George Cockburn

“ Bowing courteously on every side, he advanced through the crowd, turning his rapid and piercing look here and there through the room, while with that tact, the essential gift of his family, he recognized each person by his name, directing from one to the other some passing observation.
“Ah, Sir George Cockburn, how d’ ye do?—your son’s appointment is made out. Major Conyers, that application shall be looked to. Forbes, you must explain that I cannot possibly put men in the regiment of their choice; the service is the first thing. ”

“ COCKBURN, ADAM (1656–1735) , lord justice clerk, was a lineal descendant of John Cockburn the younger of Ormiston, and Margaret Hepburn his wife (Nisbet, System of Heraldry, 1804, p. 347) . On 28 Dec. 1671 he succeeded his brother John in the possession of the lands and barony of Ormiston. He was one of the commissioners for Haddingtonshire in the convention of 1678 and in the parliament of 1681. Cockburn was not a member of the parliament of 1685-6, but again represented Haddingtonshire in the convention of 1689, which afterwards reassembled as a parliament without re-election of its members. ”

“ A large naval force under the command of Sir Alexander Cochrane, having on board a strong body of troops, commanded by Major-General Ross, assembled in the Chesapeake in the beginning of Aug. 1814, waiting the arrival of a reinforcement from Bermuda. Their junction took place on the 11th, when the Commander-in-Chief was informed by Rear-Admiral Cockburn, that the American Commodore Barney, with the Baltimore flotilla, had taken shelter at the head of the Patuxent; of this circumstance advantage was taken as a pretext for ascending that river, with the avowed purpose of an attack upon Barney ”

“ In the summer of 1801, she formed part of a squadron of frigates under the orders of Captain (now Sir Lawrence W.) Halsted, employed off Elba, to prevent supplies being conveyed to the French troops on that island. Whilst employed on this service, Captain Cockburn assisted at the capture of the Success, formerly a British frigate, and destruction of la Bravoure, of 46 guns and 283 men, near Leghorn. Her commander, with several of his officers, were made prisoners by la Minerve’s boats. ”

“ In consequence of this success, the right flank of the army was secured; and the force of the Americans being ascertained to be such only as would justify an attempt to take the capital by a coup de main, Major-General Ross in concert with Rear-Admiral Cockburn, determined on making it.
In the course of the 23d, all necessary preparations were made for the advance; and in the afternoon, the troops, and an additional number of seamen and marines being landed from the squadron, proceeded about five miles nearer Washington, where they bivouacqued for that night. ”

“ The subject of this memoir is the second son of the late Sir James Cockburn, Baronet, (a descendant of the said Alexander) by Miss Ayscough, daughter of the late Dean of Bristol, and niece to Lord Littleton [1] . At the commencement of the war with the French republic, we find him proceeding to the Mediterranean with Vice-Admiral Hotham, in the Britannia, of 100 guns; from which ship he removed into the Victory, another first rate, bearing the flag of Viscount Hood, by whom he was promoted to the command of the Speedy sloop. ”

“ On the 21st, Major-General Ross marched to Nottingham, higher up the Patuxent, on the same (right) bank; the armed boats and tenders of the fleet, under Rear-Admiral Cockburn, making a corresponding movement in communication with the troops on shore, and in pursuit of Commodore Barney, who, with his flotilla, consisting of one armed sloop and sixteen vessels, retired before them. On the 22nd the army moved to Marlborough, while the boats pursued the flotilla ”

“ On the 26th June, Sir Sidney Beck with, at the head of the flying corps attached to the fleet under Sir John B. Warren, who had embarked his troops on board Rear-Admiral Cockburn’s squadron, landed to the westward of Hampton, and, whilst the enemy’s attention was engaged by a fire from the vessels upon the batteries, he turned their flank unperceived. A brisk action ensued, which terminated in his gaining possession of their camp and fortified works. The total loss sustained by the British on this occasion was 5 men slain, 33 wounded, and 10 missing. ”

