HEREDITARY GENIUS. T H E Judges of England, Since the Res Toration Of
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424 HEREDITARY GENIUS. THE JUDGES OF ENGLAND BETWEEN 16G0 AND 18G5. JBY FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S. T h e Judges of England, since the res reader will probably think they are toration of the monarchy in 1660, form rather too abstractedly expressed, and a group peculiarly well adapted to afford will find difficulty in understanding a general outline of the extent and limi them at first sight, but, as he reads on, tations of heredity in respect to genius. that difficulty will disappear. The Judgeship is a guarantee of their (A) If we divide men of exceptionally having been gifted with an exceptional high ability into two groups, one of share of ability; they are sufficiently which consists of those that are extra numerous and prolific to form an ade ordinarily able, then this group ought quate basis for statistical inductions, to contain the larger percentage of able and they are the subjects of numerous kinsmen. excellent biographical .treatises. (B) If we analyse the families of men I propose in these pages to touch of high ability, we 'ought to find the briefly on a few of the results that I number of able kinsmen in those fami have obtained by inquiring into their lies to be enormously larger than it relationships. These are powerfully would have been according to the ordi corroborative of the views I first ex nary law of chances, on the supposition pressed, a few years ago, in this Maga that ability was irrespective of descent. zine (June and August 1865), in two (C) The peculiar type of ability ought articles upon hereditary talent and cha to be largely transmitted. racter, and they lend far greater preci (D) The percentage of able kinsmen sion to the determinations of hereditary should be greatest among those who are influences than those at which I then nearest to the most eminent member of aimed. I hope very shortly to publish the family, and it should diminish in a volume of a somewhat elaborate and each successive grade of remoteness. extensive inquiry, in which I shall treat (E) The appearance of the man of not only of judges, but also of the most highest ability in a family should not illustrious statesmen, commanders, men be an abrupt and isolated phenomenon, of literature and science, poets, painters, but his ability should be built up, so musicians, divines, and scholars. In to speak, by degrees, in his ancestry; the meantime, I publish these pages and conversely, it should disperse itself as first-fruits in the hope they may by degrees in his descendants. servo the purpose of familiarizing readers I shall now proceed to show that the with the sort of arguments upon which results obtained from an analysis of the I rely, and the tendency of the con families of the Judges, affirm the whole clusions to which those arguments irre of these propositions in the most un sistibly lead. qualified manner. If genius be hereditary in the same Before producing my facts, let mo way that physical strength or feature is say a few words in confirmation of what hereditary, at least five conditions will I began by asserting, that the office of necessarily be found to exist. I ‘ will judge is a sufficient guarantee that its state them, and will distinguish them possessor is exceptionally gifted in a by the letters A B C D and E, for very high degree. No doubt there aro the convenience of after reference. The some hindrances, external to those of / Hereditary Genius. 425 nature, against a man getting on at son of a barber. Others were sons of the bar and rising to a judgeship. The clergymen of scanty means. Others attorneys may not give him briefs when have begun life in alien professions, yet, he is a young barrister; and, even if he notwithstanding their false start, have becomes a successful barrister, his poli easily gained lost ground in after life. tical party may be out of office for a Lord Erskine was first in the navy and long period at a time when he was then in the army before he became a otherwise ripe for advancement. I can barrister. Lord Chelmsford was origi not, however, believe that either of nally a midshipman. Now a large these are serious obstacles in the long number of men with antecedents as un run. Sterling ability is sure to make favourable to success as these, and yet itself felt and to lead to practice; while successful men, are always to he found as to politics, the changes of party are at the bar, and therefore I say the bar sufficiently frequent to give a fair chance risters are themselves a selected body; to almost every generation. For every and the fact of every Judge having been man who is a Judge there may possibly taken from the foremost rank of 3,000 be two other lawyers of the same of them, is proof that his exceptional standing, equally fitted for the post, ability is of an enormously higher order but it is hard to believe there can be a than if the, 3,000 barristers had been larger number. conscripts, drawn by lot from the general The Judges hold the foremost places mass of their countrymen. in a vast body of legal men. The In speaking of English Judges, I have Census speaks of upwards of 3,000 bar adopted the well-known “ Lives of the risters, advocates, and special pleaders; Judges,” by Poss, as my guide. It was and it must be recollected that these published in 1865, so I have adopted do not consist of 3,000 men taken at that date as the limit of my inquiries. hap-hazard, but a large part of them I have considered those only as falling are already selected, -and it is from under the definition of Judges whom he these, by a second process of selection, includes as such. They are the Judges that the Judges are mainly derived. of the Courts of Chancery and Common When I say that a large part of the Law, and the Master of the Rolls, barristers are selected men, I speak of but not the Judges of the Admiralty those among them who are of humble nor of the Court of Canterbuiy. By the parentage but have brilliant natural latter limitation I lose the advantage of gifts, who attracted notice as boys, or, counting Lord Stowell, brother of the it may be, even as children, and were Lord Chancellor Eldon, the remarkable therefore sent to a good school. There family of the Lushingtons, that of SirR. they won exhibitions and fitted them Phillimore, and some others. Through selves for college, where they supported the limitation as regards time, I lose, themselves by obtaining scholarships. by ending with the year 1865, the Then came fellowships, and so they recently-created Judges, such as Judge ultimately found their way to the bar. Selwyn, brother of the Bishop of Lich Many of these have risen to the Bench. field, and also of the Professor of Thus there have been 30 Lord Chan Divinity at Cambridge'. By beginning cellors within the period included in at the Restoration, which I took for my my inquiries. Of these, Lord Hard- commencement, because there was fre wicke was the son of a small attorney quent jobbery in the days of earlier at Dover, in narrow circumstances; history that would have led to untrust Lord Eldon (whose brother was the worthy results, I lose a Lord Keeper (of great Admiralty Judge, Lord Stowell) the same rank as a Lord Chancellor), was son of a “ coal fitterLord Truro and his still greater son, also a Lord was son of a sheriff’s officer; and Lord Chancellor, namely, the two Bacons. , I St. Leonards (like Lord Tenterden, the state these facts to show that I have not Chief Justice of Common Pleas) was picked out a period that seemed most 426 Hereditary Genius. favourable to my argument, but one ful inquiries, gave a still larger falling that was the most suitable to bring out off of the run of ability in the female the truth as to hereditary genius, and line. Notwithstanding these allowances, which at the same time was most con there is a residue that points to a law venient for me to handle. that judicial ability passes somewhat There are 286 Judges within the more through the male lino than through limits of my inquiry. Of these, I find that of the female. no less than 133, or nearly one-half, to I will now. proceed to the conditions. have one or more kinsmen of little or As regards A, there is no doubt that no less eminence than themselves. The the Lord Chancellors are far superior proof-sheets of my forthcoming volume in average ability to the rest of the lie before me, in which these relation Judges. They are the very first class ships are described at length, and are as lawyers, of high rank as politicians, methodically arranged. For want of and we may safely say that all Eng space, I am unable to do more than land does not afford, on the average, half give a few samples of them here, and to a dozen men of the same age as the L ord. request the reader to take the rest upon Chancellors with greater ability than trust. they have. As I have already remarked, It will be well, before speaking of there have been 30 Lord Chancellors the five conditions, to say a few words among the 286 Judges.