The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-01 00:00:00

HISTORICAL SKETCHES

From Lord Brougham's new work, entitled " His!orieal
Sketches of Statesmen who flourished in the Reign of
George the Third.")

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.
Of the class of the inferior though able men to
whom we have just referred, the late Sir Vicary Gibbs
was certainly among the most eminent ; and he bad all
the perfections of the order, and more than the ordinary
share of its faults. It is a great error, committed only
by those who view them from afar off, to imlgine that
their learning is of a confined nature, either in their

own profession or in other branches of education. They
arc in no respect mere special pleaders, or men familiar
only with the practice of the courts. They are even in
some respects not to be termed mere lawyers. They
are acquainted with the whole of the law, which they
have studied accurately, and might also be admitted to
have studied profoundly, if depth can be predicated of
those researches which, instinctively dreading to pens-
, trate the more stubborn and more deep-lying vein of

..--.._ . .
first principle, always carry the labourer towards the
shallower and softer bed that contains the relics of
farmer workmen, and make him rest satisfied with
Iliese patterns as the guide and the rule. All that has
been said or written, however, by text-men or by
Judges, they know ; and of it all, much practice has
given theca great expertness in the application. Then
their education has not been confined to mere matter
of law. It has indeed been far from a very enlarged

one ; nor has it brought them into a familiar acquaint-
ance with the scenes which expand the mind, make it
conscious of new powers, and lead it to compare, and
expatiate, and explore. Yet has this course of in-
struction not been without its value ; for they are ge-
nerally well versed in classical literature, and often ac-
quainted with mathematical science. From the one,
however, they derive little beside the polish which it
communicates, and the taste which it refines ; from the
other they only gain a love of strict and inflexible rules,
with a disinclination towards the relaxation and allow-
ances prescribed by the diversities of moral evidence.
From both they gather a profound deference for all that
has been said or done before them, an exclusive vene-
ration for antiquity, and a pretty unsparing contempt
for the unlettered and unpolished class which form, and
ever must form, the great bulk of mankind in all corn-
munities. A disrespect for all foreign nations and their
institutions has long been another appointed fruit of the
same tree ; and it has been in proportion to the over-
weening fondness for everything in our own system,
whether of polity or of mere law. The long interrup-
tion of all intercourse with the Continent during the
late war had greatly increased these narrow and absurd
prejudices, which are now somewhat more nearly brought
back to their ancient level. But still the precise dictates
of English statutes, and the dicta of English Judges and
English text-writers, are with them the standard of jus-
tice ; and, in their vocabulary, English law is as much a
synonyme for the perfection of wisdom as, in that of
Dean Swift's imaginary kingdom, Hounlim was for the
"perfection of nature."
Of lawyers who belong to this class, by far the most
numerous in the profession, it is also a great mistake to
,suppose that their talents are confined to mere legal
matters, the discussion of dry points, and the conduct of
suits according to technical rules. Many of them are
subtle and most able arguers, some even powerful rea-
soners. As admirable a display of logical acumen, in
long and sustained chains of pure ratiocination, is fre-
quently exhibited among their ranks as can be seen in
the cultivators of any department of rhetoric or the stu-
dents of any branch of science. They often make high
pretences to eloquence, and, without attaining its first
rank, are frequently distinguished for great powers of
speech, as well as extraordinary skill, in the manage-
ment of business. Their legal reputation, however, is
the chief object of their care, and, in their pursuit of
oratory, they aim far more at being eloquent lawyers
than orators learned in the law. Hence their estimate
of personal merit is all formed on the same principle
and graduated by one scale. They undervalue the ac-
complishmentsof the rhetorician without despising them ;
and they are extremely suspicious of any enlarged or
general views upon so serious a eubject as the law.
Change, they with difficulty can bring their minds to
believe possible—at least any change for the better : and
speculation -or theory on such matters is so much an ob-
ject of distrust, or rather of mingled contempt and
aversion, that when they would describe anything ridi-
culous, or even anomalous, in the profession, they can-
not go beyond what they call " a speculative lawyer."
To expect success in such a one's career was form-
erly thought absurd. But the great triumph
of Sir Samuel Romilly was a sore stumbling-
block to technical minds. A Freethinker upon legal
matters, if ever any existed : accomplished, learned,
eloquent, philosophical ; he yet rose to the very head of
his profession, and compelled them to believe what
Erskine bad failed to make them admit—that a man
may be minutely learned in all the mere niceties of the
law, down to the very minutest details of Court practice,
and yet be able to soar above the higher levels of gene-
