English Judicial Character of the King's Bench, he was fitted as few have been at any time to fill so im portant a post. But his attainments, his rare mental powers, would not alone have made him, as some have thought him, the greatest of English judges. Lord Mansfield loved justice, he felt his obli gation as a servant of the public, he was unflinching in his courage and independ ence, and he had in marked degree that somewhat rare combination of qualities which make up what may be called the judicial faculty — something capable of no exact definition, heaven-born, per haps, and certainly, by some, not to be acquired. The administration of his court was beyond criticism, and he pre sided with a dignity and consideration unsurpassed even by Lord Hardwicke. Coke, Holt, perhaps others, were more deeply learned in the common law, had greater reverence for it, and are more thoroughly identified with it. But Lord Mansfield's accomplishments for juris prudence went much beyond the work of any of these. With a breadth of vision impossible for men whose only learning was the common law, he saw the need of something more expansive to apply to changing commercial conditions, and, building on other systems with which his extensive studies had given him familiarity, he instituted, and in large measure perfected, a new system of law for the world of trade and business. Judicial history has few instances of opportunity so admirably embraced. He well deserves to be characterized, in the terms so often used of him, as "The Great Lord Mansfield." Lord Camden is hardly to be placed among England's greatest judges, but there is a charm about him that some greater names do not possess. It is the attraction of noble character, always nobly exerted, rather than of uncommon powers. While Attorney-General, he
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thus expressed his conception of his duty as public prosecutor in an important capital case before the House of Lords: "My Lords," he said, "as I never thought it my duty in any case to attempt at eloquence where a prisoner stood upon trial for his life, much less shall I think of doing it before your Lordships: give me leave, therefore, to proceed to a narrative of the facts." Living long, as most of the noted English judges did, he was true always to this spirit of justice and moderation; and in all his conduct, both as judge and legisla tor, he acted on the belief that he was charged with an obligation to aid in making the law the servant of truth and freedom. Indeed, there was about him, as one of his contemporaries has re corded, a "kind of benevolent solicitude for the discovery of truth." Approach ing his duties in this spirit, when called to fill the highest judicial office in Eng land, and possessing much more than ordinary powers and attainments, he did not need the more brilliant qualities of some of his greater contemporaries to make of him the trusted and respected judge that he became. If we may trust Lord Campbell's narrative, Lord Thurlow enjoyed a rep utation as a great judge that he did not deserve. His immense self-confidence, his overbearing and often threatening manner, his oracular and contemptuous method of speech, awed those who came in contact with him and impressed them with a belief in his possession of powers which a critical consideration of his acts and utterances does not support. Yet even Lord Campbell, who, whether in the spirit of the impartial historian or for some other reason, finds little to praise in Lord Thurlow, admits the native vigor of his intellect and the in fluence which he could exert over the minds of men. And it could not well
