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TENON, JACQUES-RKNfi. 



TENTERDEN, LOUD. 



OG3 



Bongs, published in 1847, and which has since passed through five or 

 six editions. Then, in 1850, came the wonderful series of elegies, 

 entitled ' In Memoriarn,' a tribute, gathered through years, to the 

 memory of Arthur Hallam, the eon of the historian, and a dear college 

 friend and associate of the poet (he had competed with him for the 

 prize poem on ' Timbuctoo,') who had died at Vienna on the 15th of 

 September 1833, and whose remains are interred in the chancel of 

 Clevedon church, Somersetshire. In no language, probably, is there 

 such another series of Elegies so deep, BO metaphysical, so imagi- 

 native, BO musical, and showing such impassioned and abnormal 

 and solemnising affection for the dead. It was about the time of 

 the publication of ' In Memoriam,' that Tennyson, on the death of 

 Wordsworth, was named Poet Laureate the small emoluments of 

 which office he still enjoys, together with a separate pension of 200. 

 The laureate spoke out, but also the man, in his ' Ode on the Death of 

 the Duke of Wellington,' published in 1852, and again, in an amended 

 shape, in 1853. Finally, in 1855 was published 'Maud, and other 

 Poems,' a volume which did not meet with favour from the critics 

 generally, though some saw a world of new beauty in it. It is under- 

 stood that at present (1857) Mr. Tennyson has a new volume of poems 

 ready for the press, but that its publication is delayed. Meantime a 

 splendidly illustrated edition of the ' Poems ' has just been published, 

 with renderings of some of them by some of the most eminent artists 

 of the day, and a medallion portrait of the poet's noble face and head. 

 Mr. Tennyson is a man of powerful build and form, of dark complexion, 

 and altogether of most impressive appearance. At a recent Oxford 

 commemoration he was created D.C.L. Several years ago lie married 

 a Lincolnshire lady, and he has several children. He lives at present, 

 and in the rather recluse manner which has distinguished him during 

 his whole life, in the Isle of Wight. 



TENON, JACQUES-RENE, an eminent French surgeon, whose 

 father also belonged to the medical profession, was born in 1724. He 

 went to Paris in 1741, where his zeal and talents soon gained him the 

 notice of Winslow, and also of Antoiue and Bernhard de Jussieu. The 

 first of these celebrated men initiated him in the study of anatomy ; 

 the two others developed in him a taste for botany and natural history. 

 In spite of the prejudices and example of his contemporaries, Tenon 

 understood that surgery, far from being separated from the other 

 branches of medical science, and restricted to the mere performance of 

 operations, is on the contrary most strictly united to them. Accord- 

 ingly from this time he had a wider field opened to him for his 

 professional labours ; and he united to the study and treatment of 

 surgical affections minute anatomical investigations and ingenious 

 physiological experiments. In a short time he acquired a well-merited 

 reputation; and though inferior to some other modern French surgeons 

 in skill and genius for that particular department of science, yet few 

 have surpassed him in the extent of his studies and the variety of his 

 information. In 1744 Tenon was appointed an army surgeon of the 

 first class, and served in the following year throughout the campaign 

 in Flanders. On his return to Paris he obtained by competition (au 

 concours) the situation of chief surgeon to the hospital of La Salpe- 

 triere, and founded near it a celebrated establishment for inoculation, 

 a practice which his labours contributed much to propagate. He 

 afterwards became a member of the College and of the Royal Academy 

 of Surgery, and succeeded Andouille" as professor of pathology. In 

 1757 he was received into the Academy of Sciences. Tenon belonged 

 to the first Legislative Assembly, and there displayed the same zealous 

 philanthropy which seemed to belong to all his actions. Upon the 

 re-organisation of the learned societies he beeame a member of the 

 Institute of the first class, and read in that assembly many interesting 

 papers. He was also a member of the Legion of Honour and of 

 several learned and scientific societies, and preserved to the end of his 

 life the same love of labour and the same zeal for the advancement of 

 science which had marked the early years of his career. He died at 

 Paris, on the 15th of January 1816, at the advanced age of ninety-two. 

 Few persons have written so many memoirs and monographs as Tenon; 

 many of these have only been published in the annual analysis of the pro- 

 ceedings of the Institute : he is also said to have left behind him a great 

 number of manuscripts. More than 30 of his works are mentioned in the 

 ' Biographic Mddicale,' of which the following are the most important : 

 'De Cataracta,' 4to, Paris, 1757; 'Mdmoires sur 1'Exfoliation des Os,' 

 read before the Academy of Sciences in 1758, 1759, and 1760, and 

 afterwards printed, together with some others, with the title 'Memoires 

 sur 1'Anatomie, la Pathologic, et la Chirurgie,' 8vo, Paris, 1806; 

 'Me"moire sur lea Hopitaux de Paris,' 4to, Paris, 1788, a very able 

 memoir, which has served as a model for many that have been since 

 written on the same subject, in which are pointed out almost all the 

 improvements that have been introduced into the French hospitals. 

 His last work, which was published when he was ninety years old, is 

 entitled ' Offrande aux Vicillards de quelques Moyens pour prolonger 

 la Vie.' 



