Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 LORD KINGSDOWN'S 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF HIS LIFE 
 
 AT THE 
 
 BAR AND IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 Printed for Perusal by Private Friends only. 
 
 1868.
 
 PRINTED BY J. E. TAYLOR AND CO., 
 LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Lord Kingsdown, who died at Torry 
 Hill on the ^th October, 1867, told me, on 
 his death-bed, I should find among his papers 
 an imperfect memoir of his early profes- 
 sional life. He prohibited my publishing 
 it ; but he did not forbid my showing it to 
 any of his private friends, whom it might 
 interest or amuse, and to any members of 
 his family, to whom it might impart either 
 instruction or amusement. 
 
 With a view to such limited circulation, 
 
 1099357
 
 iv Preface. 
 
 and for facility of reading, I have caused a 
 few copies only of the following pages to be 
 printed ; and I intreat those who receive 
 them to consider them confidential. 
 
 EDWARD LEIGH PEMBERTON. 
 TORHY HILL, April, 1868.
 
 Tarry Hill, 2$th May, 1857. 
 
 HAVE often regretted never 
 having kept a journal in the 
 course of my long life. During 
 the greater portion of it, indeed, I was too 
 much occupied to allow time for the pur- 
 pose ; but when I left the Bar, at Christmas, 
 1843, I might have begun to do so, andl 
 have set down the recollections of an 
 earlier period. It is now too late to repair 
 the neglect: but it may amuse my old age, 
 and form some instruction for any mem- 
 ber of my family who may hereafter en- 
 gage in the same profession with my own, 
 if I note some of the circumstances which 
 have attended a life for many years of 
 more uninterrupted prosperity than has 
 often fallen to the lot of man.
 
 2 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 
 
 Its dawn was far from promising so 
 bright a day. My father, who was at the 
 Chancery Bar, died in 1804, at a time 
 when he had attained to very considerable 
 business, but before he had been able to 
 lay by any large sum. I collect from his 
 fee-books that he must have been making 
 about ^2000 a year a good professional 
 income for a junior in Chancery in those 
 days, when fees seem to have been at least 
 a third less in amount than they were in 
 my time. My mother was left with five 
 children, three sons and two daughters, 
 with not more than ^500 a year for their 
 support and education, though her income 
 received an augmentation of about ^200 
 a year in 1 806, on the death of her parents ; 
 my grandmother surviving her husband 
 only a few months. 
 
 My father by his will appointed Mr. 
 Cooke (who had married my mother's 
 sister), together with my mother, guardians 
 of his children. I was eleven years old at
 
 Lotd Kingsdowns Recollections. 3 
 
 his death, and had been sent before I was 
 seven to a large school at Chiswick, kept 
 by Dr. Home, who had above a hundred 
 scholars, with a view of being transferred 
 to Westminster, and afterwards to Oxford. 
 My mother's scanty income prevented this 
 plan from being carried out. I remained 
 at Chiswick till I was removed from school 
 altogether, at Easter, 1809, when I was but 
 just sixteen. Mr. Farrer, a very old friend 
 of our family, took me into his office for 
 twelve months, at the expiration of which 
 time I went as pupil to my uncle, Mr. 
 Cooke, in whose chambers I remained for 
 five years. 
 
 I have frequently considered with my- 
 self whether this change in my education 
 tended to my ultimate success or otherwise. 
 At that time nothing but classical litera- 
 ture was taught at public schools ; for this 
 I had always a liking. Mr. Home, who 
 succeeded his father at Chiswick, was a 
 very good scholar, with the talent, and, 
 
 B 2
 
 4 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 unfortunately, with the temper of his 
 family. I had gone through something 
 more than the usual routine of school- 
 books before I left his charge ; and when 
 I was my own master, knowing that from 
 my defective education any blunders I 
 might commit would be the more rigor- 
 ously marked, and my ignorance be held 
 to be even greater than it was, I devoted 
 myself with some assiduity to the study of 
 Greek and Latin authors. I went through 
 Livy, making extracts of passages which 
 seemed to be suited for quotation in public 
 speaking, several pages of which I have 
 lately found, though I do not know that 
 any one of them has ever been turned to 
 account. I went through the Iliad and 
 Odyssey, translating more than one book 
 of the former into Latin hexameters ; twice 
 through Thucydides, making an abstract 
 of every passage as I proceeded by a note 
 in the margin; once through Herodotus 
 and Xenophon, and a good many other
 
 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 5 
 
 authors as far as those languages go. 
 Though very far indeed from possessing 
 a competent knowledge of them, I have 
 found in the course of my experience that 
 the greater part of the men with whom I 
 have come in contact have known as little 
 as myself. Living at home with my mother, 
 and studying under my uncle, debarred by 
 poverty from mixing much in society or 
 amusements, I was forced into habits of 
 industry and moral restraint, to which I 
 had from nature but very moderate dispo- 
 sitions. 
 
 If, on the other hand, instead of remain- 
 ing at a private school (of which for a 
 considerable period I was the head, longo 
 intervallo], I had gone to Westminster and 
 been knocked about there, and at college, 
 it would perhaps in some degree have 
 cured or diminished the constitutional shy- 
 ness and timidity which have impeded my 
 progress through life, and prevented me 
 from obtaining, or I should rather say ac-
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 cepting, offices of some consequence in 
 the State. It is possible, however, that if 
 I had been sent to the University my 
 whole course would have been changed. 
 For a great friend of my mother's family, 
 Mr. Wildman, of Chilham Castle, had a 
 good living at his disposal, which my 
 mother fancied he would have given me : 
 and it was not till my success at the Bar 
 had been very great that she was quite re- 
 conciled to the supposed loss. 
 
 Though probably I might have entered 
 the Church, certainly it would have been 
 from no disposition towards it. Without 
 saying, as I think Cardinal de Retz some- 
 where observes, that he had " Tame peut- 
 etre la moins eccl^siastique qui fut dans 
 1'univers," I should have felt a strong re- 
 pugnance to be more than a lay member 
 of the English Church. I was not quite 
 satisfied with its doctrines, and still less 
 with its restraints; and I am thankful 
 that I did not become a member of a
 
 Lord JZingsdown s Recollections. 7 
 
 profession in which, to an inquiring mind, 
 doubt seems to be inevitable, and in which 
 to doubt must be misery. 
 
 The manners and customs of lawyers, 
 or, at least, of Chancery barristers, have 
 so much changed since I became a student 
 now nearly half a century ago that it 
 may be worth while to mention Mr. 
 Cooke's habits, which were those of his 
 class. He was regularly at chambers at 
 nine o'clock, remained till past three, dined 
 at four, was at chambers again at six, and 
 stayed till ten. The Chancellor sat from 
 ten till three in his court, at which hour, 
 three times a week during the session of 
 Parliament, he went to the House of Lords 
 and heard appeals till five. The Master 
 of the Rolls sat at six, and continued till 
 ten at night ; so that those barristers who 
 were in the first business, especially if they 
 were also in Parliament, had rather a hard 
 time of it. The sittings of the Master 
 of the Rolls, however, were confined to
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 three nights a week during term. During 
 the first week after every term he sat of a 
 morning, the Chancellor's court being ad- 
 journed, and afterwards every evening 
 during the intervals between the terms. 
 He would also come down occasionally to 
 sit for the Chancellor of a morning, when 
 he was withdrawn from his court by other 
 public business. 
 
 Always on Saturdays, and generally, I 
 think, on Sundays, lawyers were engaged 
 in dinner parties either at home or abroad, 
 the general hour being half-past five. On 
 any other day a barrister in any practice, or 
 ever hoping to acquire any, never for a 
 moment thought of being away from court 
 or chambers during the regular hours. 
 Young men worked harder than it seems 
 to me to be the fashion to do at present. 
 While I was at Mr. Cooke's chambers I 
 plodded regularly through ' Coke upon 
 Littleton,' making notes as I went along 
 which filled a pretty thick volume, to say
 
 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 9 
 
 nothing of Shepherd's ' Touchstone,' and 
 such other light reading. After mastering 
 Fonblanque's 'Treatise of Equity,' I took 
 up the Chancery Reports, and extracted 
 the principles of equity as I found them 
 laid down in Peere Williams (the prince 
 of reporters) and in Vesey's reports of 
 the decisions of Lord Eldon and Sir Wil- 
 liam Grant. It is a curious proof of the 
 little estimation in which Lord Erskine was 
 held as Chancellor that Mr. Cooke ad- 
 vised me to miss the 13 Ves., in which his 
 judgments are contained. 
 
 I am not sure, however, that my legal 
 education, though long and laborious, was 
 by any means successful. My uncle, 
 though an excellent commercial lawyer, 
 was not particularly skilful as a draftsman, 
 nor very profound on the law of real pro- 
 perty, and he had no other pupil than me, 
 which, though in many respects of ad- 
 vantage, was, on the whole, I think, rather 
 the reverse. None know the difficulties
 
 io Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 of a path but those who are treading or 
 have just trodden it. Difficulties are con- 
 tinually arising; by discussion amongst 
 themselves pupils learn more from each 
 other than from a master. 
 
 It is usual for law students to pass one 
 year in the chambers of a conveyancer, 
 and two, or at most three, with a Chancery 
 barrister or a special pleader, ac^rding as 
 their destination is to the Common Law 
 or Equity courts. At a time earlier than 
 mine it had been not uncommon for 
 young men, before they were called, to 
 draw pleadings in Equity, as still is the 
 practice at the Common Law Bar, and to 
 draw them for barristers who had more 
 business than they could manage. My 
 uncle wished me to adopt this course ; and 
 I drew a good deal for him in this way 
 after I had been three years in his cham- 
 bers, and I think two bills, one for Wing- 
 field, and one for Winthrop, besides a very 
 few pleadings for solicitors. The pay was
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 1 1 
 
 most miserable ; but the practice was of 
 some value as an introduction to business. 
 It was, however, but shabby work. The 
 practice had then fallen into desuetude, 
 and probably I was the last who adopted 
 it. 
 
 In 1 815 Mr. Cooke obtained a silk gown, 
 and it would have been of great import- 
 ance to me to have been called to the Bar 
 at that time, as many of his clients were 
 acquainted with me, and would probably 
 have transferred to me the business which 
 his promotion threw open. By some ac- 
 cident, however, my entry at Lincoln's Inn 
 had been delayed longer than it should 
 have been. Five years of probation were 
 at that time necessary for any one who 
 had not taken a degree at the University ; 
 and I was doomed to pass another long 
 year before I could attain the honour of 
 mounting a wig. 
 
 It is common, I believe, to consider 
 youth and boyhood as the season of en-
 
 i 2 Lord Kingsdown* s Recollections. 
 
 joyment, and cares and sorrows as com- 
 mencing or increasing with manhood. 
 With me it was quite otherwise: all my 
 earliest years were gloomy and joyless, and 
 I cannot remember one, hardly indeed a 
 month in the course of them, which I 
 would willingly live again, whereas there 
 is hardly one year (if indeed there be 
 one) since my twenty-fourth which I 
 would not gladly repeat. It is well for 
 philosophers to despise wealth, and preach 
 up the happiness of virtuous poverty, but 
 all depends on what is meant by poverty. 
 That which prevents a man from associa- 
 ting on terms of equality with those who 
 in birth and station are his equals, espe- 
 cially if female relations are involved in 
 the humiliations which are the insepara- 
 ble attendants on the " res angusta domi,'' 
 is a real and substantial evil, and incon- 
 sistent, unless in minds more happily 
 tempered than mine, with enjoyment. 
 The greatest perhaps of satirists has with
 
 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 13 
 
 perfect truth pointed out its worst ingre- 
 dient : 
 
 " Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se 
 Quam quod ridicules homines facit ;" 
 
 and in those days there was much more 
 reason than there is now for Sydney 
 Smith's observation, that "in England 
 poverty is infamous." 
 
 No doubt, however, it is to this period, 
 however little agreeable in itself, that I am 
 indebted for much of my subsequent suc- 
 cess. It was the severe preparation for the 
 subsequent harvest. I learned to consider 
 indefatigable labour as the indispensable 
 condition of success ; pecuniary independ- 
 ence as essential alike to virtue and to hap- 
 piness ; and no sacrifices too great to 
 avoid the misery of debt. In the whole 
 course of my life I have never borrowed a 
 farthing, and I contrived even to make 
 some small savings out of the pittance of 
 ^100 or ^150 a year which I earned 
 by practising under the Bar.
 
 1 4 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 
 
 The period for which I had long panted 
 arrived at last, and in November, 1816, 
 I was called to the Bar in a batch of men 
 which included Purton Cooper and Teed. 
 Nobody probably ever began a profession 
 with greater advantages. Almost all my 
 family had been more or less connected 
 with the law, and my brother had been re- 
 ceived into one of the best solicitors' offices 
 in London, that of Messrs. Jones and 
 Green. My long servitude had secured 
 me against the dangers of what Lord Coke 
 calls " praspropera praxis et praspostera 
 lectio," and it is not therefore very sur- 
 prising that I started into business with 
 very unusual rapidity. In the first year I 
 made ^600, a thing I believe unheard of 
 at that time at the Chancery Bar, and each 
 succeeding year my receipts were larger. 
 Pupils flocked to me, of whom I had reason 
 to be proud. My first was George Sanders, 
 a son of one of the most eminent convey- 
 ancers at that time; and my second, Plumer,
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 15 
 
 a son of the Master of the Rolls. Hayter, 
 now Secretary to the Treasury, and Ford, 
 the celebrated author of the i Handbook of 
 Spain,' were soon added to the list, and 
 Philip Abbott, a son of Lord Colchester, 
 and Elmsley, who has ever since remained 
 the most intimate and valued of my friends. 
 Before I was thirty I was making a profes- 
 sional income of ^3000 a year. 
 
 The time at which my call to the Bar 
 took place was a very favourable one for 
 young Chancery barristers. Lord Eldon, 
 who had held the Great Seal with but a 
 short interval from the beginning of the 
 century, had for many years obstinately 
 refused to make any new King's Counsel 
 in the court. But in 1815 he made a 
 batch, of whom Mr. Cooke was one, most 
 of whom were too old to profit by the 
 advancement; and in 1818 he made an- 
 other batch of younger men, including 
 Home, Heald, and Wingfield, who had 
 very great practice, and of course by their
 
 1 6 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 removal left a larger spoil to be divided 
 amongst the juniors. One of the accidents 
 which probably happen to all men who 
 prosper in a profession happened to me at 
 this time and materially improved my po- 
 sition. 
 
 Amongst the clients of Mr. Home was 
 a firm of Home and Rogers, who had 
 one of the most extensive businesses in 
 London as agents for country solicitors. 
 Home was one of the six clerks, and a 
 brother of the barrister ; and on the pro- 
 motion of the latter within the Bar the 
 business of the firm was taken to Temple, 
 who had been a pupil of Home's, and his 
 future was supposed to be made. Within 
 a few months, however, on going one day 
 to chambers I was surprised to see some 
 papers, with the well-known name of 
 Home and Rogers on the back, contain- 
 ing instructions for an answer, and accom- 
 panied by a note stating that, in conse- 
 quence of the delay of the counsel be-
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 1 7 
 
 fore whom the papers had been previously 
 laid, the defendant's time for answering 
 had expired, and an attachment had is- 
 sued. On looking into the matter, I hit 
 upon some trumpery technicality which 
 had been overlooked, by means of which 
 we set aside the attachment and obtained 
 abundant time for answering. From that 
 time till I gave up drawing pleadings, 
 nearly ten years afterwards, Home and 
 Rogers were constant clients. My cham- 
 bers were, I think, never without papers 
 from their office, and they paid me in fees 
 on an average above ^500 a year. 
 
