ficers of the Crown gave them no
assistance, but, on the contrary, got them into scrapes. Denman is
an honourable man, and has been a consistent politician; latterly,
of course, a Radical of considerable vehemence, if not of
violence. The other men who were mentioned as successors to
Tenterden were Lyndhurst, Scarlett, and James Parke. The latter is
the best of the puisne judges, and might have been selected if all
political considerations and political connexions had been
disregarded. Lyndhurst will be overwhelmed with anguish and
disappointment at finding himself for ever excluded from the great
object of his ambition, and in which his professional claims are
so immeasurably superior to those of his successful competitor;
nor has he lost it by any sacrifice of interest to honour, but
merely from the unfortunate issue of his political speculations.
When he was made Chief Baron a regular compact was made, a secret
article, that he should succeed on Tenterden's death to the Chief
Justiceship; which bargain was of course cancelled by his
declaration of war on the Reform question and his consequent
breach with Lord Grey; though by far the fittest man, he was now
out of the question. It will be the more grating as he has just
evinced his high capabilities by pronouncing in the Court of
Exchequer one of the ablest judgments (in Small _v._ Attwood) that
were ever delivered. [It was afterwards reversed by the House of
Lords.] Scarlett, who had been a Whig for forty years, and who has
long occupied the first place in the Court of King's Bench, would
have been the man if his political dissociation from his old
connexions, and his recent hostility to them, had not also
cancelled his claims; so that every rival being set aside from one
cause or another, Denman, by one of the most extraordinary pieces
of good fortune that ever happened to man, finds himself elevated
to this great office, the highest object of a lawyer's ambition,
and, in my opinion, one of the most enviable stations an
Englishman can attain. It is said that as a Common Serjeant he
displayed the qualities of a good judge, and his friends
confidently assert that he will make a very good Chief Justice;
but his legal qualifications are admitted to be very inferior to
those of his predecessors. [He made a very bad one, but was
personally popular and generally respected for his high, and
honourable moral character.]

Tenterden was a remarkable man, and his elevation d