The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

1088 filtraturt. The Lives of the Chief Justices of England. By John Lord Campbell, LL.D., F.R.S.E. Vol. HI. London: Murray. Tins is the concluding volume of " The Lives of the Chief Justices." As Lord Campbell's literary character will shortly be brought be fore our critical tribunal on the occasion of reviewing the new edition of his " Chancel lors," which is just being completed, we shall, for the present, defer some particular com ments on his lordship's mode of composition, and an estimate of his claims to reputation. This last volume is, on the whole, rather below than equal to the average of his legal biographies. It is deficient in fulness, and contains no new knowledge, unlike several of the lives of the Chancellors. The memoir of Lord Kenyon is written in a narrow, grudging, and captious spirit, and most of the facts in it are taken from Mr. Townsend's life of that eminent judge. The account of Lord Ellen borough reads better—and with a sitter of such striking features it would be easy for any artist to make an effective picture—but there is want of finish and true biographical art, and the memoir is scarcely equal to the sub ject. The sketch of Lord Tenteillen is fairly done. The energy shown by Lord Campbell in thus completing his work is certainly very great, but hereafter we shall have to weigh what praise or dispraise should be adjudged to his lordship on the score of originality. Nevertheless, in any point of view, bookmaking is a most troublesome occupation, and the industry of Lord Campbell cannot be denied. The volume thus opens : I begin this memoir at a time when I have the near prospect of being myself a Chief Justice, and when I may calculate upon being subjected in my turn to the criticism of some future biographer. On every account I wish to speak of Lord Chief Justice Kenyon in a spirit cf modera tion and indulgence. But lam afraid that my estimate of his character and judicial qualifications may call forth against me a charge of prejudice and detraction. Although till raised to the bench he was considered only " leguleius quidam, caucus et aeutus," he was afterwards celebrated by dependants and flatterers as a great magistrate, to be more honoured than the all-accomplished Mansfield. And from the stout resistance which then continued to be offered in Westminster•hall to all attempts to relieve the administra• tion of justice from wretched technicalties, Lord Chief Justice Kenyon was long hailed as the Restorer of the rigid doctrines to be deduced from the Year Books. And the author then runs on : He was indeed a man of wonderful quickness of percep tion, of considerable intellectual nimbleness, of much energy of purpose, and of unwearied industry ;—he became very familiarly acquainted with the municipal law of this I mit— &c. &c. ; and he proceeds at once to a detailed characterisation of Lord Kenyon. In this opening passage we have some of the faults of the writer prominently before us. Lord Campbell's chance of a Chief Justiceship has nothing to do with the subject, but he can not resist the opportunity of intruding himself on the reader. His egotism and garrulity in many passages are extremely like the ut terances of Bishop But net. There is a still greater fault in this opening. It is a great defect in form to begin a biography with an anticipatory slimming up, and then allow the narrative to dwindle off into trivial anecdotes; yet such is the form frequently adopted by Lord Campbell. Ile sweeps his matter to gether, and then tumbles it out as if from a wheelbarrow. The conclusion of this bio graphy of Lord Kenyon rends with much weakness : lie was succeeded by this son George, a most warm hearted, excellent man—to whom it may be easily forgiven that he considers the founder of his house a model of perfection, not only in law, religion, and morals, but in manners, habits, and accomplishments. To spare the feelings of one so pious, I resolve that this memoir shall not he published in his lifetime, although I believe that it is chargeable with a desire to extenuate rather than to set down aught in malice. I cannot say with a good conscience that the first Lord Kenyon was highly educated and every way well qualified to fill the office of Chief Justice; but lie was earnestly desirous to do what was right in it; and he possessed virtues which not only must endear him to his own descendants, but must make his memory be respected by his country. The " revelation " hero ought to have been mentioned in the opening passage; and the note is truly absurd:— THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 7,1857. This memoir was written in the lifetime of George, the second Lord Kenyon, with whom I was in habits of familiar intercourse. He died 1 Feb. 1855, and was suc ceeded by his eldest son Lloyd, the third lord, who I have heard does credit to the name he bears, but with whom I have not the honour of any acquaintance. There is evidence throughout that Lord Camp bell has some