Page:Two Sussex archaeologists, William Durrant Cooper and Mark Antony Lower.djvu/21

 (then plain Mr. Easthope) fought a losing battle for the seat rendered vacant by Mr. Kemp's retirement. Sir John was the principal, if not the sole, proprietor of the now defunct Morning Chronicle, and Mr. Cooper, in addition to his endeavours to establish himself in his profession, accepted a post on the parliamentary staff of that (in its day) influential Whig journal. After a while he accepted similar employment on the Times, but some new division of labour in the corps of reporters on the establishment of that leviathan broad-sheet, which would have interfered with his allotment of the daytime to his professional practice, ultimately led to his severance from a journalistic career.

The branches of his profession in which Mr. Cooper was chiefly engaged, were conveyancing and parliamentary agency, but it may be added that his practice was at no time extensive, and he consequently never realised more than a modest income.

On the death of his uncle, Mr. Frederick Cooper, who was private solicitor to the then Duke of Norfolk, Mr. Cooper was appointed the Duke's steward of the Leet Court of the Borough of Lewes. It is not needful to say much here of the antiquity or jurisdiction of this "Lewes Leet," as it is curtly styled, but, it would seem, by descent or partition among coheiresses, the lordship of the Leet has come to be divided among the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Abergavenny, and the Earl Delawarr, the Marquis holding two fourth parts, and the other two noble personages one fourth part each, and the annual holding of the Leet is presided over by their stewards alternately, the Marquis, in right of his two-fourths, being the lord for two years in succession. A jury is summoned at each leet, and this jury presents the names of the High Constables and Headboroughs for the ensuing year, and, according to ancient custom, the Steward accepts the nomination thus made, and the officers so nominated are sworn in by him. Other occasions also arise on which leets are held, and the small fees payable to the steward constitute the principal, if not the sole, emoluments of his office, and it may well be imagined