The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-11 00:00:00

AIR. EDWIN JAMES.

The Law Magazine and Law _Review of this
quarter has an article on the disbarment of Mr.
Edwin James. Numberless reports connected with
Mr. James's private affairs have already been in
circulation, but as the facts of his career are now
put forward with precision, and are substantiated
by documents, it may be worth while to lay some
of them before our readers. Mr. James is the first
Queen's Counsel who has ever been degraded by
disbarment, and the event acquires an importance
from this cause which would not belong to it other-

wise.
The Law Magazine sketches Mr. James's early
career, but this we may pass over, coming at once
to the denouement. On the 10th of April last he
retired from his seat in Parliament, and shortly
afterwards from his clubs. An execution was put
into his house. Report coupled his name with that
of Lord Yarborough's son, whom he had, it was
said, led into difficulties. It was then that an in-
quiry was commenced by the benchers of the Inner
Temple. Mr. James was himself examined before
the benchers, and he there consented to the exa-
mination of Mr. Parkes, Lord Yarboiough's solici-
tor, Mr. Tallents, and the west country solicitor, to
whom he owed £20,000. We now quote from the
Law Magazine :
We will now simply give the substance of Mr.
Parkes's full and clear evidence.
The facts speak for themselves. They are sum-
marily, that Mr. James, thus introduced to LordYar-
borough's acquaintance, became intimate with the
son; that he first in September, 1857, Lord Wors-
ley just of age, for his own exclusive benefit and
use, obtained his lordship's co-responsibility to loans
in insurance offices for the gross sum of £4,500 or
thereabouts, secured on life policies ; that some time
afterwards, in 1858, Lord Yarborough was only in-
formed of his son's involvement by an anonymous
letter; that communication his lordship enclosed to
Mr. James, and the earl ultimately referring Mr.
James to Mr. Tallents, the noble lord's solicitor.
The learned gentleman thus pressed penned the
most abject apologies, with solemn promises of an
early liquidation of his debt. The correspondence
was put in after by Mr. Tallents, and it contained
Mr. James's pledge early to relieve Lord Worsley
entirely of the whole liabilities. Mr. Parkes stated
Mr. Tallents'subsequent discovery of nearly £30,000
of further responsibilities of Lord Worsley for Mr.
James ! This disclosure, of course, brought matters
to a crisis. Mr. Tallents, under the earl's instruc-
tions, proceeded to fathom Mr. James's debts; and
cautiously, unknown to Mr. James, he inquired into
the general pecuniary relations of Lord Worsley to
such liabilities for the learned friend. Eventually
Mr. Tallents communicated with Mr. James in
writing, the latter in replies affording not a sylla-
ble or figure of explanation, but making abor-
tive attempts for a personal meeting. Mr. Tal-
lents, however, preferring pen and ink inter-
course, at last insisted on a reference to Mr.
James's solicitor. Nothing satisfactory resulting,
and the execution in the meantime entering the
Berkeley-square house at the suit of a hostile and
bona fide creditor, Mr. Tallents asked Lord Yar-
borough's permission to consult some second gentle-
man, and his lordship referring him to Mr. Parkes
those two gentlemen finally decreed Mr. James to
give up his seat in Parliament, to retire from the
clubs (Lord Yarborough having introduced him to
Brooks's and Lord Worsley being a member), and
Mr. James finally executed a warrant of attorney
to Lord Worsley for the full debt.
Mr. Parkes put in the following written under-
taking of Mr. James. This damning instrument
needs no commentary. It is best that Mr. James,
in our resume of the evidence, should as far as pos-
sible speak for himself:—
" In consequence of pecuniary transactions of Mr.
