p. 202Chapter VII — Industry and the Peerage

“He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch,
To gain or lose it all.”—Marquis of
Montrose.

“He hath put down the mighty from their seats; and
exalted them of low degree.”—St. Luke.

We have already referred to some
illustrious Commoners raised from humble to elevated positions by
the power of application and industry; and we might point to even
the Peerage itself as affording equally instructive
examples. One reason why the Peerage of England has
succeeded so well in holding its own, arises from the fact that,
unlike the peerages of other countries, it has been fed, from
time to time, by the best industrial blood of the
country—the very “liver, heart, and brain of
Britain.” Like the fabled Antæus, it has been
invigorated and refreshed by touching its mother earth, and
mingling with that most ancient order of nobility—the
working order.

The blood of all men flows from equally remote sources; and
though some are unable to trace their line directly beyond their
grandfathers, all are nevertheless justified in placing at the
head of their pedigree the great progenitors of the race, as Lord
Chesterfield did when he wrote, “Adam de Stanhope—Eve de Stanhope.” No
class is ever long stationary. The mighty fall, and the
humble are exalted. New families take the place of the old,
who disappear among the ranks of the common people.
Burke’s ‘Vicissitudes of Families’ strikingly
exhibit this rise and fall of families, and show that the
misfortunes which overtake the rich and noble are greater in
proportion than those which overwhelm the poor. This author
points out that of the twenty-five barons selected to enforce the
observance of Magna Charta, there is not now in the House of
Peers a single male descendant. Civil wars and rebellions
ruined many of the old nobility and dispersed their
families. Yet their descendants in many cases survive, and
are to be found among the ranks of the people. Fuller wrote
in his ‘Worthies,’ that “some who justly hold
the surnames of Bohuns, Mortimers, and Plantagenets, are hid in
the heap of common men.” Thus Burke shows that two of
the lineal descendants of the Earl of Kent, sixth son of Edward
I., were discovered in a butcher and a toll-gatherer; that the
great grandson of Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of the Duke of
Clarance, sank to the condition of a cobbler at Newport, in
Shropshire; and that among the lineal descendants of the Duke of
Gloucester, son of Edward III., was the late sexton of St.
George’s, Hanover Square. It is understood that the
lineal descendant of Simon de Montfort, England’s premier
baron, is a saddler in Tooley Street. One of the
descendants of the “Proud Percys,” a claimant of the
title of Duke of Northumberland, was a Dublin trunk-maker; and
not many years since one of the claimants for the title of Earl
of Perth presented himself in the person of a labourer in a
Northumberland coal-pit. Hugh Miller, when working as a
stone-mason near Edinburgh, was served by a hodman, who was one
of the numerous claimants for the earldom of Crauford—all
that was wanted to establish his claim being a missing marriage
certificate; and while the work was going on, the cry resounded
from the walls many times in the day, of—“John, Yearl
Crauford, bring us anither hod o’lime.” One of
Oliver Cromwell’s great grandsons was a grocer on Snow
Hill, and others of his descendants died in great poverty.
Many barons of proud names and titles have perished, like the
sloth, upon their family tree, after eating up all the leaves;
while others have been overtaken by adversities which they have
been unable to retrieve, and sunk at last into poverty and
obscurity. Such are the mutabilities of rank and
fortune.

