LLOYD KENYON, BARON KENYON, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE.
Some of the stories respecting Lord Kenyon's historical allusions and quotations are surely greatly exaggerated, or are pure inventions. In addressing a jury in a blasphemy case, he is reported to have said that the Emperor Julian "was so celebrated for the practice of every Christian virtue that he was called 'Julian the Apostle'"; and to have concluded an elaborate address in dismissing a grand jury with the following valediction: "Having thus discharged your consciences, gentlemen, you may return to your homes in peace, with the delightful consciousness of having performed your duties well, and may lay your heads on your pillows, saying to yourselves 'Aut Cæsar, aut nullus.'" And this was his remark on detecting the trick of an attorney to delay a trial: "This is the last hair in the tail of procrastination, and it must be plucked out."
Among other failings attributed to this Lord Chief Justice was the extreme penuriousness he practised in his domestic arrangements and his dress. His shoes were patched to such an extent that little of their original material could be seen, and once when trying a case he was sitting on the bench in a way to expose them to all in Court. It was an action for breach of contract to deliver shoes soundly made, and to clinch a witness for the pursuer he suddenly asked, "Were the shoes anything like these?" pointing to his own. "No, my lord," replied the witness, "they were a good deal better and more genteeler."
As an example of his (Lord Kenyon's) style of addressing a condemned prisoner we have the following. A butler had been charged and convicted of stealing his master's wine.
"Prisoner at the bar, you stand convicted on the most conclusive evidence of a crime of inexpressible atrocity—a crime that defiles the sacred springs of domestic confidence, and is calculated to strike alarm into the breast of every Englishman who invests largely in the choicer vintages of Southern Europe. Like the serpent of old, you have stung the hand of your protector. Fortunate in having a generous employer, you might without discovery have continued to supply your wretched wife and children with the comforts of sufficient prosperity, and even with some of the luxuries of affluence; but, dead to every claim of natural affection, and blind to your own real interest, you burst through all the restraints of religion and morality, and have for many years been feathering your nest with your master's bottles."
Lord Kenyon was warmly attached to George III, who had a high opinion of him; but like many of his lordship's contemporaries, his Majesty strongly deprecated the frequent outbursts of temper on the part of his Chief Justice. "At a levee, soon after an extraordinary explosion of ill-humour in the Court of King's Bench, his Majesty said to him: 'My Lord Chief Justice, I hear that you have lost your temper, and from my great regard for you, I am very glad to hear it, for I hope you will find a better one.'"