ral speculation, and to charm by his eloquence, and
enlighten by his enlarged wisdom, as much as to rule
the Bench and lead the Bar by his merely technical
superiority.
The professional character of the man whom we are
discussing is generally pure and lofty ; the order to
which they belong is sacred in their eyes; its fame, its
dignity, even to its etiquette must all be kept unsul-
lied ; and, whatever may be their prejudices and their
habits, political or professional, how great soever their
deference to power, how profound their veneration for
the Bench, how deep-rooted their attachment to exist-
ing institutions, how fierce their hostility to all innova-
tions, how grave or how scornful their frown upon the
multitude at large, yet is their courage undaunted in
defending whatever client may intrust his suit to their
patronage, be. he a rabble-leader or a treason-mon-
ger, a libeller or a blasphemer; and, in discharging
towards him the high duties of their representative cha-
racter, they so little regard either the resentment of the
Government or the anger of the Court, that they hardly
are conscious of any effort in sacrificing every personal
consideration to the performance of their representa-
tive, and because it is representative, their eminently
important office.
Of the men whom we have now endeavoured to
pourtray as a class, Sir Vicary Gibbs was a perfect
sample. Endowed by nature with great acuteness and
an unlimited power of application, he became, to use
his own somewhat unseemly expression towards as con-
siderable a man as himself, and of ar more amiable one,
"as good a lawyer as that kind of man can be." Dis-
ciplined by an excellent classical education, the fruits of
which stuck by him to the last, and somewhat acquainted
with the favourite pursuits of Cambridge men, his taste
was always correct, and his reasoning powers were as
considerable as they ever can be in a mind of his narrow
range. To eloquence he made only moderate pre-
tences ; yet was his language, which gurgled out rather
than flowed, often happy, always clear and transparent,
owning a source sufficiently pure, if somewhat shallow,
and conveying ideas not numerous, not original, not
fetched from afar, not brought up from the lower beds of
the well, yet suited to each occasion, well under con-
trol, and suede easily accessible to others in the same
proportion in which they were correctly apprehended by
himself. His legal arguments were often much to be
admired. He did not go by steps, and move on from
point to point, garnishing each head with two observa-
tions, as many citations, and twice as many cases ; so
that the whole argument should be without breadth or
relief, and each single portion seem, as much as any
other, the pivot upon which the conclusion turned
hut he brought out his governing principle roundly
and broadly ; he put forward his leading idea
by which the rest were to be marshalled and
ruled ; he used his master-key at once, and used it
throughout, till he had unlocked all the apart-
ments by which he mounted to the Great Chamber, and
he left the closets untouched, that they who followed
him might, if they chose, waste their time in picking
the locks, or lose their way in the dark bye-passages.
It might be said of him, as. he said himself of Sir James
Mansfield, that " he declared the law" while he argued
his cases ; and while others left only the impression on
the hearer that many authorities had been cited and
much, reading displayed, his argument penetrated into
the mind, and made it assent to his positions, without
much regarding the support they found from other
quarters. But he was also a very considerable person
at Nisi Prius. His correct and easy knowledge of all
legal matters was here by no means his only superiority.
He was ready in dealing with evidence ; he could pre-
sent to the Jury the facts of his case boldly and in high
relief ; though he was wholly unable to declaim; and
never dreamt of addressing the feelings or the passions,
any more than if he were speaking to mummies without
any sensation, much less any feelings or passions
to address, yet be could, especially when clothed with
the dignity of high official station, deliver himself
with considerable emphasis, though without any-fluency,
and could effect the purpose of impressing the
facts upon the Jury's mind, by the same strong and even
choice phrases, sparingly used, though coming out with
little flow of words and no roundness of period, which.
we have remarked among the characteristics of his argu-
ments to the Court upon the law. Those who beard
his cross-examination of Colonel Wardle, in the pro-
secution of' Mrs. Clarke, and who uuderstood the real
circumstances in which the concerted cross-examination
of Major Glenie and Captain Dodd was conducted by
Mr. Garrow, could be at no loss in dreatly preferring
the former display of professional skill and energy. Nor
was his address to the Jury less remarkable for energy
and for skill. It was a case indeed in which his whole
feelings were strongly embarked ; he had defended the
Duke of York with much ability of a professional kind
in the House of Commons, where other influences than
that of pure reason were very prevalent ; and he re-
joiced to meet upon his own ground the adversaries
whom he had failed to defeat upon theirs.
The Treason Trials of 1794 were the occasion of
this able barrister first being Iran:educed to
public notice, and they accelerated his professional
rise, although he had already been made secure of
great success. He was second counsel to Mr. Er

EVENING 14:1)ITION.

