English Judicial Character faults he had are more apparent, but all who seek judicial excellence would do well to study his life on the bench and, in large measure, to follow the path by which he passed to the great emience that he reached. The year 1750 is the birth year of two noted English lawyers — Erskine and Ellenborough. The first, the fore most advocate of his own and perhaps of any time, was also Lord Chancellor, and the other became Chief Justice of the King's Bench and as such enjoyed an ascendency that few judges have had. Erskine's enthusiastic, gifted and intrepid nature fitted better into the stress and excitement of life at the bar, and the administration of the dry doc trines of the Court of Chancery, with which his previous experience had not made him familiar, added nothing to his reputation during his short term of office. But Lord Ellenborough 's is a name to conjure with. In him the law seemed to be vitalized. When he spoke, men rendered respect and obedience. Like a true successor of Lord Coke, he was unwavering in his independence, as faultless in his understanding as he was thorough and comprehensive in his knowledge of the law. Yet with all his gifts and learning, his qualities of man ner and presence entered largely into his judicial reputation, and there is perhaps no more striking instance among English judges of the part that mere per sonality plays in the respect and authority which a judge acquires. In his strong and able hands all felt a sense of security, and he ruled without question in the Court of King's Bench. His career on the bench was marred only by his rough and overbearing manner, a thing ap parently inseparable from some natures when raised to high position, and a fault common to more than one English judge of justly great reputation. In Lord
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Ellenborough 's case, as Lord Campbell has well said, the defect is forgotten, "while men bear in willing recollection his unspotted integrity, his sound learn ing, his vigorous intellect, and his manly intrepidity in the discharge of his duty." When death ended Lord Ellenborough's tenure of office, it was fortunate for the public interests that the high post which he had filled passed to the no less able keeping of Lord Tenterden. Without the gifts and accomplishments that give a charm to the lives of so many men of reputation, and having accom plished nothing brilliant in his whole career, Lord Tenterden is yet one of the most interesting characters among Eng lish judges. Judging by his inheritance alone, life did not open a very wide prospect to him. The son of a barber in a small town could not have a reason able hope of reaching the Chief Justice ship of England. And so, many adverse conditions had to be overcome. But he surmounted them all. When he entered upon his office, he was ripe in legal learning, thoroughly disciplined in mind, impressed with a high sense of the trust committed to him, and possessed of a just estimate of its requirements. His attitude towards judicial duty is nobly expressed in his comment to a friend, who congratulated him on his promotion from the bar, that "the search after truth is much more pleasant than the search after arguments." The period during which he presided in the Court of King's Bench is described by Lord Campbell as a "golden age" in which "law and reason prevailed." And while he suffered at times from the same infirmities of temper that had marked Lord Ellenborough, the admin istration of his court was in most respects beyond exception. Discipline was main tained, argument kept within proper bounds, the just limits of decision ob