The great bulk of our peerage is comparatively modern, so far
as the titles go; but it is not the less noble that it has been
recruited to so large an extent from the ranks of honourable
industry. In olden times, the wealth and commerce of
London, conducted as it was by energetic and enterprising men,
was a prolific source of peerages. Thus, the earldom of
Cornwallis was founded by Thomas Cornwallis, the Cheapside
merchant; that of Essex by William Capel, the draper; and that of
Craven by William Craven, the merchant tailor. The modern
Earl of Warwick is not descended from the
“King-maker,” but from William Greville, the
woolstapler; whilst the modern dukes of Northumberland find their
head, not in the Percies, but in Hugh Smithson, a respectable
London apothecary. The founders of the families of
Dartmouth, Radnor, Ducie, and Pomfret, were respectively a
skinner, a silk manufacturer, a merchant tailor, and a Calais
merchant; whilst the founders of the peerages of Tankerville,
Dormer, and Coventry, were mercers. The ancestors of Earl
Romney, and Lord Dudley and Ward, were goldsmiths and jewellers;
and Lord Dacres was a banker in the reign of Charles I., as Lord
Overstone is in that of Queen Victoria. Edward Osborne, the
founder of the Dukedom of Leeds, was apprentice to William Hewet,
a rich clothworker on London Bridge, whose only daughter he
courageously rescued from drowning, by leaping into the Thames
after her, and eventually married. Among other peerages
founded by trade are those of Fitzwilliam, Leigh, Petre, Cowper,
Darnley, Hill, and Carrington. The founders of the houses
of Foley and Normanby were remarkable men in many respects, and,
as furnishing striking examples of energy of character, the story
of their lives is worthy of preservation.

The father of Richard Foley, the founder of the family, was a
small yeoman living in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge in the
time of Charles I. That place was then the centre of the
iron manufacture of the midland districts, and Richard was
brought up to work at one of the branches of the trade—that
of nail-making. He was thus a daily observer of the great
labour and loss of time caused by the clumsy process then adopted
for dividing the rods of iron in the manufacture of nails.
It appeared that the Stourbridge nailers were gradually losing
their trade in consequence of the importation of nails from
Sweden, by which they were undersold in the market. It
became known that the Swedes were enabled to make their nails so
much cheaper, by the use of splitting mills and machinery, which
had completely superseded the laborious process of preparing the
rods for nail-making then practised in England.

Richard Foley, having ascertained this much, determined to
make himself master of the new process. He suddenly
disappeared from the neighbourhood of Stourbridge, and was not
heard of for several years. No one knew whither he had
gone, not even his own family; for he had not informed them of
his intention, lest he should fail. He had little or no
money in his pocket, but contrived to get to Hull, where he
engaged himself on board a ship bound for a Swedish port, and
worked his passage there. The only article of property
which he possessed was his fiddle, and on landing in Sweden he
begged and fiddled his way to the Dannemora mines, near
Upsala. He was a capital musician, as well as a pleasant
fellow, and soon ingratiated himself with the iron-workers.
He was received into the works, to every part of which he had
access; and he seized the opportunity thus afforded him of
storing his mind with observations, and mastering, as he thought,
the mechanism of iron splitting. After a continued stay for
this purpose, he suddenly disappeared from amongst his kind
friends the miners—no one knew whither.

Returned to England, he communicated the results of his voyage
to Mr. Knight and another person at Stourbridge, who had
sufficient confidence in him to advance the requisite funds for
the purpose of erecting buildings and machinery for splitting
iron by the new process. But when set to work, to the great
vexation and disappointment of all, and especially of Richard
Foley, it was found that the machinery would not act—at all
events it would not split the bars of iron. Again Foley
disappeared. It was thought that shame and mortification at
his failure had driven him away for ever. Not so!
Foley had determined to master this secret of iron-splitting, and
he would yet do it. He had again set out for Sweden,
accompanied by his fiddle as before, and found his way to the
iron works, where he was joyfully welcomed by the miners; and, to
make sure of their fiddler, they this time lodged him in the very
splitting-mill itself. There was such an apparent absence
of intelligence about the man, except in fiddle-playing, that the
miners entertained no suspicions as to the object of their
minstrel, whom they thus enabled to attain the very end and aim
of his life. He now carefully examined the works, and soon
discovered the cause of his failure. He made drawings or
tracings of the machinery as well as he could, though this was a
branch of art quite new to him; and after remaining at the place
long enough to enable him to verify his observations, and to
impress the mechanical arrangements clearly and vividly on his
mind, he again left the miners, reached a Swedish port, and took
ship for England. A man of such purpose could not but
succeed. Arrived amongst his surprised friends, he now
completed his arrangements, and the results were entirely
successful. By his skill and his industry he soon laid the
foundations of a large fortune, at the same time that he restored
the business of an extensive district. He himself
continued, during his life, to carry on his trade, aiding and
encouraging all works of benevolence in his neighbourhood.
He founded and endowed a school at Stourbridge; and his son
Thomas (a great benefactor of Kidderminster), who was High
Sheriff of Worcestershire in the time of “The Rump,”
founded and endowed an hospital, still in existence, for the free
education of children at Old Swinford. All the early Foleys
were Puritans. Richard Baxter seems to have been on
familiar and intimate terms with various members of the family,
and makes frequent mention of them in his ‘Life and
Times.’ Thomas Foley, when appointed high sheriff of
the county, requested Baxter to preach the customary sermon
before him; and Baxter in his ‘Life’ speaks of him as
“of so just and blameless dealing, that all men he ever had
to do with magnified his great integrity and honesty, which were
questioned by none.” The family was ennobled in the
reign of Charles the Second.

