JOHN DOHERTY. MR. DOHERTY, whom his personal claims, assisted I presume by his political connections, and backed by the opposition of Lord Manners, have recommended as the new Solicitor-General of Ireland [1827], is six feet two inches high, and “ every inch" a very estimable person. Tall as he is, there is nothing contemptuous or haughty in his carriage. He never proudly tosses up his chin, as if to let briefer specimens of humanity pass under. He delights not, like his learned and pious competitor for office, in soaring among the skies for the inward satisfaction of looking down upon other men; neither can he pass with the dexterous versatility of that holy Sergeant [Lefroy] from knotty questions of Chancery practice to the latest authorities for "nonsuiting the devil."* He is, on the contrary, as terrestrial as can be in his habits and intercourse. His manners are friendly and forbearing, and his conversation enlivened by a temperate love of frolic, which endears his society to all those hardened sinners who have not yet been sainted into a due sense of the awful responsibility of joining in a hearty laugh, As to more important points, he is admitted on all hands to be an extremely clever man. He is, and has been for some * An English writer of the 17th century has sketched "the character of a perfect lawyer," from which I extract the concluding sentence for the benefit of the learned saints of Ireland, "In a word, while he lives, he is the delight of the courts, the ornament of the bar, the glory of his profession, the patron of innocency, the upholder of right, the scourge of oppression, the terror of deceit, and the oracle of his country; and when death calls him to the bar of Heaven by a habeas corpus cum causis, he finds his judge his advocate, nonsuits the devil, obtains a liberate from all his infirmities, and continues still one of the long robe in glory." years, the leader upon his circuit; and since he became so, has given unequivocal proofs that he possesses powers of no ordinary kind in swaying the decisions of a jury, while he has more recently, in the discussion of graver matters in the courts of Dublin, established a character for legal efficiency, which has been erroneously assumed to be incompatible with the more popular attributes of wit and eloquence. Resting upon a confidence in his qualifications, and sustained by a just ambition, Mr. Doherty long since announced by his conduct that he aspired to something more than the partial success which is founded upon the mere emoluments of place. Five years ago he resigned a lucrative office,* of which he found the duties to interfere with his final objects, and, dedicating himself more exclusively to his profession, has prepared himself for those higher honors which he then predicted to lie within his reach. As an advocate, his general style of treating serious topics has nothing so peculiarly his own as prominently to distinguish him from others. In his addresses to juries he is prompt, orderly, correct, and fluent-rarely attempting to inflame the passions to their highest pitch, but always warmly and forcibly inculcating the principles of common sense and practical good. feeling; but when a case requires (in technical parlance) “to be laughed out of court" (and one half of the cases that enter there deserve to be so dismissed), Mr. Doherty exhibits powers of very striking and effective originality. I know of no one that more eminently possesses the difficult talent of enlisting a jury on his side by a continued strain of good-humored, gentlemanlike irony-consisting of mock-heroic encomiums, sarcastic deference, and appropriate parodies upon arguments and illustrations, delivered (as long as gravity is possible) with a most meritorious solemnity of countenance, and a certain artful kindliness of tone, that heightens the absurdity it exposes, by affecting to commiserate it. He is also distinguished for his ability in cross-examination-a quality which has rendered. him, in his capacity of crown-prosecutor upon his circuit, a formidable co-operator in the enforcement of the laws. * Commissioner of Inquiry into Courts of Justice in Ireland-the salary twelve hundred pounds sterling a year.-M. CANDIDATES FOR PROMOTION. 313 Recent events have brought this gentleman into prominent view before the Irish public, and have arrayed in his interest a degree of popular favor which is rarely tendered to a future adviser of state-prosecutions. Upon the late vacancy of the Solicitor-Generalship for Ireland (an office upon which its long tenure by the present Lord Chief-Justice Bushe has conferred a kind of classic dignity), a variety of concurring circumstances -the respectability of his personal character- his professional competency-the known liberality of his political opinionsand his parliamentary and private relations with the prime minister of England-pointed out Mr. Doherty as one of the fittest persons to be raised to the situation. I should be unjust to others if I were to assert that he was in every possible respect the very fittest. I can not overlook, the Irish public did not overlook, the claims of such a man as Mr. Wallace, founded as they are upon eminent professional station, tried public character, and (the penalty of the latter) a long and systematic exclusion from office. Mr. Holmes is another.* He was spoken of, and well deserved it. His professional life has been one continued manly appeal to the public; and the public, doing all they could for him, have placed him at the head of his profession. In his political principles he has been honest and immutable, careless of patronage, and prizing above all things his self-respect. Another of the same school and stamp is Mr. Perrin, a younger man by many years-too young, perhaps, to be raised to professional honors by merit alone. His name was not mentioned upon the occasion re * Robert Holmes, for many years Father of the Irish Bar, made his last public appearance (of any consequence) in the State Trials arising out of the O'Connell Monster meetings of 1843, holding a brief for the Crown. He was then seventy-three years old. He was a lawyer of much ability, a man of great private worth. He was married to Emmett's sister-in-law, and, on suspicion of holding the same political opinions, was arrested, in 1803, and imprisoned for some months. He repeatedly refused a silk gown, preferring his station as a plain barrister to the rank of King's Counsel.