James McMullen Rigg

“ During his long practice at the rolls court his mind had become a veritable storehouse of case law, and on the bench he showed that he possessed the firm grasp of principle and the fine faculty of discrimination, without which precedents are a hindrance rather than a help in the administration of justice. ”

“ Lord Holland had just restored Holland House, and there he gathered round him that brilliant circle of statesmen, wits, men of letters, and other people of distinction, which gave the house a European celebrity. Lady Holland possessed a remarkable power of making her guests display themselves to the best advantage. Traits in her character that were by no means attractive rendered her power of fascination the more extraordinary. ”

“ The truth of revelation being thus 'not the truth of theological statement, but that of fact and experience,' it is, in Tyrrell's view, 'a patent fallacy to speak of a "development" of revelation as though it were a body of statements or theological propositions,' and the sole legitimate function of theology is ' the protection and preservation of revelation in its original form and purity.' Even to the dogmatic decisions of councils he therefore allows only a 'protective' value, as reassertive, by no means as ampliative. ”

“ As a lawyer he was distinguished not less by his strict integrity and delicate sense of honour than by his immense industry, knowledge, and sagacity, disdaining while at the bar the common tricks of the advocate, refusing to argue cases which he thought bad, using rhetoric sparingly, and only in support of what he deemed solid argument. On one occasion, while he was lord chief baron, a duke is said to have called at his chambers to explain to him a case then pending. Hale dismissed him unheard with a sharp reprimand. ”

“ Carlingford's views on the Irish question were based on an intimate knowledge of the Irish people, and matured by independent thought. He had been among the earliest advocates of the policy of conciliation, and his concurrence in the late developments of the Gladstonian policy had been unconstrained by party considerations. But he had never contemplated any tampering with the union, and he consequently declined to follow his old chief, Gladstone, in his espousal of the home rule cause in 1886. He joined the ranks of the liberal unionists, but spent his closing years in comparative retirement. ”

“ Anthony à Wood says of Digges that ‘his understanding few could equal, his virtues fewer would.’ He adds that his death was considered a ‘public calamity.’ This is certainly exaggerated eulogy. Whatever may have been Digges's virtues, political integrity can hardly have been among them, or he would not have accepted office under the crown at the very crisis of the struggle for freedom. ”

“ In early life Amos was a frequent contributor to the ‘Westminster Review,’ and well known as an earnest advocate of the higher education and political emancipation of women, and as a leader in the crusade against the Contagious Diseases Acts. He was a friend and admirer of Frederick Denison Maurice, with whom he was associated as a lecturer at the Working Men’s College in Great Ormond Street, London. ”

“ Jessel brought to the practice of the law the aptitudes of a man of business; a logical faculty naturally acute and sharpened by severe discipline; a knowledge of English law none the less wide, profound, and minute because he had found time to master the general principles of the Roman law and the modern codes founded thereon, and could estimate more justly than most Englishmen the relative merits and defects of the two systems. ”

“ At the end of the year the situation in Ireland was thought to demand a statesman of greater weight at the Irish office. Accordingly Lord Hartington was appointed to that post, which Fortescue vacated, at the same time succeeding John Bright [q. v. Suppl.] as president of the board of trade (14 Jan. 1871) . In his new capacity he deserved well of the public by the effective measures which he took to constrain railway directors to be more careful of the lives of their passengers. In general politics he still followed Gladstone unwaveringly, even supporting him on the Irish university question. ”

“ He was passionately desirous that the policy of religious equality should at length have a fair trial in England. At the same time, he saw that the case of the fellows was very hard; and he sought to break unpleasant news to them as gently as possible, and even to console Dr. Hough for the certain loss of the headship by an airy vision of lawn sleeves. ”

“ The consolidation of the courts effected by the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875 gave Blackburn the status of justice of the high court, which numbered among its members no judge of more tried ability when the Appellate Jurisdiction Act of 1876 authorised the reinforcement of the House of Lords by the creation of two judicial life peers, designated 'lords of appeal in ordinary.' Blackburn's investiture with the new dignity met accordingly with universal approbation. ”