William Phipps, the founder of the Mulgrave or Normanby
family, was a man quite as remarkable in his way as Richard
Foley. His father was a gunsmith—a robust Englishman
settled at Woolwich, in Maine, then forming part of our English
colonies in America. He was born in 1651, one of a family
of not fewer than twenty-six children (of whom twenty-one were
sons), whose only fortune lay in their stout hearts and strong
arms. William seems to have had a dash of the Danish-sea
blood in his veins, and did not take kindly to the quiet life of
a shepherd in which he spent his early years. By nature
bold and adventurous, he longed to become a sailor and roam
through the world. He sought to join some ship; but not
being able to find one, he apprenticed himself to a shipbuilder,
with whom he thoroughly learnt his trade, acquiring the arts of
reading and writing during his leisure hours. Having
completed his apprenticeship and removed to Boston, he wooed and
married a widow of some means, after which he set up a little
shipbuilding yard of his own, built a ship, and, putting to sea
in her, he engaged in the lumber trade, which he carried on in a
plodding and laborious way for the space of about ten years.

It happened that one day, whilst passing through the crooked
streets of old Boston, he overheard some sailors talking to each
other of a wreck which had just taken place off the Bahamas; that
of a Spanish ship, supposed to have much money on board.
His adventurous spirit was at once kindled, and getting together
a likely crew without loss of time, he set sail for the
Bahamas. The wreck being well in-shore, he easily found it,
and succeeded in recovering a great deal of its cargo, but very
little money; and the result was, that he barely defrayed his
expenses. His success had been such, however, as to
stimulate his enterprising spirit; and when he was told of
another and far more richly laden vessel which had been wrecked
near Port de la Plata more than half a century before, he
forthwith formed the resolution of raising the wreck, or at all
events of fishing up the treasure.

Being too poor, however, to undertake such an enterprise
without powerful help, he set sail for England in the hope that
he might there obtain it. The fame of his success in
raising the wreck off the Bahamas had already preceded him.
He applied direct to the Government. By his urgent
enthusiasm, he succeeded in overcoming the usual inertia of
official minds; and Charles II. eventually placed at his disposal
the “Rose Algier,” a ship of eighteen guns and
ninety-five men, appointing him to the chief command.

Phipps then set sail to find the Spanish ship and fish up the
treasure. He reached the coast of Hispaniola in safety; but
how to find the sunken ship was the great difficulty. The
fact of the wreck was more than fifty years old; and Phipps had
only the traditionary rumours of the event to work upon.
There was a wide coast to explore, and an outspread ocean without
any trace whatever of the argosy which lay somewhere at its
bottom. But the man was stout in heart and full of
hope. He set his seamen to work to drag along the coast,
and for weeks they went on fishing up sea-weed, shingle, and bits
of rock. No occupation could be more trying to seamen, and
they began to grumble one to another, and to whisper that the man
in command had brought them on a fool’s errand.

