SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BUMSIsirr,

The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, from the Earliest Times till the Reign of King George IV. By John Lord Campbell.

A.M., F.R.S.E. The First Series, In three volumes, to the Revolution of 1688.

GROLOGT, Murray. The Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains. By Roderick Impey Murchison, Edouard de Yemeni], and Count Alexander von Keyserling. In two volumes.

rit-riott. Murray. Margaret Cape] ; a Novel. By the Author of "The Clandestine Marriage." In three volumes. Benito.

LORD CAMPBELL'S LIVES OF THE CHANCELLORS.

Minx the downfal of the Melbourne Administration, in the autumn of 1841, gave to Lord Campbell an enforced leisure,—or, as the Boman ex- presses it on a similar occasion, " nbi animus ex muftis miseriis atque periculis requievit,"—like Sallust, "non fait consilium secordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere neque vero agrum colendo, ant venando, servilibus officiis intentum (or even in making speeches to Lords) ietatem agere : sed, a quo incept() studio me ambitio mala detinuerat, eodem re- gressus." Lord Campbell first "amused" himself by revising his Speeches, and then he undertook the Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England. On a first thought this does not seem a well-chosen subject ; and three thick volumes, dealing with Chancellors before the Revolution, appear to promise a somewhat heavy and antiquarian production. But as the first impression gives way before a mental examination, and we remember low many great men have held the seals from the earliest times of settled history, the justness of the choice becomes more apparent. Becket, Wolsey, More, and Bacon, Clarendon, Shaftesbury, and Jeffrey; rise be- -fore us, "familiar in the mouth as household words." And it so happens, that of all these men very full and (looking to the times of some of them) very wonderful memorials remain. Independently of the usual scat- tered notices of great men, the life of Becket has been written by his secretary, Eitzstephen; that of Wolsey, by his confidential ser- vant, Cavendish; the son-in-law and grandson of More have given regular biographies of their kinsman, and the writings of Erasmus abound in traits of the daily life and character of the great Chancellor, touched off by the hand of a great critic and scholar. Not very luckily for himself, the letters and speeches of Bacon let US into many of Ms secret thoughts and desires, and his "mean" devices to accomplish his 'ends : besides the materials from his own pen, the extent of his acquire- ments, the variety of his intellect, and the splendour of his genius, made him the observed of all observers, from Ben Jonson, who knew him well

_and has recorded his impressions, down to the commonest pamphleteer. Clarendon has told his own story, incidentally in his History, fully in his 'Life; and any undue bias, especially during his Chancellorship, may be

corrected by the lampoons and reports of his enemies. The life of Shaftes- bury, busy and conspicuous from his very boyhood, is written in the political and Parliamentary annals of his time, as his traits are delineated in its satires, ballads, and bon mots. The activity and atrocities of Jef- freys drew upon him a host of observers ; among which the notices of North stand conspicuous, for their quaint, carious, and forcible malig- nancy, where nothing evil escapes either in matter or manner. These are the prencipes of the office, whom memory conjures up whenever it turns to them. Others are recognized as lesser stars as soon as their names are encountered. Swithin the tutor of Alfred, and the Saint who still decrees on the 15th July—William of Wickham, whose ' munificent love of architecture and of learning are still spread throughout

the land, by the gratitude and schoolboy feelings of the Wickhamites, though his incompetency as a Chancellor, and his removal in consequence of the complaints of Parliament, are not so widely disseminated—Cardinal Beaufort, who "died and made no sign "—Gardiner, the versatile court- ier of Harry the Eighth, and the unscrupulous persecutor as Chancellor to Mary—Lord Keeper Bacon, more memorable for his son than himself— Hatton, "who led the brawls, When he had fifty winters o'er him"—

Sir Thomes Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, who under Elizabeth and James laid the foundation of the present system of Equity jurisprudence as dis- tinguished from an arbitrary decision according to "conscience," as Lord -Nottingham, the immediate successor of Shaftesbury and predecessor of Jeffreys save one, raised the superstructure, which Hardwicke subse- t quently completed. Besides these, many of the others are conspicuous in Some way or other, either for arts of intrigue and worldly wisdom, or as reckless and unscrupulous tools of power, yet always connected with great business, and often, by rousing the popular indignation, establishing a - precedent in favour of regal checks by the very vices which induced royalty to select them.

