584
THE GREEN BAG
and I am damned if I am going to hear you when I cannot reply." Evidently, if Lord Halsbury is to be taken as a specimen, the British race is not deterio rating physically. His judicial deliverances seem to satisfy not only the standard of the legal profes sion, but the sublimated wisdom that is popularly supposed to be possessed by "the man in the street" — supreme arbiter of the twentieth century. In the considera tion of the many new problems which have arisen of late years, such as those connected with modern Company Law, combinations and conspiracies in restraint of trade, Trade Union Law, and the Workmen's Compen sation Act, the Lord Chancellor's pro nouncements have been characterized by their extreme sanity, and by the large vein of common sense and reasonableness which pervades them. Other judges may be more showy and pedantic, their judgments may seem more recondite and subtle, and their parade of black-letter learning and case law more labored, but the chancellor has a knack of saying what he means in vigorous terse English, in a manner which appeals strongly to the profession and the public as the opinions of a virile, fearless, and wellbalanced man, who hits the nail on the head. No judge differentiates more clearly be tween the sphere of the legislator and that of the judge, and he does not endeavor to convert the latter into the former. Withal, the chancellor has the reputation of being a profound classical scholar and strongly favorable to the compulsory study of Greek as part of a literary education. At the Hardwicke society dinner referred to, Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., formerly so licitor general, speaking of Lord Halsbury, said that the Lord Chancellor was the greatest judge before whom he had ever practised, and while his indomitable and perpetual youth might have disappointed the expectations of other people, those who were really interested in the efficient dis
charge of judicial duties could not but be thankful that the Lord Chancellor had been granted so long a period for the exercise of his most excellent influence on the admin istration of the law. Other distinguished speakers coincided in the encomium of Sir Edward. In fact, members of the Bench of England may to-day piously look up to Lord Halsbury as the author and finisher of their iudicial being, as with only three exceptions every judge now on the Bench owes his elevation to the present chancellor. It would be affectation to affirm that none of his Lordship's appointments have been properly open to criticism, but on the whole, the judicial force which owes its selection to him is distinctly creditable. The courts are up to date and delays are uncommon. The "cunctative" judge would be an impossi bility in these days under Lord Halsbury. The great office of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and keeper of the Great Seal, is certainly the most historic judicial position in the world. Probably it is also the most important, and a list of the predeces sors of Lord Halsbury from the time of Augmendus, chancellor under King Ethelbert, A.D. 605, up to the present time con tains the names of many of the best-known figures in English history. One may be pardoned for enumerating a few of the more distinguished. St. Swithin (who was canonized for his virtues, but • whose name is now chiefly connected with the superstition as to forty days of rain or sunshine) was chancellor A.D. 827-836; Thomas a'Becket, 1135; Walter de Merton, 1262; Scrope, 1378; Beaufort, 1403; Wolsey, 1515; Bacon, 1618; Littleton, 1641; Claren don, 1658; Jeffreys, 1685; Somers, 1693; Hardwicke, 1737: Eldon, 1801; and in more recent years, Brougham, Erskine, Campbell, Lyndhurst, Cottenham, Camden, Bathurst, Westbury, Chelmsford, Cairns, Selborne, and Herschell, make a long roll of eminent jurists. One holder of the chancellorship was
