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COCKBURN, SIR ALEXANDER JAMES EDMUND

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 624 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COCKBURN, See also:SIR See also:ALEXANDER See also:JAMES See also:EDMUND , loth See also:Bart. (1802-1880), See also:lord See also:chief See also:justice of See also:England, was See also:born on the 24th of See also:December 1802, of See also:ancient Scottish stock. He was the son of Alexander, See also:fourth son of Sir James Cockburn, 6th See also:baronet, his three uncles, who had successively held the See also:title, dying without heirs. His See also:father was See also:British See also:envoy extraordinary and See also:minister plenipotentiary to the See also:state of See also:Columbia, and married See also:Yolande, daughter of the vicomte de Vignier. See also:Young Alexander was at one See also:time intended for the See also:diplomatic service, and frequently during the legal career which he ultimately adopted he was able to make considerable use of the knowledge of See also:foreign See also:languages, especially See also:French, with which See also:birth and See also:early See also:education had equipped him. He was educated at Trinity See also:Hall, See also:Cambridge, of which he was elected a See also:fellow, and after-wards an honorary fellow. He entered at the See also:Middle See also:Temple in 1825, and was called to the See also:bar in 1829. He joined the western See also:circuit, and for some time such practice as he was able to obtain See also:lay at the See also:Devon sessions, See also:quarter sessions at that time affording an opening and a school of advocacy to young counsel not to be found anywhere fifty years later. In See also:London he had so little to do that only the persuasion of See also:friends induced him to keep his London See also:chambers open. Three years after his See also:call to the bar, however, the Reform See also:Bill was passed, and the petitions which followed the ensuing See also:general See also:election gave rise to a large number of new questions for the decision of election committees, and afforded an opening of which he promptly availed himself. The decisions of the committees had not been reported since 1821, and with M. C.

Rowe, another member of the western circuit, Cockburn undertook a new See also:

series of reports. They only published one See also:volume, but the See also:work was well done, and in 1833 Cockburn had his first See also:parliamentary brief. In 1834 Cockburn was well enough thought of to be made a member of the See also:commission to inquire into the state of the corporations of England and See also:Wales. Other parliamentary work followed; but he had ambition to be more than a parliamentary counsel, and attended diligently on his circuit, besides appearing before committees. In 1841 he was made a Q.C., and in that See also:year a See also:charge of See also:simony, brought against his See also:uncle, See also:William, See also:dean of See also:York, enabled him to appear conspicuously in a See also:case which attracted considerable public See also:attention, the proceedings taking the See also:form of a See also:motion for See also:prohibition duly obtained against the ecclesiastical See also:court, which had deprived Dr Cockburn of his See also:office. Not See also:long after this, Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel's secretary, See also:Edward See also:Drummond, was shot by the crazy Scotsman, See also:Daniel M'Naughten, and Cockburn, briefed on behalf of the See also:assassin, not only made a very brilliant speech, which established the See also:defence of See also:insanity, but also secured the full publicity of a long See also:report in the See also:Morning See also:Chronicle of the 6th of See also:March 1843. Another well-known trial in which he appeared a year later was that of See also:Wood v. Peel (The Times, 2nd and 3rd of See also:July 1844), the issue being in form to determine the winner of a See also:bet (the Gaming See also:Act was passed in the following year) as to the See also:age of the See also:Derby winner See also:Running See also:Rein —in substance to determine, if possible, the vexed question whether Running Rein was a four-year-old or a three-year-old when he was racing as the latter. Running Rein could not be produced by Mr Wood, and See also:Baron Alderson took a strong view of this circumstance, so that Cockburn found himself on the losing See also:side, while his strenuous advocacy of his client's cause hadled him into making, in his opening speech, strictures on Lord See also:George See also:Bentinck's conduct in the case which had better have been reserved to a later See also:stage. He was, however, a hard fighter, but not an unfair one—a little irritable at times, but on the whole a courteous See also:gentleman, and his practice went on increasing. In 1847 he decided to stand for See also:parliament, and was elected without a contest Liberal M.P. for See also:Southampton. His speech in the See also:House of See also:Commons on behalf of the See also:government in the See also:Don Pacifico dispute with See also:Greece commended him to Lord See also:John See also:Russell, who appointed him See also:solicitor-general in 185o and See also:attorney-general in 1851, a See also:post which he held till the resignation of the See also:ministry in See also:February 1852.