kine,* as Mr. Erskine had been in Lord George
Gordon's case to Mr. Keryon, afterwards Lord Chief I
Justice. But although Mr. Gibbs's Eumming up of

the evidence was allov• ed, on all hands, to be a was-

terly performa'nce, and of very signal service to the
cause, the overwhelming- genius of his great leader so
far eclipsed him, that while in 1730 no one spoke of
the chief, but all admiration was reserved for
the second in commend, in 1794 the leader alone

was mentioned, and the important contribution made
by the junior to the mighty victory escaped all but pro.
fc:ssional observation. In Westminster Hall, however,

it was estimated at its real worth ; and, notwithstand-
ing his narrow-minded notions on political matters, his
slavish adherence to the Tory party, his bigoted vene-
ration for existing things, and hatred of all disaffection,
or even discontent, the courage. and perseverance whir'
he displayed throughout that trying scene, both towards
the Government whom he was deleating in their frantic

scheme, and towards the Court whom be was con-
stantly joining his leader to beard, was not surpassed by
the technical ability which he showed—nay, was not
exceeded even by the manly boldness which won for that
leader the most imperishable of all his titles to the ad-
miration and gratitude of mankind.
The general narrowness of Sir Vicary Gibbs' mind
has been marked ; but on the side of vanity and self-
conceit it was out of proportion to its dimensions in
other parts. It always seemed as if no ore could do any-
thing to please him, save one individual, and his perfor-
mances were rated at the most exhorbitant value. Nay,
the opinion of that favoured personage he estimated so
highly, that there always lay an appeal to him from the
bench, as well as from every other authority ; and it
was sometimes truly laughable to observe the weight
which he attached to a single sentence or a word from
one with whom lie was ever so entirely satisfied. On
a certain trial he had occasion to mention some recent
victories of Lord W'ellington's army in the Peninsula,
and had turned three battles with praise not very la-
vish, because every word was deemed of inestimable va-
lue, but had omitted Busaco ; be corrected himself very
ostentatiously, and went back to include that fight,
with the feeling manifest to all who beard him, that real
and irreparable, possibly fatal, injury would be done to
the troops had the momentary omission unhappily not
heeresupplied. When he came among the heads of
the law, whether in his own Court or at occasional •
meetings of the twelve, even while junior puisne Judge,
he arrogated the place and deference due to the chief
of the whole ; and when he was made first
Chief Baron, and afterwards Chief Justice, there were
no hounds to his contempt for all the opinions of
all his brethren, although it is an undeniable fact
titan he was not nearly so much distinguished for
the soundness of his opinions upon the Bench as he
had been for the excellence of his arguments at the Bar.
In trials at Nisi Prius ha was -distinguished for the little
and peevish temper which predominated in him, often to
the seeming injury of his judgment, almost,always to the
detriment of his judicial powers ; and so absolutely was
he persuaded of his, own universal capacity, and the
universal unfitness of others, that it was no uncommon
thing for him to ask, somewhat roughly, for a counsel's
brief, that he might see what was intended to be stated!
then lecture the attorney who had prepared it ; soon
after the witnesses ; and down to the officers of the
Court, whose functions of keeping silence anti order he
would occasionally himself undertake to perform. So
that it was not an uncommon remark that the Learned
Chief Justice was performing at once in his own person,
the offices of judge and jury, counsel for both parties,
attorneys for-both, witnesses on both sides, and crier of
the Court. To the same conceited spirit was owing his
much graver offence of parading rash opinions upon
branches of the law with which the previous habits of
his life had never brought him very familiarly acquainted,
and even of forming hasty judgments upon matters to
which he was more unaccuFtomed. Certain it is that
there were dechions, both of his own at Nisi Prins, and
afterwards of the Court in Banco, which he persisted in
forcing upon his brethren, and which do little credit to
any of the parties concerned in them.
The survey which has just been taken-of this eminent
Counsellor does not show him as filling the highest
places in his profession ; and yet, if we follow him into
the House of Commons, the falling off is very great in-
deed. There he really had no place at all ; and, feeling
his nullity, there was no place to which he was with
more visible reluctance dragged by the power that
office gives to Government over its lawyers. He could
only obtain a hearing upon legal questions, and those he
handled not with such felicity or force as repaid the
attention of the listener. He seldom attempted more
than to go through the references from one Act Of
Parliament to another ; and, though he was doing only
a mechanical work, he gave out each sentence as if be
had been consulted and gifted like an oracle, and
looked and spoke as if when citing a section he was
making a discovery. When Mr. Perceval was shot,.
his nerves, formerly excellent, suddenly and entirely
failed him ; and he descended from the station of At-
torney-General to that of a Puisne Judge in the Cora--
mon Pleas.
Of his political prejudices, which were quite intole-
rant and quite sincere, mention has already been made.
To the cause of Reform in all its shapes, and under
what name soever, he was the bitterest enemy. To-
wards all who indulged in free discussion, whether of
measures or of men, he was an implacable adversary.
The press, therefore, engaged a large share of his dis-
like ; and under the combined influence of exasperation
and alarm he filed so many ex officio informations in a
few months, that no two Attorney-Generals ever in a
long course of years loaded the files of the Court with
as many. It was his truly painful fortune that, as most
of these regarded the attacks on the Duke of York, be
was compelled soon to withdraw them all ; while in se-
veral of the others he was defeated ; and partly by his
excessive use of the power, partly by his failure in the
exercise of it, he had the agony, to him most excru-
ciating, of both being signally defeated in his attempts
to crush the press, and of causing ail the discussions of
the ex officio power which first brought it into hatred
and then into disuse.
This is that successful barrister, that skilful special
pleader, that acute lawyer on common points, that de%
trous and expert practitioner (for all this he was as cer-
tainly as he was a little-minded man)—this is he wb°lll
the men that contemn Lord Erskine, and look down
upon Lord Mansfield, and would fain, if they durst,
raise their small voices against Sir Samuel Ronal,
hold up as the pattern of an English lawyer.
SIR WILLIAM GRANT. _

