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1ST EARL HUGH MC CALMONT CAIRNS CAIRN...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 953 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EARL See also:HUGH MC CALMONT See also:CAIRNS CAIRNS (1819-1885)  , Irish statesman, and See also:lord See also:chancellor of See also:England, was See also:born at Cultra, Co . Down, See also:Ireland, on the 27th of See also:December 18x9 . His See also:father, See also:William See also:Cairns, formerly a See also:captain in. the 47th See also:regiment, came of a See also:family' of Scottish origin, which. migrated to Ireland in the See also:time of See also:James I . See also:Hugh Cairns was his second son, and was educated at See also:Belfast See also:academy and at Trinity See also:College, See also:Dublin, graduating with a See also:senior moderatorship in See also:classics in 1838 . In 1844 he was called to the See also:bar at the See also:Middle See also:Temple, to which he had migrated from See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn . During his first years at the See also:chancery bar, Cairns showed little promise of the eloquence which afterwards distinguished him . Never a rapid See also:speaker, he was then so slow and diffident, that he feared that this defect might interfere with his Iegal career . Fortunately he was soon able to rid himself of the See also:idea that he was only See also:fit for practice as a conveyancer . In 1852 he entered See also:parliament as member for Belfast, and his Inn, on his becoming a Q.C. in 1856, made him a benches . In 1858 Cairns was appointed See also:solicitor-See also:general, and was knighted, and in May of that See also:year made two of his most brilliant and best-remembered speeches in the See also:House of See also:Commons . In the first, he defended the See also:action of Lord See also:Ellenborough, who, as See also:president of the See also:board of See also:control, had not only censured Lord See also:Canning for a See also:proclamation issued by him as See also:governor-general of See also:India but had made public the despatch in which the censure was conveyed . On the other occasion referred to, See also:Sir Hugh Cairns spoke in opposition to Lord See also:John See also:Russell's See also:amendment to the See also:motion for the second' See also:reading 'of ;the See also:government Reform See also:Bill, winning the most cordial See also:commendation of Disraeli .

Disraeli's appreciation found an opportunity for displaying itself some years later, when in 1868 he invited him to be lord chancellor in the brief Conservative See also:

administration which followed Lord See also:Derby's resignation of the leadership of his party . Meanwhile, Cairns had maintained his reputation in many other debates, both 'when his party was in See also:power and when it was in opposition . In 1866 Lord Derby, returning to See also:office, had made him See also:attorney-general, and in the same year he had availed himself of a vacancy to seek the See also:comparative See also:rest of the See also:court of See also:appeal . While a lord See also:justice he had been offered a See also:peerage, and though at first unable to accept it, he had finally done so on a relative, a member of the wealthy family of McCalmont, providing the means necessary for the endowment of a See also:title . The See also:appointment of See also:Baron Cairns of Garmoyleaslord chancellor in 1868 involved the superseding of Lord See also:Chelmsford, an See also:act which apparently was carried out by Disraeli with less tact than might have been expected of him . Lord Chelmsford bitterly declared that he had been sent away with less See also:courtesy than if he had been a See also:butler, but the testimony of Lord See also:Malmesbury is strong that the affair was the result of an understanding arrived ' See See also:History of the family of See also:Cairnes or Cairns, by H . C . Lawlor (1907)•at when Lord Chelmsford took office . Disraeli held office on this occasion for a few months only, and when Lord Derby died in 1869, Lord Cairns became the See also:leader of the Conservative opposition in the House of Lords . He had distinguished himself hi the Commons by his resistance to the See also:Roman Catholics' See also:Oath Bill brought in in 1865; in the Lords, his efforts on behalf of the Irish See also:Church were equally strenuous . His speech on See also:Gladstone's Suspensory Bill was afterwards published as a pamphlet, but the attitude which he and the peers who followed him had taken up, in insisting on their amendments to the See also:preamble of the bill, was one difficult to maintain, and Lord Cairns made terms with Lord See also:Granville in circumstances ' which precluded his consulting his party first . He issued a circular to explain his action in taking a course for which many blamed him .

