Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/841

 ^0. VEEDER: A CENTURY OF JUDICATURE 827 temper) was above all his perfectly accurate and ready knowledge of every detail of his case." His marked characteristic as a judge was his profound knowledge of case law and his masterly dealing with it. In this respect he has seldom been surpassed. It was his habit to extract the ruling principle of prior decisions, and then to trace the development of the branch of law under discussion.^ From his conservative regard for precedent he was essentially a sound judge. He was inferior to Cairns in terseness, clear- ness and force because he indulged himself in his remarkable gift of subtlety. Beyond certain limits subtlety ceases to be desirable in the exposition of practical rules of human conduct. While many of his opinions are masterpieces of luminous reasoning, he had too often a habit of pursuing a fine train of reasoning on a matter collateral to the main issue. This undue prominence of matters of minor import- ance and trains of reasoning running off into collateral mat- ters, explain the absence of proportion which characterizes some of his work. But his statements of legal propositions are carefully worded with a far seeing regard for the future, and few hasty dicta are to be found in his opinions. Although he was great in council and dextrous in debate, he did not display in political life the marvelous adaptability which was so conspicuous in Cairns. In some respects he would seem to have been better equipped for public life than his great rival. He had larger and more genial sympathies, and his flowing and diffuse style was more apt to impress the public mind than the highly concentrated manner of Cairns. But his ecclesiastical subtlety again hampered his influence. And he was prone to rely upon considerations too purely moral and speculative to exert any considerable influence on public opinion. Hence the arguments by which he attempted to support a conclusion were often far more conspicuously vulnerable and far more offensive to his adversaries than the conclusion Itself. As a law reformer alone Selborne takes a high rank. The reforms Inspired by Brougham In 1832 had been followed at fitful In- » Aylesford v. Morris, 8 Ch. App. 484; Noble v. Willock, 8 Ch. App. 778.