Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/167

 in the system, and in 1855 he emigrated to Melbourne, where two of his sons had obtained appointments. He formed an extremely unfavourable opinion of his fellow-colonists, which he did not conceal. He led a retired life, but obtained some practice at the bar. He died at Melbourne on 20 June 1879. His wife died in 1869. They had seven children, of whom the eldest son, James Wilberforce, who had been fourth wrangler in 1844, and a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, emigrated about the same time, and became a judge in the colony.

Stephen was a man of very considerable abilities and force of character. He was upright and outspoken; but a hot temper and an unfortunate talent for seeing the worst side of his profession and his fellow-creatures involved him in many disputes, and injured his career.

Stephen's works are: Stephen wrote some other pamphlets, and contributed the ‘Clerk,’ the ‘Governess,’ and the ‘Groom’ to Knight's series of ‘Guides to Trade’ in 1838.
 * 1) ‘Practical Suggestions for the Improvement of the Police,’ 1829.
 * 2) ‘Letter … on System of Bread-money in Aid of Wages,’ 1833.
 * 3) ‘Adventures of a Gentleman in search of a Horse,’ by ‘Caveat Emptor,’ 1835; 5th edit., with name, 1841.
 * 4) ‘Letter on the probable Increase of Rural Crime,’ &c. [1836].
 * 5) ‘The Juryman's Guide,’ 1845.
 * 6) ‘The Jesuit at Cambridge,’ 1847, 2 vols. (a novel).
 * 7) ‘The Niger Trade and the African Blockade,’ 1849.
 * 8) ‘Letter to Sir F. Buxton on the Revival of the English Slave Trade,’ 1849.
 * 9) ‘The Royal Pardon vindicated in the Case of W. H. Barber,’ &c. 1851.
 * 10) ‘Bankruptcy and the Credit Trade,’ 1852.
 * 11) ‘The Principles of Commercial Law explained in a Course of Lectures,’ 1853.
 * 12) ‘Digest of County Court Cases,’ &c. 1853.
 * 13) ‘Anti-Slavery Recollections, in a Series of Letters to Mrs. Beecher Stowe, written at her request,’ 1854.
 * 14) ‘Magisterial Reform,’ 1854.
 * 15) ‘Insolvency Reform,’ 1863.
 * 16) ‘Life of Christ,’ 1871.
 * 17) ‘Memoir of the late James Stephen,’ 1875.



STEPHEN, HENRY JOHN (1787–1864), serjeant-at-law, born at St. Christopher's in the West Indies on 18 Jan. 1787, was the second son of (1758–1832) [q. v.] He was for a time at St. John's College, Cambridge, but did not graduate. He was called to the bar on 24 Nov. 1815. He had in 1814 married his cousin, Mary Morison, and, after his stepmother's death, from 1815 till 1832, kept house for his father in Kensington Gore. He was a man of nervous and retiring disposition, and, though an accomplished lawyer, obtained no great professional success. He became known, however, by a treatise on pleading, published in 1824. There was no want of practical treatises on the subject. The aim of Stephen's book was to develop systematically the principles of the ‘science’ and exhibit them as part of a general scheme (Preface). ‘Stephen,’ says Professor Dicey, ‘by a stroke of something like genius, at once and precisely accomplished his aim; he exhibited the whole theory in scientific form, arranged the principles in logical order, and expressed them in a series of rules of unequalled clearness and brevity. Though the law has become obsolete, the book is still interesting as a model of lucid exposition. The attempt to reduce an intricate branch of law to a series of well-digested principles was then to a great extent a novelty. Stephen founded a school, but none of his many followers have surpassed him in mastery of the subject, logical power, and terseness of expression.’ The merits of the treatise were recognised both in England and America, and gave him a claim to promotion. Stephen became a serjeant-at-law in 1828, and was a member of the common-law commission appointed in that year. His fellow-commissioners all became judges; and it is said, upon doubtful authority, that a judgeship was offered to Stephen by Lyndhurst, and declined upon the ground that he could never bear to pass a capital sentence (, Life of James Stephen, p. 46). In 1834 he published a ‘Summary of the Criminal Law,’ which was translated into German. In 1841 appeared the first edition of his ‘Commentaries.’ It was described on the title-page as ‘partly founded upon Blackstone,’ and contains much of his predecessor's work, with large interpolations and additions of his own, the distinction being clearly indicated in the text.

‘In reality,’ says Professor Dicey, ‘it was an original production, differing essentially in character and in merit from his predecessor. Blackstone was a consummate man of letters. Stephen showed the qualities in which Blackstone was comparatively deficient—consummate logical power and singular precision and accuracy of style. Had the work been published as an original treatise, it would have stood upon a level with Blackstone's work.’ In later editions the name of Blackstone is dropped, as larger additions became necessary in order to keep up with the alterations in the law. The book enjoyed a