qualms of conscience about the tone of accusation and disparagement in which he has dealt with one of the worthiest of his predecessors. Lord Kenyon was a great lawyer, and as a great magistrate he gave high satisfaction to the profession and to the na• tion at large. He was strict in his morals, and of unimpeachable integrity. He was no political jobber, and no intriguer for place or title ; and if he loved money, Lord Campbell ought to know that Lord Kenyon was not sin gular in that passion. Such a man deserved a different style of appreciation from that accorded to him here ; but we may have more to say on this point at another time We think that Lord Campbell might have leant lighter on the errors of speech and the bad La tin of Lord Kenyon; the present Chief Justice can make mistakes as well as another. Thus he describes his first sight of the Court of Queen's Bench : On the !28:11 of June, 1800, being yet a boy, for the first time in my life I entered the Court of King's Bench, and with thepe eyes I behold Lord Kenyon. The scene was by no means so august as I had imagined to myself. I ex pected to see the judges sitting in the great hall, which, though very differently constructed for magnificence, might be compared to the Roman Forum. The place where the trial was going on was a small room inclosed from the open space at the south-east angle, and here were crowded together the judges, the jury, the counsel, the attorneys, and the reporters, with little accommodation for bystanders. My great curiosity was to see Erskine, and I was amazingly struck by his noble features and animated aspect. Mitford, the Attorney-General, seemed dull and heavy ; but Grant, the Solicitor-General, immediately inspired the notion of extraordinary sagacity. Law looked logical and sarcastic. Garrow verified his designation of " the tame tiger." There were five or six rows of counsel, robed and wigged, sitting without the bar—but I had never heard the name of any of them mentioned before. I was surprised to find the four judges all dressed exactly alike. This not being a saint's day, the Chief Justice did not wear his collar of SS to dis tinguish him from his brethren. And there is the note, which records a strange error of Lord Campbell's own : This was written before I had taken my seat as Chief Justice; and I had erroneously supposed that the collar of SS is worn on saint's days, along with tho scarlet and ermine. The picture of Lord Ellenborough in this volume is executed in a better style : I now come to a Chief Justice with whom I have had many a personal conflict, and from whom for several years I experienced very rough treatment, but for whose memory I entertain the highest respect. He was a man of gigantic intellect ; h 3 had the advantage of the very best education which England could bestow ; he was not only a consum mate master of his own profession, but well initiated in mathematical science and one of the best classical scholars of his day; he had great faults, but they were consistent with the qualities essentially required to enable him to fill his high office with applause. Ellenborough was s real Chief—such as the rising generation of lawyers may read of and figure to themselves in imagination, but may never behold to dread or to admire. Here again we have the egotism of Lord Campbell peeping out in a most amusing manner. The biographer " had many a per sonal conflict" with this personage of " gigan tic " intellect ! Good—very good ! Tho bio grapher, having had " personal conflicts" with this redoubtable personage, wishes to add a few cubits to his stature: As we said, we do not think that Lord Ellenborough was a giant, but he was very tall, and we greatly respect his memory; and we rejoice at the present moment that his talents are hereditary. The inaccuracies and inoleganoes of Lord Campbell are frequently visible in parts of this memoir. Of Lord Ellenborough's beautiful wife it is recorded : Mrs. Law retained the beauty of Miss Towry; and such admiration did it continue to excite, that she was not only followed at balls and assemblies, but strangers used to collect in Illoomshury-square to gaze at her as she watered the flowers which stood in her balcony. But no jealousy was excited in the mind of the husband even when princes of the blood fluttered round her. For many years the faithful couple lived together in uninterrupted affec- tion and harmony, blessed with a numerous progeny, several of whom united their father's talents with their mother's comeliness. Would " comeliness" be enough to excite " admiration," and make princes of the blood flutter round a lady ? Lord Kenyon, if he were alive, might give Lord Campbell some hard strokes on his peculiar use of the English language. The account of the trial of Warren Hastings, in the life of Lord Ellenhorough, is very meagre, and does little credit to Lord Camp bell's research. Lord Campbell preserves the following galling rejoinder from Lord Holland in a "personal conflict" with the " gigantic " Chief