During the See also:

short See also:administration of Lord Derby which followed, Sir See also:Frederic Thesiger was attorney-general, and Cockburn was engaged against him in the case of R. v. RNewman, on the See also:prosecution of Achilli. This was the trial of a criminal See also:information for See also:libel filed against John See also:Henry See also:Newman, who had denounced a scandalous and profligate See also:friar named Achilli, then lecturing on See also:Roman Catholicism in England. Newman pleaded See also:justification; but the See also:jury who heard the case in the See also:Queen's See also:Bench, with Lord See also:Campbell presiding, found that the justification was not proved except in one particular: a See also:verdict which, together with the methods of the See also:judge and the conduct of the See also:audience, attracted considerable comment. The verdict was set aside, and a new trial ordered, but none ever took See also:place. In December 1852, under Lord See also:Aberdeen's ministry, Cockburn became again attorney-general, and so remained until 1856, taking See also:part in many celebrated trials, such as the Hopwood Will Case in 1855, and the Swynfen Will Case, but notably leading for the See also:crown in the trial of William See also:Palmer of See also:Rugeley in Staffordshire—an ex-medical See also:man who had taken to the See also:turf, and who had poisoned a friend of similar pursuits named See also:Cook with See also:strychnine, in See also:order to obtain See also:money from his See also:estate by See also:forgery and otherwise. Cockburn made an exhaustive study of the medical aspects of the case, and the prisoner's comment when convicted after a twelve days' trial was, alluding to the attorney-general's advocacy, " It was the See also:riding that did it." In 1854 Cockburn was made See also:recorder of See also:Bristol. In 1856 he. became chief justice of the See also:common pleas. He inherited the baronetcy in 1858. In 1859 Lord Campbell became See also:chancellor, and Cockburn became chief justice of the Queen's Bench, continuing as a judge for twenty-four years and dying in See also:harness. On See also:Friday, the 19th of See also:November 188o, he tried causes with See also:special juries at See also:Westminster; on Saturday, the loth, he pre-sided over a court for the See also:consideration of crown cases reserved; he walked See also:home, and on that See also:night he died of angina pectoris at his house in See also:Hertford See also:Street. Sir Alexander Cockburn earned and deserved a high reputation as a judge.

He was a man of brilliant cleverness and rapid See also:

intuition rather than of profound and laboriously cultivated See also:intellect. He had been a See also:great See also:advocate at the bar, with a See also:charm of See also:voice and manner, fluent and persuasive rather than learned; but before he died he was considered a See also:good lawyer, some assigning his unquestioned improvement in this respect to his frequent association on the bench with See also:Blackburn. He had notoriously little sympathy with the Judicature Acts. Many were of See also:opinion that he was inclined to take an advocate's view of the cases before him, making up his mind as to their merits prematurely and, in consequence, wrongly, as well as giving undue prominence to the views which he so formed; but he was beyond doubt always in intention, and generally in fact, scrupulously See also:fair. It is not necessary to enumerate the many causes celebres at which Sir Alexander Cockburn presided as a judge. It was thought that he went out of his way to arrange that they should come before him, and his successor, Lord See also:Coleridge, See also:writing in 1881 to Lord See also:Bramwell, to make the offer that he should try the murderer Lefroy as a last judicial act before retiring, added, " Poor dear Cockburn would hardly have given you such a See also:chance." Be this as it may, Cockburn tried all cases which came before him, whether great or small, with the same thoroughness, See also:courtesy and dignity, so that no counsel or suitor could complain that he had not been fully heard in a See also:matter in which the issues were seemingly trivial; while he certainly gave great attention to the elaboration of his judgments and charges to juries. He presided at the Tichborne trial at Bar, lasting 188 days, of which his summing-up occupied eighteen. The greatest public occasion on which Sir Alexander Cockburn acted, outside his usual judicial functions, was that of the " See also:Alabama " See also:arbitration, held at See also:Geneva in 1872, in which he represented the British government, and dissented from the view taken by the See also:majority of the arbitrators, without being able to convince them. He prepared, with Mr C. F. See also:Adams, the representative of the See also:United States, the See also:English See also:translation of the See also:award of the arbitrators, and published his reasons for dissenting in a vigorously worded document which did not meet with universal See also:commendation. He admitted in substance the liability of England for the acts of the `I Alabama," but not on the grounds on which the decision of the majority was based, and he held England not liable in respect of the " See also:Florida " and the " See also:Shenandoah." In See also:personal See also:appearance Sir Alexander Cockburn was of small stature, but great dignity of deportment.

He was fond of See also:

yachting and See also:sport, and was engaged in writing a series of articles on the " See also:History of the See also:Chase in the Nineteenth See also:Century " at the time of his See also:death. He was fond, too, of society, and was also throughout his See also:life addicted to frivolities not altogether consistent with See also:advancement in a learned profession, or with the positions of dignity which he successively occupied. At the same time he had a high sense of what was due to and expected from his profession; and his utterance upon the limitations of advocacy, in his speech at the banquet given in the Middle Temple Hall to M. See also:Berryer, the celebrated French advocate, may be called the classical authority on the subject. Lord See also:Brougham, replying for the guests other than Berryer, had spoken of " the first great See also:duty of an advocate to reckon every-thing subordinate to the interests of his client." The lord chief justice, replying to the See also:toast of " the See also:judges of England," dissented from this sweeping statement, saying, amid loud cheers from a distinguished See also:assembly of lawyers, " The arms which an advocate wields he ought to use as a See also:warrior, not as an assassin. He ought to uphold the interests of his clients per fas, not per nefas. He ought to know how to reconcile the interests of his clients with the eternal interests of truth and justice " (The Times, 9th of November 1864). Sir Alexander Cockburn was never married, and the baronetcy became See also:extinct at his death.

End of Article: COCKBURN, SIR ALEXANDER JAMES EDMUND

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