§ THE EARL OF BIRKENHEADMy Lords, in the vicissitudes of human affairs the duty of congratulation is swiftly followed by that of offering a tribute to the dead. It would, I think, be altogether unwelcome to your Lordships that a task which would have been so well discharged by the Leader of the House, and which he has informed me he greatly regrets his inability to discharge to-day, should not be undertaken, however inadequately, by another. That task has fallen to me. In one sense I have, I think, a claim to say something about the late Lord Cave. Twenty-two years ago, in the General Election of 1906, he and I became members of the House of Commons. The years that followed were years of tempestuous Party bitterness. In those debates all of us, to whatever Party we belonged, were bound to contribute something. It was observed of the late Lord Chancellor that while the part which he discharged was always forcible, was always lucid, was always formidable to the Party which he opposed, it was never disfigured by violence, by rancour or by personalities. He had indeed brought to the House of Commons a high reputation. He was a leader of the Chancery Bar. He had long discharged an important public function, and was the Chairman of one of the most considerable Quarter Sessions in the country. He had in every way qualified himself for the public service, and in the years which followed his election to the House of Commons, it is true that year by year his reputation grew, and—what was not less important—the general liking for 750 the man grew among his political friends and political opponents.
And then came the War. I remember him in the earlier days of the War surrendering the attractions of a private practice in order that he might discharge the burdens of public service, and for many months his learning, his sagacity, and his experience assisted enormously the decisions of those complicated Prize cases to which so much legal learning required adjustment in the earlier days of the War. My association with the late Lord Chancellor became closer. He was Solicitor-General when I was Attorney-General. The association of the Law Officers of the Crown is very close. It is close in ordinary days; in days when the enemy is beating at the gate, when new and temporary codes have to be understood and administered, when the Prize Law of centuries is under discussion, that intercourse becomes even closer and more important. It has never been my fate to work in constant intercourse and discussion with a mind which more warmly excited my admiration because of its lucidity and clarity, its tranquillity and decisiveness.
After a year as Solicitor-General the late Lord Chancellor assumed the anxious and arduous duties of Home Secretary. These duties he discharged in a very difficult period in a manner the ability and efficiency of which won the general recognition of all Parties and of the country. He then was promoted to the high position of a Law Lord in this House. He had already earned the admiration of the legal profession by his judgments and their gratitude for his courtesy when the vicissitudes of politics called him to a still higher position, the highest that can be filled by a lawyer in this country. Thereafter for some years he discharged those duties which are undertaken to-day by the noble and learned Lord who for the first time has taken his seat upon the Woolsack. I had not the opportunity of sitting as frequently with him as I should have desired, for other activities called me elsewhere, but I did on more than one occasion sit with the late Lord Chancellor, and I have had many opportunities of collecting the opinions of those who sat with him week by week, month by month, and year by year, and it is, I know, the common opinion of those who assisted him in those grave deliberations 751 that he exhibited the highest judicial qualities, a mind never easily confused by irrelevance, a mind very tenacious of principle, and a judgment not unworthy even of the great men amongst our Judges who preceded him in that seat.
And to this admitted judicial quality he united a courtesy which greatly endeared him to the Bar, and a courtesy of which every member of your Lordships' House, upon that other side of his activities, became more and more aware. I look back upon the last few months of his life, and I blame myself somewhat—I did not realise that Lord Cave was as ill as he was. He sat there day after day, as I know now but did not know then, the victim of constant pain. He attended to the technical details of the Committee stages of many most difficult Bills, as I know now but did not know then, when he had not the physical strength to support a burden so great. And I blame myself, looking back, that I did not more clearly see the difficulties under which he then was labouring, because, with such experience as I possessed upon those topics, I have thought since that I might a little have relieved his labours. The last few months of his life were months of pain and of anxiety, and yet I remember to the end that he discharged, as faithfully as in your sight he discharged upon the Woolsack, his duties to his colleagues in the Cabinet; and only a week before he left on that last journey of all, I remember him giving wise and valuable assistance in the deliberations of the Cabinet. To the very last his Cabinet boxes were sent to him, to the very last his Cabinet boxes were opened and their contents were ascertained and mastered, and I have myself seen a letter, written upon a grave matter of public affairs, signed by him and written, I believe, by Lady Cave, which he despatched on the very day before his resignation, and I believe two days before his death. Here was a faithful servant of the State, intent to the last on the discharge of his public duties; and, while we recognise his qualities and his character, it would not, I think, be altogether unbecoming that, on behalf of your Lordships' House, which he greatly adorned, we should send to that unhappy lady who mourns his loss a message of our deep and respectful sympathy.
