuated by their feelings when they 
 pronounce their formidable sentence. He renders a striking meed of 
 justice to English Judges ; and notwithstanding my wish not to take 
 up your time uselessly in the task which you have prescribed to 
 me, I yield to a desire to quote some of his feeling and truthful 
 expressions. 
 
 " ' No one,' says he, ' could have attended the sittings of our 
 Criminal Courts, and observed the members of them, without being 
 profoundly struck with the care with which the Judges endeavour 
 to discharge their important duties towards the public — their perfect 
 impartiality, their anxious wish to avoid error and protect innocence 
 in the pursuit of crime, the total absence of all distinction between 
 rich and poor, the powerful and the oppressed. These are circum- 
 stances acknowledged and duly appreciated by the whole Nation. 
 Upon these essential points all our Judges are animated by the 
 same spirit, and whatever shades of opinion may exist amongst them 
 they proceed upon the line of duty with a uniform step.' 
 
 " Happy the country in which opposing parties can thus bear 
 testimony to the honour of judicial authority ! True it is the English 
 Constitution has inherited many imperfections, and has undergone 
 many alarming vicissitudes ; but the administration of justice pre- 
 serves nevertheless its long attribute of liberty, its tutelary forms, 
 its delicate scruples, its religious respect for the right of defence, 
 and the sacred privileges of the unfortunate. In England the Judges 
 never interrupt the accused, or, if they do interfere, it is only to 
 enlighten them when ignorant, and to protect them against them- 
 selves. They never refuse them the liberty of replying. After 
 having listened attentively to the accuser, they consider it no merit 
 to entangle by captious questions, by insulting apostrophes, by 
 ironical commentaries, an unfortunate man already confused by his 
 painful situation. They do not distress by an anticipated judgment 
 he who as yet is but the object of suspicion, which perhaps may be 
 erroneous, or force him to listen in silence to outrages which only 
 
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APPENDIX. VU 
 
 display their own vanity, a miserable love of superiority,- the 
 puerile ambition of shewing their own eloquence, when their only 
 consideration should be to shew that they are just. The Judges in 
 England also do not complain that the judicial character is not 
 sufficiently respected. It is not the interest of men to degrade that 
 which protects them, and the national instinct always respects that 
 which is respectable. But in making this public avowal of the 
 esteem in which he held those to whom the administration of justice 
 was confided. Sir Samuel Romilly was desirous that the safety of 
 the citizen should depend upon the law, and not upon men. He 
 knew that the guarantees which depend only on personal vktues were 
 precarious and insufficient, and that social order existed by the fact 
 that men should not occupy the place of the law. 
 
 " He wished consequently to reform the penal laws of his 
 country. He succeeded in a great degree, and had it not been 
 for his premature death. Great Britain probably would have seen 
 blotted from its code many useless severities, many dispositions 
 of a fearful character, many enactments where the legislature seemed 
 to have forgotten that an equitable proportion between punishment 
 and crime was indispensable, so that justice should not become 
 powerless, by being revolting to humanity. 
 
 " But it was not only in the criminal law that Sir Samuel Komilly 
 desired the introduction of important ameliorations. He wished the 
 reform of many other English institutions. He called for the abolition 
 of all those laws where intolerance was cloaked (a strange thing) 
 under the pretext of liberty. He proposed a more equal and less 
 oligarchal organization, in the system of elections. 
 
 " His ideas of Reform were always exempt from that dangerous 
 impatience which, not calculating the state of public opinion and the 
 resisting powers, too often annoys that public opinion by premature 
 effi)rts, and provokes resistance by untimely violence. 
 
 " His general principle, as he himself announced it, in 1806, in 
 the House of Commons was, that we ought to adapt the laws to the 
 spirit of the age and nation ; that even things which were hurtful in 
 themselves, required to be destroyed with prudence, because their 
 duration was intimately connected with those which were useful. 
 
 " We now. Gentlemen, are about to enter upon a new career. We 
 are going to follow Sir Samuel Romilly into a sphere, I do not say 
 more elevated than that in which I have just presented him to you — 
 
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vni APPENDIX. 
 
 for nothing is more elevated than the defence of the life of man — but 
 into a sphere more calculated to attract public attention, because he 
 was about to be called upon to influence the measures of the Govern- 
 ment of his country, and by consequence, the destinies of the whole 
 of Europe. 
 
 " When the desire of Peace (which had become the dominant 
 opinion of the English nation) had forced the Court, in 1806, to 
 re-open to Charles Fox an entry into the Councils of the King, and 
 to constitute a Ministry in which the talents of many should be 
 united. Sir Samuel was appointed by the Minister to the situation of 
 Solicitor-General to the Crown — that is to say, a post which cor- 
 responds to that of Procureur-General in France. 
 
 " This name, Gentlemen, suggests many various ideas — accord- 
 ing to the difference of the times— of men, — and of countries. In 
 the sorrowful times of Henry VIII., for example, or of Louis 
 XI., a Procureur-General might be the terror of innocence, the dread 
 of all those who were accused, the destroyer of thought, the enemy 
 of courageous aspirations, the emulator of an inquisitor who inter- 
 prets phrases, tortures words, and proscribes the light. In more 
 happy times he may be the impartial upholder of justice, the 
 beneficent protector of weakness, a generous supporter of the inde- 
 pendence of opinions. Each person in accepting this ofiSce chooses 
 a part for which he is fitted, and the reputation which he has 
 merited. You will guess, without difficulty, the choice made by Sir 
 Samuel Eomilly. A single fact will be sufficient to indicate the 
 course he adopted. During the year (at the end of which he ceased 
 to be in office, inasmuch as his friends no longer constituted the 
 Ministry) there was not a single prosecution for Libel. And assuredly 
 you are not ignorant of the liberty which was enjoyed— even the 
 licence which writers then possessed; or, to adopt a phrase inge- 
 niously invented by persons who were desirous of acting without 
 any restraint — the English Pamphleteers. Nevertheless, was 
 England in any danger ? No, Gentlemen, so true is it that arbitrary 
 power, which is invoked as a means of ensuring peace, is often the 
 true and only source of disorder. 
 
 " Thus free from any situation as the nominee of the Government, 
 Sir Samuel Romilly gave himself up to his duties as a Member of 
 the House of Commons— exalted duties, the most important mission 
 that a citizen can hold ; and I avow it as my opinion, the most 
 brilliant that an ambitious man can desire. 
 
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APPENDIX. IX 
 
 " Gentlemen, if I were to recapitulate, however rapidly, the various 
 subjects which Sir Samuel Romilly discussed in the House, and in 
 which he was always the advocate, and sometimes successfully so — 
 of humane principles, liberty and justice — I should detain you for 
 several hours, or I should be obliged to request you to grant me 
 another meeting. I regret that I cannot trace the details of these noble 
 subjects, as well as his indefatigable efforts to carry them through. 
 
 " I yield, however, to this rigorous necessity, and cannot hold up 
 Sir Samuel Eomilly to you as the defender of the liberty of the 
 press, and the sanctity of verdict by juries, in opposition to enemies, 
 who are everywhere the same, and who everywhere produce the same 
 sophisms. But I ought to explain to you his opinion in relaHon to 
 the right which the national representatives have to examine 
 judgments which have been already delivered, and to make use of 
 his own expression, ' to control the tribunals of justice.' 
 
 " Yes, Gentlemen, he was of opinion that Parliament had the 
 right not only to initiate reforms in the law, but to see that, the 
 Judges, and even Juries were faithful to their duties. 
 
 " Upon these grounds, he denounced on the 20th May, 1818, the 
 verdict of a Jurj' which had been given in favour of a slave-holder, 
 who had inflicted upon one of his unfortunate victims, a chastisement 
 more cruel than was permitted by law. On this occasion he was 
 opposed by many Members of the Commons who were generally 
 of his opinion. Mr. Wilberforce, speaking upon the question, said it 
 was one of the most precious privileges of the House, the protectress 
 of civil liberty— to exercise whenever it should see fit, the power 
 of enquiry into and controlling the conduct of, every Court of Justice. 
 One Member of the Government, Mr. Goulburn, fully admitted the 
 authority of the House to enquu'e into all matters although they 
 might have been already decided upon by the Tribunals. All parties, 
 in a word, assented to this right of investigation into the way in 
 which justice might have been administered. 
 
 " May I be permitted here to quote some expressions from a 
 work, whosff author deserves — as a writer, by his talents, as a 
 citizen, by his principles, as a deputy, by his courage — all our 
 esteem, all our respect. I wish to speak of him as the first who 
 uttered those energetic words in the Tribune against the horrors 
 then only half concealed, and which the virtuous indignation of the 
 public suppressed by a single effort of salutary publicity. Doubtless 
 Gentlemen, you recognize in this description M. Camille Jourdan. 
 
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X APPENDIX. 
 
 " ' Ought we,' he says, ' to yield up for the shedding of innocent 
 blood, conraiitted by the mistaken sword of the law, the only com- 
 pensation which Providence seems here below to have provided for 
 the greatest of misfortunes — that of a remembrance which remains 
 to enable us to ameliorate formalities and solace future genera- 
 tions ? What ! because a horrible mistake has taken place, ought 
 we, for the sake of the reputation of certain Judges, to render the 
 renewal of such things perpetual ? Those lugubrious works, which 
 present to the astonished legislator the most useful lessons for the 
 country and for the whole human race, should they be closed for 
 ever ? Observe,' says he, ' the state of those countries in which 
 all enquiry into the mode of administering justice has been severely 
 forbidden. Thus, in England under the pretence of a religious 
 reticence, were concealed the decrees of the Star Chamber, the 
 judicial persecutions of Mary, the legal cruelties of Jeffreys and of 
 Kirk. So, in France, must one be at ease and silent with respect to 
 all those extraordinary commissions which have disgraced by so many 
 iniquitous proceedings the annals of our criminal jurisprudence ?" 
 
 "Thus, Gentlemen, in all countries, honest men, distinguished 
 and good citizens, the defenders of our laws and our rights, are 
 understood, and are responded to. Happy sympathy — which puts to 
 shame the machinations of the enemies of the public weal — and 
 which drowns with its powerful voice, the futile murmurs of faction, 
 vanquished as soon as pointed out. 
 
 " You will. Gentlemen, I think, be persuaded, that the death of 
 Sir Samuel Eomilly is not only for England, but for humanity itself, 
 a cruel fatality. He united in himself two things seldom combined — 
 practical science, and speculative philosophy ; practical science 
 which rendered speculation applicable — and philosophy which 
 rendered practice just and enlightened. He wished for liberty, and 
 like all who sincerely desire liberty, he detested disorder. He 
 wished to detach from that which existed, only to reform, and not to 
 destroy. He wished to enlighten authority — to restrain it within its 
 legitimate bounds — not to overthrow it ; to reconcile the rights of all, 
 and thus to ensure for it a more lasting duration ; to preserve govern- 
 ment from despotism, which becomes powerless ; the people from 
 anarchy, by which liberty is lost. 
 
 " His career has been most unfortunately interrupted — ^but his 
 labours, his reputation, his example, remain. More than one unfor- 
 
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APPENDIX. XI 
 
 tunate, spared by the laws which he has softened — more than one of 
 the oppressed, protected by the principles which he proclaimed — 
 more than one Nation perhaps, invoking his illustrions memory 
 against the abuse of power, the manoeuvres of perfidy, or the insolence 
 of ephemeral success— will continue for a length of time to cherish, 
 to respect, to bless his name. 
 
 " In conclusion, Gentlemen, apart from the deplorable cause and 
 manner of his death — you will perhaps consider that it is not for him 
 that we ought to grieve. The career of the defenders of liberty is 
 difficult and laborious. They meet incessantly with results which 
 frustrate their expectations, and unforeseen calamities which devas- 
 tate the fields which they have cultivated. Sometimes crime — more 
 often error— sometimes, all at once, fear or ignorance turn them 
 back from the end to which they are approaching. Are they not 
 happy who repose in the tomb after having accomplished some 
 good? 
 
