VII. Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst.-"I take this opportunity of stating CHAP. my opinion to be unchanged, that it is necessary to have a permanent head of this Court." Lord Brougham.-"I have no objection to such a plan. The establishment of the Judicial Committee has been unquestionably productive of great benefits; but it is susceptible of improvement, and, if supported, I will endeavour to remedy its imperfections." Lord Campbell." I am of opinion that the system as it now stands, works well. With my noble and learned friend who spoke last, this system originated, and the public are much indebted to the author of it. So well has he framed it, with an inherent power of self-development, that it performs all its functions even when occasionally deprived of its head. How have we the boasted return of nil? Because while my noble and learned friend was at his château in Provence, enjoying the clear sky of Italy and the soft breezes of the Mediterranean, we, his humble Puisnes, were sitting day by day in the fogs of London, clearing off all arrears. We did miss the good humoured sallies with which he knows how to enliven the dullest drudgery, but still the work was done, and (as he vouchsafes to say) so well that the public ought to be grateful for our labours." Lord Brougham.-" As my noble and learned friend has been pleased to bestow compliments on me in relation to the Judicial Committee, I beg to reciprocate them-truly and sincerelyalthough I cannot say he throws liveliness on the matters which come before that tribunal; so dry are they, that I defy all the liveliness of all the members to enliven them. But I must say in all seriousness that I feel very great scruples of conscience and much delicacy in calling upon my noble and learned friend, who has other avocations, to come and give his hours and labour in that Court, and to render purely gratuitous services to the public. In the discharge of judicial functions, service merely voluntary is a thing to be abhorred. Here sits my noble and learned friend in the decision of most important causes, week after week, without either salary or pension. This ought not to be. But a remedy may easily be adopted at a very small expense to the public." Accordingly he prepared and introduced a bill which created a President of the Court, with a salary of 20007. a year, and precedence immediately after the Lord Privy Seal; gave the President two puisnes with 15007. and 12007. * 72 Hansard, 467. A.D. 1844. VII. CHAP. respectively, and contained several other clauses enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court. On the second reading he again A.D. 1844, entered at great length into the constitution of the tribunal, and the necessity for having paid judges to serve upon it. Lord Campbell." This House is to consider only what the public good requires; and, getting on very satisfactorily as we are, either with or without my noble friend, I cannot imagine why your Lordships should make any change. For three years I have attended assiduously and contentedly, deeming that I have reward enough in rendering some small service to my country. If we are to have a new head, how do the necessities of justice require that the head should be of the quality here described? I know not who the new head is to be; as to this we can only form a not improbable conjecture. But I discover from the bill that the head is to be of high rank in the Court and out of the Court; he is to take precedence of all Barons, Viscounts, Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes, Knights of the Bath, Knights of the Thistle, Knights of St. Patrick, Knights of the Garter, in this House, in the Privy Council, at Coronations, Levées, and Drawing-rooms, and on all occasions, judicial, social, solemn, or merry. I am and shall continue proud of the tribunal of which I happen to be an unworthy member; but I cannot conceive how its dignity or efficiency can depend on its head having such unprece dented heraldic distinction. I shall not object to the bill being read a second time; but unless it be materially altered, I shall not be able to give my assent to it." The bill being read a second time was referred to a Select Committee. But the job was attacked by the Press in a manner which induced the noble and learned Lord, when naming the Select Committee, to say :: "I am rather astonished-if indeed, after living so long, I can be astonished by anything-that the motive assigned to me for bringing in this bill is that I want to make a place for myself. However, I ought not to be astonished at this assertion, consider * 73 Hansard, 691. Brougham said the intention of the bill was to give precedence to the new President only while sitting in Court, but it was anxiously framed to give it in all places and at all times. Indeed, his precedence in Court required no special enactment. Brougham, by no means covetous of money, would have cared very little for the proposed salary, but would have had great delight in the proposed precedence. Such weaknesses are to be found united with high aspirations. VII. A.D. 1844. ing the numerous race it belongs to engendered by malice and CHAP. her bastard sister falsehood-both begotten by the father of lies upon the weakness of human nature. The person who put forth the story ought to have reflected that anything more absurd could not have been devised by the wit of man. It is a perfectly notorious fact that I have refused such an offer three times over, and when my noble and learned friend on the woolsack and another noble friend pressed me to it, and when, if I had consented, the bill would have been brought in with all the weight of the Government, I refused it. I did not then see the necessity for it as I now do." * Upon this Lord John Russell, leader of the Opposition in the Commons, put a question to Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, in