 They were also the means of bringing 
 me into notice in another way. They 
 were employed in 1819 in an election peti- 
 tion by a Captain Thomson, to unseat Sir 
 M. M. Lopes, for bribery at Barnstaple. 
 The case was a very clear one, and the 
 bribery was so gross that the Whigs 
 thought it expedient to take steps for dis- 
 franchising the borough, and with that 
 
 c
 
 1 8 Lord Kinvsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 view they brought a bill into the House 
 of Lords to indemnify against penalties all 
 the witnesses who might disclose their own 
 iniquity. Warren, then in the first prac- 
 tice as a parliamentary counsel, had been 
 the leader before the committee of the 
 House of Commons, and he, together with 
 Cross, a young man at the Common Law 
 Bar, and myself, were counsel for the Bill 
 in the House of Lords. Just, however, at 
 the moment when we were to attend the 
 House, we were told that Warren could not 
 be present. He had ratted, being a strong 
 Whig, and accepted the chief-justiceship 
 of Chester, then usually called the Rat- 
 trap, and had gone down to be elected 
 for some borough. Cross and I were left 
 to do the best we could, he having very 
 little experience in such matters, and I 
 none at all. The witnesses, who had 
 spoken with the utmost readiness before 
 the committee of the House" of Commons 
 when the object was to unseat a member
 
 Lord Kingsdo'wris Recollections. 1 9 
 
 and have a new election, took quite a 
 different view of the question when the 
 purpose was to disfranchise the borough, 
 and put a stop to their gains in future ; 
 and it was with the utmost difficulty that 
 any truth could be extracted from them. 
 However, it was something to be placed in 
 so prominent a position, to be brought 
 into communication with the great men 
 who supported the Bill ; Lord Grey, Lord 
 Holland, Lord Lansdowne, and others; 
 and I remember attending a consultation 
 at Lansdowne House, the only time that 
 I have ever been within its walls. The 
 Chancellor was very civil to the counsel 
 for the Bill ; the more so, perhaps, because 
 he was opposed to the measure, and we 
 could make but very little way in esta- 
 blishing our case. I remember he sent 
 down a note to the Bar in these terms : 
 " Pemberton had better examine Cross, 
 and Cross Pemberton ; they will prove as 
 much as their witnesses.'' 
 
 C 2
 
 2o Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 I believe after this I might have got 
 into practice as a parliamentary counsel, but 
 it would have interfered too much with 
 my business in Chancery to make it de- 
 sirable. The same reason prevented my 
 going the circuit. It was formerly the 
 custom for Chancery barristers to do so. 
 Lord Eldon, I believe, had a lead on the 
 Northern Circuit, and both Mr. Perceval 
 and Sir Samuel Romilly went the Mid- 
 land. When a man was made Attorney- 
 or Solicitor-General he gave it up ; and, 
 if he was previously at the Common Law 
 Bar, usually took his seat as a barrister in 
 the Court of Chancery. Under these 
 circumstances, the Attorney-General had 
 a fair claim to any office in the court, 
 either that of Master of the Rolls or 
 Chancellor ; and the best men at the Bar 
 were qualified for the highest station in 
 either branch of the profession, having 
 usually had experience in both. This was 
 the case with Lord Harclwicke, Lord
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 2,1 
 
 Mansfield, and Lord Eldon. But un- 
 fortunately the claim to these great offices 
 has been supposed to remain, when the 
 qualifications for them have ceased. Lord 
 Erskine, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Brougham, 
 and Lord Campbell, all undertook the 
 highest judicial office in Chancery, with- 
 out ever having had the slightest practice 
 there; and (it may be said without dis- 
 paragement of their transcendent abilities) 
 without any knowledge of the science on 
 their exposition of which millions of pro- 
 perty were to depend. It is known, in- 
 deed, that Lord Erskine did all he could 
 to avoid a position for which he was no- 
 toriously unfit, and endeavoured to in- 
 duce Lord Ellenborough to take the 
 Great Seal. I happened myself to be pre- 
 sent when gossiping with Sir J. Scarlett, 
 and some other members of the Bar, at 
 Howard's coffee-house, after mentioning 
 a great many anecdotes of his professional 
 career, he made use of the remarkable ex-
 
 22 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections: 
 
 pression, "the most discreditable passage in 
 my life was sitting in the Court of Chan- 
 cery." I have heard Lord Brougham 
 speak in the same sense ; indeed, he told 
 me that when the Government was formed 
 in 1830, he positively refused to accept 
 the seals, and only consented to do so when 
 he was told by Lord Grey that either he 
 must take them or the attempt to form a 
 Whig Government must be given up. I 
 should mention, as one instance of the 
 great difficulty of ascertaining the truth 
 about anything, that on mentioning this 
 conversation to Lord Langdale, he posi- 
 tively asserted that it was inaccurate ; he 
 said, " I know that when Brougham hesi- 
 tated Lord Grey told him, 'you must 
 make up your mind at once, if you refuse 
 I have got my Chancellor ready.'" Lord 
 Langdale did not say so, but I collected 
 that he meant that he was the intended 
 substitute, being at that time in immense 
 repute amongst Whigs and Radicals both 
 as a lawyer and as a politician.
 
 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 23 
 
 When one considers the various duties 
 which belong to the office of Chancellor, 
 it is impossible not to be reminded of the 
 remark of Rasselas to Imlac, who was 
 enumerating the necessary qualifications 
 of a poet. " Enough ! Enough I" said the 
 prince, " thou hast said enough to con- 
 vince me that no man can ever be a 
 poet." Even in the mere judicial busi- 
 ness which belongs to the office, few men 
 have possessed the requisite knowledge in 
 more than one branch, if in any. The 
 Scotch Law, for instance, is finally settled 
 in the House of Lords, and it may be 
 safely asserted that neither Lord Lynd- 
 hurst, Lord Cottenham, Lord Truro, nor 
 Lord Cranworth ever had any practice in 
 Scotch Law till they were called upon to 
 pronounce upon it in the last resort. 
 
 "Revenons k nos moutons." In the 
 Summer circuit of 1817 I joined the 
 Northern circuit at Lancaster, where there 
 was a Court of Chancery in addition to
 
 24 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 the ordinary court, and there I earned, 
 but was not paid, the sum of half-a-guinea. 
 I was present at the usual saturnalia, 
 where, however, there was less fun and 
 more seriousness than I fancy is usual on 
 such occasions. The present Chief Baron 
 Pollock was tried for what was treated by 
 all as a really grave offence, having dined 
 with an attorney during the circuit. I 
 was not tempted by my success at Lan- 
 caster to interrupt my progress in London 
 by going there a second time, and I have 
 often felt my deficiency in the knowledge 
 of Common Law, and especially of the 
 practice of the courts, and what old Lit- 
 tleton calls "la plus honorable et profit- 
 able chose, la science de bien plaider." 
 
 About this time, for the first and last 
 time in my life, I asked a favour for my 
 own benefit ; that is, I applied to the 
 Chancellor for a commissionership of 
 bankruptcy. I had no right to expect it, 
 and received no answer to my letter.
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 25 
 
 When I was called to the Bar, Sir Wil- 
 liam Grant was Master of the Rolls, and 
 Lord Eldon Chancellor. Up to 1814 
 they had done the whole judicial business 
 of the Court of Chancery ; Lord Eldon, 
 in addition, presiding of course in the 
 House of Lords, and Sir William Grant 
 usually performing the same duty in the 
 Privy Council. The business of the Court 
 of Chancery fell into arrear, and there 
 was no small outcry against Lord Eldon, 
 when he proposed to have the assistance 
 of a Vice-Chancellor ; the spirit of faction, 
 represented, I am sorry to say, by no less 
 men than Brougham and Romilly, attri- 
 buting the arrears entirely to the fault of 
 Lord Eldon. At the present moment the 
 judicial establishment of the Court of 
 Chancery consists of the Chancellor, the 
 Master of the Rolls, two Lords Justices, 
 and three Vice-Chancellors, and the busi- 
 ness of the Privy Council is disposed of 
 by the judicial committee, at which the 
 Master of the Rolls rarely attends.
 
 2,6 Lord Kingsdown* s Recollections. 
 
 The establishment of a Vice-Chancellor's 
 office was, unfortunately, not put upon a 
 footing which qualified it for relieving the 
 Chancellor, nor was the choice of the in- 
 dividuals who first held the office in all re- 
 spects happy. Sir T. Plumer, who was 
 the first Vice-Chancellor, though a most 
 able, laborious, and conscientious man, 
 had learned Equity only on the Equity 
 side of the Exchequer, and did not 
 possess the proper authority over such 
 men as Romilly and Leach, and others, 
 who had spent their lives in the Court of 
 Chancery ; and he was very slow. When 
 in 1818 he was succeeded by Leach, a 
 total change took place, but one by no 
 means tending to the relief of the Chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 Sir John Leach was a man of many 
 great qualities, utterly fearless, both mo- 
 rally and physically, of singular clearness 
 of understanding, and a quickness in col- 
 lecting the facts of a case, and a neatness
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 2,7 
 
 and precision in the statement of them 
 rarely excelled, of remarkable powers of 
 elocution, of a considerable acquaintance 
 with the technical principles of Equity, 
 and a scorn of everything mean or base. 
 He was outstripping other competitors, 
 and fast advancing to a lead with Sir 
 Samuel Romilly, when he took his seat on 
 the bench. But he had defects as a 
 judge which, perhaps, overbalanced his 
 good qualities. A temper at once irrita- 
 ble and violent, an overweening opinion 
 of his own knowledge, an impatience of 
 all contradiction, and a total want of that 
 calm attention to the arguments of 
 counsel which is absolutely essential to 
 enable a judge either to satisfy suitors or 
 to do justice. I never felt the full force, 
 till I sat myself at the Judicial Committee, 
 of an observation made many years ago 
 by my old friend Sir William -Alexander. 
 " Nobody knows how much energy it re- 
 quires in a judge to hold his tongue."
 
 28 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 This was an energy which Leach cer- 
 tainly did not possess, and probably would 
 have despised. When he was first Vice- 
 Chancellor, his interruptions were inces- 
 sant. As soon as he understood, or fan- 
 cied he understood the facts, he would 
 hardly listen to argument. He trusted to 
 his knowledge of the principles of equity, 
 and imagined that any decided case which 
 did not square with his notions must be 
 bad law. He came on the Bench with a 
 full determination to clear off the arrears 
 of his Court, which in two or three years 
 he effected ; but he accomplished it by 
 never hearing a case through ; by deciding 
 against the plaintiff on the opening, or 
 against the defendant without hearing a 
 reply ; and there was equal truth and wit 
 in a remark of Rose, in answer to some- 
 body who was speculating on what the 
 Vice-Chancellor would do when he had 
 got through all the causes in his Court. 
 " Do ! why, he will hear the other side."
 
 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 29 
 
 The contrast of Lord EldorTs slowness 
 made his rapidity more celebrated, and his 
 fame in that respect penetrated where it 
 could hardly have been expected to reach. 
 I remember seeing a coach between Pres- 
 ton and Blackpool, which, to denote its 
 speed, was called " the Vice-Chancellor." 
 
 The effect of these proceedings on the 
 part of the Judge was to lead to constant 
 altercations between him and the Bar, 
 which proceeded to such an extent that 
 at one time he had determined to com- 
 mit Sir E. Sugden, who, with much the 
 same temper and courage, had a won- 
 derful knowledge of cases, which Leach 
 esteemed very lightly. He called into 
 his room some of the leading counsel 
 I believe all the Queen's Counsel to 
 speak to them on the subject ; but they 
 all dissuaded him from so violent a step, 
 and, I believe, told him that his own vio- 
 lence was the cause of the unpleasant 
 scenes which occurred. No judge that
 
 30 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 ever existed could have disposed of the 
 same quantity of business in the same time 
 without innumerable mistakes. The of- 
 fensive manner in which he acted exas- 
 perated the counsel, and often occasioned 
 appeals when otherwise they would not 
 have been brought, and the result was 
 that Lord Eldon was more overpowered 
 than ever, and his dilatoriness was more 
 exposed to remark ; for the whole of his 
 time was occupied in rehearing matters 
 which had already been before the Vice- 
 Chancellor ; the business was as much in 
 arrear as ever in his Court, and the suitor 
 was subjected in all doubtful cases to the 
 expense and delay of two hearings, instead 
 of having its merits disposed of by one 
 hearing before Lord Eldon. The old 
 Chancellor was naturally nettled and vexed, 
 and could not always restrain the expres- 
 sion of his feelings. Every word that 
 could anger Leach was of course carefully 
 repeated to him, often probably with ad-
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 3 1 
 
 ditions, by the counsel whom he had of- 
 fended ; and the Vice-Chancellor was on 
 no better terms with his chief than with 
 the Bar. 
 
 Lord Eldon was as opposite to Sir 
 John Leach as it was possible for one 
 judge to be to another. Affable alike to 
 seniors and juniors, patient of argument, 
 though seldom in reality paying much at- 
 tention to it, in knowledge of law of un- 
 approachable superiority to all the men of 
 his day, not only in one branch but in all, 
 in Scotch as well as English, with powers 
 of mind which enabled him thoroughly to 
 grasp and comprehend every legal ques- 
 tion that came before him in all its bear- 
 ings, he might, but for one unhappy 
 failing, which grew upon him with years, 
 have probably been equal to the greatest 
 Chancellor that ever sat in England. But 
 all his great qualities were marred by irre- 
 solution and caution amounting even to 
 timidity. It was justly said of him that
 
 3 2 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 his almost only fault was a distrust of his 
 own opinion, which nobody else shared. 
 At the close of a case he would make ob- 
 servations upon it, showing that he was 
 perfectly master both of the facts and the 
 law ; would intimate his opinion, which he 
 perhaps never changed ; and when every- 
 body was satisfied by his reasoning, instead 
 of deciding, would take the papers home 
 with him, for the purpose of further con- 
 sideration, promising his final judgment 
 on an early day. But that day too often 
 never arrived. Other matters pressed upon 
 his attention, the case was forgotten, and 
 the papers were sometimes lost, and after 
 the lapse of months, and perhaps in some 
 cases even of years, judgment was obtained 
 from him with difficulty, or, as occasion- 
 ally happened, the parties died, or settled 
 their dispute in utter despair of ever pro- 
 curing a decision. It was amusing to 
 hear him, even when he did give a de- 
 cision in a case of any difficulty or im-
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 33 
 
 portance, speaking diffidently of his own 
 judgment, and expressing, apparently with 
 heartfelt sincerity, the consolation which 
 he had in the reflection that there was a 
 superior tribunal by which his views might 
 be corrected, that superior tribunal con- 
 sisting of himself, sitting in the House of 
 Lords, with two lay peers probably to as- 
 sist him. 
 
