147 



ROMILLY, SIR SAMUEL. 



ROMNEY, GEORGE. 



148 



The first of these measures, though just in principle, was liable to 

 many serious difficulties in its application to practice, and being 

 strongly opposed in the House of Commons, was early abandoned, and 

 never afterwards resumed ; and the second was modified at the 

 recommendation of Mr. Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger, who sug- 

 gested to Romilly, as a much more effectual improvement in the law, 

 the total repeal of all statutes which punish with death mere thefts 

 unaccompanied by any act of violence or other circumstances of 

 aggravation. Though Romilly readily adopted this suggestion, he 

 thought that a proposition for the simultaneous repeal of so large 

 a number of statutes stood no chance of success in parliament, 

 and for that reason he resolved to propose, in detail, the repeal of 

 individual laws, by which punishments of disproportionate severity 

 were enacted, and thus gradually to expunge the whole from the 

 statute book. Accordingly immediately after he had taken his seat for 

 Wareham, in 1808, he brought in a bill to repeal the stat. 8 Eliz., c. 4, 

 which made it a capital offence to steal privately from the person of 

 another ; and this measure, after some objection and discussion in 

 the House of Commons, was eventually passed (48 Geo. III., c. 129). 

 His next step towards the attainment of his object was taken in the 

 early part of the session of 1810, when he introduced three bills to 

 repeal several statutes which punished with death the crimes of steal- 

 ing privately in a shop goods of the value of five shillings, and of 

 stealing to the amount of forty shillings in dwelling-houses or in 

 vessels on navigable rivers ; and in order that his views on the subject 

 might be generally understood, he published the substance of the 

 speech delivered by him on his first proposal of the bills, together 

 with some further arguments, in the form of a pamphlet, entitled 

 ' Observations on the Criminal Law as it relates to Capital Punish- 

 ments, and on the Mode in which it is administered.' One of the 

 bills introduced by him on this occasion was thrown out in the House 

 of Commons by a majority of two voices, in a very thin house ; a 

 second reached the House of Lords, and was there thrown out by a 

 large majority the lord chancellor (Eldon) and Lord Ellenborough 

 using reasons against it which at the present day cannot be perused 

 without astonishment ; and the third bill was withdrawn by Romilly, 

 after having in vain attempted to make a house in order to have it 

 read a third time. Notwithstanding this failure, his confidence in 

 the justice of his principles, added to his characteristic firmness and 

 perseverance, enabled him, in spite of all the discouragements arising 

 from the apathy of friends, and the ignorance, prejudices, and party- 

 spirit of enemies, to renew his endeavours to pass these measures in 

 each succeeding session during the remainder of his life; but although 

 several severe laws of a local and special nature were repealed, and 

 although a considerable effect was produced on public opinion by the 

 repeated discussions of the subject, it was not until several years after 

 his death that any substantial improvement of the criminal law was 

 effected. 



In the anticipation of a dissolution of parliament on occasion of the 

 king's illness, at the latter part of 1811, Sir Samuel Romilly was 

 invited to allow himself to be put in nomination to represent the city 

 of Bristol. Having accepted this invitation, he went down to Bristol 

 upon the dissolution of parliament at the close of the year 1812, with 

 the most encouraging prospect of success ; but an opposition was 

 excited in favour of a merchant of Bristol, whose personal influence 

 and local connections gave him a much more efficient interest among 

 the numerous constituency of that city than that which Romilly had 

 acquired by means of his public character. The consequence was 

 that, after a few days' struggle, he abandoned the contest as hopeless. 

 Upon this failure, he was returned by the Duke of Norfolk for his 

 borough of Arundel ; and Sir Samuel considered that the objections 

 which he had entertained in early life against accepting a seat in 

 parliament from the proprietor of a borough no longer applied, inas- 

 much as his public character was now so fully established, that he 

 could never be suspected of intending to speak or vote merely at the 

 dictation of his patron ; and because, since the law had declared the 

 former practice of selling seats to be illegal, there was no other means 

 of entering the House of Commons than by the nomination of a patron 

 or a popular election. 



In the interval between the dissolution of the former parliament and 

 the meeting of the new one in 1813, he published a small pamphlet, 

 entitled ' Objections to the Project of creating a Vice-Chancellor of 

 England.' This unsatisfactory plan of reforming the evils of the Court 

 of Chancery he in all its stages strenuously though unsuccessfully 

 opposed. 



It would exceed the proper limits of the present article to relate 

 in detail the circumstances of the parliamentary career of Sir Samuel 

 Romilly during the last five years of his life. In addition to his pro- 

 posals for the improvement of the criminal law, he took an active part 

 in all the political questions of the time, generally acting in zealous 

 opposition to the ministers. He supported Mr. Wbitbread's resolution 

 against declaring war with France upon the return of Napoleon I. from 

 Elba in 1815 ; he opposed the bills for suppressing Irish insurrections, 

 and for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in 1817; and moved 

 resolutions condemning Lord Sidmouth's circular to magistrates 

 respecting the prosecution of seditious libels. He also spoke and voted 

 against the Alien Act, and in favour of an extension of the elective 

 franchise, and of Roman Catholic emancipation. 



