The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 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
Catholics77So That He Could Become
Lord Chancellor.
-G-H-1-N--Gl

his own. He could not forget his
stincts. He still had his dictionary
and his Lives Of the Saints" He look
ed up servility and found it meant
compromise; he looked up toadying and
found it spelt disnonor. 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.
Russell's 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 Attorney 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 JUS
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
unjust and now ridiculous law which
kept the highest Office in your pro-
fession out of your reach"
Such is the catalog of Russell's 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 stand,
ards, may be found in the account
book which gives record of his tn-
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 ons
in economies, but is not by itself a
noble one in biography. Yet it may
be used as 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
than doubled. In 1870, ten years after,
his yearly income was over $4,000.
Ten years after that it was s65,OOO.
In 1882 it was over 100000, and in
1893, the year befvre ne became
judge, it exceeded $4,000. But tAe
chronicler of Russell's life does an
injustice to his memory to dwell on
such sordid details. He would never
desire to have his career measured by
golden yardstick. Some one said to
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 shred of his
religion to build a practice or fatten
his pocket-book. Such course was
all unlike his thorough and uprign,
ways.
More important than any catalog
of successes Or any enlargement OF
bank account is the underlying cause
of both. AS far as moral causes can
be ascertained and set in words, II
may be safely asserted that the secret
of Russell's success lay in his thor.
oughness. Here is the platform he
laid down: Il concentrated my atten.
ton on the bar. I did not allow my.
self to be distracted. It is the only
way you can succeed at the bar OF
anything.' When he wrote to his son
who became solicitor, eleven rule:
of conduct for him in his profession
rule was: Get to the bottom O.
any affair entrusted to you-even tn,
simples-and do each piece Of worl