At length the murmurers gained head, and the men broke into
open mutiny. A body of them rushed one day on to the
quarter-deck, and demanded that the voyage should be
relinquished. Phipps, however, was not a man to be
intimidated; he seized the ringleaders, and sent the others back
to their duty. It became necessary to bring the ship to
anchor close to a small island for the purpose of repairs; and,
to lighten her, the chief part of the stores was landed.
Discontent still increasing amongst the crew, a new plot was laid
amongst the men on shore to seize the ship, throw Phipps
overboard, and start on a piratical cruize against the Spaniards
in the South Seas. But it was necessary to secure the
services of the chief ship carpenter, who was consequently made
privy to the pilot. This man proved faithful, and at once
told the captain of his danger. Summoning about him those
whom he knew to be loyal, Phipps had the ship’s guns loaded
which commanded the shore, and ordered the bridge communicating
with the vessel to be drawn up. When the mutineers made
their appearance, the captain hailed them, and told the men he
would fire upon them if they approached the stores (still on
land),—when they drew back; on which Phipps had the stores
reshipped under cover of his guns. The mutineers, fearful
of being left upon the barren island, threw down their arms and
implored to be permitted to return to their duty. The
request was granted, and suitable precautions were taken against
future mischief. Phipps, however, took the first
opportunity of landing the mutinous part of the crew, and
engaging other men in their places; but, by the time that he
could again proceed actively with his explorations, he found it
absolutely necessary to proceed to England for the purpose of
repairing the ship. He had now, however, gained more
precise information as to the spot where the Spanish treasure
ship had sunk; and, though as yet baffled, he was more confident
than ever of the eventual success of his enterprise.

Returned to London, Phipps reported the result of his voyage
to the Admiralty, who professed to be pleased with his exertions;
but he had been unsuccessful, and they would not entrust him with
another king’s ship. James II. was now on the throne,
and the Government was in trouble; so Phipps and his golden
project appealed to them in vain. He next tried to raise
the requisite means by a public subscription. At first he
was laughed at; but his ceaseless importunity at length
prevailed, and after four years’ dinning of his project
into the ears of the great and influential—during which
time he lived in poverty—he at length succeeded. A
company was formed in twenty shares, the Duke of Albermarle, son
of General Monk, taking the chief interest in it, and subscribing
the principal part of the necessary fund for the prosecution of
the enterprise.

Like Foley, Phipps proved more fortunate in his second voyage
than in his first. The ship arrived without accident at
Port de la Plata, in the neighbourhood of the reef of rocks
supposed to have been the scene of the wreck. His first
object was to build a stout boat capable of carrying eight or ten
oars, in constructing which Phipps used the adze himself.
It is also said that he constructed a machine for the purpose of
exploring the bottom of the sea similar to what is now known as
the Diving Bell. Such a machine was found referred to in
books, but Phipps knew little of books, and may be said to have
re-invented the apparatus for his own use. He also engaged
Indian divers, whose feats of diving for pearls, and in submarine
operations, were very remarkable. The tender and boat
having been taken to the reef, the men were set to work, the
diving bell was sunk, and the various modes of dragging the
bottom of the sea were employed continuously for many weeks, but
without any prospect of success. Phipps, however, held on
valiantly, hoping almost against hope. At length, one day,
a sailor, looking over the boat’s side down into the clear
water, observed a curious sea-plant growing in what appeared to
be a crevice of the rock; and he called upon an Indian diver to
go down and fetch it for him. On the red man coming up with
the weed, he reported that a number of ships guns were lying in
the same place. The intelligence was at first received with
incredulity, but on further investigation it proved to be
correct. Search was made, and presently a diver came up
with a solid bar of silver in his arms. When Phipps was
shown it, he exclaimed, “Thanks be to God! we are all made
men.” Diving bell and divers now went to work with a
will, and in a few days, treasure was brought up to the value of
about £300,000, with which Phipps set sail for
England. On his arrival, it was urged upon the king that he
should seize the ship and its cargo, under the pretence that
Phipps, when soliciting his Majesty’s permission, had not
given accurate information respecting the business. But the
king replied, that he knew Phipps to be an honest man, and that
he and his friends should divide the whole treasure amongst them,
even though he had returned with double the value.
Phipps’s share was about £20,000, and the king, to
show his approval of his energy and honesty in conducting the
enterprise, conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. He
was also made High Sheriff of New England; and during the time he
held the office, he did valiant service for the mother country
and the colonists against the French, by expeditions against Port
Royal and Quebec. He also held the post of Governor of
Massachusetts, from which he returned to England, and died in
London in 1695.

