The National Register. — London, England, 1816-12-30 00:00:00

• a No. 464.—V0L. IX. Utgal litograpOp: OR, jllemoire of thepl•esen€JuJgeB. LORD ELLENBOROUGH, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH. NUMIII.:R 11. • --.11110.-- EDWARD, LORD ELLENnonovon, is the son of Dr. Edmund Law, late Bishop of Carlisle, a prelate of great learning, and., to judge from his writings, of the mildest and most benevolent character; a firm friend to toleration and to liberty, as well political as religious. His Lordship was born in the county ofCumberland, about the year 1731; and, until the age of 12 years, was educated by his uncle, the Rev- Humphry Christian, who then resided at Bottis ham, near Cambridge. He was afterwards removed to the -Charter-house, and was from thence sent to St. Peter's College, Cambridge, to which he must have had a strong predilection, his father, who had been an eminent tutor at the university, having been appointed muster of this college in the year 1756. Here young Mr. Law distin guished himself for an assiduity which through life has never deserted him. His learniag was of a various kind, and lie was equally skilled in the mathematics and, the learned languages. Without a considerable degree of profirieury in the sciences, the greatest genius can ob tain no honours at Cambridge ; where, since the days of Dr. us', and perhaps in some measure owing to the celebrity which Newton has conferred on the uni versity, it is considered of the highest importance to iu caleate at an early age, not so much the laws of moral life and the elegancies of classical learning as those processes of abstruse science by which natural philosophers have elucidated the theory and motions of the heavenly bodies, and traced the laws by which the universe is held in eternal revolution. Whether the strict and cautious process of mathematical reasoning be not in fact the best introduction to a severe and acute logic, or a close analy tical reasoning, in the subsequent course of a student's •progreta, we shall not inquire ; but Cambridge, which has for outstripped the rival university in reputation for the mathematical sciences, is nut wholly without en couragements to proficiency in general literature. A degree in arts may be taken here as well as at other semi naries of learning, with little more than the usual proofs of attendance in the university ; but, amongst the abler students, a rivalry is excited by a competition for hono rary rank, and a sufficient number are dignified with the strange appellation of wranglers. A senior, or first, in this class, receives indeed considerable distinction amongst the students and professors for the rest of his continuance at the university. The course of study for the attain ment of this honour is very severe, and to succeed re quires not merely a general knowledge of the sciences, but a particular skill in some mathematical processes, which, as they are to be perfumed at the exau:ination, not only exercise the proficiency, but the readiness, the me mory, and the firmness of nerve which the scholar pos- SCW.S. We have known the anxiety of many youn r ,ir men to attain an honour produce slow diseases, whi c h have, ultimately, as in the case of the lamented Kirk trfile, undermined the constitution, and brought on con- Su ption Mr. Law, who appears to have possessed at all times a vigorous frame, and no small strength of nerve, by the :!id of his father and his uncle, both well acquainted with the habits ot' the itni:crsity, was enabled probably to ma ture his knowledge -by degrees, and to acquire mathema tical science, together with his other attainments, at an earlier age than many ; hence we find that when he to o k his degree, by a happy combination of industry and ge nius, he was enabled to make a considerable figure, not only M mathematics, but in the classics. In the fernier he was third wrangler; in the latter he gained the first medal for some Greek ver.-,:s, and thus united a reputa tion at once fiir the profound and the elegant.t That he has since cultivated the muses we have never heard. They are had mistresses for an aspiring lawyer ; • No. I. heinz the INITRODCCTOft V PAPER to these ME appcurcil July 7. t We shall he happy if any Correspone.erit will favour us • with a copy of this successful exercise. . .. . 4 1 . . w ..... ' ./...'f"/ ' .7....7,;,:iiaii.......... . , - .t.' - • -... . I ra -..r,1 :41•:.