The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

Nittrature.

Lives of the Lord Chancellors. By John Lord
Campbell, LL.D., F.R.S.E. Fourth Edition.
In Ten Vols. Vol. X. London ; Murray.
FEW men now living have had such great
personal success in life as the present Lord
Chief Justice of England. Arriving in this
metropolis half a century since, " the son of
" a poor Scotch clergyman, who could give him
" nothing beyond a good education " (Chan-
cellors, Vol. vii. p. 54), without either aristo-
cratic or professional connection, the " plain
" John Campbell" (as he once publicly called
himself) advanced step by step, and at no slow
pace, to the lead of the Oxford Circuit, to a
seat in Parliament, and to the Attorney-Gene-
ralship of England—an office which he held
in most important times. Marrying the
daughter of a first-class legal celebrity, his
wife obtained the rare honour of being created
a peeress in her own right, while her lady-
ship's father had a short time previously been
ennobled; and in order that the dignity of a
coronet should be conferred on himself, the
Government removed the famous orator, Lord
Plunket, from the Chancellorship of Ireland.
and bestowed it upon " Sir John Campbell,"
of the English Bar. At a subsequent period,
even when the Whig families were in a most
exclusive mood, Lord Campbell was admitted
to the Cabinet, not as a " mere law-10r3," but
as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and
many of his practical efforts at legislation were
endorsed with the official approbation of his
party. As if that success was not enough, his
lordship was appointed Lord Chief Justice of
England, being the exact post in which he
could appear to most advantage. In the
possession of a splendid fortune, living in a
stately mansion in one of the most fashion-
able quarters, with heirs to transmit his title
and inherit his wealth, Lord Campbell, indeed,
may be cited as a wonderful instance of great
personal success.
Even in the annals of the proverbial in-
dustry and prudence of Scotchmen we do not
remember another instance of such enormous
success. Murray (Lord Mansfield) was of a
patrician race, co nected with the highest
houses ; Erskine, though poor, was of noble
birth, and he was gifted with the master-spell
of genius, besides being endowed with many
consummate graces both of mind and body.
Lord Loughborough (Wedderburne) was also
singularly fortunate, but there are grievous
stains on his personal career, and the rever-
sion of the Earldom of Rossiya was too
dearly purchased. Nor did Wedderburne
obtain a peerage for his wife, and he did not
acquire so great a fortune as Lord Campbell.
Henry Dundas (Lord Melville) had also vast
success, but for four previous generations his
family had held high official posts. It is more
specially to be observed that all this vast suc-
cess has been obtained by Lord Campbell,
although he could not, like Murray, have stood
before Chatham in debate, and though he had
not the commanding oratorical resources of
Wedderburne. Nor could any ono assign to
Lord Campbell the possession of the fire of
genius which has given meteoric lustre to the
career of Lord Brougham, or of the lofty
intellectuality and fascinating gifts which
dignify Lord Lyndhurst; nor does he display
the combined legal and debating powers
which made a precocious prodigy of the
lamented Follett. Great as are Lord Camp-
bell's talents, his lordship has not those tower-
ing faculties which stamp their possessor as
one signalised by nature for command.

But all this vast success may be achieved
in the active walks of life, and yet he who has
accomplished it may signally fail when attempt-
ing to carry off the laurels of an author. The
unlucky rhymes of Cicero and Burke, the at-
tempts at poetry by Richelieu, and the ethical
excursions of the great Frederick, are memo.
rahle instances of the bounds which are set
even to the highest faculties when strained
beyond their appropriate use ; and the ques-
tion now comes as to what measure of literary
success should fairly bo assigned to Lord
Campbell.
We lay emphasis on "fairly," because in our
long critical experience we remember few