would needs canter down by his father's side | erable influence on the early habits and mento the horse-fen, with his arm in a sling; tal training of the son, who, however, from while the partridges whirred up before them, the time when he was at liberty to make an and the lurchers flashed like grey snakes election, appears to have been an attached adafter the hare, and the colts came whinnying herent of the Church of England. He was round, with staring eyes and streaming educated at the excellent grammar-school of manes, and the two chatted on in the same his native town, under the Rev. Dr. Valpy sober business-like English tone, alternately of "The Lord's great dealings," by General Cromwell, the pride of all honest fen-men, and the price of troop-horses at the next Horncastle fair?

Poetry in those old Puritans? Why not? They were men of like passions with ourselves. They loved, they married, they brought up children; they feared, they sinned, they sorrowed, they fought-they conquered. There was poetry enough in them, be sure, though they acted it like men, instead of singing it like birds.

-a name familiar to scholars-and he retained through life the deepest sense of obligation for the care which his revered master had bestowed upon him. The first edition of Ion is dedicated to Dr. Valpy, "as a slender token of gratitude for benefits which cannot be expressed in words." The essentially Greek tone and colouring of this production afford the best proof of the author's classical proficiency, and of the facility with which, thanks to good grounding, he was enabled in after life to extend his dramatic readings into regions which are rarely visited by modern play-wrights. What may be called the formal and regular part of his education began and ended with this school. After leaving it, he was abandoned to his own natural or acquired tendencies; for instead of being sent to a university, he was entered at an earlier age than is usual of an Inn of Court, the Middle Temple; and, in 1813, he began studying the law in the 2. Vacation Rambles; comprising the Re-chambers of the celebrated special pleader, collections of Rome, Continental Tours, the late Mr. Joseph Chitty.

ART. II.-1. Tragedies; to which are added
a few Sonnets and Verses. By SIR T. N.
TALFOURD, D.C.L. London, Edward
Moxon.

&c. By SIR T. N. TALFOURD, D.C.L. The vocation of special pleader is an anoThird Edition. London, Edward Moxon. 3. Critical and Miscellaneous Writings of T. NOON TALFOURD, Author of "Ion." In one Volume. Philadelphia, Carey & Hart, 1842.

maly peculiar to England. In its origin it was exclusively and (we suspect) covertly pursued by students, who were willing to eke out a scanty income by doing what, in strictness, was the attorney's business, for lower fees than, according to professional etiquette, could be received by a barrister. There is a well-known story of Serjeant Davy, who, on being arraigned before the circuit mess for unprofessional conduct in taking silver from a client, defended himself by saying, "I took all the poor devil possessed in the world, and I hope you don't call that unprofessional." But the learned Serjeant was fined notwithstanding, and the rule has been invariably enforced, although the special pleader, not having undergone the ceremony of the call, is permitted to accept five shillings or seven and sixpence, and even to send in his bill of charges if he thinks fit. The advantages of the calling consist in the familiarity with practical forms which it teaches, and the connexions to which it leads, whilst its respectability has been amply sustained by the number and reputation of the eminent judges it has He was born at Reading on May 26, sent forth. In illustration, we need not go 1795. His father was by trade a brewer, farther back than to the last judge who has and by religious persuasion a Dissenter, a been raised to the peerage, now Lord Wenscircumstance which exercised no inconsid- leydale, and to the two last English advo.

THE late Thomas Noon Talfourd was a remarkable man in many ways. He had stood in the front rank of English advocates; he had occupied no mean place as a parliamentary speaker; he was raised to the judicial Bench with the cordial approval of his profession; and, (what he himself prized most of all) he had acquired undoubted eminence as a dramatic author. If his early connexion with journalism, and his large acquaintance amongst the periodical dispensers of cotemporary fame, occasionally led to his being extravagantly eulogized in his lifetime, this is no reason why he should be permitted to drop into comparative oblivion immediately after death; and believing that more than one pregnant moral, or valauble lesson, may be deduced from his career, we propose to take a calm review of his life, writings, and character.