 " Let those who survive, however, never forget that the path of 
 duty is traced out for them. They have received from heaven a 
 mission which may be difficult, but for which they are responsible. 
 Even in succumbing they obtain the approbation of all that is virtuous 
 on earth. They have pleaded a noble cause in the face of the world, 
 and have been encouraged by the good wishes of all. Let them 
 therefore not be discouraged. Every age will not be thus disinherited ; 
 the future will not betray the human race ; there will still remain 
 men for whom justice is a passion, — ^the defence of the weak, a want. 
 Nature has decreed this succession ; nothing hitherto has been able 
 to interrupt it, nothing will ever prevent it, and although many may 
 perish by the way, many will succeed them who will take up their 
 watchword and carry out their work." 
 
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No. 2.— LOED LYNDHUEST. 
 
 Copies of Letters written hy John Singleton Copley, Esq., from 
 America, as " Travelling Bachelor" to the University of 
 Cambridge, during the year 1795, addressed to the 
 Vice- Chancellor of that University. 
 
 The Originals woi/>(1866) in the University Library at Cambridge. 
 
 Vi/ro Reverendo Richardo Bellward, S. T.P., 
 
 Academice Cantabrigiensis dignissimo Pro-Cancellario. 
 
 Hasce terras peragranti miU ssepius occurrit, quam ingentem 
 itineris fructum ceperim, si possem ad te dignum aliquid conspectu 
 tuo perscribere. Quod in me est, enitar ut paueula saltern in chartis 
 meis notanda tibi communicem, unde quo in loco bujus Eeipublicse 
 res sint sitae, conjecture, possis consequi. Quo autem ex oppido 
 initium potius petam, quam ex eo ipso quod caput olim imperii 
 destin§,runt Americani? Urbs Federalis (Washington) in furcS, sita 
 est, quam efficiunt Potomad brachia, alterum ex orientali, alterum ex 
 occidentali parte, unum in locum confluentia. Ex orifentali parte 
 brevis est fluvii cursus : fluvius occidentalis (trans montes Alleganos 
 fontem suum habens) millia passuum fere 360 emensus, in Chesapeakum 
 exoneratur. 
 
 Qu^ surgit Urbs Federalis subito flexu se amnis in partes 
 meridionales provolvit, unde evenit ut ex urbe rectis oculis defluentem 
 fluvium concipere possis. Latus est ad hunc locum fluvius circa 
 mille passuum ; e longinquo se ostendit oppidum Alexandria. Sub 
 ipsis moenibus Washington, locum occupat Forum Georgii. Ad 
 ripas Potomaci adjacent utrinque campi patentes, qui solo sunt 
 usquequaque fertili. Accidit autem plerumque ut nimiis impedi- 
 mentis foedarentur Americse amnes. Poiomacus hisce mendis minime 
 vaoat, quas tamen civitas qusedam (ad hoc ipsum constituta) amovere 
 moliuntur. 
 
 Ad tria millia passuiun ab urbe Federal! distant prima fluvii 
 prsecipitia, pedibus sex et triginta intra tria millia passuum decurrentis. 
 
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APPENDIX. Xiu 
 
 Hie nautas adjuvat canalis tribus emissariis instructus, anno abhino 
 ad finem suum adductus. Vix pauca millia passuum adverse flumine 
 contenderis, et adsunt vada, deoursusque aquarum, quibus intra mille 
 passuum, pedibus 76 flumen se demittit. " Labor omnia vincit," 
 neque longius quam unius anni spatio abest quin totum flumen ad 
 scapharum transitum accomodetur. Cymbse, quse 100 vel 200 modios 
 vehunt (quorum singuli ad 1 cwt. et f respondent), ultra arcem 
 Cumberland quasi 50 miUibus passuum solventes, 230 mill. pass, 
 decursu ad Washington pervenient. Singuli modii vectura paulo 
 plus doUario constabit. Locus qui ad condendam Washington 
 designatus est, colliculis amabiliter est conspersus. In hoc ferme 
 medio loco stat Capitolium, unde aciem late in fluvium et Virginias 
 procul campos intendere possis. ^des erunt longse pedes 390; 
 columnarum ordo Corinthiacus. Jacta adhuc sunt fundamenta, 
 atque aliquS, ex parte sedes se ostendunt. Ad mille passuum distat 
 domus ista quae ad usum Prmfecti Eeip. reservatur. Saxis quadratis 
 ex saxcetis Aquise (unde et Capitolii saxa) desumptis in satis miran- 
 dam magnificentiam hsec domus extruitur. Adjacent horti amoenissimi 
 circa 100 jugera complexi, qui in usum civium destinantur. Quae 
 utUia, quse pulcra, totam per urbem conspiciuntur. Latse sunt plateae 
 pedes 90 ssepe etiam 190. Placitum est quoque ut sedes civium sint 
 altse pedes 45 sive 35 — 
 
 " Si sunt certi denique fines 
 Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere tectum." 
 
 Arborum ordines per vicos dispositi, fervidiorem solem a civibus 
 defendent — 
 
 " Hsec turn nomina erunt, nunc sunt sine nomine terrse." 
 
 Eegni novitas monet homines quam frugi esse oporteat. Venditis 
 agris in quibus coUocanda erat Urbs Federalis, satis ingens nummorum 
 summa in sedificationem Capitolii, cseterarumque sedium publicarum 
 crescebat. Aderat autem banc summam regentibus, sacra fames, 
 "Speculation" et jam diminutS, summS,, prse egestate opera publica 
 prsepediuntur. Non absque fuerit si animadvertero, quod ager ad 
 sedificandum qui ad 550,000 pedes solidos amplectitur paulo plus 
 1,000 dollariis constabit. 
 
 Tubam Farenheitianam nactus, quam per singulos dies sub umbrS, 
 collocatam medio die observo, inveni medium summi caloris per tres 
 dies apud Forum Georgii 82° Far. In animo est indolem soli per 
 locos singulos, ex specie arborum atque magnijiudine exquirfire. Si 
 
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XIV APPENDIX. 
 
 qu§, ali^ via, ad hanc notitiam pervenire possim, e% demura aggrediar. 
 Forum Greorgii simul cum crescente republica crevit. ^dium pars 
 magna intra paucos annos sedificata esse videtur. Ex lateribus ferme 
 eitruuntur per coUiculos complures conspersi. Ad educandos pueros 
 se graviter convertit Besp. coUegio jam complures annos ad Forum 
 Georgii constituto. Jam nunc novas sedes moliuntur, quarum 
 dormitorium (unde quot pueros expectet collegium scias) est longum 
 pedes 155, latum 40. 
 
 Alexandria in planitie ad flumen Potomac se ostendit. Mira est 
 arborum egestas — longS latlque circa oppidum planities curto gramine 
 vestita porrigitur. Plateae, quibus suppetit latitudo satis commoda, 
 se mutuo rectis angulis intersecant. -iEdes ex lateribus maximam 
 ad partem exstructse. Urbs nitida, et rebus affluens. Incolse ad 
 numerum 4,000 forsan et 5,000. Excepti sumus comiter per domos. 
 Tabacum farinamque (plaustris ad oppidum allata) exportant Alex- 
 andrini : invehunt opera manufacta. Multa ad Baltimorum et 
 Philadelphiam — nonnuUa in sinum Mexicanum evehuntur. Julii4to. 
 liberos se confirmarunt Americani. Ubique hie dies laetitia lusuque 
 celebratur. Stat in annis miles civicus. Vocabant Alexandrini ad 
 hujus diei epulas ipsum Washington, qui aedes habet 10 millia 
 passuum ab Alexandrii, remotas. Aderamus ad epulas, vidimus 
 Praesulem Reip. Felicitatem civium et ipse sentiebat et augebat, 
 vultu at que risu benevolo hilarique. 
 
 Tandem, Vir reverende, finem facio, expectans dum crescat altera 
 
 scribendi materies. Velim ut majorem segetem secum ferant hsec 
 
 literse : quo ad Academiam acumenque tuum commendarentur. 
 
 Quae desunt autem non dubito quin indulgentiS tua atque veniS 
 
 expleantur. 
 
 Sum tibi, 
 
 Omni studio devinctissimus, 
 
 Johannes Copley. 
 
 Viro Eeverendo Rickardo Bellward, S. T.P., 
 
 Academice Cantdbrigiensis dignissimo Pro-Cancellario. 
 
 Quanquam prop& abest quin spem omnem studia mea tibi 
 Academiseque approbandi objiciam, tamen urget me morse pudor, ut 
 qusecunque tandem in schedis coUecta habeam in conspectum tuum 
 rursus proferam. Si nil aliud, vera tamen referre possum. Et 
 quoniam quae vera, item sunt utilia, forsan etiam literse mese 
 nonnuUam jucunditatem praj se ferant. 
 
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APPENDIX. XV 
 
 De Alexandria nuper soribebam; quo quideni in loco nihil non 
 consentaneum cum cseteris Americse conjuratae maritimis oppidis 
 animadverti. Mercatura, resque politicse (quae modo ad mercaturam 
 speotent) imprimis e& loci coluntur. Raro de Uteris philosophiS,que 
 disceptatur, neque usquam literaium hominem (quem nuncupant 
 EuropsB gentes) inveneris. Opibus bonisque artibus illi maxim! qui 
 mercaturam excercent, per totam Americam augentur. 
 
 Horum luxns, sedes, %dium apparatus, qusecunque deinde (si 
 ministros excipias) ad laut5 vivendum faciunt, baud longo intervaUo 
 ad Anglorum normam proximS accedunt. Collem Vemoniemem 
 visendi Prsesulis Reipublicse curl petivimus. Inter hunc collem 
 atque Alexandriam porriguntur campi minimfe amoenitate insignes. 
 Solum sterile, via difficilis prseruptaque. Quin ipsius Prsesulis horti, 
 nihil culti, nihil amoeni splendoris, ostendunt. ^des ex saxo, vetustse, 
 vastse, ex excelso loco, Potomaci immensitatera baud procul porrectam, 
 navesque inter Alexandriam Oceanumque vela dantes, mirum in 
 modum despiciunt. Benignum, urbanum, facetum, PrsBsulem experti 
 sumus. Multis de rebus, de sedibus, de hortis suis, de agro qui 
 circumjacet, libenter disserebat. Domus nuUo luxu instructa est, 
 virtus sola WasMrigton conspicitur. 
 
 In sedibus Prsesidis diversabantur Proceres quidam ex gente 
 barbarS Catawba. Brevis hominum statura, exigui artus ; paululum 
 quidem metiis in vultu inerat ; quippe ista potissimum metum 
 incutinnt, quse cum periculo conjunguntur. Compertum autem est 
 gentem Catawba languescere. Eei rusticas studentes, virtutem 
 propriasque barbarorum artes a se amiserunt, nondum literarum 
 artes adepti. Nil mirum igitur si squalore et inertil sunt foedi. 
 Olira celebrata est gentis Catawba ferocia. Inter Catawba et 
 Delawari gentes vetus odium. Per imraensa spatia alteri ad 
 alterius fines ssepius properabant ; si paucos interfecerint, honestum 
 ideoque grande operse pretium existimantes. Magnificse sunt bar- 
 barorum voces. Qussrebat quidam ex Catawbiano viro quemad- 
 modum tot et tanta itinera suscipere sustineret ; " Minor est 
 terrarum orbis, quam in quo liberS deambulem," respondit barbarus, 
 pedibus assurgens, tendensque in auras brachia. Quse spatia urbani 
 quasi fine carentia mirantur, eadem barbari, multo itinere assueti, 
 per saxa, per scopulos assiduS iter carpentes, quasi exigua con- 
 temnunt. 
 
