CAMPBELL, Jomc (CAmmiEm.). Lord, high chancellor of England, son of a minister of Cupar, in the co. of Fife, Scotland, was born in 1779. lie was at first destined to follow his father's profession, and was sent, while still a mere boy, to the neighboring: univer sity of St. Andrews. C. himself had no inclination for a clerical life, and when he had completed his studies in the faculty of arts, he left for London, being then about 19 years of age. He obtained employment on the staff of the Morning Chronicle, where, in duc time, he was intrusted with the care of the theatrical criticism and the reports in the house of commons. He was called to the bar in 1806. Ilis sound sense, and unpretend ing activity and devotion to business, were awarded with an extensive common-law prae, Lice, and, after a time, with professional promotion. The silk-gown of a king's counsel was conferred upon him in 1827. Three years afterwards, he entered parliament, actuated, he tells us in the preface to one of his works, by a desire to obtain for England the benefits of a national registry of titles to land. The effort, at the time, was unavail ing, as the landlords, whom it was destined more immediately to benefit, completely misunderstood the purport of the project. C. was promoted by the Whig party, to which he had attached himself, to the solicitor-generalship in 1832, and to the attorney generalship in 1834. In the same year, he was chosen the representative in parliament for Edinburgh. He continued to represent Edinburgh down to 1841, and remained in the office of attorney-general during that period, with the exception of the short time in 1835, when the conservatives were in power. In 1841, he was made chancellor of Ire
land and a peer of the United Kingdom; but held the office of chancellor for only a few months, when the Melbourne cabinet left office, necessitating C. also to resign. For the first time since boyhood, he found himself without regular daily labor, and at the mature age of 60, set to work to win the literary fame which he professes always to have secretly coveted. His first publication was a collection of his speeches at the bar and in the house of commons. For three or four years after the publication of his speeches, C. was engaged in the preparation of the Liras of the Chancellors, the first series of which appeared in 1845. In 1846, he joined the Russell cabinet in the capacity of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. Ilis ministerial duties were not sufficiently arduous to inter rupt his literary labors, and he proceeded to complete the Lives of the Chancellors, and to publish a supplemental series of Lives of the of England. Both works have enjoyed great popularity, but leave no doubt that the author was more fitted for. a prac tical lawyer than for a man of letters. C. returned to more congenial labors in 1850; he was then appointed to succeed Denman as chief-justice. He held the office for nine years, at the end of which he received the highest honor that can be obtained by a mem ber of the legal profession—the chancellorship of England. Ile died June, 1861.