CHAPTER II. AT THE BAR TILL HE WAS APPOINTED SOLICITOR GENERAL, 1804-1819. CHAP. II. He is called to the bar, 7th June, As soon as possible after his return from America, Copley was called to the bar by the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn, and he became a candidate for business in the Court of King's Bench and on the Midland Circuit. His professional progress was extremely slow. It used to be said that there were four, and only four, ways in which a young man could get on at the bar: 1. By huggery. 2. By writing a law book. 3. By progress. quarter sessions. 4. By a miracle. The first was successfully practised by that great nisi prius leader Tom Tewkesbury, the hero of 'The Pleader's Guide,' who not only gave dinners at his chambers to the attorneys, but suppers to their clerks : "Nor did I not their clerks invite To taste said venison hashed at night: My rising merit would descry." But Copley, although by no means scrupulous about principle, was above any sort of meanness, and always comported himself as a gentleman. Although he behaved to attorneys and their clerks with courtesy, and would talk very freely with them, as with all the rest of mankind, he never would flatter them, or court them, or make interest with them to obtain business. 2. Park's book on the 'Law of Insurance,' and Abbott's on the 'Law of Shipping,' had recently acquired for their respective authors the reputation of deep mercantile lawyers, and filled their bags with briefs at Guildhall. But Copley had always a great contempt for authorship, and would rather starve than disgrace himself by it. 3. He took 1804, Et. 32. His slow CHAP. A.D. 1813. a serjeant at-law. to Quarter Sessions very cordially, and had success in poorlaw cases, as well as in defending prisoners charged with petty larcenies, but this did not extend his fame beyond the limits of a single county, and even here, when the assizes came round, he found himself postponed to juniors who had won reputation as successful special pleaders in London. 4. The miracle consists in the conjunction of an opportunity to make a great speech in some very popular cause, with full ability to improve the advantage. Such an opportunity, at last (as we shall see), did arrive to Copley, and his fortune was made, although with the utter sacrifice of his character for political consistency. Meanwhile, finding that, after having been nine years at He becomes the bar, his progress was very slow in a stuff gown, and that he was not likely soon to gain such a position as entitled him to ask to be made a King's Counsel, he resolved to take the dignity of Serjeant-at-Law, supposed to be open suo periculo to any barrister of fair reputation and seven years' standing. Accordingly he was coifed, and gave gold rings, choosing for his motto "Studiis vigilare severis," which some supposed was meant as an intimation that he had sown his wild oats, and that he was now to become a plodder. His joy at He remained, however, for a considerable time unchanged, the escape of Napoleon particularly in his devoted attachment to republican docfrom Elba. trines. Strange to say, his hero was Napoleon the Great, who had established pure despotism in France, and wished to extinguish liberty in every other country. But Copley still worshipped him, as when he was denominated by Mr. Pitt "the child and the champion of Jacobinism," and fostered some vague idea that when once all the existing governments of Europe had been overturned, free institutions might follow. He loudly deplored the disasters of the Russian campaign in 1812, and felt deep sympathy with the fallen conqueror, whose dominions had afterwards shrunk within the narrow limits of the Isle of Elba. What then must have been his raptures when he heard that Napoleon had escaped, had landed at Cannes, and was marching triumphantly to Paris! It is said that Copley, hearing this news while walking in the street, enthusiastically tossed his hat in the air, and ex CHAP. II. claimed, "Europe is free!" Nevertheless I doubt not that he rejoiced sincerely in the battle of Waterloo, for he has always been solicitous for the interests and the glory of his A.D. 1815. country. At this period of his life he mixed little in general society. The Tory leaders he utterly eschewed. He did make acquaintance with some eminent Whigs, but thought poorly of them, as their notions of reform were so limited. Although he would not mix with the Radicals of the day, who were men of low education and vulgar manners, he thought they might be made useful, and by rumour he was so far known to them that they looked forward to his patronage should they be prosecuted by the Crown for sedition or treason. At last arrived the crisis of Copley's fate, when a new and brilliant career was opened to him, which he entered upon, throwing aside the "Burden of his Principles" as joyfully as Christian, in the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' got rid of the "Burden of his Sins." The general pacification of 1815 was by no means immediately followed by the prosperity anticipated from it. The exhaustion of capital during the war was severely felt; the derangement in the monetary system, occasioned by the Act. of 1797 for sanctioning an inconvertible paper circulation, operated most mischievously both upon commerce and agriculture; and, the