a most exquisite dilemma, from which there is no escaping; it is a trap a man cannot get out of; it is as bad persecution as that of Procrastes-if they are too short, stretch them; if they are too long, lop them."

The peers immediately affirmed the judgment of the Delegates, reversing the judgment of the Sheriff's Court and of the Court of Hustings.

To give the lay reader an accurate conception of Lord Mansfield's pre-eminent merits as a judge is almost impossible, for a detailed history of cases and decisions would only perplex and weary him; and yet, without such a history, some of his highest qualities must pass unobserved.

That he was a great judge we may infer from the significant circumstance that, though he presided in the Court of King's Bench for upwards of thirty years, his opinions were unanimously adopted by his brethrenmen of profound learning and indisputable ability—in all his cases. Again, in so long a period he necessarily pronounced many thousand judgments, yet only two were reversed.

"And what," says Lord Campbell, "will appear to my professional brethren a more striking fact still-strongly evincing the confidence reposed in his professional candour and ability by such men as Dunning and Erskine, opposed to him in politics, who practised before him-in all his time there never was a bill of exceptions tendered to his direction, the counsel against whom he decided either acquiescing in his ruling, or being perfectly satisfied that the question would afterwards be fully brought before the court, and satisfactorily determined upon a motion for a new trial."

Lord Campbell adds that the whole community of England, from their first experience of him on the

bench, with the exception of occasional displays of party hostility, concurred in doing homage to his extraordinary merits as a judge. When he was expected to pronounce an important judgment, crowds thronged the court to listen to his silvery voice and graceful, yet never feeble, fluency. To gratify the curiosity of the public, his addresses to juries were reported in the newspapers; and thus began the practice of reporting, which has since expanded to such formidable proportions. His reputation drew so many suitors to the Court of King's Bench that the business of the other courts "dwindled away almost to nothing." Knowing the loyalty with which Scotchmen stand by one another, and the very fervid character of their nationality, we can well believe that in his native country he was regarded with veneration; and certainly, if his countrymen had reason to be proud of him for the fresh splendour he threw on the name of Scotchman, they had not less reason to be thankful to him "for the admirable manner in which, as a law lord in the House of Peers, he revised and corrected the decisions of their supreme court, giving new consistency and certainty both to their feudal and commercial code.

How did he attain to this exalted repute? Why was he so great a judge? It is easy to enumerate his intellectual qualifications, his logical understanding, his keenness of perception, his scientific acquaintance with jurisprudence, his firmness of will, his tenacity of purpose, his unrivalled power of application; and to say that, thus endowed, he could not fail to be-what he was one of the greatest of English judges; but there is a vagueness about the statement which will not satisfy the reader. Other judges have been not less richly

gifted, and yet have not made the mark that Mansfield did. Well, then, something must be allowed for his admirable manner. While firm, he was patient; while decided in the formation and expression of his opinions, he never refused to listen with respect and courtesy to those of others. His rectitude was unassailable; and timid as he was in political life, on the bench he was nobly courageous-neither deferring to the influence of the Court nor the voice of the multitude. he loved his work profoundly. He was a born judge, and was never so happy as when seated in his place in court. And he had a lofty ambition to bequeath his name to posterity as that of one who had greatly served his country by improving the administration of justice, and establishing its legal system on broad and stable principles.

Again,

There was an aristocratic fibre in Mansfield's character which made the arts of the demagogue repulsive to him, and strengthened his intellectual contempt of the applause of the mob. Besides, no man possessed as he was with a lofty and fervent ambition, will suffer himself to be deceived by the illusion of popularity.

*In his famous speech (in 1770) in support of a bill for curtailing the privileges of Parliament, his contempt for what is called popularity was forcibly and clearly expressed. "It has been said," he remarked, "by a noble lord on my left hand, that I likewise am running the race of popularity. If the noble lord means by popularity that applause bestowed by after times on good and virtuous actions, I have long been struggling in that race, to what purpose all-trying time can alone determine; but if the noble lord means that mushroom popularity that is raised without merit, and lost without a crime, he is much mistaken in his opinion. I defy the noble lord to point out a single action in my life where the popularity of the times ever had the smallest influence on my determina

A very fair and discriminating critic, Mr. Roscoe, has summed up the judicial merits of Lord Mansfield in language which we shall adopt with little alteration, He says:

"No judge ever impressed so forcibly upon the jurisprudence of this country, the peculiar qualities of his mind. In scarcely any other instance can the influence of a judge be traced by any marked improvement in the principles of law or in the practice of the courts. With Lord Mansfield it was widely different, and many of the most important branches of modern law derive their character and almost their existence from his genius. The law of insurance has frequently been mentioned as an instance of the admirable facility with which his strong, clear intellect created a system of law adapted to all the exigencies of society. When he was raised to the Bench, the contract of insurance was little known, and a few unimportant nisi prius decisions' were all that existed on the subject. Yet, under his sagacious administration,. this branch of law was developed into a system, remarkable for the excellence of its principles and the intelligibility and good sense of its practice. In many other branches of law his interposition was

tion. I thank God I have a more permanent and steady rule for my conduct-the dictates of my own breast. Those that have foregone that pleasing adviser, and given up their minds to be the slave of every popular impulse, I sincerely pity. I pity them still more if their vanity leads them to mistake the shouts of a mob for the trumpet of fame. Experience might inform them that many who have been saluted with the huzzas of a crowd one day, have received their execrations the next; and many who, by the popularity of their times, have been held up as spotless patriots, have, nevertheless, appeared upon the historian's page, when truth has triumphed over delusion, the assassins of liberty. Why, then, can the noble lord think that I am ambitious of present popularity—that relic of folly and shadow of renown-I am at a loss to determine."-" Parliamentary History," vol. xxiv. p. 977.

not less needed, and not less successful. It has, indeed, been said, that Lord Mansfield leaned too much in his decisions to equitable principles; and certainly in some instances his opinions have been reversed and overruled on this ground; yet, considering the anomalous scheme of the English law, and the expense and injustice which frequently arise from compelling a party who is clearly entitled to redress to seek it in another form at the expense of infinite delay and vexation, it is difficult to say whether the preservation of the exact boundaries between the tribunals of the common law and of equity are easily preserved at such a cost. The learning of Lord Mansfield has also been questioned, and perhaps his mind was not deeply imbued with the most recondite knowledge of his profession. So great, however, was the grasp of his intellect, and so lively and quick his powers of apprehension, that, on subjects where abstruse and recondite learning was required, he was always enabled to make with small preparation a brilliant display. He excelled particularly in the statement of a case, arranging the facts in an order so lucid, and with so wise a reference to the conclusions to be founded on them, that the hearer felt inclined to be convinced before he was in possession of the arguments." " *

Like every great man, Mansfield was fortunate in his opportunity. He took his seat as Chief-Justice at a critical period in the annals of English jurisprudence, when the rapid developement of commerce, the changed relations of the individual to society, the expansion of the rights of property, had originated new necessities, and it was indispensable that the law should be adapted to meet them. This was a task for which Mansfield's genius was eminently fitted, and he did it so well and so thoroughly as to leave little in the same direction to be done by his successors. The principles which he laid

* H. Roscoe, “Eminent British Lawyers,” 217.