-.117 77 /17- I . , attonaiii MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1816. but, as an instanc.: :4' the effect of early education and the practical utility of mathematical studies, we know personally that his Lordship is now, like the late Mr. Pill, a most ready calculator ; and, trifling as it may ' appear, yet in mercantile causes he evinces a rapidity in this art which is not exAled by any of the practical mer chants at Guildhall. N e have heard it said, indeed, that he feels sonic.. gratification in being able to outstrip all the counsel in calculating mentally the amount of in terest upon a bill of exchange ; and, in like manner, we have been told, that, nt n review at Walmcr Castle, Mr. Pin astonished the oldest Generals at the rapidity with which he glanced over the field, and told the spouse and time, by calculation, which it would take to perfbrm cur twin man euvres with a given nutaber of troops. Invigorated by such studies, his progress ia the law was both easy, rapid, and certain. He was entered of Lincoln's Inn, and placed as a pupil with the present Mr. Baron Wood, a special pleader of great and deserved eminence. Here his friends and associates were the late Mr. Justice Lawrence, and Mr. Templer the late ami able master of the Crown Office. Lord Erskine, we be lieve, was not of the same standing. The business of a special pleader is in general but little understood by the public ; who, by the word pleadings, commonly denote speeches at the bur, while the initiated in the science give this title to the written documents and records which state the rights and claims and the technical defence of eitherparty in a style peculiar to the law, by which it is endeavoured to concentrate into a few points, of a definite and fixed nature, the grounds of the litigation. These are stiled the declaration, the plea or issue, the demurrer, the joinder, and the rejoinder, with other titles which must sound perfectly untwuth to the ears of refinement and delicate taste. Mr. law not only studied special pleading as a science, but practiced it as a gainful art, we believe, fin several years before he was called to the bar. In this manner he became acquainted with all the practical minutiae ne cessary in the conducting of a suit ; all the subtleties of construction in the terms of law proceedings, and the scrupulous accuracy which it is necessary to observe in the framing of a record. At the same time he was gra dually introduced to an acquaintance with the attornim, who were his clients, and who, by long observation of Ibis lissiduitv and industrious lincutium, acquired confidence in his skill and abilities. In this practice Mr. Law -was very successful; and after being called to the bar, in June 1780, we find him, from the reports, to have been in considerable practice both on the circuit, at London and in Westmin ster Hall. On the same circuit, we believe, his cotem pomries, as junior counsel, were Lord Auckland, Lord Eldon, and Lord Alranky. The first soon quitted the bar for a political career, in which he was eminently suc cessful, and the two latter shortly afterwards withdrew entirely to Chancery practice. At the same time Mr. Wallace was a leader on the circuit. He was a nadir! of Cumberland, who rose from the office of an Attorney's clerk to be the competi tor of the celebrated Dimming, and to be Attorney- General. As the Bishop of Elpbin, brother to Mr. Law, married a sister of Wallace's, it is supposed that this might aid him in his early progress, but without abilities, no such patronage could have been of lasting use to him. Mr. Justice fuller, whether from connexions, or from a high opinion of his abilities, seems to have patro nised him very early ; as did Mr. Justice /Mrs, who, it is suspected, was often Indebted to him fist many cases which his industry and learning furnished fur his assistance. In the case of Atkinson, who was convicted of perjury, in an affidavit respecting the supply of corn to Govern ment, whiA was tried the 9th of July, 1783, Mr. Law svgs the junior counsel ; and hi: name appears tin the first time as counsel in an argument in Paz. v. Wherrie, in Dutegiar's reports, from whiat it is clear that he must have had some considerable business as early o the year 1781. He was made fringes Counsel in June 1787, only seven years after tangiaMed to the bar. But what most advance] Niviscratation of Mr. Lorp, was, the consnimums place which was given him in the conducting of the defence of Warm, Wastingx, in 1788, is which he was leading sound. assisted; by Mr. Palmer and Mr. Dallas.; the termer 'al whom ;es now Vice- Chancellor, and the latter a Judge in the Court of Cem mOn Pleas. To t::is cause he was introduced by the refunl of Mr. Erskine to undertake it, lest it might in terfere too much with his causes in London, and at West minster. To Mr. Lew, who was then mostly inlsrac tire as a leading ectuawl on the Nuithern circuit, when, Our Tang, ebninttutton anti 11 aino. r itittr+. • PRICE a l he was opposed