The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-26
JUDAH P. BENJAMIN.
THE ENGLISH LIFE OF THE EN-
CONFEDERATE SECRETARY.
His Career as Lawyer-Reminis-
cenSes by Baron Pollock.

4 ny
The late Baron Pollock, one of the most
eminent English lawyers Of his time, left
among his papers the fragment of rem
Aniscences which follows. lie was accus-
toned in the English fashion to take pu-
| pills at his chambers; and when Judah p.
! Benjamin. the Confederate Secretary of
State, escaped to England at the end Of
! our civil war he became one of these
pupils and at the age of 50 years, was
called 10 the English bar. Baron Pollock
says of him, in the paper printed in the
Fortnightly:
Benjamin had not been long in this
| country before an oidPfriend told me that
he was DESTROYS of being called to the
English bar. and as a preliminary step
would be glad to come to me as a pupil.
AT that time my business was mostly in
! court and / had little opportunity of
seeing and discussing law with any one
who might be with me. and therefore had
limited the number of my pupils to two.
Having these already, I simply declined
without giving the subject much thought.
! Shortly afterward Mason (who, with Slid
| ol had come to this country as envoy
from the Confederate states), accompan-
! led by Benjamin. paid a short visit to my
father, then Lord Chief Baron of the
| Court of Exchequer at his country house,
at Halton, near Hounslow
| One of my sisters has given me an in
teresting account OF her meeting with
Benjamin on this occasion, and as 1t tells
what many others must have felt when
they first saw him, will give a portion
| of what she remembered.
! 'On Feb 8 1866 my father brought down
Mr.. Mason and Mr.. Benjamin to sleep for
a couple of nights, and a few county
neghbors came 10 meet them. had not
seen Benjamin, and had pictured to my
| self an American of the jefferson Davis
type. To my surprise when he entered
the room, l saw a short stout, genial
man, of decidedly Jewish descent, with
bright, dark eyes and all the politeness
and bonhommie of a Frenchman, looking
as II he had never had a care in his life.
Next morning l was down early; so was
he, and gave me most interesting and
| thrilling details of his perilous escape at
! the end of the war. l was much struck
by his generous candor l asked him what
the Northerners would have done with him
If they had caught him, and he said prob
ably they would have put him to death.
When / exclaimed in horror at such an
atrocity he said, apologetlcally, that par
ty feeling ran so high just then that his
side might have done the same, had the
| circumstances been reversed
The day after this visit my father, see
ing me in court sent down a note, say
ing: Have you done wisely in declining
to take Benjamin as your pupil?" / gave
him my reason, to which he replied: Ben
H.. ID. 1. Ia al 1ar
needs Is to see something of the practice
of our courts and TO obtain some intro
duction to the English bar" In this, /
thought, had been wrong and fortunate
Iy was in time to revoke my first decis-
ion, and within week Benjamin was IN
my chambers, greedily devouring every
paper that came before hinfo and writing
sound opinions. lT049i
Among these was one of special interest
was counsel TO the Metropolitan police,
who occasionally required odd questions to
be solved One of these arrived in the
shape of a small blue paper, Endorsed, LAS
TO the searching of prisoners" involving
the right of the police to search persons
in their custody before they have been
convicted of any crime, for different pur-
poses as, for instance, to find dangerous
weapons, stolen property, or possibly tc
take from a drunken man his watch on
other Valuables for their protection. was
| leaving for court and threw il across the
table TO Benjamin, saying. Here is case
made for you. on the right of Search" al
luding to the well-known international
maritime difficulty which arises in time OF
war and which had been keenly discussed
upon the occasion of Capt Wilkes on be-
half of the American government, over
hauling the British mailship Trent and
taking from her Mason and Slidell, who
were on their way to England as ENJOYS
of the Confederate states. Benjamin took
the case and at once set to work to con-
slider the authorities and deal with the
questions with such purpose that when
returned from court they were all dis
posed of. The only fault to be found was
that the learning was too great for the oc-
casion going back to first principles In
justification of each answer. Many years
after / was told that the opinion was held
: In high respect, and often referred to by
the police and at the home office.
With reference to the peculiar circum-
stance In which Benjamin was placed
thought 1t in better taste not to ask him
questions as to his previous history, and
the part he had taken in the civil war; but
he spoke freely of these and other Incl
dents of the secession IN the pupil-room
where the conversation was often not only
interesting but full of humor. Benjamin
| however, often came to dine, or TO spend
| an afternoon with me at Putney, ana tHSn
told us many anecdotes connected with the
war. always cheerfully putting forward the
amusing side of things. The only two in
furious acts done to him by the Northern
ers. of which he spoke with anything like
bitterness, were that they burned his law
library and drank his cellar of old Ma
> dera, wine much cherished in New Or
, leans
one of the first-ff not the very first
pieces of work which Benjamin
, did we'll illustrated his great
experience and untlring energy.
, An established ship insurance
! club was DESTROYS of having ils rules,
which were very lengthy, remodelled. The
annual meeting of, the club was at hand
, and the time remaining was so short that
two experienced counsel, who had for some
, years past acted for. the club, declined the
, Job, although some considerable fee was
, marked on the papers. Benjamin's name
was mentioned, and the instructions were
, sent to him late one evening. Most men
would probably have looked up the rules
, of other similar clubs in order to collate
them and exhaust every source of inn
, provement Not so Benjamin. His own
! - Fo1A i'm