Page images
PDF
EPUB

counsel, with gratifying success. In 1822 he was made K. C., and in 1828 entered Parliament. In 1829 he was made Solicitor-General, in 1835 Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and again filled the post in 1811-1816. In 1852 he became Lord Chancellor of England, holding office for some ten months, declining a second appointment in 1859. For many years after 1852, Lord St. Leonards was one of the chief law lords, exercising that anomalous power so vested by the English Constitution, but always with pre-eminent vigor and wisdom.

As a legislator, Sugden was the author of many cautions but important reforms, his Tory connection, and habitual reliance upon facts and argument, alike rendering him averse to hasty and radical changes. His reforms were naturally in regard to the law of real estate, though he also aided in doing away with imprisonment for debt, greatly improved the laws relative to luna-. tics, and obtained a law for preventing cruelty to animals.

As a lawyer, Sugden's reputation was established by his treatise on Vendors and Purchasers and his Practical Treatise on Powers. The numerous editions of these books were carefully revised by the author, notwithstanding the pressure of business, evidently with the belief that fame as well as profit was best insured by this course. Two or three other volumes on real-estate law were prepared by him as introductory to his main books, or explanatory of special branches; but in each case the profession at once elevated them to the rank of authorities.

If any man's career at the bar can be instructive, such a one as Sugden's must be. Early estimating his powers aright, he obtained a leadership in his own branch. Gifted with vigorous health, he was enabled to undergo unharmed an amount of continuous labor rarely equalled. For years he was engaged in every important case involving real property, while holding a prominent position in Parliament; and he devoted eighteen or twenty hours daily to work. His income was of course enormous; and he survived the strain which prostrated Follett, to enjoy with robust health the highest honors of his profession. Indeed, up to nearly his ninetieth year he attended the House of Lords, and took an active part in legal debates.

His reputation is avowedly professional: he was neither a jack-of-alltrades, like Brougham; a sycophantic plodder, like Campbell; nor a cynical genius accidentally turned lawyer, like Lyndhurst. As author, counsel, and judge, he was an honor to the legal profession; and already his position is assured beside Hardwicke and Eldon as one of the highest rank of English lawyers.

Lord St. Leonards had ten children, and is succeeded in his title by his grandson, his oldest son having died in 1866.

THE BENCH.-The retirement of Mr. Justice Keating from the Court of Common Pleas was announced at the beginning of February. The London Times remarks that every member of the court has been changed in the space of seven years, and Mr. Justice Brett, appointed in 1868, is now the senior judge. Bovill and Willes have died; Sir Montagu Smith has joined the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; Mr. Justice Byles and Mr. Justice Keating have retired.

The eminent judge has received the most flattering testimonials on the occasion, with many hearty expressions of the wish that he may enjoy many years in well-earned repose. His successor is Mr. Justice Archibald, of the Queen's Bench, whose place is filled by Mr. William Field, Q.C.

Mr. Justice Honyman of the Common Pleas has also resigned. He succeeded Mr. Justice Byles early in 1873. His successor is J. W. Huddleston, Q.C., M.P., one of the leaders of the common-law bar.

AMONG the changes in high legal offices we may note that John Thomas Ball has been made Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and takes the title of Lord Merton. Mr. Ball was Solicitor-General and Attorney-General for Ireland under Mr. Disraeli in 1866. The new Irish Solicitor-General is David R. Plunket, a grandson of the great Lord Plunket.

DR. KENEALY. — In our last number we left the redoubtable Dr. Kenealy at the foot of the ladder; but he has since made a fresh start, having been elected to Parliament from Stoke-upon-Trent. To correct unfounded impressions about this gentleman, unfortunately too common, we cordially second the efforts of the Pall Mall Gazette in his behalf, from which we take the following:

The following information about Dr. Kenealy is extracted from a paper called the Englishman, which purports to be "edited by Dr. Kenealy, Q.C.," and ought therefore to be well informed on the subject. It seems to us to be important, if true; and we republish it accordingly :

"WHO DR. KENEALY IS.

"A voice at which three judges trembled like aspen-leaves, and that silenced in a sentence five opposing counsel, will be heard in tones making the Gothic hall resound with the fearless advocacy of truth, justice, and liberty, comparable to that of Chatham, when the torrent of eloquence rolled from his lips as a mighty river diffusing life, and health, and joy around to his glorious and dear country. Not one out of a hundred English constituencies has the splendid opportunity, once in a century, of returning so great and good a man as their representative as the people of Stoke-upon-Trent now have. Who is Mr. Davenport? Echo answers, 'Who?' Who is Mr. Walton? All the long-eared tribe can tell, and they alone. But who is Dr. Kenealy ? And all the world simultaneously replies, 'Among scholars he stands in the foremost rank; among gentlemen, in all that constitutes true nobility, second to none; profound in attainments of the law, and in knowledge of the constitution and principles of government of this great kingdom; brave as a lion, but with a heart full of generosity and tender impulses for the poor and the oppressed.'

