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Another Bingham legacy
Even the greats can learn lessons from their heroes, as
Geoffrey Bindman explains
T
he late Lord Bingham
is rightly revered as the
greatest judge of our
generation. Less well known
than his judicial achievements is
his own reverence for another great
figure: Dr Samuel Johnson. Asked
what book he would take to his
mythical desert island, Bingham
chose Boswell’s Life of Johnson,
remarking that “it contained all of
life”.
Johnson was, of course, the
great lexicographer, composer
of a celebrated dictionary of the
English language, author of Lives
of the Poets and of many important
works of poetry and prose. He was
not a lawyer, but he regretted that
he had not made it his profession.
When Boswell asked him why he
had not done so, he replied with his
customary directness:”Because, Sir, I
had not money to study law”.
Nevertheless, he maintained a
great interest in the law throughout
his life. He accumulated a considerable
law library. Boswell, in his younger days
a Scottish advocate. but later an English
barrister and recorder of Carlisle, sought
Johnson’s advice on several of his cases.
Sir Arnold McNair, in his book Dr Johnson
and the Law, has documented Johnson’s
legal opinions, some provided to Boswell
and others responding to legal questions of
general public importance.
Johnson’s lifelong friend (and executor of
his will) William Scott, was a law teacher
at Oxford before embarking on a career
at the Bar which led him to the bench and
to a prominent place in legal history as
Lord Stowell, architect of Admiralty law.
Scott’s younger brother John was the future
Lord Chancellor Eldon. Through the Scott
connection, Johnson got to know Robert
Chambers, their former schoolfellow at
the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle.
Chambers also taught law at Oxford and
succeeded Blackstone as the Vinerian
Professor of English law. It was widely
believed at the time that his lectures were
largely written by Johnson.
Bingham was president of the Johnson
Association of Lichfield (Johnson’s
birthplace). He was the obvious choice
to give the lecture with which the Inner
Temple decided to commemorate the
“
Bingham would
have disagreed
with Sam Johnson
on many issues,
but he recognised
and admired his
humanity and his
wisdom”
300th anniversary of Johnson’s birth in
2009. Johnson had for several years been
a resident of the Inner Temple. Sadly,
Lord Bingham died less than a year after
delivering the lecture.
Compassionate and passionate
Johnson was famously conservative in his
politics. He respected the monarchy and
inherited privilege and opposed reform. Yet
he was compassionate and clear thinking
about the human condition. As Bingham
points out, Johnson was passionately
opposed to slavery, and greatly attached
to his black servant, Francis Barber, to
14 June 2013 | www.newlawjournal.co.
whom he left the residue of his estate. He
strongly supported a black slave, Joseph
Knight, when he asserted his freedom in
the Scottish courts. “No man is by nature
the property of another,” he said, “the
defendant is therefore, by nature, free.” The
court agreed, following the famous
English decision of Lord Mansfield in
the case of Somersett, decided a short
while earlier.
Johnson also strongly supported
the Reverend William Dodd, who
sought his help after his conviction
for forgery. Dodd was sentenced to
death, but the jury recommended
mercy. Johnson made “extraordinary
exertions” according to Boswell,
including writing to the Lord
Chancellor and to Lord Chief Justice
Mansfield, drafting petitions and a
letter to the King. He also wrote a
sermon – The Convict’s Adddress to
his Unhappy Brethren – which Dodd
delivered as his own in the chapel
of Newgate prison. When Johnson
modestly disclaimed authorship.
Boswell doubted that Dodd himself
could have written it. This produced
Johnson’s famous retort: “Depend
upon it, Sir, when a man knows
he is to be hanged in a fortnight it
concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
Despite his great interest in the law
and friendship with lawyers, Johnson
was not always complimentary about them.
He was once heard to say: “I do not care to
speak ill of any man behind his back, but I
believe that gentleman to be an attorney.”
On the other hand he had great respect
for another solicitor, Oliver Edwards, to
whom he remarked: “You are a lawyer, Mr
Edwards. Lawyers know life practically. A
bookish man should always have them to
converse with. They have what he wants.” It
was Edwards who touchingly admitted: “In
my time I too have tried to be a philosopher,
but cheerfulness always kept breaking in.”
The Inner Temple and Dr Johnson’s
House Trust have published Bingham’s
lecture, with other related material, in an
elegant but inexpensive slim volume which
I strongly recommend. It is a fitting tribute
both these great men.
Tom Bingham would have disagreed
with Sam Johnson on many issues, but he
recognised and admired his humanity and
his wisdom. Johnson used to say, “clear
your mind of cant”, by which he meant, “see
things as they are and face the truth without
equivocation”. Tom Bingham lived up to
that maxim and no-one has made a greater
contribution to our law than he. NLJ
Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, consultant
Bindmans LLP