Is the

did not perceive, some want of industry or perseverance; but there was probably none; and they may rather seek for the cause of failure in the delicacy of feeling which won their sympathy, or in the genius they were accustomed to admire."

cates who have been invested with the tellectual powers and accomplishments? ermine, now Mr. Justice Willis and Mr. possession of some share of the highest faculties Baron Bramwell. At the same time, it of the mind, which has given him confidence, would be difficult to imagine a more dry try to solve. We may, perhaps, explain to the really in his favour? These questions we will and unattractive school, and a young man misjudging friends of some promising aspirant, of Talfourd's imaginative turn of mind who has not attained the eminence they expected, might have been excused if he had shrunk why their prophecies have been unfulfilled. They from so trying an ordeal, and occupied him- think that, with such powers as they know him self, like the majority of pupils, with the to possess, there must be some fault which they more congenial pursuits lying so temptingly within reach in a metropolis. But he set to work in right earnestness to master the science; and, after working three or four years under Mr. Chitty's guidance, he commenced practising as a special pleader on his own account. He was not called to the Bar The solution of the mystery, as he goes till Hilary Term 1821; and, considering his on to explain, is to be found in the simple peculiar tastes and aptitudes, his fluent elo- fact, that the distributors of briefs, the real cution, and his fondness for oratorical dis- patrons of merit, are not the people at large, play, there can be little doubt that the res-not even the factitious assemblage called angusta domi, and the dread of circuit and session expenses, were the main cause of his persevering so long in an obscure and unexciting occupation.

the public,-not scholars, nor readers, nor thinkers, nor admiring audiences, nor sages of the law, but simply attorneys. When a barrister has risen to undisputed eminence, One of the best things that Talfourd ever they have little choice in the matter; for, at wrote was an article "On the Profession of least in important cases, the client will comthe Bar," in the London Magazine. It so monly insist on retaining the highest and obviously refers to his own feelings and best known talent. But they enjoy an unliprospects as to be almost of an autobiogra-mited discretion in the selection of juniors; phical character, and it comprises many and, as Talford justly observes, by employhints and reflections which may be read with ing young men early, they may give them advantage by future aspirants for forensic not merely fees, but courage, practice, and honours and their friends. We propose, the means of becoming known to others. therefore, to quote a few passages. After dwelling enthusiastically on the tempting bait offered to young ambition, on the stirring character of the career, and on the dreams of coming celebrity in which the embryo Scarletts and Follets may be supposed to indulge, he proceeds:―

"From this extraordinary position," he continues, "arises the necessity for the strictest etiquette in form, and the nicest honour in conwhich alone can prevent the Bar from being duct, which strangers are apt to ridicule, but prostrated at the feet of an inferior class. It is no small proof of the spirit and intelligence of the profession, as a body, that these qualities are able to preserve them in a station of apparent superiority to those on whom they virtually depend. They frequent the places of business; they follow the judges from town to town, and appear ready to undertake any side of any cause; they sit to be looked at and chosen, day after day, and year after year; and yet, by force of professional honour and gentlemanly accomplishments, and by these alone, they continue to be respected by the men who are to decide their destiny. But no rule of etiquette, however strict, and no feelings of delicacy, however nice and generous, can prevent a man, who has connexions among attorneys, from possessing a great advantage over his equals who have none. It is natural that his friends should think highly of him, and desire to assist him, and it would be absurd to expect that he should disappoint them by refusing their briefs, when conscious of ability to do them justice. Hence a youth, "Now, then, having allowed him to enjoy the born and educated in the middle ranks of life, oretastes of prosperity, let us investigate what who is able to struggle to the Bar, has often a are the probabilities that he will enjoy them. far better chance of speedy success than a genAre they, in any degree proportioned to his in-tleman of rank and family. This consideration

"But the state of anticipation cannot last for ever. The day arrives when the candidate for forensic opportunities and honours must assume the gown amidst the congratulations of his friends, and attempt to realize their wishes. The hour is no doubt happy, in spite of some intruding thoughts; its festivities are not less joyous, because they wear a colouring of solemnity; it is one more season of hope snatched from fate, inviting the mind to bright remembrance, and rich in the honest assurances of affection and sympathy. It passes, however, as rapidly as its predecessors, and the morrow sees the youth at Westminster, pressing a wig upon aching temples, and taking a fearful survey of the awful bench where the judges sit, and the more awful benches crowded with competitors, who have set out with as good hopes, who have been encouraged by as enthusiastic friends, and who have as valid claims to success as he.

