Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

to her new conditions, her duty being not less apparent, while her immediate interests are far more closely and advantageously concerned than is the case with England. Such a policy is evidently in unison with German sentiment. It would be properly directed against that hatred of races towards Germany which is now binding together Pole and Russian, as seen in the issues of the Russian press and the riots of Posen. A comprehensive firm diplomacy resting on such a basis, would give to Germany the moral influence she now lacks. There are indications that such views are to some extent entertained by Prince Bismarck's Government. It seems tolerably certain that what we read occasionally regarding the hostile feelings of the latter towards Austria has no foundation in fact. The diplomatic conduct is accordingly what was to be desired, as shown very recently in the cordial reception given to the Comte de Bellegarde, who was sent by the Emperor Francis Joseph to compliment the Emperor William. The envoy is said to have returned well pleased, bringing back with him proposals having reference to the Rouman Principalities. In the disposition evinced by such acts we trace what may lead to the general combination of the great Powers. Russia may be thus induced to persevere in the policy of peace and respect for others by which she has gained much credit during the last fifteen years. May the wish we utter become a reality in the interests of all the countries immediately concerned !

Let it be once more repeated. Russia makes no secret of her desire to encroach on her neighbour, to expand her influence abroad by force of arms, to make use of a propaganda for this purpose founded on a theory of race, to array the Sclave against the Magyar and the Austrian. The attitude of the Cabinets of St. Petersburg and Vienna is that of antagonists looking for the coming fray, however studiously allusion to it may be avoided by both sides in their correspondence. Russia tells us through her best informed generals and statesmen, and by the measures in the cause of development and execution, that she fears no single Power, that she is confident no single Power will attack her, but that she does fear an alliance of many Powers, and that against such an alliance she must stand prepared. It is then for Europe to take the Power at its word that so boldly and cynically avows its objects, and how it stands before the world.

The Russian scheme of military reorganisation must be taken to comprehend the means of placing the Empire in such a state of defence as to give a sufficient national sanction to

the national aspiration. The scheme is intended to enable the Russian generals to advance on Central Europe without risk to the internal peace of the country. In the interest, therefore, of European civilisation and of the maintenance of the general peace, this scheme of military reorganisation in Russia urgently calls for the vigilance of England and Germany. The reorganisation may well cause Austria and Turkey to think how far it may be directed against their national security, perhaps their political existence.*

ART. II.-The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of Ireland. By J. R. O'FLANAGAN, M.R.I.A. London: 1870.

WE

E cannot in justice praise this book, and yet we are glad that it has been published. The veil of obscurity which had spread over all that relates to the national life and the genuine records of Irish history has been gradually lifted up; and of late years a variety of writers have elucidated the past of the sister country, if not with the vivifying touch of genius, at least with care and conscientious industry. Apart, however, from a few biographies and some sketches of remarkable merit -those of the late Mr. Shiel and Mr. Charles Phillips will at once occur to many of our readers-but little hitherto has been accomplished in retracing the legal annals of Ireland; and the history of the Irish Bench and Bar has been hardly at all explored. One of the reasons probably of this neglect is that, with exceptions of no great importance, the Irish Law Reports scarcely extend beyond the beginning of this century, so that it has become difficult to comprehend what at a comparatively recent period was the real character of the Irish Forum; and another may be that, great as is the just reputation of Irish lawyers, their position in a country which for centuries was ruled by the sword as a conquered province, prevented them from attaining the political eminence reached long ago by their fellows in England, and lowered their natural rank in the State. Yet the profession of the law has played a not insignificant part in shaping the varying fortunes of Ireland. Whether as an instrument of arbitrary power, or as a check on

* We have abstained from allusion to any possible results to India from a policy of military extension in Russia. To have done so would have opened up a subject demanding large treatment-in short, an article to be devoted entirely to itself.

tyranny and wrong, it has largely influenced the national destinies; and it has reflected with singular clearness, and in a manner almost peculiar to itself, the sentiments and opinions of powerful classes. A biography of the personages who have held the chief place of honour in this order could, therefore, hardly fail to be interesting; and many as are the faults of Mr. O'Flanagan's book, it nevertheless deserves attention. It contains tolerably full sketches of the lives of many of the Irish Chancellors; it connects these with copious references to contemporaneous historical events; and it abounds in anecdotes, more or less valuable, which illustrate the times in which they held office. In a word, it is a laborious compilation which deals with a subject of an attractive kind; and though it is not a good book, it deserves to find readers, not only among the select few who care to investigate Irish history, but with the much more numerous class which takes pleasure in biographical gossip.

