their expenditure in plaster pillars, gilding writer held up to merited ridicule, would be VÖL. IX. No. IV.

and plate-glass, has not hitherto been excessive, they surely more than compensate for any comparative saving in these articles by advertisements; and no class of traders speculate more rashly on a demand to be created, or rush into madder competition at the first glimpse of an opening or new field for capital. With them, it never rains but it pours; single misfortunes (meaning bad books) never come alone; and when we get a good thing, it speedily becomes so parodied and travestied by imitators, that we often end by wishing we never had it at all. For example, the historical novels of the last fifteen or twenty years are a heavy setoff against our debt of gratitude to the author of Waverley; and as to the fashionable novels, we are tempted to address the only surviving founder of any note in the words of Mrs. Cole :-'Oh, Lord N., Lord N.! where do you expect to go when you die?"

In an Essay on Gin-Shops, published in the first volume of Essays, by Boz,' will be found some curious remarks on the liability of certain trades to run mad in concert, or contract epidemic disorders of a very distressing and eccentric kind; the most remarkable symptoms being an enormous outlay in decorations and aunounce- At the same time, it must be admitted ments, or an unaccountable eagerness to that the prolonged duration as well as frecreate a demand for commodities by over- quent recurrence of the madness or disstocking the market with them. The writer ease, is in no small degree owing to the rementions gin-shops, shawl-shops, and drug-missness of the critical portion of the press; gists as familiar instances; but we should for it is obvious that a good slashing article be inclined to name booksellers as the severest sufferers from such maladies; for though their expenditure in plaster pillars, gilding VOL. IX. No. IV.

might operate as beneficially as shaving the head and blistering; and a coxcombical writer held up to merited ridicule, would be

as incapable of communicating infection as a bale of goods rinsed in vinegar and fumigated, according to the approved laws of quarantine. To show what may be done in this line, we have only to refer to the sudden and beneficial check given to the multiplication of lady-travellers by our chief southern contemporary. Far be it from us to say that the highborn dames in question were superfluous on the field of literature, but their copyists would be; and even of fair originals, we had assuredly enough. Just so -to come to the class of productions whose threatened influx has frightened us into the foregoing train of reflection-far be it from us to say or insinuate that Mr. Welsby and Mr. Townshend are to be received as unbidden and unwelcome guests, or that there is no room for them at our table; but we honestly think we have now as much legal biography as we shall want till another generation of lawyers has died away; and we trust the trade' will take due notice of the fact. The works before us, with Mr. Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon and Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors (when completed),! will make about twelve thick closely-printed octavos; which is as much as an enlightened public can masticate, and more than it can digest, of any given subject within two years.

with which the permission was conceded. For the accuracy of the facts and justice of the comments he is alone responsible. A third of these volumes is new.' A statement of this kind adds incalculably to the value of such a work.

The lives included in Mr. Welsby's volume are those of Whitelock, Holt, Lord Cowper, Lord Harcourt, Lord Macclesfield, Lord King, Lord Talbot, Lord Bathurst, and Lord Camden, by Mr. Welsby himself: Hale, by Mr.II. Merivale; Blackstone, by a writer not named; Lords Nottingham, Hardwicke, Mansfield, Thurlow, and Ashburton, by the late Edmund Plunkett Burke ;—a man never mentioned without expressions of the warmest regard and highest admiration by his contemporaries. He accepted the appointment of Judge in the West Indies in 1832, and was killed in a hurricane in 1835. The Lives contributed by him are more than ordinarily attractive; independently of the variety of racy anecdotes scattered through them, they derive a peculiar charm from the genial humor of the writer.

Mr. Townshend's twelve forensic or judicial Cæsars are-Lords Loughborough, Kenyon, Ellenborough, Tenterden, Alvanley, Erskine, Redesdale, Stowell, and Eldon; Mr. Justice Buller, Sir William Grant, and Sir Vicary Gibbs. The general character and tendency of his volumes are stated in a striking passage of the preface :

We have already borne willing testimony to the very high merits of Mr. Twiss's and Lord Campbell's works; and it is no slight praise to say, that Mr. Welsby's and Mr. Townshend's are in all respects worthy to be placed alongside of them. Here, how-annals of our times, there are comprehended ever, we must distinguish.

Mr. Welshy's publication contains a great deal of valuable matter and agreeable writing; but seven out of the sixteen memoirs are not his own; and there is internal evidence that, as regards these at any rate, the volunteered duties of editor have been somewhat hastily performed. The notice of Hale is a mere reprint of a Magazine article on the face of it.

