I beg leave to call in aid the admirable justification of the discriminating and impartial biographer by my friend Sir Francis Palgrave :-"He is in no wise responsible for the defects of his personages, still less is their vindication obligatory upon him. This conventional etiquette of extenuation mars the utility of historical biography by concealing the compensations so mercifully granted in love, and the admonitions given by vengeance. Why suppress the lesson afforded by the depravity of the 'greatest, brightest, meanest of mankind;' he whose defilements teach us that the most transcendent intellectuality is consistent with the deepest turpitude? The labours of the panegyrists come after all to naught. You are trying to fill a broken cistern. You may cut a hole in the stuff, but you cannot wash out the stain.'

Before concluding I must renew the notice by which I have derived many favours both from strangers and from friends,-"I shall be most grateful to all who will point out omissions to be supplied, or mistakes to be corrected."

I have only further to express my satisfaction in thinking that a heavy weight is now to be removed from my conscience. So essential did I consider an Index to be to every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill into parliament to deprive an author who

* Hist. of Norm. and Eng., b. ii. p. 67.

publishes a book without an Index of the privilege of copyright; and, moreover, to subject him, for his offence, to a pecuniary penalty. Yet, from difficulties started by my printers, my own books have hitherto been without an Index. But I am happy to announce that a learned friend at the bar, on whose accuracy I can place entire reliance, has kindly prepared a copious Index, which will be appended to this work, and another for the new stereotyped edition of the LIVES OF THE CHAN

CELLORS.

Stratheden House, April 6th, 1857.

CONTENTS

OF

THE THIRD VOLUME.

CHAPTER XLI.

LIFE OF LORD KENYON, FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HE WAS APPOINTED CHIEF

JUSTICE OF CHESTER.

Composition of this Memoir an unpleasant task for the biographer, Page 1.

Family of the Kenyons, 2. Birth of Lord Kenyon, 3. His defective educa-

tion, 3. He is apprenticed with an attorney, 3. His love of the desk, 4.

His attempt to rival the Welsh bards, 4. His disappointment in not being

taken into partnership with his master, 5. He is admitted a student at

the Middle Temple, 5. His misfortune in not being required to be initiated

in liberal studies, 6. His exclusive attention to law, 6. His dislike of the

theatre, 7. He writes reports of decisions of the Courts, 7. He is acquainted

with Horne Tooke and Dunning, 7. His economical mode of dining, 8.

He is called to the bar, 8. His slow progress, 8. He fags for Dunning, 9.

He becomes a great case-answerer, 9. His merits as a draughtsman, 9.

He fags for Lord Chancellor Thurlow, 10. He is made Chief Justice of

Chester, 10.

CHAPTER XLII.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD KENYON TILL HE WAS APPOINTED

MASTER OF THE ROLLS.

He is introduced into Parliament, 12. His impatience to meet a charge of

bribery, 12. He is counsel for the defendants in the prosecution for deposing

Lord Pigot, 12. How he came to be counsel with Erskine for Lord George

Gordon, 13. His successful cross-examination of a witness, 14. His mise-

rable speech to the jury, 14. Peril to the prisoner, 16. Glory of Erskine,

16. Kenyon Attorney-General to the Rockingham Administration, 17.

His altercation with Sir James Mansfield, 18. His zeal against public

accountants explained, 18. He adheres to Lord Shelburne, 20. He is

turned out by the "Coalition," 21. His parliamentary conduct while in

opposition, 21. Dismissal of the "Coalition Ministry," 22. Kenyon again

Attorney-General, 23. He renews his attack on public accountants, 23.

His conduct, as Chief Justice of Chester, in the Dean of St. Asaph's

case, 23.

CHAPTER XLIII.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD KENYON TILL HE WAS APPOINTED

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE KING'S BENCH.

Kenyon is made Master of the Rolls, 26. His vote in the Westminster elec-

tion, 27. The bad advice he gave respecting the "Scrutiny," 27. Honour-

able conduct of Lord Eldon on this occasion, 28. Mr. Fox's censure of the

Master of the Rolls, 28. Kenyon is made a Baronet, 29. Sir Lloyd Kenyon

and the Rolliad, 29. Letter from Sir Lloyd Kenyon to the High Bailiff of

Westminster, 31. Kenyon as an Equity Judge, 32. Q. How far a covenant

to refer to arbitration may be pleaded in bar to a suit or action? 34. Sir

Lloyd Kenyon's merits as an Equity Judge, 35. Resignation of Lord Mans-

field, 35. Sir Lloyd Kenyon appointed his successor, and raised to the

peerage, 36.

CHAPTER XLIV.

LORD KENYON AS CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE KING'S BENCH.

Unpopularity of the appointment, 37. Lord Kenyon takes his seat in the

House of Lords, 37. His speech on the insanity of George III., 38. He

maintains that Mr. Hastings's impeachment had abated by the dissolution

of Parliament, 39. He opposes Mr. Fox's Libel Bill, 40. Questions pro-

posed by him for the opinion of the Judges, 40. Lord Stanhope's speech

to banter Lord Kenyon, 41. Lord Kenyon's answer, 41. Charge that he

made a pecuniary profit by the abuses in the King's Bench Prison, 42.