“ You are, Sir, so thoroughly acquainted with the merits of Captain Cockhurn, that it is needless for me to express them; hut the discipline of la Minerve does the highest credit to her Captain and Lieutenants, and I wish fully to declare the sense I entertain of their judgment and gallantry. Lieutenant Culverhouse is an old officer of distinguished merit [7] . Lieutetants Hardy, Gage, and Noble, deserve every praise which gallantry and zeal justly entitled them to, as does every other officer and man in the ship. ”

“ The next important event was the unsuccessful attack made upon Baltimore, in Sept. 1814; the army succeeded in defeating the Americans, and approached close to the city; but so efficient were the naval means of defence, that our ships of war could not co-operate, and all the brilliant achievements of our soldiers proved useless On this occasion that part of the naval service which was connected with the army, was again confided to Rear-Admiral Cockburn, who evinced his usual zeal and ability, and executed his important trust to the entire satisfaction of the Commander-in-Chief. ”

“ Running Rein could not be produced by Mr Wood, and Baron Alderson took a strong view of this circumstance, so that Cockburn found himself on the losing side, while his strenuous advocacy of his client’s cause had led him into making, in his opening speech, strictures on Lord George Bentinck’s conduct in the case which had better have been reserved to a later stage. He was, however, a hard fighter, but not an unfair one—a little irritable at times, but on the whole a courteous gentleman, and his practice went on increasing. ”

“ Early in Feb. 1810, Captain Cockburn was appointed to the command of the Implacable 74, with a frigate [2] and two small vessels under his orders. He was directed to receive the Baron de Kolli and his friend on board, and to proceed in the execution of his orders, which were to land him in Quiberon bay, and to await his return, and that of Ferdinand, to the sea-shore. Jewellery to the amount of £10,000 was placed in the hands of Captain Cockburn, who, with the assistance of Mr. Westphal, (his first lieutenant,) and the Baron himself, sewed them up in the dresses of the latter. ”

“ Rear-Admiral Cockburn afterwards anchored off Spesuçie Island, from whence a supply of cattle was obtained for the fleet in Chesapeake Bay. Whilst in the act of anchoring, he observed guns fired, and American colours hoisted at a battery lately erected at Havre-de-Grace, at the entrance of the Susquehanna river. ”

“ How very different are our modern democracies, which include millions of people scattered over wide areas! It is only by means of representation that modern nations can make any form of democratic government possible. ”

“ He entered the faculty of advocates in 1800, and attached himself, not to the party of his relatives, who could have afforded him most valuable patronage, but to the Whig or Liberal party, and that at a time when it held out few inducements to men ambitious of success in life. On the accession of Earl Grey’s ministry in 1830 he became solicitor-general for Scotland. In 1834 he was raised to the bench, and on taking his seat as a judge in the court of session he adopted the title of Lord Cockburn. Cockburn’s forensic style was remarkable for its clearness, pathos and simplicity ”

“ Theorists have been telling us for two centuries that democracy is government for the people by the people. In my study of history I cannot find that any such government has ever existed. That democracy has meant government for the people I have no doubt ”

“ It is, true that people have sometimes controlled their rulers in the past, and that in the more enlightened countries of the world they have devised political machinery for controlling them more effectively. But there is a vast difference between actual governance and the control of those who govern. ”

“ Think of Great Britain and the Empire in the past five years. What share have the mass of the people had in the administration of affairs compared with the members of the British Cabinet? Is it not infinitesimal? And is it not true of all those countries which we call democratic that it is the few who govern, and that all the people do is to select and control them? ”

“ Cabinet ministers are responsible to a majority of the people's representatives in Parliament, and hold office only as long as they retain their confidence. That is how the harmony between the Legislature and the Executive has been secured. ”

