REMINISCENCES OF JUDAH PHILIP BENJAMIN. (A Fragment by the Late Baron Pollock.) THE following unfinished fragment written by the late Baron Pollock shortly before his death, may be of interest to those who knew either the subject or the writer of the reminiscence. Exemplary in every relation of life, frank, genial, tactful and sympathetic, Baron Pollock will be re membered by none with more grateful affection than by his former pupils. He treated them almost like members of his family, frequently asking them to his house at Putney, to dine, and perhaps also to sleep; and when they had left his chambers the friendly re lations lasted on. Many in after-life found in him a wise and sympathetic counsellor, and now and then rn any little matter of difficulty or difference were glad to constitute him a Court of Appeal, so tolerant, ap preciative and just was his judgment of men and cir cumstances. For a man of his early success and subsequent eminent career at the bar, his pupils were not many in number. For the first twenty years, or thereabouts, his chambers were at 5 Child's Place, Temple Bar, a small court then just outside the Temple precincts, facing Middle Temple Lane, and entered by a narrow passage from Fleet Street, long since blocked up. These chambers were so small that there was prac tically no available pupil-room, and therefore he did not take more than two pupils, and had often only one, who always sat at a side table in his room, and was present at all the consultations with clients. He afterwards moved to larger chambers at 2 Paper Buildings. Amongst his pupils who have risen to eminence in the profession, or who have become otherwise dis tinguished, were Lawrence Oliphant, who had such strange and chequered adventures in so many differ ent parts of the world, Sir Richard Harrington and Mr. H. M. Bompas, who are County Court judges; Mr. Kenelm Digby, the present permanent secretary at the Home office; Lord Justice Thesiger, who, un usually early in life, was made a judge, and promoted to the Court of Appeal, but whose brilliant and prom ising career was cut short in middle age. Lastly, there was Judah Philip Benjamin, the most gifted and remarkable personage of them all. Benjamin was born of English parents in the West Indies in 1811, who, four years later, settled at Wilmington, in North Carolina. He was called to the Bar, at New Orleans, in 1832, where, as a legal member of the firm of Slidell, Benjamin and Conrad, he soon got into high repute as a lawyer and advocate.
His practice later on was chiefly at Washington, where he did a leading business. In 1852, and again in 1857, he was chosen a senator for Louisiana, having for his colleague Slidell, who was afterwards, when Confederate commissioner, seized from the Trent. It was in the Senate, on December 31, 1860, that he made his powerful and eloquent speech in favor of State rights — which elicited the admiration of Sir G. C. Lewis, who heard it delivered — avow ing his adherence to the cause of secession. President Davis made him attorney-general of the Confederate States; subsequently acting secretary of war, and lastly secretary of state; which last office he retained, acquiring a reputation for great vigor and power, till the break-up of the Confederacy, when he escaped with difficulty, by way of Florida and the Bahamas, to the West Indies, and thence to England. He entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, in January, 1866, and the following June, at the age of fifty-five, having obtained a dispensation from the usual three years of studentship, he was called to the English Bar. J. M. It is more than thirty years since, to my great gain, I came to know J. P. Benjamin. From that time till his leaving England for Paris, not long before his death, we lived on terms of the closest intimacy, and when he was taken from us I felt that I lost a charming companion, an accomplished brother lawyer and a true friend, one I could not easily replace. His ways, his habits of thought and modes of expression could never be forgotten, but I kept no diary or memoranda, and the period during which we met was the busiest of my life, so memory alone can aid me in setting down what others may care to know of so re markable and distinguished a man. Benjamin had not been long in this coun try before an old friend told me he was desirous of being called to the English bar, and as a preliminary step would be glad to come to me as a pupil. At that time my business was mostly in court, and I had lit tle opportunity of seeing and discussing law