the following terms: "I wish to call the attention of the right honourable gentleman and of the House to a very extraordinary statement which I think the right honourable gentleman will himself be happy to contradict. It is said that a very eminent person, some time ago, received an offer no less than three times repeated to place him at the head of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as a permanent Judge. It would seem the more wise and usual course, if the Government considered such a judge necessary, for them to introduce their own bill and to carry their bill through Parliament, and to allow it to receive the royal assent, before an offer was made to any individual of the new judgeship. It certainly seems a most extraordinary,-not to call it a suspicious, course to propose to any individual, however eminent, that he should accept such an appointment, there being at that time no office of the kind in existence, and the proposed office being connected with the Privy Council,-always considered to be so immediately under the control of the sovereign." Sir Robert Peel was dreadfully puzzled, for he now heard of this "New President" for the first time. He would not pervert the truth, and having had such steady support from Brougham, he was loth to affront him. But the following sentence contradicts Brougham very flatly, although not in express words: "If the bill in the House of Lords for appointing a President * 73 Hansard, 796. CHAP. A.D. 1844. Interview between Brougham and his biographer. of the Judicial Committee comes down to this House, I have as unfettered a right to exercise a discretion with respect to it as the noble Lord himself." * Brougham immediately abandoned the clauses in the bill about the new judgeship, and the bill passed, merely altering in some particulars the jurisdiction of the Court. The news papers now blamed him for abandoning the clauses about the new judgeship when he found that he could not be the judge, and he again complained in the House of Lords— "that nothing could be more scandalous, false, and audacious, for he had explained in his place that he never had a thought of being a candidate for the judgeship."† I am bound to say that in this affair we have an illustration of the remark I have before made respecting Brougham's strange practice of recklessly making statements in the presence of those who he knew might, if so inclined, have flatly contradicted him. But, to use a favourite phrase of his own. he really seemed at times to labour under a "hallucination,” which disturbed his judgment, confused the boundary between memory and imagination, annihilated undoubted facts, and gave him a momentary belief in that which never had existed. Although his statements were not much relied upon, he never had the reputation of a wilful teller of falsehoods, and he always maintained his position in society as a gentleman. His supposed entire want of sincerity may perhaps be explained by the diversity of feelings which agitated his mind at different times, rather than by his consciously expressing sentiments, which at the time of expressing them he did not entertain. I passed the autumn of 1844 at Boulogne. Knowing that at Boulogne Brougham would be passing through on his way to the Château Eleanor Louise, I thought that after our recent encounters in the House of Lords he might avoid me, but he found me out--employed upon my biographical work. We were cordial as usual, and he warmly invited me to visit. him in Provence,-saying, "Mind, if you do not come, I will write the Lives of the Chancellors,' publish before you, and take the wind out of your sails." CHAP. VII. We did not meet again till the beginning of the following A.D. 1845. Session of Parliament. In the interval I received several letters from him, which I have not preserved. Sometimes they contained observations upon individuals, which showed that they were sent on an implied understanding that they should be burnt as soon as read; but generally, they were upon very trifling matters, certainly not written to be published. 1845. The Session of 1815 was exceedingly dull. Peel was now Session of transcendently powerful, and party struggles had almost ceased. In the Lords there was no one to lead the Opposition. Lord Melbourne had suffered from an attack of paralysis, and although he had so far recovered as to be able to come down. to the House, he was in such a shattered condition that he was not allowed to speak. Under these circumstances Lord Lansdowne refused to act as leader, and there was no one else who could be recognised in that capacity. Brougham had an easy time of it as Protector of the Government. However, daily speaking was necessary to him, and I find in the volumes of Hansard for this Session, no fewer than one hundred and seventy-four of his speeches reported.* But these were almost all upon subjects of temporary interest. One great speech he made on Law Reform, detailing, with great minuteness (the Peers thought tediousness), what he had proposed, what had been done, and what remained to be done. He concluded by laying on the table nine new bills, for the amendment of the law, and moving that they be read a first time. But, to his great mortification, although there Brougham was a numerous attendance of peers when he began, they empty were now reduced to three besides the orator, viz., the Lord boxes. Chancellor on the woolsack, Lord Wharncliffe on the Ministerial side, and Lord Campbell representing the Opposition.† * See Index to vol. lxxxii. I am shocked to say that I found 117 of my own, most of them, I believe, provoked by Brougham. Without his help the House would often have adjourned immediately after prayers, instead of sitting to the late hour of half-past seven. † 80 Hansard, 515. His pet bill of the nine was a bill to establish Courts performs to |