Justice. It is one of the best things ever done by L'rd Holland : Lord Stanhope declared that he was afraid of entering into any controversy with the " vituperative Chief Justice" —justifying himself by the example of a peer celebrated for his politeness, of whom he told this anecdote : Lord Chesterfield, when walking in the street, being pushed off the flags by an impudent fellow, who said to him," I never give the wall to a scoundrel," the great master of courtesy immediately took off his bat, and, making him a low bow, replied, " Sir, I always do." Lord Holland: " The noble and learned Chief Justice has complained of the vehemence and passion with which I have delivered myself; but he should have had the charity to recollect that I have not the advantage of those judicial habits from which he has profited so much. The practice of the duties of the highest criminal judge and the exercise of temper which those duties require can alone bring the feelings of men to a perfect state of disci pline, and produce even in the delivery of the strongest opinions the dignified and dispassionate tone which ever adds grace to the noble and learned lord's oratorical efforts, and has so signally marked his demeanour in this night's debate." Lord Campbell ought to have winnowed and weighed the facetia: attributed to Lord Ellen borough. Somehow or other, while Lord Campbell in words confesses the " gigantic " character of Lord Ellenborough, the effect of his memoir is rather to lessen than to raise the deservedly high reputation of that distin guished personage. But in this, as in other volumes, some of the defects of Lord Campbell's mode of com position are largely compensated for by his frequent candour. In the memoir of Lord Tenterden we have the following most re markable confession from the Whig Chief Justice The far happiest part of my life as an advocate I passed under the auspices of Chief Justice Abbott. From beings puisne, it was some time before he acquired the ascen dancy and the prestige which, for the due administration of justice, the Chief ought to enjoy,—and while Best re mained a member of the court. Le frequently obstructed the march of business. But when this very amiable and eloquent, although not very logical, judge had prevailed upon the Prince Regent to make him Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the King's Bench became the beau-ideal of a court of justice. Best was succeeded by Littledale, one of the most acute, learned, and simple-minded of men. For the senior puisne we had Bayley. He did not talk very wisely on literature or on the affairs of life, but the whole of the common law of this realm he carried in his head and iu seven little red books. These accom panied him day and night ; in these every reported case was regularly posted, and in these, by a sort of magic, he could at all times instantaneously turn up the authorities re quired. The remaining puisne was Holroyd, who was absolutely born with a genius for law, and was not only acquainted with all that had ever been said or written on the subject, but reasoned most scientifically and beau tifully upon every point of law which he touched, and not withstanding his husky voice and sodden features, as often as he spoke he delighted all who were capable of apprecia ting his rare excellence. Before such men there was no pretence for being lengthy or importunate. Every point made by counsel was understood in a moment, the applies. tion of every authority was discovered at a glance, the coun sel saw when he might sit down, his case being safe, and when he might sit down, all chance of success for his client being at an end. I have practised at the bar when no case was secure, no case was desperate, and when, good points being overruled, for the sake of justice it was necessary that bad points should be taken ; but during that golden age law and reason prevailed—the result was confidently anticipated by the knowing before the argu ment began,—and the judgment was approved by all who heard it pronounced,—including, the vanquished party. Before such a tribunal the advocate becomes dearer to himself by preserving his own esteem, and feels himself to be a minister of justice, instead of a declaimer, a trickster, or a bully. Ido not believe that so much im portant busineas was ever done so rapidly and so well before any other court that ever sate in any age or cptintry. That passage deserves special attention. The time " when so much important business was "done so well and rapidly" was in Tory times, and by Tory judges. We have seen in our own days a flashy class of practitioners fostered ; and tho system of Whig commis sions, and encouraging men "to write them selves up," has not done much to raise the Bench. We could say much on this point, but for obvious reasons we must forbear. Lord Campbell, in this, as in other volumes, is often incoherent in his views. Alluding to the King's consultation of Lord Kenyon about the " Catholic Question " at the time of the Irish Union, Lord Campbell says :