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RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN, CHARLES RUSSELL,...
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See also:RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN, See also: In 1859 he was called to the bar, after gaining by examination a first-class See also:honour certificate, and joined the See also:Northern See also:Circuit. Except some valuable introductions to See also:friends in London and See also:Liverpool, which his See also:uncle, the See also:president of See also:Maynooth, had given to him, Russell brought to the See also:work of his profession no See also:external See also:aids. He had to rely upon himself. But .the equipment was sufficient. A well-built See also:frame; a strong, striking See also:face, with broad forehead, keen See also:grey eyes, and a full and sensitive mouth; a See also:voice which, though not musical, was See also:rich, and responded well to strong emotions, whether of indignation, or scorn, or pity; an amazing See also:power of concentrating thought; an intellectual grasp, promptly seizing the real points of the most entangled case, and rejecting all that was secondary, or petty, or irrelevant; a See also:faculty of lucid and forcible expression, which, without See also:literary ornateness or See also:grace of See also:style, could on See also:fit occasions rise to impassioned eloquence—all these things Russell had. But beyond and above all these was his immense See also:personality, an embodiment of energetic will which riveted See also:attention, dominated his See also:audience, and See also:bore down opposition. His successful advocacy in the See also:Colin See also: He wrote a See also:book on its See also:procedure, which was published in 1862. This See also:ancient See also:local court, possessing both See also:common law and See also:Admiralty See also:jurisdiction, had as its presiding judge—then styled "See also:assessor"—an eminent See also:leader of the Northern Circuit, Mr See also:Edward See also: Starr in 1869. In 1865 he argued in ex parte Chavasse before Lord See also:Westbury, L.C., and soon afterwards was honoured by him with the offer of a county court judgeship. In 1872 Russell took " See also:silk," and from that date for some time he divided the best leading work of the circuit with Holker, Herschell and See also:Pope. In 1894 Holker became See also:solicitor-See also:general in the Conservative See also:administration. In 188o Herschell accepted the same See also:office in a Liberal See also:ministry, and about the same time Pope practically See also:left the circuit, to become in a See also:short time one of the most successful See also:advocates at the See also:parliamentary bar. Russell's success as a Q.C. during this period of his career was prodigious. He excelled in the conduct alike of commercial cases and of those involving, as he used to say, " a human interest," although undoubtedly it was the latter which more attracted him. He was seen to the least See also:advantage in cases which involved technical or scientific detail. If his advocacy suffered a defeat, however, it was never an inglorious defeat. Those who were on the Northern Circuit at the time will not easily forget the case of See also:Dixon v. See also:Plimsoll—a See also:libel action brought by a Liverpool shipowner against Mr S. Plimsoll—tried before Baron Amphlett and a Liverpool See also:special See also:jury, in which Holker won a notable victory for the See also:defendant; or Nutlall v. See also:Wilde, a See also:breach of promise action, in which Pope led brilliantly for the successful See also:plaintiff, and Russell's speech for the See also:defence was one of the finest in point of See also:passion and pathos that was ever heard upon the Northern Circuit. At the same time, with all his fighting power, Russell was eminently a sagacious adviser. No barrister knew better how and when to See also:settle a case, where the client's true interest called for a See also:settlement. In 188o a new phase of Russell's arduous life began. He was returned to See also:parliament as an See also:independent Liberal member for See also:Dundalk, a See also:constituency which he had twice before unsuccessfully contested. From that time forward until his See also:appointment to a lordship of See also:appeal in See also:succession to Lord See also:Bowen in 1894, he sat in the See also:House of See also:Commons: for Dundalk until 1885, and afterwards for See also:South See also:Hackney, where he was returned as the Liberal member on four successive occasions—once in 1885, twice in 1886, and again in 1892. The entrance into parliament laid upon Russell's time and labour a heavy additional tax. His was a nature which could not, in work or even in See also:pleasure, be content to do anything lightly or by halves. He was essentially a See also:man of action; intensity—at times almost fierce intensity—both of purpose and of devotion to its fulfilment characterized everything he did. Upon such a man parliamentary life between 188o and 1894 necessarily entailed a severe See also:strain. During the whole of this See also:epoch, in See also:home affairs, Irish business almost monopolized the political See also:stage; and Russell was Irish to the core. From 188o to 1886, as a private member, and as the See also:attorney-general in Mr See also:Gladstone's ad-ministrations of 1886 and 