 Dixeram aliquid de minoribus Potomaci prsecipitiis, quse tria 
 millia passuum a Foro Georgii distant. Ripse prsealtse sylvis 
 
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XVI APPENDIX. 
 
 rupibusque consitse, flumini fero Bsepe diluvio frementi Be rite 
 opponunt. Qua se demittunt aquae, latus est amnis pedes 130, 
 riparumque nipes molem pontis monocamerati, quem injicere parant 
 Canali-Potomaca Civitas, facile sustinebunt. Canalis qui ex parte 
 Maryland duoitur, longus est 2,000 passuum, altus pedibus quatuor, 
 latus pedes 12. Cymbse quibus in Potomaco navigandum est sunt 
 fer6 longee pedes 50, latse sex. Dilabuntur seeundo flnmine hse 
 cymbse citato cursu, — adverse, contorum ope, per 2,000 passuum spatia 
 singulis horis promoventur. Septem singulis cymbis nautse sufficiunt. 
 Ab Arce Cumberland ad prsecipitia majora quse ad 20,000 passuum 
 supra Forum Georgii occurrunt, tribus diebus decurres ; vix intra 12 
 dies adverso alveo redieris. Singulis cymbis 100 (interdum et 200) 
 dolia vebuntur. 
 
 Washington praecipuS tribuendum est quod Potomacus flmnen 
 navigantibus accommodatum est. PactS, pace, in coUem se Vemo- 
 niensem recepit, deque Canali-PotomacS, Civitate constituend^ 
 cogitavit. Opera horum (more novarum societatum) tarde processe- 
 runt. Tanta autem beneficia exinde consequentur, quanta volvendis 
 annis Americanos ad conatus similes facUe stimulare possunt. 
 
 Tandem iterum finem facere volo. Si res aliquando levioris 
 momenti not§,rim, ex hie causS, defensionem desumam, quod ssepe ex 
 nugis exquirendum est ingenium loci. Quod autem prius, nunc 
 etiam spero, fore sequitatem tuam imbellicitatis mese tutamen per- 
 fugiumque. Ex hSc spe solatium petam, quse me foveat ab Anglia 
 exsulantem, inde exsulantem ubi olim me juvabat — 
 " Inter sylvas Aoademi c[userere rerum." 
 Sum tibi, 
 
 Omni studio devinotissimus, 
 
 Johannes Copley. 
 
 Reverendo Doctissimoque Viro Ridhardo Bellward, S.T.P., 
 AcademicB Camtabrigiensis dignisdmo Pro-Cancellano. 
 Vir Reverende, 
 
 Illis quse olim de AmericS scripsi, pauca hodie adjiciam. Hoc 
 prsescribere videtur munus officiumque meum ; nee enim ambitios^ 
 sperare audeo, ut aliquid scientise tuo afferre, vel etiam ut otio tuo 
 digna (quanquam id maxima vellem !) curS, ingeniove meo promere 
 possim. Sed tamen quse vidi et quibus interfui, quam simpliciter> 
 exponere propero. 
 
 Virginia relicta, satis viatoribus lustrata, et Ohione transgress^, 
 
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APPENDIX. XVU 
 
 nationes barbaras istius regionis adimus. Inita nuper cum Indis 
 (sic enim hi populi alieno nomine vocantur) pax periculum amoverat ; 
 et per effusas inter Kentuciam et Canadam superiorem vicos otiose 
 errabamus. Hsec tota regio cselo et terris gratissima, nullis monti- 
 bus aspera, variis et proceris arboribus ornata; humidior tamen, 
 et aliquibus in locis, ut ubi nuUi adhuc hominum labores, etiam 
 palndibus foeda. Lene labuntur flumina quse nunc per sylvas, nimc 
 per immensa prata ; cursum duount. Ferarum copiam ferunt olim 
 maximam; sylvas avibus refertas, perque pascua errasse magna 
 bovum cervorumque armenta. Non hodie esedem opes ; fugiunt 
 enim ferae vicinos agricolas, qui jam a tribus lateribus hanc 
 regionem premunt. Ipsis etiam Indis gravia ex hac vicinitate 
 mala; ebrietas, fames, variique exinde morbi. Indies suae copise 
 decrescunt ; et, nisi Mississipiam migrantes transeant, nulla miseris 
 salus. Quis autem hsec sanior lugeat V Ubi eniin perpauci sordidique 
 nunc palantur barbari, innumeri mox degent coloni vigebuntque. 
 In proximo oppida, artes, literse. Ipse eorum opinionibus accedoqui 
 Americse populos ab Asisl originem deduxisse arbitrantur. Versus 
 septentrionem duse continentes aut concurrunt aut parvo intervallo 
 distinguuntur ; et ad novas quserendas sedes inquieta hominum 
 ingenia facilS impelluntur. Idem fere est et Sarmatise populis et 
 Indis corporis color ; utrique genti nigri oculi et comae. Apud Indos 
 quoque plures et omnino diversae linguae. Hinc a quibusdam coUigitur 
 non casu, non unS, vel altera, migratione, sed viS minime ignoti et 
 saepissime calcatS,, in Americam venisse. 
 
 Plerumque juxta ripas vel etiam super insulas fluminum ob pisca- 
 tum et solum uberius vicos statuunt ; et longius autumno venatura 
 euntibus commodum iter praebent liptres. MateriS, ad aedificia struenda 
 informi vel cortice, ulteriores pellibus utuntur. Arcae in medio focum 
 ponunt, et per tecti foramen transit fumus. In bovum ursorumve 
 pelles humi stratas jacent, et nisi quum hostem metuant, suspendunt 
 de trabibus fruges, vel juxta tectum recondunt. Si irruptionem 
 expectent, subterraneos specus, cortice munitos, et insuper fimo 
 oneratos, receptacula frugibus aperiunt. 
 
 Pellibus olim vestiti fuerunt ; hodie vero laneis amictibus, quos 
 a nostris, mutatis mercibus, emunt. Omnes tunici, et ocrearum 
 genere utuntur; pallium quoque circa renes cingulo Ugant, quod 
 humeros tegit, et, si sit ob frigus necessarium, caput. Nee alius 
 feminis quam viris habitus nisi quod ipsse indusiis ad crurum medium 
 pertingentibus insuper amiciuntur. Brachia armillis, aures et nasus 
 
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XVlll APPENDIX. 
 
 stalagmiis apud iitrumque sexum ornantur. Monilia aptant collis, 
 oraque pigmentis distinguunt. Viri prssterea, utroque capitis latere 
 crinibus scissis, reliquam partem capilli retro sequuntur, et "in ipso 
 solo vertice religant."* E corpore mentoque pilos singulatim ex- 
 trahunt, et mire speculis delectantur quae vel inter venationes secum 
 portant. 
 
 Hiemem semper venatibus transigunt : reliqunm anni, quotiens 
 bella non ineunt, somno ciboque dediti terunt. Viri nihil agentes, 
 delegate, domus et agrorum ciiri feminis, ipsi hebent. Proximi 
 nostris vaccas et equos emunt ; puUos alunt, et nostro exemplo pomaria 
 conserunt. Quoad csetera baud ulterioribus dissimiles. Camera fumo 
 durant, et terra, a feminis fracta ligonibus, frumentum et legumina 
 edit. Quasillis et tegetes texunt ; calceos et vestimenta mira arte 
 faciunt, ornantque. Avide cibum capiunt ; in vestibulo tamen sedentes, 
 ut proximis vel accedentibus impertiatur. Dum ad potandum habent, 
 ut inter barbaros, nuUus unquam modus. Crebrse bis compotationibns 
 rixse et vulnera. Semper autem in conviviis aliquis, aut vir aut 
 femina, sedulo potum recusat ut cseteros curat et malum arceat. 
 Injuriam ver6 a temulento illatam probrum putatur sobrium nloisci. 
 Pilis a juvenibus luditur, et tanto ardore, ut vulnera, nuUS autem irS,, 
 nullo odio, ssepe aocipiantur. Aleam exercent maximS, lucrandi 
 perdendive temeritate. Mirnm est quibus ululatibus corporumque 
 gestibus circumstantes, prout huic vel illi favent, numina invocant ; 
 nam ipsi lusores utramque fortunam eS,dem tranquillitate spectant. 
 
 In pagos vicosque natio quseque distinguitur ; regiaque potestas 
 uni domo sucoessione permanet. Auctoritas tamen quae a persuasione 
 poti&s quam jussu pendet, ad externa prsecipue respicit. Duces ex 
 virtute sumuntur, et ssepe, ut verisimile, qui rex est, eum ducem 
 eligunt. Est et seniorum et militum concilium ubi de Republic^ 
 tractatur. Maximus his coetibus ordo : grave silentium ; multum in 
 orationibus rationis et solertise ; eloquentia nunc humilis, nunc 
 sublimis. Si placuit sententia, bonam et justam esse dicunt ; et in 
 assensu sonum quasi O'dh expirant. Decreta consilii, caeterarumque 
 rerum gestarum memoria conchis consectis linoque instructis, qnas 
 Wampum appellant, conservatur, et has quasi publicas literas feminse 
 diligenter custodiunt. 
 
 NuUeI vi, nullis legibus coercentur ; quisque si decernatur bellum 
 ultr5 vel arma sumit vel recusat. Homicidio, nisi pretio avertatur, 
 
 » Tao. Germ. cap. 38. 
 
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APPENDIX. xix 
 
 supplicium a mortui proximis vindicatur. Maximo in odio habetur 
 veneficium ; cnjus suspectum criminis statim arripit populus et orude- 
 lissima morte mulctat. De fure ut domum suam dedecore afficiente 
 propinqui psenas sumunt. Eara hsec delicta, et sicut de Germanis 
 Tacitus, " Plus ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonse leges." 
 
 Varia et diversa sunt matrimonii instituta, et unam vel plures 
 uxores seeundilm nationem ducunt. Munera et parentibus et puellffl 
 dantur : inter haec lebes, dolabra, et aptura oneribus portandis 
 cingulum, quse ad futures labores spectant. Etsi mutuo consensu 
 licita, rara tamen nuptiarum solutio. Adulterii poena marito per- 
 missa; ore foedatam domo expellit: sed nonnunquam, in hospiti 
 voluptatem, crimen a viro jubetur. Satis inter puellas licentise ; 
 publicatse enim pudicitise nulla poena, nullum probrum. 
 
 Bexan esse unum, maxima bonitate, maxima potestate insignem, 
 credunt, alteram vero omnigeni mali causam. Hunc precibus petunt 
 ipsis ne rioceat ; ilium nihil metuunt ; suS enim naturl ultro mortales 
 idoneum donare arbitrantur. Quisque prasterea suum habet numen. 
 Variis hsec induuntur formis ; simulacraque rudia et ridicula quse 
 Manitous nomine vocant, ad mala arcenda, semper secum portant. 
 Ssepe per plurimos dies a cibo potuque ob religionem abstinent, et 
 Bomnia interea maxima solicitudine notant. Post mortem alia vita, 
 priori tamen simillima. Novam et secretam fingunt regionem, cselo 
 soloque beatam, ferisque omnigenis refertam. Una igitur cum 
 mortuo inhumantur arma, aliaque viventi utilia (nam omnia spiritum 
 animamque habere putant) ut novos ineunti campos prosint. Illic, 
 non leve virtutis incitamentum, honos cseteraque tribuuntur prsemia, 
 secundum in hac vita cuique vel in bello vel venatu peritiam. lUic 
 quoque eadem ut Mc desideria, eadem gaudia. Apud Indos idem 
 semper est et sacerdos et medicus. Nam etsi vulnera morbosque 
 satis feliciter tractant, nullam putant inesse medica mentis vim nisi 
 incantamenta variosque ritus adhibeant. Futura quoque divinant 
 haud fallendi rudes. 
 
