benefits on all mankind which must be felt while the world endures."

It is not often that the strength, grace, and harmony of which English prose is susceptible in the hands of a master, have been better illustrated than in the above passage, each sentence in which was no doubt the product of careful study and diligent labor, while the general effect of the whole, as is the case with all true art, is an air of simplicity, nature, and freedom.

W

CHAPTER XVI.

A.D. 1828. ÆT. 49.

WHILE he stood thus high in social and popular estimation, Denman's professional practice had in some degree suffered through the obstinate refusal at head-quarters to give him the rank of King's Counsel.

His talents peculiarly fitted him for the lead, but according to the well-kown etiquette of the English Bar he could not, in the conduct of causes, take precedence of those whose rank was the same as his own, while their call to the Bar was of earlier date. Yet amongst the men thus excluded from acting under him were several whom it was highly important, especially in cases involving nice questions of law and pleading, to have retained as junior counsel, men of great legal learning and sound judgment, though immeasurably inferior to Denman in capacity for addressing a jury or cross-examining a wit

ness.

Clients were accordingly placed in a difficult alternative, and to escape from it frequently were forced to retain for the conduct of their causes King's Counsel whose talents were certainly not superior to Denman's, but whose professional rank enabled them to take the lead of those veteran adepts in the minutiae of law and practice whose aid was so indispensable in the more difficult and lucrative class of cases.

This state of things had lasted for a length of time which was generally felt to be excessive and exceptional. In the year 1828, after twenty-two years of practice,

Denman, with all his admitted powers, high reputation, and great experience, was still only a member of the outer Bar-a "stuff gown," as it is called in the language of Westminster Hall, not a "silk gown," or King's Counsel.

Denman had long felt this unjust exclusion very severely. Soon after the formation of Canning's Ministry, in the summer of 1827, his health having been proposed at a dinner at Fishmongers' Hall by the Warden of the Company, with a high eulogium on his services as an advocate at the Bar and in his judicial capacity as Common Serjeant, Denman, in the course of a very eloquent reply-one of the most spirited efforts of his oratory that has been preserved-made the following observations on this exclusion, and on what he then supposed to be its

cause:

"If, with the assistance of upright magistrates and excellent juries, I have had the good fortune to render any useful service to the public, the opportunity has been derived from that portion of my life which the advisers of the Crown have deemed it right to stigmatize. I trust that those with whom the exclusion originated, and those by whom it is continued, may reflect on their counsel with as much satisfaction as I can do on my conduct. But I could not forego the earliest occasion of vindicating myself and you you from the charge of giving countenance to a factious firebrand, and myself from that of perverting the office of an advocate to objects equally abominable and absurd. We feel in common that we are not guilty. (Loud cheers.) You felt the difficulty and the danger of the task imposed upon me—

a noble task

With which all Europe rang from side to side—

and I will venture to assert that my performance of it found a faithful echo in every English bosom. I offer, then, no uncalled-for apology. I utter no unfelt regret; nor will I enter into any explanation, for what could exceed the injustice of demanding any at the end of seven long years. (Loud cheers.)

"On one of the great topics that have long divided the nation I can offer a little personal experience, having re

ceived a practical lesson on the meaning of the word exclusion. I have been taught to consider myself a proscribed man during a life which we all pray may be long preserved, and if any friend of mine now present warmly enters into the feelings, not of the most agreeable nature, which he may ascribe to me on that subject, let me in passing entreat him to reflect on those which are likely to agitate the thousands and millions of our fellow subjects in both islands who, with all their posterity, are doomed to similar proscription on account of the faith of their forefathers.

"In my own case, whatever may be said or insinuated against one too highly placed for explanations, God forbid that I should be either arrogant enough or disloyal enough to believe myself the object of personal animosity in such a quarter. The first principles of the Constitution teach me where to look for the responsibility that belongs to all official proceedings, pronouncing my exclusion not to be the act of the Crown, but of those entrusted with the dispensation of its legal patronage.' That they have given correct advice I may be allowed to doubt, without playing the judge in my own cause, because the very conduct which is made my crime procured for me the favor of this ancient and loyal city. The freedom of London was presented to me for the zealous discharge of my duty as an advocate in the most important process which this country has beheld for ages. Almost a stranger to every member of the Corporation, I was enrolled among its citizens on the proposal of an honorable friend near me (Mr. Oldham), seconded by the gentleman who now fills the office of Chief Magistrate, and adopted without a division. The resolution of thanks, too flattering to be alluded to by me except in my own defence, may save me from the humiliation of a superfluous profession that I am incapable either of abusing my privilege as an advocate by wantonly wounding the feelings of the meanest, or of shrinking from its plain duties for fear of offending the highest. (Loud cheers.) "The voice of the city of London was not heard alone

1 In the present case, as will soon appear, this was a mere constitutional fiction. The exclusion was the King's own act; neither Eldon nor Lyndhurst dared to say a word to him on the subject of Denman's promotion.

or for a moment: this patriotic company also received me as one of its members, and the Corporation, after a lapse of two years, deliberately placed me on the judg

ment seat.

"Thank God, I have no apology to make for sacrificing my illustrious and unfortunate client to any hopes of advantage to myself. I own I look back on the past with pride, and if in future I shall be called to a similar conflict, casting aside all regard for personal consequences, I shall again go through it in the same spirit and on the same principles; and, whatever lot may befall me, find consolation in the approbation of my conscience and in the esteem of men like you." (Loud and enthusiastic cheering, which continued several minutes.)

In the above speech, Denman, it will have been seen, expressed his determination to attempt no explanation of anything he may have said as advocate for the Queen, his impression then being that the enmity of the King had arisen rather from the general tone of bold denunciation which ran through the whole of his speeches on the Queen's trial, than from any particular insinuation or charge. When, however, early in the summer of 1828, he learned from Lord Lyndhurst (then Chancellor) that the real cause of the King's deep and abiding resentment was his firm conviction that Denman's Greek quotation from Dion Cassius conveyed, and had been intended to convey, a specific personal imputation against the King of being stained with a practice of revolting depravity, the case was changed. Denman, though no lover of the King, had not intended anything of this kind, and as the belief that he had, touched in some degree his honor as a high-bred gentleman, he became immediately most anxious to have the King's mind disabused on this point, and pressed Lord Lyndhurst to convey to His Majesty a formal written denial of there being any ground for the suspicion that had taken possession of the King's mind. Finding that Lyndhurst, though profuse and plausible in profession, was reluctant and dilatory in act, Denman obtained an interview on the subject with the Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister,' who,

1 The Duke had become Prime Minister on January 28, 1828 (after the resignation of the Goderich administration), and continued so till Nov. 15, 1830.