 This infirmity of a great judge was 
 made the more remarkable and more pro- 
 voking by the vigour which he showed in 
 cases which from their nature admitted 
 of no delay, and which were either not 
 subject to appeal, as in bankruptcy, or in 
 fact never were appealed, as in lunacy. 
 These cases came on by petition, which he 
 had an opportunity of reading before they 
 were heard. On these occasions his dis- 
 patch was wonderful, equal to that of the 
 Vice-Chancellor, with the difference that 
 he always thoroughly understood the case 
 in which he made the order, which could 
 
 D
 
 34 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 not by any means always be asserted of 
 his deputy. I have seen him myself re- 
 peatedly, at the close of the sittings, before 
 the long vacation, when Parliament was 
 prorogued, and his mind was not distracted 
 with politics, begin a long list of lunatic and 
 bankruptcy petitions, come into Court 
 by nine o'clock, sit till four, return at half- 
 past five, and sit till nine or ten, disposing 
 of petitions (which he had always read), 
 and throwing them down to the Registrar 
 with an Order upon them almost as ra- 
 pidly as they were called on. On one 
 petition, " Take your Order" ; on another, 
 " Is there an affidavit of such or such a 
 fact r" on a third, "Can you ask for more 
 than such or such relief?" On a fourth, 
 " Is it possible to get over such an ob- 
 jection ? '' and, on the other hand, when a 
 point of legal difficulty arose (and in none 
 are the difficulties greater than in bank- 
 ruptcy), he would dispose of the case at 
 the close of the argument, explaining the
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 35 
 
 principles of law with the distinctions be- 
 longing to them, applying them with un- 
 erring accuracy to the facts of the case, 
 and exhibiting a familiarity with all the 
 authorities, usually much greater than that 
 of the counsel who had studied them for 
 the purpose of the particular case. Mr. 
 Cooke had a very great and well-merited 
 reputation and practice as a lawyer in 
 bankruptcy ; he was no friend of Lord 
 Eldon, who had used him, he thought, ill ; 
 but I have heard him again and again ex- 
 press his astonishment at the manner in 
 which the Chancellor discharged this part 
 of his duties. 
 
 Sir Wm. Grant was essentially different 
 both from Lord Eldon and Sir J. Leach. 
 He combined all the qualities of a great 
 judge in a more complete degree than 
 any man I have ever seen on the Bench. 
 He had not indeed the unbounded know- 
 ledge of all law, at once profound and 
 exact, which was so marvellous in the 
 
 D 2
 
 3 6 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 Chancellor ; and I have heard, from men 
 well qualified to form an opinion (Mr. 
 Cooke and Mr. Bell), that when he first 
 took his seat as Master of the Rolls, he 
 was rather deficient in his acquaintance 
 with the rules of the English Courts of 
 Equity. He had never enjoyed very great 
 practice in Chancery, and had been prin- 
 cipally employed in Scotch Appeals and 
 at the Cockpit. But his great reputation 
 had been earned in the House of Com- 
 mons, where he had mingled with Pitt and 
 Fox in the War of Giants. The judicial 
 duties of the Master of the Rolls at that 
 time were not very onerous. He had 
 abundant time to make himself fully mas- 
 ter of both the law and the facts of every 
 case which came before him : and when I 
 heard him, long experience had entirely 
 supplied any deficiency which might at 
 any time have existed. He seemed to have 
 been born for a Judge. During the course 
 of an argument he sat on the bench as
 
 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 37 
 
 immovable and impassive, and almost as 
 silent, as a statue. He never interrupted 
 counsel except to ask a question, and that 
 but very rarely. He never was occupied 
 with anything but the matter before him, 
 never reading or writing notes as was too 
 often the practice on the bench. He ap- 
 peared to listen with uninterrupted atten- 
 tion to what was said, whoever might say 
 it. He never indicated by words, or ges- 
 ture, or even look, till a case was over, 
 what was the inclination of his opinion. 
 At the conclusion of the argument usually, 
 but always after a short interval, he gave 
 his judgment, and never I think was the 
 application of pure logic, without the pe 
 dantry of forms, to the affairs of men so 
 beautifully exemplified. The discussion 
 of the evidence, the statement of the facts, 
 the enunciation of the rules of law by 
 which the decision was to be governed, 
 were all faultless ; and the conclusion was 
 an inevitable consequence from the pre-
 
 38 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 misses. Nor were the language and man- 
 ner inferior to the matter. Sir John 
 Leach seemed never to be fully in posses- 
 sion of his powers till he had worked 
 himself into a passion, however little the 
 case might, be calculated to interest the 
 feelings. Lord Eldon qualified his propo- 
 sitions with so many restrictions and pro- 
 visions, and encumbered his sentences with 
 so many parentheses, that it required some 
 pains and attention to extract the ore from 
 the mine in which it was imbedded. But 
 Grant's language was worthy to be the 
 vehicle of the reasoning which it conveyed; 
 pure, clear, unambitious, with no orna- 
 ment but the exquisite adaptation of the 
 words to the meaning, his style was a 
 model of judicial eloquence. His judg- 
 ments were delivered in a tone of calm- 
 ness and dignity, which convinced even 
 those against whom he decided that feeling 
 had no part in the determination; and a 
 fine voice and countenance added grace to
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 39 
 
 a performance calculated to fill all who 
 may occupy a similar position with envy 
 and despair. His demeanour towards the 
 Bar was perhaps a little distant, but per- 
 fectly urbane ; and he retired from public 
 life in the full possession apparently of all 
 his faculties (though I believe he had suf- 
 fered from a fit of some kind which he 
 regarded as a warning), amid more sincere 
 and general esteem and regret amongst 
 those whom he left than I have ever seen 
 equalled. He died in the year 1832, the 
 same year which saw the departure from 
 amongst us of two other great men, Sir 
 Walter Scott and Sir J. Mackintosh, and 
 such was the excitement at that time on 
 the subject of the Reform Bill, that they 
 all passed away with as little observation 
 as if their names had been unknown in 
 England. 
 
 Soon after I was called to the bar, that 
 is, in May, 1817, Garrow, the most igno- 
 rant man probably that ever held the office
 
 4o Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 of Attorney-General (though very powerful 
 as a speaker to juries, and without a rival 
 as an examiner of witnesses), was made 
 a Baron of the Exchequer. Shepherd, 
 the Solicitor-General, a gentleman, and a 
 good lawyer and an able man (but as deaf 
 as a post), was promoted to be Attorney- 
 General ; and Gifford, then a young man, 
 who had risen rapidly into notice in the 
 common-law courts, and had attracted the 
 notice both of Lord Ellenborough and 
 C. J. Gibbs, was made Solicitor-General. 
 Upon his appointment he took his seat 
 in the Court of Chancery, as had been 
 usual in earlier days, and it was said that 
 he had done so at the instance of Lord 
 Eldon, who, while attacks were continually 
 being made upon him in the House of 
 Commons, insisted on having one of the 
 law officers of the Crown in his court. 
 Gifford was an able man, of great in- 
 dustry, of considerable quickness of ap- 
 prehension, of remarkable knowledge of
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 41 
 
 those branches of law which he had studied, 
 and of aptitude for acquiring others, as 
 was evinced by his great success in Scotch 
 appeals. But he was not a good speaker, 
 and voice, manner, and elocution were 
 none above the average. In the Court 
 of Chancery he was placed in a very un- 
 pleasant position. Called upon to con- 
 tend in matters of which he was neces- 
 sarily ignorant with men such as Leach 
 and Romilly, naturally his superiors in 
 power, and who had passed their lives in 
 the practice of the court, he had to fight 
 against fearful odds ; and while he was 
 treated by the seniors with little respect, 
 he was regarded with great jealousy by 
 the men who were in the second rank, 
 and were shortly to be moved into the 
 first by Home, and Heald, Wingfield, 
 Shadwell, and Sugden, who regarded him 
 as an interloper, and as having been raised 
 over their heads to an office for which 
 each of them probably thought himself to
 
 42 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 be better qualified. He must have had a 
 very unpleasant time of it in the Court of 
 Chancery, where he never had much busi- 
 ness except that which was official. I had 
 no acquaintance with him at all ; but he 
 noticed me soon after he began to prac- 
 tise in Chancery, trusted me occasionally 
 with briefs (probably of no great impor- 
 tance) when he was called away ; and 
 when, soon afterwards, he was made At- 
 torney-General, and suits were to be insti- 
 tuted by that officer on the report of the 
 Charity Commission, he appointed me to 
 be his deputy, or, in the common phrase, 
 his devil, as to charities, the fees of which 
 must have amounted, I think, on an ave- 
 rage to full ^300 a year. 
 
 At Christmas, 1817, Sir William Grant 
 quitted the bench which he had so highly 
 adorned. I had been employed several 
 times before him, and I remember one 
 instance of his candour and fairness, and 
 anxiety to do justice, which struck me
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 43 
 
 very much at the time, and has ever since 
 dwelt in my memory. In a case of Wood- 
 houselee v. Dalrymple, where the question 
 was as to the effect of a gift to an illegiti- 
 mate child, I held a brief with Sir S. 
 Romilly and Mr. Cooke as counsel for 
 the plaintiff. Sir S. Romilly having opened 
 the case, Sir W. Grant called on the other 
 side, but, in the course of the argument 
 for the defendant, entertained some doubt, 
 said he thought he had been too hasty in 
 stopping the other counsel for the plain- 
 tiff, and desired to hear them. Mr. Cooke 
 spoke shortly, as was his wont, and when 
 the defendant's counsel were thereupon 
 about again to proceed, Sir W. Grant in- 
 terposed, and observed that there appeared 
 to be another gentleman for the plaintiff 
 whom he ought to hear. I accordingly- 
 said a few words, the case proceeded, and 
 Sir W. Grant ultimately decided, accord- 
 ing to his first impression, for the plaintiff. 
 In the course of a long and extensive ex-
 
 44 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 perience I cannot call to mind a similar 
 anecdote. 
 
 On the retirement of Sir W. Grant, 
 Plumer was made Master of the Rolls, 
 and Leach succeeded him as Vice-Chan- 
 cellor. Leach had always in Parliament 
 acted with the Whigs, but he had pro- 
 fessed himself to be attached to the Prince, 
 and when Adam had been made Chief 
 Commissioner in Scotland, Leach had ac- 
 cepted the office which I now hold of 
 Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall, and 
 before he was made Vice-Chancellor had, 
 in fact, ratted. Romilly and he had never 
 been on very good terms. The one was 
 rather supercilious, and the other irritable 
 and impetuous, determined at all cost to 
 succeed, and probably more anxious to 
 provoke, than to avoid, a quarrel with a 
 man at that time at the head of the Bar, 
 but whose superiority he was far from 
 acknowledging. These altercations were 
 very frequent, and on one occasion (before
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 45 
 
 I was called) Romilly was exasperated into 
 applying the term impertinent to something 
 which Leach had said or done. Leach 
 immediately left the Rolls Court, at which 
 this scene took place, and sent a note in- 
 sisting on an immediate apology or a 
 hostile meeting. Romilly preferred the 
 former alternative. Leach felt his advan- 
 tage, and used it not very generously. 
 Leach had great power of sarcasm, and a 
 very insulting tone towards his adversaries ; 
 and I have been present myself on more 
 than one occasion when Sir S. Romilly 
 has appealed to the Court against Leach's 
 behaviour. Lord Eldon had a good deal 
 of difficulty in keeping the peace between 
 them. I remember a parting blow which 
 Romilly dealt to his adversary just before 
 his promotion to the Bench. The Habeas 
 Corpus Act was at that time suspended. 
 Leach, in opposing a motion for the new 
 trial of an issue, had insisted much on 
 the right of juries to decide finally, and
 
 46 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 Romilly, in his reply, observed that " he 
 listened with pleasure to such sentiments 
 from one whom public rumour had marked 
 out for a high judicial position, that his 
 learned friend no doubt remembered that 
 the Habeas Corpus Act and trial by jury 
 were the two safeguards of liberty, and 
 clung, like a fond mother who had lost 
 one child, with increased affection to the 
 other." 
 
 After the change took place in their 
 relative positions, the conduct of these two 
 great rivals to each other was creditable, I 
 think, to both. Romilly treated the Judge 
 with the respect due to his office ; and 
 Leach showed to the counsel the atten- 
 tion to which his great station and talents 
 entitled him, and a forbearance not ex- 
 tended to others ; at least, though violent 
 altercations between the Bar and the Bench 
 were too common, I do not remember any 
 in which Sir S. Romilly was a party. Un- 
 happily, however, the trial was very short,
 
 Lord Kingsdown* s Recollections. 47 
 
 for in less than a twelvemonth Romilly, 
 overwhelmed with grief for the loss of his 
 wife, died by his own hand. 
 
 This sad event happened, I think, on the 
 day when the Court of Chancery was to 
 resume its sittings after the Long Vacation 
 of 1 8 1 8. Lord Eldon, it was said, burst into 
 tears on seeing the vacant seat which had 
 been so long filled by the great advocate, 
 between whom and himself there never 
 had passed anything but the most digni- 
 fied courtesy in public, or, as far as I know, 
 in private, notwithstanding the violent op- 
 position of their political views. 
 
 When I knew Sir Samuel Romilly his 
 business was so great, and he was so much 
 engaged in politics, that, in spite of his 
 great industry, he was seldom master of 
 his case when he opened it. Having the 
 complete lead of the Court, he was almost 
 always for the plaintiff or the petitioner, 
 and had therefore to begin. I have often 
 seen his briefs with a short abstract of the
 
 48 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 facts and dates on the back of the first 
 sheet, which had been made by some one 
 who had read the brief for him (usually, I 
 believe, his nephew), and from this, and 
 what he had picked up at consultation, he 
 was accustomed to state his case ; his open- 
 ing, therefore, was often loose, sometimes 
 purposely so, in order to allow greater 
 scope for the reply. This course, very 
 convenient for a counsel, but not very fair 
 towards his opponents, was encouraged by 
 the habits of Lord Eldon, who always 
 heard a case from the beginning to the 
 end, though his opinion was probably 
 made up as soon as he had collected the 
 facts, and who used to justify the practice 
 by saying, half in jest and half in earnest, 
 that when the defendants had failed in sa- 
 tisfying him that the plaintiff was wrong, 
 the plaintiff's counsel often succeeded in 
 doing so in his reply. 
 