1892, he worked in and out of parliament for the Liberal policy in regard to the treatment of Ireland as few men except Russell could or would work. He never spared himself. After a See also:long See also:day in the turmoil of the courts, he cheerfully gave a long evening to a distant and often, from the standpoint of See also:personal notoriety, an obscure, See also:platform. His position throughout was clear and consistent. Before 1886 on several occasions he supported the action of the Irish Nationalist party. He opposed See also:coercion, voted for See also:compensation for disturbance, advocated the See also:release of political prisoners and voted for the Maamtrasna inquiry. He wrote to the Daily See also:Telegraph a See also:series of letters on the Irish See also:land question, which were afterwards published (1889) in a collected See also:form. But he never became a member of the Irish Home See also:Rule or of the Parnellite party; he was elected at Dundalk as an independent Liberal, and such he remained. He was proud of the See also:kingdom in whose might and See also:glory Ireland could claim so large a part; and when, as attorney-general in the Gladstone administration, he warmly advocated the See also:establishment of a subordinate parliament in Ireland, he did so because he sought the amelioration and not the destruction of Ireland's relations with the See also:rest of that kingdom. " I am absolutely opposed," he said (The Lifeof Lord Russell of Killowen, p. 194) to the South Hackney voters, " to separation; but, reserving imperial See also:control on all imperial questions, I think Irishmen on Irish See also:soil should have the power of dealing in the way which seems best to them with all questions that concern them." It is impossible to say that Russell's success in the House of Commons, considerable as it was, was comparable to his success as an advocate in the courts of justice. He was listened to, always with respect and often with admiration, but he was not made for a debater; and the position of a law officer has generally not proved favourable to the attainment of parliamentary See also:eminence. In great public affairs the law officer advises and supports, but not for him is the glory of initiating public policy. Russell's parliamentary duties, fully as he discharged them, first as a private member and afterwards as attorney-general, were not allowed by him to obstruct his professional career. He rapidly became in London what he was already in See also:Lancashire, the favourite leader in nisi prius actions. The See also:list of causes celebres in the period 188o-94 is really a See also:record of Russell's cases, and, for a great part, of Russell's victories. The best known of the exceptions from the latter See also:category was the libel action See also:Belt v. See also:Lawes in 1882, which, after a trial before Baron Huddleston and a special jury lasting more than See also:forty days, resulted in a See also:verdict for the plaintiff, for whom See also:Sir See also:Hardinge See also:Giffard (afterwards Lord See also:Chancellor See also:Halsbury) appeared as leading counsel. The See also:triumph of his client in the Colin Campbell divorce suit in 1886 afforded perhaps the most brilliant instance of Russell's forensic capacity in private litigation. His fees in 1885, the See also:year before he became attorney-general, amounted to nearly £19,000. More important, however, as well as more famous, than any of his successes in the See also:ordinary courts of law during this period were his performances as an advocate in two public transactions of See also:mark in See also:British See also:history. The first of these in point of date was the Parnell Commission of 1888-9o, in which Sir Charles Russell appeared as leading counsel for Mr Parnell. The commission held its first sitting on the 22nd of See also:October 1888, and presented its See also:report in See also:February 1890. In See also:April 1889, after 63 sittings of the commission, in the course of which 340 witnesses had been examined, Sir Charles Russell, who had already destroyed the chief personal See also:charge against Mr Parnell by a brilliant cross-examination, in which he proved it to have been based upon a See also:forgery, made his great opening speech for the defence. It lasted several days, and concluded on the 12th of April. This speech, besides its merit as a wonderful piece of advocacy, possesses permanent value as an See also:historical survey of the Irish question during the last See also:century, from the point of view of an Irish Liberal. It was in the same year published after careful revision by its author (1889). The second public transaction was the Bering Sea Arbitration, held in See also:Paris in 1893. Sir Charles Russell, then attorney-general, with Sir See also:Richard See also:Webster (afterwards Lord See also:Alverstone, L.C.J.), was the leading counsel for Great Britain. Russell, in the course of his very powerful argument before the tribunal, maintained the proposition, which he again handled in his Saratoga address to the See also:American Bar Association in 1896, that " international law is neither more nor less than what civilized nations have agreed shall be binding on one another as international law." The See also:award was, substantially, in favour of Great Britain. In recognition of their distinguished services, the See also:queen bestowed upon both the