Herbert Stephen

“ Without having that commanding force of character which procures for some men recognition as among the greatest judges of their day, Bowen was conspicuous among his contemporaries for the subtlety and rapidity of his perceptions, for his almost excessive power of refined distinction, and for the elegant precision of his language. ”

“ He hated his wife with a hatred that could only be called insane, and after brooding over and cherishing his hatred for years he murdered her with every circumstance of cruelty and premeditation. Bramwell stated the law to the jury with so much force, accuracy, and lucidity that Dove was found guilty and hanged. For the next twenty years the 'mad doctors,' who either could not or would not understand that by English law some mad persons who commit crimes are responsible, and others are not, had no more formidable antagonist than Bramwell. ”

“ In this movement Hawkins was one of the more progressive authorities. He greatly favoured the lightest punishment for first offences, even where the offences themselves were serious, but he never went to the lengths favoured by the more extreme reformers. As a criminal judge Hawkins had very few equals during twenty-two years. As a civil judge he failed to convey the impression that to do justice between the parties was his single aim. ”

“ Venables was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in May 1836, and joined the Oxford circuit, but eventually devoted himself to parliamentary practice, being made a queen's counsel in 1863. He is described as a cogent rather than a brilliant advocate, but capable on occasion of expressing himself with the most vigorous emphasis. His memory was so remarkable that he never made a note. He retired from practice with a considerable fortune in 1882. He died on 6 Oct. 1888.
The public work of his life was anonymous journalism. ”

“ During these ten years, as previously, the daily work of the office was performed by two deputies, one legal and the other military, but the finding of every 'general court-martial' had to be confirmed or quashed by the judge-advocate-general himself, who was also required to advise the sovereign personally in many cases, for which reason it was necessary that the office should be held by a privy councillor. Jeune was the last holder, as the post was practically abolished by statute in 1904, the title and some of the duties being transferred to a legal official of the war office. ”

“ He was always interested in political economy, and to the end of his life strove vigorously in the House of Lords and in the columns of the ‘Times’ for freedom of contract—meaning the unchecked power of making contracts, and the means of enforcing them after they were made—and the cognate matters which had been the popular commonplaces of the middle of the century, and underwent so much socialistic modification in its last quarter. ”

“ All were convicted of murder and sentenced to death, Rhodes subsequently receiving a free pardon and the sentence on the others being commuted to penal servitude for life (cf. J. B. Atlay's Trial of the Stauntons, 1911) . Hawkins tried at about the same time many other murder cases which attracted public attention, and this circumstance, together with the alliterative attractiveness of the phrase 'Hanging Hawkins,' gave rise to a loose popular impression that he was a judge of a peculiarly severe or even savage temper. ”

“ It is inscribed ‘Conditori hujus ecclesiæ amicissimi quidam.’ Upon this occasion Sir James Fitzjames Stephen [q. v.] , in a letter of warm eulogy, saluted Venables as ‘a sort of spiritual uncle or elder brother.’ Thackeray is alleged to have founded upon Venables the character of George Warrington in ‘Pendennis.’ Lord Tennyson accepted from him a line in ‘The Princess,’ which is dedicated to Venables's most intimate friend, Henry Lushington. ”

“ In 1890 the suggestion was authoritatively made to Jeune that he should again stand for parliament, with a view to his appointment as solicitor-general upon the occurrence of an expected vacancy in that office, but he declined the proposal on the ground that his health would be unequal to the strain of parliamentary and official work. In 1891 Sir James Hannen [q. v. Suppl. I] was created a lord of appeal, and Jeune accepted the office of judge of the probate, divorce and admiralty division in place of Hannen's junior colleague. ”

“ Coleridge retained the office of chief justice of the common pleas for seven years, and was the last person who ever held it. In 1880, on the death of Lord-chief-justice Cockburn, Coleridge was appointed chief justice of the queen's bench, and the offices of chief justice of the common pleas and chief baron of the exchequer (vacant by the death of Chief-baron Kelly) were abolished under the Judicature Acts. ”

“ Smith, big and strong physically, was devoted to sport, and was in an exceptional degree 'a good fellow.' To these advantages he added cheerful and unremitting industry and great natural acuteness. Consequently it mattered very little that his voice was weak, or that he had no gift of eloquence, his language being to the end of his life confined to the homeliest vernacular. ”

“ An American who stayed with him as his guest is asserted to have ascertained that he told two hundred different anecdotes in the course of three rainy days, for the amusement of an ambassador who was confined to the house by a cold, and that none of them were tiresome. ”

“ A scholar, a calmly rational politician, and a man of almost dainty refinement both physically and morally, he devoted himself thenceforward to study, to authorship, and to the cultivation of the social amenities in which his experience was probably as wide and as remarkable as that of any one of his contemporaries. ”

“ At the general election of 1865 he was elected M.P. for Exeter, as a liberal, and sat for that city until his appointment as chief justice of the common pleas in 1873. As a private member he took an active part in the successful movement for the abolition of religious tests in the universities, and consistently supported the proposal to disestablish the Irish church. ”

“ In the action of ejectment, tried in the court of common pleas before Chief-justice Bovill, Coleridge led for the defendants, his juniors being Messrs. Hawkins (now Lord Brampton) , Honyman (afterwards Mr. Justice Honyman) , C. Barber, and Charles (afterwards Lord) Bowen. His cross-examination of the 'claimant' [see Orton, Arthur, Suppl.] lasted three weeks, and though it was considered lacking in startling or exciting episodes, entirely destroyed in the minds of all reasonable persons who followed it any possibility of belief in the plaintiff's assertion that he was Roger Tichborne. ”

