The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-16 00:00:00

DEATH OF LORD HATHERLEY.

Lord Hatherley, ex-Lord High Chancellor of Eng-
land, died on Sunday morning at his residence, Great
George-street, -Westminster, at the age of seventy-
nine. The Right Hon. William Page Wood, first
Baron Hatherley, was the second son of the late
Alderman Sir Matthew Wood, for many years M.P.
for the City of London. He was born on No-
vember 29, 1801, was educated at Winchester
School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
graduated B.A. in 1824. In 1827 he was -called to the
bar, and in 1845 received the dignity of silk. Two
years later he successfully contested the city ef Oxford
in the Liberal interest, continuing to represent that
borough until December, 1852, when he was elevated
to the judicial bench. Previously to his retirement from
Parliament, however, he had been Vice-Chancellor of
the County Palatine of Lancaster, from 1849 till
1851, and Solicitor-General in Lord John Russell's
first Administration. He was appointed a Vice-Chan-
cellor in 1852, and this office. he continued to hold until
March, 1668, when he was transferred as one of the
Lords Justices to the Court of Appeal in Chancery,
being at the same time sworn in as of her Majesty's
Privy Council. In December, 1868, when Mr. Glad-
stone came into office, the Lord Chancellorship was
offered to Sir W. Page Wood, and upon his acceptance
of the office he was, as usual, raised to the Peerage, as
Baron Hatherley of Hatherley, in the county of
Gloucester. In October, 1872, he was succeeded by
Lord Selborne.

In a leader noticing Lord Hatherley's death the Daily
News says :

Our readers will receive with little surprise, though
with great regret, the news of Lord Hatherley 's
death, which occurred at an early hour on Sunday
morning. For some time his condition had been hope-
less, and he became weaker from hour to hour, until
he passed unconsciously away. A long and stainless
if not a very chequered or crowded life has thus
been brought to a peacefu close. Lord Hatherley
had reached an age not common even among
successful lawyers. The Horatian phrase jucunda
senectu,s applied with singular accuracy to Lord
Hatherley. Patient, courteous, and kindly,
he never retarded the business of any Court in
which he sat, or ruffled the temper of any advo-
cate or witness who came before him by an angry word
or a hasty expressibn. His countenance, as amiable
as venerable, was a fit index of his character and dis-
position. Sprung from a good old City family, he
remained faithful throughout his long public life to
what it is strange now to reflect were the old City
politics. His father was many years member for
London ; . and though his son represented another
constituency, his name was always held in honour by
the successors of thase who had returned Sir Matthew
Wood to Parliament. William Page Wood was
himself born in 1801, and has consequently died
an octegenarian. Though it is nine years
since he ceased to hold office under the Crown,
he has not been long missed from the
precincts of the Upper House. A year or two ago he
was present in the hall of the Middle Temple at the
banquet given in honour of his distinguished nephew,
Sir Evelyn Wood. The reception which Lord
Hatherley met with on that occasion will not be
readily forgotten by any one who witnessed it. It was
described in our columns at the time, and it will be
sufficient now to say that no more hearty, spontaneous,
and general tribute of applause was ever paid by the
members of any profession to one of their own
chiefs. All the company were acquainted with Lord
Hatherley's honourable and stainless career, and many
of them had experienced the personaPkindness wltich
marked his character and conduct.

Always a member of the Liberal party, Lord
Hatherley was rather in advance than in the rear of
the political connection, to which he belonged. He
was one of the first advocates of household suffrage,
and Mr. Bright is reported to have suggested to him
many years ago that he should hold the Great Seals in
the grist Radical Government. In 1872 Lord Hather-
ley's eyesight failed him. He resigned office, and was
succeeded by the present Lord Chancellor. During
the period for which he occupied the Woolsack, Lord
Hatherley presided over the bearing of appeals with
dignity, patience, and ability, and till within a
few months of his death attended from time to
time ths hearing of appeals. Lord Hatherley was
a man of strong religious convictions and deep
practical piety. He was the author of a work
on the Continuity of Scripture, which reached
a third edition. He was also a regular Sunday-sehool
teacher, even in the busiest periods of his political and
professional life. One of his most intimate personal
friends was the late Dean Hook, for many years Vicar
of Leeds, with whom he kept up a constant corre-
spondence, from which many extracts are given by
Canon Stephens in his life of the Dean. Lord
Hatherley had no enemies, legal, political, or personal.
Though he achieved solid and substantial success in
life, his triumphs did not come very early, nor was he
ever reckoned among a few whose rise is inevitable
and long foreseen. He never went out of his way to
court advancement, but he was never unequal to pro-
motion when it came. Though he has died in a good
old age, Lord Hatherley will be much missed and long
remembered.