1860, p.860, with portrait). He was now making 7,000l. a year, but was heavily in debt. On 10 April 1861 he announced his retirementfrom the House of Commons, and soon afterwards withdrew from Brooks's and the Reform Club. An execution took place in his residence, 27 Berkeley Square, and his liabilities were stated to exceed 100,000l.
Grave charges were meanwhile made against his professional character, and on 7 June 1861 the benchers of the Inner Temple commenced an inquiry into his conduct. It was proved that he had for his own sole benefit in 1867 and 1860 involved Lord Worsley, a young man just of age, son of Lord Yarborough,in debts amounting to about 35,000l. From a west-country solicitor he obtained in 1853, by misrepresentations, 20,000l., and when engaged in the case of Scully v. Ingram, which was a claim brought against the proprietor of the 'Illustrated London News' in connection with the floating of a new company,he, while acting for the plaintiff, borrowed 1,250l. from the defendant, on the pretence that he would let him off easily in cross-examination [see Ingram, Robert]. A fourth charge in connection with James's conduct to Colonel Dickson, in the action of Dickson v. the Earl of Wilton, was not investigated. On 18 June 1861 James offered to resign his membership of the bar, but the offer was refused, and on 18 July 1861 he was disbarred. His name was struck off the books of the inn on 20 Nov.
In the meantime James went to America, and on 5 Nov. 1861 was admitted to the bar of New York. When his conduct in England became known in New York, an attempt was made to cancel his membership, but he denied on oath the truth of the charges, the judges were divided in opinion, and the matter dropped. In America, where he became a citizen, he gave a legal opinion against the British interest in the matter of the Trent.
A notice in the 'London Gazette' of 15 July 1862 cancelled his appointment as queen's counsel. In April 1865 he was playing at Winter Garden Theatre, New York. Returningto London in 1872, he lectured on America at St. George's Hall (17 April). In the following year he unsuccessfully petitioned the common-law judges to reconsider his case. In May 1873 he articled himself to William Henry Roberts of 46 Moorgate Street, city of London, solicitor, and about the same time again offered himself as a candidate for Marylebone. He afterwards practised as a jurisconsult, came occasionally before the public as a friend of Garibaldi, and wrote magazine articles. Latterly he fell into difficulties, and a subscription was about to be made for him when he died in Bedford Street, Bedford Square, London, on 4 March 1882. He married, 9 July 1861, Marianne, widow of Captain Edward D. Crosier Hilliard of the 10th hussars, who died on 4 June 1853. She obtained a decree of divorce in New York on 2 Jan. 1883.
James was the author of: 1. 'The Act for the Amendment of the Law in Bankruptcy,' 1842, 2. 'The Speech of E. James in Defence of S. Bernard,' 1858. 3, 'The Bankrupt Law of the United States,' 1867. 4. 'The Political Institutions of America and England,' 1872.
[Law Mag. and Law Rev. February 1862, pp. 263–86. August 1862. pp. 335–45; Times, 7 March 1862, p. 10; Daily News. 7 March 1882, p. 5: Solicitors' Journal. 11 March 1882, p. 301; Law Times, 18 March 1882, p. 358; Illustrated London News, 30 April 1869, p. 429, with portrait; Annual Register, 1882, pp. 140–143.]
JAMES, ELEANOR (fl. 1715), printer and political writer, was the wife of Thomas James, a London printer, who is described by Dunton as ‘a man that reads much, knows his business very well, and is … something the better known for being husband to that she-state-politician Mrs. Eleanor James’ (Life and Errors, 1705, p. 334). Her daughter Elizabeth was born in 1689. On her husband's death in 1711 she continued to carry on the business. As her husband's executrix she presented his library to Sion College, with portraits of her husband and his grandfather, Thomas James (1573?–1629) [q. v.], and of Charles II. Her portrait in the full dress of a citizen's wife of the period is also preserved in Sion College (Malcolm, Lond. Rediviv. i. 34–5). She had three sons, John [q. v.], an architect, Thomas, a type-founder, and George, a printer in Little Britain, who succeeded Alderman Barber as city printer in 1724, and died in 1736 (Nichols, Anecdotes of W. Bowyer, pp. 585–6 n., 609; Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, i. 305). She had two daughters, one of whom was mother of Jacob Ilive [q. v.] A tablet erected ‘to prevent scandal’ by Mrs. James in 1710 in the church of St. Bene't, Paul's Wharf, records sums amounting to a few hundred pounds which she had given to her daughters. Another tablet, dated 1712, commemorates her gift to the church of a large collection of communion plate (Malcolm, Lond. Rediviv. ii. 471–2). She gave a silver cup to Bowyer the printer after his loss by fire on 30 Jan. 1712, and this was bequeathed by his son to the Stationers' Company (Nichols, Anecdotes of W. Bowyer, p. 485).
Mrs. James is described in Nichols's ‘Anec--
