tremely injurious to Sir Fitzroy Kelly. It was not wanting. Although Mr. Kelly is to them we must look in accounting for had the superiority in talent, Mr. Thesiger the delay in his political and professional had the advantage of seniority; and if Mr. advancement. The immediate effect of the Kelly had entered parliament more than decision of the committee was to deprive five years before Mr. Thesiger, the latter him of his seat. He did not, of course, had in his favor a more uninterrupted make his appearance in the House of Com- sitting, and a reputation, such as it was, mons while the discussions on the Ipswich untouched. These reasons-which, if case were pending; and little more was carried out, would justify the official proheard of him as a political person until, in motion, in preference to more meritorious 1837, he again contested Ipswich. On this persons, of the veriest dolt whose parents occasion he was defeated, as far as the re- had had the foresight to enter him early at turning officer's report was concerned; but the bar, and who had had the luck of he presented a petition to the House of being an unit in the House of Commons a Commons, and, after an investigation by a few years before his competitors-were committee, the seat was awarded to him. deemed sufficient to cover the real objecDuring the interval which elapsed between tion to Mr. Kelly, which seems to have this time and the general election of 1841, been not so much a disapproval of his conhe frequently addressed the House of Com- duct (for Sir R. Peel appointed him somons, always producing a strong impression licitor-general the following year), as a fear of his ability and positive value as a par- for the immaculate reputation of the Goliamentary lawyer; but the unfortunate vernment. Accordingly Mr. Thesiger got position in which he had placed himself in the appointment; and Mr. Kelly, with the Ipswich affair (not because he was un- public sympathy on his behalf, was put in seated on the finding that there had been the background. But, in 1845, a new vabribery, that is a venial offence, morally if not legally, with these political purists, but on account of the personal matters mixed up in it) seemed to hang over him like a cloud. He was looked upon as a damaged man; and his very demeanor almost warranted the belief that he felt himself to have lost caste, for he was shy, reserved, In parliament Sir F. Kelly is a very with downcast look; and he even wore, or effective speaker, but has never risen to a seemed to wear, a certain melancholic as- high rank as an orator. In hard argument, pect. At the general election of 1841, Sir or ingenious special pleading, he excels, Fitzroy Kelly again essayed his influence but he has not displayed declamatory with the electors of Ipswich, but he was unsuccessful; and he did not again appear in parliament until 1843, when he was elected for the borough of Cambridge, which he continued to represent till the parliament of 1841 was finally dissolved. cancy occurred; and the scruples of Sir R. Peel (affected doubtless by the fact that so important a corporation as the bank of England had lately appointed Mr. Kelly their standing counsel), having been satisfied, Mr. Kelly was made solicitor-general. power, nor can he successfully appeal to the feelings. The defects of his nisi prius advocacy follow him into the House of Commons, and the strength or variety which he could throw into his speaking, are alike checked and obscured by that "flatness" of In 1844, on the elevation of Sir F. style we have already condemned, and Pollock to the chief baronship, Sir William through which he seems, though, falsely, to Follett having been promoted to be at- be unable to rise to the level even of his torney-general, a vacancy was created in theme, much less to command it. Yet he the solicitor-generalship. Public opinion, has natural advantages, in a clear and sufbut more especially that of the profession, ficiently powerful voice, though not sonopointed to Mr. Kelly as the man who was rous, or capable of much variety of tone; entitled to it, both as a lawyer and a par- a Napoleon-like head and face, which, very liamentary speaker. But Sir Robert Peel, slightly idealized, would serve well as a as a minister, was a purist, and he felt or subject for the sculptor; a very expressive affected great horror at the idea of promot- countenance, strongly marked with the ing this damaged" man. The very least traces of habitual thought, and a singularly he could do was to lay him in quarantine quick and piercing eye. At times, the for a time, and then he would see what face is disfigured by an expression almost could be done, after the demands of public sinister, like that observable in men who hypocrisy had been satisfied. A pretext brood over wrongs, and meditate retali saying that "he was glad that anything