Hugh McCalmont Cairns [Earl Cairns]

Life
1819-1885 [Hugh M’Calmont Cairns; 1st Earl Cairns]; born Cultra, Co. Down; ed. Belfast Academical Institute, and TCD; BA 1838; Middle Bar, 1844; moved to Lincoln’s Inn; large practice; MP Belfast, 1852; QC 1856; noted parliamentary speaker; Att.-Gen., and Lord Justice of Appeal, 1866-72; Baron Cairns, 1867; Lord Chancellor, 1868; leader of Conservative opposition in House of Lords, 1869-74; opposed Disestablishment of Church in Ireland; Lord chancellor, 1874,80; Earl Cairns, 1878; philanthropist; statue in Belfast, opp. Academical Inst. ODNB DUB

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Commentary
Brief Memories of Hugh McCalmont, 1st Earl Cairns (London 1885). See also History of Cairnes or Cai[r]ns Family (London 1906) [Library of Herbert Bell].

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References
The British Library holds The Law of Mutual Life Assurance with special reference to the decision of Lord Cairns in the Kent Mutual Society’s case. To which is appended ... a verbatim report of Lord Cairns’s judgment. By a Barrister-at-Law . Reprinted, with ... additions from the Review [1872], 36pp. 8o.; The Salmon Fisheries of Ireland. Replies to arguments advanced against Mr. M’Mahon’s Fishery Bill by Lord Stuart de Decies and Sir Hugh Cairns. 11pp. London: Robert Hardwicke [1863] 4o.; Addresses delivered by Sir H. Cairns ... Rev. T. R. Birks; and the Rev. Canon Hugh McNeile ... on the identity in the interests of the two branches of the United Church of England and Ireland; that church’s present danger; her duty and safeguard in the impending crisis; at the Irish Church Missions’ Anniversary Breakfast, 1864. London: Hatchard & Co. 1864), 23pp.. 12o.; Albert Arbitration. Lord Cairns’s decisions [with Appendix A-P.] Reported by F. S. Reilly, 3 pt. London: Stevens & Haynes 1872-75), 268pp., lxxvi, 8o.; Answer to the Land-Titles’ Speech of the Solicitor General, shewing the objections to his bills.. pp. 28. Law Times Office: London, [1859] 8o.; Belfast Nurses’ Home and Training School. Speech.. 7pp.. Belfast: Adair’s Steam Printing Works 1873), 8o.; Brief Memories of Hugh McCalmont, first Earl Cairns by the author of “Memoir of the Rev. W. Marsh, D.D.” [i.e. Miss C. M. Marsh] ... Sixth thousand with additions. London: J. Nisbet & Co 1885), 114pp. 8o.; For the English Working Classes. The Irish Church ... reissued by B. A. Heywood ... 2nd & 3rd edns. London: Hatchard & Co. 1868), 18pp., 8o., [another edn.] London: Hatchard & Co 1868), 23pp. 8o.; For the English Working Classes. The Irish Church. An address delivered in 1864 ... Re-issued by B. A. Heywood (London: Hatchard & Co. 1868), 16pp., 8o.; Four Speeches ... on behalf of the Church Missionary Society. (London: Church Missionary House 1885), 10pp., 8o.; India Debate. Speech of the Solicitor General delivered in the House of Commons ... in opposition to Mr. Cardwell’s motion. Reprinted from ’The Times’. 2nd edn.; 3rd edn. London: I. R. Taylor [1858]), 24pp., 8o.; Judgment delivered ... on behalf of Her Majesty’s Most Honorable Privy Council in the case of Martin v. Mackonochie. Edited by W. E. Browning (London: Butterworths 1869), 32pp., 8o.; Opinions of Lord Chancellor Cairns and Lord Selborne on the Public Worship Regulation Bill.. [London 1874.], 8pp., 8o.; Some Last Words of Earl Cairns. Earl Cairns’ speech at ... Exeter Hall ... March 24th, 1885, on the claims of the heathen and Mohammedan world. Together with a few of his dying words.. London: C.M.S. [1885]), 15pp., 8o.; The Speech of the Lord Chancellor delivered in the House of Lords, June 29th 1868, on the motion for the second reading of a Bill, intitled ’An Act to prevent, for a limited time, new appointments in the Church of Ireland.’ [another edition.]. London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday 1868), 48pp., 8o. [another edn. London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday 1868), 47pp., 8o.; Titles to Landed Estates. Speech of the Solicitor General, on the introduction of bills to simplify the titles to landed estates, and to establish a registry of titles to landed estates. London: William Amer 1859), 30pp., 8o.; Words to Young Men. (An address). London: Hodder & Stoughton [1881.]), 7pp., 16o.; London Chatham and Dover Railway Arbitration. Second and Final Award [dated 24 Feb. 1871]. London: C. Roworth & Sons [1871]), 23pp., 8o.; London Chatham and Dover Railway Arbitration. First Award [dated 18 Aug. 1870]. (London: C. Roworth & Sons 1870), 56pp., 8o.; The to Landed Estates Bills and the Solicitor-General’s [Lord Cairns’] speech, considered (London 1859), 8o.; On the Repeal of the XXIXth Canon of 1603: The opinions of Sir F. K., Sir H. McC. Cairns, A. J. Stephens, and R. Jebb, on behalf of the Lord Archbishop of Armagh.. London, 1861, 8o.; The Ornaments of the minister: Case submitted to counsel on behalf of several archbishops and bishops of the United Church of England and Ireland; together with the joint opinion thereon of the Attorney-General [Sir Roundell Palmer], Sir Hugh M. Cairns, Q.C., Mr. Mellish, Q.C., Mr. Barrow.. London: Rivingtons 1866. 49pp., 21 cm.; Chancery Lunatics. A reply to the address made to the House of Commons, June 23rd, 1858, by Sir Hugh Cairns ... then Solicitor General, in defence of the two Acts of Parliament, passed in 1853, relating to Chancery Lunatics. By Senex.. London: Simpkins 1861), 12.pp., 8o.

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Notes
Belfast Historical Society: According to “A. G.” of Manchester ( The Irish Book Lover, June 1910, p.151), Cairns was a one-time President of the Belfast Historical Society which rejoiced that ‘the tocsin of freedom is ringing the knell of depotism’ and encouraged debate, numbering ‘Drennan, Tennent, and Templeton’, among its ‘distinguished founders’. J. S. Crone (ed.) responds with more information: ‘According to the Belfast Almanack for 1817, this Society was founded in September 1811 by “a few young men for their improvement in the knowledge of general history and of the British laws and constitution.” Amongst its presidents, whose addresses have been published, were Sheridan Knowles, the dramatist, Prof. Cairns, and R. J. Tennant, M.P. It ceased about 1819, for it does not appear amongst the institutions of Belfast mentioned in the Almanack for the years 1820-22.’ Crone adds that the existence of a pamphlet of 1830 cited by “A.G.” (as supra) implies that it was revived in 1825 and notes his own possession of an address to the same delivered by James Hirst, President of the Society, in 1831. (Ibid.)

Namesakes: other works by authors named Hugh Cairns, viz., Intracranial Surgery (London 1929); Prelude to Imperialism. British reactions to Central African society, 1840-1890 (Routledge & Kegan Paul 1965); The identity and originality of Teilhard de Chardin [xeroxed revised version] (Edinburgh 1974); Investigation of War Wounds: Penicillin - Preliminary report to the War Office [by] Brigadier Hugh Cairns [London] (1943), 114pp., 8o. [See British Library Catalogue to 1975.]

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