Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by

LITTLE, BROWN, & Co.,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.

CONTENTS OF No. I.

LORD BROUGHAM.

THE ERIE RAILROAD ROW

DIGEST OF THE ENGLISH LAW REPORTS FOR MAY, JUNE, AND
JULY, 1868

SELECTED DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS

BOOK NOTICES.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

87

[ocr errors]

116

Parsons on Insurance and General Average, 140. Angell and Durfee on
Highways, by Choate, 141. Michigan Reports, Vol. XVI., 141. Hittell's
Civil Practice Act of the State of California, 142. Hammond's Journal
of Psychological Medicine, 143. Georgia Reports, Vol. XXXV., 144.
Blatchford's Reports, Vol. IV., 145. Benedict's Reports, Vol. I., 146.
Wisconsin Reports, Vol. XXI., 147. Nevada Reports, Vol. III., 148.
Storer and Heard on Abortion, 149. Ellis and Ellis's Reports, Vol. III..
150. Scott and Jarnagin on Telegraph Companies, 151. Washburn on
Real Property, 153. Browne on "The Companies' Act," 155. Story on
Partnership, by Gray, 155. Grattan's Virginia Reports, Vol. XVII., 156.
Bishop on Criminal Law, 157. Ray on Delusion considered as a Test of
Insanity, 158. Bleckley's Cited Cases, 159. Legal Periodicals, 159, 160.

140

LIST OF NEW LAW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA

SINCE JULY 1, 1868

SUMMARY OF EVENTS

UNITED STATES. State Tax on Deposits in Savings Banks, 163; Bankrupt Law, 165; Regulation of Railroads, 165. Alabama-Supreme Court; Illegal Contract, 166. Connecticut-Flint v. Norwich & N. Y. Transportation Co., 166; Judicial Changes, 166. Idaho Territory - District Court; Equity Powers of Territorial District and Circuit Courts, 166. Massachusetts-Supreme Judicial Court; Stock Dividends Capital, not Income, 167; Legal Tender, 168; United States Circuit Court; Bankruptcy; Arrest, 169; Internal Revenue, 169. Michigan-Hobart v. Detroit, 170. Nevada-171. New Hampshire-Supreme Judicial Court; Expulsion from the Bar, 171. New Jersey- Cases in the Supreme Court, 171. New York-United States Circuit Court; Case of "The Meteor," 173; Court [ iii ]

161

163

[graphic]

of Appeals; Usury, 174; Sale, 174. Oregon - United States District Court; Bankruptcy, 174. South Carolina-176. West Virginia-Charge of Chief Justice Chase, 176. CANADA - Extradition Treaty, 178. GREAT BRITAIN-Lord Cranworth, 178; The New Judges, 181; Copyright, 181; Neutrality Laws, 183; The Property of Married Women, 183; Woman Suffrage, 185; Governor Eyre's Case, 185; Spiritualism; Lyon v. Home, 187; Trade Marks, 189; Marriage and Divorce, 190; Baron Martin and the Weather, 191; Short Will, 191; Cheap Law, 191.

[blocks in formation]

Two most eminent English lawyers, two ex-Chancellors, have died within the last few months, Lord Brougham and Lord Cranworth. The latter is known almost wholly as a lawyer, and his distinction was due to his thorough acquaintance with both common law and equity, aided by his political views and his personal address. Lord Brougham, however, was not solely, or principally, celebrated as a lawyer. He has been styled as "probably the hugest human phenomenon of our century," because he is alleged to have united in himself the energy and varied powers of a hundred different men; because he wrote on education, history, biography, international, constitutional, and common law, science, natural theology, every branch of politics, the oratory of Greece and Rome, and even composed a romance; because he was at once a man of science, a mathematician, a metaphysician, a biographer, a historian, a forcible and constant public speaker, a popular leader, a statesman, a lawyer, and a judge; and because, above all, in the exercise of the various qualities which such pursuits required, he maintained as many distinct personalities, and because the identity of the individual playing so many diverse parts scarcely ever appeared.2

Notwithstanding political economy and experience have alike shown that worldly greatness and worldly prosperity are best secured by an assiduous devotion to a single special pursuit, and

1 Lord Brougham died May 7, and Lord Cranworth, July 26.

2 See London Spectator, May 16, 1868.

VOL. III.

1

[graphic]

that absolute perfection in any one thing can only in this way be arrived at, yet the world, regarding the very limited comprehensiveness of the human mind, has always looked with awe upon one who has attempted to transcend these intellectual limits and become a universal genius. This endeavor has never met with more than partial success. Of Lord Brougham's multiform productions, it is not too much, perhaps, to say, that his novel is now almost unknown; that his histories are unread; that his biographies, owing to their inexactness and personal bias, are consulted only by the curious in search of racy reading; that his theological arguments fail to convince the searchrer after truth; that his scientific essays are a marvel only to the uninitiated; that but few of the studied periods of his once famous orations now start the blood or fire the ambition of the reader; that his treatises on education, politics, oratory, and law have had their day in short, that no one of his literary works will ever become a classic; while even his judicial decisions are regarded as only doubtful authorities. During his long public life, covering more than half a century, no man has been so extravagantly praised, so thoroughly despised, so basely defamed, so unceasingly ridiculed; no one has been more severely criticised; no one has had his faults so often and so unsparingly exposed; and yet no public man has, apparently, been actuated by nobler motives or accomplished more general good than Lord Brougham.

It is of one only of the many parts which this most extraordinary man played that we would speak. Law was his chosen profession. As an advocate, he won renown and popular affection. As Lord Chancellor, he became a peer. The reform of the law was the thing nearest to his heart. Let us, then, briefly review his legal career, even at the risk of repeating familiar facts, and see to what extent he succeeded, and in what and why he failed of complete success.

Henry Brougham was born in Edinburgh on the 19th of September, 1778. Although he was a Scotchman by birth, and his mother was Scotch, yet his father was an Englishman, and the representative of a very old English family. He attended the famous High School at Edinburgh; and, having determined to study law, received his professional as well as his collegiate education at the University of Edinburgh. He had a strong repugnance for his chosen profession of an advocate; and in a letter

« PreviousContinue »