Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/274

Austin Ipswich, Bury, and Norwich sessions. The reputation which he brought from Cambridge was sustained in London, and his conversational powers were regarded by those who knew Macaulay and Sydney Smith as unmatched. He wrote much for the 'Parliamentary History and Review,' and contributed occasionally for the 'Retrospective Review' and the 'Westminster Review.' But his rapid success at the bar soon led him to quit all literary labour. The late Mr. Sumner, who met Austin frequently in 1839, describes him as 'the first lawyer in England me judice,' adding that he was 'a more animated speaker than Follett; perhaps not so smooth and gentle, neither is he ready or instinctively sagacious in a law argument, and yet he is powerful here, and immeasurably before Follett in accomplishments and liberality of view. He is a fine scholar, and deeply versed in English literature and the British constitution.' It was the wish of Austin's friends that he should enter parliament, and the elder Mill used his offices with Joseph Hume to get him returned for Bath. But he never presented himself as a candidate to any constituency. In 1841 he was made queen's counsel. Such was his professional position that he is said to have been offered the solicitor-generalship. His success at the parliamentary bar was unprecedented. In 1847, the year of the railway mania, his income was enormous—the computations of it vary from 40,000l. to 100,000l. There is a story that, when he left his chambers one morning in the year of the great gold discoveries, some one wrote on the door 'Gone to California;' and there is another of his having been seen riding in the park during the height of the parliamentary session, and of his saying to one who asked how he came to be there, that he was doing equal justice to all his clients. At the parliamentary bar there linger traditions of his skill as a cross-examiner and his oratorical force. The trying work of his profession had overtaxed a constitution never very strong; and in 1848 he retired from practice with a large fortune. From that time to that of his death he lived in retirement, reading much, interested in public affairs, but withdrawn from all active participation in them, and content to do his duties as a landlord. He indulged his passion for the ancient classics, and kept abreast of modern literature. He lost the anti-theological asperity which had in early years marked his speculative opinions, and 'wisely or unwisely,' writes one who knew him well, 'in his later years he accepted the religion of his country in the manner sanctioned by Elisha and practised by Socrates.' He was high-steward of Ipswich and chairman of the quarter-sessions of East Suffolk, and his duties in that position he performed admirably. Throughout the twenty-six years which elapsed between his quitting the bar and his death the world received no hint that the forensic equal of Follett and Scarlett, the most eloquent disciple of Bentham, the rival in conversation of Macaulay and Sydney Smith, was still living; and the news of his death, on 21 Dec. 1874, was a surprise to many of his old friends who believed that he had long ago passed away. He married, in 1856, Harriet Jane, daughter of the late Captain Ralph Mitford Preston Ingelby. He died at Brandeston Hall, near Wickham Market, on 21 Dec. 1874.

[Fortnightly Review, March 1875; Law Times, 2 Jan. 1875; Bain's Life of James Mill; John Stuart Mill's Autobiography; Moultrie's Dream of Life.]

 AUSTIN, HENRY (17th cent.), was the author of a poem called 'The Scourge of Venus, or the Wanton Lady. With the Rare Birth of Adonis. The Second Impression, corrected and enlarged, by H. A.' (1614). It has been reprinted in Dr. Grosart's 'Occasional Issues of Unique and Extremely Rare Books' (1876). The poem was for long anonymous beyond its initials on the title-page and the 'epistle to the reader,' but an incidental reference to it by Thomas Heywood discloses its authorship. In his address to the reader before his 'Brazen Age' (1613) Heywood writes:—'What imperfection soeuer it haue, hauing a brazen face it cannot blush; much like a Pedant about this Towne, who, when all trades fail'd, turn'd Pedagogue, and once insinuating with me, borrowed frō me certaine Translations of Ouid, as his three books "De Arte Amandi," and two, "De Remedio Amoris," which since, his most brazen face hath most impudently challenged as his own, wherefore I must needs proclaime it as far as Ham, where he now keeps schoole, Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores, they were things which out of my iuniority and want of iudgement, I committed to the veiw of some priuate friends, but with no purpose of publishing, or further comunicating thē. Therfore I would entreate that Austin, for so his name is, to acknowledge his wrong to me in shewing them, and his owne impudence and ignorance in challenging thē. But courteous Reader, I can onely excuse him in this, that this is the Brazen Age.'

This invective referred to the first edition of the 'Scourge,' published in 1613. It is noticeable and suggestive that H[enry] A[ustin], so far from pleading guilty or 