TENTERDEN, CHARLES ABBOTT, LORD, born at Canterbury, 

 on the 7th of October 1 762, was the son of a barber, who has been 

 described as " a tall, erect, primitive-looking man, with a large club 

 pigtail, going about with the instruments of his business, and attended 

 frequently by his son Charles, a youth as decent, grave, and primitive- 

 looking as himself." He was entered in 1769 on the foundation of the 

 king's school of the cathedral, under Dr. Osmund Beauvoir, who is 



stated by Sir Egerton Brydges to have been au admirable classical 

 scholar, of fine taste, and some genius. Sir Egerton, who for some 

 years held the place next to Abbott in the class, speaks of him as 

 remarkable even in his school-boy days for accuracy, steadiness, and 

 equality of labour; as well acquainted with the rules of grammar, 

 sure in any examination or task, and a tolerably correct writer of 

 Latin verses and prose themes. 



In the begiuning of 1781 Abbott was elected scholar of Corpus 

 Christi College, Oxford, with an allowance, including his exhibition, of 

 501. a year. His mathematical acquirements are said by his friends to 

 have been considerable. In 1784 he obtained the chancellor's medal 

 for the best Latin verses on Lunardi's balloon, 'Globus Aerostaticus ; ' 

 in 1786 his essay ' On the Use and Abuse of Satire ' obtained the chan- 

 cellor's medal for the English essay. This essay displays the turn for 

 neat, lucid, and exhaustive arrangement, which was the most marked 

 feature of his matured intellect, aud also a good deal of that want of 

 passion and imagination which, perhaps as much as any of his positive 

 qualities, contributed to his judicial eminence. He was elected a 

 fellow of his college, and appointed junior tutor to Mr. (afterwards 

 Bishop) Burgess. 



By the advice of Mr. Justice Buller, whose sou was one of his 

 private pupils, Abbott entered himself of the Inner Temple ia 1783. 

 He also, in compliance with the suggestion of the same experienced 

 lawyer, attended some months the office of the London solicitors, 

 Messrs. Sandys & Co. He afterwards became a pupil of Mr. (subse- 

 quently Baron) Wood, and, aided by his recommendation, began to 

 practise as a special pleader with marked success. He was called to 

 the bar in Trinity term 1795. He married, on the 13th of July 1795, 

 Mary, eldest daughter of John Logier Lamotte, Esq., a gentleman of 

 fortune in Kent. It is said that when the father hinted at the expe- 

 diency of a marriage-settlement, Abbott said he had nothing but an 

 excellent law-library, which the lawyers might tie up as tightly as 

 they pleased. 



Having selected the Oxford circuit, he speedily rose into great 

 business. The jealousy of his young rivals gave rise to rumours of 

 his being too courteous to attorneys : but by whatever means he may 

 have obtained his position, he kept it by the preference which the 

 leaders evinced for a junior who could often suggest a case iu point, 

 and was master of all the technicalities of pleading. To this he owed 

 his appointment, by Sir Vicary Gibbs, when solicitor-general, to the 

 office known among the members of the bar by the name of treasury- 

 devil, the junior counsel to whose care the business of government is 

 intrusted. In this character he took part in most of the numerous 

 state-trials which occurred about the close of last century. As his 

 character became established, he was appointed standing counsel to 

 the Bank and other great mercantile communities. When the returns 

 of the income tax were called for, Mr. Abbott's account was looked 

 upon as a curiosity, both for its minute accuracy and for the largeness 

 of the sum-total of his fees during the past year 8026/. 5s. 



In a sketch of Lord Tenterden, which appeared in the 69th volume 

 of the ' Edinburgh Review,' Lord Brougham says of his career at the 

 bar, " As a leader he very rarely, and by some extraordinary accident 

 only, appeared, and this in a manner so little satisfactory to himself, 

 that he peremptorily declined it whenever refusal was possible ; and 

 he seemed to have no notion of a leader's duty beyond exposing the 

 pleadings and the law of the case to the jury, who could not compre- 

 hend them with all his explanation. His legal arguments, of which 

 for many years the books are full, were extremely good, without 

 reaching any very high pitch of excellence; they were quite clear, 

 abundantly full of case law ; betokening some dread of grappling 

 with principle, and displaying none of the felicitous commentary that 

 marked Mr. Holroyd's." In 1802 Mr. Abbott published his 'Treatise 

 of the Law relative to Merchant-Ships and Seamen.' This work has 

 gone through many editions ; it exhausts the subject, is well arranged, 

 and well written ; its merits have been repeatedly acknowledged ; it is 

 one of the best English law treatises. 



In 1803 Mr. Abbott was offered a seat on the bench, but declined 

 from prudential motives, his professional income far exceeding the 

 salary of a judge. As years' grew upon him however, and his fortune 

 increased, he began to long for the comparative repose of the bench. 

 Iu February 1816, he was offered a seat as puisne judge iu the Court 

 of Common Pleas, and accepted it. In May of the same year, on the 

 death of Mr. Justice Le Blanc, he yielded to the importunity of Lord 

 Ellenborough, and was chosen to supply the vacancy in the Court of 

 King's Bench, and was knighted about the same time. Ou the 4th of 

 November 1818 Sir Charles Abbott succeeded Lord Ellenborough as 

 chief-justice of that court. 



It has been alleged that at the outset of his judicial career chief- 

 justice Abbott was apt to lose himself among the minute details of 

 the cases which were brought before him. It is allowed at the same 

 time that during the last seven or eight years of his time he took 

 broader and more comprehensive views of questions, and displayed 

 great judicial capacity. He had learned to deal with facts, and his 

 law was, as it always had been, safe, accurate, and ready. His state' 

 rnents and decisions were clothed in correct, succinct, and appropriate 

 language. He was averse to over-curious subtleties ; loved to overrule 

 technical objections both in civil and criminal pleadings ; and showed 

 great anxiety to make his decisions accord with common sense and 