Phipps throughout the latter part of his career, was not
ashamed to allude to the lowness of his origin, and it was matter
of honest pride to him that he had risen from the condition of
common ship carpenter to the honours of knighthood and the
government of a province. When perplexed with public
business, he would often declare that it would be easier for him
to go back to his broad axe again. He left behind him a
character for probity, honesty, patriotism, and courage, which is
certainly not the least noble inheritance of the house of
Normanby.

William Petty, the founder of the house of Lansdowne, was a
man of like energy and public usefulness in his day. He was
the son of a clothier in humble circumstances, at Romsey, in
Hampshire, where he was born in 1623. In his boyhood he
obtained a tolerable education at the grammar school of his
native town; after which he determined to improve himself by
study at the University of Caen, in Normandy. Whilst there
he contrived to support himself unassisted by his father,
carrying on a sort of small pedler’s trade with “a
little stock of merchandise.” Returning to England,
he had himself bound apprentice to a sea captain, who
“drubbed him with a rope’s end” for the badness
of his sight. He left the navy in disgust, taking to the
study of medicine. When at Paris he engaged in dissection,
during which time he also drew diagrams for Hobbes, who was then
writing his treatise on Optics. He was reduced to such
poverty that he subsisted for two or three weeks entirely on
walnuts. But again he began to trade in a small way,
turning an honest penny, and he was enabled shortly to return to
England with money in his pocket. Being of an ingenious
mechanical turn, we find him taking out a patent for a
letter-copying machine. He began to write upon the arts and
sciences, and practised chemistry and physic with such success
that his reputation shortly became considerable.
Associating with men of science, the project of forming a Society
for its prosecution was discussed, and the first meetings of the
infant Royal Society were held at his lodgings. At Oxford
he acted for a time as deputy to the anatomical professor there,
who had a great repugnance to dissection. In 1652 his
industry was rewarded by the appointment of physician to the army
in Ireland, whither he went; and whilst there he was the medical
attendant of three successive lords-lieutenant, Lambert,
Fleetwood, and Henry Cromwell. Large grants of forfeited
land having been awarded to the Puritan soldiery, Petty observed
that the lands were very inaccurately measured; and in the midst
of his many avocations he undertook to do the work himself.
His appointments became so numerous and lucrative that he was
charged by the envious with corruption, and removed from them
all; but he was again taken into favour at the Restoration.

Petty was a most indefatigable contriver, inventor, and
organizer of industry. One of his inventions was a
double-bottomed ship, to sail against wind and tide. He
published treatises on dyeing, on naval philosophy, on woollen
cloth manufacture, on political arithmetic, and many other
subjects. He founded iron works, opened lead mines, and
commenced a pilchard fishery and a timber trade; in the midst of
which he found time to take part in the discussions of the Royal
Society, to which he largely contributed. He left an ample
fortune to his sons, the eldest of whom was created Baron
Shelburne. His will was a curious document, singularly
illustrative of his character; containing a detail of the
principal events of his life, and the gradual advancement of his
fortune. His sentiments on pauperism are characteristic:
“As for legacies for the poor,” said he, “I am
at a stand; as for beggars by trade and election, I give them
nothing; as for impotents by the hand of God, the public ought to
maintain them; as for those who have been bred to no calling nor
estate, they should be put upon their kindred;” . . .
“wherefore I am contented that I have assisted all my poor
relations, and put many into a way of getting their own bread;
have laboured in public works; and by inventions have sought out
real objects of charity; and I do hereby conjure all who partake
of my estate, from time to time, to do the same at their
peril. Nevertheless to answer custom, and to take the surer
side, I give 20l. to the most wanting of the parish
wherein I die.” He was interred in the fine old
Norman church of Romsey—the town wherein he was born a poor
man’s son—and on the south side of the choir is still
to be seen a plain slab, with the inscription, cut by an
illiterate workman, “Here Layes Sir William
Petty.”

