He

criticise minute defects in an argument or case; and they are frequently unable to brush away mere technicalities from their path, and rest their arguments on broad considerations of policy alone. Sir Hugh Cairns, at any rate, could not be charged with any such narrowness. habitually merged the lawyer in the statesman, and, in consequence, occupied a position on the front bench which has rarely been secured by any mere law officer.

"Lord Cairns' career in the House of Lords has been no less extraordinary. From 1868 till 1870 he combined the duties of a chancellor and ex-chancellor with those of a leader of the Ministry and of the Opposition. On certain subjects his authority has been very great indeed; he has been even charged by his opponents with aiming at something like omnipotence. His intervention last year compelled the Ministry to alter their Judicature Bill, and to abandon the intention which they had rashly originated in the Lower House, of transferring Irish and Scotch appeals to the new Appellate Court which it was the object of the measure to constitute. But Lord Cairns' intervention, effective though it was, was not prompted by any desire to prejudice a measure of law reform. The extended provisions which Mr Gladstone desired to introduce in the Commons were objected to, not because they were in themselves undesirable, but because their introduction in the Lower House would have effected the position of the House of Lords, and have consequently involved a breach of privilege. It rests with Lord Cairns now to show that his objections then were based on a purely technical ground. He can only do so by himself completing the great work of law reform of which Lord Selborne has given us a small instalment.

"There is, in fact, good reason for hoping that Lord Cairns' second chancellorship may be memorable for some very comprehensive measure of this description. Lord Cairns, like all Irishmen, is a strong politician. He is a Conservative, and therefore a strong Conservative. But he has always displayed a considerable readiness to redress any real evil, or to remove any practical blot. The instalment of law reform which was carried last year could not by any possibility have been passed without Lord Cairns' assistance. It would have been of less value than it has proved if it had not been subjected to his criticisms. The situation is now reversed. The critic of 1873 will have to frame law in 1874; the framer of the Judicature Act of 1873 will be this year's critic. But there is no reason for supposing that the cause of law reform will be retarded because the players have changed sides. Lord Cairns, Lord Selborne, and Lord O'Hagan have, on this subject, proved that they can rise above mere considerations of party, and that they can join hands in simplifying a costly and complicated system. The country could obtain no greater boon than a real measure of law reform; Lord Cairns has thus enhanced his already great reputation in successfully carrying this most important measure of law reform.

64

SIR FRANCIS LEOPOLD M'CLINTOCK.

BORN A.D. 1819.

SIR FRANCIS LEOPOLD M'CLINTOCK was born in Dundalk, July 9, 1819; entered the royal navy in 1831, and attained the rank of lieutenant for distinguished services rendered by him in rescuing H.M.S. Gorgon," which had been stranded in that year at Monte Video. Three years later he signally distinguished himself in the voyages of Sir James Ross, and Captain (afterwards Admiral) Austin, and especially in his extensive journeys on the ice when associated with Captain Kellett. It was in one of these journeys, which he made from Griffith's Island to Melville Island and back (having travelled over 960 miles in sixty days), that M'Clintock deposited on the latter island, in June 1851, a record which was discovered in the following year, and ultimately led to the rescue of M'Clure.

66

In 1851 the " Assistance," of which M'Clintock was first lieutenant under Captain Austin, returned to England, to be despatched in the following year as one of the squadron commanded by Sir Edward Belcher. On this expedition he sailed in command of the Intrepid" steamer, attached to the "Resolute," under Captain Kellett. Two successive winters were passed by these ships in the Arctic regions. During this period M'Clintock proved himself evidently well-constituted for these peculiar and trying services required in Arctic exploration. Possessed of rare powers of endurance, active, adventurous, and farseeing, he established for himself a reputation, which caused him to be selected in 1857 by Lady Franklin to command the expedition in a final search for Sir John and his companions. On the 1st of July 1857 the "Fox," a yacht of 170 tons, purchased by Lady Franklin, under the command of Captain M'Clintock, sailed from Aberdeen.

