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SELBORNE, ROUNDELL PALMER, 1ST EARL

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 599 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SELBORNE, ROUNDELL See also:PALMER, 1ST See also:EARL of (1812-1895), See also:English lawyer and statesman, was See also:born at Mixbury, in the See also:county of See also:Oxford, on the 27th of See also:November 1812. His See also:father was See also:rector of the See also:parish: his grandfather and See also:great-grandfather were merchants in the See also:City of See also:London, where their descendants for a See also:long while continued to be influential See also:people; his See also:mother belonged to the See also:family of Roundell, which had been settled for four centuries in the See also:West See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire. He was educated at See also:Rugby and at See also:Winchester, and in 183o went into See also:residence in the university of Oxford as a See also:scholar of Trinity See also:College. Here he lived in intimacy with many See also:friends, especially P. C. Claughton and See also:Charles See also:Wordsworth. In 1834 he took a first class in Literae Humaniores; he won the See also:Eldon scholarship and was elected to a fellowship at Magdalen College; and after a See also:year, spent chiefly in private tuition, partly in See also:Lord Winchilsea's See also:house and partly in the university, he removed to London (November 1835) and commenced See also:reading for the See also:bar. He was called to the bar on the 7th of See also:June 1837, the same See also:day on which See also:John Rolt (1804-1871), a See also:man of very different antecedents, but afterwards a worthy See also:rival of Palmer, was also called. Through his family connexions in the City of London, clients soon came to Palmer's See also:chambers, and his business at the See also:Chancery bar increased rapidly. Meanwhile his interests were not wholly confined to See also:law: for some See also:time (1840-1843) he wrote for The Times and the See also:British Critic; he made a plunge into patristic learning, from which he soon recoiled; he was much interested in the controversies which distracted the See also:Church on the subject of See also:Tract 90; in the treatment of the Episcopal Church in See also:Canada by the See also:Canadian See also:government and the Colonial See also:Office; in the See also:establishment by the See also:crown, in See also:conjunction with the See also:king of See also:Prussia, of the See also:Jerusalem bishopric; and in the contest for the professorship of See also:poetry at Oxford on See also:Keble's retirement. In 1847, and again in 1853, Palmer was returned as member of See also:Parliament for See also:Plymouth, as a Peelite, and in the House of See also:Commons he took an active and See also:independent See also:part. He advocated the See also:admission of See also:Jews to parliament; he opposed Lord John See also:Russell's measure to repel the so-called papal aggression; he opposed the admission of Dissenters into the university of Oxford; and he was hostile to the See also:action of the government in the See also:Crimean See also:War.

On the question of the reform of the university of Oxford, he sympathized with the reformers, but See also:

felt himself prohibited, by the oaths which he had taken, from assuming any active part. In 1855 he supported See also:Gladstone in the efforts to bring about See also:peace with See also:Russia before the See also:capture of Sebastopol; in 1856 he opposed the opening of museums on See also:Sunday; in the following year he supported See also:Cobden in his disapproval of the second See also:opium war with See also:China. At the See also:general See also:election on See also:March 18J7, Palmer, finding that the independent part he had taken, especially in reference to the See also:Chinese question, had alienated from him many of his constituents in Plymouth, abandoned the prospect of re-election for that See also:borough, and did not seek for election elsewhere. In 1848 he married See also:Lady Laura See also:Waldegrave, daughter of Earl Waldegrave. In 1849 he had become a Q.C.; and in 1851 he took his seat in the Rolls See also:Court, where he soon obtained a leading practice, and was engaged in many of the most important cases in the Court of Chancery. In See also:July 1861 heaccepted from Lord See also:Palmerston the office of See also:solicitor-general, a See also:knighthood, and a safe seat for the borough of See also:Richmond in Yorkshire, secured for him through the friendly action of Lord Zetland, and thus began the second spell of Palmer's membership of the House of Commons, which continued till his See also:elevation to the See also:woolsack and the See also:peerage. In See also:September 1863 he became See also:attorney-general, and so continued till the government of which he was a member resigned in 1866. The See also:Civil War in See also:America, and the questions which arose from the relations of Great See also:Britain with both belligerents, rendered the duties of the law See also:officers of the crown more than usually onerous, and Palmer was called upon to take part, as adviser of the See also:ministry, in the courts, and in the House, in the questions which arose in respect of the " See also:Trent " and the " Peterhoff," the cruisers " See also:Alabama " and " See also:Florida " and the " Alexandra," a See also:ship which was seized by the government, and other matters. In 1865 he took a large part in the passing of the See also:act under which all the law courts were gathered together in the Strand. In 1866 he expressed himself favourable to the making of See also:household See also:suffrage the basis of See also:representation, an expression of See also:opinion which probably influenced the Reform See also:Bill of the following year—in the discussions on which Palmer took a prominent part, and especially in opposition to the so-called " See also:fancy franchises " originally proposed by its authors. In the same year he took part in supporting the measure for the abolition of compulsory Church rates. In 1868 occurred an event of great importance in his career.