Edwin James, Q.C., and Lord Worsley, the follow-
ing terms form the only and final conditions which
could induce the Earl of Yarborough to withhold
from the public a statement of all the facts in rela-
tion to his conduct.
" 1. That Mr. James immediately gives to Lord
Yarborough's solicitor a schedule of his own entire
debts and pecuniary liabilities dated and signed by
his own hand.
" 2. That Mr. James's professional adviser forth-
with prepares a creditors' trust deed, or letter of
license, and takes immediate steps to ascertain
whether all, or in number and amount of claims
what proportion, will accept deferred payment not
bearing interest, by periodical division of his future
income, secured on letter of license or his assign_
ment to trustees (to be hereinafter agreed upon), no
creditor having any preference or any private ar-
rangement or understanding with Mr. James ; and
that such trust deed shall contain a covenant by
Mr. James against his contraction of any further
debt or pecuniary liability.
" 3. That if the creditors become parties to such
an arrangement and trust deed, Mr. James shall be
allowed such a proportion of his future professional
income as they may be hereafter agreed upon.
" 4. That any and all interests of Mr. James in
any life policies of insurances in connection with
Mr. James's debts to Lord Worsley shall be surren-
dered or assigned to trustees of Lord Worsley, for
his lordship's sole benefit, if required.
" 5. That Lord Yarborough reserves to himself
during his own life, and afterwards to his son and
surviving advisers, the power, by the disclosure of
all the circumstances necessitating such trust deed
or letter of licence, and the above-mentioned ar-
rangements to prevent Mr. James's application for
or acceptance of any civil, legal, or other office of
public trust or service.
" 6. That the above-mentioned terms and condi-
tions can be agreed to by Lord Yarborough and his
advisers solely because the large and serious debts
of other creditors would by present disclosures be
wholly sacrificed and lost, and from the fact of Mr.
James's future professional labours and gains being
also the sole source of any possible dividends, or
part repayment, or of any reparation on his part,
for the heavy losses of such other creditors; and
that he himself is willing to make them all the pe-
cuniary reparation in his power. The foregoing
conditions contemplate the renewal by Mr. James
of his Parliamentary practice, in addition to that of
the common law, and which appears indispensable
to enable Mr. James to reduce his debts.
"7. That Mr. James undertakes, at any time
when demanded, to execute a warrant of attorney
(with entry of judgment) for the entire amount of
his pecuniary debts to Lord Worsley, or to trustees
on his lordship's behalf, or for any ascertained por-
tion or parts of the gross debt.
"8. That Mr. James abstains from any further
communication, direct or indirect, with Lord
Worsley.
" Lastly. That Mr. James hereunder signifies
his assent in writing to the foregoing terms and
conditions, which have been submitted on behalf of
the Earl of Yarborough after Mr. James had ♦olun-
tarily relinquished his seat in Parliament, the Re-
cordership of Brighton, and his membership of
Brooks' club.
"I hereby assent to the above terms.
"April Bth, 1861." "EDWIN JAMES.
It appears that at the same time a letter of resig-
nation of the Reform Club was also delivered by
Mr. James, to be held and used exclusively on the
discretion of Mr. Parkes and Mr. Tallents,and which
a few days afterwards was by them sent to that
club. Lord Worsely, it appeared, was a member
of the club. It may here be observed that Mr.
James was proved to have been negotiating a fur-
ther loan (on Lord Worsley's sole responsibility) for
an additional sum of £15,000 promised by an insu-
rance office ! It was further in evidence that the

