‘My dear R.,—You see we have got a Chancellor. The ministers had decided (as they do without decision) to have the Great Seal in commission till February, but the pressure from without (some half-dozen lawyers anxious to increase their fees but professing much regard for the public) pushed on the Government, and Wilde, Lord Eltham,1 is chosen. I have seen him, and he is a great friend of mine, and always was one of my favourite protégés and chums. He was sixth counsel for Queen Caroline with me, in 1820 and 1821. He was long a City solicitor, like his father before him, and knows somewhat of Chancery business accordingly. He is a very honest and honourable man, and will not, like ——, abuse and job his patronage to selfish, party, or worse, personal emolument. Indeed, the latter is almost impeachable if not indictable for his sordid proceedings. Wilde is of a very far higher nature. I only fear he can never get through the arrears in Chancery which Cottenham, retaining the Great Seal so long after he was unable to work, has accumulated, for it is Wilde’s failing to be long, and very long, about his business—a failing he had at the Bar and on the Bench, bringing it with him from his attorney’s days; for an attorney holds every one point in every one case to be the very pivot on which the cause turns—a dreadful fault for either advocate or judge.
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1 Sir Thomas Wilde did not take the title Brougham here bestows upon him. He became Lord Truro. |
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‘I shall help him all I can in the House of Lords where I now am sitting. But when I run over to America it will not be quite so well. However, the Government may be out before that trip.