 As an advocate I think Sir Samuel Ro- 
 milly approached in his own line as near
 
 Lord ICingsdown* s Recollections. 49 
 
 perfection as it is possible for man to at- 
 tain. He was familiar with the law and 
 the practice of the court himself, and was 
 aware that they were equally well known 
 to the judges whom he addressed ; he did 
 not, therefore, waste time in arguing points 
 which were untenable ; he transacted the 
 ordinary run of business like a man of bu- 
 siness, without aiming at anything more, 
 par negotiis neque supra. But when any 
 great occasion arose, especially when he 
 came to reply at the close of a long and 
 important case, in which the feelings were 
 at all engaged, nothing could be finer. 
 Usually restating his case (which of course 
 his opponents had misunderstood), not al- 
 ways exactly as he had opened it, but as, 
 after the discussion which it had undergone, 
 it could be presented with the best pros- 
 pect of success ; noticing all the arguments 
 which had been used against him, and 
 which admitted of an answer, with as much 
 fairness as it is usual with counsel (which 
 
 E
 
 50 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 perhaps is not saying much); clear, power- 
 ful, and logical when he was right, discreet 
 and adroit when he was wrong ; never in- 
 troducing an unnecessary sentence, seldom 
 using a word that could be altered for the 
 better ; always energetic, often earnest and 
 impassioned, never degenerating into vio- 
 lence, either of language or tone ; with a 
 noble countenance, a stately figure, or 
 what seemed such when drawn up to its 
 height and clothed in his robes, and a 
 voice distinct, deep, and mellow, always, 
 as it seemed to me, modulated with sin- 
 gular skill, the exhibition was one which 
 it was impossible to witness without admi- 
 ration and delight. Probably they who 
 have heard Sir William Grant and Sir 
 Samuel Romillyhave heard the most ex- 
 quisite specimens of eloquence ever ad- 
 dressed from the Bar to the Bench, or 
 from the Bench to the Bar. Oratory to 
 juries and to popular assemblies is of course 
 quite a different matter. Whether, if Sir
 
 Lord Kingsdown s Recollections. 5 1 
 
 Samuel Romilly had lived to attain the 
 Chancellorship, he would have been as 
 great as a judge as he was at the Bar 
 must be considered as doubtful, having 
 regard to the very rare instances in which 
 the same men have been equally eminent 
 in both characters. He seemed to possess 
 all the requisites, but he might have been 
 found deficient in the temper and patience 
 which, though the least showy, are not 
 the least important qualities of a judge. 
 " Omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi 
 imperasset," is a maxim of too frequent 
 application to all great stations. 
 
 With all Sir Samuel Romilly's great me- 
 rits, he was not, I think, very popular at 
 the Bar. He took no pains to make him- 
 self agreeable; his manners were a little 
 severe, and, at all events, he had not the 
 reckless gaiety and familiar cordiality which 
 made Erskine and Brougham and Copley 
 the idols of their juniors in the same pro- 
 fession. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 Lord Kingsdown"* s Recollections. 
 
 The removal from the Bar of Leach 
 and of Romilly, and of Richards, who had 
 been made Chief Baron of the Exche- 
 quer, left a clear course for the new King's 
 Counsel of 1818. Of those who had been 
 made in 1815, only one had established 
 any great position, viz. Mr. Bell, who after 
 Sir J. Leach's appointment confined him- 
 self to the Vice-Chancellor's Court. His 
 success was achieved against disadvantages 
 which would have seemed to be insur- 
 mountable in a profession where any kind 
 of oratory was required. His voice was 
 thick and inharmonious, his utterance in- 
 distinct, his sentences perplexed and con- 
 fused and never completed, his figure 
 awkward and deformed, with a club-foot, 
 a head with fiery red hair, a huge mouth, 
 and features altogether as plain as could 
 be consistent with a uniform expression 
 of benevolence and good-humour. His 
 handwriting was totally illegible to all who 
 were not by long habit familiar with it ;
 
 Lord KingsdowM? s Recollections. 53 
 
 and when it was deciphered the opinions 
 which were expressed in it were almost as 
 difficult to be understood as the hiero- 
 glyphics in which their meaning was en- 
 shrouded. Against all these obstacles the 
 unconquerable energy of the man prevailed. 
 The confusion of his expression did not 
 reach his mind. He had obtained high 
 distinction I believe had been a Senior 
 Wrangler at Cambridge. His powers of 
 application were extraordinary, and exert- 
 ed to the uttermost ; his knowledge of law 
 inferior only to Lord Eldon's ; his know- 
 ledge of the practice of the Court, and all 
 the intricacies of pleading, probably supe- 
 rior. His quickness in detecting an objec- 
 tion of this kind in his adversary's case, 
 and his ingenuity in meeting one when 
 raised to his own, were unsurpassed. He 
 always thoroughly knew his brief, even be- 
 fore the consultation, at which, instead of 
 picking up the facts from his junior and 
 hearing his view, he explained his own.
 
 54 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 
 
 In speaking before Leach, no provocation, 
 either from the Bench or the Bar, ever 
 disturbed him. He yielded for the mo- 
 ment, but always returned again to the 
 charge, and persisted till he found the 
 Court was fully in possession of his argu- 
 ment. Nor when the victory was won 
 against him, and the battle seemed to be 
 over, did his efforts cease : on the con- 
 trary, he often deprived the conqueror of 
 the spoil. He had an unrivalled know- 
 ledge, amongst other matters of form, of 
 the forms of orders and decrees, which he 
 had copied from time to time in the course 
 of his practice. The directions to be given 
 and the inquiries to be made in Chancery 
 are often of extreme difficulty and com- 
 plication, and it often is necessary to re- 
 cur to the Court to settle the minutes. 
 On those occasions Bell's astuteness was 
 without parallel. Few of the counsel knew 
 anything of the forms, or cared to engage 
 in the tiresome details; Bell would not
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 55 
 
 unfrequently, when a hasty decision had 
 been pronounced at the hearing, get it 
 really reversed under pretence of settling 
 the proper language of the order. Or if 
 the judgment was not altered, he would 
 introduce some declaration in his client's 
 favour, or qualify some which was against 
 him, or suggest some accounts and inqui- 
 ries seemingly very innocent, but by means 
 of which, when the cause came on again, 
 it not unfrequently appeared that the mat- 
 ter was really left open. So great was his 
 success that he obtained the lead in the 
 Court very shortly after he entered it, and 
 maintained it unimpaired as long as he re- 
 mained in it. So highly was his opinion 
 valued, notwithstanding the strange mode 
 in which it was usually written and ex- 
 pressed, that he was continually obliged 
 to refuse cases, even when parties would 
 be content to wait for months in order to 
 obtain it. 
 
 He excelled all his competitors at the
 
 56 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 Bar, and indeed all the men whom I have 
 ever known, in kindliness of disposition 
 and readiness to impart information. 
 When a man is deeply engaged in his 
 own business, worried perhaps and wearied, 
 there are few things more annoying than 
 being interrupted by the questions of 
 others, especially of those who have no 
 claim upon you. Yet to Bell, when in the 
 fullest practice, I have repeatedly gone 
 when I was very young at the Bar, to 
 consult him on some difficulty which had 
 occurred, and have always been treated 
 with the same kindness and consideration. 
 He would not only give the information 
 if he had it in his head, but would take 
 down his books or refer to his precedents, 
 and seem rather pleased to be able to give 
 assistance than vexed at being asked for 
 it. What happened to me happened in 
 like manner to all others who applied to 
 him ; his good nature was inexhaustible. 
 Though sometimes a little joked for his
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 57 
 
 peculiarities, his sterling qualities procured 
 him universal respect, and he was cer- 
 tainly more beloved than any man in the 
 profession. 
 
 5*A June, 1857. 
 
 My progress at the Bar was uninter- 
 rupted, and I was rash enough to diminish 
 my business by giving up successively the 
 attendance on commissions of bankruptcy, 
 of which I think I attended but one ; on 
 commissions of lunacy, which I never at- 
 tended at all, though invited to do so ; 
 and the Court of Exchequer, where I had 
 a good deal of practice. And ultimately 
 I took a most dangerous step, and which 
 might have proved a fatal one if I had 
 not soon afterwards obtained a silk gown. 
 I gave up drawing altogether, and of 
 course my pupils with it, trusting to the 
 pleadings which I had already drawn, and 
 to some little leading business which I
 
 58 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 had acquired, to keep me afloat till I got 
 within the Bar. 
 
 In 182,3 a circumstance occurred which 
 brought me in some degree into notice. 
 Rothschild was defendant in a suit by a 
 person named Doloret, who had filed a 
 bill for the specific performance of a con- 
 tract with respect to a share in a foreign 
 loan. Under the advice of Bell and my- 
 self, he had demurred to the bill on the 
 ground that from the nature of the trans- 
 action time was of the essence of the con- 
 tract, and that the delay of a day might 
 totally change the nature of the risk. The 
 case was new and of vast importance to 
 the defendant, who indeed could not pos- 
 sibly have carried on his business if the 
 plaintiff had succeeded. Briefs were de- 
 livered to Bell and to me to support the 
 demurrer against Sugden and some junior, 
 who were counsel for the plaintiff; but 
 when the cause was in the paper for argu- 
 ment Bell had retired from court busi-
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 59 
 
 ness, and confined himself to chamber 
 practice, and could not be prevailed upon 
 to argue the case. I was therefore left 
 alone to argue it, and succeeded. The 
 case is reported in i Simon and Stuart, p. 
 590. Rothschild was very much pleased, 
 and made me a present of a gold snuff- 
 box, and when afterwards, in the year 
 1 825, the British and Foreign Alliance In- 
 surance Company came out under his 
 auspices, at a high premium, he allotted 
 to me fifty shares, the highest number 
 allowed to anybody, by which I made 
 ^750, the only speculation in which I 
 ever engaged. 
 
 ijth August, 1859. 
 
 I am sorry to see that more than two 
 years have passed since I wrote the above 
 notes, and I have little excuse to offer to 
 myself for their abandonment during so 
 long a period. Indolence I am afraid has 
 been the main cause, at least for the greater
 
 60 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 part of the time ; since last November I 
 have been abundantly occupied with 
 public business. 
 
 Up to the year 1825 I was accustomed 
 to spend all my vacations abroad, and by 
 these means I contrived to see a good 
 deal of Europe, or at least what was con- 
 sidered a good deal for a lawyer in those 
 days, when vacations were shorter than 
 they are now, and neither railroads nor 
 even steamboats were invented. I con- 
 trived to visit many of the principal cities in 
 Europe, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, 
 Vienna, Trieste, Venice, Milan, Rome, 
 and Madrid ; the latter place I went to in 
 182,1 with Hayter, now Sir W. G. Hayter, 
 who had lately been my pupil. In 1825 
 I went across the water for the last time 
 for many years with Mr. and Mrs. Rad- 
 cliffe and their two daughters, then two of 
 the finest women in England. 
 
 I do not know that anything note- 
 worthy happened in my professional life
 
 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 6 1 
 
 till I got a silk gown, except a failure, 
 which if my position had been less strong 
 might have had serious consequences. It 
 may be worth mentioning as an instance of 
 the scandalous manner in which justice was 
 then administered in the House of Lords. 
 A man of the name of Brookman had 
 long gambled in the French funds, em- 
 ploying Rothschild as his agent, who exe- 
 cuted his orders, supplying Rentes from 
 time to time out of his own stock, at the 
 market price of the day. After this had 
 gone on for a considerable time, Brook- 
 man had lost a large sum of money by 
 his speculations, to the amount of near 
 ^=20,000 ; and he bethought himself of 
 the expedient of applying to this trans- 
 action the rule relating to principal and 
 agent, by which all sales by the agent to 
 the principal may be set aside, and the 
 agent must account for any loss, but can 
 derive no profit. Sugden was retained by 
 the plaintiff, and Chatfield, who was Roth-
 
 62 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 schild's attorney, determined not to employ 
 any King's Counsel, but to trust the de- 
 fence entirely to Knight Bruce and myself, 
 who were then both without the Bar. 
 This was of course a marked distinction 
 for two junior barristers, but the result 
 was, as regarded the defendant, very dis- 
 astrous. Shadwell, who was much under 
 the control of Sugden, made a violent 
 decree in his favour, and the Jew not only 
 had a very large sum to pay, but was 
 heartily abused by the leading counsel 
 against him, and the abuse in a consi- 
 derable degree sanctioned by the judge. 
 
 As the decree was, I believe, utterly 
 wrong, and the case excited a good deal 
 of attention, Rothschild was furious ; and 
 probably both he and the public attri- 
 buted the mischief in a great degree to 
 the inefficiency of his advocates, which to 
 two young gentlemen then struggling for 
 admission within the Bar was no slight 
 discouragement.
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 63 
 
 The case was afterwards heard upon 
 appeal in 1832, when Brougham was 
 Chancellor, during the heat of the Re- 
 form Bill, and just at the time when a 
 great debate on the subject was to come 
 on in the Lords. Knight Bruce was lead- 
 ing counsel with me for the appeal, having 
 then our silk gowns. Brougham was en- 
 gaged in preparing his speech for the 
 Reform Bill. After evincing the most 
 scandalous partiality, in ' extending to 
 Sugden, of whom he was in great terror, 
 an indulgence which he refused to us, he 
 sat for some time on the case without 
 even the semblance of attention. In the 
 course of the argument, which lasted for 
 two or three days, he sent for Lord Wyn- 
 ford to assist him, who knew no more 
 of Equity than he did himself. At the 
 close of the argument Lord Wynford got 
 up, and, holding the papers, which were 
 very voluminous, in his hand, he said that 
 of course it could not be supposed that
 
 64 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 he had read through such a mass, and that 
 he had not heard the whole of the argu- 
 ment, but that he had heard quite enough 
 to convince him that the appeal ought to be 
 dismissed with costs ; and dismissed it was, 
 neither of the judges who sat having the 
 least knowledge of a case admitted to be 
 of the first impression, and of which even 
 if the principle were right (which I am 
 satisfied myself that it is not) was carried 
 out in details which nobody could attempt 
 to justify. 
 
 I have known in the course of a long 
 life many cases in which gross injustice 
 has been done ; but anything so utterly 
 shameless as the proceedings in the House 
 of Lords in the case of Brookman v. Roth- 
 schild I never yet witnessed ; and I think 
 a repetition of such a scene is now impossi- 
 ble. It was a case which would have well 
 justified the impeachment of both the 
 learned lords, yet such was the excite- 
 ment at the time about the Reform Bill,
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 65 
 
 and such the unbounded popularity of the 
 Chancellor, that any job, however outrage- 
 ous, might be perpetrated by a Minister 
 not only with impunity, but amid accla- 
 mations of those who imputed every attack 
 on an officer of the Government to a 
 desire to stop the Reform Bill. 
 
 In 1823, on the retirement of Dallas, 
 Gifford was made Chief Justice of the 
 Common Pleas, with a peerage. I was 
 his Colt, that is to say, carried about the 
 rings which he distributed on being made 
 a Serjeant ; and he continued to treat me, 
 as he had always done, with great kindness. 
 It was a curious circumstance that the 
 first day he sat at Nisi Prius he tried an 
 action brought by a courier, of the name 
 of Pupel, against me for wages. I had 
 refused to give him a character, for he had 
 imposed upon me with respect to his 
 knowledge of German at Trieste, where I 
 had engaged him ; but I gave him a cer- 
 tificate that he had travelled with me from
 
 66 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 that city; and, unfortunately, in paying 
 him, on arriving in this country, I omitted 
 to take a receipt from him. I proved, how- 
 ever, the fact of payment by my cousin 
 Richard, who was present, and the expres- 
 sion by the man of his gratitude when we 
 parted. However, Serjeant Vaughan, who 
 was for the plaintiff, made a rattling speech 
 against me ; asked what a man deserved for 
 having his bones shaken all the way from 
 Trieste to London; said that when he 
 would have been glad to see a little of my 
 ready rhino I had given him a certifi- 
 cate under my broad seal, etc. etc. ; and, 
 though of course the judge summed up 
 strongly against the plaintiff, the jury found 
 a verdict against me. Both Lord Gifford 
 and the Serjeant laughed with me after- 
 wards, and inquired why I had not moved 
 for a new trial. My answer was that I 
 must at all events have paid the costs of 
 the first, and, as the damages were only 
 ^20, 1 thought it better to submit. This
 
 Lord Kingsdoivns Recollections. 67 
 
 is my only experience of the merits of 
 that Palladium -of English liberties, Trial 
 by Jury. 
 
