George Paul Macdonell

“ After his fall Lord Westbury retired to a villa which he had purchased in Italy, having resolved, as he said, to quit public life for ever. But he was very soon back again, to sit on appeals in the House of Lords and the Privy Council, and occasionally to take part in political debate. His intellect was still too bright and keen, and his delight too great in the exercise of his power of epigrammatic speech, to have made a life of retirement possible. ”

“ Clare narrated the history of the English connection, of the religious divisions, and of the land confiscations, recalled the circumstances in which the 'final adjustment of 1782' was made, the designs of the revolutionists, and the disorganised state of Irish finances, and insisted that union was the only alternative to separation and bankruptcy. Grattan replied in an indignant pamphlet, vindicating the action of himself and his friends, and rebuking Clare for the insulting language in which he spoke of his country. The speech is certainly that of an advocate, not of an historian ”

“ ATKYNS, Sir ROBERT (1621–1709) , lord chief baron of the exchequer, was the eldest son of Sir Edward Atkyns, one of the barons of the exchequer during the Commonwealth, and the elder brother of Sir Edward Atkyns, who preceded him as lord chief baron. There had been lawyers in the family for many generations : 'He himself, and his three immediate ancestors, having been of the profession for near two hundred years, and in judicial places ; and (through the blessing of Almighty God) have prospered by it' (Epistle dedicatory to his Enquiry into the Jurisdiction of the Chancery) . ”

“ In the history of law it is still a work of importance. The editor of his less known treatise, ‘On the Governance of England,’ however, has good reason for his opinion that the historical interest of the latter is far higher. It is less loaded with barren speculations, and it shows a real insight into the failure of the Lancastrian experiment of government; while it is invaluable as the earliest of English constitutional treatises (on Fortescue's constitutional theories, see Stubbs, iii. 240) . Except for the minute student his other writings have no interest. ”

“ An innovation which attracted attention, criticism, and a recognition of Campbell's shrewdness, and which subsequent reporters have adopted, consisted in appending to the report of each case the names of the attorneys engaged in it, in order that any one who doubted the accuracy of a report might at once know where he could inspect the briefs in the case (see note to first case, i. 4) . For some years Campbell's life was that of a struggling barrister who had to make his own way, and whose chief advantages were his power of work and his alertness to push his way through every opening. ”

“ In the summer of 1861 Lord Campbell died, and Bethell succeeded him under the title of Baron Westbury of Westbury, in the county of Wilts. His bitter tongue had made him many enemies, but no one questioned his right to the office, and he fully satisfied the expectation that he would prove himself one of the chancellors whose names are distinctly associated with the advance of English law.
The judgments which he has left are in many ways unique. Our law reports contain no more perfect examples of precise and lucid statement, of concise reasoning, or of polished English ”

“ The greater part of Ayliffe's 'Ancient and Present State of Oxford,' which occasioned these attacks, is avowedly an abridgment of Wood's 'History and Antiquities of Oxford,' 'deliver'd,' as he says, 'from the many errors and evident partiality of that laborious undertaker and searcher into antiquities.' The work enters into legal details at tedious length, and is now nearly forgotten. Aylifte's chief titles to fame are his two treatises on the canon law and the civil law, into which he threw the whole learning of his life. ”

“ Ambrose had been often mentioned in the debates, and there was much controversy as to whether in applying the vessels of the church to secular uses he had been guilty of sacrilege: ‘What might be the opinion respecting St. Ambrose,’ said Westbury, ‘in the days when he lived, I do not know; but I must say, with the modern ideas of property, that if St. Ambrose had been brought before me in equity I should not have hesitated to find him guilty of a breach of trust, and to make him refund the property’ (29 June 1869) . ”

“ The merits of his 'Lives' are very considerable. They are eminently readable. The style is lively, though rough, careless, and incorrect; every incident is presented effectively; they are full of good stories, and they contain a great deal of information about the history of law and lawyers which is not easily to be found elsewhere. The later volumes, moreover, both of the 'Chancellors' and the 'Chief Justices,' have the freshness and interest of personal memoirs. For all these qualities Campbell has received due and sufficient recognition. ”