may lessen the wonder so often expressed at a total want of arrangement and grammar.
It
no inconsiderable power.
the number of men who have risen to emi- Mere stupidity, accompanied by a certain degree
nence in the law from comparatively humble of fluency, is
stations. Without industry and talent they enables its possessor to protract the contest long
could have done little; but, perhaps, with both after he is beaten, because he neither under-
these they might have done less, if their early stands his own case, nor the arguments by
fame had not been nurtured by those to whom which he has been answered. It is a weapon
their success was a favourite object, and whose of defence, behind which he obtains protection,
zeal afforded them at once opportunity and not only from his adversaries, but from the
stimulus, which to more elevated adventurers judge. If the learned person who presides,
wearied out with endless irrelevancies, should
are wanting."
attempt to stop him, he will insist on his privi-
lege to be dull, and obtain the admiration of the
In these points, a sensitive and
audience by his firmness in supporting the rights
acute advocate has no chance of rivalling him
of the bar.
in the estimation of the bystanders."

A remarkable change has taken place in
the profession of the law in this respect.
Prior to the eighteenth century, the rise of
a man of low birth to its highest dignities
was a rare occurrence; and we learn from
Dugdale, that, so late as 1601, an order
(countersigned by Bacon) was issued by the
Crown, "that none should be admitted into
an Inn of Court that is not a gentleman by
descent."
When, therefore, Mr. Foss, in
his valuable little book entitled The Gran-
deur of the Law, stated, in 1843, that no
less than 83 peerages had been founded by
successful lawyers, he should have added,
that a very large proportion of these belong-
ed already to the hereditary aristocracy.
During the last century and a half, however,
the plebeians have carried off most of the
highest prizes. To say nothing of living
examples, we may name Somers, Hard-
wicke, Thurlow, Kenyon, Dunning, King,
the Scotts, Gifford, Gibbs, Tenterden, Shep-
herd, Romilly, Wilde, Follet, &c., as con-
fessedly wanting in ancestral distinctions;
and some of these certainly benefited by

connexions of a different order in the manHe ner which Talfourd has pointed out. himself must have had friends and connex

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*

*

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"Let no one, therefore, hastily conclude that the failure of a youth, to whom early opportunities are given, is a proof of essential inferiority to successful rivals. It may be, indeed, that he is below his business; for want of words does not necessarily imply plenitude of ideas, nor is abstinence from lofty prosings and stale jests conclusive evidence of wit and knowledge; but he is more probably superior to his vocation; too clear in his own perceptions to perplex others; too much accustomed to think, to make a show without thought; and too deeply impressed with admiration of the venerable and the affecting, readily to apply their attributes to the miserable facts he is retained to embellish."

There is a happy illustration of Swift's, to the effect that a finely-tempered penknife may ill supply the place of a blunter and knife; and coarser instrument, like a paper there is a well-known story of Addison's incapacity, during his brief Secretary-ship of State, to write off-hand a formal paper, which was finished and despatched in ten minutes ions amongst the provincial attorneys, who, by a writing clerk. But it is a dangerous diousness is a proof of ability; and we from what they had known of him in early doctrine to inculcate or suggest that fastilife, or from the opinion that had got abroad in his sturdy, downright way,-"The true of his talents, were predisposed to give him agree with Dr. Johnson when he lays down, a chance. He had also the connexions which strong and sound mind, is the mind that can he must have formed as a special pleader; embrace equally great things and small. and we have good authority for believing Now, I am told the King of Prussia will that he had no occasion to complain of neglect or forgetfulness. Yet, for some years after he joined the Oxford Circuit and the Berkshire Sessions, he did not get on as fast as he had anticipated; and the essay from which we have been quoting, betrays a grow ing feeling of despondency, and occasionally sounds very like a premature apology for apprehended failure. Still his very impatience is instructive, and his satirical touches are all redolent of truth. Most of us could

say to a servant, Bring me a bottle of such a wine, which came in such a year; it lies in such a corner of the cellars. I would have a man great in great things, and elegant in little things." We would have him always equal to his work, be that work what it may-par negotiis, neque supra; and this Talfourd commonly was, whenever a sudden call was made upon his faculties, and when no time was allowed for mounting his imagination upon stilts, or for composing the easily supply illustrations of the following ornate passages by which he too often marpassages from our own personal observa-red the effect of his prepared speeches. For

tion:

"When a man has nothing really to say, he is assisted greatly by confusion of language, and

this reason, his reputation on his circuit, at least from the time when he became its unquestioned leader, was always higher than

in town; and there was as much difference concerned, but we are convinced that, so long between the humour and fancy with which as he held this invidious office, his own name he lighted up a common jury case at Read- figured less frequently in the desiderated ing or Oxford, and the ambitious flights of columns than it would have done had an inhis printed orations, as (to borrow the feli- different person been employed to record citous metaphor of Lord Brougham) be- the learning and oratory of his circuit. tween sparks thrown off from a working engine and fireworks thrown up for display. The truth is, his taste was never of the severest order, and it was not likely to be chastened by the intellectual habits or literary associates of his youth. It was said of him, when about thirty, that he had written more than he had ever read; and it was then undoubtedly true, that his compositions afforded slight evidence of deep study whilst they were flung off with dangerous facility, and amounted to hundreds of pages within the year.

With regard to reading, he belonged to the school of Charles Lamb, (Elia,) who, more than half in earnest, thus expounded his creed in this particular: "I can read any thing which I call a book. There are things in that shape which I cannot allow for such. In this catalogue of books which are no books-biblia abiblia-I reckon Court Calendars, Directories, pocket-books, draughtboards bound and lettered at the back, scientific treatises, almanacs, the Statutes at large; the works of Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Adam Smith, Beattie, Soame Jenyns, and, generally, all those volumes which no gentleman's library should be without;' the Histories of Flavius Josephus, (that learned Jew,) and Paley's Moral Philosophy."

Talfourd's writings were of a most miscellaneous character; and he appears to have been simultaneously a contributor to the London Magazine, the New Monthly Magazine, the Retrospective Review, the Edinburgh Review (occasionally,) and some of the leading newspapers. He was also, during many years, engaged as law reporter of circuit cases for the Times,-a mode of earning money to which he resorted with reluctance, and which he subsequently admitted to be hardly reconcilable with the position of a fair and independent competitor for practice or for fame. The so-called dignity of the Bar had little or nothing to do with the question, which was discussed, about eight or ten years ago, with uncalled-for acrimony between the profession and the press. The solid and almost unanswerable objection, is the discretion vested in the reporter of giving undue prominence to cases in which he or his personal friends are retained, and the suspicion to which he will be constantly exposed of having made an interested or partial use of his opportunities. We would not answer for Talfourd where his friends were

Romilly's juvenile plan of future life, as he states in his Diary, was to follow his profession just as far as was necessary for his subsistence, and to aspire to fame by his literary pursuits. Talfourd's was the reverse, and he prudently refrained from attaching his name to any of the multifarious writings which he flung off to provide for the pressing wants of his family before he had secured the confidence of the attorneys. This is one reason why literature did not exercise on his prospects the same blighting influence which it has exercised on those of so many others. It is the notoriety of the thing rather than the thing itself that inflicts the injury. The attorney will seldom trouble himself about the incidental or collateral pursuits of his counsel unless they are forced upon his notice, although he may be excused for entertaining an apprehension that the young lawyer who is openly aspiring to fame as an author, will bring only a divided or fluttering attention to his brief. The production of a law book is not open to the objection, and Talfourd advanced his professional interests by the publication of an enlarged and corrected edition of "Dickinson's Practical Guide to the Quarter and other Sessions of the Peace."

In 1832 he considered that his position on the circuit, with increasing business in London, justified him in applying for a silk gown, and his claim was submitted in the ordinary way to Lord Brougham, then Lord Chancellor, who, for some unexplained reason, declined or delayed acceding to it, until Talfourd lost patience and (in Hilary Term 1833) accepted the coif. The rank of serjeant, although greatly lowered of late years by the carelessness with which it has been bestowed, gives precedence, in order of seniority, next to the Queen's counsel, and is highly respected; but it has been traditionally and absurdly associated with images of cumbrous learning and solemn dulness,——

"Each had a gravity would make you split, And shook his head at Murray for a wit."