 In 1824 Lord Gifford was transferred 
 to the Rolls, on the death of Sir Thomas 
 Plumer, and remained there till the autumn 
 of 1826, when by his death I lost a very 
 kind friend. I remember hearing of his 
 death at Whitley, where I was staying with 
 my mother for a day or two, with Miss 
 Leigh, on my road into Lancashire, little 
 thinking at that time that I should ever 
 become the owner of the property of which 
 it forms a part. Gifford was succeeded at 
 the Rolls by Copley, the Attorney-Gene- 
 ral, who remained at the Rolls till the 
 spring of the following year, when, on 
 Canning's accession to office, on the illness 
 of Lord Liverpool, he accepted the Great 
 Seal, with the title of Lord Lyndhurst. 
 
 The circumstances of his appointment 
 to the office of Chancellor were singular, 
 and characteristic both of himself and of 
 
 p 2
 
 68 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 the new Premier. I have often heard him 
 repeat the anecdote with great glee. While 
 he was at the Rolls, one of the great de- 
 bates on the Catholic question came on. 
 Copley, who was member for Cambridge, 
 made a strong speech against the measure. 
 A clever pamphlet on the subject had been 
 published by Philpotts, now Bishop of 
 Exeter ; and this pamphlet Copley having 
 seen, used the arguments contained in it 
 with great success in his speech, but with- 
 out acknowledging the source from which 
 they were derived. Somebody on the other 
 side found him out, and put the pamphlet 
 into Canning's hands, who used his advan- 
 tage most unmercifully ; and, after quoting 
 passages from the pamphlet, and then re- 
 minding the House of the corresponding 
 passages of Copley, concluded, amidst roars 
 of laughter, with the words, "This was 
 Toby Philpot." Philpotts himself hap- 
 pened to be under the gallery at the time, 
 though unknown to Canning, who often
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 69 
 
 expressed his regret at the opportunity 
 which he had lost. 
 
 When Canning became Prime Minister, 
 and all the Tories refused to serve with 
 him, he offered the Great Seal to Copley, 
 who at the time was performing his duties 
 as Recorder, I think, of Bristol. On his 
 way home he was met at an inn by a 
 King's messenger with a dispatch from 
 Canning, which, on opening it, he found 
 to contain these words, " Will you be 
 Chancellor, non obstante Philpottof" 1 
 
 Lord Lyndhurst was engaged to dine 
 the following week at a large political 
 party of his old colleagues, I forget at 
 what house, and, having abandoned them 
 to their great annoyance, he had some 
 doubt whether he should keep his engage- 
 ment. After consulting with his wife, 
 however (the then Lady Lyndhurst), they 
 determined that it would be cowardly to 
 stay away, and that they would face it out. 
 Lord Lyndhurst says that he took down
 
 70 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 to dinner Mrs. Arbuthnot, who did no- 
 thing but reproach and abuse him the 
 whole time that he sat by her ; but Lady 
 Lyndhurst was taken down by Lord Eldon, 
 who was most marked in his attentions 
 and courtesy to her, and in enabling her 
 to overcome the awkwardness of the posi- 
 tion in which she could not but feel that 
 she was placed. 
 
 Soon after Lord Lyndhurst's appoint- 
 ment some new King's Counsel were 
 made, amongst others Brougham and my 
 great friend (as he afterwards became) 
 Bickersteth. These promotions sufficiently 
 showed on what political support Canning 
 relied. Brougham and Sir F. Burdett, 
 Bickersteth's great friend, were his main 
 backers in the House of Commons, and 
 sat, as I have understood, immediately be- 
 hind him. I have often talked with men 
 who were either in office or connected 
 with those who were in office at that time, 
 and my firm persuasion is that it was
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 7 1 
 
 neither personal dislike to Canning nor 
 jealousy of his abilities, nor difference from 
 him on political subjects, that induced all 
 the principal Tories to decline serving un- 
 der him. Indeed, as far as politics go, I 
 imagine that he was willing to adopt any, 
 as indeed he showed by consenting, as a 
 condition of office being conferred upon 
 him, that the Catholic question should not 
 be brought forward. One and all with 
 whom I have spoken on the subject said 
 that he was a man on whom they could 
 place no reliance ; that in or out of office 
 he was always intriguing against some with 
 whom he was acting. 
 
 His career as Prime Minister was a very 
 short one ; he died, I think, in August, 
 1827, having, according to the declared 
 opinion of the Duke of Wellington, as I 
 have heard, done more mischief to the 
 foreign policy of this country in the few 
 months that he held office than twice as 
 many years would suffice to correct. This
 
 72 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 is not the place to consider that question. 
 Certainly he totally changed the policy 
 of the country ; his assistance to Russia 
 against Turkey, and his establishment of 
 anarchy in South America by the recog- 
 nition of the independence of the Spanish 
 colonies, when they were quite unfit to 
 govern themselves, which he boastfully 
 termed " calling a new world into existence 
 to redress the balance of the old," do but 
 little credit to his sagacity. His principles 
 have been since followed in this country ; 
 and the result is that at the present mo- 
 ment (1859") we have not amongst the 
 Governments, either of the Old or New 
 World, a single cordial ally, while the 
 people in the different kingdoms in whose 
 favour we have declaimed, and used what 
 we call our moral influence, universally re- 
 gard us as agitators, who excite for our 
 own purposes disturbances and insurrec- 
 tions, and desert in the hour of need those 
 whom we have stimulated to resistance to 
 their governors.
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 73 
 
 In 1829 I applied to Lord Lyndhurst 
 for a silk gown, and received a very civil 
 answer, in which he said that he quite re- 
 cognised my claim, and that but for my 
 short standing at the Bar he should have 
 made me on the last occasion; accordingly, 
 soon afterwards, in July, 1829, 1 was called 
 within the Bar. 
 
 At this time the Master of the Rolls 
 had been accustomed to sit only of an 
 evening, three evenings a week during 
 term, and every evening, except Satur- 
 days, out of term, sitting, however, in the 
 morning for a week after each term. - It 
 was determined, however, that the evening 
 sittings should be given up, and Leach 
 agreed to sit of a morning as many hours 
 on the whole as he was accustomed to sit 
 under the old arrangement. This led to 
 a division of the King's Counsel between 
 the Vice-Chancellor's and the Rolls Court. 
 Knight Bruce, who received his silk gown 
 at the same time that I did, chose the
 
 74 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 
 
 Vice-Chancellor's Court, and Tinney, who 
 was also one of the new batch, and I sat 
 down in the Rolls Court, where Bicker- 
 steth had the complete lead. I very soon 
 got the second place in the court ; indeed, 
 Bickersteth and I divided the business be- 
 tween us, though he always kept the lead, 
 at least as long as Sir John Leach remained. 
 In stating a case he was admirable, clear, 
 fair, bringing out all his facts in the best 
 manner for his clients ; stating all the 
 points of law which arose with the greatest 
 distinctness ; while his countenance, voice, 
 manner, and high character gave weight 
 and authority to everything he said. But 
 he was not a handy counsel : if any objec- 
 tion was unexpectedly started in the course 
 of an argument, he was not ready with an 
 answer ; he was not very quick in seeing or 
 inventing distinctions ; and, unless he had 
 time for consideration, he was not power- 
 ful in reply. As long as Leach remained 
 these deficiencies were not much observed.
 
 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 75 
 
 As he was usually for the plaintiff, and 
 always stated his case fully and fairly, 
 Leach made up his mind pretty much 
 upon the opening; if he was against the 
 plaintiff, he decided at once ; if he was with 
 him, his opinion was not often changed 
 by the defendant's argument ; and, conse- 
 quently, he scarcely ever heard a reply. 
 When Pepys came to be Master of the 
 Rolls the case was very much altered ; he 
 always heard a reply, and during the short 
 time that he remained there I think I 
 was gradually gaining upon Bickersteth, 
 though I do not know that I could ever 
 be said to have passed him. 
 
 In 1830 an event happened which has 
 decided the course of my subsequent life. 
 Sir Robert Leigh, who had retired from 
 Parliament in 1820, and had amassed by 
 prudence and frugality a very large pro- 
 perty, in addition to his patrimonial estate, 
 though he had been always fond of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Cooke, had kept up no inter-
 
 76 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 course with the rest of the family, and, in- 
 deed, had apparently an aversion to them. 
 The family estates had been settled by his 
 father, in default of issue of his own body, 
 on the issue of his brother (my grand- 
 father), and would have been divided 
 therefore (if the limitation had taken 
 effect) amongst his five daughters, of 
 whom my mother was the eldest. This 
 settlement had greatly annoyed Sir Robert, 
 and indisposed him towards those who 
 had the chance of benefiting by it. In 
 1828 or 1829 he quarrelled with the Rec- 
 tor of Wigan, who claimed tithes of the 
 Hindley Hall estate, which Sir Robert in- 
 sisted was covered by a farm modus. The 
 Rector filed a bill in Chancery, and set 
 down his cause at the Rolls. Sir Robert 
 endeavoured to retain Bickersteth, and 
 was very angry when he found that he 
 was retained on the other side. Still 
 greater was Sir Robert's vexation when 
 he was told that I was the next in busi
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 77 
 
 ness in the court, and that he must en- 
 gage me. He submitted, however, though 
 I believe with a very bad grace, said I 
 was a mere boy, and, in short, considered 
 his case as sacrificed. When his attorney, 
 Mr. Gaskell, who was a perfect stranger 
 to me, came to the consultation, I ob- 
 served that I believed I had some interest, 
 or might have some interest, in the estate; 
 when he informed me that the entail had 
 been found faulty, and that Sir Robert 
 had barred the remainder, after the limita- 
 tions to his own issue and his brother, and 
 their issue male. This did not much dis- 
 turb me. On looking into the evidence 
 I found that there was a fatal blot in 
 our case. In order to maintain a Farm 
 Modus it was necessary to state* precisely 
 what lands were covered by it, and, if any 
 were improperly included or improperly 
 omitted, the Modus was held to be ill 
 laid, and a decree went against the defen- 
 dant. On looking at an old map of the
 
 78 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 estate, I found that a small piece of land, 
 taken in from Pennington Green some 
 fifty years before, was included in our an- 
 swer as part of the ancient farm ; the only 
 chance for us was that the blot might not 
 be hit. 
 
 We went into court on the memorable 
 morning of the hearing of the cause 
 memorable to me from its consequences 
 with not much confidence ; and up to 
 this time I had never seen Sir Robert in 
 the course of the proceedings, though I 
 learned afterwards that he had attended 
 the Rolls Court for several days before in 
 order to judge how far he was likely to be 
 ruined by the inability of his counsel. I 
 fancy that he was a little reassured. 
 
 In the^ course of the argument for the 
 plaintiff, poor Sutton Sharpe, who was 
 with Bickersteth, made an attack on Sir 
 Robert's grandfather, who had been a 
 great attorney at Wigan, to whose arti- 
 fices he attributed a part of the circum-
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 79 
 
 stances which appeared favourable to the 
 defendant. I had therefore the double 
 task of vindicating my ancestor and main- 
 taining the Modus, and succeeded so well 
 that, after the case was over, judgment 
 being reserved, Sir Robert came up and 
 introduced himself to me, loaded me 
 with compliments the most extravagant 
 and absurd, said I had vindicated the 
 name of the family and done everything 
 that could be done for the case, and now 
 he did not care what was the result of it, 
 he was perfectly satisfied. A few days 
 afterwards his joy was complete by a 
 judgment being pronounced in his favour. 
 Though the matter could not have been 
 one of ^50 a year in value, he was as 
 deeply interested in it as if it had involved 
 as many thousands. In the following 
 year his brother Roger died, principally 
 in consequence of the violent injuries 
 which he had sustained at the Wigan 
 election. In the autumn of that year I
 
 80 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 paid Sir Robert a visit for a few days at 
 Hindley, when he received me with the 
 greatest affection, said I was welcome to 
 the hall of my ancestors, and set me at 
 the top of the table, with the important 
 words : 
 
 " Aggredere, et votis jam nunc adsuesce vocari." 
 
 Soon afterwards he publicly announced 
 me as his heir, and showed me his will, 
 which he had executed before going to 
 the election at Wigan in June, 1831, 
 when I believe he fully expected to be 
 murdered, and where the event all but 
 justified his apprehension. 
 
 It has always seemed to me that my 
 introduction to Sir R. Leigh is one of 
 the most remarkable examples which I 
 have ever seen of the important effects 
 produced by circumstances apparently 
 trivial, and which we are accustomed to 
 call fortuitous. If the cause had come 
 on for hearing some months earlier, or
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 8 1 
 
 been set down in another court, I should 
 probably have had nothing to do with it. 
 If Bickersteth had not been already re- 
 tained for the plaintiff, no doubt I should 
 have been his counsel, and should have 
 been obliged, probably, to make the ob- 
 servations which gave so much offence to 
 Sir Robert when made by Sharpe. At 
 all events, I must have contended against 
 his interest, and probably might have de- 
 feated him by observing the blot to which 
 I have alluded, and which he would natu- 
 rally have considered as a mere trick. In 
 any event, the chance is that I should 
 have lost or have failed to gain some 
 ^12,000 or ^14,000 a year. 
 
