LORD CHIEF JUSTICE GIBBS.

Of the class of the inferior though able men to whom we have just referred, the late Sir Vicary Gibbs was certainly among the most eminent; and he had all the perfections of the order, and more than the ordinary share of its faults. It is a great error committed only by those who view them from afar off, to imagine that their learning is of a confined nature, either in their own profession or in other branches of education. They are in no respect mere special pleaders, or men familiar only with the practice of the courts. They are even in some respects not to be termed mere lawyers. They are acquainted with the whole of the law, which they have studied accurately, and might also be admitted to have studied profoundly, if depth can be predicated of those researches, which instinctively dreading to penetrate the more stubborn and more deep-lying vein of first principle, always carry the labourer towards the shallower and softer bed that contains the relics of former workmen, and make him rest satisfied with these patterns as the guide and the rule. All that has been said or written, however, by text-men or by judges, they know; and of it all, much practice has given them great expertness in the application. Then their education has not been confined to mere matter of law. It has indeed been far from a very enlarged one; nor has it brought them into a familiar acquaintance with the scenes which expand the mind, make it conscious of new powers, and lead it

to compare, and expatiate, and explore. Yet has this course of instruction not been without its value; for they are generally well versed in classical literature, and often acquainted with mathematical science. From the one, however, they derive little beside the polish which it communicates, and the taste which it refines; from the other, they only gain a love of strict and inflexible rules, with a disinclination towards the relaxation and allowances prescribed by the diversities of moral evidence. From both they gather a profound deference for all that has been said or done before them, an exclusive veneration for antiquity, and a pretty unsparing contempt for the unlettered and unpolished class which form and ever must form the great bulk of mankind in all communities. A disrespect for all foreign nations and their institutions, has long been another appointed fruit of the same tree; and it has been in proportion to the overweening fondness for everything in our own system, whether of polity or of mere law. The long interruption of all intercourse with the continent during the late war, had greatly increased these narrow and absurd prejudices, which are now somewhat more nearly brought back to their ancient level. But still the precise dictates of English statutes, and the dicta of English judges and English text-writers, are with them the standard of justice; and in their vocabulary, English law is as much a synonyme for the perfection of wisdom, as in that of Dean Swift's imaginary kingdom, Houynhm was for the "perfection of nature."

Of lawyers who belong to this class, by far the most numerous in the profession, it is also a great mistake to suppose that the talents are confined to mere legal

matters, the discussion of dry points, and the conduct of suits according to technical rules. Many of them are subtle and most able arguers; some even powerful reasoners. As admirable a display of logical acumen, in long and sustained chains of pure ratiocination, is frequently exhibited among their ranks as can be seen in the cultivators of any department of rhetoric, or the students of any branch of science. They often make high pretences to eloquence, and, without attaining its first rank, are frequently distinguished for great powers of speech, as well as extraordinary skill in the management of business. Their legal reputation, however, is the chief object of their care; and in their pursuit of oratory, they aim far more at being eloquent lawyers than orators learned in the law. Hence their estimate of professional merit is all formed on the same principle, and graduated by one scale. They undervalue the accomplishments of the rhetorician, without despising them; and they are extremely suspicious of any enlarged or general views upon so serious a subject as the law. Change, they with difficulty can bring their minds to believe possible; at least any change for the better; and speculation or theory on such matters is so much an object of distrust, or rather of mingled contempt and aversion, that when they would describe any thing ridiculous, or even anomalous in the profession, they cannot go beyond what they call "a speculative lawyer." To expect success in such a one's career was formerly thought absurd. But the great triumph of Sir Samuel Romilly was a sore stumbling-block to technical minds. A free-thinker upon legal matters, if ever any existed; accomplished, learned, eloquent,

philosophical; he yet rose to the very head of his profession, and compelled them to believe what Erskine had failed to make them admit-that a man may be minutely learned in all the mere niceties of the law, down to the very meanest details of Court Practice, and yet be able to soar above the higher levels of general speculation, and to charm by his eloquence, and enlighten by his enlarged wisdom, as much as to rule the Bench and head the Bar by his merely technical superiority.

The professional character of the men whom we are discussing is generally pure and lofty; the order to which they belong is sacred in their eyes; its fame, its dignity, even to its etiquette, must all be kept unsullied; and whatever may be their prejudices and their habits, political or professional, how great soever their deference to power, how profound their veneration for the bench, how deep-rooted their attachment to existing institutions, how fierce their hostility to all innovations, how grave or how scornful their frown upon the multitude at large, yet is their courage undaunted in defending whatever client may intrust his suit to their patronage, be he a rabble-leader or a treason-monger, a libeller or a blasphemer; and in discharging towards him the high duties of their representative character, they so little regard either the resentment of the government, or the anger of the court, that they hardly are conscious of any effort in sacrificing every personal consideration to the performance of their representative, and because it is representative, their eminently important office.

Of the men whom we have now endeavoured to pour

tray as a class, Sir Vicary Gibbs was a perfect sample. Endowed by nature with great acuteness, and an unlimited power of application, he became, to use his own somewhat unseemly expression, towards as considerable a man as himself, and a far more amiable one," as good a lawyer as that kind of man can be." Disciplined by an excellent classical education, the fruits of which stuck by him to the last, and somewhat acquainted with the favourite pursuits of Cambridge men, his taste was always correct, and his reasoning powers were as considerable as they ever can be in a mind of his narrow range. To eloquence he made only moderate pretences; yet was his language, which gurgled out rather than flowed, often happy, always clear and transparent, owning a source sufficiently pure, if somewhat shallow, and conveying ideas not numerous, not original, not fetched from afar, not brought up from the lower beds of the well, yet suited to each occasion, well under controul, and made easily accessible to others in the same proportion in which they were correctly apprehended by himself. His legal arguments were often much to be admired. He did not go by steps, and move on from point to point, garnishing each head with two observations, as many citations, and twice as many cases; so that the whole argument should be without breadth or relief, and each single portion seem as much as any other the pivot upon which the conclusion turned-but he brought out his governing principle roundly and broadly; he put forward his leading idea by which the rest were to be marshalled and ruled; he used his master-key at once, and used it throughout, till he had unlocked all the apartments by which he mounted to the Great Chamber, and he left the