Cairns

Cairns, Hugh MacCalmont, Earl, lawyer and politician, was born in 1819 in county Down, Ireland. After a distinguished career at Trinity College, Dublin, he was in 1844 called to the bar at the Middle Temple, and in 1852 was elected M.P. for Belfast. In 1868 he became Lord Chancellor in Disraeli's government, a position that he held again under the same premier in 1874-80. He was a fluent speaker and a keen debater, and outside of his purely professional and political duties took an interest in philanthropic movements. He died in 1885. By an Act bearing his name, passed in 1858, the Court of Chancery was empowered to give damages to the party injured on a prosecution without court for specific performance of an agreement. The Supreme Court of Judicature now exercises the jurisdiction.