[72] watchwords of our two great countries. God grant that they may always be recognized as such! I shall stay in London till after the arrival of the ‘Great Western,’—say next Sunday,—in order to leave here with the freshest letters and intelligence from home. Believe me ever very sincerely yours,
To Judge Story.
travellers', March 9, 1839.my dear Judge,—Let me hastily conclude the personal notices I have promised you of the Bench and Bar. I left off with Follett and Charles Austin. I wish to add, that I think Follett has a sort of intuitive perception of legal principles and reasoning, apparently almost without effort; whereas, Charles Austin, though quick, active, and brilliant, does not astonish one like Follett. I still think Austin, taking all things into consideration, the greater man, and one who will play a great part in his country, if he has health and life. After no little ado, Maule1 has been appointed as Baron Bolland's successor. The appointment was just announced when I last wrote; but there were several impediments before it was perfected. Great opposition is said to have been made to it from various quarters, and particularly from two of the barons with whom he is now associated,—Alderson and Parke. The opposition was, however, overcome, and Baron Maule is now on the Circuit. It is difficult, as you well know, to anticipate the way in which the judicial function will be performed; but those who are best acquainted with Maule, and I concur with them, anticipate for him the highest eminence,—an equality at least with his great associates, if not a superiority over them. He is a very peculiar person, and is now about fifty-two. At Cambridge, he was a distinguished scholar both in the classics and mathematics, and is said to have kept up his acquaintance with these studies to this day. He is confessed, on all hands, to be the first commercial lawyer of England, and has been for some time the standing counsel of the Bank. He was the counsel against whom the court decided in Devaux v. Salvador. His attainments and high legal character make him, therefore, so far as they go, a most unexceptionable candidate for the bench; but his moral character in some respects renders him a strange person for a judge. . . . It was in his chambers that the fire originated which consumed, last winter, so valuable a part of the Temple. He lost his books, clothes,— literally every thing,—and escaped with only a shirt on his back. He has
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1 William Henry Maule, 1788-1858. He was remarkable at Cambridge for his mathematical powers. He made commercial law his specialty; was counsel of the Bank of England; was elected to Parliament, in 1837, for Carlow; appointed a judge of the Exchequer in March, 1839, and of the Common Pleas in November of that year; he resigned in 1855, on account of ill-health; and was placed in the Privy Council, in which he served upon the Judicial Committee. Humor was one of his marked personal characteristics.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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