administration, some of whom regarded it as a betrayal. Mark Sturgis, the Dublin Castle official whose diaries give a vivid picture of the last years of British rule, condemned Campbell bitterly as a coward who "does nothing and apparently thinks of nothing but the best way to show Sinn Féin that he is neutral and passive". Noted Irish historian R. B. McDowell has commented in relation to this and similar criticism from his successor as Lord Chancellor, Sir John Ross, that neither man intended to stay and live in Southern Ireland, Ross moving via London to his country house in county Tyrone (inherited from his father-in-law), Sturgis safely back to England. On relinquishing office in 1921 he was ennobled as Baron Glenavy, of Milltown in the County of Dublin. First Chairman of the Irish Free State Seanad In 1922 he was nominated to the new Free State Seanad by W. T. Cosgrave, and was elected by almost all of his fellow senators as its first chairman (Cathaoirleach) on 12 December 1922. This was in the midst of the Irish Civil War and shortly after his appointment his family home in Kimmage, Dublin was burnt by the anti-Treaty IRA, as part of their campaign against the representatives of the new state. After the 1925 Seanad election he was again elected as chairman on 9 December 1925 by a vote of 40–12. He did not seek re-election when his term in the Seanad expired in 1928. The Courts of Justice Act 1924 In January 1923, Glenavy chaired the Judicial Committee appointed to advise the Executive Council of the Irish Free State on the creation of a new courts system for the Irish Free State. His recommendations were implemented in the Courts of Justice Act 1924 which largely created the Irish courts system as it currently exists. This replaced, and indeed replicated the existing court system as established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The Dáil Courts were declared to have been illegal, but their outstanding 'judgements' were conferred with legal standing by a separate Act of the Oireachtas. Glenavy clashed with another member of the committee, Hugh Kennedy, soon to become the first Chief Justice of Ireland, who was in favour of far more radical changes than those recommended by Glenavy and a majority of the committee. Political differences were compounded by the fact that the two men disliked each other