Annual Report of the Council. xxxix 



LL.B., with honours, in the following year. In 1863 he was 

 made LL.D., and awarded the gold medal. After practising for 

 a short time as a solicitor, Dr. Pankhurst was called to the Bar 

 at Lincoln's Inn in 1867, and subsequently practised on the 

 Northern Circuit and in the Palatine Chancery Court. As a 

 jurist Dr. Pankhurst took a high place, and had not politics 

 occupied his time to such a considerable extent, he would 

 undoubtedly have achieved the highest distinction in the theo- 

 retical branches of legal science. As it is, he had a large share 

 in the scheme for the reform of the Patent Laws in 1866, and 

 published various addresses and essays of importance on questions 

 of scientific jurisprudence and legal reform. Amongst these 

 may be named " Local Courts and Tribunals,"' " International 

 Law," "Arbitration," and "Systematic Study of the Law." 

 Dr. Pankhurst began his professional career during one of the 

 transition periods of English law, when it is suddenly realised 

 that the historical methods and ideas so long in vogue have 

 ceased to be in agreement with the times. At such a time the 

 danger is that a policy of compromise between the new and old 

 will end in confusion and complications. Dr. Pankhurst, who 

 was ever among the extreme reformers, was sure to attract 

 attention at such a time, and by the boldness of his ideas, and 

 the clearness of his views, had a very great influence on current 

 thought. He was a prominent member of the now defunct 

 Social Science Association, and as a member of the Manchester 

 Chamber of Commerce paid great attention to questions of 

 Commercial Law. Dr. Pankhurst also took very keen interest 

 in the education movement, and was from 1863 to 1876 honorary 

 secretary of the Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes. 

 He made three unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament, as a 

 Liberal at Manchester in 1883, and at Rotherhithe in 1885, 

 while in 1895 he stood as a representative of the Independent 

 Labour Party at Gorton. In 1879 he married Miss Emmeline 

 Goulden, of Seedley. However great the public disfavour his 

 extreme views gained him, his briUiant ability as a speaker and 

 a thinker, and the charm and kindliness of his manners in private, 



