Vol. VI.
No. i.
BOSTON.
January, i 894.
EARL CAIRNS. A
CHARACTER
THE external facts in Lord Cairns's ca reer may be summarily disposed of. Most educated men are familiar with his story. Hugh McCalmont Cairns was the son of a captain in the Irish army and was born at Cultva, County Down, in 18 19. He was carefully educated first at Belfast Academy and afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated with first-class honors in 1838. His father originally de signed him for the church, but by the wise advice of his college tutor and in accord ance with his own wishes, he was sent to England to prepare for the Irish bar. He was called to the bar of the Middle Temple in January, 1844, but migrated to Lincoln's Inn. Cairns at first intended to return to Ireland, but on the suggestion of Mr. Rich ard Malins, afterwards a vice-chancellor, in whose chambers he had read, he deter mined to remain in London and fight his way through the crowd of junior barristers who were struggling to impress their per sonality on the legal life of the metropolis. Although without influence other than that of his own transcendent ability. Cairns rose rapidly through the customary grades of distinction to the highest legal and polit ical eminence. In July, 1852, he entered Parliament as member for Belfast. Four years later he was raised to the dignity of one of " Her Majesty's Counsel, learned in the law." In 1858 he became Solicitor-General and de livered his memorable speech in the House
SKETCH.
of Commons upon Mr. Cardwell's motion to censure the conduct of Lord Ellenborough in India, which Disraeli characterized in his official letter to the Queen as one of the greatest orations ever made in Parliament. In 1886 Cairns was raised to the AttorneyGeneralship, and on the retirement of Sir I. Knight Bruce he became a Lord Justice of Appeal. In February, 1867, he was created a Privy Councillor, and entered the House of Lords as Baron Cairns of Garmoyle. In February, 1868, M. Disraeli became Prime Minister, and passing over Lord Chelms ford, in the words of the latter, "with less courtesy than if he had been a butler," he promoted Cairns to the Lord Chancellorship. From that date till the defeat of the Beaconsfield government in 1880, Cairns (on whom, by the way, an earldom was conferred in 1878) was, after the Prime Minister, the leader of the Conservative party in the House of Lords, and his speeches on the Triple Alliance, the unconstitutional appoint ment of Sir Robert Collier to a seat in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and the autocratic suppression of the rebellion of Langalibalele by the late Sir Benjamin Pine, deserve and will repay perusal as models of nervous eloquence and critical ability. On the death of Lord Beaconsfield, Cairns's accession to the vacant leadership was fervently desired by a section of the Conservative party, which, while fully ad mitting the great intellectual power of the Marquis of Salisbury, feared his rashness