 NuUus in inimicitiis modus, non temporum non locorum longin- 
 quitate spes ultionis et ira languescit. Quinque celeberrimse istse 
 nationes quse apud Ontarionem lacum sedes posuerant, ultra ipsam 
 Mississipiam arma tulSre, et longum intervallum annuls itineribus 
 calcaverunt. Ssepe unus vel alter ad inopinantem opprimendum 
 hostem sues relinquens per immensa sylvarum percurrit. Montes 
 scandit, flumina transnatat et nullum non subit laborem dummodo 
 spes sit sanguine rabiem explendi. Ante nostrorum adventum' 
 
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XX APPENDIX. 
 
 eminus sagittis, cominus saxevis securibus pugnabatur, et has in 
 fugientes nunquam frustra immittebant. Hodie vero, mutatis 
 mercibus, arma emunt, et tormentis in nostrum morem bello vena- 
 tibusque utuntur. In apertis locis exercitibusque instructis nunquam 
 decernitur. Accepti vulneris nulla laus ; pectus talis objicere 
 amentise potius quam virtutis esse, putant. Insidias astute moliri, 
 dormientem hostem ferire, arva vicosque flamma vastare, magnam 
 captivorum vim auferre, suosque rursus incolumes illaesosque domum 
 reportare, maxima duci gloria. Mos est a fronte csesorum hostium 
 cutem divellere ; et dum victores in vicum suum introeunt, secundtim 
 integumentorum numerum clamores edunt, cseteraque barbari gaudii 
 indicia ostendunt. Si nulla sit victories spes cedere loco et fugere 
 consilii arbitrantur. Sumraam diligentiam et solertiam in fuga 
 exhibent; nam Indi, sive natura sive docuit experientia, mire 
 perspicaces vestigia fugientium sequuntur. Si filius occasum deflet 
 parentis, vel parens filii, si uxor mariti, e captivis qui mortui vice 
 fungatur sibi statim eligit. Illico patria penatibusque mutatis victo 
 quasi novus animus ; suorumque oblitus quos odio nuper prosecutus 
 est, illos maximo nunc studio amplectitur. Eeliqua pars captivorum 
 morte crudelissima perit. Omni, quod truci et experto barborum 
 occurrit ingenio, lii miseri supplicio afficiuntur. Detrahitur cutis, 
 oculi effodiuntur, leatoque igni artus et extremse corporis partes 
 consumuntur. Ipse captivus summa fortitudine nuUa doloris signa 
 moustrat ; sua fortia facta canit, et circumstantes ut ignavos imbellesque 
 contumeliis lacerat. Tandem, ab irato aliquo lethali vulnere illato, 
 optatse morti occumbit. Hsec de moribus Indorum, ut digniora 
 notatu, e multis excerpsi, et tibi, vir reverends, nunc defero. 
 Sum tibi, 
 
 Omni studio devinctissimus, 
 
 Johannes S. Copley. 
 
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No. 3.— LOED LYNDHUEST. 
 
 Speech in the House of Lords, on the 18<A August, 1836, leing 
 the first of a series of Annual Speeches which his Lordship 
 delivered at the close of several of the succeeding Sessions 
 of Parliament. See ante p. 211. 
 
 On Thursday, the 18th of August, 1836, bemgtwo days before the 
 Prorogation of Parliament, Lord Lyndhurst delivered the following 
 speech ; the first of a series which for many years he continued to 
 give at the close of each session, as a recapitulation of the defects of 
 the Government measures which had been introduced by them. 
 
 The repetition of these speeches doubtless accelerated the fall of 
 the Whig Government of Lord Melbourne. 
 
 " My Lords, — I am anxious to call your attention to the motion 
 of which I gave notice on a former night. It is with extreme 
 reluctance, and with real diffidence, that I rise to address you on 
 this occasion ; but I am compelled to pursue this course. I am 
 driven to it in consequence of the attack made upon me and my 
 noble friends around me, but more pointedly upon myself, by the 
 noble Baron opposite (Lord Holland), on a former night. My Lords, 
 the noble Barou has accused us of having misconducted ourselves in 
 the discharge of our duty in this House. He has charged me, in 
 particular, with having ' mutilated ' Bills laid on your Lordships' 
 table by his Majesty's Government, or which have come up from 
 the other House of Parliament. He has stated, in distinct terms, 
 that the course which I have individually pursued has been calcu- 
 lated to alienate from your Lordships' House the regard and the 
 respect of the country. The terms that the noble Baron used were, 
 I believe, even stronger than those which I have mentioned. The 
 noble Baron said our conduct was calculated to excite ' disgust' in 
 the country. Now, my Lords, if these charges had been confined 
 to this House, I should have reposed under them in silence — because 
 all that has passed, has passed in your presence ; and I should not 
 have feared, under such circumstances, your judgment with respect 
 
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XXU APPENDIX. 
 
 to my conduct. But it was obvious that these charges were intended 
 to take a wider range, and to embrace a much more extensive sphere ; 
 and it is therefore that I have felt myself called upon to rise for the 
 purpose of entering on a vindication of my conduct, and, however 
 unequal the contest may be between the noble Baron and myself, 
 to justify to your Lordships and the country, the part which I have 
 taken in these proceedings. 
 
 " My Lords, it does appear to me that those who sit on this side 
 of the House have been most moderate and forbearing towards his 
 Majesty's Government. We have made no motion for papers, none 
 for inquiry ; we have passed no resolutions of distrust or censure ; 
 we have not used the ordinary weapons of those usually engaged 
 in opposition in this and the other House of Parliament, and which 
 are so familiar to the noble Lords opposite. Our conduct throughout 
 the Session has been entirely defensive. When a BUI has been laid 
 on the table by any of his Majesty's Government, or when it has 
 come up from the other House of Parliament, we have examined it 
 with care, with industry and attention. If we have found it vicious 
 in principle, we have proposed its rejection ; while, if it has occurred 
 to us, on a careful investigation, that it might be so modelled as to 
 answer the purposes for which it was intended, we have carefully 
 directed our efforts and perseverance to the accomplishment of the 
 object. I am justified then, in saying, that during the whole of this 
 Session, adverting to the course that we have pursued, our conduct 
 has been purely defensive, and that we have exercised towards his 
 Majesty's Government as much moderation and forbearance as was 
 consistent with the duty which we owed to the country. 
 
 " My Lords, it is impossible to enter into a consideration, 
 however general, of the subjects to which I am about to direct your 
 attention, without referring to his Majesty's speech at the com- 
 mencement of the present Session, and without contrasting the 
 brilliant anticipations contained in that speech with the sad reality 
 that has since occurred ; a result as disproportioned in execution to 
 the expectations that were held out, as the lofty position of the 
 noble Viscount at that period, with, what he will allow me to style, 
 his humble condition at the present moment. Gazing on these two 
 pictures, one is tempted to apply to the noble Viscount that which 
 which was said of the predecessor of the noble Viscount in the high 
 office of first Minister of the Crown, who in the careless confidence 
 of his character, I cannot help thinking, bore some resemblance to 
 
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APPENDIX. xxiii 
 
 his noble successor. His promises were, as he then was, mighty. 
 His performance, as he is now, nothing. 
 
 '' My Lords, in referring to the speech from the Throne, we 
 shall find that one of the prominent subjects, to which our attention 
 was called, and with respect to which great expectations were 
 entertained, was a Reform of the Law, and more particularly of the 
 Court of Chancery. No sooner was that announcement made, than 
 in the profession, to which I formerly had the honour of belonging, 
 as well as in the minds of the public, the most eager expectations 
 were awakened. Week after week, and month after month passed 
 away, but those expectations were not gratified. At length, and 
 after a long delay, a Bill was produced by my noble and learned 
 friend, the Lord Chancellor (Lord Brougham), which I have too 
 great a respect for his understanding to suppose could be his own 
 production. It must, I think, have been forced upon him by some 
 other person and hastily and unadvisedly adopted by him. I said 
 this measure was produced ; yes, it appeared for a moment, and in a 
 moment it fell from my noble and learned friend's arms, still-born, 
 on your Lordships' table. The measure met with no support in this 
 House ; it met with no support from any party, or any section or 
 fragment of any party — out of it neither Whig or Tory, Radical or 
 Conservative defended it ; it met with no support from any portion 
 of the public Press, whether in the pay of Government or espousing 
 the party in opposition; no single voice in any quarter has been 
 raised in its favour. Even the noble Lords, who usually support 
 the Government, appear by anticipation to have condemned it ; for 
 a more scanty attendance, considering the importance of the question, 
 never has, I think, occurred during the present Session of Parliament. 
 I pass therefore over this measure. ' Requiescat in pace.'' I will not 
 disturb its ashes. 
 
 " My Lords, the next great branch of this promised Reform of the 
 Law was the Consolidation and Reconstruction of the Ecclesiastical 
 Courts : let us see what course his Majesty's Government have 
 pursued on this important subject. That Commission made a Report, 
 which was prepared, I believe, by Dr. Lushington — a Report dis- 
 tinguished for the information and learning which it contained — 
 which led to the preparation of a Bill, handed by us to our 
 successors in office. My noble and learned friend was from time 
 to time reminded of the importance of the subject, and called upon 
 to adopt some legislative measure with respect to it ; a Bill, indeed, 
 
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XXIV APPENDIX. 
 
 had been introduced, but upon some parts of the measure a difference 
 of opinion existed. They were referred to the consideration of a 
 Select Committee, who afterwards made a Keport which was laid 
 upon your Lordships' table. From that time to the present, the 
 Bill has been allowed to slumber ; not the slightest attempt has 
 been made by the Ministers of the Crown to preserve this important 
 measure. It would almost seem, from the course pursued with 
 respect to this Bill, as if there had been a disposition to justify the 
 expression of ' the dormitory,' supposed to have been applied in so 
 courteous a spirit to your Lordships' House by an Officer of the 
 Crown, a learned gentleman of great talent and experience in his 
 profession, in a manner not very consistent with his usual prudence 
 and caution. 
 
 " But upon this great topic of Legal Reform, let me remind 
 your Lordships of another Bill, more fortunate than the new 
 Chancery scheme — less neglected than the Ecclesiastical Courts 
 project — a Bill which has passed your Lordships' House, — ^I mean 
 the Stannaries Court Bill. I will not, with respect to this measure, 
 repeat any of those objections usually urged against it by my noble 
 and learned friend, the Master of the Rolls ; but, my Lords, there is 
 one clause respecting the dependent condition of the Judge in that 
 Court, to which I must call your attention. Against that clause, 
 my noble and learned friend struggled with great force of argument 
 and true constitutional principle, and my noble and learned friend 
 the late Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (Lord Wynford) 
 expressed in the strongest terms his disapprobation of it ; but this 
 opposition was all in vain. Let me call your Lordsliips' attention 
 more particularly to this important subject. By the Act of Settle- 
 ment, the independence of the Judges was fully and firmly instituted. 
 What was the result ? The effect was immediate. That subservience 
 of the Judges to the Crown — that pliant obedience to the will of 
 the Court which before had, in so many instances, disgraced the 
 Bench, and defiled the Administration of Justice — at once, as if by 
 a spell, disappeared. Justice has from that period flowed in a pure 
 and unpolluted stream ; and the Judges of the land have not only 
 deserved but enjoyed the love, esteem and confidence of the country. 
 Such has been the effect of that wise and salutary measure. My 
 Lords, this principle was again re-asserted and confirmed on the 
 accession of his Majesty King George III. It was, by an Act passed 
 in the second year of his reign, declared that the Judges should not. 
 