securities Lord Worsley had given were prepared
on the instruction of Mr. James's own solicitor.

At this period of the inquiry, the benchers wait-
ing the attendance of Mr. Tallents, the case of
" Scully v. Ingram" was partly proceeded with.
The scandal of this second impugned transaction of
Mr. James may be very briefly given. He had
been counsel for Scully ; and in the interim of a new
trial he had borrowed of the opposite party, the de-
fendant, the sum of £1,250 on his own unsecured
acceptances ! This act per se was grossly unprofes-
sional and utterly unjustifiable. It might, or might
not, however, have influenced Mr. James's con-
duct of the plaintiff's case on the second trial ;
and the evidence of Mr. Scully and his junior
counsel, Mr. C. Milward, was taken and re•
corded in the benchers' minutes detailing this suspi-
cious transaction. M r.James's simple explanation was
that the defendant's loan to him was purely " a
simple contract debt" with which the benchers had
no concern.

But before we close our notice of this principal
accusation against Mr. James's professional conduct
we will give the statement of Mr. Edwin Watkins.
That gentleman was not the executor of the late
Mr. Ingram, but the acting friend of Mrs. Ingram,
the executrix, and who administered the estate of
the deceased. Mr. Ingram, it will be recollected,
at the time of his shipwreck and death on the Ame-
rican lakes, was member for Boston, and proprietor
of the illustrated _London .News. Mr. Watkins,
applied to by the committee of the bench to give
information touching this serious allegation in
" Scully v. Ingram," attended the committee on the
14th of May. He made, in effect, the following
statement :

" I was an intimate friend of the late Mr. Ing-
ram, and am acting for his widow. After his death
I took charge of and examined his papers. He was
not a good man of business, and kept his papers in
an irregular condition. Amongst other things, I
looked at the contents of a box, in which there
were papers of importance leases, &c.— and
amongst them this packet, in an envelope (produc-
ing it), marked in Mr. Ingram's handwriting, 'E.
James.' I opened it, and this first letter, which
I read, filled me with astonishment :

" ' Confidential.

"' 63, Pall-mall, Saturday Euning.
" ' My dear Sir,
"' You shall not regret your kindness to me.
"'I must make the sum of £1,250.
" ' Please deduct the interest, and send me
cheques for £5OO for Monday, and £750 for Mon-
day week.

" ' I will send you the policy on Wednesday.
" ' Sincerely, " ' EDWIN JAMES.'

"I was quite startled. In the same packet %ere
other letters from Mr. James, which I produce.
These things set me to inquire. I asked at Mr.
Ingram's office, of Mr. Begbie, his cashier, if they
could trace any money passing from Mr.
Ingram to Mr. James, and they could not.
I then went to Mr. —, who was very
intimate with Mr. Ingram, and made the same
inquiry of him. Mr. told me that in
the interval between the first and second
trials of the case of ' Scully v. Ingram,' Mr.
Ingram came to him and said, in a state of great
excitement, ' I must lend Mr. James some money.'
Mr. replied that he did not see that he must.
Mr. Ingram answered, I must—l am so afraid of
him—l must do anything he asks, and you must
lend him the money for me.'

I produce various letters which I have subse-
quently found, from Mr. to Mr. James, with
reference to two bills, each of the date of July 30,
1859—one for £750, the other for £soo—accepted
by Mr. James, not made payable at any banker's.
Having ascertained these facts, I had an interview
with Mr. James at the Euston Hotel. My impres-
sion of the manner in which Mr. James cross.
examined Mr. Ingram at the trial was that it was
excessive, but I may not be competent to form an
opinion upon that point—but of the effect I am
certain, that after it Mr. Ingram was in a state of
totally shattered nerves, and utterly broken down.
Upon my meeting Mr. James at the Euston Hotel
I said to him, ' It is a singular accident that it was
into this very room I with difficulty led poor Mr.
Ingram after your cross-examination of him, and
I must tell you that if ever a man had a narrow
escape of causing another man's suicide, you had it
on that occasion.' I then mentioned to him my dis-
covery of the debt, and that it was my duty to ask
him for payment. Mr. James admitted he had had
the money, sayiLg that it was only £l,OOO, that
his election expenses had been very consider-
able, that he was very poor, but he would give me
two other bills, which he did. I said I must give
my opinion of the transaction ; that as regarded the
loan it was altogether discreditable ; that he was
Mr. Scully's counsel, and it could not bear the day-
light that he should be found borrowing money from
Mr. Ingram. Mr. James replied that he did not see
it in that light, as Mr. Ingram had offered him the
money. I replied that I could not think that to be
the case.

