The difficulty with every work written in this style is that truth and falsehood are so intimately, and generally so artfully, intermingled, that separation is well-nigh impossible. Doubtless there is a very considerable foundation for the criticisms upon the professional practice of both Lyndhurst and Brougham. It is the manner, however, of making them that disgusts, and leads one almost to believe the contrary. Lyndhurst was never greatly prominent at the bar. His fame was of later growth. Two reasons contributed to this: his natural indolence, and his want of ambition for purely legal reputation. Politics, as we shall hereafter have occasion to observe, was the only pursuit in which he took a vivid interest, and legal reputation was a means, not an end, with him. With Brougham, while nature and ambition had implanted more of the advocate within him, the desire of professional renown went hand in hand with so many diverse ambitions, and was so frequently impeded by his striking defects of vanity, petulance, and want of tact, that it is easy to believe that, as a winner, of verdicts, he was far inferior to his contemporary Scarlett, and that he cannot stand in the same rank as a nisi prius lawyer with either that distinguished advocate, with Erskine, Sir William Follett, or Rufus Choate.

Before following Lord Campbell in his criticism upon the later careers of his "noble friends," it may be well to notice the account he gives of their birth and extraction, especially as this city has the same claim to Copley's renown as that of the aggregate seven of Asia Minor to Homer's,1- a fact, by the way, which he always acknowledged with satisfaction, if not with pride; though Campbell seems to think there was something to be ashamed of in it. Perhaps the noble lord was of opinion that little could in any event be made of an American, even though, like a Scotchman, he were caught young." Yet he might have applied to himself with peculiar felicity another of Dr. Johnson's neat sayings that "The noblest prospect a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road to England." After all, the biographer is willing to confess that he has "heard him express himself in terms of affection for his native land, and speak proudly of distinguished Americans as his countrymen," to which he adds one of his wonted flings, that, "in early

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1 Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodos, Argos, Athenæ,
Orbis, de patria certat, Homere, tua.

life, when there seemed so little prospect of his burning ambition ever becoming gratified, he must have regretted that he had lost the chance of becoming President of the United States."

Both Lyndhurst's and Brougham's extraction come in for a share of Campbell's wit:—

"In starting," he says, "I have only uncertain rumors as to the origin of Lord Lyndhurst and his infancy. I thought that Debrett's, Lodge's, or Burke's Peerage, would at least have given me a pedigree, which I might have adopted; but instead of telling us how the first Copley, under the the name of De Couplè, came in with the Conqueror, and tracing the Chancellor up to him, they do not even mention the Chancellor's father, for they all begin with his own birth, on the 21st of May, 1772, as if he had then sprung from the earth, without even telling us what region of the world witnessed this wonderful vegetation."

So of Brougham, he begins,

“I should much displease Lord Brougham if I did not begin with some account of his descent. He was very desirous of being considered a distinguished statesman, philosopher, orator, fine writer, and lawyer; but much more desirous of being believed to be 'Brougham of that ilk,' the representative of a great family, who derived their name from the name of the landed estate of which they had immemorially been in possession. His weakness upon this point was almost incredible, and I am afraid to repeat what I have heard him gravely state, respecting the antiquity and splendor of his race. He asserts that Broacum, in the "Itinerary" of Antoninus, is the identical spot which he calls Brougham, and where he now lives; that it was the property of his ancestors when this ancient hand-book for Roman travellers was compiled; and that they have lived in splendor ever since, except when campaigning in Palestine against the Saracens. He has told me that Jockey of Norfolk,' the democratic and proud Duke who flourished in the reign of George III., used to say when he came to the North of England: You talk of your Percys and Greys in this country, but the only true gentleman among you is Mr. Brougham, of Brougham. We Howards have sprung up only recently; but the Broughams were at Brougham in the time of Antoninus. They distinguished themselves in the Holy Wars, and in some of the most important events of early English history.' Lord Brougham was likewise in the habit of insisting that he was entitled to the Barony in fee of Vaux, or De Vaux, as heir general of Ranulph DeVaulx and William DeVaulx, who were summoned to sit in Parliament in the reign of Henry II. Nay, he has gone so far as to say, in my hearing, that this barony formerly gave him great uneasiness, as he was afraid that, at the death of an old lady, who stood before him in the

pedigree, it would devolve upon him, and disqualify him for practising at the bar or sitting in the House of Commons. He alleged that it had come into his family by an ancestor of his having married the heiress of the DeVaulxes of Tremayne and Caterlin. The pedigree of the Chancellor in the popular peerages, of which he must be aware, takes no notice of the De Vaulxes, but represents that his ancestors were seated at Brougham in the time of Edward the Confessor, and that 'John Brougham, of Scales Hall, came into possession of the ancient family demesne in the beginning of the last century.' Let us come to History from Romance."

There is probably more or less reason for this diatribe about Brougham, and it is made probable by Brougham's claiming, on the very day he entered the House of Lords, by virtue of his appointment as Lord Chancellor, to be summoned to Parliament as representative of an ancient barony of Vaux, which he alleged had descended to him through a female line. But, as to Lyndhurst, the sneer is not merely superfluous but false, for there is found in Burke's Peerage,

"Lineage, Richard Copley, of the Co. Limerick, who emigrated to America, and became of Boston, in the United States, m. Sarah younger daughter of John Singleton, Esq., great-grandfather of the present John Singleton Esq., of Innisville Abbey, Co. Clare, and had a son, John Singleton Copley, who settled in England, obtaining eminence as a painter, was elected member of the Royal Academy. He m. Miss Clarke, and by her, who died 1836, left at his decease in 1815, a son, John Singleton Copley, Lord Lyndhurst, and three daughters."