Striking figures, indeed, are they all; looming through the distance of time and history, of varying greatness and varying character, but in- separably connected with the history of the kings and people—the laws and liberties of England ; whilst some rise to that still loftier region whence poetry selects examples to deduce its eternal lessons on the insta- bility of human greatness, the " meanness " of human "parts," and the " Vanity of Human Wishes."

To the true moral pitch of Beaufort, Wolsey, Bacon, and Hyde, Lord

Campbell has scarcely attained ; nor has he the profoundly critical spirit, which, seizing the essential quality of a particular action, deduces from it an universal rule expressive of all other things of the same kind But The Lives of the Lord Chancellors is a very able and a very agreeable performance ; which will pleasantly surprise those who have thought su- perficially on the subject, and secure Lord Campbell a permanent place in English literature. His industry is great; his own reading and research are considerable ; he has received much assistance through numerous custodians of original records, from the public officers in the Tower, &o., down to the clergymen of the parishes in or near which his legal heroes were born, or their families located. The materials thus col- lected have been skilfully put together. There may not have been that complete digestion of the whole, which, as in the instances of Gibbon and Arnold, would have enabled the writer at any time to speak of any por- tion of his work. But the case has been thoroughly mastered and admirably got up : the facts are well selected, and marshalled in order; the reflections unforced, and just ; and the mode of statement pleasant, if not powerful. The plan of each particular life is well laid, both as regards arrangement and scale; so that the length is fairly proportioned to the reader's interest in the subject. The proper distinction between biography and history is always maintained ; the legal knowledge and acumen of Lord Campbell have enabled him to treat his Chancellors as lawyers, and to introduce popular views of the law; a just medium be- tween uninforming generalization and undue fulness is observed; whilst the narrative, though not exhibiting passages of remarkable compo- sition, or indeed any striking effect, is always equable and agreeable; the interest well sustained throughout. In the dramatic skill which seems to place the man before us a complete personation, the book is generally deficient; though the native bias and early promise of several of the embryo Chancellors, especially of Becket and Jeffteys, are well de- • veloped. The rarer art of surrounding the work with the atmosphere of its age, so that the reader has a distinct idea of the men and the times, is never visible in the text, but glimpses are occasionally obtained in quotations. Lord Campbell does not appear to have always subjected his authorities to a proper test : one person's story seems to him as credible as another's, always supposing that it falls within the law of evidence and bears upon the point at issue. There is a disposition to please existing "houses" in the person of an ancestral connexion ; which might be called Whiggish, did it not operate "irrespectively of party," or flattering, were it not evidently the result of a kindly disposition. These ble- mishes, however, are but fallings-off from the highest excellence that criticism can require. The work is a very able, informing, and agreeable production ; and, when completed, it will fill up a vacuum in English biography popular as well as legal. So far as material or tangible form (separate from mental qualities) can operate, part of the effect of The Lives of the Lard Chancellors is attributable to a judicious plan, which brings the entire subject before the reader, presenting him with the Chancellorship as well as the Chancellors. The book opens with the derivation of the name, (trifled' Lord Campbell does not attempt to settle) ; and traces the origin and growth of the office under the Anglo-Saxons. In its origin the Chan- cellorship was merely ministerial, permitting men to go to law after exa- mining their case, assigning them a tribunal, and vouching the suit by a seal, more trustworthy than a signature, which few could decipher. The holder of the seals became Keeper of the King's Conscience, because the Confessor and the Chancellor were mostly the same person, the former being ex necessitate an ecclesiastic, whilst the Keeper of the Seal was ex necessi- tate temporis in orders likewise, as no one else could read or write. The first great seal " was made in the reign of Edward the Confessor, " upon the model which has been followed ever since. It bore the repre- sentation of the King, in his imperial robes, sitting on his throne, holding a sceptre in his right band and a sword in his left, with the inscription Sigillum Edwardi Anglorum Basilei.' " The first practising advocate raised to the Chancellorship (though, after the custom of those times, still an ecclesiastic) was Ralfe Flambard, appointed by Rufus • and he was about the worst of the lot. In the reign of Stephen, William Fitz- herbert, a layman, was made Chancellor by Matilda ; but as she is not acknowledged as a sovereign, Lord Campbell fixes the first lay Lord Chancellor to the year 1340, in the reign of Edward the Third. This worthy was Sir Robert Bouchier ; like Fitzherbert, a stalwart knight, who made short work with law and equity, when he gave any attention to them, but was chiefly occupied with politics and foreign affairs. The complaints to which this military chancellorship gave rise caused the removal of Bouchier, and something like an attempt at encroachment on the prerogative by Parliament, which wanted to have " the Chancellor together with the other great officers of state chosen openly in Parlia- ment, and that at the same time they should be openly sworn to obey the laws of the land and Magna Charts." Sir Robert Bouchier, on his dismissal, took to the trade to which he was bred ; recovered his popu- larity; and fought at Cressy. He was succeeded by Sir Robert Par- nynge (1341) ; who was "the first regularly bred common lawyer that was ever appointed to the office of Chancellor in England" ; and whom Lord Campbell praises in conjunction with Lord Coke, with perhaps a common professional bias.

