Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/840

 826 V. BENCH AND BAR representation, which includes Fitzgerald, Ashbourne and Morris. In his obituary eulogy on Lord Selborne in the House of Lords, Lord Rosebery felicitously compared Selborne with those great ecclesiastics by whom equity was originally ad- ministered. " There was something in his austere simplicity of manner which recalled those great lawyers of the middle ages who were also churchmen, for to me Selborne always embodied that great conception and that great combination." Selborne (1872-74.; 1880-85) was not only, like Cairns, an ardent churchman ; he had also something of the ecclesias- tical cast of mind and impassive manner. But he had, above all, that intuitive insight into legal principles and power of grasping and expounding facts which are certain tests of legal genius. With intellectual gifts of the highest order he combined habits of patient industry, without which intui- tions are deceitful and gifts of exposition vain. The terms in which a contemporary observer described his characteris- tics at the bar, bring out clearly the qualities upon which his success was founded. " At this time there were three great advocates before all others. Bethel [Lord Westbury], Palmer [Lord Selborne], Cairns. Each of them had his own points of superiority, though each was very good at all points. Cairns excelled in strong common sense and broad, lucid arrangement of facts ; Bethel in force of exposition and direct attack on his opponent, whether counsel or judge; Palmer in power of work, in knowledge of his briefs, in ready memory and vast resources of case law, in subtlety and great skill in addressing himself to unforeseen emergencies. He could perform the most difficult operations of strategy, changing front in the face of the enemy. It was an admi- rable sight to see him turning the flank of a hostile position taken up by the court, such as Bethel would have attacked in front ; rounding off an angle here, attenuating a difference there; bringing some previously neglected portion of the case into relief, relegating others to the background, and so restoring the battle. What gave Palmer the superiority in these movements (apart from the great versatility and adaptability of his mind and his complete command of