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

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:—