-M. t Louis Perrin, now second Judge of the Queen's Bench, is the son of a teacher of languages in Dublin, who compiled an excellent French Dictionary. His family came to Ireland, to avoid persecution in France, as Huguenots. The son, born in 1783, and called to the bar in 1806, speedily became eminent for his knowledge of criminal and revenue law. At Nisi Prius he was also distinVOL. I.-14 ferred to, but where a fitness for the public service is in question, I can not in fairness pass it by. He commenced his career at a period (the most dismal in the annals of the Irish bar) when public spirit led to martyrdom; but he was one of the few that were too strong to be suppressed. He prospered in despite of his inflexible adherence to the opinions of his youth, and (a rare event in the life of a liberal Irishman) has lived to see the day when such opinions are no longer to disqualify. I could mention others. Mr. North, for example, was in every way suited by character, acquirements, and enlightened views, to bear a part in a reformed government of Ireland. So was Mr. Crampton, who, though more absorbed in his profession, guished, and had a calm, earnest manner (the result of his somewhat saturnine temperament), which had much weight with juries. Strongly supported on the liberal interest, by Lord Anglesey's Government, Mr. Perrin contested the representation of Dublin city, at the general election, in 1831, and was returned with Mr. (afterward Sir Thomas) Harty. Both were soon unseated on petition. At the election in 1832, following the passing of the Reform Bill, Mr. Perrin successfully contested Monaghan County. The whigs made him Solicitor-General, under Attorney-General O'Loghlin. In Parliament, he was an industrious man who carefully attended to the contents and revision of Irish Bills. The Whigs placed him on the Bench, and he has there given general satisfaction. In the O'Connell trials of 1844, he was one of the Judges - the others being Pennefather, Burton, and Crampton. During these State Trials, he did not conceal nor cloak his opinion that many of the objections, as to the legality of some of the proceedings, made by the defendants (O'Connell and his friends) were well founded—but he was overruled by the majority. Judge Perrin has always been a consistent liberal in politics. Between O'Connell and himself there was a warm friendship of long standing. He is now [1854] seventy years of age.-M. * Charles Cecil Crampton, born in 1783, was called to the bar in 1810. After a very distinguished University career, he first became Fellow of, and subsequently Law-Professor to, Trinity College. He entered Parliament for the borough of Dungarvan, and became Solicitor-General to the Whig Government of 1830. He was raised to the Bench earlier than usual, owing to his being disliked by Mr. O'Connell, who, on that account, could not work pleasantly with him. The Whigs, who then ruled Ireland through O'Connell, made Mr. Crampton a Judge, on the earliest vacancy- -to get him out of the way. Judge Crampton never was an eloquent man, but it is supposed that he had as much Nisi-Prius practice as any Irish lawyer, in his time. Long before the Temperance Movement had been commenced by Father Matthew, it was well known that Judge Crampton was a water-drinker. When he became so, on principle, he proved the sincerity of his profession, by starting the valuable contents of and more circumspect in his avowals, has always had the spirit to keep aloof from the base expedients that led to advancement at the Irish bar. I have introduced those names without any invidious design toward the immediate subject of the present sketch. On the contrary, I could not easily produce a more complimentary test of his personal and professional estimation than the fact that the postponement of such men to him was acquiesced in without a murmur from the bar or the public. His individual qualifications were fully admitted; and it was further borne in mind that the circumstance of his having a seat in the House of Commons, where one at the least of the law-officers of the Crown should be present to answer for their acts, afforded in his favor an obvious and powerful ground of preference. The LordChancellor of Ireland, however, decided otherwise; and, without presuming to usurp the jurisdiction of the House of Peers, or to emulate its frequent severity toward his Lordship's judicial errors, I may perhaps be permitted to investigate the reasons and the value of his decision in the present instance. Lord Manners is a nobleman of high English blood, and in his individual capacity, and when left to himself, is marked by all the thoroughbred attributes that belong to his race. As a private man, and apart from politics, he is dignified, courteous, just, and generous. His moral instincts are all aided and enforced by the honorable pride of the peer and the gen tleman; he recoils from what is base, not only because it is so, but because to act otherwise would be unworthy of the blood of the Rutlands. Though of a temperament rather irritable than warm, he is fervid and steadfast in his friendships. In his private intercourse there is an easy simplicity of manner, and a condescending familiarity of tone, that not only fascinates his immediate adherents, but even charms down the resentment of the Catholic Squire, to whom he explains the political impossibility of granting him the commission of the peace. Many of these qualities follow Lord Manners to the judgment-seat, but in company with others which greatly detract from their his wine-cellar into the stream which flows through his villa-demesne in the County Wicklow. Judge Crampton is now [1854] seventy years of age.- M |