The Green Bag.
Vol. II. No. 3.
BOSTON.
March, 1890
LORD ELDON. By William H. Dunbar.
One of the most striking personalities in English legal history is that of Lord Eldon. Born in 1751, he began life as plain John Scott, son of the Newcastle coal-fitter. With no advantages of birth or fortune, he achieved by the unaided force of his own abilities a position influential alike as courtier, as politician, and as judge, — as courtier, the confidential adviser of two kings; as politician, the maker and destroyer of cabinets; and as judge, pronounced by Lord Kenyon, "the most consummate that ever sat in judgment." Rising through the successive grades of Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the highest place in the legal hierarchy was at length forced upon him, and for nearly a quarter of a century he wielded the enormous powers then attached to the office of Lord High Chancellor, controlling all judicial appointments and determining the fate of nearly all legislation upon legal subjects.
In spite of his long term of office no important changes in the law are attributable to Lord Eldon. There are statutes associated with the name of the brilliant but sloth ful Lyndhurst; Brougham, speaking nightly in the House of Lords and writing essays dealing with every department of human knowledge, yet found time and energy to engage in extensive plans of reform; even Campbell, a man of comparatively slender abilities and of comparatively small influence, produced several useful and important measures. But Lord Eldon, a greater lawyer than any of these, of more massive legal intellect, and with vastly greater opportunities, wrought no changes. He was content to leave untouched long-standing abuses, which in his eyes seemed even to be invested with a certain sanctity that rendered them inviolable. He openly opposed Romilly, struggling to amend the most barbarous and senseless criminal code that ever disgraced the statute-books of a civilized nation. And he handed down unimproved a system of chancery practice such that men declared it better to endure any wrong rather than seek redress under it.
Not by the absence of statutory changes alone is marked the character of Lord Eldon's legal career. As he discountenanced all such direct measures of alteration or advancement, so as a judge he failed to give it any vigorous development. The same conservatism governed him in respect to judicial as to legislative creation and administration of the law. He loved to follow closely in the footsteps of those who had gone before, and shunned all untrodden paths. It was from no lack of mental vigor, from no disposition to spare himself that Lord Eldon's course is to be attributed. If of less brilliant parts than Lord Lyndhurst and with a narrower range of learning than Lord Brougham, he far surpassed both in the sterling qualities of his legal knowledge and ability. At once acute, accurate, and profound, trained and familiar in nearly every branch of the law, and assisted by the great experience acquired in his long and active life, his mind was eager to grapple with and capable of solving the most difficult problems. Possessed of unrivalled penetration, always fully master
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