had stimulated him to take that prominent part in the debate for which his talent and eloquence so fitted him.” ation; but that again is redeemed occa- | land, Sir James Graham prefaced his own sionally by a fascinating smile. If his an- speech with a compliment to Mr. Dundas, tecedent had been less untoward, those traces of embittered feeling might not have shown themselves, and there would then be no drawback on the prepossession to which one is inclined in his favor. Upon the whole, he impresses one with the idea that he has suppressed or checked rather than displayed his full powers; and it may fairly be predicted that, when in the course of things he becomes attorney-general, if events should occur calculated thoroughly to arouse his energies, he will yet prove himself not to be much inferior, if at all, to the most distinguished parliamentary lawyers of his day. Nearly fifteen years ago, when he was only a junior, his defence of the proprietors of the True Sun newspaper, when indicted for libel, showed what he could do in the higher range of an advocate's duty, should opportunity offer. But in a time when there are no great and stirring events, it is not to be wondered that men of latent powers should be suspected of mediocrity. SIR DAVID DUNDAS. Sir David Dundas was born out of his age. He is the man to have risen in a former era, when a higher and more refined order of talent was more appreciated, when quality was more esteemed than quantity in eloquence, and when the very last man eligible for promotion or distinction would have been one who sought it by a mere iteration of forcible crudities. His selection for promotion is indeed the more remarkable, because statesmen at the present time are more than ever subject to public opinion in the choice of their official subordinates, who are almost thrust upon them, either by out-of-doors' influence, or, in the case of the lawyers, by the supposed right conferred by professional standing or parliamentary service. Sir R. Peel, in one or two cases, showed a determination to choose for himself; but we seldom hear now of party leaders drawing talented men from the obscurity to which their own modesty consigns them, and promoting them in reliance on that insight into their character, and that opinion of their talents, which may have been formed even on observation in private society. No, the same all-powerful spirit of publicity, the same meddling activity out of doors, which forces upon statesmen their principles and measures, and regulates their political standing, also dictates to them, less perceptibly, but quite as surely, the selection of the men by whom their policy is to be carried out. Sir D. Dundas is fortunate in having been an exception to this rule, whatever may have been the influence under which Lord John Russell appointed him. For he was but little known either at the bar or in parliament, up to that time, although, whenever he attracted attention, The appointment of Mr. Dundas, by Lord John Russell, to be solicitor-general, cannot be attributed to any previous indication or designation by public opinion, for he was but little known to the many, either as a lawyer or a member of parliament. Nor although he stands high in the favor of the Duke of Sutherland, and the Duke of Sutherland's opinion must necessarily have much weight with Lord John Russell, do we agree with some who suspected the latter noble lord of having yielded to any extraneous influence in nominating him to the office. His elevation is to be accounted for by the fact, that he is a man of a very superior order, who has displayed his powers only just so far as to have satisfied the judgment, and even to have commanded the admiration, of observant persons, he invariably secured good opinion and though not far enough to have astonished esteem, by the manner in which he acquitor captivated the multitude. Among the ted himself. When Sir J. Graham said he former we may mention Sir James Graham, was glad that anything had "stimulated" a statesman who, whatever may have him to speak, he indicated the real drawbeen his political shortcomings, is an ha- back on his progress. Sir David Dundas is bitual observer and a first-rate judge of at no pains whatever to display his abiliability, and whose favorable opinion on ties. If he seeks fame or loves admiration, that score would be an honor to any man. it is not at least in the senate or in the He seems, long since, to have put Mr. court that he strives for either. An habiDundas on his list, for, when a few years tual indolence, or perhaps, more properly ago, that gentleman addressed the House of speaking, an indifference, characterizes his Commons in defence of the Duke of Suther-public conduct. His activity, if any, is of the mind only, and it probably spends itself in convivial amusement, or some purely intellectual