# The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 1/Chapter 7

CHAPTER VII.
THE SUPREME COURT, AND MINOR TRIBUNALS.
SYNOPSIS: —The First Resident Judge. —An Unfortunate Selection. —First Sittings. —Subscribing the Oath. —Judge Willis' Squabbles. —His Suspension and Eccentricities. —The "Gazette," "Patriot," and "Herald." —Shaving an Attorney. —Sir Redmond Barry. —Press-baiting. —Barristers and Stallions.—Bullying an Editor. —A Short Truce. —Fining and Imprisoning an Editor. —Arden's Indictment of Judge Willis. —Arden's Imprisonment and Fine. —A Memorial for Judge Willis' Recall. —Remission of his Sentence. —Assaulting a Judge. —Bullying a Barrister. —Judge Willis and Guy Fawkes. —Dr. Thomson's Imprisonment. —The Judge Cut by the Bar. —A Magistrate Sentenced. —Mr. J. B. Were's Incarceration. —Judge Willis' Removal. —Mr. Jeffcott, Second Judge. —Fare-well Dinner to Judge Jeffcott. —Rival Editors. —Judge Jeffcott leaves for England. —His Knighthood and Death. —The Third Resident Judge, Mr. Roger Therry. —His Knighthood and Death. —Mr. William a'Beckett's Arrival. —His Newspaper Contributions. —His Panegyric on Corio Bay. —Its Resemblance to Naples. —His Knighthood, Pension, and Death.
TRADE and commerce increased as rapidly as the pastoral resources of the district underwent a continuous process of extension, and it was not long before the existence of a Court, competent to deal with the more important branches, of Civil and Criminal jurisdiction grew into an indispensable necessity. A Court of Police and Petty Sessions was established after the arrival of Captain Lonsdale, in 1836; in 1839, the Quarter Sessions were opened; and in 1840, the Court of Requests; but their respective functions were very restricted. The Police Court had ministerial and judicial powers of a certain kind; but the only debts recoverable there were wages claims. The Quarter Sessions possessed a criminal jurisdiction over certain felonies and misdemeanours; but it could not try capital offences; whilst its civil authority was confined to appeals from Petty Sessions; and as to the Court of Requests, it could adjudicate only upon plaints not exceeding £10. The consequence was that no creditor could sue, excepting for trifling amounts, no probate or letter of administration be taken out, no mortgage, conveyance or bill of sale registered, no order of sequestration made, and no person committed for a capital offence tried, other than through the medium of the Courts at Sydney. This question had engaged the attention of the New South Wales Executive as early as 1837; and there was a difference of opinion as to whether a Resident Judge ought to be appointed for Port Phillip, or Circuit Courts be held in Melbourne once or twice a year, to be presided over in rotation by members of the New South Wales Bench. Sir Richard Bourke was favourable to the constitution of a Provincial Judge, and was disposed to appoint as such Dr. Kinchella, subsequently Crown legal adviser of New South Wales. The question was, however, hung up undetermined for some years, but the grievance having been so far intensified as to amount virtually to a denial of justice, had become almost intolerable. Even the Crown was a sufferer, and one case, Rex v. Whitehead (a charge of murder), is mentioned, wherein the conveyance of two material witnesses from Melbourne to Sydney and back cost £115 1s., so that pocket argument conquered at last, and eventuated in the inauguration in Melbourne anno 1841, of the Supreme Court, which was an offshoot of the New South Wales judicature, with an exclusive jurisdiction in Port Phillip, subject to the reservation of a power of appeal to the original Full Court. This Law Administering Apparatus was thus composed and compensated: —Resident Judge the Hon. J. W . Willis, £1500 per annum; Judge's Associate, Mr. H. H. Kitson, £150 per annum; Clerk of the Court, Mr. H. F. Gurner, £450 per annum; Deputy-Sheriff, Mr. Samuel Raymond, £400 per annum; Crown Prosecutor, Mr. James Croke, £400 per annum; Crown Solicitor Mr. James Montgomery, £300 per annum; with tipstaff, bailiffs, stationery and other incidentals. ​Mr. John Walpole Willis was the first Resident Judge, and, as the sequel will show, a more unfortunate selection could not have been made. H e was the son of Dr. Willis (who attended King George III. in his illness), a physician famed for his skill in the treatment of persons afflicted with insanity. Judge Willis was a member of the English Bar, of some standing in Equity business, and possessing official influence, he obtained a judicial office in British Guiana, where he soon so embroiled himself in a public quarrel, that a memorial was presented against him which led to his recall. It was not long before he was gazetted to a Judgeship in Canada, where he clashed with the Governor who suspended him. H e threatened legal proceedings, and as a quietus, he was next sent out as a Puisne Judge to N e w South Wales, and so comported himself towards his brother Judges and the Government, that they were only too glad to shift him to Port Phillip when the opportunity offered. H e was admittedly a m a n of much legal acumen, great application and considerable power of composition; but he was impotent to control a bad temper; he lacked dignity, and was capable of being easily prejudiced. Besides, in religion he was a bigot; in politics a partisan; an intermeddler in other people's affairs ; and always eager to overstep the bounds of judicial propriety, and dabble in matters not regularly before him. At the opening of each monthly Criminal Sessions when thefirsttwelve jurymen entered the box, it was his wont to address them as the Judges in Great Britain do a grand jury, but unlike them, rarely taking the state of the calendar as his text. His opening orations were always clever, discursive, irrelevant, pedantic, and spiced with pungent personalities. H e had an over-weening confidence in his own infallibility, and, as was said of Macaulay, " was so confoundedly cocksure about everything." H e was ever in a state of hostility towards some one, whether journalist, magistrate, merchant, barrister or attorney. H e constantly urged settlements by arbitration, as if inclined to shirk responsibility, volunteered advice (both on the Bench and off it) to rumoured litigants, and not only received petitions and communications from everyone who chose to so address him but used to act so ex parte as to send for individuals complained against, and threaten them with pains and penalties unless they agreed to some compromise. Accompanied by Mr. Samuel Raymond, as Deputy-Sheriff, and Mr. H. F. Gurner, as Clerk of the Court, and Mr. H. H . Kitson, as Associate, Mr. Willis arrived from Sydney on the 9th of March, and on Sunday the nth, indued in judicial robes, and attended by Mr. Brewster, a Barrister, in forensic costume, was present at divine service in the Episcopalian Church of St. James. The Supreme Court was opened in a temporary Court-house in Bourke Street for thefirsttime on the 12th April, when His Honor delivered an able address. The Judge, who was to officiate also as Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Commissioner of Insolvency, had been previously sworn in before His Honor the Superintendent. Mr. Raymond subscribed to the oath as Sheriff, and Mr. James Croke ditto, as Crown Prosecutor; after which, Messrs. Croke, E. J. Brewster, Redmond Barry, R. W . Pohlman and A. Cunninghame were admitted as the first members of the Port Phillip bar, and Messrs. Gurner and Kitson were sworn as officers of the Court. His Honor announced that Dr. W . B. Wilmot, recently appointed to the Coronership, had been sworn before the Superintendent and himself, on a previous day. The Criminal Sessions being commenced, thefirstprisoner favoured with an introduction to His Honor was Jeremiah Murphy, charged with stealing 100 shillings, 100 sixpences, and 50 half-crowns, the property of Thomas Halfpenny, at Melbourne, on the 22nd January. H e was defended by Mr. Brewster, found guilty, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. ThefirstCivil Sitting began on the 29th April, when there were eleven undefended causes for the recovery of small sums, and one application for probate. Messrs. Barry and Cunninghame appeared as counsel. O n the last day of the sitting, 9th May, there was a regular rush of attornies applying for enrolment, and also two barristers. Judge Willis was destined to have anything but a bed of roses, for the rose-leaves not only crumpled, but were quickly turned into thorns which stung him sometimes to the very verge of distraction. There were three newspapers then published in Melbourne, the Gazette, the Patriot, and the Herald. The Gazette and the Herald soon openedfireon the Judge, and as the Patriot was always in opposition to them, it naturally ​took the " other side." His infirmity of temper, and the curious pranks in which he frequently indulged, presented but too m a n y openings for fair and unfair criticism ; and such was his irascibility, and so often was the Court the arena of unseemly squabbles, that people w h o had no business there, attended to see " the fun," for, as there was no theatre in town, Judge Willis was reckoned to be " as good as a play." S o m e of the attorneys of the period were finished scoundrels, whilst others were the reverse, yet with most of them, good and bad, the Judge was, some time or other, at loggerheads; and he took an early opportunity to exhibit himself against members of the Bar, w h o certainly gave him no tangible cause of complaint. H e contracted an aversion to some of the Magistracy, and by his