THE FIRST COMMON LAW LORD criastatimon..

Sir Robert Parnyuge, who now held the Great Seal, was the first regularly bred common lawyer who was ever appointed to the office of Chancellor in England. I do not find any account of his parentage or early education. He was probably of obscure origin, owing his rise to his talents and his industry. Raving distin- guished himself greatly for his proficiency in the study of the common law as a member of the inns of court and as an utter barrister, he took the degree of the coif in the 8th of Edward III., and was soon made a King's Sergeant. " For his profound and excellent knowledge of the laws," he was, in Trinity term, 14 Ed. 3, created Chief Justice of England. On the 15th of December following, he was road° Lord Treasurer of England; and he remained in that office till he was constituted Lord Chancellor.

The equitable jurisdiction of Chancery had gradually extended itself, and to the duties of his own Court the new Chancellor sedulously devoted himself. But he thought, as did Lord Eldon and the most celebrated of his successors, that the best qualification for an Equity Judge is not the mere drudgery of drawing bills and answers, but a scientific knowledge of the common law; and he further thought it essential that his knowledge of the common law should be steadily kept up by him when Chancellor. " This man," says Lord Coke, " knowing that he that knew not the common law could never well judge in equity, (which is a jnst correction of law in some cases,) did usually sit in the Court of Comnion Pleas, (which court is the lock and key of the Common Law,) and heard matters in law there debated, and many times would argue himself; as in the Report, 17 Ed. IlL it appears."

The history of Equity law is introduced into the Lives, as well as slid of the office, either in interspersed sections or in the course of the text : but here we cannot follow Lord Campbell. Let it suffice to say, that the present importance of the Lord Chancellor dates from the reign of Ed- ward the First., when he superseded as it were the Great Justiciary ; that the specific record of the appointments commences with Richard the First ; that the office is so good a thing that it has never been voluntarily resigned, except by Becket on his election to the Primacy, (which, looking to his objects, was scarcely voluntary) ; and that the earliest fully reported case of equitable jurisdiction which Lord Campbell has found is of Edward the Third. " By equitable jurisdiction must be Understood the extraordinary interference of the Chancellor without con • mon law process, or regard to the common law rules of proceeding, upon the petition of a party grieved, who was without adequate remedy in a court of common law ; whereupon the opposite party was compelled to appear and be examined, either personally or upon written interroga- tories; and evidence being heard on both sides, without the intervention of a jury, an order was made secutulunt &gusm et bonum, which was enforced by imprisonment."