Lyndhurst, moreover, was particularly proud of his father's repute as an artist. He had many of his paintings in his house, which he was in the habit of showing as its chiefest ornaments. And as to Americans it is well known that he was accustomed always, but especially in his later days, to court their society, cherish the fame of their distinguished men, and lay stress upon his having a common tie to both countries. It gave Lord Campbell, however, additional satisfaction to sneer at Copley's origin on account of the social distinctions he attained, to which Campbell was by nature totally unsuited, and yet could not refrain from envying. Copley married in 1819 a very beautiful woman, the widow of Lieut.-Colonel Thomas, who fell at Waterloo. It suits Campbell to say that hitherto "he had seldom been in higher society than at a Judge's dinner in Bedford Square; that he generally dined at a

coffee-house." However, "forthwith, he set up a brilliant establishment in his father's old house, George Street, Hanover Square, which he greatly enlarged and beautified." What he says of Lyndhurst's social career, when Chancellor, might come from Sir Benjamin Backbite's very lips: —

"He gave dinners in the most splendid style, heightening the effect of the artistic performances of his French cook, and Italian confectioner, by his own wit and convivial powers. It was rumored that his band of attendants at table was sometimes swelled by sheriffs' officers put into livery, there being frequent executions in his house; but I believe that for these stories so generally circulated there was no foundation."

There is something very pathetic about the following, and shall we seem to have imbibed something of the author's spirit if we venture to suggest that a female hand jogged his elbow?

"She (Lady Copley) now weeded her visiting book almost entirely of lawyers and their wives and daughters: but he by his bonhommie, or rather his abandon, contrived to keep his popularity with all ranks."

To return more strictly to professional topics. Copley travelled in America, some weeks in company with Louis Phillippe, and was at one time the guest of Washington. He was called to the bar in 1804. The author thus cleverly introduces his advent to fame:

"It used to be said that there were four, and only four, ways in which a young man could get on at the bar. 1st, by huggery; 2d, by writing a law book; 3d, by Quarter Sessions; 4th, by a miracle. The first was successfully practised by that great nisi prius leader, Tom Tewksbury, the hero of the 'Pleader's Guide,' who not only gave dinners at his chambers to the attorneys, but suppers to their clerks.

'Nor did I not their clerks invite

To taste said venison hashed at night;
For well I knew that hopeful fry
My rising merit would descry.'

"But Copley, although by no means scrupulous about principle, was above any sort of meanness, and always comported himself as a gentleman. Although he behaved to attorneys and their clerks with courtesy, and would talk very freely with them, as with all the rest of mankind, he never would flatter them or court them, or make interest with them to obtain business. 2d, Park's book on the Law of Insurance, and Abbott's on the Law of

Shipping, had recently acquired for their respective authors the reputation of deep mercantile lawyers, and filled their bags with briefs at Guildhall. But Copley had always a great contempt for authorship, and would rather starve than disgrace himself by it. 3d, he took to Quarter Sessions very cordially, and had success in poor law cases, as well as in defending prisoners charged with petty larcenies, but this did not extend his fame beyond the limits of a single county, and even here, when the assizes came round, he found himself postponed to juniors who had won reputation as successful special pleaders in London. 4th, the miracle consists in the conjunction of an opportunity to make a great speech in some very popular cause, with full ability to improve the advantage. Such an opportunity at last (as we shall see) did arrive to Copley, and his fortune was made, although with the utter sacrifice of his character for political copsistency."

This was his successful defence of one Dr. Watson, tried for high treason. Among the auditors was Lord Castlereagh, a prominent member of Lord Liverpool's government, who sat on the bench in the trial before Lord Ellenborough. He was so much impressed with Sergeant Copley's ability, that overtures were made to him on the part of the government, and he was returned to the House of Commons from a borough then under the influence of the Treasury. His acceptance of this place is thought by Lord Campbell a disgraceful act of political tergiversation. He is charged with having been up to this time, not merely a Whig but a Jacobin.

"In those (his early) days I never met him in private society, but I did meet him not unfrequently at public dinners of a political complexion. In after life he asserted that he had never been a Whig, which I can testify to be true. He was a Whig or something more, or in one word a Jacobin. He would refuse to be present at a dinner given on the return of Mr. Fox for Westminster, but he delighted to dine with the Corresponding Secretary, or to celebrate the anniversary of the acquittal of Hardy and Horne Tooke."

It appears, however, that Mr. Fox's Westminster election took place in 1784, when Copley was twelve years old. He was twentytwo in 1794, at the time of the acquittal of Hardy and Horne Tooke, and the corresponding society was suppressed a year or two afterwards. Lord Campbell, who was seven years younger than Lord Lyndhurst, must have been at that time a child in Scotland. While Lord Lyndhurst cannot lay claim to the quality of overconscientiousness, it must be said in all fairness that whatever