perverseness obliged Mr. Simpson, the best liked m a n in the Province, to resign his Police Magistracy. H e brow-beat Mr. Brewster into retiring from practice, and there was not another of his Bar, with the exception of the late Judge Williams, with w h o m he did not come into collision. H e carried his Bench scoldings so far that few persons in any position escaped, until soaring for higher prey, he assailed Captain Lonsdale, the Superintendent, the Sydney judges, and even the N e w South Wales Government; and so, ultimately rushing on his fate, he paid the penalty of his infatuation. Still, he had his good points. H e usually leaned towards the poor as against the wealthy, and it was his pleasure to hawk at high rather than low game. H e was generous in assigning counsel to prisoners destitute of means, not confining himself to capital charges. Even in civil causes he permitted suitors to apply in forma pauperis, and would request counsel and attorneys to act for them. H e would m a k e great efforts to be at times impartial, but his success was a rare exception instead of a general rule. A great stickler for punctuality, he would smilingly strike out the causes if the legal gentlemen retained were half a minute behind time ; yet, as he resided at Heidelberg, and was not favoured with a good road, he was often a laggard himself, and was known to keep the Court not infrequently waiting for him. For such intromissions the two hostile newspapers were eternally rating him—whilst the third, in a heavy, lumbering way, rang out in laudation. T h e warfare was incessant without quarter or truce, and the Judge was so eager for the fray, that he might be described as always in his " war paint." In their encounters neither he nor his antagonists ever seemed to care about observing any recognised rules offighting,for both he and they struck " below the belt;" they hit out at him right and left, and his punishment was never taken kindly. Aggressive as often as defensive, he cared little h o w he struck provided he administered a " h o m e " blow. Independent of the two editors, he had many other assailants w h o adopted indirect modes of annoying him — i n fact, he was not unlike a kangaroo perched upon the stump of a tree surrounded by a pack of yelping, biting dogs, at which he used to snarl and snap in return, and, when one of them would approach too near, the " old m a n " would give him a claw or a hug which he would have reason to remember. A s a detailed account of some of Judge Willis's almost incredible vagaries will be found on page 69 of this chapter, only one amusing incident will be introduced here. O n the 15 th October, 1842, he induced the Rev. A. C. Thomson, Church of England minister, to attend as chaplain at the opening of the Criminal Sessions and offer prayers. His reverence did so, and preceding the Judge to the Bench, there knelt and prayed in approved orthodox fashion, after which he read the proclamation for the suppression of vice, a duty hitherto devolving on the Clerk. Mr. T h o m s o n continued his monthly attendance until the session of February, 1843, when he was unexpectedly absent, a discourtesy that worked the Judge into a furious rage, not abated by the non-attendance of twenty-eight jurymen, w h o were fined heavily for their default. In the course of the day the judge was informed that the reason of his chaplain's absence wras the celebration of an important marriage, which brooked no delay, whereupon he pettishly exclaimed, " O h ! then I suppose when a lady is in the case all other things must give way." His Honor introduced the custom of T e r m breakfasts, but when he quarrelled with the Bar, he was left without guests and the "feeds" were necessarily discontinued. Judge Willis's position was one in which no single person should have been placed. Even a m a n of m u c h more equable temperament and a more judicial turn of mind, would have had an arduous task to give general satisfaction in the exceptional state of things then prevalent. Assuredly his successors contrived to evade the quicksands by which he was h e m m e d in, but some of the original difficulties had been cleared away in the meantime. During 1841-3 commercial trading had been greatly overdone, and most of the merchants and settlers of the time had got their affairs into such labyrinths of intricacy and roguery that it became almost an impossibility for any Judge, not gifted with the patience of a Job, to wade through the tangled mazes of chicanery, sharp-practice and swindling disclosed by the Nisi Prius, Equity, ​and Insolvency suits which engaged the attention of the court. And then Judge Willis had not the advantage of a learned brother on the Bench with w h o m to confer on questions of doubt or difficulty. Thus the Court in which he presided was the scene of most unbecoming exhibitions : he was never in a state of peace, and the hatchet was never buried. His antagonists goaded him without intermission ; but his adherents, though weak in social status and influence, kept manfully by him. In November, 1842, a public meeting was convened to express confidence in his administration of justice, but a breach of the peace was anticipated, and the Judge, for once, had the good sense to insist on the abandonment of the project. A n address was, however, persisted in, and when three hundred names were appended a deputation waited upon him in Chambers (nth March, 1843), and presented it through M r . John Bear, a cattle salesman of high repute. T h e Judge was m u c h gratified by the compliment, and, in replying, intimated that he had written to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, soliciting an inquiry into his conduct. O n the other hand, four memorials were transmitted to the Governor, praying for the Judge's recall; and one of them bore the names of 523 persons, including 18 magistrates, with its prayer recommended by his Honor the Superintendent. This occurred in May, by which time the Judge had quarrelled with the Governor, the Executive Council, and the Judges of N e w South Wales, the Superintendent of Port Phillip, the magistracy, the legal profession, the press, and was otherwise distasteful to more than one-half of the community. His removal was, therefore, inevitable, and h o w and when it came will be gathered from a report of what occurred on the last occasion of his presiding in Court (25th June, 1843). Judge Willis was sitting in banco, and M r . Williams had moved for a writ of Habeas to bring up a prisoner named Hill, with a view to his discharge from custody. In the course of the argument, the Judge, with accustomed irrelevancy, declared that the Queen could not delegate to any person the power to appoint justices of the peace; and therefore it was doubtful if Governors of Colonies possessed such a power. H e cited 27th H e n . VIII. C. 24. Messrs. Croke, Barry and Williams joined in a sort of conversazione, in the course of which the Judge averred that he held his Commission from the Queen direct, and it was only through illness, or absence, the Governor could interfere with the Judges at all. After this digression, the Habeas business was resumed, and the Judge was beginning to grow personal in his remarks to the Crown Prosecutor (Croke), when the Deputy-Registrar signalled to him in such a significant manner as induced him to rise and leave the Bench. Returning after an absence of a couple of minutes, His H o n o r remarked :—" That circumstances over which he had no control had transpired, which will prevent his proceeding any further in this Civil Court. It might have been otherwise had he been sitting in the Criminal Court." H e ordered the crier to adjourn the Court, which was done, and then retired ; whilst the barristers, attornies, and public also withdrew, wondering what the Judge was going to do next. Their wonderment was soon dispelled by the news that the overland mail from Sydney that morning had brought the Judge's suspension. This event was the cause of m u c h public emotion, though it hardly surprised any thoughtful person, for the way in which matters had been drifting from bad to worse, rendered the Judge's removal inevitable. T h e Gazette and the Herald were subdued in their crowings over their un-benched foe ; but the Patriot flared up like a maniac, inveighing furiously against the Superintendent and the Governor. It had been more than once broadly hinted, and as often denied, that the Patriot was under pecuniary obligations to Judge Willis, and it was not until years after, that the publication of official correspondence revealed the fact that the Judge had lent ,£1200 at 20 per cent., ,£550 of which was for the Patriot proprietor (Mr. Fawkner), and the residue to accommodate the editor (Mr. Kerr). T h e indignation of his party boiled with great intensity, and a requisition was forthwith forwarded to the Mayor to convene a public meeting to protest against the injustice with which they alleged Judge Willis had been treated. T h e meeting was held at the Mechanics' Institute, and Dr. Greeves appointed chairman, but the proceedings were very disorderly. Resolutions of confidence and sympathy, and an address embodying them were adopted; but the uproar was so loud and incessant that the demonstration could be regarded in no other light than that of a turbulent and rowdy ebullition. During the evening the letter of the Colonial Secretary was read, in which it was stated that so far back as January, the Judge had been warned, and he was removed from office pending the Queen's pleasure. A virulent personal ​contention in the newspapers set in, and the controversy was long