The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-10 00:00:00

DEATH OF LORD ABINGER.
(From the Times.)
P. is with derp regret we announce the melancholy in-
telligence that the Noble and Learned Lord. ?.ho for the
hilt ten years has filled the office of Chief VaThrt, has
breathed his last at Bury, early on Sunday salorninhr.
Lady Abinger and several members of his Lt.vgethily s
family were present when he expired. He never ape.
peered to regain consciousness from the first monsetst
that his fatal illness supervened.
During the long period of half a century Lerd Abin-
ger had practised or administered the law. His aetive
and distinguished life was passed during the reigns of
four Sovereigns. When he entered upon the exereise
of his profession. Lord Kenyon presided in the Court of
King's Bench, Sir James Eyre was Chief Baron, the first
Earl of Rosslyn at the head of the Common Pleas. and
the first Earl of Eldon Attorney-General. To climb
the heights which these great men had already attained
formed the object of his youthful ambition. To contend
;sit!), the formidable rivalry of their imitators and suc-
cessors became the business of his life; and no reader
now requires to be informed that he prosecuted this
great design with an amount of professional learning,
moral energy, and intellectual power, such as have been
rarely equalled, and never surpassed.
He was the descendant of a family which settled in
Jamaica as long ago as the first establishment of the
colony. In that island they lived long enough to ac-
quire considerable wealth and distinction, and there Lord
Abinger was born, the second and last surviving son of
Robert Scarlett, by his marriage with Miss Elizabetla
Anglin. His youngest brother, Sir William Anglin:
Scarlett, was also a member of the legal profession, and
eventually became Chief Justice in the island with which
he and his relatives had been for so long a period con-
nected. As a natural result of the lo mlity in which he
had been born, it was necessary for Lord Abinger to
leave his home and travel to Europe, in order to secure
the benefit of such an education as his early powers
seemed entitled to receive, and for this purpose he was
consigned to the care of a friend in the north of Eng-
land, at as early an uge as he could venture to travel
alone. Ile was placed for a short time at a public school,
but was soon removed to Cambridge, where he entered
as a fellow-commoner of Trinity College. In four years
he took the degree of 8.A., and shortly afterwards
quitted the University. Within one year after his call
to the bar—viz., on the 22d of August, 1792, he mar-
ried the third daughter of Mr. Campbell, of Kilmerey,
in Argyleshire, by whom he had three sons and two
daughters ; of the latter the eldest is the lady of Lord
Campbell, who enjoys a peerage in her own right as
Baroness Stratheden.
On quitting the University be came to London, and
devoted himself to his profession with great ardour,
selecting as the chief object of his laborious studies the
perusal of modern reports, which he esteemed the spee-
diest road to success as an advocate. By the Hon.
Society of the Inner Temple he was called to the bar in
thejyear 1791. Although he inherited more than a com-
petent independence, he devoted himself to the most
laborious of all professions with an earnest perseverance
of which there are few examples, and with an industry
rarely called into existence by any stimulus less than the
pressure of actual necessity.
The practice of the common law was that to- which he
gave a preference ; and the Northern was the circuit to
which he attached himself. Years rolled by ; and, like
others, he was compelled to go through the usual proba-
tion. In due course the leader of his circuit presented
him with a bag ; but not until he had business enough
to render that species of accommodation quite needful.
Not many years elapsed before that bag laboured under
a plethora.. The opinion entertained of him by attor-
neys, clients, and jurors, at first favourable, gradually'
grew into admiration, and at length ripened into un-
bounded confidence ; until, in the end, men began to
think that it would be almost "a tempting of 'provi-
dence" for any one engaged in litigation to omit retain-
ing Mr. Scarlett. At the time to which we refer, his
personal appearance was, in a remarkable degree., cal-
culated to win the favour of every beholder. Though
born in a tropical climate, his physical strength and
animal spirits were indomitable, while his command of
temper also presented an exception to the ordinary rules
which apply to West Indians. He was as calm as any
Englishman, and as discreet as " if bred at Glasgow or
at Aberdeen."
In the year 1816 Mr. Scarlett was called within the bar,
invested with a silk gown, and became, therefore, one of
that eminent body known as " his Majesty's Counsel
learned in the law." From this time forward a large
proportion of the leading business of the Court of King's
Bench fell into his hands. To enter the House of Com-
mons became the next object of his ambition, and he
forthwith offered himself as a candidate for the borough
of Lewes ; but his opponent, Sir John Shelley, was
elected by a majority of 19. The demise of George ILL,
however, necessarily led to a general election, and he
accepted the offer of the late Earl Fitzwilliam to come it/
fur Peterborough.
Although his professional fame had not even then at
tamed its highest point of eminence, he entered Parlia-
ment with the character of being one of the ablest coun-
sel at nisi pries that had ever adorned the English bar.
Yet there were many amongst his rivals and contem-
poraries who excelled him in the attributes of an orator.
He was no sentence maker; his style was so unadorned
and unpretending, that his audience never suspected
themselves to be in the presence of a great man; he
never abashed a jury or benumbed their faculties by any
display of intellectual superiority; but rather sought to
comfort them and mould them to his
.purpose by in-
ducing them to conceive a very high opinion of their own
wisdom and intelligence; he never made the least at-
tempt to exercise imagination, and always gave prac-
tical proof that lie had no wish to excite the passions
of a tribunal by anything approaching to declamatory
appeals.
