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1ST VISCOUNT WILLIAM BALIOL BRETT ESH...

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 768 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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1ST See also:

VISCOUNT See also:WILLIAM See also:BALIOL BRETT See also:ESHER (1817–1899)  , See also:English lawyer and See also:master of the rolls, was a son of the Rev . See also:Joseph G . Brett, of See also:Chelsea, and was See also:born on the 13th of See also:August 1817 . He was educated at See also:Westminster and at See also:Caius See also:College, See also:Cambridge . Called to the See also:bar in 1840, he went the See also:northern See also:circuit, and became a Q.C. in 1861 . On the See also:death of See also:Richard See also:Cobden he unsuccessfully contested See also:Rochdale as a Conservative, but in 1866 was returned for See also:Helston in unique circumstances . He and his opponent polled exactly the same number of votes, whereupon the See also:mayor, as returning officer, gave his casting See also:vote for the Liberal See also:candidate . As this votewas given after four o'See also:clock, however, an See also:appeal was lodged, and the See also:House of See also:Commons allowed both members to take their seats . Brett rapidly made his See also:mark in the House, and in 1868 he was appointed See also:solicitor-See also:general . On behalf of the See also:crown he prosecuted the See also:Fenians charged with having caused the See also:Clerkenwell See also:explosion . In See also:parliament he took a leading See also:part in the promotion of bills connected with the See also:administration of See also:law and See also:justice . He was (August 1868) appointed a justice in the See also:court of See also:common pleas .

Some of his sentences in this capacity excited much See also:

criticism, notably so in the See also:case of the See also:gas stokers' strike, when he sentenced the defendants to imprisonment for twelve months, with hard labour, which was afterwards reduced by the See also:home secretary to four months . On the reconstitution of the court of appeal in 1876, Brett was elevated to the See also:rank of a See also:lord justice . After holding this position for seven years, he succeeded See also:Sir See also:George See also:Jessel as master of the rolls in 1883 . In 1885 he was raised to the House of Lords as See also:Baron See also:Esher . He opposed the See also:bill proposing that an accused See also:person or his wife might give See also:evidence in their own case, and supported the bill which empowered lords of appeal to sit and vote after their re' _1ement . The Solicitors See also:Act of 1888, which increased the See also:powers of the Incorporated Law Society, owed much to his See also:influence . In 188o he delivered a remarkable speech in the House of Lords, deprecating the delay and expense of trials, which he regarded as having been increased by the Judicature Acts . Lord Esher suffered, perhaps, as master of the rolls from succeed ng a lawyer of such See also:eminence as Jessel . He had a See also:caustic See also:tongue, but also a fund of shrewd common sense, and one of his favourite considerations was whether a certain course was " business " or not . He retired from the See also:bench at the See also:close of 1897, and a viscounty was conferred upon him on his retirement, a dignity never given to any See also:judge, lord chancellors excepted, " for See also:mere legal conduct since the See also:time of Lord See also:Coke." He died in See also:London on the 24th of May 1899 . Lord Esher was succeeded in the See also:title by his only surviving son, Reginald See also:Baliol Brett (b . 1852), who was secretary to the See also:office of See also:works from 1895 to 1902, but subsequently came into far greater public prominence in 1904 as chairman of the See also:war office reconstitution See also:committee after the See also:South See also:African War .

End of Article: 1ST VISCOUNT WILLIAM BALIOL BRETT ESHER (1817–1899)
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