'In the biography of these revered magistrates, whose contemporary course reflects light upon each other, and illustrates the legal

records of eloquent debate, and able statesmanship, and useful legislation; many bright passages of national history; reports of those eventful trials which move the feelings, and stir the blood; the struggles and triumphs of advocacy; the narrative of early disappointments and severe privations; of persevering diligence, determined fortitude, and unwearied hope; of the lucky chance and crowning victory; the clouded opening of their fortunes and its serene close; the mode and manner, so well Mr. Townshend felt more respect for the worth studying, in which these intellectual public, or had not the same reasons for hur- prize-men, "bankrupt of health and prodigal of ease," achieved wealth, titles and fame. We rying into the field. From a consideration trace the gradual ascent of the surgeon's boy, of delicacy due to relatives, (so runs the and the barber's son, up the rugged steep, and Preface,) the biographer has, in every in- rejoice over the course of the brothers Scott, stance where there were immediate descend- working their way from the coalfitter's yard at ants surviving, requested and obtained per- Newcastle, to the height of civil greatnessmission to publish these memoirs. To the teaching the valuable lesson, fraught with Earl of Eldon, to Lords Kenyon, Alvanley, neither lowliness of birth, nor absence of forcourage and constancy, to the profession, that Redesdale, and Tenterden, and to the Hon-tune, nor delay of opportunity, is sufficient to orable Thomas Erskine, his acknowledg-crush or subdue the progressive and expanding ments are especially due for the courtesy force of talent and industry.'

1846.]

LIVES OF EMINENT LAWYERS.

This is pretty near the moral we endeav- the highest sense, or fairly set up an object ored to point in our review of the Life of of hero-worship; and though it may be Lord Eldon. In the course of that review, urged that a following generation is as likewe also discussed most of the obvious topics ly to err from ignorance or forgetfulness as suggested by this description of biography, a contemporary age from prejudice, this can and there is no necessity for recurring to only apply to persons whose services have them. For this reason we shall deal with been performed in obscurity; and it is the works before us rather differently; and hardly possible to conceive a case in which rather differently than we should deal with so conspicuous an actor as a successful lawworks whose contents, (or the more attrac- yer could be held entitled to a national tive portion of them,) transferred to our tribute, if, to establish his claim, it were pages, would have the charm of novelty. necessary to reverse the judgment or kindle We shall abridge and quote only so much the enthusiasm of posterity. On this prinof these as may be found necessary in an ciple, we hesitated a little before we put attempt we are about to make, to fix the down Lord Stowell, doubting whether the claims and character of the legal profession sense of his greatness was sufficiently difin England by a sketch of its brightest or- fused; but his Continental reputation more naments, its proudest illustrations-the law- than counterbalances any insensibility yers to whom the traditions of past ages, or (which can arise only from pure ignorance) the remains of hero-worship' still linger- in his countrymen. As to Glanville, Bracing in our own, would assign niches in a ton, and Littleton, they are mere abstracBritish Valhalla, or (our nearest approach tions or names for books. Sir Thomas to a Valhalla) the passages and waitingrooms of the new Houses of Parliament.

In the controversy raised by the Report That the attempt is a somewhat hazardous one, is undeniable; and the difficulties re- of the Committee of Taste relative to the cently experienced by the famous Commit- proposed statue of Cromwell, it was vehetee of Taste in classifying the Worthies of mently debated to what extent the want of the United Kingdom, are alone sufficient to virtue or morality was an allowable deducprove the impossibility of inducing unani- tion from greatness; and most reasonable mous, or any thing like unanimous, agree- people came to the conclusion that nothing ment on such points; but we believe the more could be fairly required than that the majority of impartial persons, after duly prominent impression should be that of weighing, comparing and analyzing, will great capacity or high enterprise, not ignocome to the conclusion that there are only bly directed, and leaving indelible traces of eleven English lawyers who fairly combine the passage of a master-mind. It is enough, the two essential requisites of professional therefore, to say of Coke, the first upon our admiration and popular renown: Coke, list of worthies, that he was the most proHale, Somers, Holt, Hardwicke, Mansfield, Camden, Blackstone, Stowell, Erskine, and Romilly. There is something factitious or fugitive about all the rest who might be named as candidates. They may have been great judges, like Lords Kenyon, Ellenborough, and Tenterden; or consummate advocates, like the late Lord Abinger and Sir William Follett; but they took things pretty nearly as they found them, and therefore left no impress on their age; they contributed nothing, or nothing of an enduring character, to legislation or legal literature; they were not associated with any great struggle for constitutional rights; nor (above all) is any impulsive feeling of admiration or respect awakened in the minds of the greater public by the bare mention of their names. Now popular (at least unprofessional) recognition is, in our opinion, indispensable to make a genuine worthy in

foundly learned English lawyer that ever lived; and that his writings on professional subjects form an epoch in the history of our Law. The famous Commentary on Littleton has been not unaptly termed the Lawyer's Bible, (we rather think the name was first given by Dr. Watt,) so deep and unremitting was the attention devoted to it in the days of the Hargraves and Butlers; and as to the Reports, let his great rival Bacon speak-To give every man his due, had it not been for Sir Edward Coke's Reports, which, though they have many errors, and some peremptory and extrajudi cial resolutions more than are warranted, yet they contain infinite good decisions and rulings over of cases; the law by this time had been like a ship without ballast, for that the cases of modern experience are fled from those that are adjudged and ruled in former time.'