LYNDHURST, Lord (Jonx SINGLETON COPLEY), English lawyer and statesman, was the son of J. S. Copley, R. A., painter of the "Death of Chatham," and other esteemed works. The Copleys were an Irish family, the painter's grandfather having emioTated from the co. of Limerick, and settled at Boston, United States, where Lyndhura wat, b. May 21, 4772. While he was yet an infant, his father removed to England for the practice of his art. Lyndhurst was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he was second wrangler and Smith's prizeman in 1794, and a fellow in 1797. Called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1804, he chose the midland circuit, and soon obtained briefs. In politics lie was at first a liberal, and long expressed sentiments hostile to the ministry of the day. He ably defended Watson and Thistlewood on their trial for high treason in 1817, and obtained their acquittal. Some surprise was therefore expressed when, in 1818, he entered parliament for a government borough. In 1819 he became solicitor. general in the Liverpool administration, and in 1823 was promoted to the rank of attor ney-general. It Nvas much to his credit that, unlike his predecessors, he instituted no informations against the press. In 1826 he became master of the rolls. When Mr. Canning was charged to form a ministry in 18'27, lie offered the great seal to Lynd hurst (then sir John Copley), who was raised to the upper house, and retnained lord chancellor from 1827 to 1830. In 1831 be became lord chief baron of the exchequer,
which office he exchanged for the woolsack during the brief administration of sir It. Peel in 1834. In 1835 he led the opposition to the Melbourne ministry in the upper house, in speeches of great power and brilliancy. Lyndhurst's orations and annual reviews of the session did much to reanimate the conservative party, and pave the way for their return to power in 1841. He then became lord chancellor for the third time, and held the g-reat seal until the defeat of the Peel government in 1846. After that time he took little part in home politics; but his voice has often been heard on matters of foreiffn policy, and in denunciation of tyranny in Italy and elsewhere. He died in Lon don,I)ct. 12, 1803. Lyndhurst's high attainments as a lawyer have never been ques tioned, and his judgments—of which that in the great case of Small v. Attwood may be particularly cited—have never been excelled for clearness, method, and legal acumen. In the house of peers he had few equals atnong his contemporaries. So near his end as 1860, when he was 88 years of age, he maintained, with great force and ability, the right of their lordships to reject the paper-duties bill—an act which the lower house resented as a breach of its privileges.