" Mr. Ingram had told me that Mr. James had
spoken to him very kindly, advising him to settle
the action. The two bills given me by Mr. James
have been dishonoured. The date of the two bills
given to Mr. —, July 30, 1859, was after the
first and before the second trial."
Mr. James, who of course was furnished with a
copy of this statement of Mr. Watkins, offered no
substantial contradiction to its contents. In effect,
he wished the benchers to believe that Mr. Ingram,
as his friend, offered, in conjunction with " three or
four other friends," £l,OOO each for meeting the ex-
penses of the learned gentleman's second return for
Marylebone in May, 1859. Such " offer," be said,
had been "communicated" to him ; but he did not
inform the Bench of the communicant's name, nor
the names of the other friends who he alleged, "did
assist me by loans which I have since repaid !" We
have heard of men rushing to newly .discovered
gold diggings, but never before of idiots offering
loans to such a notoriously involved man as Mr.
James. But this justice we do him—that in his
" Statement of Explanations" of the Ingram trans-
action he writes that he should " ever regret the
indiscretion of accepting the loan," though " there
was nothing of a dishonourable character ever in-
tended or thought of on the part of Mr. Ingram or
myself, either in its proffer or acceptance."

It may be doubtful whether the benchers on this
disreputable transaction alone would have done more
than reprimand the unscrupulous debtor. There
were, however, other ample grounds for erasing his
name from the books of the inn.

To continue our narrative, we will now succinctly
state the evidence of Mr. Tallents, whose examina•
tion on June 18th followed the above interlude of
" Scully v. Ingram." This witness's testimony and
documentary proofs clenched the nails. It is unne-
cessary to give a long correspondence in 1857 be-
tween the late Earl Yarborough and Mr. Tallents
with Mr. James; it forms, however, an important
element in the history of Mr. James's first use of
Lord Worsley. By the last act of that year the
learned gentleman thus addressed his lordship's
solicitor :

" Pall-mall, Monday Evening, Dec. 7,1857.
" My dear Mr. Tallents,—l beg you will convey
to Lord Yarborough my very deep regret that my
pecuniary transactions with Lord Worsley should
have caused him one moment's uneasiness, and to
convey to him my assurance that the amount for
payment of which Lord Worsley is security shall
be punctually discharged by myself. Lord Yar-
borough has been so kind a patron and friend to
me that I am under deep obligations to him, and
would make any sacrifice rather than occasion him
annoyance or discomfort.—Believe me, yours faith-
fully, "EDWIN JAMES."
With this melodramatic undertaking and promise
Mr. James
appears to have rested awhile undis-
turbed, but to have speedily plotted graver designs
against the young nobleman. On the 9th Novem-
ber following Mr. Tallents writes the Q.C. to know
if the last year's loans were paid off. Mr. James,
on the 15th, replies evasively in effect that the in-
terest and policy
premiums were duly Oischarged ;
that he had not yet returned the principal, but that
Lord Tforsley was perfectly satisfied on the sub-
ject," and that Mr. Tallents might "assure Lord
Yarborough that he need feel no uneasiness upon
the matter." Then occurs an interval of a year and
a half before Mr. Tallents, on the
_l4th of August,