 In June, 1831, another important event 
 occurred to me : I came into Parliament 
 in the hottest crisis of the Reform Bill. 
 I had been for some time ambitious of this 
 distinction, and Mr. Cooke had always 
 spoken of it as the only sure road to office 
 at the Bar. On the dissolution which 
 
 G
 
 82 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 took place in consequence of the division 
 on General Gascoyne's motion it was pro- 
 posed to me to stand for Rye, one of the 
 Cinque Ports. The proposal was made 
 through my old pupil Fane, the brother 
 of the beautiful Mrs. Arbuthnot ; and it 
 was suggested to me, as one of the advan- 
 tages, that such a seat would bring me into 
 connection with the Lord Warden, the 
 Duke of Wellington. I saw Mr. Arbuth- 
 not, and agreed to stand. The terms were 
 that I should stand with Pusey, who had 
 come in at the last election ; that I should 
 pay him on being returned (I think) 
 ^2400 ; that I should go down to be 
 elected, the seat being quite safe, Pusey 
 himself, it was said, being unwilling to leave 
 home, on account of the illness of his 
 wife. Down I went accordingly, with 
 Elmsley as my companion, little expecting 
 either of us the scene which awaited us. 
 We slept on the road, and got to Rye, to 
 the house where our voters were to assem-
 
 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 83 
 
 ble, between nine and ten o'clock. The 
 whole number of voters was, I think, 
 twenty-seven ; about fifteen were assem- 
 bled to meet me, two or three were ill or 
 absent, and not more than six or seven 
 could possibly be brought against us. But 
 the town was in a ferment. The market- 
 place, which lay between our place of 
 meeting and the Town Hall, where the 
 proceedings were to commence, was full of 
 an infuriated mob. Colonel Evans, now 
 Sir De Lacy Evans, who had attempted to 
 open the borough without success at the 
 last election, and had since been to try his 
 chance in vain at some other place, had 
 just returned, utterly desperate and deter- 
 mined, I have not the least doubt, to carry 
 the election, not only by violence, but if 
 necessary by bloodshed. He addressed 
 the populace in the most furious language, 
 and excited them to such a degree that it 
 was impossible for our party to cross to 
 the Town Hall. As the mayor was with 
 
 G 2
 
 84 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 us, and nothing could be done without 
 him, the opposite party sent a message to 
 say that they would guarantee us a safe- 
 conduct to the hustings. One of our 
 number, wiser than the rest, suggested 
 that we should stipulate for a safe conduct 
 back again, but this was thought too 
 lawyer-like, and a useless precaution when 
 it was supposed we were dealing with gen- 
 tlemen. Accordingly we went to the Town 
 Hall, where the nomination was made. I 
 desired to be introduced to my opponent, 
 which he declined ; and we then went to 
 the hustings, where the poll was to be 
 taken, which consisted of some butchers' 
 shambles close to the hall. Here the sus- 
 picions of our cautious friend were but 
 too well justified. Colonel Evans made a 
 most inflammatory speech ; said that it 
 was not to be wondered at if the people 
 were driven to madness and blood was shed; 
 that he had guaranteed our safe-conduct 
 there, but nothing further. Thirty years
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 85 
 
 nearly have since elapsed, and even now, 
 looking back coolly at this man's conduct, 
 I cannot conceive how any extravagance 
 of public opinion or of disappointed am- 
 bition could convert a man in the position 
 of an officer and a gentleman into the 
 thorough ruffian, which he appeared at this 
 election. When he had finished I ad- 
 dressed the multitude, and I confess they 
 listened to me better than I could rea- 
 sonably expect. I was a stranger, not 
 mixed up with the former election, which 
 had been attended with great bitterness, and 
 in which a very strong feeling had been ex- 
 cited against Pusey, as afterwards appeared. 
 I was making, or fancied I was making, 
 some way, when a blackguard of the oppo- 
 site party pulled from under me the chair 
 on which I was standing, brought me down 
 to the ground, and stopped my harangue. 
 The voting then commenced, amidst a 
 scene of tumult and abuse and violence 
 towards my voters which was frightful.
 
 86 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 But the most frightful of all was an inci- 
 dent which occurred when a very respec- 
 table old man went up to tender his vote 
 for me and Pusey : his son, a Radical, 
 rushed forward, seized him by the throat, 
 insisted that he should take the bribery 
 oath, and called him a perjured old villain, 
 for that he knew he had received a bribe. 
 This was a little too strong even for some 
 of the Colonel's supporters ; whether for 
 the Colonel himself I do not know. The 
 voters on the opposite side were soon 
 polled out, but it was so obvious that the 
 election could not end without outrageous 
 riots and loss of life, unless some compro- 
 mise was entered into, that Dr. Lamb, the 
 patron of the borough, said to me that 
 he was very sorry, but that he strongly 
 advised that we should be content with 
 returning one member ; that he did not 
 think our voters would venture to come 
 up ; that Pusey must of course be his 
 first care ; that his arrangements were with
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 87 
 
 him, and that he would advise me to re- 
 tire. I told him, with perfect truth, that, 
 if I had had the least idea of what was in 
 store for me, I would never have come 
 near Rye ; but, having come, and being in 
 the thick of it, I would not retire ; that 
 he knew best what the result was likely to 
 be ; and that if he chose to give up the 
 contest it would be his act, and I should be 
 satisfied. " No," he said ; " if I was willing 
 to run the risk of what might follow, he 
 would stand by me to the last ;" and he 
 immediately went up to the polling-booth. 
 When he was seen by the mob the yell 
 set up by the bloodthirsty ruffians was 
 appalling ; he turned round to them with 
 an undaunted countenance, and exclaimed 
 (I shall never forget his words), "Do you 
 expect to terrify me with your violence ? 
 Let any man look in my face and see if it 
 changes colour ; let him come up and lay 
 his hand on my heart and feel if it beats 
 one pulse the quicker. In the name of
 
 88 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 God and my country, I vote for Pusey and 
 Pemberton." I believe the populace was 
 awed by his courage, which I never saw 
 equalled in similar circumstances. His 
 risk and mine 'were quite different. I was 
 a stranger, and might easily escape, and at 
 all events the next day should be at a dis- 
 tance ; he was a resident on the spot, with a 
 house close to the town, and known, of 
 course, to all the villains who might wish 
 to wreak their spite upon him. 
 
 Immediately afterwards a gang, or- 
 ganized no doubt for the purpose, and 
 said to consist mainly of Batmen, or men 
 along the shore, who run down with 
 bludgeons to assist smugglers in their ope- 
 rations, made a rush upon the hustings, 
 entered the polling-booth, and cleared the 
 place, the object being partly to put a 
 stop to the election, which of course could 
 only legally end in the return of Pusey 
 and myself, and partly to carry off the 
 remaining voters, there being, as was said,
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 89 
 
 a schooner lying off shore, in which they 
 were to be removed. This last part of the 
 story is only hearsay, but it is very likely 
 to be true. When the rush was made, a 
 gentleman, I rather believe of the oppo- 
 site party, said to me, "You are not known; 
 stand up with me close to this wall, and 
 when the mob has passed I will take you 
 by some back lanes to Dr. Lamb's house." 
 I adopted his advice, and reached the doc- 
 tor's quarters thoroughly vexed and tired. 
 Elmsley, who was with me, escaped rmich 
 in the same way. There was a young 
 lieutenant in the Navy, of the name of 
 Francillon, a most violent democrat and 
 partisan of Evans, who had brought us 
 the safe-conduct. Elmsley appealed to 
 him, said that he had trusted to his word, 
 which he of course considered extended to 
 the return as well as to the first transit, 
 and called upon him to redeem his pro- 
 mise. He at once admitted it, and said he 
 would perform it ; he took Elmsley under
 
 90 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 his arm, and we met at our worthy patron's, 
 greatly downcast and discomfited. And 
 our spirits were not cheered by our fare, 
 for the doctor, expecting no guests, had 
 prepared no dinner, though matters had 
 so turned out that he had a considerable 
 number on his hands, who probably 
 thought that, under the circumstances, 
 they were safer out of the town than in it. 
 Truth compels me to say that I never saw 
 a more melancholy party or a worse din- 
 ner. After it was over we consulted as to 
 the course to be taken. Fortunately I had 
 brought with me, or at least retained to 
 meet me at Rye, Mr. Heptinstall, of the 
 firm of Howe and Heptinstall, of strong 
 Conservative opinions, and not unused to 
 electioneering matters. By his advice, we 
 determined to send round the country for 
 troops to suppress the riots and enforce 
 order ; and the next morning when I woke 
 I found eighty blue-jackets, Preventive Ser- 
 vice men, and a certain number of dra-
 
 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 9 1 
 
 goons encamped on the doctor's lawn. 
 But our enemies had not been inactive on 
 their side : they had torn up the pave- 
 ments, fixed cables across the ends of the 
 streets, and declared their determination to 
 resist to the death, and lay the town in 
 ashes, unless Evans was returned as one of 
 the members. Our voters were frightened, 
 and refused to come to the poll. I felt, 
 with Dr. Lamb, that there was no alterna- 
 tive but to abandon the contest ; and, as I 
 readily admitted that Pusey had the best 
 right to the seat, and I should save my 
 ^2400, I ordered horses to my carriage 
 and set off on my return to town, where 
 I arrived about ten or eleven o'clock. I 
 sent over to Pusey to inform him of the 
 result, that he was elected and I was de- 
 feated. He came over immediately to 
 condole with me, expressed his deep regret, 
 had no doubt I should easily obtain an- 
 other seat before long, and so forth, and 
 took his leave. He had hardly left me, be-
 
 92, Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 fore, about twelve o'clock at night, a knock 
 was heard at my door, and in walked Hep- 
 tinstall, who had stayed behind to settle 
 some accounts. He surprised me with the 
 intelligence that, though the Radicals had 
 agreed to return one and one, they would 
 not hear of Pusey, who had given great 
 offence at the last election, and who they 
 thought ought to have come down instead 
 of sending me ; that the doctor had been 
 obliged to give way ; and, in short, that I 
 was member for Rye with Colonel Evans. 
 I sent once more to Pusey and returned 
 him his condolences and good wishes ; he 
 did not seem to be much surprised, and 
 never showed any dissatisfaction with the 
 result. He came in soon afterwards for 
 some nomination borough in Ireland. 
 
 Such was my first entry into the House 
 of Commons. I have always felt that I 
 was to blame in not bringing the circum- 
 stances before Parliament. But Pusey had 
 taken the whole management of the busi-
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 93 
 
 ness before the election, and begged that 
 the matter might be left to him. I found 
 that our party had given some handle to 
 the other side, for, in consequence of the 
 riots which were expected, Billy Holmes 
 had sent down White-Headed Bob, and 
 half a score of bruisers, to make fight for us. 
 This was found out, as it was sure to be, 
 and it would not have been difficult to at- 
 tribute the violence which took place to 
 the popular indignation at such a pro- 
 ceeding. A good many heads were bro- 
 ken, and one man was said to have been 
 killed ; but, though much hurt, I believe 
 he recovered. 
 
 I never shall forget the night in which, 
 after so much excitement, I found myself 
 a Member of Parliament. I threw myself 
 upon my knees, and earnestly prayed to 
 the Source of all strength that I might be 
 enabled to perform faithfully and success- 
 fully the duties which belong to that po- 
 sition.
 
 94 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 Lawyers are generally supposed not to be 
 very well heard in the House, but neither 
 my recollection of what I have heard nor 
 my experience of what I have seen, ex- 
 tending together to half a century, I think, 
 confirms the common opinion. Sir Wil- 
 liam Grant, Brougham, and Plunket were 
 amongst the greatest orators and most 
 favourite speakers in the palmiest days of 
 Parliamentary eloquence ; and Follett and 
 Cairns have maintained the same station 
 in later days. Of one ordinary failing of 
 my profession, an eagerness to speak more 
 often than the audience is disposed to 
 listen, I could not be accused. I think 
 nobody ever felt more nervous or more 
 unwilling to open his mouth than I did, 
 although I believe I did not show it much 
 in my manner after I had once begun. 
 My first impression, on taking my seat, 
 and listening for a few evenings to the 
 discussion, was one of total disappoint- 
 ment. I had foolishly supposed that the
 
 Lord Kingsdowii 1 s Recollections, a < 
 
 o x */ 
 
 speaking there was something quite differ- 
 ent from, and infinitely superior to, what I 
 was accustomed to hear in courts of jus- 
 tice, whereas for above a fortnight I was 
 in the House every night, heard the great 
 speakers on both sides in the ordinary dis- 
 cussions which arose, and thought that 
 none of them were better, and many of 
 them not so good, as the lawyers. This, 
 however, was owing entirely to the want 
 of a subject worthy to excite eloquence. 
 The first speech which I heard in the least 
 degree approaching to that character, and 
 which at all excited my admiration or envy, 
 was one delivered by Lord Porchester. It 
 was spoken in a very full House, at the 
 fullest time, about ten o'clock, and was re- 
 ceived by the Conservatives with immense 
 applause. The speech was a very good 
 one in itself; it was against the Reform 
 Bill, a subject on which his father, Lord 
 Carnarvon, an old Whig, had separated 
 from his party, and it is not impossible
 
 96 Lord Kingsdowti? s Recollections. 
 
 that this circumstance may have added to 
 the vehemence of the cheers with which 
 the son's oratory was welcomed. I re- 
 member thinking that such a success was 
 worth years of life, and wondering whether 
 I should ever achieve anything like it. I 
 remained silent so long that some of the 
 party rather reproached me, and said that 
 it was expected of me to speak. The pre- 
 sent Lord Mansfield, I remember, was 
 of the number. At last I mustered cou- 
 rage and spoke shortly, and was very well 
 received by both sides of the House. Har- 
 dinge,withwhom I had very little acquaint- 
 ance, gratified me by saying that the tone 
 I had taken was exactly suited to the 
 House of Commons, and as different as 
 possible from what was usually adopted by 
 lawyers. In short, I was greatly delighted 
 with my performance ; but on looking the 
 next morning in the newspapers I found 
 what so many in the same circumstances 
 have found that my speech was hardly
 
 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 97 
 
 noticed. This is so common that I should 
 scarcely have mentioned it, if it had not 
 led to my next appearance in the House 
 obtaining much more attention in the 
 public press than it would probably other- 
 wise have done. Poor Mackworth Praed 
 whose early death was a great loss to the 
 country, thought that the neglect to re- 
 port my first speech was so unfair that 
 he took the trouble himself, as he after- 
 wards told me, to report the second, and 
 send it to the newspapers. It was on the 
 second or third reading of the Reform 
 Bill, I forget which, and acquired for me 
 a good deal of credit. 
 
 There is nothing so intoxicating, I think, 
 as the success of a speech in the House of 
 Commons, and no effort of which the re- 
 ward is so out of all proportion to the merit. 
 A single speech of Wilde against me on 
 the Privilege question made him Attorney- 
 General, Chief-Justice of the Common 
 Pleas, a Peer, and Chancellor. A single 
 
 H
 
 98 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 speech of Cockburn's carried him to the 
 high office which he holds of Chief Justice 
 of the Queen's Bench. I do not mean, of 
 course, that both these men were not 
 men of mark, who afterwards did very well 
 in Parliament, and very greatly at the 
 Bar; but the two speeches to which I 
 have alluded brought them into notice, 
 and into great reputation as debaters, and 
 but for them neither would probably have 
 attained any very high distinction. One, 
 certainly, when he was raised to the Bench, 
 had not the credit of much knowledge of 
 law ; and to both there were objections of 
 different kinds to their holding judicial 
 office, which nothing but strong political 
 claims could have surmounted. My suc- 
 cess was nothing of this kind. I was al- 
 ready in a position at the Bar which made 
 my advancement to the Bench, if I 
 wished it, pretty secure ; the principal dif- 
 ference which I felt was in the alteration 
 which it made in my social position, in
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 99 
 
 the introduction into society to which I 
 had not been accustomed, and for which, 
 in truth, I was not very fit. I had neither 
 the animal spirits nor the conversational 
 talents which make men popular in com- 
 pany, nor the easy indifference which an 
 early familiarity with it is, perhaps, neces- 
 sary to produce. I was always, and still 
 remain, shy and taciturn, and like no place 
 so well as my own chimney-corner. 
 