The earliest chancery-suit seems to differ little from the present except in speed and simplicity ; and we will introduce it here, with some other extracts bearing on the general subject.

" Andley Andley, 40 Edward III. This, the earliest instance I have found

of a suit a specific performance, is fully reported in the close roll of that year. By a deed executed in contemplation of the marriage of Nicholas son of James Lord Andley, he had covenanted to settle lands in possession or reversion to the amount of four hundred marks. After the marriage, Elizabeth, the wife, pe- titioned the King in Parliament that Lord Andley should be ordained to perform the covenant. The ling caused the defendant to come before the Chancellor, the

• Treasnrer, and the Justices and other 'sages' assembled in the Star Chamber. The Lady Andley 'showed forth her grievances '; that is to say, she declared them by word of month, and produced the indenture of covenant. A demurrer put in on the part of the defendant was overruled; and, after various proceedings before the Chancellor and Treasurer in the Council, performance of the covenant was at last obtained."

PLACE OF THE CHANCELLOR.

By 81 Henry VIII. c. 10., he has precedence above all Temporal Peers, except the King's- sons, nephews, and grandsons, whether he be a Peet or a Commoner. If he be a Peer, he ought regularly to be placed at the top of the Dukes bench, on the left of the Throne; and if a Commoner, p"o "the uppermost sack in the Parliament chamber, called the Lord Chancellors Woolsack. For convenience, here he generally sits, though a Peer; and here he puts the question, and acts as prolocutor: but this place is not considered within the House, and when he is to join in debate as a Peer, he leaves the woolsack, and stands in front of his proper seat, the top of the Dukes' bench.

Whether Peer or Commoner, the Chancellor is not, like the Speaker of the 'Commons, moderator of the proceedings of the House in which he seems to pre- side; he is not addressed in debate; he does not name the Peer who is to be heard; he is not appealed to as an authority on points of order; and he may cheer the sentiments expressed by his colleagues in the Ministry. This arises from a proper distrust of a Speaker holding his office during the pleasure of the Crown, and necessarily an active political partisan: but most in- convenient con equences follow from there being no moderator in an assembly

which is sup to be the meet august, but is probably the most disorderly in the world.

MODE OF APPOINTMENT AND DISMISSAL.

The appointment to the office of Lord Chancellor in very remote times was by patent or writ of Privy Seal, or by suspending the Great Seal by a chain round his neck; but for many ages the Sovereign has conferred the office by simply de- livering the Great Seal to the person who is to hold it, verbally addressing him by the title which he is to bear. He then instantly takes the oaths, and is clothed with all the authority of the office, although usually before entering upon the public exercise of it he has been installed in it with great pomp and solemnity.

The proper tenure of the office is during pleasure; and it is determined by the voluntary surrender of the Great Seal into the hands of the Sovereign, or by his demanding it in person, or sending a messenger for it with a warrant under the Privy Seal or Sign Maitial.

THE GREAT SEAL.

When on a new reign, or on a change of the Royal arms or style, an order is made by the Sovereign in Council for using a new Great Seal, the old one is publicly broken, and the fragments become the fee of the Chancellor. * * *

This being the general rule, an amicable contest, honoris caned, arose upon the subject between two of the most distinguished men who have ever held the office. Lord Lyndhurst was Chancellor on the accession of William IV., whenby an order in Council a new Great Seal was ordered to be prepared by his Majesty's chief engraver; but when it was finished and an order was made for using it, Lord Brougham was Chancellor. Lord Lyndhurst claimed the old Great Seal, on the ground that the transaction must be referred back to the date of the first order, and that the fruit must therefore be considered as having fallen in his time; while Lord Brougham insisted that the point of time to be regarded was the moment when the old Great Seal ceased to be the " elavis regal, and that there was no exception to the general rule. The matter being submitted to the King as Su- preme Judge in such cases, his Majesty equitably adjudged that the old Great Seal should be divided between the two noble and learned litigants; and as it con- sisted of two parts, for making an impression on both sides of the wax appended to letters patent—one representing the Sovereign on the throne, and the other on horseback—the destiny of the two parts respectively should be determined by lot. His Majesty's judgment was much applauded; and hegrsciously ordered each part to be set in a splendid silver salver with appropriate devices and ornaments, which he presented to the late and present Keeper of his Conscience as a mark of his

respect for them. The ceremony of breaking or " damasking " the old personal th

Seal, consists in the Sovereigngiving it a gentle blow with a hammer; after which it is supposed to be broken, and has lost all its virtue.