Lord Kenyon's improved tactics in self-defence, 43. His judicial character,

44. His Latin quotations, 44. His bad temper, 45. Account of his de-

meanour in Court by Espinasse, 45. His partialities and antipathies, 46.

George III.'s congratulation to him on the loss of his temper, 46. His

anxiety for the rights of the "legal estate,' 47. His decision that no

action at law can be maintained for a legacy, 47. Rule that a married

woman shall never be permitted to sue or to be sued as a single woman,

47. His behaviour on the trial of Rex v. Stockdale, 48. His severe

sentences in prosecutions for alleged sedition, 49. Pasquinade against im-

prisonment for debt, 49. John Frost's case, 50. Rex r. Perry, 50. Per-

version of the clause in the Libel Bill enabling the Judge to give his

opinion to the Jury on matter of law, 51. Stone is tried for treason before

Lord Kenyon, 52. Trial of John Reeve for a libel on the House of Com-

mons, 53. Trial of Gilbert Wakefield, 54. Trial of the proprietor of the

Courier for a libel on the Emperor Paul, 56. Trial of Williams for pub-

lishing Paine's Age of Reason, 57. Lord Kenyon's display of his knowledge

of ecclesiastical history, 57. Trial of Hadfield, when the biographer first

saw Lord Kenyon, 57. Proof of the prisoner's insanity, 58. Lord Kenyon

interferes and puts an end to the trial, 58. Sound view of the question

how far mental disease exempts from criminal responsibility, 59. Benjamin

Flower's case, 60. Dialogue between Mr. Clifford and Lord Kenyon on

moving for a writ of Habeas Corpus, 60. Lord Kenyon's attack on Lord-

Treasurer Clifford and the ancient nobility, 61. Mr. Clifford's retaliation,

62. Lord Kenyon laid down the true constitutional doctrine since affirmed

by Act of Parliament respecting the power of the two Houses to print and

publish, 62. Rex v. Earl of Abingdon: Peer not privileged to publish

speech delivered by him in the House of Peers, with a view to libel an

individual, 64. Doctrine of consequential damage, 65. Rescue of the

public from Surveyors, 65. Lord Kenyon's laudable zeal against manu-

facturers of slander, 66. Misled by his love for morality, 67. Lord Eldon's

protest against Lord Kenyon's ultraism, 68. Lord Kenyon's indignation

at being called a "legal monk," 68. By his hot temper, betrayed into the

toleration of insolence, 69. Lord Chief Justice Kenyon kicked by John

Horne Tooke, 69. Erroneous decisions of Lord Kenyon, 74. Criminal

information for a jeu d'esprit, 74. Lord Kenyon overruled in Haycraft v.

Creasy, 75. Lord Kenyon's fury against forestallers and regraters, 77.

CHAPTER XLV.

CONCLUSION OF THE LIFE OF LORD KENYON.

Lord Kenyon's career about to close, 81. Death of his eldest son, 81. Lord

Kenyon's last illness, 81. His death and burial, 81. His epitaph, 82.

Touching praise of him by his second son, 82. Character of Sir Leoline

Jenkins applied to him, 82. Discrimination required in his biographer, 82.

His popularity with common juries, 83. His ill-usage of attorneys, 83.

Ruin of Mr. Lawless, 84. Lord Kenyon serviceable in repressing petti-

fogging, 84. His kindness to students, 85. He is rebuked by Thurlow for

disparaging the Court of Chancery and solicitors, 85. The student's ink-

bottle and the Chief Justice's porcelain vase, 85. Lord Kenyon's eulogy on

George III., 86. His opinion given to George III. respecting the Catholic

question, 86. Lord Kenyon for a severe penal code, but not a "hanging

judge," 87. Specimen of Lord Kenyon's love of mixed metaphors, 88. Lord

Kenyon's Reports, 89. His facetiæ, 89. His penurious mode of life, 89.

His villa at Richmond, 90. His dress, 91. His will directing his executors

to avoid the expense of a diphthong, 92. His descendants, 93.

CHAPTER XLVI.

LIFE OF LORD ELLENBOROUGH FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HIS MARRIAGE.

Feelings of the biographer in commencing the Life of Lord Ellenborough, 94.

His family, 94. His birth, 95. His education, 96. At the Charter-house,

96. At Cambridge, 96. His choice of a profession, 99. He studies the

law, 99. His diligence in a special pleader's office, 100. He practises as a

special pleader under the bar, 102. His success, 102. He is called to the

bar, 103. He joins the Northern Circuit, 104. His slow progress in

London, 106. His silk gown delayed by his supposed Whiggery, 106.

Law in domestic life, 107. His courtship, 107. His marriage, 108.