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a large portion of the general business is withdrawn from the outer bar, and distributed among the privileged few. In common fairness, therefore, to the profession at large, and also to the suitor, who ought to be left as uncontrolled as possible in the selection of his counsel, personal privileges of this kind, which thus work a detriment to others, should be very sparingly conferred. In former times, a silk-gown was given as an honorary distinction to an already eminent barrister, and not as a recommendation to business. Thirty years ago there were only sixteen King's Counsel, and since then the general business of the bar has materially decreased. There are now forty-three-all, with a few exceptions, of Lord Manners's creation. The number has, in fact, become so excessive, that it has been found necessary to alter the old arrangement of the Courts, in order to supply them all with seats. At the English bar, where public opinion has some influence, there were, at the commencement of the present year [1827], only twenty-eight King's Counsel.

When Mr. Doherty was lately nominated to the vacant Solicitor-Generalship for Ireland, Lord Manners interposed, and for some weeks refused to swear him in. The measure was as unprecedented as the reason assigned; namely, that the gentleman in question, who is of twenty years' standing, was too youthful a barrister to be lifted over the heads of certain meritorious seniors. The principle sounded fairly enough in the ears of the one or two who hoped to profit by it, but it had not the slightest foundation in established usage. There has been no such thing at the Irish bar as even a vague expectation that promotion was to be regulated by length of standing, and least of all, promotion to the office in question, which may be said to partake more of a political than a legal character. It is only necessary to refer to the appointments since the Union; they are as follows:

Sir John Stewart, eighteen years at the bar.

Mr. O'Grady (now Chief Baron of the Exchequer), fifteen years at the bar.

Mr. M'Cleland (now Baron of the Exchequer), thirteen years at the bar.

Mr. Plunket (now Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas), seventeen years at the bar.

Mr. Bushe (now Chief-Justice of the King's Bench), thirteen years at the bar.

The list closes with the present Attorney-General, Mr. Joy [1827]. He had certainly obtained the maturity of standing, which has at length been discovered to be so indispensable a qualification; but who, that ever gave a thought to the reasons for his appointment, does not know that he was made SolicitorGeneral in 1822, not because he happened to be a Sergeant, not because he was well stricken in legal years, but because there was in his person a coincidence of professional and political requisites which accorded with the project of a balanced Administration. So far as the question of seniority is concerned, he formed an exception to the general practice.

Overlooking, however, the objection that Mr. Doherty is not old enough in his profession to be a "promising young man" a grave legal maxim, for which Lord Manners has the high authority of Mr. Sergeant Flower-I would say that the political circumstances of Ireland afford some very serious reasons for the selection of this gentleman, and the rejection of the class of competitors that Lord Manners would have preferred. The late purification of the British Cabinet* has opened new George Canning was appointed Governor-General of India in 1822, had prepared for his departure, and publicly taken leave of his constituents at Liverpool, when the Marquis of Londonderry (Castlereagh) committed suicide. The foreign secretaryship thus became vacant. George IV. (who had not forgiven him for going to the Continent, and offering to resign his office of President of the Board of Control, rather than assist in the prosecution and persecution of Queen Caroline, whom he had spoken of in Parliament as "the grace, life, and ornament of society") hesitated to appoint Canning. He did so, however, and Canning thereby became the virtual head of the Administration, the nominal head being Lord Liverpool, who was obliged to take large and daily doses of ether to strengthen his nerves, and who confessed that, for years, he had never received his letters in the morning without dreading to open them, for fear that they should give him notice of an insurrection in some part of the country. Croly (a Tory) says of him that his system was to glide on from year to year, and think that his business was amply done, if the twelve months passed without a rebellion, a war, or a national bankruptcy; to shrink from every improvement in his terror of change; and to tolerate every old abuse, through dread of giving the nation a habit of inquiry. Yet this man had ruled

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prospects to the Catholics of Ireland, and (what a wise and considerate government should never overlook) has inspired their leaders with a sanguine and determined forbearance selEngland, with a mind thus enfeebled, for fifteen years! From 1822 until February, 1827, when Lord Liverpool was attacked by paralysis, Canning may be said to have ruled the country. Some weeks elapsed before Lord Liverpool's place was filled up-in the interval (early in March), Canning made a powerful speech in Parliament, in support of Catholic Emancipation, which was lost by a majority of four only. At last, on April 12, 1827, it was announced that Canning had been appointed Prime Minister. Suddenly and simultaneously, Wellington, Peel, Eldon, and three others of Canning's colleagues in the Cabinet, resigned. He formed a ministry consisting of liberals-but the Tories formed a compact opposition, aided by "the old whigs," headed by Earl Grey. This latter party, not very numerous then, consisted of those who thought that certain noble families, on either side, had a sort of hereditary right to govern the country. Perhaps, also, Lord Grey recollected that, in a keen satire on “All the Talents,” written by Canning, twenty years before, Temple's wit and Sidmouth's firmness, had been slily contrasted with

-"the temper of Grey,

And Treasurer Sheridan's promise to pay."