Another family, ennobled by invention and trade in our own
day, is that of Strutt of Belper. Their patent of nobility
was virtually secured by Jedediah Strutt in 1758, when he
invented his machine for making ribbed stockings, and thereby
laid the foundations of a fortune which the subsequent bearers of
the name have largely increased and nobly employed. The
father of Jedediah was a farmer and malster, who did but little
for the education of his children; yet they all prospered.
Jedediah was the second son, and when a boy assisted his father
in the work of the farm. At an early age he exhibited a
taste for mechanics, and introduced several improvements in the
rude agricultural implements of the period. On the death of
his uncle he succeeded to a farm at Blackwall, near Normanton,
long in the tenancy of the family, and shortly after he married
Miss Wollatt, the daughter of a Derby hosier. Having
learned from his wife’s brother that various unsuccessful
attempts had been made to manufacture ribbed-stockings, he
proceeded to study the subject with a view to effect what others
had failed in accomplishing. He accordingly obtained a
stocking-frame, and after mastering its construction and mode of
action, he proceeded to introduce new combinations, by means of
which he succeeded in effecting a variation in the plain
looped-work of the frame, and was thereby enabled to turn out
“ribbed” hosiery. Having secured a patent for
the improved machine, he removed to Derby, and there entered
largely on the manufacture of ribbed-stockings, in which he was
very successful. He afterwards joined Arkwright, of the
merits of whose invention he fully satisfied himself, and found
the means of securing his patent, as well as erecting a large
cotton-mill at Cranford, in Derbyshire. After the expiry of
the partnership with Arkwright, the Strutts erected extensive
cotton-mills at Milford, near Belper, which worthily gives its
title to the present head of the family. The sons of the
founder were, like their father, distinguished for their
mechanical ability. Thus William Strutt, the eldest, is
said to have invented a self-acting mule, the success of which
was only prevented by the mechanical skill of that day being
unequal to its manufacture. Edward, the son of William, was
a man of eminent mechanical genius, having early discovered the
principle of suspension-wheels for carriages: he had a
wheelbarrow and two carts made on the principle, which were used
on his farm near Belper. It may be added that the Strutts
have throughout been distinguished for their noble employment of
the wealth which their industry and skill have brought them; that
they have sought in all ways to improve the moral and social
condition of the work-people in their employment; and that they
have been liberal donors in every good cause—of which the
presentation, by Mr. Joseph Strutt, of the beautiful park or
Arboretum at Derby, as a gift to the townspeople for ever,
affords only one of many illustrations. The concluding
words of the short address which he delivered on presenting this
valuable gift are worthy of being quoted and
remembered:—“As the sun has shone brightly on me
through life, it would be ungrateful in me not to employ a
portion of the fortune I possess in promoting the welfare of
those amongst whom I live, and by whose industry I have been
aided in its organisation.”

No less industry and energy have been displayed by the many
brave men, both in present and past times, who have earned the
peerage by their valour on land and at sea. Not to mention
the older feudal lords, whose tenure depended upon military
service, and who so often led the van of the English armies in
great national encounters, we may point to Nelson, St. Vincent,
and Lyons—to Wellington, Hill, Hardinge, Clyde, and many
more in recent times, who have nobly earned their rank by their
distinguished services. But plodding industry has far
oftener worked its way to the peerage by the honourable pursuit
of the legal profession, than by any other. No fewer than
seventy British peerages, including two dukedoms, have been
founded by successful lawyers. Mansfield and Erskine were,
it is true, of noble family; but the latter used to thank God
that out of his own family he did not know a lord. [216] The others were, for the most
part, the sons of attorneys, grocers, clergymen, merchants, and
hardworking members of the middle class. Out of this
profession have sprung the peerages of Howard and Cavendish, the
first peers of both families having been judges; those of
Aylesford, Ellenborough, Guildford, Shaftesbury, Hardwicke,
Cardigan, Clarendon, Camden, Ellesmere, Rosslyn; and others
nearer our own day, such as Tenterden, Eldon, Brougham, Denman,
Truro, Lyndhurst, St. Leonards, Cranworth, Campbell, and
Chelmsford.