In See also:

April of that year Gladstone proposed his resolutions with reference to the Irish Church on which the bill for its disestablishment was subsequently based. This measure was opposed to many of the dearest beliefs and feelings of Palmer, and he evidenced his disapproval by abstaining from voting on the resolutions. At the election of November 1868 Palmer was again returned for Richmond, and Gladstone offered him the office of lord See also:chancellor or the office of a lord See also:justice with a peerage; both offers were declined by Palmer, and he assumed a position of independent opposition to the measure relative to the Irish Church. On the 22nd of March 1869 he delivered a very powerful speech against the second reading of the bill, and during its later stages exercised a considerable See also:influence in modifying the severity of its provisions. The position of Palmer at this time was very remarkable. The foremost See also:advocate at the bar, he was known to have declined the highest See also:prize in the profession rather than promote a measure of which he disapproved; a very prominent member of the House of Commons, whose action had been more than usually independent of party, he had separated himself from his See also:political friends and maintained a position as the dignified and forcible opponent of disestablishment. Without office and without See also:combination with the Conservative Opposition, he exercised great influence within and without the walls of St See also:Stephen's. What made his position the more remarkable was that he was frequently consulted by the government which he had declined to join, and that on some occasions they invoked the assistance which his great influence in the House enabled him to afford to them. In 1869 he sought to modify rather than to oppose the bill for the abolition of tests in the See also:universities. In 187o he gave a qualified support to Gladstone's first Irish See also:Land Act, and in the same year he supported See also:Forster's See also:Education Act. In 1872 he undertook the See also:defence of his friend Lord Chancellor See also:Hatherley, when attacked for his See also:appointment of See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Collier to the judicial See also:committee of the Privy See also:Council, and, by a See also:line of See also:argument more ingenious than convincing, secured a See also:majority for the government. The treaty of See also:Washington was the means of casting a great See also:duty upon Palmer.

After the conclusion of the Civil War in America very large claims were preferred against Great Britain for alleged breaches of her duty as a neutral See also:

power; and after long negotiations, See also:England and the See also:United States agreed to See also:arbitration. Palmer, who had been advising the British government during these negotiations, and who (4th See also:August 1871) had defended the treaty in the House of Commons, was briefed on behalf of Great Britain. In the end the See also:Geneva tribunal made an See also:award requiring the See also:payment by Great Britain to the United States of a sum of about £3,000,000. To those who, in See also:order to promote the cause of See also:international arbitration, are desirous of acquiring a knowledge of the dangers and difficulties which beset this mode of settling disputes, the See also:account which Palmer has See also:left of his part in this arbitration may be commended. In September 1872 Gladstone again offered him the great See also:seal, which Lord Hatherley had resigned; in the same year he took up his residence in his newly erected house at Blackmoor, in the parish of Selborne, in the county of See also:Hampshire, from which he took his new See also:title as a peer. In the following year (1893) Lord Selborne carried through parliament the Judicature Act. The See also:foundations of this measure were laid so long ago as See also:February 1867, when Palmer had moved for a royal See also:commission on the constitution of the courts, and had taken an active part in the See also:work of that commission, of which the first See also:report was made in 1869. The result of this act of 1873 was to effect a fundamental See also:change in the judicature See also:system. By the operation of the Judicature Act one supreme court with several divisions was constituted; each See also:division could administer the whole law; the conflict of divergent systems of law was largely overcome by declaring that when they were at variance, the principles of See also:equity should prevail over the doctrines of the See also:common law. The details of this great change were embodied in a See also:code of general rules prepared by a committee of See also:judges, over which Lord Selborne for two years presided See also:week by week, with unfaltering See also:attention to the minutest detail. " If, " wrote Lord Selborne in his See also:memoirs, speaking of the Judicature Act of 1873, " I leave any See also:monument behind me which will See also:bear the test of time, it may be this." It is impossible to See also:separate this See also:fusion of law and equity, this See also:union of all the higher courts into one supreme tribunal, from the construction of a single See also:home for this great institution; and the opening of the Royal Courts in the Strand in the year 1882, when See also:Queen See also:Victoria personally presided in her one supreme court, and handed over the care of the See also:building to Lord Selborne, as her chancellor and as the See also:head of this great See also:body, was impressive as an outward and visible sign of the silent revolution, which owed more to Lord Selborne than to any other individual. To the student of the natural See also:history of See also:jurisprudence the fusion of the two systems of law and equity may well recall a similar result brought about in Imperial See also:Rome; to the student of British institutions, the supreme court, for once presided over in See also:person by the See also:sovereign, could not but recall the Aula Regia, where the See also:Norman See also:kings sat amid their counsellors before equity had arisen to correct law, and before the separation between the three great common law courts had begun.