and bitter. T h e majority approved the course taken by the Government, and the moderates of both sides concurred in the belief that if some such step had been m u c h further delayed the community would be landed in a state little short of anarchy. T h e Willisites—a powerful and influential minority—fought bravely for him, backed up by the Patriot; whilst the Herald was as untiring on the other side—the Gazette (with Greeves as a pro tern, editor) zig-zagging in a state of oscillation, blowing hot and cold, and qualifying on the morrow the assertion of the day before. T h e ex-Judge declared he should appeal to H e r Majesty in Council—an assurance out of which his adherents affected to pick large crumbs of consolation, and gradually cooled d o w n accordingly. They professed their confidence that their favourite would be reinstated, and both Sir George Gipps and Mr. Latrobe would be cashiered—not to mention such a trifle as the stern rebuke which Downing Street would fulminate against the Sydney Judges. T w o addresses were presented to Mr. Willis prior to his departure. T o one were affixed 1425 names and the other was supposed to emanate from settlers resident in various parts of the district. T h e ex-Judge, throughout all the post-judicial agitation, remained quiescent, and, with his wife and family, sailed on the 18th July, 1843, out of Hobson's Bay, in the " Glenbervie " for London. T h e deposed Judge appealed against the action of the Colonial authorities on various grounds, which formed the subject of long, and apparently interminable motions and arguments before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, occupying a period of nearly three years. At length, on the 1st August, 1846, judgment was given, reversing the order for the removal of Judge Willis from office, of the 17th June, 1843, on the ground that some opportunity of being previously heard against the amotion ought to have been given him by the Governor and Executive Council of N e w South Wales; but reporting to Her Majesty as their opinion that the Governor-in-Council had power by law to amove Mr. Willis, under the authority of the 22nd Geo. III., and that upon the facts appearing before the Governor-in-Council, and established before their Lordships, in this case there were sufficient grounds for the amotion of Mr. Willis. T h e Queen approved, and an order was transmitted from the Secretary of State revoking the appointment of Willis as a Puisne Judge of N e w South Wales and Resident Judge of Port Phillip. Mr. Willis applied to the Secretary of State for permission to resign his office, for a retiring allowance or pension, and also reimbursement of the expense incurred in prosecuting the suit. T o these demands a courteous but decided refusal was given, and all he obtained was—his back pay on account of salary, computed from the date of last payment to the date of the warrant of revokement, and such was given only because of the reversal of the amoval order. It was a dear quarrel for the colony of N e w South Wales, for it was paid for to the following tune :—Arrears of ex-Judge's salary, ,£4862 10s.; Costs paid by Colonial Agent, incurred in defending Sir George Gipps, .£865 4s. 2d. ; ditto, through postponement on behalf of defendant, ,£22 12s. 8d.—.£5750 6s. iod. T h e unwigged Judge m a d e several efforts to obtain official employment, but the Downing Street authorities, taught by the past, would have nothing to do with him, and he died in 1877. ECCENTRICITIES OF JUDGE WILLIS.
Judge Willis had hardly settled down on the Bench when he commenced a series of vagaries altogether unprecedented in any British Court in the world, and utterly subversive of the profound respect which a law-abiding community invariably accords to any high officer of justice. T h e Supreme Court soon became a laughing-stock with the public w h o collected there every morning, as if to a free theatre. Not content to deal with things as they came officially before him, the Judge frequently merged the dignity of the dispassionate functionary in the fussiness of the extreme partizan. T h e Crown Prosecutor he first cajoled, next bullied; and when that official declined to be m a d e a cats-paw any longer, the Judge so brow-beat and insulted him that the Bar indignantly rose in defence of their "father," and one day withdrew in globo from the Court-house. Judge Willis began with the attornies, and it must be frankly admitted that a few of these were as sharp practised and unscrupulous rascals as could well be found • but he did not always swoop down upon the real wrong-doers, and in his impulsive rashness the innocent were punished as often as the guilty escaped. His admirers declared that it was his love of justice that ​prompted him in his dealing with the supposed professional delinquents, but it might be attributed rather to his love of mischief—an inquietude of mind, and erratic yielding to irascibility. In as many weeks he had half-a-dozen of the attornies pilloried before him for misfeasance of the most fanciful and trumpery character, and he rated them and threatened them, and promised all sorts of pains and penalties if they did not better behave themselves in the future. Facta non verba became his motto. H e fined Mr. William M e e k ,£5, for putting what he (the Judge) deemed to be a false plea on thefilesof the Court ; and he attached Mr. H . N . Carrington for refusing to produce certain accounts, and render certain explanations in an insolvency matter with which Carrington was connected. T h e latter respectfully but firmly declined to produce, for what he conceived to be strong legal reasons ; but the Judge flew into a passion, and off-hand signed Carrington's commitment. As the difficulty arose out of a civil process, the offender was permitted to confine himself within a specified area of the town, known as " T h e Rules"; but the Judge was amusingly foiled, for Carrington's house being in West Lonsdale Street, came within " T h e Rules," and the punishment simply amounted to a compulsory staying at h o m e — a joke which was pointed with much merriment against the Judge. But Willis was equal to the occasion and accordingly ordered Carrington to appear in Court, and sent him to the c o m m o n gaol for continued contumacy. " T h e Rules " it should be remarked, comprised a certain portion of the town which the Judge was empowered to proclaim a place where persons subjected to imprisonment for debt might reside upon entering into recognisances not to depart therefrom until legally released. This course was necessitated by the smallness of the gaol, which was inadequate even for criminal offenders.* Carrington was in partnership with Mr. F. L. Clay, and in the office of Carrington and Clay was, as managing clerk, a young m a n of the not u n c o m m o n n a m e of Smith. H e was ready of tongue,fluentof pen, and not deficient in pluck. H e took up the cudgels on behalf of his incarcerated employer, and printed a letter in one of the newspapers, which the Judge did not at all relish. So ever more when Mr. Smith appeared before the Judge in Chambers, the relations between the pair were not of the most pleasant nature. Once Smith was s u m m o n e d on a jury, and the Judge ordered him to give evidence in a case on trial; but Smith objected to do so, because he had not been subpoenaed. T h e Judge, however, insisted, and Smith was forced to go into the witness box; but he had his innings next day, by the publication of a smart, caustic letter. This so riled his Honor, that shortly after, seeing Mr. Clay in Court, he publicly intimated to Clay that the clerk (Smith) would in future be forbidden to transact any business in the Court, and added in a tone of scornful contempt—"that party is too insignificant for an attachment; his law is as absurd and insignificant as himself." T h e " party" so stigmatised is Mr. J. M . Smith, the well-known legal practitioner in Melbourne. M r . Smith was admitted an Attorney. Solicitor, and Proctor of the Supreme Court, and he has had a run of paying business to the present day.
Shaving an Attorney.
In the legal profession, tempore Willis, was a Mr. Edward Sewell, a dandified solicitor, who attached much importance to the adornments of the outer man. U p to 1851 whiskers were not articles of c o m m o n wear in Melbourne, and moustachios and beards were unknown, unless with passing visitors from the bush, w h o periodically burst into town for a spell, and as suddenly burst out again when their cheques were liquefied. T h e early town colonists were well content with the barefacedness which prevailed in England since the time of William III., and were loth to encumber the human face divine with hirsute protuberances. Sewell sometimes affected the exceptional, and, at the risk of being out of the fashion, aimed occasionally to be out of the c o m m o n , and took it into his head to create a slight sensation. Accordingly, going into retreat for some time, he emerged unexpectedly from his seclusion, with a fiercely luxuriant moustache, which, if it did not increase admiration of him, certainly rendered him pro tem the "observed of all observers." Making for the Supreme Court, he stalked in with the swagger of a half-daft peacock, and gazed with solemn superciliousness around him. T h e Judge was startled and stared with m u c h wonderment. H e wriggled in his seat, and with m u c h difficulty restrained himself until the business in hand was disposed of, and then Sewell, advancing towards the Bench,
by the other side. T h e Judge regarded him with astonishment, as if unable or unwilling to recognise him in his disguise.