The pre

A misfortune befell the "Fox" during the first summer. ceding winter having set in earlier than usual, the "Fox" was beset in the ice of Melville Bay, on the coast of Greenland, and after a dreary winter, various narrow escapes, and eight months of imprisonment, was carried back by the floating ice nearly 1200 geographical miles. When liberated in 1858 M'Clintock retraced his course, entered Lancaster Sound, and wintered in Port Kennedy, at the east entrance of Bellot Strait. In the spring of 1849 the search was commenced. Leaving the "Fox" in her winter quarters, sledge journeys of great length were organised and attended with great success. On the north-west shore of King William's Land a record was discovered, announcing that the "Erebus" and "Terror" had been deserted on the 22d April 1848, five leagues N.N.W. of that place, having been beset since 12th September 1846; that the officers and crew, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier, landed there on the 25th of April 1848; that Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June 1847. A note attached to this document stated that the party intended starting on the next day (the 26th) for Back's Fish River. The discovery of skeletons, a boat, and other relics, and the report of the Esquimaux, leave no doubt that they also perished. Shortly after the return of

the "Fox" to England, in the autumn of 1859, M'Clintock published a narrative of The Voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic Seas in Search of Franklin and his Companions. A perusal of this simple narrative of bold adventure alone can enable us duly to appreciate the services of M'Clintock and his brave companions in successfully revealing the last discoveries and the fate of Franklin, and adding largely to geographical knowledge. In recognition of these services he received the well-merited honour of knighthood soon after his return home. In the following year he was presented with the Queen's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, as well as with addresses from the Royal Dublin Society, of which he was made an honorary member, and from the corporations of the cities of Dublin and London; honorary degrees were also conferred on him by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin. In 1860 he was appointed to command the "Bulldog," to take soundings of the Atlantic Ocean between the Faroe Isles, Greenland, and Labrador. In May 1861 he was appointed to command H.M.S. "Doris," serving on the coast of Syria. In the autumn of 1864 Sir Leopold commanded the screw-frigate " Aurora," which escorted their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales to Copenhagen, on the occasion of their visit to Denmark and Sweden. He was made a Rear-Admiral of the Fleet in October 1871.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD SULLIVAN.

BORN A.D. 1822

THE Right Hon. Edward Sullivan, eldest son of Edward Sullivan, Esq. of Raglan Road, Dublin, formerly of Mallow, in the county of Cork, was born at Mallow in 1822. He married in 1850 Bessie Josephine, daughter of the late Robert Bailey, Esq. of Cork. He received his early education at Midleton School, county Cork, from which he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where, having obtained first place at entrance, and double first honours in science and classics several times, he graduated B.A. in 1844. He is an ex-scholar of the university, and was auditor of the College Historical Society in 1845. He was called to the bar in Ireland in 1848, and joined the Munster Circuit. He was promoted to the rank of Queen's Counsel in 1858; appointed third Sergeant-at-law in 1860. He filled the post of law adviser to the Castle in 1861; of Solicitor-General for Ireland from 1865 to March 1866. In December 1868 he became Attorney-General, on Mr Lawson's elevation to the bench, and was added to the Privy Council in the January following. On the death of the Right Hon. John Edward Walsh, Mr Sullivan became Master of the Rolls in January 1870. He represented Mallow in Parliament from July 1865 until he was raised to the bench.

In his distinguished university career Mr Sullivan gave full promise of future eminence. Having obtained the first place at one of the great entrance-examinations of the year in which he matriculated, he followed up his first triumph by a brilliant undergraduate course, carrying off first honours in science and classics at every term-examination. In his

