[29] to have been a job of Brougham. He was of the Northern circuit, and a friend of Brougham. He is a dull man; but as honest and good-natured as the day. I have seen him perplexed in the extreme, both before a jury and in bane, by the arguments of counsel. He is truly amiable, and is much of a liberal. Lady Coltman is a sister of Duckworth, the Chancery barrister. At Coltman's at dinner, I saw young Wortley hand down Lady Coltman, though there were at table Baron Parke, Vaughan, and Sir Edward Curry. This was strictly correct according to the Heralds' books, as the son of a peer takes precedence of knights, whatever may be their respective ages; but it shocked my notions of propriety.Dec. 14, 1838.
Poor Allan Park is dead; and everybody is speculating about his successor. The Solicitor-General will be the man.1 I dined last night with Serjeant Wilde, and it was amusing to see the coquetry between him, Talfourd, Bompas, and Hill, with regard to the successor. I came up yesterday from Oxford, where I have passed four delightful days. I was installed by Sir Charles Vaughan as an honorary Fellow of All Souls. I have now given you the Queen's Bench and the Common Pleas judges. I shall follow this with the barons of the Exchequer; and then with a view of the common law bar. Afterwards you may expect something about the Chancery Bar and Admiralty. I have read Sir Mathew Hale's Ms. on the Admiralty, and find it to be a complete treatise on the subject, which contains nothing new to you, but which, nevertheless, I think you ought to be acquainted with, as it is a scientific discussion of the subject by one of the master minds of the common law. The spirit with which it is written, as regards the common law, you may conceive from the way in which he speaks of the two jurisdictions together. He says, “The suitor is sent to Admiralty on an incidental point out of the common law courts,—Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne.” Through the kindness of Sir Robert Inglis I have been enabled to have a copy taken; which will cost about eight pounds. . . . As ever, affectionately,C. S.
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1 Park died Dec. 8. Thomas Erskine (not Rolfe) was appointed, Jan. 9, 1839, his successor. Rolfe was appointed a baron of the Exchequer in Nov., 1839. Post, p. 52.
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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