“ Besides his prolonged and lucrative practice in the courts, Hawkins was continually employed in compensation cases, before either juries or arbitrators. In particular he appeared for the royal commissioners engaged in the purchase of the site where the Royal Courts of Justice now stand. He had also a considerable practice in election petitions, being perhaps the most conspicuous counsel available for the purpose when, after the general election of 1868, those disputes were first tried before judges and decided independently of political considerations. ”

“ In 1880 he joined the second Gladstone ministry as under-secretary for the colonies, being sworn a member of the privy council on 8 May. It is probable that neither the domestic nor the colonial policy of the government during the next twelve months was supported by Grant Duff with unreserved enthusiasm, and on 26 June 1881 he accepted without hesitation the offer of the governorship of Madras, which brought to an end his twenty-four years' unbroken representation of his constituency in the House of Commons. ”

“ He seems to have begun speedily to acquire practice in London, and to have done well as a junior both on circuit and at the Guildhall. He was described by a contemporary as a 'clear but frigid and passionless speaker, accurate, precise, and painstaking, well endowed with practical good sense.' It was 'understood,' with the reserve which in those days was the proper thing in respect of men who hoped for success at the bar, that he reported for the ' Morning Chronicle ' and wrote for the press. ”

“ Educated at King's School, Bruton, Somerset, he matriculated as a commoner at Balliol College, Oxford, on 6 June 1856, at the early age of seventeen, and in 1857 was elected a scholar. Benjamin Jowett was his tutor, and he became one of Jowett's favourite pupils, continuing his intimate friend until Jowett's death, which took place at Wright's house, Hadley Park, in 1893. In the Easter term, 1859, Wright was placed in the first class in classical moderations, and in Michaelmas term, 1860, in the first class in the final classical school. ”

“ In Sept. 1877 Hawkins tried at the Central Criminal Court 'the Penge case,' when Louis and Patrick Staunton, the wife of Patrick, and a servant named Alice Rhodes were jointly indicted for the murder, by ill-treatment and intentional neglect, of the wife of Louis. The case was on the wide borderland between murder and manslaughter, and the sufficiency of the evidence of complicity against Alice Rhodes was open to question. ”

“ Cotton (afterwards bishop of Calcutta) , and subsequently Mr, Bradley (now dean of Westminster) . As a schoolboy he was most remarkable for his combination of scholastic and athletic distinction. He always occupied the highest place in the school open to a boy of his age and standing. In November 1853 he was elected a scholar of Balliol, and at Rugby in July 1854 obtained the first exhibition {facile princeps) , the queen's medal for modern history, and the prize for a Latin essay. ”

“ In person Grant Duff was slight, delicately made, and habitually gentle in speech and manner, though he would upon occasion express himself with great animation. He suffered through life from indifferent health, and in particular from astigmatic vision to such an extent that it was extremely difficult for him to read or write for himself. ”

“ When he was originally retained for the defence in the action of ejectment, it was no doubt intended that he should cross-examine the plaintiff, but before the case came on for trial John Duke Coleridge [q. v. Suppl. I] , who had been instructed as one of the leaders of the western circuit, became solicitor-general, and as such the leader in the defence. ”

“ His domestic happiness was complete and unbroken. His manifold activities and hospitable disposition brought him a large circle of friends, whom he entertained both in London and at his country house, Arlington Manor, Newbury, Berkshire. ”

“ At the end of 1881 Stephen, who had been made C.M.G. that year, was promoted second secretary and transferred to Teheran, being then in receipt of special allowances in respect of his knowledge of Russian, Turkish, and Persian. In 1882-3 he was employed on special service in Khorassan, the north-east province of Persia, at that time of critical importance as the neighbour both of Afghanistan and of that part of Central Asia over which the Russian power was extending. ”

“ Hawkins was a small man of slender build, but his features were handsome and imposing and his aspect eminently judicial. He was extremely fond of horse-racing. He never ran horses himself, but was elected an honorary member of the Jockey Club in 1878, and an ordinary member in 1889. ”

“ He remained at Oxford until 1865, occupying himself in private tuition and classical studies. During this period he published the ‘Golden Treasury of Ancient Greek Poetry’ (1866) , subsequently revised (in 1889) by Evelyn Abbott, and in collaboration with J. E. L Shadwell, Christ Church, the ‘Golden Treasury of Ancient Greek Prose’ (1870) . In 1882 he was elected honorary fellow of Oriel. Wright had become a student of the Inner Temple on 20 Nov. ”

“ During the next two years he sat fairly often in the House of Lords, and with Lord Bramwell [q. v. Suppl. I] he differed in 1891 from the majority in the important case of the Bank of England V. Vagliano [see Lidderdale, William, Suppl. II] . His closing years were passed principally at Bognor, and he died there on 22 Jan. 1907, and was buried in a family vault at Virginia Water. Field married in 1864 Louisa, daughter of John Smith, who died on 24 May 1880 without issue. ”

“ Justice Mathew differed from their brethren in holding that the trade combination in question was not made unlawful by the fact that it was intended to injure and did injure another person for the benefit of those who combined. ”