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APPENDIX. XXV 
 
 as before, be removable on the demise of the Crown ; and in his first 
 speech to Parliament that monarch made the well-known declaration, 
 that he looked upon the independence of the Judges ' as one of the 
 best securities of the rights and liberties of his subjects,. and as 
 most conducive to the honour of the Crown.' So sacred has this 
 principle been considered, that in no instance that occurs to me has 
 any new tribunal been established, or any old tribunal been reformed 
 or extended in this country since that period, in which it has been 
 infringed. This Bill— the Bill of a reforming and Whig Govern- 
 ment—is, I believe, the first exception to the rule. But, my Lords, 
 by whom were the arguments of my noble and learned friend 
 combated ? AVho was the great defender of this first infringement 
 of so just a principle ? Proh pudor! Would your Lordships have 
 believed it, if you had not witnessed the scene ? Will it be believed 
 on mere rumour, in the other House of Parliament' as throughout 
 that urban population to which the noble Viscount told us, on a 
 former night, he looked as the firmest and best support of this 
 Government ? It was, my Lords, the noble Baron opposite (Lord 
 Holland) ; he whom I have always been accustomed to regard as a 
 sort of concentration of Whig liberty and constitutional principle : 
 he it was that stepped forward to vindicate this clause, and to 
 combat the arguments of my noble and learned friend. True it is, 
 that this part of his argument was delivered in a subdued tone of 
 voice, not very audible in this part of the House — scarcely audible 
 below the bar or above the bar. But it was urged with vigour, with 
 skill and address, and all those aids so familiar to the noble Baron, 
 and in which he so much excels, and which, had he lived in the 
 days of ancient Greece, would have entitled him to a high rank 
 among the fraternity of ' Sophists' of that celebrated period. And 
 in what case is this principle to be abandoned ? In a case where 
 the Judge may be called upon to sit in judgment between the Duke 
 of Cornwall (upon whom his appointment is in future to depend) and 
 his tenants, on the one side, and those who are interested in the 
 mines and in the soil, on the other. So far, then, as to this part of 
 the Speech from the Throne. There is, in the first place, so far as 
 the Court of Chancery is concerned, a measure that has proved a 
 miserable abortion. With respect to the Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, 
 a measure abandoned; and to this last Bill, a violation of an 
 important principle which, for more than a century, has been con- 
 sidered sacred. 
 
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XXVI APPENDIX. 
 
 " My Lords, I now come to another prominent point in the speech 
 from the throne, but upon which I do not mean to detain you at any 
 length. I allude to the Irish Corporation Bill; I have heard it 
 asserted over and over again, that our ground of proceeding was 
 founded upon the acknowledged abuses and corruptions in those 
 Corporations. My Lords, we have always stated, that we never did 
 proceed upon any such assumption. We should not have been 
 justified in so doing without hearing the evidence at the Bar, for the 
 purpose of examining into the truth of the charge ; but we said- — 
 and that was the ground of our proceeding — we said, ' These Cor- 
 porations are in their character exclusive : they are administered by 
 Protestants alone ; and on that ground we agree that a change 
 ought to be made.' What was the change intended by the Bill? 
 That they should be so constituted as to retain the same exclusive 
 character, with this difference only, that as they are now exclusively 
 in the hands of Protestants, they should henceforward be exclusively 
 in the hands of Roman Catholics. There was to be a transfer of 
 power from the one party to the other ; and when we know in what 
 manner the power so entrusted would have been used, that it would 
 have greatly added to the strength and confidence of the agitators 
 of Ireland, we should, I should think, have disgracefully abandoned 
 our duty if we had not vigorously opposed the measure of the noble 
 Viscount. In doing so, we, however, at the same time stated our 
 willingness to put an end to the grievance complained of by dis- 
 solving the existing Corporations, and proposed a measure for that 
 purpose with the assent of the Corporations themselves. 
 
 ' There is yet another measure which your Lordships ventured to 
 mutilate— I shall leave your Lordships to consider whether our 
 conduct, in this instance, was calculated to alienate or disgust the 
 country. I allude to the Newspaper Stamps Bill. After that 
 measure was complete two clauses were added, at the suggestion of 
 the supporters of the Government, unnecessary in themselves, and 
 of a character most arbitrary, inquisitorial, and vexatious ; directly 
 too, at variance with what the Whig party, when in opposition, had 
 formerly struggled against with great earnestness and zeal. When 
 it was suggested that these clauses should be struck out in your 
 Lordships' House, the supposition was met with taunts, as if you 
 would not dare to venture upon such a proceeding. When it was 
 afterwards proposed here to omit these clauses, we were assailed 
 with a torrent of invective and passion from the noble Viscount. As 
 
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APPENDIX. XXvii 
 
 soon, however, as tliis whirlwind had passed away, and reason and 
 good humour had in some degre"e returned, we found the noble 
 Viscount prepared to adopt our suggestions, and to pursue the 
 course which we had recommended ; which happily was not followed 
 by any of those awful consequences which had been predicted, and 
 which the noble Viscount had painted with such a broad pencil and in 
 such dark and gloomy colours. The noble Viscount was even 
 facetious upon the occasion; he styled his new Bill an Edilio ex- 
 purgata; thereby aptly, and in the strongest manner, stating his 
 opinion of those offensive and scandalous passages which had been 
 forced upon him by his supporters, and whom by this allusion, he 
 dragged through the mire, and held up as a spectacle to the scorn 
 and derision of the country. 
 
 " We were advised, my Lords, also in the Speech from the Throne, 
 to adopt a measure for the settlement of the important question of 
 Irish Tithes, for the purpose of restoring " harmony and peace " 
 (I think those were the expressions) to Ireland. My Lords, we 
 acted on the spirit of that advice. We did mature a measure for 
 the purpose of extinguishing the present system of tithes in that 
 country. Not a single objection was or could be urged against any 
 clause in that BiU. Nay, more ; we engrafted on it another salutary 
 measure, for the purpose of removing the inequality which exists 
 in some of the Benefices in Ireland. That Bill, so important in its 
 character, so well calculated to answer the purposes to which I have 
 referred, was rejected by his Majesty's Government because it did 
 not contain the assertion of an abstract principle intended to be used 
 at some future period for the purpose of plundering the Church of 
 Ireland ; and which, it was admitted in distinct terms by its advocates, 
 could not for a long series of years be attended with any practical 
 benefit. 
 
 " The next subject to which I shall call your attention is the Bill 
 for the appointment of Charitable Trustees. That Bill was rejected 
 by your Lordships, and it was rejected on account of the viciousness 
 of its principle. By that Bill the election of the trustees was so 
 continued as to render them necessarily political partisans ; and we 
 were of opinion — an opinion which I then entertained, and still 
 continue to maintain — that nothing could be more objectionable than 
 the administration of Charities upon principles of this description. 
 Nay, more, my Lords, we objected to this Bill upon another ground, 
 no less material than the former, and it was this, that a large propor- 
 
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XXVIU APPENDIX. 
 
 tion of the Charities to which the Bill applied, were Charities founded 
 and declared by the deeds of the founders to be intended for the 
 benefits of members of the Established Church. Now the Bill 
 proposed a mode of selecting trustees, which was calculated to 
 place the management of those trusts in the hands of Dissenters. I 
 do not mean for a moment to insinuate anything against that class of 
 persons; but I am sure that your Lordships must think, and the 
 country, I am sure, will think with you, that nothing could be more 
 inconsistent with a due desire to maintain the interests of the 
 Established Church, than that Charities of this description, and more 
 particularly so as many of them are school foundations, should be 
 administered by the description of persons to whom I have referred. 
 If it were necessary to proceed further, I might add that it has over 
 and over again been publicly declared by the partisans of Reform, 
 that their object is to remodel those schools, and to form them upon 
 a plan and system of education more congenial to their own views 
 and opinions. These are a few (and I state them merely as a sample) 
 of those measures which the noble Baron has denounced, and upon 
 which he appeals to the country. I join him in such appeal, and 
 look to the issue with.anticipated triumph. As a part of the great 
 Council of the Nation, as representing its best interests, and as 
 accountable to it for the manner in which we discharge our high 
 duties, we accept this challenge. We have not slumbered at our 
 post. Neither led astray by the allurements of pleasure, nor seduced 
 by the love of ease, or the softness of indolence ; but vigilant, active, 
 fearless, we have fought the battle of the Constitution, acting up to 
 our high calling, and to the great duties which it has imposed upon 
 us. We may have erred, but our aim at least has been just, and 
 great, and noble, and corresponding to the position which I trust we 
 shall long hold in the hearts of the nation. 
 
 " But, my Lords, there are other measures to which I must call 
 your attention with a different view. A Bill was brought in by the 
 most reverend Prelate, upon the subject of pluralities. It was by 
 far the best measure which had ever been submitted to Parliament 
 upon this delicate and difficult question. Many persons had before 
 directed their attention to it, but had failed in producing anything 
 satisfactory as the result of their labours. The Bill was supported 
 in this House by the Ministers of the Crown, as it was their duty to 
 have done ; it was supported and adopted by them, as it was their 
 duty to do, in the other House of Parliament. It was allowed to 
 
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APPENDIX. XXIX 
 
 proceed for a time, and through the earlier stages ; but the moment 
 at length arrived when a period was to be put to its progress. 
 Certain supporters of the Government determined that it should 
 proceed no further. Resistance, on the part of the Grovernment, 
 was at first attempted ; but they soon gave way, and submitted to 
 this dictation on the part of their supporters, and thereby sacrificed 
 a measure which they themselves had, by their conduct and in 
 terms, declared to be of great value to the interests of the Established 
 Church, and of great importance to the interests of the country. 
 
 " There was, my Lords, another measure — a BiU framed under 
 the direction of the Government, to carry into effect the Fourth- 
 Report of the Church Commissioners, — a Commission and Report to 
 which several members of the Cabinet were parties. The Report 
 which I hold in my hand, I see, was signed by the noble Viscount ; 
 by the noble Marquis, the President of the Council ; it was signed 
 by the noble Lord, the leader in the other House of Parliament, and 
 other members of the Government. It recommended very extensive 
 regulations and reforms in a part of the Church Establishment. The 
 Bill founded on that Report was brought into the other House of 
 Parliament. It had scarcely appeared, when the party to whom I 
 have already referred compelled the noble Lord to stop his pro- 
 ceedings. A mutiny broke out in the camp, and he found it 
 necessary to comply. A conference was announced— it was held 
 somewhere in the neighbourhood of Downing Street, or of Whitehall. 
 According to public rumour, it was not carried on in those weU-bred 
 whispers which sometimes mark the free conferences between the 
 Lords and Conunons. What was the result? It was insisted, in 
 terms of a very decisive character, that Ministers must abandon this 
 measure. They were compelled to yield : and the other Bill re- 
 specting the sees throughout England and Wales, as we are told, 
 nearly shared the same fate. 
 
 " Here, then, is a second instance in which a measure of great 
 importance to the interests of the Church and of the public, recom- 
 mended after a long enquiry by the Ministers, prepared, brought 
 forward, and supported by them, was abandoned, after a feeble re- 
 sistance, at the dictation of the section of their supporters to whom I 
 have referred. But this is not all. There is a third measure, to which 
 I beg for a moment to call your Lordships' attention, the Bill for 
 the Registration of Voters. What is the history of that Bill ? It 
 originated in a committee appointed by Government, and over 
 
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XXX APPENDIX. 
 
 which a member of the Government presided. After long enquiry 
 they came to certain conclusions upon the subject ; in consequence 
 of which a Bill was prepared under the direction of Government, 
 and was brought into the other House of Parliament. Upon the 
 back of that Bill I see the name of Lord John Russell, the Attorney- 
 General, and Solicitor-General; it was, therefore, emphatically a 
 measure of Government, and I must say, with one or two exceptions, 
 an extremely good Bill, and which ought to have been adopted and 
 been passed into law. But what, my Lords, was the result ? The 
 party, to whom I have already referred, opposed the progress of it ; 
 they remodelled most of its regulations, and, though it appears that 
 some resistance was made to these changes, they were at length 
 acquiesced in, and the Bill thus changed was brought up to your 
 Lordships' House. I really thought that we were entitled to the 
 gratitude of the noble Viscoimt for the course we thought it right 
 to pursue. My noble friend. Lord Wharncliffe, applied his vigorous 
 and manly mind to the consideration of the Bill — he noticed the 
 alterations which had been made in it, and determined at last to get 
 rid of those interpolations and to restore, as nearly as possible, the 
 text of the noble Viscount's Bill to its original purity. Were we not 
 justified then in considering ourselves entitled to the thanks of the 
 noble Viscount, supporting as we did his own measure, prepared 
 after so much consideration and care by the Government ? Instead 
 of this, to our infinite surprise, we were again visited with one of 
 those tempests of invective and of passion so familiar to the noble 
 Viscount, and so frequently directed against those noble Lords who 
 sit on this side of the House. And what was the result ? This Bill 
 of the Government, their own measure, was abandoned by the noble 
 Viscount who, in a careless tone, stated, across the table, that he 
 should proceed no further with it ; and for that reason obviously, 
 because it restored the Ministerial measure to its original purity. 
 In a friendly whisper, across the table, the noble Viscount said, I'll 
 abandon my Bill. He dreaded the opposition and resentment of 
 that class of its supporters, by whom, in the other House of Parlia- 
 ment, the Bill had been so completely altered and deformed. 
 