At length he roared out that his Court was not a place for "A
whiskered pandour or a fierce hussar!"
If the person w h o had spoken was desirous to appear as counsel, he ought to have assumed the semblance of one. As it was, his physiognomical get-up was enough to frighten a m a n out of his wits ! H e had better clear out, or he would not be long an officer of that honourable Court. T h e astounded Sewell, scared by such an unexpected reception, hastily retreated from the precincts of the highly irritated dignitary, and, fearful of being struck off the rolls if he put in a second hairy appearance, dashed away for the nearest barber's shop, submitted to a thorough tonsorial operation, and returned with a face and a conscience equally clear to the presence of the offended impersonation of Justice, where he was received as a repentant sinner, obtained absolution, and was taken (metaphorically) to the Judicial arms. T h e late Sir R e d m o n d Barry was one of thefirstbarristers w h o incurred Judge Willis' ire, and they used to have a set-to n o w and then ; but Barry's imperturbable politeness and equanimity always conquered. In fact, the moral magnetism of the gentleman usually cowed the privileged autocrat. Theirfirstencounter occurred in this wise :— O n e day in the month of July, 1841, M r . Barry was supporting a demurrer, when it seemed to the Judge that counsel was cutting it a little too fine in his argument, and he burst upon him with this interruption : J U D G E W I L L I S : " M r . Barry, sir, I do not wish the justice of any case to be frittered away by such special pleading. If the rules of special pleading adopted in Westminster Hall were to be introduced here, I do not think anyone would understand them." M R . B A R R Y : " Perhaps all have not the knowledge of your Honor." J U D G E W I L L I S : " I do not take to myself greater ability than that possessed by members of the Bar, but I might say that I have had more legal experience." Mr. Barry m a d e one of his most profound obeisances, and the gust blew over. At the July Criminal Sessions a prisoner was being tried for an assault, and the Judge inquired if the Magistrate before w h o m the depositions had been taken was in attendance. Committing Justices were bound to be present under 7 Geo. IV., Cap., 64. T H E C R O W N P R O S E C U T O R : " Your Honor, M r . Simpson, the Police Magistrate, was the Committing Justice in this case, and he is engaged in private business at the Bank of Australasia." J U D G E W I L L I S : " Private business at the bank, M r . Croke! Private business at the bank! W h a t do you m e a n ? Is that to be taken as an excuse ? Private business at the bank, forsooth, and by a m a n w h o styles himself, by his o w n affidavit, Acting Police Magistrate of Melbourne ! Private business at the bank, M r . Croke! W h y , if he has no better excuse than that, he is notfitto remain in the Commission of the Peace. Private business at the bank, M r . Croke, indeed ! W h a t next, I wonder ?" At this stage the surcharged choler boiled over in a sharpfitof coughing, and the Judge was obliged, by a strong effort, to save himself from asphyxia. PRESS-BAITING.
By this time the Gazette and the Herald had well taken his Honor's measure, and knew accurately the points of his armour through which they could pepper him with their paper pellets, which he soon learned to fear as m u c h as if they were bullets. They had him well in range, and very hot they m a d e it for him. Mythologically they might be assimilated to a couple of scorpions despatched to earth by the Eumenides to torture Judge Willis during his stay in the colony, and they plied their task unremittingly. Scarcely a day passed without the application of a typographical blister to the Judge, and the blistering was anything but a relief to him. Each morning he would arrive in town in high nervous excitement as to what might be in the newspapers about him, and on reaching his Chambers thefirstorder invariably given w a s — " Bring m e the Gazette and the Herald." Hastily glancing over the contents, if he found anything about himself, he despatched his tipstaff to verbally s u m m o n the offending editor, w h o waited upon him, and got rated, warned and threatened to his heart's content. Such interviews grew so m u c h ​into matters of course, as to have all their novelty brushed off; and the first question usually asked by Messrs. Arden or Cavenagh on coming to their respective offices w a s - H a s the tipstaff been here y6t **' . T h e " C h a m b e r " remonstrances invariably failed in their intended effect, and the stinging of the "scorpions" increased in its acridity. Judge Willis was at length driven to appeal to the Crown Prosecutor for protection, and that officer on the 20th August moved for a rule nisi for an attachment against M r . George Cavenagh, editor and publisher of the Herald, for printing in that journal an incorrect report of the remarks of the Judge in respect to the Police Magistrate (Mr. Simpson) 1 his was granted, and Cavenagh was asked to disclose the n a m e of the writer, which he refused to do ; but assumed the responsibility of the report objected to, which he declared had not been inserted with any malicious intent. T h e Judge intimated that he should discharge the rule, and let Cavenagh off this time, telling him, however, that he (Cavenagh) ought to be very thankful for the leniency shown to him. BARRISTERS NOT TO BE STALLION-KEEPERS.
A few days after, Judge Willis one morning read in a newspaper an advertisement announcing to all interested in the improvement of the breed of horses, that Houndsfoot, a stallion, would be available for the season at the station of Mr. Cunninghame, on the Goulburn. Jumping at once to the conclusion that the " Cunninghame" so mentioned was the Barrister of that name, the m o m e n t the Crown Prosecutor came into Court Judge Willis directed his attention to the astounding notification, and requested to be informed whether it was possible that the proprietor of the stallion could be one and the same person w h o was an officer of his Court ? T h e Crown Prosecutor assured his H o n o r that he was quite unable to satisfy him on the point, whereupon the Judge severely reprobated any Barrister w h o could trade in horse-flesh in a manner so exceedingly derogatory to the respectability of a learned and honourable profession. It subsequently transpired that the owner of Houndsfoot and the Goulburn station was not Mr. Cunninghame the Barrister, but that gentleman's brother. BULLYING AN EDITOR.
On the 1st of October the Crown Prosecutor brought under the notice of the Court a letter signed "Scrutator," published in the Gazette, in which the writer inveighed against the intermeddling extra-officiousness of the Judge in pronouncing opinions upon matters not judicially before him, his strictures upon the magistracy, the bar, attornies, jurors, and witnesses, and declared such a person altogether unfit for his position, " being in every case so m u c h a creature of deluding impulse." The communication was an able and eloquent production, but m u c h of its effect was marred by the bitter personality with which it was saturated. A s a specimen of unmitigated scurrility it would be difficult to find a parallel to this extract:—"The egotism and vanity which actuate his every look and expression have demonstrated that the fountain of his acts is drawn, not from the pure sources of liberal learning and enlightened knowledge, but the sterile rock of ignorance and self-conceit; coupling these with his penurious and miserly habits (for never was he, who, from his position and salary, should be an example of liberality, known to see a friend within his poverty-stricken doors) is he, I would ask, a proper person to have been sent to a young colony as its Judge ?" Having read the whole article, counsel moved for a conditional order for an attachment against Mr. George Arden, the registered proprietor of the Port Phillip Gazette. J U D G E W I L L I S inquired if Arden was in Court, and some person responded that he was at h o m e busily engaged in preparing for the following day's publication. J U D G E W I L L I S : " O h , then, in that case I call upon the Police Magistrate to issue a warrant for his apprehension." M A J O R S T . J O H N , the then Police Magistrate, being in Court, m a d e out and despatched the warrant instanter. J U D G E W I L L I S declared that had it not attacked his judicial character, be would have treated with contempt a slander emanating from a "ruffian without a name." H e entered into a lengthy vindication of ​his career, and declared "that where truth prevailed discussion should be as free as the winds of Heaven." As to issuing an attachment himself, he should not do so even had he the power. Arden m a d e his appearance in the custody of the Chief-Constable, whereupon the Judge signified that he left the Police Magistrate to deal with the prisoner upon the affidavit referred to, which alleged, in deponent's belief, that the letter was a false, scandalous, and malicious libel, written with a view to bring him into contempt and ridicule, and injure him in the estimation of his friends. T h e Police Magistrate was joined by some other Justices, and the scene that ensued is thus transcribed from a newspaper of the period :— M A J O R S T . J O H N : " Mr. Arden, I have consulted with the Magistrates present, and we are of opinion that it is necessary to bind you over to keep the peace, yourself in ,£400, and two sureties in ,£200 each." M R . A R D E N (to the Judge): " Your Plonor will allow m e to say a few words." J U D G E W I L L I S : " Not one word ! If you have aught to say, say it on affidavit." M R . A R D E N : " Your Honor has had every opportunity of vindicating your conduct in your o w n Court, on your o w n Bench, retorting upon m e in fact; will you n o w refuse to allow m e an opportunity of vindicating m y conduct from the aspersions that have been heaped upon it ?" J U D G E W I L L I S : " Silence ! Another word and I commit you. Take care what you say before m e , or I will commit you for contempt. Whatever you have to say, say it on affidavit." M R . A R D E N : " If I a m not to be allowed to speak, why bring m e here ? T h e fairest way would have been to let this case go before a Court in Sydney." J U D G E W I L L I S : " I have no time to go to Sydney ; you m a y consider yourself fortunate in having escaped so well." M R . A R D E N : " Will your Honor not let m e say a few words ? " J U D G E W I L L I S : " Not one word ! Silence ! or I commit you ! " M R . A R D E N : " W h a t a m I to do ? " J U D G E W I L L I S : " B e silent ! Tipstaff!