"How wonderful are the ways of Providence! Ten years ago, if any one had predicted to Dr. Kenealy that he should occupy the proud position which he does before the PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, he would have been wholly incredulous. He was then only known in his profession as one of the foremost junior counsel it had; with a fair prospect, in the ordinary course of things, of elevation to the rank of Q.C., and almost a certainty of a seat on the bench at no very distant period. He was known, indeed, in the world of letters and of scholarship; but on this we need not say any thing, as it is well and widely acknowledged what his reputation was there. Seven years ago, when her Majesty made him one of her counsel, the bench seemed in immediate prospect. He got into an increased legal business, and appeared in some

of the most important cases. His honesty, earnestness, courage, and oratory were well known; and his friend, Lord Penzance, said in one of his speeches, 'that it was marked by an eloquence rarely heard in Westminster Hall.'. .

...

"When Dr. Kenealy was known to be engaged in the Tichborne case, several barristers came and congratulated him, and said: 'Be careful above all things. You are now on your promotion!' Dr. Kenealy did not then understand what these words meant; but he now has reason to believe that they were intended as a bribe to him, - as an intimation that if he allowed certain things to go on, he would be rewarded with promotion to the bench. How Dr. Kenealy availed himself of this well-meant hint the world knows. From the beginning of the trial to the end he never had but one thought, and that was duty to his client. The Lord Chief Justice had always been a great supporter of his; but he would not yield to the Lord Chief Justice in any act or suggestion of wrong; and the result has been his professional ruin, brought about by those who sought to please that man, and to get the support of the powerful Jesuit party.

...

"But out of evil the Supreme God always brings good. Had Dr. Kenealy not been disbarred and destroyed, he would probably never have thought of establishing the Magna Charta Association of Great Britain. Not that the great wrongs which the people have been silently and patiently enduring for so many years had not over and over again been present to Dr. Kenealy's mind. Dr. Kenealy thought only of his profession. He had a very large family to bring up, and maintain, and educate; he had no leisure to devote to public business, the whole of his time being absorbed in his profession, and in an ardent study of the most recondite mysteries of theology. But when he knew, as at a very early period he did, that those who sought and failed to poison him with their envenomed present of game, were resolved to take away his profession, and subject him to all the chances of poverty, he felt that his course was then clearly marked out for him.

"INCIDENTS IN DR. KENEALY'S LIFE.

"It is well known in legal circles that Dr. Kenealy, if he had not been disbarred by the Gray's-inn ratteners, was to have held this brief for the Guicowar. So that, in addition to his other persecutions, he has lost this fee of six thousand guineas. By the conduct of the benchers, this unhappy and ill-used prince has lost the only man at the bar who would have served him well and faithfully.

"The feeling almost of adoration in which Dr. Kenealy is held throughout England was curiously illustrated at Stoke, where a noble lady, with her son, came from Cheshire, and she immediately fell on her knees, and kissed his hand, while tears were in her eyes, and her voice trembled with emotion. Dr. Kenealy was deeply and marvellously affected. He was so overpowered that he could not speak for some time; but when he did he presented Mr. Guildford Onslow to her, whose hand she shook heartily. The whole scene was one that never can be forgotten. Dr. Kenealy, after that, proceeded with his lecture to the great audience in the town-hall, which was thronged to suffocation. He was followed by Mr. Guildford Onslow. The usual petitions for the removal of the three judges, and the abolition of Gray's Inn, followed; and a unanimous vote of confidence in Dr. Kenealy as the candidate for the borough was passed amid universal applause. His hand was then shaken by about three hundred of the audience, until he was obliged to give in.

"What Dr. KeneALY IS GOING TO DO IN PARLIAMENT.

"He will go to Parliament, not to be the flunkey of either the apostate Jew or the renegade Protestant, but to represent England and English welfare; and, above

all, the working classes, who want a MAN, and have him here at hand, with the fire and force of Milton, and the intrepidity of Cromwell, to meet and fight despotism. Dr. Kenealy goes to the House of Commons with the express determination to destroy the Whig and Tory conspiracy against the people; to found, with the assistance of the Magna Charta Association, a great, powerful, honest, and determined ENGLISH PARTY, of fifty or a hundred people's representatives; and, with these under his banner and leadership, to sweep away for ever the two family factions who have possessed themselves of England so long, and so loaded her with debt that even to live becomes a matter of the hardest difficulty. And let no man despair that Dr. Kenealy can do this. This man showed himself in the court at Westminster to be an avalanche, who bore all before him; and we believe that, within ten years, he and his Magna Charta will rule England, for the PEOPLE, and the PEOPLE only. Oh, what a splendid consummation this will be! Let the working classes bear in their thoughts that there are, in this man's mind, a hundred measures teeming for their benefit; that the force of thousands in the house of corruption cannot put him down ; that as he tamed the three judges, and kept them down like three cats, that hardly dared to mew in his presence, so he will master these right honorable humbugs who delude the people, and pass the wicked laws under which they groan. He is a mighty army in himself, and will carry all before him in Parliament, like Mirabeau in France, or Chatham in England."