 " And this, my Lords, is a Government. Was there ever in the 
 history of this country a body of men who would have condescended 
 so low as to attempt to carry on the Government under such cir- 
 cumstances ? In this House they are utterly powerless — they can 
 effect nothing ; we, on this side of the House, are obliged to perform 
 
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APPENDIX. XXXI 
 
 the duties of the Government for them. In the other House of 
 Parliament, the measure wliich they themselves have advised and 
 prepared and brought forward, involving, as they tell us, the most 
 important interests of the country, they, without scruple, tamely 
 abandoned at the dictation of any section of their supporters. Yet, 
 thus disgraced and trampled upon, they still condescend to hold the 
 reins of Government — proud men, eminent statesmen, distinguished 
 and high-minded rulers ! 
 
 " But is this description of their Domestic policy countervailed 
 by the splendour of their Foreign administration ? Is the gloomy 
 and wretched state of one side of Downing Street relieved by the 
 brilliant glories of the other. My Lords, this is a fruitful topic for 
 consideration and discussion. I will imitate the prudence and reserve 
 of my noble friend, the noble Duke, and leave it to each of your 
 Lordships to consider whether the measures and pohcy pursued by 
 his Majesty's Government have been such as to insure the confidence 
 and command the respect of other Nations : whether they have been 
 calculated to induce them to court or to share our alliance — to lead 
 them to regard us with feelings of favour, or of distrust and aversion. 
 But, my Lords, it is impossible not to pause for a moment, in 
 considering their policy with respect to Spain. By their inter- 
 vention, so much in opposition to their former principles — by their 
 measures with respect to this country — they have wasted between 
 one and two millions sterling of the public treasure, and what have 
 they obtained in return ? Disappointment, defeat, and disgrace. They 
 have compromised the honour of their Sovereign, and tarnished the 
 reputation and character of their country. In looking at Spain, it is 
 impossible not to recollect that it was the cradle of those brilliant 
 exploits by which our late great and arduous struggle was so re- 
 markably distinguished ; that it was in that land that those armies 
 were formed which achieved victory after victory, led on by the 
 skill and conduct of the noble Duke, which raised the military glory 
 of the country to a height scarcely ever attained at any former period 
 of our history. It would seem as if some envious and malignant 
 demon had determined to interfere to sully this reputation, and 
 suggested, as a fit means, that miserable buccaneering expedition 
 patronized by the Government, so unworthy a great and powerful 
 nation, and which has rendered us odious to Spain, and ridiculous 
 and contemptible to the rest of the world. And yet the noble 
 Viscount stands erect and confident amid these accumulated disasters 
 
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XXXU APPENDIX. 
 
 and disgraces, and, reversing the tale of the poet, is swelling and 
 lofty in his tone and language, in proportion to the fallen and abject 
 state of his fortunes, and the reeling and staggering condition of his 
 Grovernment. In former times, amid such defeats, and unable to 
 carry those measures which he considered essential and necessary, a 
 Minister would have thought that he had only one course to pursue. 
 Those are antiquated notions — everything has changed. This fasti- 
 dious delicacy forms no part of the character of the noble Viscount. 
 He has told us — and his acts correspond with his assertions — that, 
 notwithstanding the insubordination that prevails around him, in 
 spite of the mutinous and sullen temper of his crew, he will stick to 
 the vessel while a single plank remains afloat. Let me, however, as 
 a friendly adviser of the noble Viscount, recommend him to get her 
 as speedily as possible into still water. 
 
 " ' Fortiter occupa 
 
 Portum ' 
 
 " Let the noble Lord look to the empty benches around him — 
 
 " ' Nonne vides ut 
 
 Nudum remigio latus.' 
 * « * 
 
 " ' Vix durare carinas 
 Possiut imperiosius 
 MquorV 
 
 " After all there is something in the efforts and exertions of the 
 noble Viscount not altogether unamusing. It is impossible, under 
 any circumstances, not to respect 
 
 " ' The brave man struggling in the storms of Fate.' 
 May a part, at least, of what follows be averted : — 
 
 " ' And greatly falling with a falling State.' 
 My consolation is, that whatever be the disposition of the noble 
 Viscount, he has not sufficient strength, though his locks, I believe 
 are yet unshorn, to involve the State in his ruin. I trust it will 
 long survive his fall." 
 
 The noble Lord concluded by moving " For a return of the 
 number of Public Bills originated in this House during the present 
 Session, distinguishing how many have passed with, and how many 
 without amendment, and how many were withdrawn or rejected 
 either here or in the House of Commons, distinguishing the number 
 in each House ; and also a return of the number of Public Bills 
 
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APPENDIX. XXXlll 
 
 originated during the present Session in the House of Commons, 
 distinguishing how many passed with, and how many without amend- 
 ments; and how many were withdrawn or rejected, either by the 
 House of Commons or this House, distinguishing the number in each 
 House." 
 
 No. 4.— LORD LYNDHURST. 
 
 Conclusion of Lord Lyndhursfs Speech in the House of Lords, 
 on the 5th July, 1859 [being in the S^th year of his ageY^ 
 on the then state of " Our National Defences." See ante, 
 p. 216. 
 
 After referring to the state of the Fleet — as compared with the 
 French Naval power, and the condition of our docks and arsenals — 
 his Lordship proceeded : — 
 
 " Of this I am persuaded, that the more you examine the diflferent 
 parts of the subject, and investigate the whole, the more strongly 
 will you be impressed with the necessity of incurring the expenditure, 
 whatever it may be, that may be requisite for the purpose of accom- 
 plishing the objects to which I have called your attention. But, 
 my Lords, that to which I have been alluding constitutes only one 
 portion of this important subject. Hitherto, as I have already 
 observed, you were, notwithstanding the absence of your Fleet, 
 comparatively in a state of domestic safety, for the reasons which 
 I have mentioned. But what is your position now ? In what state 
 would you be, if your Channel Fleet were dispersed or absent, or 
 firom any cause removed for a short time from its proper station ? 
 The noble Lord, the leader of the other House of Parliament, has 
 told you, in very emphatic words, that steam has converted the 
 Channel into a river, and thrown a bridge across it. These are truly 
 enaiphatic words, but they hardly exceed the reality. They are 
 scarcely exaggerated. Mark, my Lords, the state of things which 
 has been more than once detailed. We know, from recent experience. 
 
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XXXIV APPENDIX. 
 
 that the materials of war may, without exciting any observation, be 
 placed on board ship on the opposite side of the Channel. We know 
 that in a few hours a large army may, by means of railways, and 
 without any notice whatsoever, be brought down to the coast to 
 different points of embarkation. The facility of embarkation is 
 quite extraordinary, in consequence of the new provisions made for 
 that purpose by France. We know that such a force as that to 
 "which I refer may, within a few hours — in the course of a single 
 night — be landed on any part of our shores. With so much certainty, 
 indeed, can the movements of such a body be regulated, that from 
 different quarters its component parts might arrive at the point of 
 disembarkation, without any difference in point of time. That is 
 the state of things, my Lords, with which we have to deal. You 
 will very naturally ask what probable force could be brought 
 together in the manner I have described. It is not my province 
 to give an opinion upon such a question. Military and naval men 
 are the proper persons to form a judgment with respect to it. I 
 may, however, be permitted to state one or two circumstances which 
 may seem to guide you at arriving at a just conclusion on the point. 
 I know that in 1849, when France sent troops to Civita Vecchia, 
 one frigate carried, a distance of 300 miles, 2,000 soldiers, with all 
 the munitions of war. I am further aware that a much larger force 
 than that can be embarked, in a short period of time, on board a 
 frigate, and a force still greater on a ship of the line. I know, from 
 information which I have received, and the accuracy of which I do 
 not doubt, that the French are, at the present moment, building 
 steamers for the purpose of transporting troops, each of which is 
 being constructed to carry 2,500 men, with all the necessary stores. 
 This, therefore, is the description of force which you must prepare 
 yourselves to meet. I do not mean for a moment to say that there 
 is no risk in such an adventure as that against which I would call 
 upon you to be on your guard. No great military enterprise can be 
 undertaken without some risk ; but I believe, from all that I have 
 read and heard, and from all the consideration which I have been 
 able to give to the subject, that the risk in the case to which I am 
 adverting is much less than it has been in many instances in which 
 the result has been attended with success. What then, my Lordp, 
 does it become our duty to do ? What precautions does it behove 
 us to take? What force ought we to maintain in order to be 
 prepared for any emergency which may arise? My answer is— a 
 
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APPENDIX. XXXV 
 
 force of regular troops ; not volunteers— not undisciplined men ; but 
 I repeat, a force of regular troops, capable of opposing any military 
 force which, in all probability, can be landed on our shores. It is 
 absolutely imperative upon us to maintain such a force. It is a 
 duty which we owe to ourselves. It is a duty which we owe to the 
 character of our country. But, my Lords, independently of all this, 
 we must provide for our garrisons, and also for that which is of 
 greater importance still— our arsenals. They are — I regret to say 
 it — at present in a very imperfect state of defence. Much exertion, 
 much expenditure, and much engineering talent, will be necessary 
 for the purpose of placing them in such a position as to prevent 
 their being seized upon as the result of a sudden attack. If I am 
 asked what is the force which the safety of the country demands 
 that we should keep up, my answer is, that after consultation with 
 many persons competent to form an opinion on the point, I put 
 down the force at, at least, 100,000 regular troops ; and when I say 
 regular troops, 1 include the embodied and trained militia— while 
 I think there should be an equal force of disembodied and trained 
 militia. Every observation, my Lords, which I have made on this 
 subject, applies as well to Ireland as to this country. Perhaps the 
 precautions which I have indicated may even be more necessary in 
 the case of the former than the latter. Ireland may possibly be 
 looked upon, on the other side of the Channel, as one of the 
 ' oppressed Nationalities,' as a country trampled upon by a Nation 
 differing from her in customs, in language, and in religion. We 
 cannot tell what misrepresentations may be made. We must, at all 
 events, my Lords, provide equally for the safety of Ireland as for 
 our own. In the years 1804 and 1805 — the only periods, I believe, 
 in which we were threatened seriously with invasion by France — the 
 force which we maintained was much greater than that which I have 
 just mentioned. But that was merely a temporary force ; while that 
 which I have just indicated as necessary to meet the existing state 
 of things ought, in my opinion, to form part of the permanent force 
 of the country. If we wish to live in security — to maintain our 
 interests abroad — to uphold the honour of the Nation — we must be 
 willing to make every exertion necessary for the accomplishment of 
 something like that which I have pointed out. 
 
 " I have experienced, my Lords, something like a sentiment of 
 humiliation in going through these details. I recollect the day when 
 every part of the opposite coast was blockaded by an English fleet; 
 
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XXXVl APPENDIX. 
 