Lord Lyndhurst’s father was a portrait painter, and that
of St. Leonards a perfumer and hairdresser in Burlington
Street. Young Edward Sugden was originally an errand-boy in
the office of the late Mr. Groom, of Henrietta Street, Cavendish
Square, a certificated conveyancer; and it was there that the
future Lord Chancellor of Ireland obtained his first notions of
law. The origin of the late Lord Tenterden was perhaps the
humblest of all, nor was he ashamed of it; for he felt that the
industry, study, and application, by means of which he achieved
his eminent position, were entirely due to himself. It is
related of him, that on one occasion he took his son Charles to a
little shed, then standing opposite the western front of
Canterbury Cathedral, and pointing it out to him, said,
“Charles, you see this little shop; I have brought you here
on purpose to show it you. In that shop your grandfather
used to shave for a penny: that is the proudest reflection of my
life.” When a boy, Lord Tenterden was a singer in the
Cathedral, and it is a curious circumstance that his destination
in life was changed by a disappointment. When he and Mr.
Justice Richards were going the Home Circuit together, they went
to service in the cathedral; and on Richards commending the voice
of a singing man in the choir, Lord Tenterden said, “Ah!
that is the only man I ever envied! When at school in this
town, we were candidates for a chorister’s place, and he
obtained it.”

Not less remarkable was the rise to the same distinguished
office of Lord Chief Justice, of the rugged Kenyon and the robust
Ellenborough; nor was he a less notable man who recently held the
same office—the astute Lord Campbell, late Lord Chancellor
of England, son of a parish minister in Fifeshire. For many
years he worked hard as a reporter for the press, while
diligently preparing himself for the practice of his
profession. It is said of him, that at the beginning of his
career, he was accustomed to walk from county town to county town
when on circuit, being as yet too poor to afford the luxury of
posting. But step by step he rose slowly but surely to that
eminence and distinction which ever follow a career of industry
honourably and energetically pursued, in the legal, as in every
other profession.

There have been other illustrious instances of Lords
Chancellors who have plodded up the steep of fame and honour with
equal energy and success. The career of the late Lord Eldon
is perhaps one of the most remarkable examples. He was the
son of a Newcastle coal-fitter; a mischievous rather than a
studious boy; a great scapegrace at school, and the subject of
many terrible thrashings,—for orchard-robbing was one of
the favourite exploits of the future Lord Chancellor. His
father first thought of putting him apprentice to a grocer, and
afterwards had almost made up his mind to bring him up to his own
trade of a coal-fitter. But by this time his eldest son
William (afterwards Lord Stowell) who had gained a scholarship at
Oxford, wrote to his father, “Send Jack up to me, I can do
better for him.” John was sent up to Oxford
accordingly, where, by his brother’s influence and his own
application, he succeeded in obtaining a fellowship. But
when at home during the vacation, he was so unfortunate—or
rather so fortunate, as the issue proved—as to fall in
love; and running across the Border with his eloped bride, he
married, and as his friends thought, ruined himself for
life. He had neither house nor home when he married, and
had not yet earned a penny. He lost his fellowship, and at
the same time shut himself out from preferment in the Church, for
which he had been destined. He accordingly turned his
attention to the study of the law. To a friend he wrote,
“I have married rashly; but it is my determination to work
hard to provide for the woman I love.”

John Scott came up to London, and took a small house in
Cursitor Lane, where he settled down to the study of the
law. He worked with great diligence and resolution; rising
at four every morning and studying till late at night, binding a
wet towel round his head to keep himself awake. Too poor to
study under a special pleader, he copied out three folio volumes
from a manuscript collection of precedents. Long after,
when Lord Chancellor, passing down Cursitor Lane one day, he said
to his secretary, “Here was my first perch: many a time do
I recollect coming down this street with sixpence in my hand to
buy sprats for supper.” When at length called to the
bar, he waited long for employment. His first year’s
earnings amounted to only nine shillings. For four years he
assiduously attended the London Courts and the Northern Circuit,
with little better success. Even in his native town, he
seldom had other than pauper cases to defend. The results
were indeed so discouraging, that he had almost determined to
relinquish his chance of London business, and settle down in some
provincial town as a country barrister. His brother William
wrote home, “Business is dull with poor Jack, very dull
indeed!” But as he had escaped being a grocer, a
coal-fitter, and a country parson so did he also escape being a
country lawyer.