1860, hearing reports of heavy further James loans
on Lord Worsley's responsibility, again writes to
Mr. James. In that letter he informs him of the
ugly rumours which had come to his own and Lord
Yarborough's ears. To this refresher and the re-
quest for information as to any fresh transactions,
addressed to the new house in Berkeley-,square, the
learned M.P. vouchsafed no reply. P erhaps ho
might have been at the battle of Solferine, but on
his return from the Italian campaign he appears to
have remained still silent. In Feb. of the following
year (1861) Mr. Tallents having made actual dis-
coveries, again on the 23d exhibited by letter new
interrogatories to the Q.C. He demanded a full
statement in writing of every transaction with
Lord Worsley, "or a refusal wiil be followed by
most active steps for your exposure at all hazards."
Mr. James, thus pressed, addressed Mr. Tallents a
laconic note, asking as usual a personal inter-
view. This declined, Mr. James then referred
his pursuer to his " confidential adviser," 1. e., his
solicitor, and who it is promised shall "explain" all.
It is needless to enter on further details of these
disgusting impositions on Lord Worsley. His lord-
ship was himself willingly examined by the benchers.
He plainly stated that he had believed his earlier
obligations on Mr. James's behalf were liquidated
by the real borrower, and that some of the later
deeds and bonds had been signed by him on the
honourable understanding that Mr. James would
apply the proceeds to the extinction of the 1857
and later debts. We will not make public .ther and
equally humiliating letters of Mr. James to Mr.
Tallents. Tkey were of course fully communicated
by Mr. Tallents to the benchers, and given in evi-
dence. They constitute, so far as this charge, a
confession. We only need add, in conclusion, that
Mr. Tallents and Mr. Parkes acted in perfect con-
cert throughout their painful duties ; and that the
"terms" ultimately signed by Mr. James were
jointly approved by the late Lord Yarborough and
those two co-advisers of the earl. The two gentle-
men stated to the bench that ho wever impelled by
the interests of other creditors to allow Mr. James's
return to the bar, they, as members of the legal pro-
fession, could not permit Mr. James to remain re-
corder of Brighton administering justice and trying
criminals. Had they acted otherwise, they would
have incurred public censure, and have grossly com-
promised their own reputations.
We now end with the last and most singular of
Mr. James's pecuniary exploits—his extraction fro=
the pockets of a west country attorney of a sum of
£20,000. This creditor witness was examined on
the 26th June last, following the evidence of Lord
Worsley. The circumstances of this romantic debt
may be shortly narrated. Mr. James, it appeared,
formed our creditor's acquaintance not wholly " pro-
miscuously," but they soon really became friends--
the debtor having previously been the successful
counsel 'in a cause of the solicitor's own interest. Mr.
James seems early in the long vacation of 1858 to
have fascinated his new acquaintance, and soon to
have visited him at his shootings. Soon after Michael-
mas term the Queen's counsel applied to his neW
client for a temporary loan of £4OO, and which was
advanced on a promissory note. The first bill was►
of course, not " taken up," remaining some months
unpaid. It may be marvellous, but it was never-
theless proved to be true, that this creditor, appa-
rently enamoured of his new friend, subsequently
further advanced Mr. James some thousand pounds•
After awhile the debtor was insured for the Wigs"
tions. But as interest and premiums became in
arrear the creditor agreed to undertake Mr. James's;
entire financial difficulties—to advance further auras
for the benefit of becoming, as he thought, and was
assured, the chief or only creditor. In considera-
tion, the ultimate enormous debt (X 22,000), was
wholly covered by new life policies on the debtor,
and the creditor appears for the two next years a
the Queen's counsel's practice to have received an
tees. Thus matters again went on very swimmingly
for some months. In the meanwhile, Mr. Jamea
became a successful candidate for Marylebone, On
the usual extreme hustings pledges. The seat wee
not unwisely considered a pretty sure road to the
office of Solicitor-General, perhaps a stepping-stone
to even the Great Seal ! On the same scheme of
advance in professional life the country solicitor ad-
mitted to the benchers that he had recommended and
taken for Mr. James the hotel in Berkeley-square !
We will only add that before the conclusion of
the inquiry Mr. James had sent in the following
letter of resignation of his membership :
" Temple, June 18, 1861.
" Gentlemen—The very painful position in which
I feel myself placed, and not intending to resume
practice at the bar of England, or that of the colo-
nies, I beg to be allowed to retire my name from the
Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. I trust I
shall be allowed to adopt this step, and thus to ter'
minate an investigation almost as painful to the
bench as to myself, &c.,

" EDWIN JAMES."

This proffered resignation was, of course, too late'
and could not be accepted. The time for such
retreat was on Mr. James's receipt of a copy of the
committee's report, or on the conclusion of his oval
examination, After his assent to the summons of
the witnesses subsequently examined it was clearly
due to them and to the public that the inquiry
should continue until its natural conclusion. We
have been thus circumstantial because we have
deemed it due to the entire profession and the pub-
lic that publicity should now be made of the priu•
cipal facts of Mr. James's unfortunate disbarment•