Do
    " Your Honor
." I U D G E W I L L I S : " I will tell you what it is ; one single libel more published in your paper, and your recognizances will be estreated." Mr. Arden, thus silenced, and apparently much astonished by such conduct, sat down. Judge Willis then rose, muttered a few inarticulate words to the magistrates on the Bench, and retired to his room. Mr. Arden then said, as His Honor had left the Court, most likely for the purpose of affording him an opportunity of justifying himself, he hoped the Bench would hear him. M A J O R S T . J O H N : " I have no objection—." M R . V E R N E R : " I think w e had better not; this is not our o w n Court, Mr. Arden." • M A J O R S T . J O H N : If you will pass your word for your appearance, this case will be deferred till to-morrow morning, when you can come up and enter into the necessary recognizances." Mr. Arden acquiesced, rose and left the court. His appearance outside was hailed with loud cheers, and the Judge on hearing the noise, rushed in a state of trembling rage from his room on to the Bench, and waving his hand indignantly, his feelings found vent in the following words:—"Tipstaff! Apprehend them all! bring them before m e ! all—if I cannot keep other places so, I will, at all events, take care to keep the precincts of this Court free from insult." The Judge waited in breathless expectation for the consequences, but the delinquents did not appear and His Honor's order fell impotently to the ground—the extensive body of the "Tipstaff" swayed carelessly to and fro within the confines of his capacious b o x — a n d all was still. O n the next day Arden appeared at the Police Court, when there were on the Bench Major St. John, Mr. J. B. AVere, and Dr. M'Crae; and, rather irregularly, Arden was not only allowed to make a statement, but succeeded in getting the case re-opened and the previous day's decision reversed. Messrs. Carrington and Connolly, solicitors, appeared for the defendant. Finally the complaint was dismissed — because the Judge's affidavit did not aver that deponent was in bodily fear of Arden, or that the libel was likely to lead to a breach of the peace. T h e result was received with loud peals of approbation. MR. ARDEN ​The Court of Quarter Sessions, of which the Judge was chairman, sat on the following Monday (4th July), and its machinery was m a d e available to bring Arden to his senses. T h e Crown Prosecutor accordingly applied for the issue of a warrant to bind him to the peace, in support of which the Judge (or Chairman) swore an amended affidavit, setting forth that the publication of the libel complained of "was calculated to excite the resentment of deponent's friends, and thereby provoke a breach of the peace." Arden was in attendance, and was ordered to enter into peace recognizances. H e then preferred a counter application to have Willis also bound over for the use of " violent, calumnious, and offensive language," but after some discussion the application was refused on the ground that the Bench had not the power to enforce a decision against the chairman. M r . Carrington next applied for copies of the Judge's two affidavits, but was interrupted by the Chairman re-appearing, and peremptorily commanding the instant adjournment of the Court. Not many days were permitted to elapse ere the Herald was showing up the Judge, both in leader and paragraph, and on the morning of the 8th of July the figure of the well-known "Tipstaff" appeared at the Herald office to c o m m a n d the attendance of Mr. Cavenagh to the angry presence of His Honor, who treated his solitary listener to a long talk against a licentious Press, and declared solemnly that the next time the journal transgressed, either through the editor or reporter, he or they should be sent to gaol. At the opening of the Criminal Sessions on the 15th, the Judge read a lengthy dissertation on libels, censuring Arden in unmeasured terms, and indirectly rating Cavenagh. H e w o u n d up by a fulsome eulogy of the Governor (Sir George Gipps), whose arrival in Melbourne was shortly expected, and a most exaggerated panegyric of Mr. Gurner, w h o m he characterised as " A n honest man, the noblest work of God."
This generous outburst was occasioned by Gurner's contemplated retirement from the Deputy-Registrarship, in which office he had shown himself one of the Judge's most faithful satellites. W h e n the Judge had finished, Mr. Cavenagh, w h o was in the jury-box, rose and declared that after the remarks which had fallen from the Judge he hoped he should be excused from serving, and Willis, mirabile dictu! allowed him to retire. A SHORT TRUCE. " Like the breeze o'er the seas Where the halcyon hath her nest."
T h e gusts of discontent swelling almost to a gale were stilled by the presence of Sir George Gipps, who poured oil on the troubled waters, and during the temporary calm Judge Willis performed an act of grace by annulling the peace-bonds given by Arden, but destroyed its moral effect by an injudicious admonition. There was quietness for two or three weeks following the departure of Sir George Gipps, but the Court pantomime soon recommenced, and the Judge directed the Crown Prosecutor to proceed against Carrington for what he deemed a gross offence of sham pleading; the squall was suffered to blow away, but not for long. T h e next deal of cards turned up what the Judge fancied would be a grand trump, w.-tbe argumcntum ad crumenam—and sought to punish the newspaper-men through their pockets He discontinued subscribing to the three journals. T h e silliness of this act was ludicrously accentuated by Cavenagh, of the Herald, refusing to accept His H o n o r s discontinuance of that paper without payment of the current quarter's subscription, for which, according to journalistic usance, he was liable H e even threatened to sue the Judge in the Court of Requests ; so the back money was paid up and the Herald dropped. T h e Christmas vacation deprived the numerous Court frequenters of their fun for a few weeks, but the new season set in with renewed vigour. O n the 12th February, 1842, there was an Arbitration case at hearing, and the inspection of a deed of partnership in the possession of Mr. Cavenagh, was considered necessary Cavenagh, happening to be there when the application was m a d e for its production, the Judge ordered him to produce it at once. Cavenagh objected to the peremptoriness of the order The production of the deed might affect his personal interest, and he asked for the suspension of the mandate until he could consult with his solicitor. T h e Judge refused to allow even a minute's -race and the following colloquy ensued :— ​declared Cavenagh's conduct, in refusing to produce the deed, as not according with the station in society in which Cavenagh moved. M R . C A V E N A G H : " I a m not ashamed of any act of m y life." J U D G E W I L L I S : " O h ! I a m sure you are not, for there is no shame in you." M R . C A V E N A G H : " O f course your Honor makes these observations from the Bench, and I a m compelled to hear them." J U D G E W I L L I S : " If you say another word I will commit you." M R . C A V E N A G H : " Your Honor has told m e so before." J U D G E W I L L I S : " Tipstaff ! Tipstaff! " M R . C A V E N A G H : " Your Honor, I beg to state " J U D G E W I L L I S : "Tipstaff! I will commit you ! " T h e Judge looked hastily round for his tipstaff, but found that that functionary had vanished. T h e hot winds of the Court-house habitually had a parching influence upon the fauces of this worthy, and he occasionally popped out of his box for a "refresher." H e was very partial to what is known as a "long drink," and this day he ran off to " wet his whistle" at the "Southern Cross" Tavern, on the opposite side of the street. T h e Judge used to tolerate his minion's little weaknesses, and by the time he resumed his place, wiping his mouth with his coat sleeve, the Judge had cooled down, and Cavenagh was allowed another day to live. T h e next morning, one of the trustees of the party, in whose interest the production of the deed was required, stated that Cavenagh had shown him the deed privately, and he was quite satisfied. T h e Judge, however, had overnight prepared a long written harangue, which he delivered at Cavenagh for the public delectation, and ended by declaring that if the deed had not been produced, he should have issued an attachment by virtue of which Cavenagh would have lain in gaol to rot until he produced the deed, and no Insolvent Act could get him out. JUDGE WILLIS
FINING AND IMPRISONING AN EDITOR.
