Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/804

 790 V. BENCH AND BAR a single man, in that he was equally great as lawyer, states- man and legislator," Selborne said : " Even that enumera- tion of his titles to greatness fell short of the truth; for he was also a great orator, and a man exemplary in private life. It would be difficult to name any chancellor (except Lord Hardwicke) who was certainly his superior, or indeed in all respects his equal. Lord Somers was a greater states- man. Lord Lyndhurst a greater orator. Lord Eldon a more profoundly learned lawyer; but the degree in which they severally excelled him in these respects was less than that in which he excelled them in other qualities, more necessary than statecraft or eloquence and not less necessary than learning for a great judge; and the gifts which in them shone separately were in him combined. Lord Thurlow, Lord Rosslyn and Lord Westbury had not less ability ; but he was more of a statesman, a more persuasive orator and on the whole a better judge than any of them. There have been chancellors, such as Lord Talbot, Lord Cranworth and Lord Hatherley, whose private virtues were not less con- spicuous and whose public reputation was not less honorable, yet who were not, like him, as fit to play a great part in political as in judicial affairs." * By Jessel, Benjamin, and his most distinguished contemporaries, he was regarded as the ablest lawyer of his day. It may be said at the outset that his high reputation derived no adventitious support from personal affection. He was never popular. His man- ner was austere, cold and sternly self-repressive. This was undoubtedly due in a large measure to continual ill health. His gloomy rehgious views may also have influenced his temperament. Religion, indeed, seems to have enlisted the deepest feelings of his nature. It was with him the para- mount consideration, in comparison with which, he once said, all else — honor, reputation, wealth, recreation — -were views of ecclesiastical polity, he disliked with all the strength of his austere nature the tolerance of modern thought. The most obvious characteristic of his career is his aston- ishing versatility. At the outset of his professional labors
 * ' nothing, absolutely nothing." A stern Protestant in his
 * Personal and Political Memoirs, pt. 2, vol. 1, pp. 157, 158.