“ In this revolution Penn acquiesced with a good grace, and exerted himself to compose a feud which had become chronic between the province and the territories. In this, as also in an attempt to pass bills introducing marriage among the negro slaves now held in large numbers by the settlers, and for the protection of the Indian population, he failed. He passed, however, an act extending the benefit of criminal justice to the slaves. While thus striving to mitigate the evils of slavery he did not scruple to hold slaves himself, though he made provision by his will for their manumission. ”

“ His ecclesiastical views were of the moderate type, and the four sermons which he delivered as select preacher to the university in November 1838 were warmly commended by Whewell, and led to his appointment in the following year as select preacher at Whitehall. As a scholar he was more of a Latinist than a Grecian, and little short of a devotee to Latin verse composition. He had no speculative interests, and though he had studied political economy under Malthus at Haileybury, he entertained no respect for that science, and remained throughout life a convinced protectionist. ”

“ Jenkins lacked resource and independence of mind, was a great stickler for forms, and, according to Temple, was in an agony when left alone at Nymwegen. On the other hand, his knowledge of the civil law and diplomatic usage was very great, his industry was indefatigable, and his loyalty unimpeachable. Roger North calls him ‘the most faithful drudge of a secretary that ever the court had.’ He was a stiff churchman, a sincere believer in the divine right of kings, and of an exemplary life. ”

“ He was as competent in criminal as in civil cases. His knowledge of mercantile affairs was comprehensive and intimate, and especially fitted him for the post of bankruptcy judge, to which he was assigned on the transference of the jurisdiction to the queen's bench division under the Act of 1883. To his able administration the success of that measure was in no small degree due; and had he retired from the bench when he resigned the bankruptcy jurisdiction, at the commencement of 1891, he would have avoided a certain loss of reputation. ”

“ The Irish house resolved that Gilbert and his colleagues in the court of exchequer were ‘betrayers of his majesty's prerogative,’ and committed them to the custody of the usher of the black rod. Thereupon the English house resolved that the barons had ‘acted with courage according to law in support of his majesty's prerogative, and with fidelity to the crown of Great Britain,’ and ordered that an address should be presented to his majesty recommending them for special distinction. ”

“ He was raised to the peerage on 6 April 1869 by the title of Baron Penzance of Penzance, Cornwall, and on 23 April took his seat in the House of Lords. The new peer counted as a distinct gain to the government. In a weighty and eloquent maiden speech he justified (15 June 1869) the disestablishment of the Irish church on the broad ground of equity. He carried the measure of the same session enabling the evidence of the parties to be taken in actions for breach of promise of marriage and proceedings consequent upon adultery. ”

“ The former work was little less than an unqualified panegyric upon Norway, whose free, industrious, and enterprising peasant proprietors Laing, a strong and somewhat doctrinaire radical of the old school, painted as patterns of native virtue; in the latter he denounced the union of Sweden and Norway as a flagitious act, inveighed against the privileged nobility and priesthood of Sweden as destitute alike of public spirit and private virtue, and denounced the entire nation as the most immoral in Europe. ”

“ The interception of a letter from James II to Penn shortly before William III left for Ireland (June 1690) occasioned his citation before the privy council. He appealed to the king, urging the manifest injustice of imputing disloyalty to him merely because James had chosen to write to him, and protesting his entire innocence of treasonable practices. William, who knew him well, was satisfied, and would have discharged him, but the council held him to bail. Macaulay's imputation of ‘falsehood’ on this occasion is entirely arbitrary. ”

“ Horse and foot alike were in the prime of life, inured to every kind of hardship in the French wars, and admirably disciplined. Five lances composed a company, five companies a troop, and every ten lances had usually a separate officer. For their raiding expeditions the White Company usually chose the night, when they would burst like a deluge upon a town, massacre the men, violate the women, carry off whatever was valuable and portable, and set fire to what they left behind. At other times they would content themselves with levying contributions. ”

“ As a soldier the duke never had an opportunity of gaining high distinction, and his pedantic, almost superstitious, insistence upon minutiæ of military etiquette, discipline, dress, and equipments, made him unpopular in the army. He was, however, the first to abandon flogging and to establish a regimental school. He was extremely regular in his habits, a model of punctuality and despatch in the discharge of duty, and sincerely pious. He was a knight of the orders of the Garter, Bath, and St. Patrick, and a knight grand cross of the Bath and of the order of the Guelphs. ”