It is customary for the Chancellor to consult the other members of the circuit of about the same standing as the applicant for rank, before putting him over their heads or alongside of them; and as Talfourd was on his way to Lord Brougham's to ascertain his Lordship's final decision, he

met one of his most formidable rivals, re- Prior to the passing of the first mentioned nowned for caustic wit, who thus addressed of these Acts, the English law gave the father him, "I have been just saying of you the unlimited power over his infant children, and severest thing I ever said of any man, that instances had occurred in which it was barbaryou are in every respect fit to be a ser- ously abused for unjustifiable ends. In one jeant." This step proved a fortunate one, case, (De Mannerville's) a needy foreigner, for, besides improving his position on his married to an English woman, took away an circuit, it led to his speedily obtaining a infant daughter from the mother because she large share of the business of the Common refused to make a will in his favour, and the Pleas, where he was confessedly second only mother was left without redress. In anto the late Lord Truro, then Serjeant Wilde. other, (Skinner's) the effect of the decision In 1835, he was chosen, under the most was to leave a child of six years old in the flattering auspices, to represent his native custody of a girl kept by the father, who town, Reading, in Parliament; and although, was in jail for debt. Talfourd's Act merely (like a popular and brilliant historian) he invests the superior Courts with discretionsubsequently had a taste of the proverbial ary authority to modify this frightful opinstability of popular favour, his constitu- pression in extreme cases; yet it was opents, (like the electors of Edinburgh,) re- posed (especially by Lord St. Leonards,) as pented in good time of their fickleness, if the smallest interference with marital made ample compensation for it, and rights would flood this devoted land with imeventually parted on the best possible morality. This is almost invariably the line terms with the member who had reflected of argument, if it can be called argument, back with interest the honour they had con- pursued by the majority of technical lawferred upon him. He was re-elected in yers, when it is proposed to legislate in 1837, but was compelled to retire in conse- opposition to their confirmed habits of quence of some local faction or intrigue at thinking. Yet we defy them to name an inthe next general election, and was out of Parliament from 1841 to 1847. He then regained his seat, and kept it till he was elevated to the Bench.

stance in which their prophecies of coming evil from the abolition or mitigation of the harsh and repulsive portions of our jurisprudence, have proved true; and their groundThe soundness of the current remark that less fears should be remembered to their lawyers do not succeed in Parliament, has discredit whenever fresh measures of law been contested by our great northern co- reform, in accordance with enlightened temporary; and, all things considered, we although unlearned public opinion, shall be must admit that a fair average number of discussed. The carrying of the Custody of lawyers have succeeded, not merely during Infants Act was mainly owing to the effect the days of Romilly, Sir William Grant, produced by "A Plain Letter to the Lord Plunkett, O'Connell, Follett, Pemberton, Chancellor, by Pearce Stevenson, Esq.,"— Wilde, Campbell, Brougham, and Lynd- avowedly the production of the injured and hurst; but still more remarkably at antecedent periods, as when Murray (Lord Mansfield) was the only antagonist whom the Ministry could oppose to the "great comThe Copyright Act, first introduced in moner," or when Lord North is described by Gibbon as slumbering securely on the 1837, met with the most vehement opposiTreasury bench, whilst "upheld by the ma- tion, and its final adoption by the Legislajestic sense of Thurlow on the one hand, and ture was the result of a compromise by by the skilful eloquence of Wedderburne which its scope was materially restricted. on the other." If Talfourd did not succeed, Its most formidable assailant was Mr. that is, did not become one of the stars of Macaulay, who by the combined force of the Parliamentary firmament, he certainly eloquence and authority very nearly effected did not fail. He amply sustained the repu- the complete defeat of the measure; yet, on tation he brought with him into this new a calm review of the controversy, impartial sphere of exertion; and he effected what persons may doubt whether he had the best has fallen to the lot of very few legislators, of the argument. A tangible possession professional or unprofessional, to effect, like land, or even an intangible or incorponamely, the addition of two really sound real right over it, may be held in perpetuity, and (so far as they go) eminently useful i.e., to a man and his heirs or assigns for enactments to the Statute Book. We al- ever. Why should we refuse to recognise lude to the Custody of Infants Act, (2 and and protect the same extent of property in 3 Vict. c. 54,) and the Copyright Act of a book, one essential difference being that the land is appropriated out of the common 1842, (5 Vict. c. 45.)