 I remember the victory of Camperdown and that of St. Vincent, 
 ■won by Sir John Jervis ; I do not forget the great victory of the 
 Nile, nor, last of all, the triumphant fight at Trafalgar, which almost 
 annihilated the navies of France and Spain. 1 contrast the position 
 which we occupied at that period with that which we now hold. I 
 recollect the expulsion of the French from Egypt ; the achievement 
 of victory after victory in Spain ; the British army established in the 
 South of France ; and, last of all, that great victory by which that 
 war was terminated. I cannot glance back at that series of events 
 without feeling some degree of humiliation when I am called upon to 
 state in this House the measures which I deem it to be necessary to 
 take in order to provide for the safety of the country. But I may be 
 asked, ' Why do you think such measures requisite ? Are we not in 
 alliance with France ? Are we not on terms of friendship with Russia ? 
 What other power can molest us?' To these questions, my Lords, my 
 answer shall be a short and simple one. I will not consent to live in 
 dependence on the friendship or the forbearance of any country. I 
 rely solely on my own vigour, my own exertions, and my own intelli- 
 gence. Does any noble Lord in this House dissent from the 
 principle which I have laid down ? I rejoice, my Lords, to find that 
 such is not the case ; but, while this is a matter of congratulation, I 
 regret to be obliged to say that we do not stand well upon the 
 Continent of Europe. I do not think late events have improved our 
 position in that respect. But I go further, my Lords, and express 
 my belief, as the result of my own careful observation, that if any 
 plausible ground of difference should arise between this country and 
 France, and that diiference should lead to hostilities, the declaration 
 of war with England on the part of the Government of that country 
 would be hailed with the utmost enthusiasm, not only by the army 
 of Prance, but by the great mass of the French people. If I am 
 asked, ' Will you not rely upon the assurances and the courtesies of 
 the Emperor Napoleon ?' I reply, that I have a great respect for that 
 high person, and that I will not enter into any explanation on the 
 subject, but will leave every noble Lord to draw his own conclusions 
 and to form his own opinions. This, however, I will say — and I can 
 say it without impropriety — if I am asked whether I cannot place 
 reliance on the Emperor Napoleon, I reply with confidence that I 
 cannot place reliance on him, because he is in a situation in which he 
 cannot place reliance on himself. He is in a situation in which he 
 must be governed by circumstances, and I will not consent that the 
 
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APPENDIX. xxxvii 
 
 safety of this country should depend upon such contingencies. My 
 Lm-ds, self-reliance is the best road to distinction, in private life. It is 
 equally essential to the character and ihe grandeur of a nation. It -will 
 be necessary for our defence, as I have already stated, that we should 
 have a military force sufficient to cope -with any power or combination 
 of powers that may be brought against us. I know there will be 
 great opposition to the expense. I feel and observe this. But look 
 at the opposite coast; an army of 600,000 men, admirably disciplined, 
 admirably organised, superior to any other force of the same kind in 
 Europe, lies within a few hours' sail of our own shores. That army is 
 composed of brave troops, skilful, well commanded, eager for 
 conflict, enthusiastic, fond of adventure, thirsting for glory, and, 
 above all, military glory. That is the power arrayed against you. 
 I do not ask you to combat that power aggressively, but only to put 
 yourselves in a state of sufficient defence to resist it. What have 
 we seen within the last few weeks ? France, with a peace establish- 
 ment, with no preparation for war, no desire for war, a nation 
 that could not reduce its establishment, because it had never 
 advanced it — as the Emperor told us, and I am bound to put faith in 
 that statement — was yet able, in the short period of five or six 
 weeks, to transport an army of 170,000 men to the banks of the 
 Mincio, with 200 pieces of cannon, and a siege train, gaining two 
 great battles in its progress, besides other lesser fights, while she has 
 a fleet of fifty war steamers in the Adriatic at this moment, with, I 
 believe an army of 40,000 men. Cross the opposite coast, then, and 
 you find the power of action, of motion, of hostility, of injury. 
 
 " Are we to sit supine on our own shores, and not to prepare the 
 means necessary in case of war to resist that power? I do not 
 wish to say that we should do this for any aggressive purpose. What 
 I insist upon is, that we are bound to make every efi'ort necessary 
 for our own shelter and protection. Beside this, the question of 
 expense and money sinks into insignificance. It is the price which 
 we must pay for our insurance. I know there are persons who will 
 say, ' Let us run the risk.' Be it so. But, my Lords, if the calamity 
 should come — if the conflagration should take place — what words 
 can describe the extent of the calamity, or what imagination can 
 paint the overwhelming ruin that would befal us. I shall be told, 
 perhaps, that these are the timid counsels of old age. My Lords, 
 for myself, I should run no risk. Personally, I have nothing to fear. 
 But to point out possible peril, and how to guard effectively against 
 
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XXXVIU APPENDIX. 
 
 it— that is surely to be considered, not as timidity but as the dictates 
 of wisdom and prudence. I have confined myself to facts that 
 cannot be disputed. I think I have also confined myself to inferences 
 which no man can successfully contravene. I hope what I have said 
 has been in accordance with your feelings and opinions. I shall 
 terminate what I have to say, in two emphatic words — words of 
 solemn and most significant import — Vxb Victis!" 
 
 Digitized by Microsoft® 
 
LIST OF SUBSCEIBEES. 
 
 December 1st, 1866. 
 
 A. 
 
 Atchison, Lied rESAXT-CoLONEi,, Dorking. 
 
 Ahdebson, James, Esq., Q.C, 11, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Aston, Theodore, Esq., 4, Elm Court, Temple. 
 
 Abel, John, Esq., 2, Elm Court, Temple. 
 
 Ayrton, E. N., Esq., 19, Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Abbott, W. B., Proctor, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Allfree, William, Esq., Brighton. 
 
 AUen, Edward, Esq., Solicitor, Birmingham. 
 
 B. 
 
 BEKSTEEa, The Lady, Keythorpe Hall, Leicester. 
 
 Bacon, James, Esq., Q.C, 12, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Bagoally, Bichakd, Esq., M.P., Q.C, 10, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Bayfokd, a. F., LL.D., Probate Court, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Beavau, Charles, Esq., Examiner in Chancery. 
 
 Batten, E. Chisholm, Esq., 9, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Bardswell, C. W., Esq., 21, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Bevir, E. J., Esq., 9, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Buxton, Wilmot, Esq., 77, Chancery Lane. 
 
 Boult, R. T., Esq., 7, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Bovill, W. J., Esq., 3, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Baker, Em., Esq., York Place. 
 
 Bates, Thomas, Esq., Newcastle. 
 
 Brooksbank, Thomas, Esq., 4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Berkeley, C Clement, Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Bury, Edward, Esq., 6, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Bone, S. Vallis, Esq., 4, Carey Street. 
 
 Boult, Mrs., Leinster Square. 
 
 Brooks, George H., Esq., Proctor, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Bickers, T. L., Esq., Solicitor, Tadcaster. 
 
 Bum, Adam, Esq., Solicitor, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Burn, William, Esq., Solicitor, Biichin Lane. 
 
 Digitized by Microsoft® 
 
xl LIST OP SUBSCEIBEES. 
 
 Earth, S. J., Esq., 8, King's Bench Walk, Temple. 
 Burton, E. F., Esq., Chancery Lane. 
 Burton, E. M., Esq., Birmingham. 
 Beaton, Charles, Esq., Birmingham. 
 Boys, Jacob, Esq., Brighton. 
 Brooks and Son, Solicitors, Stow-on-the-Wold. 
 Butcher, Charles, Law Times Office. 
 , Buck, H. L., Esq., 6, Victoria Street, Westminster. 
 
 c. 
 
 Chelmsfobd, The Eight Hokokable Lobd, Lord Sigh Chancellor 
 No. 7, Eaton Square. 
 
 Ckanworth, The Kigbt Honorable Lord, Holmwood, Bromley. 
 
 Cholmondelet, The Hon. and Key. H. P., Adlestrop Kectory, 
 Chipping Norton. 
 
 Caiens, The Eight Honorable Sir Hugh Mo Calmont, Lord Justice, 
 79, Eaton Place. 
 
 Craig, E. D., Esq., Q.C, 9, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Collins, W. A., Esq., Q.C, 9, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Cooke, W. H., Esq., Q.C, 4, Elm Court, Temple. 
 
 Chamberlayne, Chamberlayne, Esq., Maugersbury Manor, Stow-on-the- 
 Wold. 
 
 Cohbold, Mrs. E., St. George, U£Ford, Woodbridge. 
 
 Cole, H. T., Esq., Goldsmiths' Building, Temple. 
 
 Cracknall, John, Esq., 3, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Clark, Charles, Esq., House of Lords. 
 
 Crouch, Charles W., Esq., 30, Chancery Lane. 
 
 Caldecott, John, Esq., 26, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Codd, A. G., Esq., 1, Paper Buildings, Temple. 
 
 Croome, J., Esq., 1, Staple Inn. 
 
 Cox, Edward William, Esq., 1, Essex Court, Temple. 
 
 Cox, Irwin E. B., Esq., 1, Essex Court, Temple. 
 
 Cox, Horace, Esq., Law Times Office, Wellington Street, Strand. . 
 
 Cockrane, George, Esq., Montagu Place. 
 
 Cheerer, J. N., Esq., 38, Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 Carew, George, Esq., Bloomshury Square. 
 
 Chinery, George Whitmore, Esq., Twickenham. 
 
 Croxon, Eichard J., Esq., Oswestry. 
 
 Child, Mark, Esq., Hartlepool. • 
 
 Chadwiok, James, Esq., Probate Court, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 'Curling, John, Esq., King's Bench Walk, Temple. 
 
 Corfield, H. Christian, Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 
 Digitized by Microsoft® 
 
LIST OP SUBSCEIBEES. xli 
 
 D. 
 
 Deiamere, The Lord, 14, Bruton Street. 
 
 Du Cane, The Honorable Mrs., Braxtead Park, Witham. 
 
 Dickinson, James, Esq., Q.C, 2, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Daniel, W. T. S., Esq., Q.C, 10, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 De Gex, John P., Esq., Q.C, 4, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Doria, A. A., Esq., 4, Old Buildings. 
 
 Dart, J. H., Esq., 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Davidson, James B., Esq., 10, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Drewry, C Stewart, Esq., 77, Chancery Lane. 
 
 Dinely, George Gifford, Esq. 
 
 Drinkwater, F. and T., Solicitors, Manchester. 
 
 Davis, H. R., Esq., Dorset Square. 
 
 Duke, Kobert, Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eldon, The Earl of, Hamilton Place. 
 
 Erle, The Eiqht Hon. Sib William, Knt., 12,^ Prince's Gardens. 
 
 Evans, The Eev. J. J., 7, St. Mark's Square. 
 
 Elderton, C. M., Esq., 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Edwards, T. J., Esq., 11, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Everitt, J. W. E. S., Esq., 19, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Eddis, A. S., Esq., 19, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Edwards, Henry, Esq., Ely Place. 
 
 Edwards, Henry, Esq., Chief Clerk, Divorce Court. 
 
 Earl, Alfred, Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 F. 
 
 Flowers, Frederick, Esq., Magistrate, Bow Street* 
 
 French, George, Esq., 6, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Forster, R. W. E., Esq., 4, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Freeman, William, Esq., 21, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Froom, C P., Esq., Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 Fluker, James, Esq., Symonds Inn. 
 
 Fluker, Mrs. James. 
 
 Finch, Arthur, Esq., Gray's Inn. 
 
 Foster, G. F., Esq., Probate Court. 
 
 Fasche, Charles J., Esq., Bedford Row. 
 
 Folder, John, Esq., Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 Fergusson, — , Esq., 32, Paternoster Row. 
 
 Fitter, M. A., Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 Digitized by Microsoft® 
 
xlil LIST OF SUBSCEIBEES. 
 
 G. 
 
 GowER, G-KANViLLE Leveson, Esq., Titsey Park. 
 