The first subject to which he applied himself in the
House of Commons was the financial policy of the Mi-
nisters who were in power when he first obtained a seat
in that assembly. He urged the expediency of apply-
ing the sinking fend to make good the deficiency in the
revenue ; but, as might be expected, these early efforts
of his in the way of Parliamentary opposition, produced
little effect upon the general policy of the King's Govern-
ment, and lie therefore thought it expedient to lose 110
time in applying himself to subjects more congenial to
the habits, and probably more agreeable to the natural
construction of his mind ; accordingly, we find him
giving cordial and efficient assistance to Sir Samuel
Romilly and Sir James Mackintosh in their efforts to
amend the criminal law. In the next stage of his
career as a legislator he introduced a proposition for
altering the Poor-laws. That attempt proved abortive,
and the practical carrying out of the principles which he
then put forth was reserved for a later period and another
Parliament.
In the year 1822, a vacancy occurring for the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, he became a candidate, but Mr,pankee
was returned by a majority of 138 ; and MC .Scarlett
continued to sit for Peterborough, still a supporter of
the Whig interest, though so quiet, unobtrusive, and
discreet, that he could scarcely be called a partisan. On
the breaking up of the Liverpool Administration, in
1827, Mr. Canning invoked the assistance of the Whigs,
and Mr. Scarlett became Attorney-General. This was
his first approach towards those Conservative principles
by the consistent maintenance of which he has been dis-
tinguished for nearly 20 years.
In the office of Attorney-General Mr. (now Sir
James) Scarlett was succeeded by that able and very
learned, but somewhat eccentric person, Sir Charlie
Wetherell. Then came the Wellington Ministry, and with
their accession to office came many changes, amongst
which was the measure of Roman Catholic relief. To
this Sir Charles Wetherell opposed himself with extra-
ordinary effect and characteristic vehemence, where-
upon the Duke, in his usual way, intimated that the
resignation of the worthy and Learned Knight would be
very acceptable ; and without loss of time Sir James
Scarlett became once more his Majesty's Attorney-
General. This was the period of the Brunswick Clubs ;
and the enthusiasm which characterised those associa-
tions naturally extended itself to their organs amongst
the daily and weekly press. Several criminal informa-
tions were filed against a publication, to
g since d
called the Morning Journal, against the Atlas, and other
tct'
papers, for libels on the Duke of Wellington a
nd
Lord Chancellor. These prosecutions, in which Sir
the leading
seatngfea in tures of his
oJffiamcieasl gained edHveersdallicts,
continuedfoied
to
Parlia-
ment to Lord Fitzwilliam, whether sitting. for Melton or
yet he gave his unqualified sup-
portfor Peterborough,
Ceagedumed the det!
b e detosignt treed pbryintehrep ltedesrwmh,ifTh ,oarybo;u„ tanthdaast time,
nomination of "Conservative."
As might be expected, he resigned the office of At-
torney-General when Lord Grey became the head of
the Government, and zealously co-operated with Sir B.
Peel and his supporters in their opposition to the
several Reform Bills which, during the years 1830
and 1831, were submitted to the consideration of Par-
liament. He had, however, for some time ceased to be
the nominee of Lord Fitzwilliam, having been returned
for Cockermouth in 1831, and for Norwich in 1832.
Lord Lyndhurst filled the office of Chief Baron in
1834. Towards the latter end of that year Sir Robert
Peel was unexpectedly called upon to form a Conserva-
tive Ministry. Lord Lyndhurst was, therefore, required
to withdraw from the Exchequer, in order that he should
preside in Chancery; and the office of Chief Baron was
conferred upon Sir James Scarlett, who, at the .same
time, was called to the House _of Peers .by the title of
Baron Abiager.
It has long been proverbial in Westminster Hall that
distinguished advocate, when raised to the bench, does
not always become an eminent judge; on the contrary,
it has happened in more instances than one, that men
who never had enjoyed much fame at the bar have, when
placed on the judgment seat, acquired, amongst the sages
of the law, the highest and most enduring reputations.
To this rule Lord Abinger formed no exception, for his
fame as an advocate has not been equalled by his cha-
racter as a judge. The same result havingoften happened
in similar cases did not prevent considerable surprise
in some minds that a man, who for nearly forty years
bad been accustomed to influence juries with almost un-
disputed sway, should suddenly lose some portion of his
ascendancy over their minds when he attained to a more
elevated position and a weightier responsibility. For
some time after his elevation to the bench Lord Abinger
did not get his verdicts out of the jury-box with all the
facility that long habit at the bar probably led him to
expect. As an advocate he had been the wonder of the
age in which he lived. Under every variety of circum-
stance lie exerted himself body and soul to present the
facts of his client's case clearly and consistently and in-
disputably before a jury. Few men excelled-him in the
art of cross-examination; but he outstripped all compe-
tition whenever he found it necessary to restore, to eon:-
fort, and to set up one of his own witnesses whose tests.
mony might have been damaged by a' severe cross.
examination from the adverse counsel.
Lord Abinger was for many years a bencher of the
Inner Temple, and was for many, years .Attorner;Genee
ral of the County Palatine of Lancaster; and his Lord.
ship was also a Privy- Councillor.
His first wife died in the year 1629, and after reuttitt.