The Irish standard., 1906-08-18
How He Was Influenced to Leave Ireland to
Become, in Few Years, the Leader
of the English Bar.
Gladstone Tried to Set aside Law Against
Catholics7So That He Could Become
Lord Chancellor.

I his own. He could not forget his
early training and his religious in
stincts. He still had his dictionary
and his Lives of the Saints" He look
I ed up servility and found it meant
compromise; he looked up toadying and
found it spelt dishonor. He turned to
Alban Buffers Lives of the Saints"
and he saw that to compromise with
conscience was not there anywhere.
His childhood favorites told him to go
to England, and he went.
Russelrs rise to eminence in Eng
land was steady and assured. In 1859,
he was called to the bar; in 1865, he
was offered a country court judgeship,
| which he declined; in 1872, he be-
came a leader at the bar: in 1880, he
was elected to Parliament from Dun
| dalk; in 1885, he became a member
| from South Hackney; in 1886, when
Gladstone became Prime Minister. he
was appointed Acknowledgement Of
England, the first Catholic to hold that
office since England had ceased to be
Catholic; in 1892, he again held the
same office; in 1894, he became Lord
of Appeal, and then was made Lord
Russell, of Killowen, and in the same
year was designated Lord Chief jas
tice of England. Gladstone had tried
to have him made Lord Chancellor by
repeating the law which closed that
Office to Catholics, but was unsuc
cessful in his attempt. Il have never
got over my wrath" wrote Gladstone
| to him, "at our failure to repeal the
! unjust and now ridiculous law which
| kept the highest office in your pro-
fession out of your reach"
Such is the catalog of Russells sue
cesses and such the various offices
| that mark his rise to eminence. An
other evidence of success that appeals
to this commercial age and it's Stands
ards, may be found in the account
book which gives a record of his in>
come. In entering on this subject an
apology is due to the memory of the
great lawyer, who had not inherited
from race or family, who had not
implanted in him one sordid instinct.
The gold standard may be good on.
in economics, but is not by itself a
noble one in biography. Yet it may
be used as a rough gauge of success,
especially when taken with other and
better measures. In the first year Of
his practice, Russelrs income was
$500; in his second year it had more
his yearly income was over $4,000.
Ten years after that it was s65,000.
In 1882 it was over $4,000, and in
1893, the year befvre ne became
judge, it exceeded $4,000. But tAe
chronicler of Russelrs life does an
injustice to his memory to dwell OH
desire to have his career measured by
a golden yardstick. Some one said to
him once: Russell, if you could only
give up your Irish brogue, it would be
worth to you at least five hundred
pounds year." Il would not give it
up" replied Russell, "for the addi-
tional five hundred pounds" A man
who would drop bit of his accent for
an increase in his income would not
be likely to temper the ardor of his
patriotism or discord a shred of his
religion to build practice or fatten
his pocket-book Such a course was
all unlike his thorough and uprign,
ways.
More important than any cataloe
Of successes or any enlargement Of
; bank account is the underlying cause
of both. AS far as moral causes car
be ascertained and set in words, Il
} may be safely asserted that the secre
Of Russell's success lay in his thor.
oughness. Here is the platform h
: laid down: II concentrated my atten
l ton on the bar. did not allow my
self to be distracted. 1t is the onl,
? way you can succeed at the bar O
: anything" When he wrote to his son
I who became solicitor, eleven rule
e of conduct for him in his profession
, rule was: Get to the bottom o
any affair entrusted to you-even tn
t simples-and do each piece Of worl