Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/831

 20, VEEDER: A CENTURY OF JUDICATURE 817 and contributed materially to the high standing of the court.* Laymen have seldom found the law reports entertaining reading. Lord Bowen is probably the only judge in recent times whose work has commanded general interest. The rea- son is not far to seek. Besides grasp of principle, breadth of view and cogent reasoning, the style is so lucid, the illus- trative matter so aptly chosen, the analogies so dexterously handled, the whole fabric of the exposition so admirably ar- ticulated, that he may be said to have combined, to an extent unsurpassed in English law, legal learning and literary form. He had a refreshing conception of intellectual reserve, a fine sense of proportion and wholesome mental habits of discrimi- nation ; and he expounded the historical evolution of legal principles in a style so pure, accurate and distinguished that it appeals to all persons of cultivated taste. In comparison with contemporaries who were his peers in intellectual power, he may be said to have shared with Westbury, Cairns and Selborne a precision of thought and logical faculty which rendered his mind capable at once of entertaining the broadest views and the most subtle distinctions. But he lacked their versatility. He was perhaps the equal of Blackburn and Jessel in legal learning, without the pedantry of one or the dogmatism of the other. But he fell short of them in energy. In affinity and contrast Cairns probably furnishes the best comparison. Cairns has never been surpassed in intuitive insight in legal principles; his judgments are illuminations rather than ratiocinations. Bowen shows us the process by which he arrives at a conclusion ; we may observe the penetra- tion and precision of a severely logical mind. Cairns was a genius ; Bowen was a scholar. The most obvious characteristic of Bowen's opinions is purity, ease and accuracy of style. Along with legal acquire- ments which he shared with many of his judicial contempo- > Cochrane v. Moore, 25 Q. B. D. 57; Davies v. Davies, 36 Ch. D. 359; Northern Counties Fire Ins. v. Whipp, 26 do. 482; Miles v. New Zea- land Co. 32 do, 266; Nitro-Phosphate Co. v. London Docks Co., 9 do. 503; Fritz v. Hobson, 14 do. 42; Smith v. Chadwick, 20 Ch. D. 67; Dal- ton V. Angus, 6 App. Cas. 740; Roussilon v. Roussilon, 14 Ch. D. 358; Salmon v. Warner, 65 L. T. 132; Walter v. Everard, 65 do. 445; Wal- lis V. Smith, 47 do. 389; Campania de Mocambique v. British So. Af- rica Co., 66 do. 773; R. v. Jackson, 64 do. 679.