“ Lord Moira attacked the government for its coercive policy. Clare justified that policy in a long reply, containing an elaborate account of the progress of disaffection, and of the failure of conciliation during a period, as he considered it, of rapid advance. He excused a case of picketing, on the ground that it led to the discovery of two hundred pikes within two days, and has been therefore denounced as the defender of torture. Clare himself, however, was inclined to temper a rigorous policy by moderation to individuals. ”

“ An anonymous biographer says that he had heard Peter Burrowes [q. v.] , an eminent counsel and strong political opponent, testify to the extraordinary correctness of Clare's judgments (Dublin University Mag. xxx. 682) . With equal energy he devoted himself to the task of law reform, and down to the day of his death he sought every opportunity to remove legal abuses.
In politics he maintained an uncompromising resistance to all popular movements, and especially to all attempts to improve the position of the Roman catholics. ”

“ Amphlett hesitated to accept the position, knowing its peculiar difficulties. For more than a year the unfamiliar common law procedure would still be in force; several of the judges who would be his colleagues were known to be bitterly opposed to the fusion; and he feared that they would give only a cold welcome to himself, whose appointment was its first manifestation. These fears, however, proved groundless, and both at Westminster and on circuit he was acknowledged to be a successful judge. In 1876 Lord Cairns promoted him to the Court of Appeal, where he sat for only a year. ”

“ During his whole career the equity bar was peculiarly rich in men of distinguished talent, and among them he gained the reputation, not indeed of a great, but of a courteous and able, advocate. Meanwhile he had a brief period of political life. ”

“ There were several rivals for the honour, each with strong supporters; and, unable to decide between their claims, Lord Palmerston gave the great seal to Campbell, acting, it is said, on the advice of Lord Lyndhurst (Martin, Life of Lyndhurst, 480) . Campbell was now in his eightieth year, and no one, as he took pains to find out, had ever been appointed to, or had even held, the office at so advanced an age. About two years of life remained to him, which were marked by little that is noteworthy. He made a respectable equity judge, and prided himself on his rapid despatch of business ”

“ Lord Westbury was twice married: (1) in 1825 to Ellinor Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Abraham, by whom he left seven children surviving; and (2) on 25 Jan. 1873 to Eleanor Margaret, third daughter of Henry Tennant, of Cadoxton in Glamorgan.
His character remains a difficult and interesting study, for it was full of contrasts. It combined a love of display with habits of the greatest frugality, and absolute ruthlessness with considerable benevolence of spirit and good nature. Few men have had a greater power of sarcastic speech, and no one has ever used such a power more mercilessly. ”

“ The publication in 1772, when the great controversy over the rule in Shelley's case was at its height, of his ‘Essay on the Learning of Contingent Remainders and Executory Devises’ placed him in the first rank of real property lawyers. This work, which was greatly enlarged in subsequent editions, has remained to this day the classical work on its subject, and is included in the short list of quasi-authoritative books of the law. It has been said that ‘no work perhaps on any branch of science affords a more beautiful instance of analysis’ (Butler, pref. to seventh ed.) ”

“ He had been an active member of the commission of 1854, which in 1857 reported in favour of registration of title. When in opposition he had supported the bills introduced by Sir Hugh Cairns, and in 1862, taking up the subject again in the House of Lords, he succeeded in passing ‘An Act to facilitate the proof of title to and the conveyance of real estate.’ It offered two alternative modes of registration: that of an indefeasible title, or that of a merely possessory title to become subsequently indefeasible; but, against Lord Westbury's own convictions, registration was made voluntary. ”

“ In 1851 he was appointed vice-chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster; in the following year he became solicitor-general in the ‘Government of all the talents,’ and in 1856, when Sir Alexander Cockburn was raised to the bench, he was made attorney-general. With one interval in 1858 and 1859 he held this last office until he became lord chancellor. When Bethell entered the House of Commons the necessity of great measures of law reform had for the first time begun to be recognised as of serious political consequence, and the weight of the work fell chiefly on his shoulders. ”

