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

:;•'0

irr:erion we reassm::er was extreme; and Sir E. Lan,
not only pined his cause, but succeeded to the Chief
Justioeship, in April f 802, which had then become va-
cant by the death of Lori Kenyans.
On this event he was created a Peer, and has ever since
filled the seat of Chief Justice•6f the King's Bench with
industry, ability, and dignity ; which, though they might
have shone equally conspicuous in the suavity and cle-
ganec of Lord flans/acid, were never surpassed by any
Judge of recent or of earlier times. In knowledge of
geseral law,. or of the te:hnicalities of special pleading,
and in mereintile causes, we are convince& that his
Lordship's judgments may be put in competition with
those of any, the most celebrated of our Judges.. On
subjects of the law of real property, an abstruse system, -
peculiar to England, and growing out of feudal austerity,-
mellowed in some degree by the lapse of ages, and the
introduction of commercial views of a more divisible, and
more easily transferable property, ht is certainly- not to be
compared in proMptitude to Lord Kenyon,who, from having
practiced in equity, and as a conveyancer, had acquired the
most extensive and ready knowledge of eases upon those
Subjects of any man since the days of Lord Hole and
Lord Coke. In all other respects Lord Ellenhorough is
n judge of the first rank in the first class, and when we
consider the great increase of business which has arisen
at sin pries, we are astonished at the rapidity, cor-
rectness and indefatigable industry with which it is
:1 per!imetal The to kof a Chief Justice has really
in lectern times become Herculean, for the borthen
that rests upon him is like that which presses Atlas.
In this high office he has tried several cases of
the greatest importance to Liberty and the Country. In
the trial of Dcspard for treason, he seems to have felt the
dignity of his situation,. and not to have lent himself to
any severity for the purpose of conviction. In Carr
v. Hood, lie pronounced a high and satisfactory eu-
logium upon the necessity of preserving the Liberty of
the Press, which was followed, up by an acquittal in the
case-of Mr. Perry, of the. Morning Chronicle, for a libel,
wherein his Lordship seems to have placed some bounds
to the discretion of an Attorney-General, in seeking objects
of prosecution On subjects of occasional departure from
virtee in common life, when juries arc called upon to
assess damages for injuries to reputation, or for the viola-
tion of the marriage bed, he seems to have recollected
that a Judge in a polished and perhaps a corrupt state
is not to expect men of high rank to be monks and
anehorets.
On the trial of Lord Cochrane for a conspiracy,
Lord El enboroogh expressed a marked disgust at the
csaduct of the defendant ; and, for his severity on
that ucca.sion, a vain attempt has been made to impeach
liintbetbre the House of Commons. This has, we think,
justlyebeen repelled by till parties; and though our wishes
would have been that it were possible to have found Lord
Cochrane innocent, yet such was the strength of the cvi-
- fence, that we arc conv:need no jury could have given
a contrary verdict.
On his Lordship's elevation to the Bench, for which
he seems to Lave been somewhat indebted to the friend-
ship of Lord Sidossuth, he was appointed a Member of
the Privy Council, and it was understood that this ap-
pointment was intended to give a certain degree of
weight to that Nobleman's interests in The Cabinet.
The oppasitiou Members at the time made this appoint-
ment the subject of much comment in Parliament, and
(*mended that it was .highly improper that a Chief
Justice should hold a seat in the Council, because he
might be called upon to decide there upon the necessity
and propriety of a public prosecution, at the trial of
which he must afterwards preside, and could not there-
fore be considered as an impartial Judge. The true
friends of liberty must be always jealous of every con-
nexion which brings the criminal judges of the land
withiu the vortex of court influence.; but the objection
was over-ruled by the Parliament, and the public, we
u'link, considered it rather as a party dispute than a
• question of vital interest to political freedom, and neither •
during nor since the administration of Lord Sidnaotah •
:has any thing occurred to excite any jealousy upon the
subject of his Lordship's introduction to the Privy Coun-
cil. As a Cabinet Minister, it is impossible that a Chief
Justice cm ere: appear, consistently with the duties of
his office, and the demand which the.public has for his
4 races, in the seat of justice.
In the present times, when economy seems to be echoed
from one extremity of the reahn to the other as the univer-
sal cry of the people, it may, perhaps, become an inquiry
of same interest to Inow the actual value of the office of
CliefJustics of the King's Bench. The salary can never
c insiderel excessive, according to the scale of other sala-
ri t and emoluments, whether we look to the chief offices
of the State, or tothe private acquisitions of professional and
commercial industry. The actual perquisites are few, but
c patronage of the office is considerable, and in some
instances, we believe, there arc offices which the Chief
Justice has 'been always allowed openly to dispose of for
a prim .Some of these must be altogether sinecures ;
bat there see others which afford a most ample provision
for :AU ken ; and thus, although there is no comparison
between the annual profits of the office' of Lord Chan-
cellor, whichls the first in ,power and patronage in the
Itinglont, :yes, as the Chief Justiceahip is for. life, and
ra ituer eucurabered with the tells awl •the :tor