to Mr. Sedeant Cocked!, it was not at first supposed to Le of so much inconvenience to be called to attend the House of Lords almost daily ac it was to the great leader of the London causes, but we have heard that it so much interfered with his other business, that he would have given a large sum rather than have been so employed. Arrayed against him were Messrs- nttrke, Fox, Sheridan, and Anstruther. The former of whom, though not practically lawyers, possessed such various talents, and such unrivalled eloquence, that it required more than. common fortitude and ability to make any head against them ; and it is probable, that compared with the splendid imagery of Burke, the fer✓id energy of Far, and the wit and eloquence of Sheridan, which, it in said, surpassed all that was ever delivered by ancient and by modern orators, Mr. Law found it difficult to arrest the attention of the audience to the legal wen racy, and minute detail of a speech upon evidence made some years after the witnesses had been examined. Burke seems to have treated him with personal severity, and Sheridan, feeling probably the advantage which his prac tical knowledge gave him, endeavoured to ridicule, in his reply, not only the rause, but the lawyer and the profession. The counsel having complained of the length of the trial, and the speeches' of the managers, were themselves driven unavoidably into long replies; upon which Sheridan said, they gave examples of brevity by a five hours lamentation upon prolixity, and *sated days in special pleading upon tropes and figures, or in read ing indictments against a metaphor. We, however, have always thought this jeering of the wit unjust and utis placed, because it is impossible to answer a wandering and verbose declamation, without many times deviat ing from the line of conciseness in pursuit of the adver sary, to whom alone the fault must be attributed; and a counsel in reply, is bound in justice to his client, to answer every point of the opening speech or of the evi dence that can be opposed, even plausibly. From this time till he was made Attorney-General in 1801, Mr. Law was the leader of the Northern circuit, and was in most of the great insurance causes in Lon don. As opposed to Mr. Erskine, he had the advantage of superior knowledge, but fell short of the fascinating powers of his eloquence, in which, at nisi priors, Erskine was unrivalled. On the circuit, Mr. Law must have greatly surpassed all competitors ; Mr. Serjeant (Aitken, being remarkable fur a coarse stile of debating, rather than of speaking, without any classical elegance; but i: was a stile which had considerable weight with a ceun try jury. In replies. Mr. Lair was always nervous, clear, pro found, and fluent, and on occasions, remarkably happy in classical allusions, and in points of severe retort. Knowing that Lord Kenyan treated his opponent with peculiar favour, Mr. Law in reply to Mr. Erskine, loot ing up to the Bench with the confidence and dignity which he always appeared to fuel, repeated the following lines front Virgil:— ---- Non me ma feint& turrrnt, Dicta, ferns ; di me terrunt et delorrEn IlOotiS. • And we remember, that in answering some affidavits in a cause in which Crossly and Holloway mutually recriminated, and his adversary had urged much the ay.- &city of Mr. Law's clients in theif affidavits, he paro died most happily a line of one of our best poets, t.::- claiming, that the court had received a marl lesson or Tare most impressive kind ftmu those whose clients must 1 Imre felt u crick in the neck, whenever the Kubjeet was mentioned, but who had now been the first to declare, and it might be in the spirit of prophecy in regard to their own &nine, that the paths of infamy lend but to the pillory and the wallows. When Attorney-lier.orod r (to which office he was appointed in 18(f f. awl k*litool upon the occasion,) we remember him to have designated :he statutes against fbrestalling, as insane statutes; by which, in modern times, London would, if they were inforved, be in continuo' dan #4 ..-r of :Jarring, front the want of due eneouragement fin the market by the monied speculators. This was the language not of n lawyer, but of a political economist, and evinced that he who could use it in a Court of Justice knew how to distin.rnibh the pedantry and the prejudice film the wisdom of our too cestors. ... co / I'l , , - Ile continneol in this office lout one year. Towaids " - • -, the conclusion of it, he argued the case of Haws-ail v., - • Creav, in which be succeeded in dividing the cot .. k . in his favour against the Lord Chief Justice, who ' 1 , ...4 L • r ' '' ' '' , #. l '4l t o • • vi; .k. 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