The Criminal Session was opened on the 15th February, with a review of a recently passed Insolvent Act which entailed a punishment offifteenyears' transportation for fraudulent insolvency. After the Judge had concluded, the Crown Prosecutor moved for a rule nisi for an attachment against Mr. George Arden, proprietor of the Gazette, for printing and publishing a libellous attack upon the Administrator of Justice. Affidavits were put in from three officers of the Court, Messrs. Gurner, Pinnock, and Kitson, testifying to the propriety of demeanour, dignified conduct, and temperate bearing of the Judge. Pinnock had only just arrived from Sydney, and been installed in the Deputy-Registrarship, and it is difficult to account for such a " clean bill of health " upon any other supposition than that the judgment of the deponents had been warped up by the impulse of personal feeling. Certainly such a certificate of character could, under the existing circumstances, carry no weight with the public, but as for the libel charged, it needed no auxiliary appliances to establish its utter unjustifiableness. Ex. gra., take the following specimens of what it was :—" From the hour when Mr. Justice Willis landed in the colony, his personal behaviour on the Bench has been that of an ' infuriate,' . . . . C a n John Walpole Willis stand in the presence of that G o d whose name and precepts are so freejuent on his intemperate lips, and absolve himself from crime past and present—of crime in married life, and in single—of crime in office and at h o m e — o f prejudice, passion, and pride—of a ready spirit to lash the faults of those below him, whilst he is wisely cautious of noticing those above h i m — o f hastiness of thought and action—of violence of language, of bitterness of expression, and of thoughtlessness of carriage? Can he not absolve himself of all these, and yet will he continue day after day, to satirize, interfere with, annoy, and injure, by every means in his power, the conduct and character of those around h i m ? " T h e rule was ordered to issue, returnable in four days, and Arden was informed by the Judge that he could be compelled to answer certain interrogatories in vinculis; but he would be allowed bail himself in ,£800, and two solvent sureties in .,£400 each. It was as a matter of favour he was permitted to answer in recognizances, and not in vinculis—and he was to appear on the following day. Messrs. C. H . Ebden and Langhorne, well-known merchants, tendered themselves as ​bailsmen, and after a sharp questioning as to their private means, the Judge consented to accept them. On the 16th, Arden surrendered, and a schedule offiveinterrogatories, with his answers thereto was handed in by the Crown Prosecutor. Nos. i, 2, 3, were in reference to the printing, publishing, and proprietorship of the Port Phillip Gazette, and the answer to each was an expression of belief that there was no legal proof of such under the Newspaper Act. Interrogatory 4 was as to whether Arden was the writer of the libel; and 5—did he, or did he not, cause the article complained of to be printed and published? T h e answers were substantially the same as to the others, i.e., that there was no legal evidence under the Newspaper Act to • obtain a conviction, if he had done so. T h e answers had been sworn to before M r . Pinnock, the Deputy-Registrar. T h e Judge designated the answers as evasive, and deserving the same punishment as a confession. H e declared them to be mere subterfuges, and the respondent a miserable, wretched man, who attempted to evade the sanctity and sacred character of an oath by saying "he believes:" T h e papers were handed over to the Crown Prosecutor with the view of having a bill filed for perjury, and Arden was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in H e r Majesty's gaol, and to pay a fine to the Queen of .£300, with further imprisonment until the fine should be paid, the Judge concluding with those significant words :— " This is a personal sentence, and would be a matter of difficulty to be got rid of, even by the Crown, without m y assent." This summary punishment was heard with indignant surprise hard to be suppressed by the crowded Court, wherein Arden's sympathisers mustered in large force. H e was at once taken into custody, and accompanied by a large circle of friends escorted to the gaol. T h e prison being very full Arden was in a few days transferred to the watch-house newly built on the Eastern Market reserve, and here the State prisoner was domiciled and permitted daily to receive visits from bis well-wishers. So arbitrary an exercise of judicial power created m u c h discontent, and a memorial was immediately set rolling praying for the recall of Judge Willis, whose adherents c o m m e n c e d a counter-movement in the guise of an address of confidence. Meanwhile Arden remained incarcerated, suffering m u c h both in pocket and in health. In the month of April, the Judge, moved by some conscientious or other unknown impulse, took it into his head to enlarge Arden. O n the 15th, the prisoner was brought up on a writ of habeas, when the unexpired term of the imprisonment was remitted, and the fine left to be disposed of by the Executive, Arden to be allowed at large on entering into recognizances pending his appeal to the Governor-in-Council. T h e Superintendent (Mr. Latrobe) ultimately consented to Arden's discharge on his finding sureties to pay the ,£300 fine or surrender in a month. T h e Judge was strongly of opinion that the payment of the fine ought to be enforced, and declared he should so represent to the Governor. Messrs. Cavenagh, of the Herald, and Thomas, a merchant, were accepted as Arden's sureties, after a cross-questioning as to their solvency, and he was released. A very influentially signed petition was transmitted without delay to the Governor, praying for a remission of thefine,and m u c h to Judge Willis' chagrin, it was successful. ASSAULTING THE JUDGE.
Carrington, the Attorney above referred to, had appealed to the Full Court at Sydney, from a decision of Judge Willis, in a case Carrington v. Snodgrass, and it became necessary to serve some legal process on Willis. For this purpose Carrington, accompanied by Mr. C. H . E b d e n as a friend, attended at the Court-house on the 2nd August; but the Judge having had some intimation of what was about to happen, declared that he would commit them both for contempt, and was in the act of ordering Ebden's arrest, when the latter got off by making a vague apology, and disavowing any intention of offering disrespect to the Court. After the business was over on the following day, the Judge and the Deputy-Registrar were walking arm and arm in Bourke Street, with the tipstaff moving leisurely behind. W h e n passing by the St. James' Church Reserve, Carrington and Ebden approached, and the former making some remark, either threw or dropped a paper at the Judge's feet, but the Judge declared he had been hit by it. Willis at once ordered their arrest which was effected by tipstaff and a passing policeman, w h o marched them away to prison. T h e Judge returned to the Court, and messengers were sent out everywhere to seek the Police Magistrate and either pack or pick a Bench. (By the way Willis always had a M r . Verner, Mr. Lyon Campbell, and a couple of other J.P's. hovering about him in town, to be prepared to give him a lift out of ​any emergency in which he might get fixed, and where their services could be available.) In threequarters of an hour the Bench were got together at the Police Court, and herein Carrington and Ebden were escorted in like two c o m m o n malefactors from the gaol. T h e Crown Prosecutor was also fossicked out, and Judge Willis was in his glory. H e charged the defendants with having "unjustifiably and indecently assaulted him. Carrington as principal and Ebden as constructively implicated." T h e Crown Prosecutor talked hard to sheet it home, and Willis swore that Carrington, though a prisoner in " T h e Rules," had committed an assault on him. Carrington was told in answer to some observation, " that if he had anything to say it must be in open Court, and immediately after he threw a bundle of papers which hit him (the Judge) on the shoulder, and fell to the ground. Ebden, by his position and demeanour, was countenancing, aiding, and abetting the other." Mr. Barry appeared as counsel for Ebden, and several witnesses were examined, when the case as against Ebden completely broke down. Carrington's defence was that Willis having improperly struck his (Carrington's) name off the roll of Attorneys, and otherwise injured him, he had appealed for redress to the Full Court of N e w South Wales, and had received some legal process from Sydney to serve personally on Judge Willis. H e had written to such effect to his Honor, but his communication was not acknowledged. H e had tried to serve the Judge in Chambers, but he was told he could not be admitted, and should sec the Judge in Court. In Court the m o m e n t the Judge caught his eye, he threatened him with committal for contempt if he only moved a muscle; and so after playing the game of hide-and-go-seek from side to front door and back again until he was tired, he resolved upon serving Willis in the streets and had done so and nothing more. H e told the Judge his purpose, and when service would not be accepted, he endeavoured to touch the sacred person with the parchments and this was all. Ebden swore, that on the preceding day, he and Carrington called at the Judge's Chambers, and the papers were offered to the Clerk of the Court in the Judge's room, when the Judge roared out from an adjoining apartment, "Send them away, Mr. Pinnock, send them away and have nothing to do with them." The case was so absurd that the Magistrates could not do other than dismiss it, and the result was cheered uproariously in Court. Ebden afterwards brought an action against Judge Willis for false imprisonment, and obtained damages; but then Willis was not the Judge in his own case, for the trial did not come off until after he had left the district. It is as well to mention that Carrington's appeal was from a decision of Judge Willis ordering him to be committed under the Insolvent Act. Willis offered no justification whatever, and the appeal was allowed. BULLYING A BARRISTER.