A small incident may illustrate the novelty of the assemblage of the one great court on that day. The queen, on the See also:

prayer of the attorney-general, ordered that the proceedings of the day should be recorded, an order which caused a momentary embarrassment to the lord chancellor, as the court had no existing registrar, and no existing See also:book in which the See also:record should be made. On the occasion of the opening of the Royal Courts Lord Selborne received an earldom. The year 1885 was marked in Lord Selborne's See also:life by the See also:death of his wife, and by his final separation from the party of which Gladstone was the acknowledged See also:leader. That statesman had in the latter part of the year indicated his leaning towards the disestablishment of the Church of England, and towards Home See also:Rule for See also:Ireland. Both these leanings were opposed to the deepest convictions of Lord Selborne; and it was an inevitable result that when in See also:January 1886 Gladstone resumed office as premier, Lord Selborne should not be again his chancellor: on the 3oth of January in that year they parted for ever; and Lord Selborne felt that his public life, except so far as he might serve his See also:country by See also:voice or See also:pen, was now over. But neither his courage nor his See also:industry forsook him; and he found, in opposing the new views of his old colleague, ample See also:scope for both voice and pen; and as a member of the House of Lords he continued almost to the last to take part in See also:hearing and deciding appeals, and sometimes in the See also:ordinary business of the House. In addressing the See also:electors of Midlothian in September 1885, Gladstone had suggested the severance of the Church of England from the See also:state as a subject on which the See also:foundation of discussion had already been laid, and he averred the existence of " a current almost throughout the civilized See also:world, slowly setting in the direction of disestablishment." Such an utterance from such a man greatly excited the hopes of Nonconformists, who had previously published a manifesto under the title of " The See also:Case for Disestablishment." This stirring of the question deeply moved Lord Selborne, who was strongly opposed alike to disestablishment and disendowment, and in the following year, 1886, he published a work entitled A Defence of the Church of England against Disestablishment, with an See also:introductory See also:letter addressed to Gladstone. In the introductory letter he criticized Gladstone's pronouncement on the subject, and especially examined the allegation of a general tendency towards disestablishment in the civilized world at large, and arrived at a negative conclusion. In the body of the book the learned author treated of the history of the English Church, its endowments and the case of the See also:advocates of disestablishment. The work is throughout characterized by an abundant See also:supply of learning and of See also:information as to the history and the state of the Church of England at that time, and by great dialectical acuteness. It is a powerful defence as well as a valuable See also:summary of the history of the established Church in England.

In 1888 Lord Selborne published a second work on the Church question, entitled See also:

Ancient Facts and Fallacies concerning Churches and See also:Tithes, in which he examined more critically than in his earlier book the developments of See also:early ecclesiastical institutions, both on the See also:continent of See also:Europe and in Anglo-Saxon England, which resulted in the formation of the See also:modern parochial system and its general endowment with tithes. A second edition of this work, embodying the result of its author's subsequent researches in the Vatican library and elsewhere, was published in the year 1892. A perusal of these books will show with how wide a range of investigation and with what care Lord Selborne prepared himself for the discussion of these ecclesiastical questions which deeply stirred him. But Lord Selborne did not carry on his opposition to Gladstone's proposals only in his library or by his pen; in the year 1886–1887 he travelled to many parts of the country, and addressed meetings in defence of the union between the Church and state and against Home Rule; and in September 1893, in his eighty-first year, he addressed a powerful speech to the House of Lords in opposition to the Home Rule Bill. Lord Selborne's See also:health had, with the exception of two collapses in 1883 and 1888, which appear to have been due to overwork, continued excellent till February 1895, when he was attacked by See also:influenza. He died on the 4th of May 1895 at his seat in Hampshire, full of years and of honours. To the subject of university education Lord Selborne at different times in his life gave much time and attention. As a See also:fellow of Magdalen College, he had been desirous of changes which he felt himself See also:bound by his See also:oath from advocating; and he had taken part in the discussions on the abolition of tests in the old universities.) He gave much time and attention to his duties as chairman of the second Oxford commission under the act of 1876; in 1878 he filled the office of lord rector of the university of St See also:Andrews; and in the following year he presided over a commission on the subject of university education in London. Lord Selborne's See also:literary labours included the publication in 1862 of a selection of See also:hymns, under the title of The Book of Praise, a work in which he was greatly assisted by See also:Daniel See also:Sedgwick (1814–1879), a bookseller and publisher in the city of London. The work was characterized by the great pains taken to ascertain the true authorship of hymns which were either See also:anonymous or attributed to those who had not composed them, and by a like effort to exclude all See also:variations grafted on the In 1867 he founded an association for the improvement of legal education, in the See also:hope of bringing about the establishment or the restoration of " a general school of law in London on a See also:scale worthy of the importance of the law and of the resources of the Inns of Court." This enterprise was not successful. The opposing forces were too strong to permit Lord Selborne to succeed. See also:original See also:language, and to give the hymns " in the genuine uncorrupted See also:text of the authors themselves." In the course of his labours as editor of this See also:volume he was struck by the unity which was presented by See also:Christian hymnody, " binding together by the force of a common attraction, more powerful than all causes of difference, times ancient and modern, nations of various See also:race and language, Churchmen and Nonconformists, Churches re-formed and unreformed " (See also:Preface).

In the same See also:

field of literature Lord Selborne further laboured by the publication of another collection called The Book of Praise Hymnal; a contribution to an edition of See also:Bishop See also:Ken's hymns; a See also:paper on English Church Hymnody at a Church See also:Congress; and the See also:article in the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica on " Hymns " (q.v.), which was re-published as a separate volume in 1892. During the last few years of his life Lord Selborne engaged in the See also:composition, for the benefit of his See also:children, of memorials of his own life and of the lives of many members of his family. These Memorials, Part L, Family and See also:Personal, in 2 vols., which were published in 1896, Memorials, Part II., Personal and Political, also in 2 vols., were edited by his daughter, Lady See also:Sophia Palmer, and published in 1898. In the years 188o-1881 Lord Selborne wrote to his son a See also:series of letters on religious subjects, dealing in an elementary way with natural and revealed See also:religion, the See also:inspiration of the See also:Bible and Biblical See also:criticism. These were published in 1898, under the title of Letters to His Son on Religion, by Roundell, First Earl of Selborne. In person Lord Selborne was of about the See also:average height: his See also:manners when among strangers were somewhat reserved; his See also:style, both in speaking and See also:writing, was fluent, tending to diffuseness; his See also:oratory was marked by See also:uniform See also:good sense and lucidity, both of arrangement and language; and if he never reached the highest level of oratorical excellence, he never descended to what was See also:commonplace or irrelevant. As a See also:judge, whether in the Supreme Court or in the House of Lords, he displayed high qualities: he was patient, courteous, logical and learned, and his judgments contain many valuable expositions of the principles of law. The fusion of law and equity, the reorganization of the whole judicial system of England, and the association of all the supreme tribunals in one common home were See also:works of no ordinary magnitude or importance, and give a See also:character of unusual importance to his chancellorship. That Lord Selborne was a truly religious man it is impossible to doubt: his whole life was regulated and inspired by a sense of his duty towards See also:God and his fellowmen, and a long life spent amid the temptations of legal and public life left not the faintest stain on his memory. He- was a devout member of the Church of England, to which he looked up with unstinted See also:affection and reverence; and he found in its service and formularies an adequate See also:satisfaction for all his religious feelings. He belonged to the High Church school, which was influenced by the teaching of See also:Newman and See also:Pusey and the Oxford teachers of their day; but he by no means slavishly followed them. With the later High Church See also:movement, usually described as Ritualism, he had less sympathy.

His life was prosperous, for from his first prize at the university till his acquisition of an earldom, he went on a course of almost unbroken success. He had the See also:

double dignity of having refused the highest prize in his profession for See also:conscience' See also:sake, and of having accepted that dignity without loss of consistency; in his life he acquired a high reputation and the sincere admiration of his fellowmen, as well as an abundant'See also:fortune and ample titular distinctions. His life was also happy, for he had See also:pleasure in his work, he loved and was loved by his wife and children; he had a strong constitution, and retained his bodily and See also:mental See also:powers to the last; his faith in the religion of his youth was unshaken to the end; and he lived throughout his long life with the consciousness of rectitude. (E.

End of Article: SELBORNE, ROUNDELL PALMER, 1ST EARL

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