An opportunity at length occurred which enabled John Scott to
exhibit the large legal knowledge which he had so laboriously
acquired. In a case in which he was engaged, he urged a
legal point against the wishes both of the attorney and client
who employed him. The Master of the Rolls decided against
him, but on an appeal to the House of Lords, Lord Thurlow
reversed the decision on the very point that Scott had
urged. On leaving the House that day, a solicitor tapped
him on the shoulder and said, “Young man, your bread and
butter’s cut for life.” And the prophecy proved
a true one. Lord Mansfield used to say that he knew no
interval between no business and 3000l. a-year, and Scott
might have told the same story; for so rapid was his progress,
that in 1783, when only thirty-two, he was appointed King’s
Counsel, was at the head of the Northern Circuit, and sat in
Parliament for the borough of Weobley. It was in the dull
but unflinching drudgery of the early part of his career that he
laid the foundation of his future success. He won his spurs
by perseverance, knowledge, and ability, diligently
cultivated. He was successively appointed to the offices of
solicitor and attorney-general, and rose steadily upwards to the
highest office that the Crown had to bestow—that of Lord
Chancellor of England, which he held for a quarter of a
century.

Henry Bickersteth was the son of a surgeon at Kirkby Lonsdale,
in Westmoreland, and was himself educated to that
profession. As a student at Edinburgh, he distinguished
himself by the steadiness with which he worked, and the
application which he devoted to the science of medicine.
Returned to Kirkby Lonsdale, he took an active part in his
father’s practice; but he had no liking for the profession,
and grew discontented with the obscurity of a country town.
He went on, nevertheless, diligently improving himself, and
engaged on speculations in the higher branches of
physiology. In conformity with his own wish, his father
consented to send him to Cambridge, where it was his intention to
take a medical degree with the view of practising in the
metropolis. Close application to his studies, however,
threw him out of health, and with a view to re-establishing his
strength he accepted the appointment of travelling physician to
Lord Oxford. While abroad he mastered Italian, and acquired
a great admiration for Italian literature, but no greater liking
for medicine than before. On the contrary, he determined to
abandon it; but returning to Cambridge, he took his degree; and
that he worked hard may be inferred from the fact that he was
senior wrangler of his year. Disappointed in his desire to
enter the army, he turned to the bar, and entered a student of
the Inner Temple. He worked as hard at law as he had done
at medicine. Writing to his father, he said,
“Everybody says to me, ‘You are certain of success in
the end—only persevere;’ and though I don’t
well understand how this is to happen, I try to believe it as
much as I can, and I shall not fail to do everything in my
power.” At twenty-eight he was called to the bar, and
had every step in life yet to make. His means were
straitened, and he lived upon the contributions of his
friends. For years he studied and waited. Still no
business came. He stinted himself in recreation, in
clothes, and even in the necessaries of life; struggling on
indefatigably through all. Writing home, he
“confessed that he hardly knew how he should be able to
struggle on till he had fair time and opportunity to establish
himself.” After three years’ waiting, still
without success, he wrote to his friends that rather than be a
burden upon them longer, he was willing to give the matter up and
return to Cambridge, “where he was sure of support and some
profit.” The friends at home sent him another small
remittance, and he persevered. Business gradually came
in. Acquitting himself creditably in small matters, he was
at length entrusted with cases of greater importance. He
was a man who never missed an opportunity, nor allowed a
legitimate chance of improvement to escape him. His
unflinching industry soon began to tell upon his fortunes; a few
more years and he was not only enabled to do without assistance
from home, but he was in a position to pay back with interest the
debts which he had incurred. The clouds had dispersed, and
the after career of Henry Bickersteth was one of honour, of
emolument, and of distinguished fame. He ended his career
as Master of the Rolls, sitting in the House of Peers as Baron
Langdale. His life affords only another illustration of the
power of patience, perseverance, and conscientious working, in
elevating the character of the individual, and crowning his
labours with the most complete success.

Such are a few of the distinguished men who have honourably
worked their way to the highest position, and won the richest
rewards of their profession, by the diligent exercise of
qualities in many respects of an ordinary character, but made
potent by the force of application and industry.