CHARLES AUSTIN. The death of Charles Austin, Q.C., has called forth many reminiscences of his career. He is described as a man of singular abilities, a Liberal in Brougham's time, a disciple of Mill, and advocate of unusual eloquence. He was the leader of the parliamentary bar; and as one of our exchanges says, he obtained a "position there the like of which was never attained by any other man in any branch of the profession. His income in the year 1847 — the great railway year — was something fabulous, nor do we venture to state the sums which we have heard mentioned. His reputation was so great that he received many briefs merely in order to prevent his appearance on the other side; and this no doubt is the origin of the story (mythical or not) of his being met riding in Hyde Park on one of the busiest days in the session. 'What in the world are you doing here, Austin?' 'I am doing equal justice to all my clients.' What Bentham in heaven can have thought of his distinguished disciple it is difficult to imagine. Probably he reflected that as such fees were going, it was as well that they should go to a Benthamite.

"In 1848, and in the forty-ninth year of his age, Mr. Austin retired from practice, having bought the estate in Suffolk, where he died. He was in the full vigor of his life, and in the very prime of his powers. He had a welldeserved reputation as the most successful advocate of his age, with the doubtful exception of Follett. He was a man of most brilliant talents of all kinds, and of varied accomplishments; and from the day of his retirement to the day of his death, being twenty-six working years, his most important avocation, as far as the public knows, was presiding at the quarter sessions for East Suffolk."

Rather curiously, just at the time when the memory of the fees in the railway cases was revived only to be regretted, a new source of wealth has been opened to the English bar. Serjeant Ballantine has just undertaken the

defence of the Guicowar of Baroda, an Indian prince accused of attempting the assassination of the English Resident at his court. The retainer paid was 5,000 guineas, with a farther scale of fees dependent on the length of the trial, estimated at not less than 5,000 guineas more. As Calcutta is but a fortnight's trip from England, the fees are certainly earned with sufficient ease. In fact, the London journals point out that India teems with wealthy clients, all amenable to English laws, men to whom victory is every thing, and to whom expense is but an incitement. The princely revenues now spent in idle and debasing luxuries, would be freely given to those advocates who could enable their clients to pursue, through forms of law, the immemorial rivalries which have been awed into peace by English supremacy.

[ocr errors]

LORD ROMILLY. The death of John Lord Romilly, which took place Dec. 23, 1874, brings to mind the services of his earlier years. He was the son of the distinguished reformer, Sir Samuel Romilly, and was therefore favored in the circumstances of his start in life. He entered Parliament in 1832, was Solicitor-General in 1848, Attorney-General in 1850, and in March, 1851, succeeded Lord Langdale as Master of the Rolls. This post he resigned in April, 1873, when Sir George Jessel was appointed.

While he was Attorney-General under Lord John Russell, he introduced and carried through the Irish Encumbered Estates Act, a piece of legislation of great immediate importance, and one whose subsequent effect was almost revolutionary. This was, however, almost the only legislative proceeding connected with his name, and after his appointment to the Rolls he retired from political life.

As Master of the Rolls, besides transacting his duties efficiently, if not with striking ability, Lord Romilly distinguished himself by inaugurating and establishing the system of publication of the public records, which has been of the greatest conceivable benefit to the student of English history. This wise and public-spirited action will keep his memory green for many years, and may well be placed as an offset to any failure upon his part to win the highest honors of his profession.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. At Leeds a question of interest to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals arose in a recent case. At a menagerie exhibited there, one performance consisted in making several hyenas jump through a blazing hoop, and they were incited to this feat by severe whippings. The cruelty was indisputable, but the law prohibits cruelty only in the case of domestic animals. The difficulty in defining a hyena as a domestic animal, however, caused the case to be abandoned. It may suggest to our societies here the importance of carefully examining our local acts, as these are probably based on the English statute.

[ocr errors]

A DEVONSHIre Grand JURY. - At the Biddeford Quarter Sessions, held on Saturday, there was one prisoner indicted for embezzlement and theft. The recorder, in charging the grand jury, laid stress on the fact that their duty was merely to see that there was a primâ facie case. They were absent nearly two hours, the whole court meanwhile being in waiting, and at length

« PreviousContinue »