For the Defense

HERE is a book by a well-known American trial lawyer about one of the greatest advocates in the history of the English bar. This account of Lord Erskine’s career, says John W. Davis on the book’s jacket, “is must reading for every American lawyer.”It is also pleasant and occasionally dramatic and exciting reading for any layman. Mr. Stryker’s presentations of some of Erskine’s more important cases, such as the defense of James Hadfield in 1800, of Thomas Hardy in 1794, or his earlier and astonishing successes in defending the rights of common men against prejudice and precedent, arc written with the greatest vigor and feeling. The author appreciates fully the actor, the dramatic quality in Erskine, as well as his careful study of a juror’s psychology, the charm and manliness of his bearing, and his apparently whole-souled conviction in the general principles calculated to sustain his clients’ innocence. These qualities, combined with a genuine eloquence, a superb voice and delivery, the manners of a gentleman, plus that indefinable something which distinguishes the great advocate from the merely competent, made Erskine one of the most successful trial lawyers of all time.

As member of Parliament, as a close friend of Fox and Sheridan and — for long — of Burke, and as Lord Chancellor, Erskine was a singularly attractive and winning personality, as delightful in private company as he was formidable in his profession. Moreover, the greatest part of his thinking and effort was on the side of the underdog. He was a friend of the rebellious American Colonies, a consistent believer in Parliamentary and administrative reform, and a constant fighter against privilege.

In fact Mr. Stryker finds his hero so admirable throughout that he can hardly endure the slightest contemporary or later criticism of him. If Byron noted that Erskine talked too much and repeated himself at dinner, Mr. Stryker puts it down to spleen on Byron’s part that the opportunity to shine was denied him. If Samuel Romilly, the leader of the Chancery bar, wrote in bis journal his doubts as to Erskine’s knowledge of equity or fitness for the Chancellorship, Mr. Stryker says that he was envious and malicious. Nor can he quite bring himself to admit that the younger Pitt, in his icy, disdainful aloofness, found a method of opposing Erskine which disconcerted and disarmed him.

If one must, therefore, make some qualifications as to the perfect accuracy of Mr. Stryker’s portrait of Erskine, his exaggerations are attributable to a generous devotion to and admiration of his subject. A more serious criticism may be made against Mr. Stryker’s condensations of history, of the background against which Erskine and his great contemporaries played their parts. Here we find a consistent Macaulayish Whiggism which is certainly an oversimplification of history as it is now understood anti written. The modern reader will take such forensic treatment of eighteenth-century events and personalities with a grain of salt, realizing that the author is himself a distinguished advocate and that he is pleading his client’s cause.

One can, however, heartily recommend the high lights of the book-the stories of individual trials and cases. Here the author is fully qualified to understand and present the drama of his scenes, and he does so most admirably — to the edification of lawyers and the excitement and enjoyment of all who read him.

A. W.