487 
him into the House of Peers to assist in deciding appeal cases 
failed, as did also a plan for making him Chancellor of Ireland. On 
Lord Plunket’s retirement, however, from that office, Sir John 
Campbell, June 1841, was made a Peer and Chancellor of Ireland. 
He held the office a very short time, indeed I believe he only sat 
as judge twice. In the following September, he resigned along 
with the Melbourne ministry, and for five years lived without 
office, profession — salary or pension. His mind could not be idle. 
He took to literary pursuits, and reverted with great zest to the 
classical studies of his early days. He found, however, the disad- 
vantages of study without object, and accordingly concentrated his 
attention on a subject congenial with his tastes, and calculated to 
call forth his powers. He determined to write the Lives of the Chan- 
cellors, and of the Chief- Justices of England. The first series of the 
former was published in 1846, and immediately attained a popularity 
which has continued to attend both works. When Lord John Rus- 
sell’s cabinet was formed in 1846, it was expected that Lord Camp- 
bell would have been Chancellor. He accepted, however, the less 
important office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat 
in the cabinet. This did not prevent his pursuing his literary 
labours ; but in 1850 he returned to his more active legal occupations, 
as, on the resignation of Lord Denman, he became Chief-Justice of 
the Queen’s Bench. It was a trial to succeed Denman, a man of a 
noble presence, and dignified eloquence. Lord Campbell, without 
these, carried universal respect by his accurate knowledge of law, 
his industry, his discretion, and impartiality. In 1859 he became 
the Chancellor of Lord Palmerston’s administration. This was a 
second trial for him to undergo. Having hitherto been exclu- 
sively practised in the administration of common law, it might be 
expected he would feel embarrassed as presiding in Chancery, and 
the House of Lords. But his sagacity and his diligence were again 
triumphant. He lost nothing of the reputation he brought with 
him from the Queen’s Bench. He is said to have been the only 
Chancellor taken from the common law, in whom it was impossible 
to detect the slightest embarrassment in the new position to which 
he was transferred, and amidst the new principles on which he 
had to adjudicate. His judgments in equity have universally 
been deemed of the highest authority. It is a striking proof of 
the activity of Lord Campbell’s mind, and his readiness, to occupy 