course of reading. We should not be surprised to hear that he is a firstrate table companion, or a great favorite in general society; for, in either case, the "stimulus" is ever present, the reward immediate, and the trouble very little. But, as a public man, he is very quiet and retiring, not from the want of ability, but from some deterring cause acting as a perpetual opiate on the will. Even as solicitorgeneral he has very seldom addressed the house; never, except when he has perceived an absolute necessity for so doing. This abstinence might be attributed, in a great measure, to good taste, which teaches, that in a place where there is such continual talking, where scores of members are daily hammering away at their one idea, a man who speaks with authority should only interfere when the nail is to be driven home. But we fear it is also to be ascribed to perpetual ill-health, with which Sir D. Dundas has for years been more or less afflicted. Like Sir William Follett (whom in some respects he resembles), he has pursued his professional career under great disadvantages; for there is no pursuit in which a strong constitution, good health, and energies always at command, are more required than at the bar. Sir David Dundas is so far from possessing these requisites, that when, on the death of his elder brother, he succeeded to the family estate, it was a question with him whether he should not give up his profession. His experience and reputation as an advocate were chiefly obtained at the West Riding Sessions (Yorkshire), where he was for some years leader; and the connexions formed, and secured, under these circumstances, became a good mainstay to his practice on the northern circuit. As an advocate, he took a higher ground than that which usually secures men business either at sessions or on circuit. He disdained triumphs which were to be gained by mere legal subtlety, or the ingenuities of special pleading; but he shone as an advocate in the best meaning of the term, where a jury were to be influenced by eloquence, by lofty appeals to their feelings or their principles. With great powers of declamation, he has also that in his whole aspect and bearing which enables him to assume (like Lord Denman), with most imposing effect, a high moral tone. Thus tional cases than for the regular business of circuit. As a parliamentary speaker, he possesses more than the average power and effectiveness; he is really eloquent; and his eloquence is not of the kind we are most accustomed to at the present day. His aristocratic bearing, his handsome and strikingly intellectual countenance, a sonorous voice capable of firm modulation, a tall manly person and a graceful carriage, propitiate the audience at first sight and hearing, and recall to memory what one has read and heard of the dignity and polish of the trained orators of former days. He certainly could rise much higher in the scale, and produce more perfect and masterly proofs of eloquence, than his inertness has yet allowed him to afford. As it is, there is much in his style which, at the present time, appears original. There is the loftiness of manner, the dignified, almost pompous and affected, delivery, the chosen language, the measured and rounded period; but into all these traditionary graces of senatorial eloquence (some of which we may see preserved in Lord Lansdowne and others of a former school), there is infused much of the coarser fire and ruder vigor of modern oratory. The speeches of Sir D. Dundas have been very infrequent, but, though few, they have sufficed to establish his reputation. His best were, on the Privilege question, and that other speech (à propos the Scotch Poor-law), for which he was complimented by Sir J. Graham, and in which he very much amused the House by declaring, that although he was of the middle class (he might have gone higher in describing himself), he never had tasted anything but porridge for breakfast till he came to England. The speech was imperfectly reported, and the subject was not a very inviting one, but the speaker displayed remarkable ability. Sir D. Dundas is forty-eight years of age, but looks younger. He has represented the county of Sutherland since 1840. He owes much of his success to the kind patronage of the Duke of Sutherland, both in public and in private; but more to his own abilities and especial talents for pleasing in society. MR. STUART Mr. Stuart has not been sufficiently long he was, perhaps, better fitted for excep- in the House of Commons to have earned any reputation as a speaker, or to have effective. His manner of address implies done what could justify criticism. But self-reliance without presumption; and he accident has placed him in a prominent has created confidence. It was his exposure position. The same disorganization of of the complicated enactments of the