In the Supreme Court on the nth November, 1842, an action oi assumpsit to recover on an overdue bill of exchange was being tried, Mr. Barry for the plaintiff, and Mr. Croke for defendant, when a non-suit was asked for, and during the arguments Willis and Barry did not hit it very well with each other, and indulged in a slight verbal sparring. Mr. Croke persisted in pressing his point, and was replied to by M r . Barry, who contended that until the plaintiff's right was impugned, he had made out a prima facie case, and cited an authority. H e was aware the rules of pleading were changed and quite different at the present day. J U D G E W I L L I S (sneeringly) : " Our rules of pleading at the present day ! " M R . B A R R Y : " Really your Honor, your manner is so contemptuous towards m e that I feel a difficulty in proceeding." J U D G E W I L L I S : "Sir, I really cannot allow such behaviour. I shall not suffer any m a n at the Bar to address m e in such terms. I never heard of a Judge being accused on the Bench of treating a Barrister with contempt. I shall not permit it again, so take care or I shall suspend you from practice." M R . B A R R Y : " I never in any Court was guilty of intentional disrespect." J U D G E W I L L I S : "If you do not conduct yourself respectfully, I shall be compelled to suspend you from practice." M R . B A R R Y : " I hope I m a y be allowed to proceed." J U D G E W I L L I S : " I hope for your o w n sake you will take care how you do proceed, and do so properly," ​In a couple of weeks after they had a stiffer tiff over another non-suit, when this "scene" occurred— J U D G E W I L L I S (vehemently) : " Mr. Barry, you are misleading the Court, sir." Mr. B A R R Y : "Really, your Honor, I a m undeserving of such an imputation being cast upon m e ; and I do not think such language should be used towards m e when I a m only doing m y duty towards m y client." J U D G E W I L L I S : "Your conduct is most disrespectful to the Court. I must and shall be treated with c o m m o n decency." M R . B A R R Y : " The words I used have been wrung from me." J U D G E W I L L I S : " If you do not know how to conduct yourself, I shall be compelled to take steps to prevent you from practising in this Court until you learn to do so. It is not thefirst,second, third, or fourth time you have acted most disrespectfully to the Court, and I shall not allow you or any other person to continue to do so." M R . B A R R Y : " I have only to say that it was not m y intention to mislead the Court." J U D G E W I L L I S : " Sit down, sir, and do not dare to reply upon the Court." Judge Willis never liked the H o n . J. A. Murray, a m e m b e r of the Bar, though he was a very general favourite. T h e latter had taken a trip to Sydney, and it came to the Judge's knowledge that he had been quietly "slating" him at head-quarters; so that thefirsttime Murray showed his nose in Court after, Willis accused him of having m a d e use of a private letter, written to him, which he had shown to the Attorney-General in Sydney. Mr. Murray protested in the most positive language that could be used that his Honor was doing him an injustice. J U D G E W I L L I S : " I declare, on the honour of a Judge, that what you say is not correct." M R . M U R R A Y : " Then I declare, on the honour of a Barrister, that I never did so " J U D G E W I L L I S : " I shall have no more of the gross manner in which you have chosen to contradict me. What I have said was correct, and I •" What his Honor intended to have said will never be m a d e clear, for his utterance was cut short by an officer of the Court putting a quaintly-looking addressed letter into his hand. It was hastily opened and glanced through. The Judge, forgetting all about Murray and the Sydney letter affair, turned every colour of the rainbow, and was near going off in afitof apoplexy, brought on by intense wrath. O n recovering something like consciousness, he informed the audience that the letter was the work of some anonymous villain, and sent to worry him. The writer designated the Judge an " old guy," and promised to have him "burned in effigy like Guy Fawkes, before he left the Province; and when this world was gone, and the next come, the Judge should undergo a real, not mimic ordeal byfire,in that over-heated region, where it was believed the original Guido was roasting." T h e roars of laughter with which this interesting intelligence was received, nearly drove the Judge into a relapse—so, hastily handing the innocent cause of this faux pas to the Crown Prosecutor, with injunctions to be sure and discover the writer, he adjourned the Court and hurried home to Heidelberg. Soon after this, certain irregularities, professional and private, of a Mr. Deane, an Attorney, greatly exercised the mind of the Judge, and one day, from the Bench, he declared that " As to Deane, I have no doubt the mind of that gentleman is in such a state as to incapacitate him for performing any business; but I a m afra.d he has brought it on himself. From having frequently seen him of late, I verily believe Deane is not in his senses." DOSING A DOCTOR.
On the 15th April, 1843, as the Court was sitting in Insolvency, and Mr. J. B. Were examining, Di. Thomson handed a scrap of paper to the witness, which the Judge noticing, he pounced on the poor Doctor in a^ twinkling. H e denounced such conduct as a contempt of Court, and sentenced the Doctor to seven days imprisonment. Whilst Thomson's warrant of committal was being prepared the Judge read the intercepted memo., which simply conveyed the impression on the writer's mind of Were's evidence, whereupon Willis declared such an interference with a witness whilst in the hands of the Court, to be ​absolutely outrageous, and he increased the sentence from a week to three months. Thomson was then removed, but, in the course of the day, he applied, through Mr. Williams, for permission to apologise, and was brought up for that purpose. H e did so by declaring that he had not the remotest intention of contemning or offending the Court; and in ordering his enlargement, Judge Willis pronounced Dr. Thomson to be the last m a n in the colony who ought to have asked for mercy from him. " T h e Doctor's meddlesome propensities were known well enough, and they would get him into a scrape some day or other unless he was very careful." The Doctor seemed so astounded that he could not at once comprehend such a caution. H e continued standing, as if fascinated, glaring through his spectacles at the now amused Judge, who grinned at him like a Cheshire cat, and such was the status quo until some friendly by-standers timidly dragged Thomson off out of the way of further harm. THE JUDGE CUT BY THE BAR.