Of the numerous Lives, we think that of Jeffreys the best. The period brings the modes of law and of manners nearer to our own day, or at least nearer to such as Lord Campbell can remember : for Ellenborough, in his way, was perhaps as overbearing as Jeffreys, and Sylvester as cruel in criminal law as his predecessor in the Recordership. Jeffreys, too, was merely a lawyer; whereas with Becket, Bacon, Clarendon, and Shaftes- bury, law was the least part of them, and not the greatest in Sir Thomas More. Be this as it may, Jeffreys stands out lifelike in the pages except that his cruelty in the "bloody circuit" may be softened by being summarily passed. In all other respects, we have the man done, not overdone ; and the reader will form a far better idea of this "dis- grace to the bench" than from compendious histories or popular notions. It is a common idea to suppose that Jeffreys was little more than a mixture of coarseness and unscrupulous servility. This is a mistake. A man who begins life without means as a legal adventurer, and attains the great seal

a a s

• • •

before the age of thirty-eight, after passing regularly through the legal grades of preferment, must have something about him beyond impu- dence and rascality. Like all men who attain considerable distinction without original genius, he was the type of a class ; and that class, how- ever distasteful it may be to many to say so, was the common lawyer. Not the profound jurisconsult, who gives his days and nights to the study of the science, whose voice is an oracle, and who will perish rather than pervert the law, when it is clear ; not the popular advocate, such as Erskine ; not the servile-minded and evidently hired pleader, of whom " Tertullus the orator" was a type, though his followers are numerous in every generation ; not the respectable practitioner, who, whatever his grade, does not appear in public ; but the "lawyer" of English dramatic poetry and English popular opinion. Brazenfaced, voluble, ready, unscru- pulous ; knowing little probably of law save what he has picked up in practice, but all that he has is useful, for it is the actual law of living judges ; whilst a native quickness and sagacity tell him at once where the case pinches, and guide him to the topics most likely to persuade or overbear the people he has to deal with, however inconclusive they may seem to the logician. But perhaps the most wonderful quality about him is his adaptability. For truth he cares not, shame he knows not, principle lie has not : but it may be doubted whether impudence or dishonesty, even after training, could change with the ease and readiness of the true " lawyer," without the "gift" of seeing what the case requires, and yielding like a general to superior force, or a politician to opinion, or the man of society to the genial influence of the social hour. This faculty has caused the lawyer to be laden with an obloquy of meanness and cowardice which seems scarcely just. When danger presses, it is not to be expected that such a man will sacrifice life or liberty to the point of honour, or to any sense of dignity or decorum. He pleads for himself as he would plead for a client, and sinks the means in the issue. If brawling with Brutus at the foot of Pompey's statue, or even "bolting," would "give him a chance," he would never think of muffling up his face in his mantle. But if a self-possession which enables a man to see the best means of saving himself is not courage, it has the effects of it. Jeffreys has been bitterly attacked for his pusillanimity in the hands of the mob, when he was endeavouring to follow his royal master : but as soon as anything could be done, he showed himself the most practical of the whole assembly. At the Mansionhouse, the Lord Mayor fell into fits, the rabble was ferocious, the officials were puzzled ; but Jeffreys had sense enough to suggest the Tower and coolness enough to draw the warrant for his own commitment. iccording to Oldmixon, who saw him carried from the Mansionhouse to prison, he held up his imploring hands, some- times on one side of the coach sometimes on the other, exclaiming, "For the Lord's sake, keep them ! for the Lord's sake, keep them qf fl"— which was the most sensible appeal he could make.

