the gratifying fact, that hereditary power or wealth can not bide the dignity of great genius; that greatness will thrust aside the lesser privilege of worldly circumstance, whether it be born in a palace or a cottage; and that you can no more control the operation of a superior mind by the vanities of title and lucre, than you can subordinate truth to error, or eternity to time.  The glittering train of peers and nabobs who followed in the path of the great Elizabeth lie forgotten under the stately arches of the old cathedrals; while the poverty-stricken player, William Shakspeare, has adorned every library with his name, and reigns in every appreciative heart, as a perfect master of nature and lofty thought.  The names of the brilliant court which welcomed George the Third to the throne of the Plantagenets no longer linger on the lips of men; while every household boasts its ‘Rasselas,’ and the civilized world holds sacred the memory of the illustrious ‘Rambler.’

John Campbell was born in 1781, and was the son of an obscure Scotch clergyman.  His father destined him for the clergy; in consequence of which he was sent to the University of St. Andrews, where he met the great Dr. Chalmers, then a student like himself.  But young Campbell became averse to the profession which had been chosen for him, and soon turned his attention to the law.  Soon after graduation, he betook himself to London, where he studied with great zeal, meanwhile supplying his wants by acting as the theatrical critic of the ’Morning Chronicle.’  There, seated in an obscure corner of the pit or upper gallery, we may imagine the Chancellor in embryo, jotting down the petty excellences and failings of the players, to pamper the taste of the frivolous on the morrow; while below him, in the decorated boxes and circles, lolled the vain crowd of coroneted simpletons and courtly beauties, now long forgotten, while he is honored as the benefactor of his country’s laws.  He was called to the bar by the Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and then commenced a long life, replete with arduous study, with untiring interest in duty, and stubborn perseverance.  He early espoused the liberal doctrines of Fox and Grey; and inasmuch as for many years after the Tories monopolized the power, his politics were an effectual bar to his professional preferment.  He remained, however, through his whole life, an earnest and consistent advocate of his early convictions.  Owing to the prejudice which Lord Chancellor Eldon entertained against the Whigs, he did not obtain the silk gown of King’s Counsel till the venerable Jacobite gave place, in 1827, to the more courteous and liberal Lyndhurst.