artificial stimulus of exorbitantly high prices being suddenly withdrawn, a general paralysis of industry was the consequence. Bad legislation and an unwise severity in the executive government aggravated these evils. With a view to keep up rents, the importation of foreign corn was prohibited, and the system of Protection, now happily exploded, was rigorously acted upon. The labouring classes were thus thrown out of employment, and general discontent prevailed among them. Instead of remedying the evil by allowing a free interchange of commodities with foreign countries, penal laws were passed forbidding public meetings and seeking to fetter the liberty of the Press. This was the time for demagogues to flourish. Instead of seeking a constitutional remedy in parliament, or trying CHAP. to enlighten the public mind, they strove to gain eminence and influence by exaggeration, misrepresentation, and the A.D. 1817. application of physical force. One of these "Patriots" was a certain Dr. Watson, a physician without patients, who collected large assemblages of people in the Spa Fields, near He is coun- London, and by speeches and placards was the cause of a dangerous riot. He was apprehended, and brought to trial for high treason, the charge mainly relied upon being, that he had "levied war against the King." sel for Dr. Watson, accused of high trea son. The prosecution was ill-advised, as the proper course clearly would have been to have indicted him for a misdemeanour, in which case he must inevitably have been convicted, and severely punished by fine and long imprisonment. But Lord Liverpool and his colleagues thought it would strengthen the government if they could make this out to be a case of high treason, and so exhibit a spectacle of hanging and beheading. The utmost importance was attached to the result of the prosecution, and the ministers confessed that they could hardly expect to survive a defeat. The leading counsel for the Crown were the AttorneyGeneral, Sir Samuel Shepherd, a very sound lawyer, who, had it not been for the infirmity of deafness, would have filled the highest judicial stations, and the Solicitor General, Sir Robert Gifford, who, on account of his supposed extraordinary merit, had been lately appointed to that office, while wearing a stuff gown behind the bar. Their opponents were curiously selected and matched. The leader was Sir Charles Wetherell, a high-minded but furious ultra-Tory, then breathing vengeance against the government, because he had been disappointed in obtaining the post of Solicitor General, to which, from his standing, his talents, and his services, he had a strong claim. The other was Mr. Serjeant Copley, generally understood to entertain pretty much the opinions professed by the prisoner, though with prudence sufficient not to act upon them till there should be a fair prospect of their success. The trial was at the bar of the Court of King's Bench at Westminster, before Lord Ellenborough and his colleagues, and began on the 9th of June, 1817. Among the distin II. guished men who sat on the Bench as auditors was Lord CHAP. Castlereagh, then leader of the House of Commons and the most efficient member of Lord Liverpool's Cabinet. A clear case of aggravated riot was made out; and, if a spy was to be believed, there had been an organised plot to take the Tower and to bring about a revolution. But this spy, upon his own showing, was a man of infamous character, and he was contradicted by credible witnesses on the most material parts of his testimony. Sir Charles Wetherell asked the jury upon "Will you suffer the purity of British jurisprudence to depend the credit of that indescribable villain? Will you add to the blood-money he has already earned? Will you encourage the trade and merchandize of a man who lives on blood? Will you-the guardians and protectors of British law-will you suffer death to be dealt out by him as he pleases? Will you suffer a human victim to be sacrificed on the testimony of that indescribable villain? But if you suffer it, I must add, will the British public suffer it? or endure it?" Will the people permit it? Will they tolerate The learned counsel had been too abrupt in his declamation, and had not carried along with him the sympathies of the jury, who seemed rather disposed to return an unpropitious answer to these interrogatories. A.D. 1817. for the pri soner. Serjeant Copley, who followed, was much more calm, His speech persuasive, and successful. I heard his speech with great delight, and I consider it one of the ablest and most effective ever delivered in a court of justice. Yet, on re-perusing it, I found much difficulty in selecting any passage which would convey to the reader an idea of its merit. The whole is a close chain of reasoning on the evidence as applicable to the charge. Thus quietly does he begin : "I have been called upon to assist as counsel in a cause which in the circumstances with which it is attended, and in the consequences to which it may lead, is one of the most important that has ever occurred in the history of the jurisprudence of this country; a cause of infinite importance to the prisoner at the bar, whose life and character-everything that can be valuable to him as a man and as a member of the community—are at issue, and depend upon your verdict." VOL. VIII. C |