In the summer of 1818 a dissolution of parliament took place, and 

 Romilly, being solicited to appear as a candidate for the representation 

 of Westminster, was returned at the head of the poll, though he 

 declined to take any part in the canvass, and did not appear upon the 

 hustings until the termination of the election. He died however before 

 the meeting of parliament. Lady Romilly, to whom he was devotedly 

 attached, and whose health had been for some months declining, died 

 at Cowes in the Isle of Wight, on the 29th of October 1818 ; and this 

 event occurring to a mind already dangerously excited by recent 

 exertions and anxiety, produced a delirium, under the influence of 

 which he put an end to his existence on the 2nd of November 1818. 



In his profession, Sir Samuel Romilly attained to greater success 

 than had been enjoyed by any advocate since the time of Sir Edward 

 Coke. Nor did his professional reputation at all exceed his merits. 

 He had a familiar knowledge of the principles of English law as 

 administered not only in courts of equity, but in common-law tribu- 

 nals ; an unusual perspicacity of thought and expression, strong power 

 of reasoning, great earnestness in enforcing his arguments, entire 

 devotion to the interests of his client, and singular prudence in the 

 management of a cause. To these qualities were united a deep 

 sonorous voice, and unequalled impressiveness of manner. On the 

 other hand, he is related to have been stern in his deportment to 

 juniors, and unnecessarily severe in forensic altercation. The tradition 

 of the profession also ascribes to him much eagerness both in acquiring 

 and retaining his practice. 



As a politician, Romilly was inflexibly consistent in all his general 

 views, and uniformly acted up to his principles. He displayed how- 

 ever more of the mere spirit of party than was in any sense defensible, 

 or indeed than might have been expected from his enlarged mind and 

 otherwise independent character. His public speaking was perhaps 

 more deeply impressive than that of any speaker of modern times. 

 He expressed himself with great readiness and fluency. Without aid 

 from artificial means, and without the use of figurative language or 

 ornament .of any kind, his simple, correct, .and nervous style, supported 

 by his serious and dignified deportment and fine voice, often produced 

 an effect equally surprising to the speaker and his hearers. Romilly's 

 style in writing displays the same features as his manner of speaking 

 clear, easy, forcible, and totally unadorned. In very early life he 

 acquired the habits of reading with care and reflection, and of thinking 

 clearly and closely ; and hence arose the faculties of accurate reasoning, 

 and of distinct and powerful expression, for which he was singularly 

 remarkable. 



*THB RIGHT HON. SIB JOHN ROMILLY, the second son of Sir Samuel 

 Romilly, after having, like his father, distinguished himself at the 

 bar, was appointed Solicitor-General in April 1848, and in July 1850 

 Attorney-General. In March 1851 he was raised to the dignity of 

 Master of the Rolls. For several years during which Sir John Romilly 

 sat in parliament, first as member for Bridport, and afterwards for 

 Devonport, he was a zealous law-reformer. Since he has held his 

 present high office he has done much towards rendering the national 

 records more accessible, and he has extended the boon by laying down 

 a well-devised plan for the publication of the more generally important 

 and interesting of the documents. 



ROMNEY, GEORGE, was born at Dalton in Lancashire, Decem- 

 ber 15, 1734, and was the son of John Romney, a wealthy cabinet- 

 maker of that town. As he showed a mechanical turn at a very early 

 age, he was taken away from school in his eleventh year, and placed 

 in his father's workshop. A watchmaker of the name of Williamson, an 

 eccentric man, who was devoted to alchemy, exercised an influence over 

 the mind of young Romney, which seems to have left a lasting impres- 

 sion ; he endeavoured to initiate him in the mysteries of his favourite 

 pursuits, and our young painter was not an unwilling disciple. He 

 appears at a very early age to have had a passion for sketching people 

 and taking likenesses, which he exercised by drawing his fellow- 

 workmen in various attitudes upon the deals and boards in his father's 

 workshop ; and his taste was fostered by meeting with Leonardo da 

 Vinci's treatise on painting, embellished with various illustrations. 

 His first effort that attracted any notice was a drawing of Mrs. Gar- 

 diner, which induced his father, encouraged by the persuasion of 

 several friends, to place him with a portrait-painter of the name of 

 Steele, who painted heads at Kendal, to whom he was bound for four 

 years, at the age of nineteen. 



At Kendal, in 1756, Romney contracted an early marriage with 

 Mary Abbot of Kirkland, by which he displeased his parents ; and 

 according to Hayley, although his son denies the fact, he himself 

 shortly afterwards repented of his precipitate step. The result how- 

 ever proved that his choice was eminently worthy of his affections. 

 Having cancelled the indenture with his master, Romney, at the age 

 of twenty-three, commenced painting on his own account. His first 

 production was a hand holding a letter for the post-office window at 

 Kendal, which continued there for many years. His first portraits 

 were two balf-lengths of Walter Strickland of Sizergh, and his lady, 

 at whose house he saw a portrait of Sir Walter Strickland, by Lely, 

 and two portraits, by Rigaud, the only pictures by other masters that 

 he had any opportunity of studying previous to his arrival in London. 

 His industry was indefatigable, and nature alone being his guide, he 

 gradually formed for himself a simple and natural style, unblemished 

 by those artificial or adventitious qualities which are so easily acquired 