Health parties which enabled Mr. Hudson to take of Towns Bill, that led to its abandonment his seat by the side of Lord George Ben- by Lord John Russell. He does not pretinck, on what is commonly called the oppo- tend to be an orator, but he speaks impressition bench, also called Mr. Stuart to be sively and with sufficient ease and fluency. the chief ostensible legal adviser of the Tall in stature, and with an intellectual Protectionist seceders from the Peel and countenance, he also bears himself with Graham government. Under any circum- much dignity. Whether it be our imaginastances, perhaps, he might have been tion, affected by the coincidence of names, deemed to be entitled by his talents and we know not, but we have often heard it his professional standing to assume that remarked, and have felt the truth of the position; but, according to the ordinary suggestion, that he has the Stuart physiogpractice of parliament, a system of gra- nomy-give him the costume, moustache, dation and promotion is required ere a man and beard, and he might pass for having is allowed to take the first rank, and to be- stepped from the frame of a Vandyke of come eligible for honors. For we should Charles the First. not forget, that if any caprice of the House of Commons should place the StanleyBentinck party, for however short a time, in power, there would be a probability, according to precedent, of Mr. Stuart being nominated Lord Chancellor. MR. RUTHERFORD AND MR. M'NEILL. Mr. Rutherford is, Mr. M'Neill was, the Lord-advocate of Scotland, holder of an office which is as much a mystery to EngMr. Stuart is undoubtedly an able and lishmen generally, as is the law which that learned lawyer. He was first known to the learned functionary, at fitful intervals, exprofession from his Reports in the Vice- plains to the House of Commons. The Chancellor's Court, published under the range of the lord-advocate's duties appears name of Simons and Stuart. His talents to the uninitiated a sort of imperium in imsoon brought him forward; and at present perio. Among the ministers, and in parhe divides the business in Vice-Chancellor liament, he sits apart, with no eye for any Shadwell's court with Mr. Bethell, although part of the empire but Scotland, with no the latter has the lion's share of it. Mr. ear for any tongue that has not on it the Stuart has not the fluency, nor, perhaps, peculiar music so grateful to the sons of the the happy knack of arranging the points of North. He appears to enjoy a pleasant his case, that are possessed by his learned little monopoly of the legislation necessary rival; but he infinitely surpasses him in for our northern neighbors; since it seems suavity, both to the bar and to the profes- to be for him to decide when measures shall sion generally, which may have made them be introduced, whether they shall be pressmore ready to express an opinion which is ed, and, if not, when they shall be abansaid to prevail-that he is the superior of doned. To all appearance, the other the two in sound legal knowledge. He has ministers never dream of interfering with got on, however, by sheer industry, learn- him, leaving him alone in his imperial ing, and ability, and it is scarcely paying isolation. For this, however, there may, him too high a compliment when we say, perhaps, be a reason, in the utter unintelthat in many respects he resembles the pre-ligibility to southern ears of Scottish law sent Lord Chancellor. His learning, though deep, is practical and readily applied. He never attempts oratory, because it would be out of place in mere equity pleading; and, although sometimes rather prolix, he always states his case with precision, and even with neatness and force. He is also to be praised for his firm and resolute manner in à court where a arrogant and overbearing temper is too often displayed. In the House of Commons he has done but little. That little, however, has been and legal terms-nay, of the very principles on which legislation for that country proceeds; so that, in fact, the lord-advocate is protected in his monopoly by a double armor of tough words, and tougher customs and habits of thought. We have often thought how the English attorneys-general must envy their Scottish compeers, more especially as there is no doubt some snug patronage connected with this mysterious office, or there might not be so good an understanding as now there is between the lord-advocate and the various representatives of Scotland in parliament. Of the legal qualifications of these two gentlemen it would be presumption in an Englishman to speak. The fact of their having held the high office of lord-advocate, stands in the stead of all praise or criticism. Of the Right Hon. Duncan M'Neill we may record, that he has been thirty-one years at the Scottish bar. In 1820, four years after he was called to the