The Press. — 1854-09-30 (London, England)

DEATH OF LOAD DENMAN. This venerable peer and judge, who resigned only a few years since the appointment of Lord Chief Justice of England, which he had held for eighteen years, died yesterday week from a sudden stroke of apoplexy, at the age of 76. The father of the deceased was one of the Court physicians in the time of George 11., and was the son of a farmer at Bakewell, in Derbyshire, a locality to which the family has been attached for several generations. Dr. Denman was fond of his farm at Stoney Middleton, near Bakewell, and Lord Denman improved the farmhouse into a delightful residence. Lord Denman's mother was aunt to the present Sir Benjamen Brodie, and two of his sisters mulled physicians, one of whom was married to Dr. Baillie, and the other to the unhappy Sir Richard Croft, who attended the Princess Charlotte in her confinement, and, being unable to get over the shock of her death, committed suicide. The deceased peer was born in July, 1779; and not being obliged, like most young barristers, to defer marriage till middle life, or to plunge their wives into poverty, he indulged himself with a home at an early age. He married, in 1804, Theodosia Anne Vevers, eldest daughter of a clergyman of Saxby, and grand-daughter of a Lincolnshire baronet. Fifteen children were the offspring of this marriage, of whom eleven survived, five sons and six married daughters, when Lady Denman died in 1852. In early childhood Thomas Denman was sent to Palgrave School, near Dias, in Norfolk, which was then under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Parbauld, and the judge was sometimes wont to relate in after life that lie had received from that accomplished lady the rudiments of instruction, and the first lessons of diacipl ne. Towards the close of the last century he entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, where be graduated in DO). In 1800 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's-inii, and engaged in the active pursuit of the law. The moment was unfavourable to the public career of a young man entering life with principles wholly opposed to the dominant School of politics, and connected with the men and the principles which were doomed to a quarter of a century of opposition before they obtained a footing in the Government of this country. Mr. Denman entered Parliament for the borough of Wareham at the general election of IMIB, Mid at once took his seat with the Whig Opposition. In the following year he was elected for Nottingham, for which place he continued to sit until his promotion to the bench in Mt!. His first appearance in Parliament was in favour of certain•reforms in the law, but it was not until 1,421) that the extraordinary occasion of the Queen's trial called forth all his energy, and placed him in a more conspicuous position before the country. When Queen Caroline formed the determination of coming to this country upon the accession of her husband to the throne, Mr. Brougham accepted the office of her Majesty's Attorney-General, while that of her Solicitor-General was filled by Mr. Benman. It was impossible to declare war more openly upon the Government, upon the heads of the legal profession, and upon the private feelings of the King. The part taken by Mr. Denman in the memorable trial which followed gave the public a high idea of his courage and uprightness, and contributed in no slight degree to its successful result. This success, however, was an offence not to be pardoned by the head of the law as long as Lord Eldon held the Great Seal, and accordingly the honours of his profession, to which Mr. Denman was entitled by his talents and his standing, were withheld from him, as far as they depended on the will of the Chancellor. Mr. Denman was, however, appointed to the office of Common Sergeant by the Corporation of London in 18.2.2, probably as a mark of their sympathy for the legal defenders of the Queen, in whose affairs We late Sir Matthew" Wood had taken so active  SATURDAY,  a part. It was not until 1828, when Lord Lyndhurst first held the Great Seal, that this injustice was repaired, and the King was induced to grant the patent of Precedence to which Mr. Denman had long been entitled. In 1830, upon the formation of Lord Grey's Govern. meta, Sir Thomas Denman was immediately raised to the post of Attorney-General, which he held during the momentous debates on the Reform Bill. In 183'2, however, upon the death of Lord Tenterden, he was appointed to the Chief Justiceship of the court of Queen s 'tench, which he held till 1850, having been raised to the peerage in 18:14. As a judge, Lord Denman cannot be ranked with the highest legal authorities who have presided over that court, but no man ever took a loftier view of its duties to society. The conduct of the court in the difficult case of " Stockdale v. Hansard," when it was directly assailed by one branch of the Legislature, is n memorable instance of the exercise of that constituti.bal power which enables our judges to interpose the authority of the law against the arbitrary pretensions of the moat powerful body in this realm, and to combat privilege in the name of justice. '' Most willingly would 1 decline," said Lord Denman in delivering judgment on that occasion, " to enter upon an inquiry which may lead to my differing from that great end powerful assembly (the House of Commons). But, when one of my fellow•subjects presents hiniselt before me in this court demanding justice for nn injury, it is not at my option to grant or to withhold redress. I aro bound to afford it him, if the law declares him entitled to it. Parliament is said to be supreme. I must fully acknowledge its supremacy. It follows, then, that neither branch of it is supreme when acting by itself." In those few words, and in the judicial power of enforcing that truth, lies the supreme guardianship of the liberties of England. At a late date it was Lord Denman's business to preside in the House of Peers, as its Loy' High Steward, on occasion of the trial of Lord Cardigan, in 1841, for a "felouions attempt "to fight a duel. The earl, it will be remembered, was acquitted through a mistake, accidental or otherwise, in the name of the person challenged. The latter years of Lord Denman's life have been much clouded by indisposition. In 1850 his declining health induced him to vacate his seat as Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, to which Lord Campbell, though two years his senior in age, succeeded. Since that period Lord Denman has lived in comparative privacy.