“ Fitzgibbon was never fortunate enough to find a suitable occasion for expressing the national feelings with which Grattan credited him. Until the union he remained practically the directing head of the Irish government, and consistently used his great influence to resist every proposal of reform and concession. ”

“ Sugden having declined to serve, Campbell was put at the head of the Real Property Commission. He was the only common lawyer who sat on it, and hitherto he had not been familiar with the subject of inquiry; indeed, it was said at the time that there were not half a dozen men in England who understood the law of real property. ”

“ There was at the time an awakening interest in the civil law, and Ayliffe designed his book not only for the lawyer, but also for the politician and the diplomatist. He considered, moreover, that his subject had a higher educational value than philosophy. 'Whoever consults Justinian's Institutes,' he had said in his history of Oxford, 'will find more sound reasoning therein than in all the works of Ramus, Ockham, and the rest of that tribe.' Ayliffe's treatise has been described as dull, tedious, and confused (Browne's Comp. View of the Civil Law, p. ii) , and with some justice ”

“ The Dutch were taking away our trade; and why? Because their rate of interest was at least three per cent. lower than ours. ‘The Dutch low interest, through our own supineness, hath robbed us totally of all trade, not inseparably annexed to this kingdom by the benevolence of divine Providence, and our act of navigation.’ Child’s theory was criticised in a pamphlet called ‘The Treatise of Money mistaken,’ wherein it was justly argued that he had mistaken an effect for a cause. ”

“ In 1841, when the dissolution was resolved on which ended in the fall of the whigs, it was felt that Campbell's services should receive recognition. Pressure was brought to bear on Lord Plunket, the Irish lord chancellor, to induce him to resign, which he did unwillingly, protesting against the arrangement, and Campbell was appointed and raised to the peerage. As the appointment was so impopular in Dublin, and as it had been freely called a job, he publicly declared that he would forego the usual pension of 4,000l. a year which attached to the Irish chancellorship. ”

“ Especially did he exasperate them by repeatedly calling public attention to the inefficient condition of the House of Lords as a court of appeal, which he did rather venomously, but with perfect sincerity and with good cause. Lord Campbell has unjustly credited him with purely personal motives in making his attacks. ‘Bethell,’ he says, ‘hardly attempts to disguise his eagerness to clutch the great seal’ (Life, ii. 315) . ”

“ Eden is spoken of as a man of well-known benevolence of disposition, and his writings display a cultivated and scholarly mind. From his humorous poem called ‘The Vision,’ in which he takes to task his friend Jonathan Boucher [q. v.] for being unduly engrossed in etymological study, one might imagine that his bent was not less to literature than to political economy. His sole claim to fame, however, is the investigation which he made into the state of the labouring classes in England. ”

“ Having repeated the distinction which he draws in the ‘De Natura’ and the ‘De Laudibus’ between ‘dominum regale,’ or absolute monarchy, and ‘dominum politicum et regale,’ or constitutional monarchy, he discusses the means of strengthening the monarchy in England, taking many illustrations, by way of contrast, from his experience in France; the increase of the king's revenues, for ‘ther may no realme prospere, or be worshipful and noble, under a poer kyng;’ the perils that arise when subjects grow over-mighty; that the safeguard against rebellion is the wellbeing of the commons ”

“ Richard Hobart, the younger son (1793-1864) , third and last earl, had an only son, John Charles Henry, viscount Fitzgibbon (1829-1854) , who fell in the charge of the light brigade at Balaklava.
Clare has been described as the basest of men, without one redeeming virtue (see the account of him by Grattan's son in Grattan's Memoirs, iii. 393) , and he has been represented as an unsullied patriot, thinking only of his country's good (Froude, English in Ireland, ii. 526) . The one picture is as false as the other. ”

“ After the union Clare appeared several times in the House of Lords, but he did not increase his reputation. His sharp temper brought him into frequent conflict, while the studied disrespect with which he referred to his countrymen, and his passionate insistence on the madness of conceding anything to the Roman catholics, excited a feeling of repugnance. 'Good God!' Pitt is reported to have said when listening to him on one occasion, did you ever hear in all your life such a rascal as that ?' (Grattan, Memoirs, iii. 403) . He died on 28 Jan. ”