bar, he was made a junior counsel for the Crown. In 1834 he was appointed solicitor-general for Scotland, and rose to be lord-advocate in 1842 under Sir R. Peel. Mr. Rutherford has not been so long at the bar, but was made lord-advocate under the former administration of the Whigs. tic; the other, hard, rusty, rugged, impassible. The one might have been moulded from wax, the other must have been wrought out of iron. Mr. Rutherford "lays himself out" to please; Mr. M'Neill is close, reserved, absorbed in the perpetual contemplation of his duty. To the former, life and Scottish law seem a sort of agreeable bagatelle; to the other, they are evidently matters of the first import. The one seeks to win his way; the other disdains to do aught but force it. And so we might go on contrasting these two gentlemen till the reader would be tired. On one point alone, however, there ceases to be any great difference between them. However much they may differ in their views on general subjects, you have only to touch the great interests of Scotland to unite them at once. Unlike their Irish fellow-subjects, they know well how to join forces against the common enemy. Confined as the parliamentary exertions of the lord-advocate are to Scotch business, there is not much to be said as to the powers of either of the above gentlemen as orators or politicians, in a general sense. But a visitor to the House of Commons who may happen to see Messrs. Rutherford and M'Neill in juxta-position, will be struck with the singular contrast they present to each other. One might suppose that Eng-quit England, in consequence of his reduced means, lish statesmen, unable to dive into the minutiæ of their several claims, had chosen them for their personal attributes to represent the several systems of policy. Mr. Rutherford, the lord-advocate of Whigs and Liberalism, is a portly, full-bodied, fleshy, good-humored looking gentleman, but with a rather pompous carriage. His head is large, tending to roundness; the face fair, fleshy, and not at all characteristic of his Scottish origin: it is rather a face like the late Mr. O'Connell's. His voice is richly sonorous, and he rejoices in developing the full rotundity of his tones. His manner is the perfection of blandness; his eloquence, verbose, florid, and much ornamented. Mr. M'Neill, on the contrary, the law officer of Scotch Tories, is lean, spare, with dark complexion, black, piercing eyes and eyebrows, his head long and thin, and with a settled severity of expression on the countenance. His voice is monotonous, harsh; and he economizes breath in his speaking. His manner is abrupt, severe; his speeches, terse, in few words, composed of hard reasonings or facts, without an illustration or an ornament. Mr. Rutherford lives in a self-created atmosphere of geniality. Mr. M'Neill preserves in his new sphere all the rugged wildness of an indigenous shrub. QUEEN VICTORIA AND ESPARTERO. Ten or twelve days since, Espartero made up his mind to which rendered his taking up his residence in a cheaper country a matter of necessity. Such an intention having come to the knowledge of some of his English friends, they at once came forward with offers of assistance, to enable him to remain in London, but which were declined by him. Amongst those friends was Lord Palmerston, whose offers were made, not as a Minister, but as a private friend. Her Majesty's attention was also subsequently directed to this fact. The result was, that a yearly pension of £2,000 was proposed to be conferred on the Duke of Victory, to enable him to reside in a country where he has met with so much be permitted to return to his country without being respect and attention, until such time as he should subjected to the degrading conditions attempted to be imposed upon him. This also was most respectfully declined by him, and from the most honorable motives. In the official letter communicating the gracious intentions of the Queen, it is said these words occur:-" Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her Majesty's Government, animated by sentiments Isabella II., would see with the deepest regret the of the most lively friendship towards the Queen first and most distinguished of her Catholic Majesty's servants obliged to abandon England, otherwise than to return to his native country with all the dignity and honor becoming him, and which are his cue." The feeling of gratitude that this has awakened in the hearts of the Liberal party in Ma drid, it would be difficult to give a just idea of.— Globe. A LAWYER'S TOAST.-At a late dinner of a provincial law society, the president called upon the whom he considered the best friend of the profession. senior solicitor present to give as a toast the person Then," responded the sly old fox, “I'll give you— The one is soft, oily, plas-The man who makes his own will,'' |