Unfortunately, however, these volumes fall far short of the standard of meritat which their author might have aimed; and we are surprised to learn that they represent even the desultory labours of many years. Mr. O'Flanagan, we regret to say, has proved himself to be deficient in the qualifications absolutely needful to deal in a satisfactory way with his subject. It is, no doubt, impossible to depict most of the earlier Irish Chancellors in anything like the lineaments of life; but several of the later names in the series had characteristics strongly marked; and a competent narrator would have placed their distinctive features clearly before us. Mr. O'Flanagan,

however, does not exhibit the least trace of artistic skill; he seems unable to seize and bring out the qualities of the personages he attempts to portray; and in his pages we see nothing of the living images' of such men as Lords Lifford, Clare, and Plunket. Nor has he even a clear perception of the great outlines of Irish history, and, so to speak, of its general tendencies-a knowledge essential to his work, since not a few of the Irish Chancellors contributed largely to the events which marked the fortunes of the sister island, and some acted a conspicuous part in that long drama of national suffering. He appears not to have studied thoroughly any one of the well-defined periods which make up the tale of the annals of Ireland, or, at least, not to possess the faculty of setting them plainly before the reader; and the result is that a fitting background is wanting to almost all his pictures, and they are devoid of their natural form and colouring. He has, indeed, slurred over or misinterpreted several passages

[ocr errors]

of national importance which he ought to have clearly described if he wished to do justice to his theme; and his account of the Irish policy of the Tudors, and of the events that preceded the rising of 1641, is so meagre, imperfect, or onesided, that his sketches of the contemporaneous Chancellors are evidently partial or far from correct. Besides, we are constrained to remark that, even when dealing with his immediate subject, he often makes inexplicable omissions, and is careless and inaccurate in the extreme. We are at a loss to know from what authorities Mr. O'Flanagan has compiled what he evidently imagines to be a complete list of the Chancellors of Ireland; but a reference to Haydn's Book of Dignities' will show that, without apparent reason, he has left out a considerable number of names. With respect, too, to some of his 'Lives,' he has neglected obvious sources of information; and we should infer from his notice of Archbishop Deane, and of that remarkable man Sir Thomas Cusack, that he had not studied such common books as Lord Campbell's Chancellors' or the Carew State Papers.' By comparing his text with the Roll of Patents in the Liber Munerum Hiberniæ,' we see that he is very inaccurate in his dates. We have detected a number of blunders during the period of the Plantagenets and the Tudors; and, as for modern instances, he informs us that Sir John Leach died in 1827, the year when that judge became Master of the Rolls, where he presided for a long time afterwards. Many similar cases might be cited; and what is to be thought of the care of a writer who criticises the 'bloody Bill of the six Arbiters'? and though Slender talked of a custos ratalorum,' would he write of the posse com'mitatus'?

[ocr errors]

Mr. O'Flanagan's volumes begin with a sketch of the Celtic laws and institutions of Ireland. We shall not follow him into this disquisition, which is exceedingly bald and imperfect, for it is altogether foreign to his subject. The Irish Chancellors have administered a law wholly different from the Brehon customs, and in its genius singularly alien from them. During several centuries they were Englishmen who scorned the native judges as mere barbarians; and, instead of cultivating, they did their best, in the Anglo-Norman and Tudor periods, to discountenance or extirpate primitive usages which they rightly considered as connecting links in the stubborn frame of Irish nationality. In passing, however, we may observe that modern research has conclusively proved that the ancient laws of the Irish tribes formed a more elaborate and complete system than had been supposed by critics like Coke; and certainly not

a few of the maxims of this venerable and now dead jurisprudence contrast favourably, in all that relates to the ordinary arrangements of social life, with the perfection of reason' of the old Common Law. The office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland, as Mr. O'Flanagan correctly admits, was an institution of foreign growth; and it may be traced nearly as far back as the first Norman conquest of the island, Stephen Ridell having certainly held the Seals as early as 1186. We shall not discuss the intricate question, hardly relevant to the present work, and but feebly handled by Mr. O'Flanagan, as to the relative positions of the Chief Justiciary and the Chancellor in the Aula Regis; suffice it to say that, as in England so in Ireland, the first great office fell into disuse at an early period; and Mr. O'Flanagan is clearly in error in imagining, as he apparently does, that the office of Chancellor is not much older than the reign of Henry III. or Edward I. It is more to the purpose to consider the authority and influence of the first Chancellors of Ireland; and Mr. O'Flanagan has not given sufficient prominence to this part of his subject, though he has evidently studied it a good deal. The subjection of Ireland to the earlier Plantagenets, as is well known, was nominal only; and while in theory the whole island became an appanage of the English monarchy, the small part alone which had been colonised by the first conquerors and their descendants passed under the dominion of English law, and all the rest remained in a state of rude independence under the native chieftains. The Anglo-Norman Pale and the Celtic Land were thus wholly distinct regions, inhabited by different and hostile races, and the inevitable result was widespread anarchy, and the destruction of the germs of civilisation. The institutions of the conquering colony were not likely, it may be supposed, to extend in this state of society, and where lawlessness and disorder abounded, the domain of law was narrow and precarious. The jurisdiction of the earlier Chancellors was nearly confined to the precincts of the Pale, and was all but unknown in the rest of the country; and, even within the Pale itself, it was encroached upon to a considerable extent by the jurisdiction of great feudal lords, who had obtained extravagant franchises from the Crown, and whose seneschals administered in their own Courts a strange medley of half-barbarous customs. Thus while in England the power of the Chancellors expanded steadily and spread far and wide as the monarchy became consolidated and settled, in Ireland it was restricted within narrow bounds, and was unfelt by the great body of the nation, at least as a reforming influence.

« VorigeDoorgaan »