 In 1832 the Reform Bill was carried, 
 and in the end of that year the Parliament 
 was dissolved. I went down to offer my- 
 self as a candidate for Taunton, and was 
 received by the populace with the favour 
 which always attends a third man, that is, 
 a man who both spends money himself, 
 and is the cause that his opponents spend 
 it also. After canvassing the place for two 
 days, and spending about ^800, I found 
 that I had no chance, and came away, 
 and from that time till the end of 1834 I 
 remained out of the House. In the au- 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 tumn of 1834 the King turned out the 
 Ministers, and sent for the Duke of Wel- 
 lington. Sir Robert Peel was at that time 
 on the Continent, and the Duke thought 
 that he ought to be at the head of the 
 Government. The Duke himself accepted 
 in the interim half-a-dozen offices, in order 
 that Peel might not be embarrassed by any 
 appointments. In a very short space of 
 time Peel returned, and undertook the 
 Government ; he offered me the Solicitor- 
 Generalship, Lyndhurst being Chancellor, 
 and Pollock Attorney-General. Before he 
 returned I had been invited, at the sug- 
 gestion of Manners Sutton, the Speaker, 
 to go down as a candidate to Ripon, 
 which had been a close borough in the 
 hands of Mrs. Lawrence, the owner of 
 Studley. In consequence, however, of the 
 excitement of the Reform Bill, and the 
 grossly bad management of her agents, 
 under the superintendence, as it was said, 
 of Vice-Chancellor Shadwell, both her no-
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections, i o i 
 
 minees had been defeated at the election 
 of 1832, one of them, Colonel Dalbiac, 
 being a candidate with me at the next 
 election. Mrs. Lawrence was said to be 
 so disgusted that she would not at all in- 
 terfere at the new election ; and, as I went 
 down with my brother without any intro- 
 duction, and nobody called upon us on 
 our arrival, the prospect looked black 
 enough. However, in the dusk of the 
 evening, as we were sitting after dinner, in 
 rather melancholy mood, at the Unicorn 
 Inn (one of the worst in England), the 
 Rev. Mr. Charnock, Mrs. Lawrence's do- 
 mestic chaplain, was announced, and he 
 told us that though, after the treatment 
 which she had received, Mrs. Lawrence 
 did not choose to take any ostensible 
 part, she was very desirous of the success 
 of Dalbiac and myself, and that, in fact, 
 one of her agents would go round with 
 me the next day on my canvass, and that 
 he had no doubt all her tenants would vote
 
 1 02 Lord Kingsdowri s Recollections. 
 
 for me ; and so it turned out. Our adver- 
 sary, Shirley, went to the Poll, but we were 
 returned by a large majority. 
 
 The Solicitor-Generalship, on my de- 
 clining it, was offered and accepted by 
 Follett, who had acquired most deservedly 
 a vast reputation at the Common Law 
 Bar, and also before election committees. 
 The seat at Ripon, I believe, had been 
 offered to him before it was proposed to 
 me, but he was engaged to stand for 
 Exeter, of which place he was a native, 
 and for which he was returned. Lord 
 Lyndhurst, before Parliament met, offered 
 me a puisne judgeship, which I declined, 
 and Coleridge was appointed. For the 
 judgeship I was totally disqualified; in- 
 deed, I had always a great distaste for 
 judicial office, which I never hesitated to 
 declare, and I have. often since been re- 
 minded of it ; and, though circumstances 
 have placed me in a position in which 
 now for above fifteen years I have been
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 103 
 
 more or less occupied in the discharge of 
 judicial duties, and have found them less 
 irksome than I expected, I have never 
 once regretted having declined the pro- 
 motion to the Bench which at different 
 periods has been offered to me. 
 
 The refusal of the office of Solicitor- 
 General I cannot so well justify. My 
 position at the Bar and my success in 
 the House of Commons were sufficient 
 to give me a reasonable assurance of dis- 
 charging its duties with tolerable effi- 
 ciency ; and with the Attorney-General a 
 common lawyer, and not a very powerful 
 speaker in the House, the road to the 
 Great Seal seemed open to me. I am 
 afraid it was only a moral cowardice which 
 occasioned my rejection of the offer. I 
 announced the fact to Sir Robert Leigh 
 in a very foolish letter, and I have no 
 doubt, though he never said so, that he 
 was greatly annoyed at it. He was anxious 
 to have his property enjoyed and his family
 
 104 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 represented by some person of station; 
 and he had selected me as his heir, prin- 
 cipally because I seemed more likely than 
 any other member of his family to fulfil 
 this desire on his part ; and now I had wil- 
 fully thrown away the chance, or almost the 
 certainty, of having at least a Privy Coun- 
 cillor's office (for at that time the Vice- 
 Chancellor was always a Privy Councillor) 
 at my disposal. I had, apparently, "slunk 
 from the course when that immortal gar- 
 land is to be run for not without dust and 
 heat," and doomed myself to voluntary 
 obscurity ; and Sir Robert might not un- 
 naturally suppose that I had quitted the 
 road to wealth and honour, in reliance on 
 the rich inheritance which he had pro- 
 mised to leave me. I cannot help thinking 
 that this circumstance was not without its 
 weight in the alteration of his will, which 
 he made some years afterwards. Yet so 
 differently are the events of the world 
 ordered, both in public and in private
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 105 
 
 matters, from the expectations which are 
 formed of them by the actors in them, 
 that the very circumstance which seemed 
 to exclude me from future distinction was 
 probably the cause of my attaining a dis- 
 tinction which I believe was never before 
 enjoyed by any other English barrister 
 that of being a Privy Councillor while I 
 remained in practice at the Bar that I 
 was offered a peerage by four Govern- 
 ments in succession, and that by the last, 
 Lord Derby's, the Great Seal was not only 
 offered to me, but pressed upon my ac- 
 ceptance. 
 
 Though the Whig Government had 
 begun to lose its popularity almost as 
 soon as the Reform Bill had been carried, 
 and had, indeed, been utterly shattered 
 and broken to pieces by internal dissen- 
 sion, and by the retirement of several of 
 its members, especially of Lord Stanley 
 and Sir James Graham, and, finally, by 
 the resignation of Lord Grey, and the
 
 106 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 
 
 substitution in his place of Lord Mel- 
 bourne, before the end of 1834, yet it 
 appeared on the election of 1835 that the 
 dismissal of the Government had been 
 premature and ill-judged, and that the 
 new House would not support a Conser- 
 vative administration. The question was 
 first tried in a manner the most favour- 
 able to the Ministers, viz., on the choice 
 of a Speaker, Charles Manners Sutton 
 being proposed by Sir R. Peel, and Mr. 
 Abercromby by the Opposition. Up to 
 the time of going into the House the 
 majority was supposed by our side to be 
 quite certain in favour of Sutton ; but, 
 although Stanley and Graham joined us, 
 Abercromby was elected by a majority of 
 ten. Sutton was deeply mortified ; it was 
 said that tears were seen on his cheeks ; 
 he had insisted on one of the Opposition, 
 who had promised his support in ignorance 
 that the choice was to be made a party 
 question, adhering to his promise, and the
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 107 
 
 member got up and made this statement 
 to the House. After this decisive proof 
 of the temper of the majority, it was ob- 
 viously impossible that the Government 
 could maintain itself. 
 
 On the dismissal of the Melbourne 
 Ministry, the King had sent to the Duke 
 of Wellington. The dismissal was late at 
 night. Lord Brougham, before the matter 
 was known to his colleagues, sent to the 
 ' Times ' newspaper a paragraph announ- 
 cing that the Government was out, that 
 the Queen had done it all, and that the 
 Duke of Wellington was with the King. 
 The facts as to the dismissal and the con- , 
 duct of Lord Brougham I had learned 
 from Bickersteth ; and I turned them to 
 good account in a speech which I made 
 on the Address, which was very well re- 
 ceived. Peel struggled on through con- 
 stant defeat in the House of Commons, 
 but ill supported even by his own friends, 
 who saw the hopelessness of the contest.
 
 io8 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 A meeting was called at Lord Francis 
 Egerton's to endeavour to secure a better 
 attendance ; but in the following April 
 Peel resigned, having, however, acquired 
 an immense reputation with both sides of 
 the House and with the country for the 
 ability which he had displayed while con- 
 ducting the business of the nation. 
 
 The most curious circumstance attend- 
 ing the entry upon office of the Tory 
 Government was the conduct of the 
 ' Times ' newspaper. It had been frantic 
 on the subject of Reform, absolutely re- 
 volutionary in its language, had supported 
 the Whigs throughout, and was supposed 
 to be supplied not only with information 
 but with articles by Lord Brougham. It 
 seems that some quarrel had taken place, 
 and a note was said to have been picked 
 up in the Chancellor's private room, in 
 Lincoln's Inn, which had been torn, but 
 of which the fragments were put together, 
 and easily legible to this effect : " Shall we
 
 Lord Kingsdowiis Recollections. 109 
 
 declare war against the ' Times ' or not ? " 
 However this may be, the fact is that, in- 
 stead of a furious article against the Duke 
 of Wellington accepting office on behalf 
 of Peel, a rather favourable opinion was 
 expressed of the change. Soon afterwards 
 Lord Hardinge, then Sir Henry, gave a 
 dinner to a large party of the House of 
 Commons, to introduce them to Mr. 
 Sterling, one of the principal editors of 
 the paper, a party of which I made one. 
 
 On the return of Lord Melbourne to 
 power, Lord Brougham was not restored 
 to the Chancellorship, to his extreme in- 
 dignation, which he took every oppor- 
 tunity of venting in the House of Lords. 
 On one occasion Lord Melbourne ob- 
 served that the noble and learned Lord 
 must be well aware that, with his great 
 powers as a debater, and the weight which 
 he possessed with a large party in the 
 country, every Administration must be 
 desirous of securing his services, if the
 
 no Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 most decisive reasons to the contrary did 
 not exist. I have often heard Lord Lang- 
 dale observe that, after this rebuke, Lord 
 Brougham always remained silent on the 
 topic, as if allusion were made to some- 
 thing then secret, but which the Govern- 
 ment might be provoked to disclose. I 
 do not myself think that there was any- 
 thing of the kind. Lord Brougham's ex- 
 treme indiscretion in everything connected 
 with the King while he was in office, and 
 his scandalous behaviour to the Queen 
 when he was turned out, were abundantly 
 sufficient to induce the King to refuse to 
 receive him. 
 
 There was considerable difference of 
 opinion in the Cabinet, as I have heard 
 from Lord Langdale, whether he or Pepys 
 should be the new Chancellor; but the 
 decision was in favour of Pepys, and my 
 great friend and opponent became Master 
 of the Rolls, with a peerage, which he told 
 me he strongly objected to receive, but it
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 1 1 1 
 
 was forced upon him. As a mere lawyer 
 he was not equal to Pepys, who became 
 Lord Cottenham, and was certainly, as 
 long as I remained at the Bar, one of the 
 best judges I ever saw on the Bench. But 
 Lord Langdale would probably have made 
 a better Chancellor as regards politics and 
 legislation, though he did not make as 
 much figure as a Speaker in the House of 
 Lords as was expected. But he had a 
 great fondness for law reform, a strong 
 feeling in favour of popular rights, and at 
 the same time a deep sense of the extreme 
 importance of maintaining order and the 
 supremacy of law, though he enjoyed a 
 vast reputation amongst the Philosophical 
 Radicals. With these qualifications, his 
 appointment to the Chancellorship would 
 certainly have been useful to the coun- 
 try, and of importance to the Govern- 
 ment. Lord Cottenham had no showy 
 qualities of any kind. The effect of the 
 change from Brougham to Cottenham on
 
 U2 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 the Prime Minister was well expressed by 
 some one who remarked that Lord Mel- 
 bourne must feel very much like a man 
 "who had parted with a brilliant, capri- 
 cious mistress, and married his house- 
 keeper." 
 
 The promotion of Lord Langdale to 
 the Bench left me without a rival in the 
 Rolls Court, and in the House of Lords 
 and the Judicial Committee I had, I think, 
 as much business as any counsel at the 
 Bar. Follett was usually either with me or 
 against me in the Lords, and possessed an 
 influence there which he did not always 
 use very fairly. Independently of his great 
 abilities and knowledge, and reputation in 
 Parliament, he was by marriage a connec- 
 tion of Croker's, and from all these circum- 
 stances both Brougham and Lyndhurst 
 treated him, I think, with some partiality. 
 Sir Edward Sugden had been removed by 
 taking the Great Seal of Ireland under Sir 
 R. Peel's Government ; so that a great
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 113 
 
 opening had been made at the Bar. I 
 must do Lord Cottenham the justice to 
 say that I never found any leaning on his 
 part to any counsel either from fear or 
 favour ; and, notwithstanding his strong 
 political opinions, he treated both me and 
 Follett with as much civility and paid as 
 much attention to our arguments as if we 
 had been of the same party with himself. 
 Indeed, Lord Langdale told me that Lord 
 Cottenham always expressed a strong opi- 
 nion of our superiority to the other coun- 
 sel who practised before him. We hear 
 now much of the importance of a nume- 
 rous Court in the Lords. In my opinion, 
 the business there was never so well done 
 as during the session in which Lord Cot- 
 tenham sat alone, Lord Brougham being 
 absent, from the death of his daughter. 
 
 I do not know that anything very ma- 
 terial to me occurred as regards my pro- 
 fessional and public life for three or four 
 years after the establishment of the Mel-
 
 ii4 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 bourne Government. My course at the 
 Bar was one of uninterrupted success, and 
 I took little or no part in the House of 
 Commons till the great question of Par- 
 liamentary Privilege arose in 1838. 
 
 In the various occasions on which this 
 question came before the House in the 
 following years I spoke several times, with 
 varying success, against what seemed to me 
 the monstrous pretensions of the House. 
 It was undoubtedly a question on which 
 the leaders of the Opposition Peel, Stan- 
 ley, and Graham were quite as strong in 
 favour of Privilege as Lord John Russell 
 and the other members of the Govern- 
 ment and the Radicals, so that the game 
 which we had to fight was a difficult one ; 
 and Pollock and Follett (Peel's Attorney- 
 and Solicitor-General), though they could 
 not maintain the extravagant claims of the 
 Commons, had so far committed them- 
 selves that they did not like to speak 
 against them. One night when I sat down,
 
 Lord Kingsdoivris Recollections. 1 15 
 
 after speaking rather strongly on the sub- 
 ject, Peel said to me, " Pemberton, I do 
 not complain of you at all for the course 
 you are taking ; you stated your views at 
 the beginning ; but I do complain griev- 
 ously of my late law officers, who never 
 told me that we were going too far till it 
 was too late for the House to retrace its 
 steps without disgrace." I had a good 
 share in the arrangements which were 
 afterwards made for settling the matter 
 by Act of Parliament, against which the 
 Radicals protested as in truth a surrender 
 of the right. Perhaps at some time I may 
 go more into detail in this matter. 
 
