RICHARD BETHEL, ESQ., Q.C., M.P. FOR THE BOROUGH AND HUNDRED OF AYLESBURY.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 604, 28 January 1852, Page 4

RICHARD BETHEL, ESQ., Q.C., M.P. FOR THE BOROUGH AND HUNDRED OF AYLESBURY.

(From the " Illustrated London Ken s." ) The honourable member, eldest son of Dr. Bethel, o Bristol, by Jane, daughter of John Bnverstock, Esq., o Bradford, Wilts., was bora nf Bradford, June 30, 1800' and, at eight years of age, was sent to the Grammar' school at Bristol, but was chiefly indebted for the excellence of hia education to the care and anxious superintendence of his father, under whose instruction he Lad learned to write by the time ho was four-and-a-half years of age. At thirtpen, he left school ; and, after a year of preparation under his father, entered Wadhnm Collpge, Oxford, at the age of fourteen. After some difficulty, on the score of his youth, he wtis permitted immediately to reside ; and on his fifteenth birth-day (as appears upon the College books) wos elected a scholar— a distinction, the pecuniary advantages of which enabled him to complete his education at the University, where he took his degree of B.A. in the May of 1818, before attaining eighteen years of age; and obtained a first ■class in classics, and a second in mathematics. In 1820 he was elected a Vinorian Fellow, nnd in the following year Fellow of his College. In 1822 he came to London, and began his studies for the profession, having previously entered as a sturlont at the Middle Tpraple, at which he v,-as called to the Bar in 1821', and practised as a conveyancer beuitAe pu draughtsman in the Court of Chancery. One of the earliest cases, and a very impnmnt one, in which Mr. Bethel was engaged, was the famous one, in 1827, of the Attorney-General v. Braseno^e College, the entire conduct of which was placed in his hand through the present Bishop of Chichester, at that time Principal of Brasenose, and who had been Examiner at the University when Mr. Bethel passed for his degree. The case involved the most important rights of Brasenose, and of all the colleges in Oxford founded rnterior to the Revolution ; and it was generally considered at the Bar that Mr. Bethel's able preparation and lucid aijjument of the case, which resulted in a derision m favour of the College, led to his subsequent rapid professional success in the Couit of Chancery, to which his practice was entirely •confined. I-i Januuy, 18-iO, Loid Cottenham confer) ed •upon him the honour of a silk gown ; he was immediately elected a Bencher of the Temple ; and in that capacity strenuously exerted himself for the establishment of a sound system of legal education ; and to his suggestions are due all that has of late been done by the Inns of Court in that direction. In 1846, upon 'the death of Sir Charles Wetherall, Mr. Bethel was appointed counsel to the University of Oxford. At the general election in 1847 he contested Sliaftesbury, and was defeated by a small majority ; and, on the recent decision by the committee in the Aylesbury case, he was invited, at the suggestion, we believe, of his friend Mr. Calvert, to become a candidate ; and, after a sharp contest with Mr. Ferrand, was returned by a majority of 26, the numbers beingBethel, 566 ; Ferrand, 544. Mr. Bethel's speech at the nomination, in defence of the principles of Free Tradp, and advocating protection to tie faimers, not by the now impossible plan of imposing a duty on food, but by nliof from the burdens which press upon the land, gained upui his hearers until their attention was completely livetpd, and he carried the entire assemblage with him, so as to calm evpn his excited opponents and win the show of hands in the proportion of eight to one. The honourable membpr affords a remarkable instance of the advantage of early university education and entrance upon professional studies. At the time when most men are leaving school he had taken his degree, and vas a rising man at the Bar at the usual age for leaving the University. At the bar, Mr. Bethel is unBurpassed in knowledge of equity, law, and brilliant clearness of arrangement in the statement of facts and argument of cases. He could not have chosen a more fitting timp for entering the Douse of Commons He is known to entertain views in favour of an extended system of education at the Universities, and his practical knowledge will serve to ensure measures of real Chancpry rpform. The honourable member mariied, in 1825, Elinor Mary, daughter of Robert Abraham, Esq., of London, and has by her a numeious family of sonsand daughters.