culty in perceiving how strong the anti-Napo leonic and patriotic feeling of the country was at the time. At this crisis the Master of the Rolls took the command of the Lin coln's Inn corps of volunteers whom he put into a state of thorough efficiency. But the danger passed away. The Grande Armee and its great leader marched off to Boulogne to deal with their Austrian and Russian foes and Sir William Grant was permitted to discharge his judicial duties undisturbed. He did so in a manner which has left a per manent mark on English law. His judg ments were nearly always correct, were expressed with praiseworthy simplicity and lucidity, and were characterized by that faculty of making sound precedents when necessary, which is the highest exercise of the judicial art. He retired from the bench on 23d December, 181 7, and died at Dawlish, in Devonshire, in May, 1832. Per haps the highest tribute ever paid to his political ability was that of Fox, who once being annoyed by some members talking behind him while he was listening to an argument of Grant's which it would be his duty to answer, rebuked them sharply with the question, " Do you think it so very pleasant a thing to have to answer a speech like that?"
SIR GEORGE JESSEL. The career and character of Sir George Jessel were sketched in our issue of January, 1893, by Mr. Willard, and we need not re capitulate the points with which he dealt so ably. But the record of the greatest of the Masters of the Rolls is one not easily ex hausted, and it may be possible to present some of its aspects in a fresh light. Born in 1823, and educated at London University — Oxford and Cambridge were then closed to the children of Israel — Jessel was called to the Bar of Lincoln's Inn in 1847, and soon made his mark in the Court of Chancery as
a profound and yet broad and vigorous law yer. It was not however, till after he took silk some fifteen years later, that his practice became very large, in comparison with those of his rivals at the Equity Bar. Among the cases in which he was engaged may be noted Wilson's Trusts (1865, L. R. 1 Eq. 247), turning on the old theory of the indissolubil ity of any English marriage by a foreign tri bunal; Bush's case (1870, L. R. 6 Ch. App. 246), and Chappell's case ( 1871, ib. 902), both as to the approval or rejection of trans fers by directors, and Hoxt. v. Gill (1872, 7. Ch. 699), the reservation of minerals. In 1 87 1 Jessel was raised to the solicitor-general ship, and held this office till Nov., 1873, when he succeeded Lord Romilly as master of the rolls. While he was Solicitor-General, his income is said to have been £2 5,000 a year. But this of course included his official salary and fees and —-subject to these important de ductions — is much less than many other lawofficers have made, and even in the gross it falls far short of what some counsel, without any official title or remuneration, have annu ally reaped from English litigations. Sir Henry Hawkins is said to have made £50,000 a year prior to his elevation to the Bench, and according to the gossips of the Temple, his clerk owned a box at the opera and drove a carriage and pair in the Park. It was at this period in Jessel's forensic career that he had his celebrated rencontre with Cockburn. The story is differently told, even by eye witnesses, and the real facts are by no means easy to elicit. Jessel was arguing before Cockburn and Martin in banc. Martin said — with reference to some argument — "I don't understand what you are talking about." Jessel caught up the observation and contemptuously said, " Of course your lord ship doesn't understand." Thereupon Cock burn drew himself together and said, " The Court understands its powers, Mr. Solicitor." According to one narrative the incident stopped at this point. Jessel accepted the rebuke and profited by it. According to an