leading representatives of Great Britain the honour of the See also:grand cross of St See also:Michael and St See also:George. In 1894 Russell's career as an advocate ended. A judgeship, if he had wished it, had been within his reach twelve years before. In 1894, on the See also:death of Lord Bowen, he accepted the position of a lord of appeal. A See also:month later he was appointed lord chief justice of England in succession to Lord See also:Coleridge, to whose memory he devoted in the following See also:September a See also:paper in the North American Review. To the See also:discharge of his functions as a judge Russell brought with him all the qualities of See also:intellect and character which had made him so eminent as an advocate, and their greatness was not less conspicuous in his new position. Brief as was his See also:tenure of the office, he proved himself well worthy of it. He was dignified without pompousness, See also:quick without being irritable, and masterful without tyranny. He was scrupulously punctual. Suitors and hearers could not but be impressed by the See also:manifest determination of the lord chief justice to get at the truth, and to do so without See also:waste of time. If this was a See also:fault, it was that of excessive zeal, for despatch. When, occasionally, there were flashes of impatience, they were elicited by the See also:exhibition, as he deemed it, of want of preparation, or slovenliness, or verbosity on the part of the advocate before him. Even the youngest and most obscure practitioner could always See also:count upon the assiduous attention of the lord chief justice to a pertinent and thoughtful argument. In 1896 Lord Russell (See also:Pollock B. and See also:Hawkins J. being on this occasion his colleagues on the See also:bench) presided at the trial at bar of the leaders of the See also:Jameson See also:Raid. It was a state trial of See also:grave importance. Russell's conduct of it, in the midst of much popular excitement, was by itself sufficient to establish his reputation as a great judge. One other event at least in his career while lord chief justice deserves a record, namely, his See also:share in the See also:Venezuela Arbitration in 1899. Lord Herschell, who had been nominated to See also:act with Lord Justice See also:Collins (afterwards See also:Master of the Rolls), as a British representative on the Commission of Arbitration, of which the distinguished See also:Russian jurist M. See also:Martens was president, died somewhat suddenly in See also:America before the beginning of the proceedings. The lord chief justice accepted the invitation to take the vacant See also:place, and performed his very onerous See also:duty with conspicuous ability.
Nor was it only on the bench, or as an international judge that Lord Russell of Killowen sought, during the last years of his busy life, to do service to his See also:country. He signalized his zeal as a law reformer by the public advocacy of See also:radical changes in the See also:system of legal See also:education in the Inns of Court, and by the promotion of See also:measures to put down the See also:vice of See also:secret and illicit commissions in commercial and business life. On the former subject he delivered in 1895 an address in Lincoln's Inn See also: He was a staunch and sympathetic friend, ever ready, in an unostentatious way, to help, where help was really needed. While he undoubtedly exhibited at times, chiefly during the earlier part of his career, a certain brusqueness and impetuousness of speech and demeanour, those who came into contact with him recognized that such occasional out-bursts never sprang from any See also:desire to hurt, or from any unkindness of disposition. In his contests at the bar he never made an enemy. He was a strong man, and he liked to have his way; but he was also large-hearted and without a tinge of rancour in his disposition. He was never offended by opposition. Whilst he did not himself shine as a wit or a humorist in conversation or in after-See also:dinner See also:oratory, he heartily enjoyed fun and See also:humour in others; and, wherever he was, theforce and distinctness of his personality never failed to impress his See also:company. Probably no See also:English lawyer ever excited abroad the admiration which was accorded to Lord Russell of Killowen, alike on the See also:continent of See also:Europe and in America. To the See also:United States he paid two visits, the first in 1883 and the second in 1896. On both occasions he won See also:golden opinions, which were manifested in widespread and warm expressions of sympathy and regret when the See also:news of the death of Lord Russell of Killowen passed across the See also:Atlantic. Between 1894 and 1897 Lord Russell of Killowen received the degree of See also:Doctor of See also:Laws honoris causa from the See also:universities of Dublin, See also:Edinburgh and See also:Cambridge, and from the See also:Laval university, See also:Quebec. In 1892 he was treasurer of Lincoln's Inn. He left surviving him, besides his widow, five sons and four daughters. His See also:sister Katherine (in See also:religion, Sister See also:Mary Baptist See also:Joseph), See also:pioneer sister of See also:mercy in See also:California, had died two years before at See also:San Francisco. (W. R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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