490 
a dead body — should show his intimate knowledge of a celebrated case 
of felo de se, tried in the reign of Philip and Mary before a coroner, 
and which was afterwards brought into the higher courts. The case 
had been reported by the famous Piowden, and Shakspeare evidently 
intended to ridicule the counsel who argued, and the judge who 
decided it. Hamlet’s own speech quotes a string of technicalities, 
with the meaning of which the author is apparently familiar, — such as 
speaking of a lawyer’s recognisances, his fines, his double vouchers, 
his recoveries, and of these vouchers, whether single or double, 
vouching him no more of his purchases than a pair of indentures, — 
and of which Lord Campbell declares that it would puzzle practis- 
ing barristers of his acquaintance to define each satisfactorily ; and 
let it be remembered, that Lord Campbell quotes upwards of sixty 
examples of such law passages more or less to the point. Whether 
Shakspeare were or were not trained in an attorney’s office can 
never now be known beyond conjecture, but the book shows Lord 
Campbell’s ingenuity, and his readiness on a question of law and lite- 
rature in curious combination. 
Such is a brief sketch of the active and varied life of John 
Lord Campbell. He was assuredly a very able man, and has 
achieved a name in his country’s annals which will not pass away. 
The leading characteristic of his mind, as I have always heard from 
those who knew him best, was determination— a firm resolve to 
accomplish his object before him, and to attain the highest place in 
the path he had set himself to pursue. His efforts were successful, 
and he never relaxed in his diligence, never swerved from duty. A 
little incident will illustrate this adherence to what he considered 
was incumbent on him to accomplish, at all risks to his own personal 
convenience. When the naval review took place at Portsmouth, in 
1853, the nobility and leading commoners of the empire were to 
attend, and a steamer was appointed to convey the whole House of 
Lords from Southampton, and to bring them back to the same point 
when the review was done. They were obliged to start from Lon- 
don, the day of the review, at four in the morning, One mishap 
succeeded another, so that the party did not reach Southampton till 
three the following morning, and were not in London till six. Not- 
withstanding all the fatigue and delay of so long an expedition, Lord 
Campbell, then Chief- Justice of the Queen’s Bench, was enabled to 
state in the House of Lords, with great complacency, when com- 
