BRAMWELL 345 lie gained as a “ hanging ” judge making him a terror to facts, to make up his mind as to what principles were evil-doers; and the Court for Crown Cases Reserved was involved, and what the law must be in order that justice never considered complete without his assistance. In might be done, and then seek for authority in support of 1898 he retired from the bench, and was raised to the his view. It is interesting to note the steady progress of peerage under the title of Baron Brampton. He has Bramwell in his profession as shown by his fee-book, and frequently taken part in determining House of Lords also to compare the income of an English barrister with a appeals, and his judgments have been distinguished by good commercial practice in the ’forties and ’fifties, with their lucidity and grasp. He held for many years the those of men in similar circumstances in other generations. office of counsel to the Jockey Club, and as an active Mr Bramwell made, in the sixth year after his call £850, member of that body found relaxation from his legal and in the seventh year £1187, in the eighth £1533—a friend judicial duties at the leading race meetings, and has been betting him in the last-named year that in three years he considered a capable judge of horses. In 1898 he was would confess to having passed all the other juniors on received into the Roman Catholic Church. his circuit. In the first year after he “took silk” he made £3414, in the three following years, £4549, £5846, Bramwell, Georgfe William Wilshere, and £7107 respectively. In his last year at the bar he Baron (1808-1892), English judge, was born in London nearly reached £8000, a large sum in those days for his on 12th June 1808, being the eldest son of George class of practice; but he had no opportunity of raising Bramwell, of the banking firm of Dorrien, Magens, his income higher, as in 1866 Baron Parke (afterwards Dorrien and Mello, 22 Finch Lane, E.C. (died 1851). He Lord Wensleydale) resigned his seat in the Court of the was educated privately, first at Dr. Reddy’s school at Exchequer after occupying it for twenty-two years, and Camberwell, where W. F. Channell (afterwards, like him- Lord Cranworth invited Mr Bramwell, Q.C., to fill his self, a Baron of the Exchequer) was one of his school- place. fellows, and later he went to Palace school, Enfield, kept As a baron of the Exchequer he sat for twenty years, by Dr May. At the age of sixteen he entered Dorriens’ earning a high reputation in the trial both of civil causes bank, where he gained a practical knowledge of commercial and of criminal charges, although his previous personal and particularly of banking matters of great use to him in experience of crime was said to be limited to a single brief his legal career. In 1830 he gave up business for the law, in a criminal case. In 1867, with Mr Justice Blackburn becoming a pupil in the chambers of Fitzroy Kelly, then a and Sir John Coleridge, he was made a member of the barrister of six years’ standing, and afterwards successively Judicature Commission. In 1871 he was one of the three Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and, ten years after judges who refused the seat on the Judicial Committee of Bramwell himself had been raised to the bench, chief baron the Privy Council to which Sir Robert Collier, in evasion of the Exchequer. At first Bramwell was content to take of the spirit of the Act creating the appointment, was out the certificate of a special pleader, and practised as appointed; and in 1876 he was raised to the Court of such for some years at 3 Serjeants’ Inn. The work of Appeal, where he sat till the autumn of 1881. As a special pleaders (now obsolete) was confined to drawing the puisne judge he had been conspicuous as a sound lawyer, pleadings (preliminary documents which precede a trial), i with a strong logical mind unfettered by technicalities, which in those days had to be drawn subject to rigid rules, but endowed with considerable respect for the common law. so as to state with the strictest accuracy the issues to be | His rulings were always clear and decisive, while the same raised at the hearing of the cause. Bramwell had been clearness and decision marked his dealings with fact, and, admitted as a student at Lincoln’s Inn in 1830, and at coupled with a straightforward, unpretentious manner, the Inner Temple in 1836, and he was eventually called gave him great influence with juries. In the Court of to the bar at both Inns in 1838. He soon worked his Appeal he was perhaps not so entirely in his element as at way into a good practice both in London and the home Nisi Prius, but the same combination of sound law, strong circuit, his knowledge of law and procedure being so well common sense, and clear expression, characterized his recognized that in 1850 he was appointed a member of the judgments, marked as they are by a tendency to recall Common Law Procedure Commission, which resulted in and refute the arguments of counsel, rather than to be the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852. This Act he expositions of the law applicable to the matter in hand, drafted jointly with his friend Mr (afterwards Mr Justice) delivered irrespective of such arguments. His decisions Willes, and thus began the abolition of the system of during the three stages of his practical career are too special pleading. In 1851 Lord Cranworth made Bramwell numerous to be referred to particularly, although Ryder v. a Queen’s counsel, and the Inner Temple elected him a Wombwell (L.R. 3 Ex. 95) ; R. v. Bradshaw (14 Cox C. C. bencher,—he had ceased to be a member of Lincoln’s Inn in 84); Household Fire Insurance Company v. Grant (4 Ex. 1841. In 1853 he served on the Royal Commission to inquire Div. 216); Stonor v. Fowle (13 App. Cas. 20), have been into the assimilation of the mercantile laws of Scotland and cited as examples. A quaint instance is recorded of his England and the law of partnership, which had as its result candour. Having sat all day with two Chancery Lords the Companies Act of 1862. It was he who, during the Justices hearing an appeal involving points of equity only, sitting of this Commission, suggested the addition of the he gave his judgment in these terms :—“ Having listened word “limited” to the title of companies that sought to limit all day to things which I don’t think I ever heard of before, their liability, in order to prevent the obvious danger to I can safely say I am of the same opinion, and for the same persons trading with them in ignorance of their limitation reasons.” In the course of another judgment (9 Chy. of liability. This danger had apparently seemed insuper- Div. 28) he said, “ If juries had to give reasons for their able to some members of the Commission, and its removal verdict trial by jury would not last five years.” He by a single word affords a typical instance of BramwelPs was a staunch upholder on the bench, and as a controhard-headed business-like common sense. As a Queen’s versial writer, of the common law both in civil and criminal counsel Bramwell enjoyed a large and steadily increasing matters, believing that the less it was interfered with by practice. Of his methods at the bar and his attitude legislation the better. “Please govern me as little as towards the law, it has been said that where other dis- possible,” he was wont to say. In particular he strenuously tinguished lawyers of his day would read a client’s story defended, wherever possible, the principle involved in the in a brief, and then turn at once to find a case “ on all words “ freedom of contract,” diminished (whether rightly fours ” with it, Bramwell’s way was, after mastering the or wrongly is a matter of opinion) by modern legislation, S. II. — 44
