Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/122

Rh 106 L Y N L Y N LYNDHURST, JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, BARON (1772-1863), four times lord chancellor of England, was born at Boston, New England, in 1772, His father, son of an Englishman, but also a native of Boston, was a painter of very considerable note, who settled in London just before the commencement of the war of American independence. The son studied at Cambridge, where he was second wrangler and fellow of Trinity. Called to the bar in 1804, he gained a considerable practice; but it was not till 1817 that he began to come to the front. In that year he was one of the counsel for Dr Watson, tried for his share in the Spa Fields riot. On this occasion Copley so distinguished himself as to attract the attention of Castlereagh and other Tory leaders, under whose patronage he entered parliament, and was advanced to the highest legal positions, becoming solicitor-general in 1819, attorney- general in 1824, and lord chancellor in 1827, with the title of Lord Lyndhurst. Before being thus taken up by the Tories, Copley was a man of the most advanced views, a republican and Jacobin ; and his accession to the Tories naturally excited a good deal of comment, which he bore with the greatest good humour. He gave a brilliant and eloquent but by no means rancorous support to all the reactionary measures of his chief. The same year that he became solicitor-general he married a fashionable wife, and began to take a conspicuous place in society, in which his noble figure, his ready wit, and his never-failing bonhomie made him a distinguished favourite. As solicitor-general he took a prominent part in the trial of Queen Caroline. To the great Liberal measures which marked the end of the reign of George IV. and the beginning of that of William IV. he gave a vigorous opposition. During the Melbourne administration from 1835 to 1841 he figured conspicuously as an obstructionist from his seat in the House of Lords. In these years it was a frequent practice with him, before each prorogation of parliament, to entertain the House with a &quot;review of the session,&quot; in which he mercilessly attacked the Whig Government. His former adversary Lord Brougham, now ineffably disgusted at his treatment by the Whig leaders, soon became his most powerful ally in opposition ; and the two dominated the House of Lords. Throughout all the Tory Governments from 1827 Lyndhurst held the chancellorship ; and in the Peel administration (1841-46) he resumed that office for the fourth and last time. As Peel never had much confidence in Lyndhurst, the latter did not exert so great an influence in the cabinet as his position and experience entitled him to do. But he con tinued a loyal member of the party. As in regard to Catholic emancipation, so in the agitation against the corn laws, he opposed reform till his chief gave the signal for concession, and then he cheerfully obeyed. After 1846 and the disintegration of the Tory party consequent on Peel s adoption of free trade, Lord Lyndhurst was not so assiduous in his attendance in parliament. Yet he con tinued to an extreme old age to take a lively interest in public affairs, and occasionally to astonish the country by the power and brilliancy of his speeches. That which he made in 1853, in denunciation of the aggressive policy of the Russian emperor Nicholas, made a sensation in Europe ; throughout the Russian war he was a strong advocate of the energetic prosecution of hostilities. In 1859 he denounced with his old energy the restless ambition of Napoleon III. When he was released from the trammels of an official position, he came forward somewhat as the advocate of liberal measures. He strenuously supported the admission of Jews into parliament ; his second wife was a Jewess. Under the influence of Mrs Norton he appeared also as the advocate of women s rights in questions of divorce. At the age of eighty-four he passed the autumn at Dieppe, &quot; helping to fly paper kites, and amusing himself by turns with the writings.of the Greek and Latin fathers on divorce and the amorous novels of Eugene Sue.&quot; His last speech, marked by &quot; his wonted brilliancy and vigour,&quot; was delivered in the House of Lords at the age of eighty-nine. He died in 1863, in his ninety-second year. The impression we have of Lyndhurst from Lord Campbell s memoir is that of a man with rather an easy conscience in political life, not too scrupulous in his atten tion to judicial duties, but possessed of a fine and noble presence, a ready wit, an unfailing sweetness of temper, and a real kindness and charm of manner that won the hearts of men. See Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England, vol. viii. (Lords Lyndhurst and Brougham), by Lord Campbell, 1869. Campbell was a personal friend, but a political opponent. LYNDSAY, SIR DAVID (c. 1490-1555), for about two centuries and a half perhaps the most popular poet of Scotland, was born about 1490, probably either at the family estate of The Mount, in the parish of Monimail, near Cupar in Fife, or at Garleton near Haddington in East Lothian, where the ruins of an old mansion house of the Lyndsays still remain. Little is known of his boyhood, but he is understood to have entered the university of St Andrews about 1505, and he became one of the incorporate of St Salvator s College in 1508 or 1509. After leaving college there is reason to think that he went abroad fora year or two, visiting, it is supposed, both France and Italy; but of this there is no certain information. In 1511 he must have been attached in some way to the court of James IV., as in the October of that year an entry appears in the royal treasurer s accounts for the sum of 3, 4s. for &quot; blue and yellow taffities to be a play coat to David Lyndsay for the play playit in the king and queen s presence in the Abbey of Holyrood,&quot; so that even at that early period Lyndsay would seem to have developed his taste for masques and mummeries, play-acting and tale-telling. After this his name occurs in the treasurer s accounts for a regular salary of 40 a year; and on the birth of James V. in 1512 he was appointed to be the personal attendant of the young prince, in which situation he remained till James had attained his twelfth year in 1524 sometimes under the title of &quot;keeper of the kingis grace,&quot; sometimes as the &quot; kingis maister usher,&quot; and sometimes as &quot; the kingis maister of houshald,&quot; but throughout with the yearly salary of 40. Lyndsay s close connexion with the court led to his being present at the remarkable scene just before Flodden, in the church of Linlithgow, when the so-called apparition came in &quot; calling loudly for the king,&quot; and, after warning him against proceeding on his ill-judged expedition against England, vanishing away &quot;as it had been a blink of the sun or ane whiss of the whirlwind.&quot; The incident is related both by Pitscottie and by Buchanan, expressly on the authority of Sir David ; and Tytler shrewdly remarks that possibly Lyndsay knew more of the affair than he cared to confess, a conjecture which both Lyndsay s well-known prudence and sagacity in political affairs and his skill in arranging masques and stage plays renders exceedingly probable. In 1522 Sir David married Janet Douglas, of whom we know nothing except that she also was attached to the king s court, and was employed as sempstress to &quot;his grace,&quot; various payments to her being entered in the accounts for her diligence in the humble office of &quot;sewing the kingis sarkis.&quot; It is evident from many passages in Lyndsay s poems that his good sense and sweet temper, his varied accomplishments, and his skill in mingling amusement with instruction had greatly endeared him to the young king, and it would have been well for James if he had never listened to other and worse counsels than those of his wise and affectionate &quot;maister usher.&quot;