third year he obtained a high classical scholarship on distinguished answering, and graduated as a respondent in 1844. In the College Historical Society his eloquence and rare debating powers won for him such a high position that he was unanimously selected to fill the honourable post of auditor, and delivered the opening address in the first session of the Society in 1845. Having completed his legal studies in London with a success that augured well for his after career, he was admitted to the Irish bar in Michaelmas term 1848, and soon after joined the Munster Circuit. Having come to the profession thoroughly proficient in the difficult and abstruse system of pleading which then prevailed, and well versed in the common law and the practice of the superior courts, he turned his first opportunities to such good account that, in a very few years, business flowed in rapidly, and he took the foremost place amongst the juniors of the Irish bar. Few men possessed in a higher degree all the essential qualities for a suc cessful lawyer. With sound legal learning he united all the necessary elements for success,-unflagging industry, immense powers of application and endurance of hard work, indomitable energy, and determination. Such a rare and happy combination of valuable qualities could not fail to secure for their possessor an unusually rapid advancement; and accordingly we find Mr Sullivan, within ten years from his call to the bar, so overwhelmed with junior business in the Courts of Law and Equity that he gladly accepted the proffered honour of a silk gown, and thenceforth devoted himself almost exclusively to practice at the Chancery bar, refusing to appear in the Common Law Courts except under a special fee. In the Equity Courts-the Rolls, the Courts of Chancery, and Chancery Appeal-he was engaged in every case, both great and small; while in every important case, involving large interests, in the Common Law Courts and the Court of Probate, he was specially retained as counsel. In 1860 he was appointed third Sergeant-at-law, on the promotion of Sergeant Fitzgibbon to a Mastership in Chancery. In virtue of his precedence as sergeant, he led Mr Whiteside in the great case of Thelwall v. Yelverton. His opening statement of the plaintiff's case was a masterly effort of skill and eloquence. The crossexamination of the defendent, Major Yelverton, also devolved on the learned sergeant, and he fully maintained his reputation as one of the ablest cross-examiners at the Irish bar, in a long and desperate encounter with one of the cleverest and most imperturbable witnesses that ever ippeared in a witness-box. With this passing allusion to the Yelverton case all attempts to particularise any other of the many great cases in which Sergeant Sullivan was engaged must be abandoned in despair. Suffice it to say that, from the time of his call to the inner bar till his elevation to the bench, he figured conspicuously in every great case that came before the Irish courts. In England, too, he was most favourably known, having appeared, on more occasions than one, before the House of Lords in cases of appeal from the Irish courts, when he acquitted himself worthily of his reputation at home, and received from that high tribunal a marked acknowledgment of his ability and attainments as a lawyer. As a case-lawyer his reputation stood deservedly high, and his opinions have been more than once sustained against the opinions of the most eminent lawyers of the English and Irish bar.

We now pass on to a brief consideration of his Parliamentary career. In 1865 he became Solicitor-General for Ireland, and Member of Parliament for his native town. In 1868 he was re-elected for Mallow on accepting the office of Attorney-General, to which he was promoted on Mr Lawson's elevation to the bench. During his tenure of those offices he proved himself at all times a most efficient officer of the Crown, and commanded the entire confidence of his political chief, and the marked respect of the House of Commons. As a ready and effective debater, and a clear, vigorous, and eloquent speaker, he, too, proved himself a notable exception to the general rule, that great lawyers are great failures in Parliament. Always well informed, accurate, and impressive, he was listened to attentively whenever he was called upon to address the House. He was frequently put up against Mr Whiteside and other formidable opponents, and never failed to render good service to his party. In conjunction with Mr Lawson, his name has been associated with many important Irish measures. Reference has been already made to the Bill framed and introduced by Mr Sullivan and his colleague to alter the constitution and amend the practice and procedure of the Court of Chancery in Ireland. By an unlucky mistake it was thrown out, and the country lost the valuable services of Mr Lawson as Vice-Chancellor of Ireland. Before the Bill could be again presented to the House there was a change of Government, and Mr Chatterton, Attorney-General for Ireland under Mr Disraeli's administration, succeeded in passing a Bill exactly similar in its provisions in 1867, and became Vice-Chancellor of Ireland in the August of that year. On the return of Mr Gladstone to power in 1868, Mr Sullivan resumed office as Solicitor-General, and rendered valuable assistance to the Premier in framing the Irish Church Bill, and carrying it through the House. In the several great debates on this Bill Mr Sullivan proved a perfect deus ex machina to Mr Gladstone. Thoroughly master of its details, the Irish Solicitor-General seemed quite at his ease when dealing with the difficult questions and complicated interests. involved in one of the most daring and desperate measures that had been brought before Parliament in modern times. In this arduous and delicate work he had the advantage of Mr Lawson's able co-operation for a short time. In the following year, in his capacity of AttorneyGeneral, the Irish Land Bill was introduced, and passed rapidly into law under his direction. The framing of this measure was attributed to Mr Sullivan; and it may be truly said that a more delicate or invidious task was never imposed on an Irish law officer, not even excepting the Church Disestablishment Bill. Between the fear of doing injustice to the landlords on the one hand, and the fear of not satisfying the tenants on the other, it seemed almost hopeless to attempt legislation. A man less bold and determined than Mr Sullivan would have shrunk from the effort in despair. But an Irish Land Act there should be at any cost; it was the second great measure in Mr Gladstone's programme for the pacification of Ireland, and Mr Sullivan was about the best man that could be selected to lead the forlorn hope. Though a consistent Liberal in politics, it is but justice to him to say that he had wholly escaped the taint of revolutionary doctrines, and had no sympathy whatever with the socialistic tendencies which at that period Ir.

IV.