“ I say the best available, because we must not assume that the most capable administrators in the community; are willing to submit themselves for election to Parliament. Such a constitution can fail only if the people as a whole prove themselves unequal to the task of encouraging the right men to undertake national responsibilities. What more can you ask of any constitution suited to the temper of a democratic people? ”

“ Cockburn also preferred men’s society to that of women. A company without a clever man in it was to her worse than no company at all. The sterling stuff that was in her is to be seen in what she curiously says of the early years of her marriage with young Cockburn, son of the Lord Justice Clerk: ‘I was married, properly speaking, to a man of seventy-five, my father-in-law. ”

“ My reason no sooner began to open, and to get some fair-play, than the distressing wisdom of my ancestors began to fade, and the more attractive sense that I met with among the young men into whose company our debating societies threw me, gradually hardened me into what I became—whatever this was.' Fortunately Cockburn, though he became a Whig and a political lawyer, did not let his mind become narrowed against the larger human interests. ”

“ All those who believe with Edmund Burke that representatives owe their judgment as well as their voice to their constituents, will be pleased to know that, in this particular aim, the associations failed. The leaders of the political party in Parliament found their restrictions too burdensome, and incompatible with the self-respect of men who aspired to lead and direct the nation in the assembly that represented all the people, and not merely a section. ”

“ The Greatest Merit of the British Constitution.
One of the greatest merits of our working constitution—perhaps the greatest—is that direct action and revolution within the State are no longer necessary for any reform whatsoever. If the majority of the people are determined on change, there is no reason why they should not get it in a regular constitutional way, and that is infinitely better and more worthy of rational beings than having recourse to brute force and violence. ”

“ Government is not the business of the people; they have not, and never will have the time, opportunity, training, and ability for it. The responsibility that rests upon them is to choose and control the few who can govern, and democratic nations will stand or fall according to the manner in which they discharge it. The best constitution in the world will not save us from decline or disaster if the people are too ignorant or too perverse to choose and support capable and reliable leaders and reject mere irresponsible talkers and vote hunters. ”

“ It is a growth, not a sudden acquisition, and just for that reason it is likely to be so well adjusted to the temper and capacity of the people at large that any attempt to replace it by the cut-and-dried schemes of logicians and theorists will assuredly bring on a reaction. It has always been so in the past. Great upheavals are followed by periods of unrest and change; but the continuity of history is never lost. When the wave of revolution has swept by, the habits of a nation, which are called traditions, have asserted their power. ”

“ History is the record of human experience, and the best way to explode a shibboleth of this kind is to bring it to the test of experience. Theorists in the matters of government have nearly always paid too much homage to logic and too little to the importance of passion, prejudice, habit, and tradition. Some, like the anarchists, assume that men are so good that they do not need to be governed at all, and some, like the Bolshevist, that the poorer and more inexperienced they are the better they can manage human affairs. ”

“ Institutions and systems that endure derive their nourishment from habit, feeling, and tradition, and all that goes to make up experience.
But it is not enough to argue that our working constitution is venerable. It has often happened in this world's history that systems have outlived their usefulness, and some constitutions have been deservedly overthrown. ”

“ They carry one principle so far that other principles, equally true, if brought to the test of experience and common sense, are abandoned or forgotten. It is likely that most of these theories in art and government will have their day and cease to be. ”

“ If there is anything unsatisfactory in the written constitution under which we live, the people can amend it to their own liking, subject only to approved safeguards against ill-considered tampering. All that is needed is that the people shall make up their minds. ”

“ George, the elder son (I think) is a jewel. I believe he would pop his Sunday coat if he thought it would do us any good. He is strongly of opinion that Henry should advertise for a job. He says he is certain that he would get lots of answers. But I think it will be better to wait till we see what happens at Sherbrooke, as by all accounts he could not do better than go to old Crabtree. I think, with the prospect of his being shortly settled there, you might write and explain (if possible) the matter of the introduction—if we are not here they can forward the letter. ”