Jeffreys on his deathbed ascribed his cruelty on the "bloody circuit" to James the Second.

" It is said that he profited by the spiritual ministrations of Dr. John Scott,. a pious divine; but that he never could be induced to express any contrition for his cruelties in the West,—labouring, in his dying hours, under the delusion that he was excused in the sight of God and man by the consideration that all the blood he had shed fell short of the King's demand.'"

It is probable that habitual drunkenness, and the martyrdom of the stone, had something to do with his Western atrocities; as "brandy," if Oldmixon's account is true, may have contributed to his deathbed " delusions."

Lord Campbell states that he began his work with a hope that he might find something exaggerated in the odium attaching to Jeffreys, but that he found it more than borne out by the incidents of his career. "Although he appears to have been a man of high talents, of singularly agreeable manners, [when he pleased,] and entirely free from hypocrisy, his cruelty and his political profligacy have not been sufficiently exposed or reprobated, and he was not redeemed from his vices by one single solid virtue." One good and one equivocal action have, however, been recorded. The first proposal of James to his new Chancellor was that an Alderman should be hanged, as an.example to the citizens ; and he named Clayton. The Chancellor approved of the plan, but begged to suggest Cornish ; who was thereupon done to death by form of law,—a substitution which has been ascribed to Jeffreys' gratitude to Clayton, who had been his boon companion in his Opposition days, and assisted him when can- didate for the office of Common Sergeant. His first marriage had some- thing of chivalrous gallantry about it—provided he was sober.

" During his early career at the bar, he was involved in difficulties which could only have been overcome by uncommon energy. Pressed by creditors, and at a loss to provide for the day that was passing over him, he had burdened himself with the expenses of a family. But this arose out of a speculation, which, in the first instance, was very prudent. Being a handsome young fellow, and capable of making himself acceptable to modest women—notwithstanding the bad company which he kept, he resolved to repair his fortunes by marrying an heiress; and he fixed upon the daughter of a country gentleman of large possessions, who on ac- count of his agreeable qualities had invited him to his house. The daughter, still very young, was cautiously guarded, and almost always confined to her cham- ber; but Jeffreys contrived to make a confidant and friend of a poor relation of hers, who was the daughter of a country parson, and lived with her as a com- mon. Through this in he had established a correspondence with the heiress, and an interest m her affections; so that on his last visit she had agreed, if her father's consent could not be obtained, to elope with him. What was his dm- appointment, soon after his return to his dismal chamber in the Inner Temple, Which he had hoped soon to exchange for a sumptuous manor-house, to receive a letter from the companion, informing him that his correspondence with the heiress had been discovered by the old father, who was in such a rage, that, locking up her cousin, he had instantly turned herself out of doors; and that, having taken shelter in the house of an acquaintance inHolbom, she was there in a state of great des- titution and distraction—afraid to return to her father, or to inform him of what had happened. His conduct on this occasion may betrtily considered the brightest ge in his history. He went to her, found her in tears, and, considering that he had been the means of ruining her prospects in life, (to say nothing of her being much handsomer than her nch cousin,) he offered her his hand. She con- sented. Her father, notwithstanding the character and circumstances of his pro- posed son-in-law, out of regard to his daughter's reputation sanctioned their union; and, to the surprise of all parties, gave her a fortune of 3001. Accordingly,

on the 23d May 1667, at Allhallows Church, Barking, George Jeffreys, of the Inner Temple, Req., was married to Sarah, the daughter of the Reverend Thomas Neesham,

The remainder of Lord Campbell's work, from the accession of William the Third to the accession of George the Fourth, will present a different race. No more Chancellors armed at all points exactly cap-a-pie, advo- cating their party in the tented field; no more churchmen militant like Becket, or dominant like Wolsey, or martyrs like More, or philosophers like Bacon. Whether one may altogether say the same of " Crown law- yers," may be doubted : however, we may have this doubt resolved in the next two volumes, or if not, try the resolution ourselves.