 GoLDSMiD, Silt Fi;anci3 H., Bart., M.P., Q.C., St. John's Lodge, 
 
 Regent's Park. 
 GiFFAHD, G. M., Esq., Q.C, 2, Stone Buildings. 
 Gheene, Thomas W., Esq., Q.C, 2, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Glasse, W. B., Esq., Q.C, 13, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 GisAY, John, Esq., Q.C, Brick Court, Temple. 
 Gardiner, W. Dundas, Esq., 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Grenside, C K., Esq., 10, Serle Street. 
 Goren, J. N., Esq., 6, Stone Buildings. 
 Grisewood, Harman, Esq., Daylesford. 
 Griffits, J. 0., Esq., Crown Office Row, Temple. 
 Grundy, Thomas, Esq., Bury, Lancashire. 
 Gregory, Henry, Esq., Law Times Office. 
 
 H. 
 
 HoDDLESTON, John W., Esq., M.P., Q.C, 2, Paper Buildings, Temple. 
 
 HAMBKOuaH, The Rev. W., Evenlode Rectory. 
 
 Harris, Georqe, Esq., F.L.S,, Manchester. 
 
 Hawkins, R. R. A., Esq., 23, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Higgins, John Napier, Esq., 3, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Higgins, Mrs. Napier, Adelaide Road. 
 
 Hopwood, J. T., Esq., 3, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hawkins, C E., Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hopwood, Charles H., Esq., 3, Paper Buildings, Temple. 
 
 Hunter, Mark W., Esq., 1, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hemming, G. W., Esq., 25, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hallett, T. P. L., Esq., 6, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Howard, Joseph, Esq., 2, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hitchcock, Fred., Esq., 10, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hansard, George, Esq., 23, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Hart, John, Esq., Dorking. 
 
 Harman, G. R., Esq., Probate Court. 
 
 Hoyle, W. F., Esq., Rotherham. 
 
 Harston, Arthur G., Esq., 7, High Holborn. 
 
 Hill, Arthur, Esq., Registrar in Bankruptcy, &c. 
 
 Hawkes, Henry, Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 Hodgson, C M., Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 Heath, Mrs. Julia, Adelaide Road. 
 
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LIST OF SUBSCEIBEES. xliii 
 
 Ince, H. B., Esq., 22, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Irons, C. B., Esq., Probate Court. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jessel, Georqe, Esq., Q.C, 5, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Jones, Thomas, Esq., Q.C, Essex Court, Temple. 
 
 Jones, Henry Cadman, Esq., 4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Jebb, Richard, Esq., 9, Old Square, Lincoln's lun. 
 
 Jones, Mrs. E., Clarence Square, Brighton. 
 
 Jones, Miss Ann, Brighton. 
 
 Jones, E,, Esq., Woodbridge. 
 
 James, Henry, 1, New Court, Temple. 
 
 James, S., Esq., 2, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Jaques, William, Esq., Ely Place. 
 
 Jones, Richard, Esq., Severn House. 
 
 Johnson, Gr. J., Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kindeesley, The Rkiht Honobable Sib Richard Toein, {late Vica- 
 
 ChanceUor, 7, Hyde Park Gardens. 
 Keenb, C. H., Esq., Registrar in Bankruptcy, Quality Court. 
 Kirkbank, John, Esq., Gray's Inn Square. 
 Krukenberg, Frederick, Esq., Probate Court, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Leigh, The Eight Honobable Lord, Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 Leigh, The Honobable Lady, Stoneleigh Abbey. 
 
 Lush, The Honorable Mr. Justice, 60, Avenue Road, Regent's Park. 
 
 Leigh, The Honorable E. Chandos, Paper Buildings, Temple. 
 
 Lloyd, Edward J., Esq., Q.C, County Court Judge, Bristol. 
 
 Laoklan, R. H., Esq., Gloucester Gardens. 
 
 Lacklan, Mrs. R. H., „ „ 
 
 Leonard, Patrick M., Esq,, 6, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Laurence, G. M., Esq., 7, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Langworthy, James W., Esq., 5, Old Square, Lincohi's Inn. 
 
 Lloyd, T. E., Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Lonsdale, William, Esq., 7, New Square, Lincohi's Inn. 
 
 Layton, John, Esq., Ely Place. 
 
 Lister, Charles, Esq., Salford. 
 
 Lewis, C. E., Esq., Old Jewry. 
 
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xllv LIST OF SUBSCEIBEES. 
 
 M. 
 
 MuNBO, Sir Thomas, Baet., Upper Grosvenor Street. 
 
 Malins, RicHABD, Esq., Q.C, Fice-O/joKceZZor, 9, Old Square, Lincoln's 
 
 Inn. 
 Mo QnEEN, John F., Esq., Q.C, 8, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Murray, W. P., Esq., Registrar in Bankruptcy. 
 Morse, J. F., Esq., 7, Quality Court. 
 Motteram, H. T., Esq., 6, Victoria Street- 
 Motteram, James, Esq., Birmingham. 
 Morris, F. P., Esq., 26, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Morgan, G. O., Esq., 2 Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Mann, Joshua, Esq., 4, Highfield Villas. 
 Mc Alpine, W. H. Esq., Probate Court. 
 Mounsey, J. S., Esq., Staple Inn. 
 Myers, S. G., Esq., Messrs. Ellis, Parker & Co. 
 Mitter, M. A., Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 N. 
 
 Newmas, James H., Esq., Dorking. 
 Norton, H. E., Esq., Victoria Street. 
 
 o. 
 
 Owen, W. S., Esq., 4, Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 P. 
 
 Powell, John J., Esq., Q.C, 9, King's Bench Walk, Temple. 
 
 Palmer, J. H., Esq., Q.C, 7, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Pepys, p. H., Esq., Registrar in Bankruptcy. 
 
 Packe, Mrs., Melton Lodge, Woodbridge. 
 
 Prendergast, Harris, Esq., 4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Peacock, William, Great Stanhope Street, Hyde Park Gardens. 
 
 Pym, Horatio, Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 
 Pearson, Julius A., Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 
 Page, George, Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 Parry, Edwin, Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 Powell & Son, Solicitors, Birmingham. 
 
 Peters, Miles, Esq., ICennington Park Road. 
 
 Parkinson, G. L., Esq., Messrs. Ellis & Co. 
 
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LIST OF SUBSCRIBEES. xlv 
 
 E. 
 
 EoLT, JoHK, Esq., M.P., Q.C., Attorney- General, 6, Stone Buildings, 
 
 Lincoln's Inn. 
 Rensha-w, Thomas C, Esq., 5, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Eoxburgh, Francis, Esq., 7, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Eeilly, I'rancis S., Esq., 22, Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Eoohe, H. P., Esq., Eegistrar, Bankruptcy Court, 
 Easch, F. C, Esq., 10, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Eoss, Eglington, Esq., Richmond. 
 Eumsey, Almeric, Esq., 92, Chancery Lane. 
 Eamsey, Mrs., HUl Lodge, Enfield. 
 Eose, P. Frederick, Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 Eose, Mrs. P. F., Sumner Place, Brompton, 
 Eoherts, W. P., Esq., Manchester. 
 Richmond, George, Esq., Kennington Green. 
 Eaw, Edward, Esq., Furuival's Inn. 
 Eyland, Arthur, Esq., Birmingham. 
 
 Rawlinson, Thomas, Esq., 5, Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Eawlins, — , Esq,, Wimhorne Minster, Dorset. 
 
 St. Leonards, The Eioht Honokable Lord, Boyle Farm, Thames 
 
 Ditton. 
 Stuakt, Sib John, Knt., Vice- Chancellor, 5, Queen's Gate. 
 SouTHOATE, Thomas, Esq., Q.C, 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Shapteh, John, Esq., Q.C, 8, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Spinks, Thomas, Esq., D.C.L., Paper Buildings, Temple. 
 Shaepe, The Rev. W., Broadwell Rectory. 
 Stanspeld, James, Esq., County Court Judge, Halifax. 
 Sheriif, R. French, Esq., Antigua. 
 
 Speed, Waiiam, Esq., 3, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Shebbeare, H. F., Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Smale, J. Jackson, Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Schomberg, J, T., Esq., 32, Chancery Lane. 
 Salmon, Thomas Deere, Esq., 4, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Streeten, W. W., 7, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Smith, Mrs. Frank, King Henry's Road, South Hampstead. 
 Skirrow, Charles F., Esq,, Taxing Master, Staple Inn, 
 Shaw, Samuel, Esq., Probate Court, Doctors' Commons, 
 Scanes, Edward, Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 Stov^, Robert, Esq., Fern Farm, Adlestrop, 
 
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xlvi LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Steele, A. E., Esq., Bloomsbury Square. 
 Southall, Henry, Esq., Birmingham. 
 Stilwell, Mrs., Arundel Street, Strand. 
 Sidney, George S., Esq. 
 Stubbs, George B., Esq., Walsall. 
 Stibbert, John, Esq., Forty Hill, Enfield. 
 
 T. 
 
 TwisLETON, Thh Honokable Edwaed, 3, Rutland Gate. 
 
 ToLLEK, J. B., Esq., Q.C, 2, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Tripp, Richard S., Esq., 13, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Taylor, J. H., Esq., 13, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Terrell, W. H., Esq., 56, Chancery Lane. 
 
 Turner, Frederick J., Esq., 7, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Thorpe, Miss C, Bernard Street. 
 
 TUsley, George Fawler, Esq., Chipping Norton. 
 
 Turner, Marshall, Esq., Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 Tamplin, C. A., Esq., Southall. 
 
 Taylor, J. H., Esq., Solicitor, Windermere. 
 
 u. 
 
 Ukquhaet, John, Esq., Staple Inn. 
 
 ViOEKS, The Rev. DnucAN, Northleaeh. 
 
 Villiers, John F., Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Viner, Mrs. George F., Parsonage, Enfield. 
 
 w. 
 
 Wensleydale, The Right Honorable Lokd, AmpthUl Park. 
 Wood, Sib William Page, Knt., Vice-ClianceUor, 31, Great George 
 
 Street. 
 WiGKAM, LoFT03 T., Esq., Q.C, Berkeley Square. 
 WiLLOOOK, John W., Esq., Q.C, 6, Stone Buildings. 
 WiGGDf, The Rev. W., Addington Rectory. 
 Winter, The Rev. Thomas, Daylesford Rectory. 
 Welfoed, Richaed G., Esq., County Court Judge, Birmingham. 
 WiNSLOw, Me. Commissioner, Bankruptcy Court. 
 White, Joseph, Esq., Bredfield House, Woodbridge. 
 White, Mrs., Bredfield House. 
 
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LIST OP SUBSCEIBEES. xlvii 
 
 Walford, Miss, Foxbro' Hall, Woodbridge. 
 
 Wood, Charles William, Esq., 1, Pump Court, Temple. 
 
 Woods,- T. J., Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 
 Wiaslow, Edward, Esq., 92, Chancery Lane. 
 
 Webster, Edward, Esq., North Lodge, Ealing. 
 
 White, Frederick T., Esq., 6, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Wilkinson, Arthur, Esq., 5, New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Walford, F., Esq., 3, Paper Buildings, Temple. 
 
 WoodroofFe, J. E., Esq., 7, Stone Buildings. 
 
 Webb, C. Locock, Esq., 4, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 Webb, Francis, Esq., 31, Southampton Buildings. 
 
 Winstanley, J. W., Esq., Chancery Office, Liverpool. 
 
 wade, Charles Norris, Esq., College Hill, London. 
 
 Weatherby, Edward, Esq., Proctor, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Wingate, T., Esq., 6, Victoria Street. 
 
 Wilson, J, B., Esq., Probate Court, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 Whiting, C. J., Post Office, Brighton. 
 
 Y. 
 
 YouNO, Henkt E., Esq., 6, Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Young, William B., Esq., Hastings. 
 Young, Alfred, Esq., Wolverhampton. 
 
 PRINTED BY THOMAS SCOTT, WARWICK COURT, HOLBOHN. 
 
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