Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/385

Campbell he gave to his brother is a perfect summary of his opinions: 'For God's sake do not become radical.' The Reform Bill of 1831 astounded him at first. 'I was prepared,' he said, 'to support any moderate measure, but this really is a revolution ipso facto.' Upon consideration, however, he came to regard it as a safe and prudent reform, a restoration of the constitution, not an innovation, and he voted for the second reading, which was thus carried by a majority of one. His real interest was in law reform. In 1828, as a consequence of Brougham's famous speech, two commissions were appointed, one to inquire into common law procedure, the other to inquire into the law of real property 'and the various interests therein, and the methods and forms of alienating, conveying, and transferring the same, and of assuring the titles thereto,' and to suggest means of improvement. Sugden having declined to serve, Campbell was put at the head of the Real Property Commission. He was the only common lawyer who sat on it, and hitherto he had not been familiar with the subject of inquiry; indeed, it was said at the time that there were not half a dozen men in England who understood the law of real property. The general conclusion of the commission was that very few essential alterations were required; the law relating to the transfer of land was exceedingly defective, but in other respects 'the law of England, except in a few comparatively unimportant particulars, appears to come almost as near to perfection as can be expected in any human institutions' (1st Rep. p. 6). In the first report, which appeared in 1829, Campbell wrote the introduction and the section on prescription, and the statutes of limitation. Over the second report (1830), proposing a scheme for a general register of deeds and instruments relating to land, the third (1832) dealing with tenures, &c., and the fourth (1833) on amendments in the law of wills, he exercised only a general superintendence (Life, i. 457-9). The first speech which he delivered in parliament (1830) was in moving for leave to bring in a bill for the establishment of a general register of deeds affecting real property (reprinted, Speeches, p. 430). The bill was introduced again in the following session, but although a select committee reported in favour of it, the opposition was so strong that it had to be abandoned. Twenty years later he succeeded in carrying a similar bill through the lords, but there it ended. The other recommendations of the commission had a better fortune. In 1833 Campbell, who had been made solicitor-general in the previous year, helped to carry through several measures of such importance as to mark a distinct period in the history of the law of real property: the statutes of limitation (3 & 4 Wm. IV. cc. 27 and 42); the Fines and Recoveries Act (c. 74)—almost entirely the work of Mr. Brodie, the conveyancer, and described by Sugden as 'a masterly performance' (, Conveyancing, i. 155 n, and 216); an act to render freehold and copyhold estates assets for the payment of simple contract debts (c. 104); the Dower Act (c. 105); and an act for the amendment of the law of inheritance (c. 106). Never had so clean a sweep been made of worn-out rules of law as was done by this group of statutes. 'They quietly passed through both houses of parliament,' says Campbell, 'without one single syllable being altered in any of them. This is the only way of legislating on such a subject. They had been drawn by the real property commissioners, printed and extensively circulated, and repeatedly revised, with the advantage of the observations of skilful men studying them in their closet. A mixed and numerous deliberative assembly is wholly unfit for such work' (Life, ii. 29). A further step on the lines of the commission was taken four years later in the Wills Amendment Act (1 Vict. c. 26), which placed real property and personal property in the same position as regards the formalities necessary for the validity of wills. Campbell became attorney-general in 1834, but he failed to be re-elected at Dudley, and remained for three months without a seat, finding refuge at last in Edinburgh, where he was returned by a large majority. It was in a speech to his new constituents that he characteristically described himself as 'plain John Campbell,' a happy designation which he has never lost. With two brief intervals of opposition, in 1834-5 and in 1839, he remained attorney-general till 1841. He was felt at the time to be invaluable to the whigs in parliament, as indeed the government testified by refusing to make him a judge, though he pressed his claims with a good deal of pertinacity (see Life of Brougham, iii. 341-53). Twice he asked in vain to be made master of the rolls, first on the death of Leach in 1834 (see correspondence in Life of Brougham, iii. 422-30), and next when Pepys became lord chancellor in 1836. On the second occasion Campbell felt that his dignity was compromised, for though not an equity lawyer, he considered himself entitled to the office almost as a matter of right. He resolved to resign, and in fact carried his letter of resignation to Lord Melbourne; but he was induced to give way by a promise that in recognition of the value 