The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-21 00:00:00

LORD CAIRNS.

Before the Duke of Wellington grew old, and
while his repute as a statesman was still in its prime,
he felt the necessity of having by his side a lawyer-
lieutenant, to do for him the puzzles in Acts of
Parliament and questions of practice and precedent,
with which every party leader in either Lords or
Commons is beset. his insight into charac-
ter would naturally have fixed his choice upon
Lord Lyndhurst, even though that astute,
accomplished, and ambitious politician had
not saved him the trouble by making choice
of himself. It was said of Sir James Graham
that he did not receive the confidence of Sir Robert
Peel :he took it. The Duke was an equally diffi-
cult man to deal with in this fashion ; but Lord
Lyndhurst knew instinctively what the great
soldier stood in need of, and how he could supply
that need. It was not only the inexhaustible re-
source of the best mode of expression, the
clearestputent
hma
re
nt hod d
of ofs u
aelsui
ocni d aatni
do n
invaenctliveththeatintohset
ex-Chancellor had at command. lle was bold
and ready in council, crafty as a diplomatist, subtle
as a pleader, and daring as an Ar.ab chief ; and
when the stratagem failed, or the device proved
abortive, he was quick in turn, and prompt to cover

the inevitable retreat of the followers whom ho had
misled for the day. Few partisan leaders were
oftener beaten ; yet few retained longer the confi-
dence of their party. Since his death the Tories
have had no one in the Upper House to take his
place. Lord Kiugsdown, though endowed with
many high qualities, possessed neither the eloquence
or ambition, the plot or the passion requisite for the
purpose ; and neither Lord St. Leonards nor Lord
Chelmsford was ever fitted to exercise influence or
guidance among the dull and dogged majority of
the Peers. The elevation of Lord Justice Cairns
to the rank of nobility was accepted by the public
and the profession, as no more than the just
recognition of forensic merit, and the confession of
a legitimate wish to replenish the failing judicial
strength of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Little
if anything more was thought about the matter ;
and little more for a time might have come of it,
had it not been for the unusual exigencies of the
Tory party during the present session.
But Lord Cairns was evidently mistaken, when
he said last year, on receiving his appointment for
life, to the lucrative and honourable, but still
secondary post of Lord Justice in Equity, that his
ambition was satisfied, and that he wished only
henceforth for health and the love of his family. It
was natural that one who had run so hard a race
for fortune and for fame, with the odds against him
of a delicate frame and what seemed at one time too
like a debilitated constitution, should in the first
moments of exultation on reaching shore
andy
stretch
sa
himself on the warm sands, close his eyes,
—I am content and happy.
love
to
ft
steruggling
uhgagbiiitn
go
;f
struggle begets in most men the
and at forty-eight the temptation to use self-made
power is generally irresistible. The temptation
than ordinarily
this case was, besides, more
When
dazzling to the eye of hesitating ambition.
Lord Cairns took his seat in the House of
Peers there happened to be
little to do ; but
as he looked round he could not help feeling that
if much were to be done, there were few fit to
Id,yo
it. Lord Derby's presence was often
interrupted
; and Lord Car-
the attacks of his old enemy,
goutof debating power in
narvon, the only other 1.-)
the Cabinet, as at first constituted, inot hostile ; even the
'toted, had withdrawn
to a pc si tion ambiguousi3
casual support of Lords Illunborough Lord Shaftes-
bury could no longer be reciconed on ;
pereolipitnalgis;
down was ill ; and the Chancellor was
getting past work. There has seldombibmeseenlfsoufchita. n
opening for one so qualified to avail
llad Lord Derby been in hie
place when laze
Upper House wents
cominittee o
Bill, he would doubt le
have swayed its delibera-
tions by his personal influence, as for some, years
he has been wont to do, leaving little scope for
the exercise .of skill or strategy in any other
member of the Conservative party. But it so
fell out that on that event.ful day the Premier was
stretched upon abed of pain, and the reins dropped
into the helpless hands theof noefxt in rank,
but
his colleagues.
perhaps the remotest in ability,.
The Privy Seal signalised his assuinption of the
duties locum tenens by a blunder which curled