HERSCHELL, FARRER HERSCHELL, IsT BARON (1837-1899), lord chancellor of England, was born on Nov. 2, 1837, the son of the Rev. Ridley Haim Herschel!, a native of Strzelno, in Prussian Poland. He was educated at a private school and University college, London. He entered in Lincoln's Inn, and in 1858 he entered the chambers of Thomas Chitty, where so many of the great lawyers began their studies. His fellow-pupils included A. L. Smith and Charles. In 186o he was called to the bar, and joined the still undivided northern circuit, where at first he did not find much work, and thought of going to practise in Shanghai. His prospects improved in 1866 when Quain, for whom he devilled, took silk.
In 1872 Herschell was made a queen's counsel. He had all the necessary qualifications for a leader—a clear, though not resonant, voice; a calm logical mind; a sound knowledge of legal principles; and (greatest gift of all) an abundance of com mon sense. He never wearied the judges by arguing at undue length, and he knew how to retire with dignity from a hopeless cause. His only weak point was cross-examination. In handling a hostile witness he had neither the insidious persuasiveness of a Hawkins nor the compelling, dominating power of a Russell. But he made up for all by his speech to the jury, marshalling such facts as told in his client's favour with the most consummate skill. He seldom made use of notes, but trusted to a carefully trained memory. Herschell entered parliament for Durham city in 1874. For the next six years he was assiduous in his attendance in the House of Commons. He was not a frequent speaker, but a few great efforts sufficed in his case to gain for him a reputation as a debater. The best examples of his style as a private member will be found in Hansard under the dates Feb. 18, 1876, May 23, 1878, May 6, 1879. In 188o Gladstone appointed Herschel! solicitor-general. Herschell's public services from 188o to 1885 were of great value, particularly in dealing with the "cases for opinion" submitted by the Foreign Office and other departments. He helped controversial Government measures through the House, notably the Irish Land Act, 1881, the Corrupt Practices and Bankruptcy Acts, 1883, the County Franchise Act, 1884, and the Redistribution of Seals Act, 1885. This last halved the repre sentation of Durham city and so gave him statutory notice to quit. He contested the North Lonsdale division of Lancashire un successfully, and his prospects seemed in peril ; but Selborne and James both refused the Woolsack, and in 1886 Herschell, by a sudden turn of fortune's wheel, found himself in his 49th year lord chancellor.
Herschell's chancellorship lasted barely six months, for in Aug. 1886 Gladstone's administration fell. Herschel! was again lord chancellor in 1892-95. His judgments were distinguished for their acute and subtle reasoning, for their grasp of legal principles, and, whenever the occasion arose, for their broad treatment of consti tutional and social questions. He was not a profound lawyer, but possessed extreme quickness of apprehension. In construing a real property will or any other document, his first impulse was to read it by the light of nature, and to decline to be influenced by the construction put by the judges on similar phrases occurring elsewhere. But when he discovered that certain expressions had acquired a technical meaning which could not be disturbed with out fluttering the dovecotes of the conveyancers, he would yield to the established rule, even though he did not agree with it. He was perhaps seen at his judicial best in Vagliano v. Bank of Eng land (1891) and Allen v. Flood (1898) . His public services out side his judicial work included the chancellorship of the Uni versity of London (1893), and the chairmanship of the Imperial institute, which he held from its foundation.
In 1897 Herschell was appointed, jointly with Lord Justice Collins, to represent Great Britain on the Venezuela Boundary commission, which assembled in Paris in the spring of 1899. He also sat on the joint high commission appointed to adjust certain boundary and other questions pending between Great Britain and Canada on the one hand and the United States on the other hand. He started for America in July of that year and was received most cordially at Washington. His fellow commissioners elected him their president. In Feb. 1899 he slipped in the street and frac tured a hip bone. His constitution, which at one time was a robust one, had been undermined by constant hard work and proved unequal to sustaining the shock. He died at the Shoreham hotel, Washington, on March 1, a post-mortem examination revealing disease of the heart. The body was brought to London in a British man-of-war and buried at Tincleton, Dorset.
A "reminiscence" of Herschel! by Mr. Speaker Gully (Lord Selby) will be found in The Law Quarterly Review for April 1899. The Jour nal of the Society of Comparative Legislation (of which he had been president from its formation in 1893) contains, in its part for July of the same year, notices of him by Lord James of Hereford, Lord Davey, Victor Williamson (his executor and intimate friend), and also by Justice D. J. Brewer and Senator C. W. Fairbanks (both of the United States).