At all events, Lord Grey strongly and haughtily opposed Canning's ministry. The Irish Catholics, who saw in the new Premier one of their most eloquent advocates, and who speedily felt the advantages accruing from the charges he made personnalité of the Irish Government, naturally entertained the highest hopes from the promotion of their friend. He had to contend, in ill health, with a very strong and ruthless opposition in Parliament which "hounded him on to death" (to use the words of Lord George Bentinck's accusation of Peel, at a later day), and a Premier who would have carried out the most liberal measures, had he lived, died in the Duke of Devonshire's house, at Chiswick, near London, on August 8, 1827, aged 57, in the very same room where, twenty-one years' earlier, Charles James Fox had breathed his last-much about the same age; each being liberal in politics, each crowning the labors of a life of active ambition, by finally obtaining the highest officee-to hold it for a few months and "die in harness." Canning was succeeded, as Premier, by Lord Goderich, who had not talent or influence to govern. In January, 1828, the reins of empire passed from his weak hands to those of Wellington-the avowed opponent of the Catholic claims. Then, in despair and defiance, came the Clare Election, which led, in the Duke's opinion, to one of two things-a civil war or Catholic Emancipation. The soldier, sagacious by reason of his long experience in war, preferred to yield― on the plea of necessity. This he did in 1829. Next year, he was too proud to grant Parliamentary Reform, on the same grounds, and was defeated. The Whigs came into power, headed by Lord Grey, and after the severest Parliamentary struggle ever known-stretching through two Parliaments and two years' excitementt-was passed that reform

dom manifested by the directors of a popular body. The skill and prudence with which Mr. O'Connell and his colleagues, at the risk of their popularity, have prevailed upon their ardent countrymen to accommodate their temper to the exigencies of the occasion, justly merited every practical acknowledgment that could be tendered by the new Administration. Next to the final consummation of their hopes, the Irish Catholics annex the utmost importance to the official appointments of persons in whom they can confide; and most of all in the case of the legal advisers of the Crown, upon whose individual characters and political tenets they know by experience that the decision of many questions affecting their interests depends.

But, however sensitive upon this point, they evinced no disposition, at the recent crisis, to embarrass the Government, by exacting more than could be conveniently accorded. Though well aware of Mr. Joy's hostility to their cause, they allowed his personal claims to outweigh their wishes, and acquiesced, as a matter of state necessity, in his elevation to the vacant Attorney-Generalship; but farther than this they could not be expected to go. They saw that the Government was free to choose his colleague, and very reasonably considered that their feelings and interests should be consulted in the selection. Had this expectation been baffled-had a political favorite of Lord Manners been raised to a condition of suggesting subtle reasons for disturbing the public tranquillity by the prosecution of the Catholic leaders, the most disastrous results would have ensued; all confidence in the professions of the new Minister would have been at an end. The Catholic Association would have instantly exploded, and have been quickly involved in angry collisions with the Government, fatal alike to their own interests and to the stability of the Administration from which they have so much to hope. These lamentable consequences have, however, been prevented. The spirit of a better and juster policy prevailed. Mr. Doherty was preferred; and the measure was no sooner announced, than its propriety was sancin the parliamentary representation of the people, which now [1854] is to be extended, on the ground of the incompleteness of the previous measure of 1832.-M.

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tioned by the public and unequivocal satisfaction of that body which it was of such vital moment to conciliate.*

The mere legal duties of the office to which Mr. Doherty has been called might be easily discharged by a person of professional qualifications much inferior to his; but it embraces other duties, demanding requisites of another and less common kind. It is now notorious that the Catholic question (however opinions may vary upon its relative importance) is the one upon which the fate of administrations depends, and most peculiarly the fate of the present administration. The Catholics of Ireland, though not yet arrived at the maturity of strength and influence in the empire which, when attained, must insure an adjustment of their claims, have it at all times in their power to resort to proceedings incompatible with the continuance of their friends in office. Hence the relation of that body with the Government of the country, at the present juncture, is one

* John Doherty, who was Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, for twenty years, was called to the bar in 1808, made King's Counsel in 1823, Solicitor-General in 1827, and was Chief-Justice from 1830 until September, 1850, when he died. Doherty, related on the maternal side to Colonel Verner, M. P. for Armagh, and by his father's family to Canning, came into Parliament in 1826, as Member for Kilkenny. When Canning became Premier, he raised Doherty to the position of Irish Solicitor. His knowledge of the science of law was by no means extensive, but his sagacity was great, his industry exemplary, and his sense of Justice pre-eminently powerful. It is said that of all the opponents who measured weapons with O'Connell in Parliament, the most successful, and certainly one of the most undaunted, was Mr. Doherty. Their chief encounter took place in May, 1830, shortly before Doherty was made a Judge, and O'Connell fiercely attacked him for his conduct as Crown lawyer, in what was called The Doneraile Conspiracy. He was met and answered, at all points, by Doherty, who (in the opinion of the Anti-O'Connellites, at least), silenced, if he did not convince, his assailant. Peel had such a favorable recollection of this word-duel that, in 1834, when he formed his first ministry. he solicited Doherty to resign his judicial office, and to return to the House of Commons, as one of the Cabinet. This was declined, whereupon Peel repeated his entreaty, offering to raise him to the House of Lords. Chief-Justice Doherty again declined, and Peel struggled on without his aid during the four months of his bold experiment of governing against the popular will. In 1846, before finally quitting office, it is said that Peel again offered a peerage to Doherty, who was compelled to decline it, from want of means to provide for the support of the dignity, having entered largely into railway speculations, during the preceding joint-stock-bubble year, and thereby lost the bulk of his fortune.--M.