If, from contemplating the figure of the eminent
though narrow-minded lawyer whom we have been sur-
veying, we turn to that of his far more celebrated con'
temporary, Sir William Grant, we shall find, with some,
marked resemblances, chiefly in political opinions and
exaggerated dread of change, a very marked diversity.tn
all the more important features of character, whetheren-
tellectual or moral. We have now named is some re"
spects the most extraordinary individual of his time—one
certainly than whom none ever better sustained the kg!'
cial office, though its functions were administered by 10
upon a somewhat contracted scale—one than whom nerve
ever descended from the forum into the senate witd
more extraordinary powers of argumentation, or fie'!"
rished there with greater renown. It happened to than
great Judge to have been for many years at the Bar wit,"
a very moderate share of practice ; and although h!'
Parliamentary exertions never tore him away from his
profession, yet his public character rested entirely
upon their success until he was raised to the Benet!'
The genius of the man then shone forth with extraordy
nary lustre. His knowledge of law, which had hitherto
been scanty and never enlarged by practice, was now el.:
panded to whatever dimensions might seem required f°,l
performing his high office ; nor was he ever remark. t,
as at all deficient in thebranch most difficult to master wit':
out forensic habits, the accomplishments of a case-lawyer;
while his familiarity with the principles of jurispruderl%
and his knowledge of their foundations was ample aslls
application of them was easily and masterly. The It °I
Court, however, in those days, was one of comparatol
contracted business ; and, although he gave the el.°,
entire satisfaction there, and in presiding at the ,
Council in Prize and Plantation Appeals, a doubt -vra,
her
always raised by the admirers of Lord Eldon wheth e
Sir William Grant could have as well answer
large demand upon his judicial resources, had he Pao-
sided in the Court of Chancery. That doubt apPe_aat
altogether unfounded. He possessed the first g'Lt
quality for dispatching business (the " real" end
" affected dispatch" of Lord Bacon), a power of steaulad
fixing his attention upon the matter before hin,it a
keeping it invariably directed towards the successive 0 a
guments addressed to him. The certainty that tot_
word was lost deprived the advocate of all excuse for
petition ; while the respect which his judgment jun 32.14
checked needless prolixity, and deterred him from ralsiby
desperate points merely to have them frowned dove in',
a tribunal as severe as it was patient. He bad not' re
deed, to apprehend any interruption—that was a ena
never practised in those days at the Rolls or the CA° it
pit ; but, while the Judge sat passive and uneinveree
was. plain that, though his powers of endurance 11.a'as
limits, his powers of discriminating
his attention was ever awake ; and as it regkalive
an eminent hardihood to place base coin ne to
so
.scrutinising an eye, were ever aetis'e.red
or tender light rn?neVii.
he weighed in such accurate scales as Sir oor-
li.am Grant's, so few men ventured to " ft
cise a. patience which yet all knew to be unbounded.,e of
may, indeed, be fairly doubted whether the mat.ll In.r sir
muscular exertion, so much more clumsily
John. Lead] in the same court to effect the great 00.1;er
of his effortsthe close compression of the debate"eirso a
succeeded so well, or reduced the mass to. asi °Ariel°
bulk, as the delicate hydraulic press of his uthe
predecessor did, without giving the least pain to
urge 01
vocate, or in any one instance obstructing the en
calm, deliberate, and unwearied justice. applied bt object

* There was a third, on account of the extrens
labour
cast upon the Counsel, and, by a kind of connivance, ,t 11.:
Court permitted this, although the Statute of Wil'a'—
111. only allows two, while the Crown had above half a
dozen. This third was Mr., now Baron, Gurney, a war Din
friend of civil and religious liberty, and of that highly ,r";,-
spectable and useful farnily to whom the art of stenograri
and the history of public proceedings owe much' , rii
whose steady and honest adherence to their priaciP'
covers them with honour.
—.....0011111