 In 1841, on Peel becoming Prime Mi- 
 nister, Lord Lyndhurst resumed the Great 
 Seal, Sugden returned as Chancellor to 
 Ireland, and Pollock and Follett took again 
 their old offices. In November of that 
 year, on the birth of the Prince of Wales, 
 I accepted, on Peel's proposal, the office 
 of his Attorney-General ; and from the 
 
 I 2
 
 1 1 6 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 letter which I received from Sir Robert 
 Leigh, expressive of his gratification on 
 the occasion, I perceived how much he had 
 been mortified by my rejection of other 
 official situations. There was a salary of 
 one hundred guineas a year attached to 
 the office, which I foolishly declined, ex- 
 pecting, of course, that my fees would be 
 properly marked and paid for all the busi- 
 ness connected with the Law Department, 
 in which I acted as counsel. Had this 
 been done, the office would have been 
 most inadequately paid, for I was made a 
 member of the Council, and had in that 
 character to attend not unfrequently for 
 several hours together, for which I neither 
 received nor expected to receive any re- 
 muneration. I did a great deal of work, 
 drawing the scheme for the conduct of 
 the business, prepared the Acts of Par- 
 liament for regulating the rights of the 
 Prince, answered cases, and had various 
 consultations on important matters, in
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 117 
 
 which, if my fees had been regularly 
 marked and paid by a private solicitor, 
 they could not, I think, have amounted 
 to less than ^500. At the end of the 
 year I was informed by the Secretary that 
 the Council had voted me one hundred 
 guineas for my services. I was naturally 
 extremely indignant, and thought of send- 
 ing them word that I had ordered the 
 money to be paid to my clerk. I let it 
 remain some time, but at last drew for it, 
 rather than produce a scandal. At the 
 Bar all questions of money are, or at least 
 used to be, thought beneath the dignity 
 of a barrister to mix himself up with ; 
 but when I ceased to hold the office, 
 which I did almost immediately after- 
 wards, I expressed to the Council very 
 strongly my opinion as to the improper 
 mode in which the Attorney-General was 
 treated. 
 
 In the latter end of December, 1842, 
 I received a summons to go down with
 
 1 1 8 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 Mrs. Cooke to Hindley, where Sir Robert 
 was lying dangerously ill, and not ex- 
 pecting to recover. We accordingly went 
 down, and found him better than we had 
 expected. His old fondness for classical 
 quotation remained to the last. I re- 
 marked on the strength of his voice as a 
 favourable sign. " No, Sir," he said, " it 
 is ' vox nil mortale sonans.' " At this time 
 I had not the least notion that he had 
 made any alteration in his will; and though 
 I had heard that he had, or imagined he 
 had a natural son, it never occurred to 
 me that it could make any difference in 
 his testamentary dispositions, so lightly was 
 he accustomed to treat connections of that 
 description. 
 
 One afternoon, as I was sitting with him 
 in his room with Mr. Gaskell, his attorney, 
 he inquired of Gaskell whether he had told 
 me of the alteration in his will. " No, Sir 
 Robert," replied Gaskell, " you know you 
 never would allow me to do so." " Well,
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 1 1 9 
 
 Sir," he said, "then tell him now, for I 
 will not die under false colours." On 
 leaving the room with Gaskell, he told 
 me that in the spring of the year Sir 
 Robert had agreed that he should have a 
 grant for his life of the house in which he 
 lived at Whitley, free from rent, in con- 
 sideration of the money which he had laid 
 out upon it, and that he would leave it 
 to him by his will ; that they came up 
 together to London, and that while they 
 were there Sir Robert had expressed his 
 intention to leave his estates, after Mrs. 
 Cooke's death and mine, to the boy 
 whom he took for his son, and that the 
 will had been drawn accordingly. This 
 was rather a blow to me, though, as I was 
 unmarried and not likely to marry, it did 
 not so much matter. The next morning, 
 when I saw Sir Robert, he said, "Well, 
 Sir, has Mr. Gaskell told you what I have 
 done ? " And on my answering in the 
 affirmative, he added, "And don't you
 
 1 20 Lord Kingsdowds Recollections. 
 
 think, Sir, that I have acted like a great 
 scoundrel?" Of course I disclaimed any 
 such opinion, and said that, as matters 
 were, it did not signify much, but that if 
 I had married in the confidence of the 
 communication which he had made to 
 me, and had, indeed, published to all the 
 family and his acquaintance, the conse- 
 quences would have been very serious. 
 " Sir," he said, " the truth is, I thought 
 that you never would marry, and that you 
 would therefore never have any legitimate 
 children ; and I thought that my bastards 
 had a better right to the estate than your 
 bastards." In this I quite agreed, but 
 observed that that was not the effect of 
 the will, for that if I had legitimate chil- 
 dren they would not succeed. After some 
 further talk, he declared that he was satis- 
 fied that what he had done was not right, 
 that it was leaving away a family estate 
 from the family, and that his child might 
 be amply provided for by a sum of money,
 
 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 121 
 
 and he desired me to draw up a codicil to 
 give effect to his determination. I told 
 him, of course, that this was quite im- 
 possible; that I could have no hand in the 
 preparation of any instrument under which 
 I was to take a benefit ; and he then de- 
 sired me to see Mr. Gaskell and send him 
 to Hindley. At this time he was as much 
 in possession of all his senses as I ever saw 
 him. I went over to Wigan, and saw 
 Gaskell, who could not or would not 
 come at the time, but came either that 
 afternoon or the next morning, and said 
 that Sir Robert was not sufficiently col- 
 lected to do so important an act. I saw 
 him soon afterwards, and he certainly was 
 wandering, but this is what I believe hap- 
 pens very commonly in a last sickness, 
 that men's minds wander occasionally, 
 though at other times they are quite 
 masters of themselves. Gaskell, however, 
 obviously did not like the job, and, in- 
 stead of waiting till Sir Robert was more
 
 12,2, Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 collected, or coming again on another 
 day, he took no further steps in the 
 matter, nor did I attempt to do so. 
 
 Sir Robert died after I had been obliged 
 to return to town, in the month of January, 
 1843, u P on which occasion of course I 
 went down to Hindley, my aunt, Mrs. 
 Cooke, having remained there till his 
 death. On opening his will and codicils, 
 it was found that he had left ^20,000 
 as a provision for the boy till he came 
 into possession of the estate ; that the 
 whole residue of the personalty, amounting, 
 with the ,^20,000, to about ^"200,000, 
 was to be laid out in land, and settled, 
 with the estates, on Mrs. Cooke for life, 
 with remainder to me for life, with re- 
 mainder to the boy for life, with re- 
 mainder to his first and other sons in tail 
 male, with remainder to my first and other 
 sons, with remainder to such uses as I 
 should by will appoint. 
 
 Not long after the funeral Lord Bal-
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 1 23 
 
 carres undertook to take charge of the 
 boy. In my situation I could hardly do so. 
 
 Mrs. Cooke, with a liberality of which 
 I never knew such an instance, gave up 
 to me the whole of her life interest in the 
 estate, of which the income was not less 
 than ^14,000 a year, and would not re- 
 ceive even an annuity out of it. I hope 
 that on the whole I showed my gratitude 
 and affection for her to the close of her 
 life, and yet my memory now reproaches 
 me with too many instances in which, had 
 I shown the same kindness to any of her 
 relations, I should have thought them 
 guilty of ingratitude and neglect. 
 
 I was now on the verge of fifty. I had 
 reached a position at the Bar beyond 
 which I could not rise without taking 
 office either political or judicial, and I had 
 no taste for either. I had a large income 
 for my life, and had accumulated some 
 3860,000 or ^70,000, had no incum- 
 brance of natural children, and no incli-
 
 1 24 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 
 
 nation to marry, and I determined to take 
 a step which excited the surprise of most 
 of my friends, and was, perhaps, a very 
 hazardous one with a view to my happi- 
 ness. I resolved to give up my seat in 
 Parliament, the best and safest in the 
 House, to leave the Bar, and spend the 
 remainder of my life in ease and retire- 
 ment as a country gentleman. The first 
 thing I did with this view was to write to 
 Sir Robert Peel, resigning my office of 
 Attorney-General to the Prince, and 
 placing the seat for Ripon at his dis- 
 posal whenever he liked to fill it. I re- 
 ceived a very kind and gratifying letter 
 from him as regarded myself, expressing 
 the earnest anxiety of the Queen and the 
 Prince that I should not quit the service 
 of the Prince of Wales, and that, as I had 
 resolved to leave the Bar, and could no 
 longer be Attorney-General, I would ac- 
 cept the office of Chancellor, which was 
 then held by Prince Albert. I assented
 
 Lord Kingsdown's Recollections. 125 
 
 to this request, which I had no decent 
 pretext for refusing, and received a note 
 from Sir Robert expressing his gratifica- 
 tion, and adding that my acceptance en- 
 abled him to offer me (without embar- 
 rassing himself with other claims) a dig- 
 nity which he thought peculiarly suited 
 to me, that of a Privy Councillor. I gladly 
 accepted the offer which gave all I could 
 want a certain position in the country, 
 without entailing any restraints or obliga- 
 tions. Not long afterwards Lord Lynd- 
 hurst expressed a wish that I should con- 
 sent to be one of the two members of the 
 Judicial Committee whom the Crown has 
 the power to appoint, though they have 
 not held judicial office. I agreed to this, 
 whenever I should leave the Bar, the 
 period for which I had not fixed. It was 
 not, therefore, without great astonishment 
 that when I was called into the Queen's 
 presence to be sworn in as a Privy Coun- 
 cillor I found that I was at the same time
 
 126 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 appointed to be a member of the Judicial 
 Committee. Sir Edward Ryan, who had 
 returned from India, where he had been 
 Chief Justice of Calcutta, was sworn in a 
 Privy Councillor on the same day, and 
 became one of the assessors of the Judi- 
 cial Committee in Indian cases. He was 
 sworn in before me, and is therefore en- 
 titled to precedence of me, or at least was 
 so before my Peerage, but he always re- 
 fused to take it. 
 
 I was very much vexed at this blunder, 
 (of my being appointed prematurely a 
 member of the Judicial Committee), not 
 only because it deprived me of the power 
 of practising in a court which I liked, and 
 in which I had a good deal of business, 
 but because it gave the appearance of my 
 office of Privy Councillor having been 
 conferred on me with reference to my 
 sitting there, and creating, therefore, a 
 claim upon my services accordingly. I 
 was not long in receiving a letter from the
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 127 
 
 clerk of the Council, by the desire of Lord 
 Wharncliffe, then president, to inquire 
 when I would take my seat at the' Board. 
 This gave me an opportunity, of which 
 I availed myself, to explain the circum- 
 stances of my appointment, and to state 
 that whenever I retired from the Bar I 
 should be ready to take my seat as a 
 member of the Judicial Committee. 
 
 In the meantime I continued to prac- 
 tise at the Rolls, and in the House of 
 Lords, being, I believe, the only English 
 barrister who ever during his continuance 
 in practice held the rank of Privy Coun- 
 cillor. Tinney called me " the Great Com- 
 moner." In Ireland it is constantly the 
 case, the Attorney-General of Ireland 
 being always an Irish Privy Councillor. 
 When Stuart Wortley some years after- 
 wards, who was a Privy Councillor, having 
 been Judge- Advocate, returned to the Bar, 
 and wished to practise at the Judicial Com- 
 mittee, there was some question amongst
 
 128 Lord Kingsdowns Recollections. 
 
 the members whether he could be heard, 
 and they consulted me, and we were ulti- 
 mately satisfied that he could not practise 
 before the Privy Council, being a member 
 of that body. 
 
 In the spring of 1843 I gave up my 
 seat for Ripon, and was succeeded by 
 Smith, the Irish Attorney-General ; and at 
 Christmas, 1843, I took the decisive step 
 of leaving the Bar and retiring into the 
 country. I could not but feel some mis- 
 givings as to the manner in which I should 
 bear so great a change, from uninterrupted 
 labour and strife in law and politics to a 
 life of idleness and obscurity ; and I looked 
 not without some apprehension to the long 
 winter evenings which I should have to 
 pass alone. I provided myself with micro- 
 scopes, telescopes, painting implements, a 
 chest of turners' tools, and I know not 
 how many other resources against ennui, 
 none of which I ever used ; and after the 
 lapse of seventeen years I can safely say
 
 Lord Kingsdowrfs Recollections. 1 29 
 
 that I have never had one hour hang 
 heavy on me, nor felt anything but regret 
 at being called upon to forsake my solitude 
 in order to attend the sittings of the Judi- 
 cial Committee or the Duchy Councils. 
 
 In February, 1844, I commenced my 
 attendance as a member of the Judicial 
 Committee, and sat there regularly for 
 some years. The business of the Duchy 
 was much more troublesome than I had 
 expected. 
 
 The only agreeable part of my Chan- 
 cellorship to me was, that it brought me 
 into constant and intimate communica-, 
 tion with Prince Albert. Sir Robert Peel, 
 when he introduced me to him in 1841, 
 said that I should find him one of the 
 most extraordinary young men I had ever 
 met with, and so it proved. His aptitude 
 for business was wonderful ; the dullest 
 and most intricate matters did not escape 
 or weary his attention ; his judgment was 
 very good ; his readiness to listen to any 
 
 K
 
 130 Lord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 suggestions, though against his own opi- 
 nion, was constant; and though I saw 
 his temper very often tried, yet in the 
 course of twenty years I never once saw 
 it disturbed, nor witnessed any signs of 
 impatience. There were other advantages 
 in being connected with the Court, which 
 probably most persons would have valued 
 more highly than I did, viz. being in- 
 vited to all the principal Court parties, 
 and to dine at Buckingham Palace, and 
 pay visits at Windsor. I did not under- 
 value these things, for of course the ho- 
 nour was great, and on the whole they 
 were very agreeable, but of course atten- 
 ded with the restraint which in its nature 
 is inseparable from a Court, and which. 
 I believe, is greater in the English Court 
 than in any other, probably because in 
 this country the subjects are often more 
 powerful than the Sovereign. I was at 
 Windsor at the christening of the Prince 
 of Wales, which certainly was by far the
 
 L ord Kingsdown's Recollections. 131 
 
 most splendid ceremony at which I was 
 ever present. The King of Prussia was 
 one of the godfathers, and he brought 
 with him Humboldt, to whom I had the 
 honour of being introduced. It was said 
 that one hundred guests slept in the 
 Castle that night. My room was in one 
 of the towers at the further side of the 
 quadrangle, and the Queen's carriages 
 came to convey us at night to our quar- 
 ters. On two occasions I went out shoot- 
 ing with the Prince, and other visitors, 
 in one of which the Prince of Parma, 
 who was afterwards murdered, was of the 
 party. Prince Albert himself was, I think, 
 the best shot I ever saw ; he scarcely ever 
 missed. At one of the evening parties at 
 Buckingham Palace I had the honour of 
 being introduced to the French Emperor, 
 whose countenance struck me as one of 
 the most remarkable that I had ever seen, 
 rather stern, very thoughtful, with a tinge 
 of melancholy, but lighted up for a mo-
 
 132 L ord Kingsdowris Recollections. 
 
 ment with a very sweet smile. The Em- 
 press did not seem to me as handsome as 
 her reputation. The spectacle of two per- 
 sons, both born in a private station, as- 
 sociating as Sovereigns with the descend- 
 ant of a hundred kings on a footing of 
 perfect equality, was very interesting. 
 
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