§ VISCOUNT HALDANEMy Lords, with the eloquent language that has proceeded from the lips of the noble and learned Earl opposite I desire entirely to associate myself. I, too, knew Lord Cave very well, but in a different way. I was the occupant of the Woolsack before he was and I again succeeded him when he was out of office in 1924. That brought us into close association because, as your Lordships know, there is a continuity in the work of successive Lord Chancellors such as there is almost nowhere else in the affairs of the State. Lord Cave was deeply interested in those great measures for land law reform which were initiated by the noble Earl opposite himself and which owed much of their fruition to his exertions. Lord Cave took them up just as I had taken them up at an earlier stage, and together, I think we may say, all three of us worked in order to bring these measures through Parliament. That was not all. When, in 1924, the Labour Government came in, it was deemed of high importance that I should take with the office of Lord Chancellor that of Chairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence, a body with which I had been much and closely associated for many years. That was possible through the cordial co-operation of Lord Cave. He undertook very willingly to relieve me of all that he could of the judicial work connected with this House and the Privy Council, and he enabled me to divide my time between the Woolsack and Whitehall Gardens where the Committee of Imperial Defence sat.
He was always the most considerate of men. As Speaker of this House and as a Judge on the Bench alike he displayed a quality which is dear to us all, the quality of a great gentleman. Lord Cave never brought anything bitter into the transactions of political or other business. As the noble and learned Earl has said, he was always a just man striving to be just to the utmost of his capacity. That was manifest in his work. However difficult a case Lord Cave was never satisfied until he had exhausted every fibre in his composition in order to get at the truth of it. He was minute alike about law and about facts, which are generally at least of equal importance. He did his work in the spirit of a judge as the spirit of a 753 judge should be. He always took time. He would never be hurried. He never left a case until he had got as far as insight conducted him to the very foundation of it. That made him a most valued occupant of the Bench and one who, as the presiding spirit over our Judges, will long be remembered.
The noble and learned Earl opposite has expressed his regret that he did not realise sufficiently the physical sufferings under which Lord Cave was conducting his business and, perhaps, relieve him of something of his burden. I can say this if it will comfort the noble Earl—that if we had done everything in our power, if he had taken or had been able to take much off Lord Cave's hands it would have made no difference. Lord Cave had that passion for work which would have compelled him to come and sit here and attend to the business alike of the House and of its judicial work exactly as if he had had no assistance at all. He was a man who had a real passion for his work and a passion for putting excellence into it. This year is a year in which death has laid its hand heavily upon your Lordships' House. I had already lost two intimate friends and now I have lost a third in the person of the late Lord Chancellor. I can only say that his memory is a memory which will always remain as that not only of one whom I admired but as that of a valued and affectionate friend.
§ LORD BUCKMASTERMy Lords, on behalf of those with whom I am associated on these Benches I desire in a few words to say how wholly we share the feelings to which the noble and learned Earl opposite and the noble and learned Viscount have given just and fitting expression. For many years, and in many ways, I was closely associated with Lord Cave. Through the difficult courses of the law and the tangled labyrinths of politics our paths lay side by side. Finally, I was privileged to share for some time in the discharge of those great judicial duties to which he devoted his strength. I can only say that as each day went by my respect for the patience, the sagacity and the industry with which he discharged his tasks grew more and more.
In the Courts and in the Houses of Parliament he was a notable figure. Of 754 his unfailing courtesy and of the courage with which he faced the fate that struck him down you, my Lords, are all witnesses and you will long remember. Coupled with that memory there will always be in my mind a recollection of the fact that, though I was fated to be opposed to him throughout the whole of my professional and public life, I can never recall a moment even in the most embittered controversy and under the sting of the most extreme provocation when he ever said a word that left a wound behind. Great indeed are the burdens and heavy are the duties that any man is called upon to discharge who occupies the Woolsack: but I believe that there are none who will be found to deny that Lord Cave not only maintained but enriched the great traditions of the high office he so worthily filled.
§ VISCOUNT DUNEDINMy Lords, I hope you will bear with me if, as the oldest of those who sat continuously with Lord Cave in his judicial work in your Lordships' House and in the Privy Council, I add a, very few words to what has been said. Lord Cave's reputation as a lawyer is ensured by the opinion of his colleagues who sat with him, by what I believe is the unanimous verdict of the Bar that practised before him, and by what is more permanent, the decisions which he has left behind him and which are with us in the books. But there is something more wanted from the Judge who presides in a Court than to be a good lawyer. He must have the gift of eliciting good work from those who sit with him. I have had the privilege of sitting as a colleague with seven successive Lords Chancellor. I have no criticisms to make, but I think I can say without any one feeling that I am saying what I ought not to say that Lord Cave was inferior to none in possession of those qualities which make a man easy to work with. He was always easy of access, he was wise in consultation, he was never opinionated, he was always ready to consider and, if need be, to accept opinions of others which might not have coincided with his own first impression. His courtesy and kindness were invariable, but, above all, I lay stress on the extraordinary consideration which he showed to each one of us in setting us the task that we had to do. So 755 far as was consistent with public business he would always arrange that what we had to do chimed in with what our own personal predilections would have preferred, and thus we feel that in losing him we have lost not only a great lawyer but a very kind friend.