Viewed dispassionately, the incident appears to have exhibited his statesmanlike qualities in a marked degree, for he secured concessions which would have been irretrievably lost by continued opposition . Not See also:

long after this, Lord Cairns resigned the leadership of his party in the upper house, but he had to resume it in 187o and took a strong See also:part in opposing the Irish See also:Land Bill in that year . On the Conservatives coming into power in 1.874, he again became lord chancellor; in 1878 he was made See also:Viscount Garmoyle and See also:Earl Cairns; and' in r88o his party went out of office . In opposition he did not take as prominent a part as previously, but when Lord See also:Beaconsfield died in 1881, there were some Conservatives who considered that his title to See also:lead the party was better than that of Lord See also:Salisbury . His See also:health, however, never robust, had for many years shown intermittent signs of failing . He had periodically made enforced retirements to the See also:Riviera, and for many years had had a house at See also:Bournemouth, and it was here that he died on the 2nd of See also:April 1885 .. Cairns was a See also:great lawyer, with an immense grasp of first principles and the power to See also:express them; his judgments taking the See also:form of luminous expositions or See also:treatises upon the See also:law governing the See also:case before him, rather than of controversial discussions of the arguments adduced by counsel or of See also:analysis of his own reasons . Lucidity and See also:logic were the leading characteristics of his speeches in his professional capacity and in the See also:political See also:arena: In an eloquent See also:tribute to his memory in the House of Lords, Lord See also:Chief Justice See also:Coleridge expressed the high See also:opinion of the legal profession upon his merits and upon the severe integrity and single-minded See also:desire to do his See also:duty, which animated him in his selections for the See also:bench . His piety was reflected by that of his great opponent, See also:rival and friend, Lord See also:Selborne . Like Lord Selborne and Lord See also:Hatherley, Cairns found leisure at his busiest for teaching in the See also:Sunday-school, but it is not recorded of them (as of him) that they refused to undertake See also:work at the bar on Saturdays, in See also:order to devote that See also:day to See also:hunting . He used to say that his great incentive to hard work at his profession in See also:early days was his desire to keep hunters, and he retained his keenness as a sportsman as long as he was able to indulge it . Of his See also:personal characteristics, it may be said that he was a spare See also:man; with a Scottish, not an Irish, See also:cast of countenance .

He was scrupulously neat in his personal See also:

appearance, faultless in bands and necktie, and fond of • wearing a See also:flower in his See also:button=hole . His chilly manner, coupled with his somewhat austere religious principles, had no doubt much to do with the fact that he was never' a popular man . His See also:friends claimed for him a keen sense of See also:humour, but it was not to be detected by those whose knowledge of him was professional rather than personal . Probably he thought the See also:exhibition of humour incompatible with the dignity of high judicial position . Of his legal attainments there can be no doubt: His See also:influence upon the legislation of the day was largely See also:felt where questions affecting See also:religion and the Church were involved and in matters peculiarly affecting his own profession . His power was felt, as has been said, both when he was in office and when his party was' in opposition . He had been chairman of the See also:committee on judicature reform, and although he was not in office when the Judicature Act was passed, all the reforms in the legal See also:procedure of his day owed much to him . He took part, when out of office, in the passing of the Married See also:Women's See also:Property Act, and was directly responsible for the See also:Conveyancing Acts of 1881-188z, and for the Settled Land Act . Many other statutes in which he was largely concerned might be quoted . His judgments are to be found in the Law Reports and those who wish to consider his See also:oratory should read the speeches above referred to, or that delivered in the House of Lords on the See also:Compensation for Disturbance Bill in 188o, and his memorable See also:criticism of Mr Gladstone's policy in the See also:Transvaal, after See also:Majuba See also:Hill . (See See also:Hansard and The Times, 1st of April 1881.) His See also:style of delivery was, as a See also:rule, See also:cold to a marked degree . The See also:term " frozen oratory " has been applied to his speeches, and it has been said of them that they flowed " like See also:water from a See also:glacier ....

The several stages of his speech are like steps cut out in See also:

ice, as sharply defined, as smooth and as cold." Lord Cairns married in 1856 See also:Mary Harriet, eldest daughter of John McNeill, of Parkmount, Co . See also:Antrim, by whom he had issue five sons and two daughters . He was succeeded in the earldom by his second but eldest surviving son, See also:Arthur William (1861–1890), who See also:left one daughter, and from whom the title passed to his two next younger See also:brothers in See also:succession, See also:Herbert John, third earl (1863-1905), and See also:Wilfrid See also:Dallas, See also:fourth earl (b . 1865) .

End of Article: 1ST EARL HUGH MC CALMONT CAIRNS CAIRNS (1819-1885)
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