Willis' conduct, both on and off the Bench, continued to add to the daily hostility now fretting like an angry surge around him. H e ridiculed the proceedings of the Sydney Judges, and was so infatuated as to drag some of the private dealings of Mr. Latrobe and Captain Lonsdale into publicity in one of his so-called judicial orations. The complaints of his misbehaviour were so free^uent and formidable that Governor Sir George Gipps felt it his duty to invoke the intervention of the authorities in Downing Street. One day he indulged in such grossly disparaging remarks upon the Crown Prosecutor that that official at length lost all patience, put up his back, and bowing, left the court, followed by the Barristers. This exodus was endorsed by the publication of a pronunciamento, signed by the entire Bar, viz., Messrs. Williams, Cunninghame, Raymond, Barry, Pohlman, and Stawell, declaring the Judge's remarks to be an unwarrantable attack upon Mr. Croke, and thanking him for the manner in which he had maintained the dignity and privileges of the Bar. The Judge took an early opportunity of making a viva voce reply, by assuring his hearers that both himself and the Court could get on very well without a Bar at all. The following day, it was his duty to read in Court a judgment of the Full Court dissenting from a decision of his, and he did so with much unbecoming levity. His reading of passages was accompanied by a running commentary, wherein he mixed up stale jokes with poor chaff, and exhibited himself in anything but an enviable character. The same day the quiet and harmless Mr. Pohlman (so well-known for his inoffensiveness and amiability in after years) ventured, like a stray sheep, into the wolf's den. This was hisfirstappearance there since the presentation of the Croke complimentary address, and the Judge, when he saw him, was on for a row. In a cause proceeding an attorney hastily handed Pohlman a brief, but when he intimated his appearance, the Judge, with what was meant to be a scowl of contempt, exclaimed, " D o you think I a m to be made a child of? If you do, you are much mistaken." Pohlman would gently insist that he had a locus standi, but was scared almost out of his senses by the Judge furiously vociferating, " I tell you you are not in the case at all, and I do not require an Amicus Curice. Take yourself away and cure somebody else. W h e n I a m in need oi your services I shall send for you. I wonder, after the treatment I have received, you should presume to ask any indulgence at m y hands." A n application was made to the Judge for a criminal information against his favourite newspaper, the Patriot, for the publication of a veryflagrantlibel upon Mr. John Stephen, a Master-Mason and member of the Town Council. During the discussion His Honor vented his indignation in the most furious language against his own libellers. " I well know," shouted he, " what it is to be libelled, for I have been repeatedly libelled in that scurrilous paper, the Herald; I have placed the matter in the hands of the Crown Prosecutor, who, I hope, may be able to reach the editor. I have been so scandalously libelled in that infamous paper as to make it utterly abominable. I do not care for their libels personally; but only as regards the Judge of this Court." A MAGISTRATE INCARCERATED : A CUMULATIVE SENTENCE.
On the 2nd June, the cause of Atkins v. Manton and Co., was being tried. It was an action of assumpsit, to recover ,£474 9s. nd., amount of a promissory note. Mr. J. B. Were, as a Justice of the Peace, sat on the Bench, taking no part in the business, as the trial was before two Assessors, but being ​called as a witness for one of the parties, the Judge sharply told him "to go into the witness box : the other witnesses go there, and he must do the same as other people." Mr. Were's condition became anything but a pleasant one. T h e cross-examination had not proceeded far when the following extraordinary interlude was improvised in the day's performance :— M R . B A R R Y : "Will you swear that you told Atkins you gave consideration for the note?" M R . W E R E : " I do not recollect." MR. BARRY
    " Wrill you swear to the contrary ?"
M R . W E R E : "I cannot do so."
M R . B A R R Y : " A n d yet you negotiated the bill ?" His H O N O R : "This is the most extraordinary Non mi ricordo evidence ever given. T h e witness first swears one thing and then another." M R . W E R E : " Your Honor cannot expect m e to swear what I do not know." M R . B A R R Y : " Did you make the arrangement yourself, or did you get a person to go between you as in Howitt's case ?" M R W E R E : " I presume I made the arrangement myself with Atkins, because neither m y brother nor Mr. Dunsford interfered with Rucker's affairs. Will swear that I do not recollect of any conversation taking place with Atkins at the time ; nor have I any recollection of where the arrangement took place." His H O N O R : " I cannot allow a witness to trifle with the Court in this way." M R . W E R E : " I cannot take it upon myself to say when, where, or h o w the arrangement was made." * * * His H O N O R : Y o ufirstsay the exchange was not made by yourself, but by Dunsford ; and then you say it was made by yourself." M R . W E R E : " Will your Honor be pleased to take down in the evidence that I added, I understood from looking over a book at the private counting house, and from which I took a memorandum, that Dunsford was not at Geelong at the time ? Will your Honor take down what I have said ?" His H O N O R : " I shall put you elsewhere directly." (Part of the evidence read by the Judge.) M R . W E R E : " Will your Honor be pleased " His H O N O R : " I shall please to exert m y authority over a witness w h o has prevaricated ; and will commit that witness to the Melbourne Gaol for two months for gross prevarication." M R . B A R R Y "hoped Plis Honor would allow the examination to proceed, as by a late Colonial Act he was entitled to have Mr. Were's evidence." His H O N O R : " I cannot permit such a witness to proceed further. Sheriff, take him into custody." M R . W E R E addressed Mr. Barry, and handed him a slip of paper. H e hoped he would do him the justice of adding to his evidence, the explanation he gave from that note.
His H O N O R repeated his order to the Sheriff to take the witness into custody. If it had been a poor m a n who had so prevaricated he should have committed him, and Were's station in life was an aggravation of the offence. Considering the m o d e and tone of the examination, he (the Judge) should not be doing his duty if he acted otherwise. T h e whole conduct of the witness was such as merited the strongest reprobation. M R . B A R R Y pressed for the benefit of Mr. Were's evidence. H e was very sorry indeed. The Judge rose from his seat to retire to his private room, and as he did so, he, with some sarcasm repeated Mr. Barry's " very sorry indeed;" and just as he was about to disappear, Mr. Were sang out from the custody of the Sheriff, "I dare say you are very sorry indeed," whereupon the Judge turned round, came back to his seat, and looked furiously at the audience. Making an effort to control his feelings, be contrived to say, with enforced calmness, " I thought as I was on the point of leaving the Bench I heard an expression of 'very sorry indeed.'" A brief pause ensued, during which the Judge glared around, as if intimating to everybody that he was pausing for a reply. Mr. Barry, at length, awoke the deep silence, and declared that he understood Mr. Were to have addressed the words to him. This was corroborated by the Sheriff, whereupon the Judge was mollified, and withdrew from the Court. O n his return the case was resumed, and in summing up the Judge declared Were's testimony to be valueless, " T h e Non mi ricordo of Majocci was nothing to be ​compared with it ; such conduct was most disreputable in a magistrate of the territory, disreputable to him as a magistrate of the town, disreputable to him as a merchant, and disreputable to him as a man. Indeed, it reflected disgrace on the whole Province, for what will the people now think of Port Phillip?" M R . B A R R Y "hoped such a general conclusion as unfavourable to the Province would not be drawn." T h e Assessors found for the plaintiff, and Mr. Were, all this time in custody in Court, bore his tribulation with m u c h stoicism. After the delivery of the verdict he was even plucky enough to renew the fight, by asking the Judge for a copy of his evidence. His H O N O R : " I will not give it to you." M R . W E R E : " Will your Honor allow m e to sign it. I do not think it has been taken d o w n correctly." His H O N O R : " I can commit you, you know, for another contempt." M R . W E R E : " I do not care ! I will still protest against the correctness of the evidence as taken down." His H O N O R : " I shall not bandy words with you, and will certainly commit you for another month." M R . W E L E : " I still protest against the registry of that evidence, and I shall do so as long as I stand here." His H O N O R : " Let him be committed for three months." M R . W E R E (leaving the Court with the Sheriff), looked towards the Bench, bowed, and said, " I wish your Honor a good morning." His H O N O R (Excitedly)—" Let him be committed for four months, for gross contempt." M R . W E R E : " I a m obliged to your Honor, for I know that every month you give m e will add to the pleasure it gives to yourself." His H O N O R : " Let him be committed for another month." M R . W E R E was by this time got to the door of the Judge's room, where he was heard to mutter something indistinctly. His H O N O R (in great wrath)—"Then let him be committed for six months." Before Were had time to continue any further doubtful compliments, and so have his durance prolonged, the Sheriff and some officers of the Court thrust him outside and closed the door. After the lapse of a few moments, the Sheriff re-appeared, and represented to the Judge the very bad accommodation the gaol afforded. H e hoped the sentence might not be carried into execution. His H O N O R : " Mr. Sheriff, I will not be trifled with any longer. Let the prisoner be removed at once." A n d removed he was, to anything but comfortable winter quarters. Since the foregoing was written the following facts, of which I had no previous knowledge, have been communicated to m e :— Mr. J. B. WTere arrived in Melbourne in the latter end of 1839, and, as the bearer of letters from the Secretary of State, would have obtained any Government appointment he might desire, but he settled down to mercantile pursuits, and was a well-known figure in the commercial world. O n the 20th July, 1840 he was especially appointed a local magistrate for Port Phillip, and on Judge Willis' arrival in 1841 His Honor and Mr. Were became very close acquaintances. Indeed, Willis, appreciating Were's ready tact and commercial knowledge, liked much to have his assistance at Nisi Prius sittings, when most of the causes used to be then tried by a Judge and two Assessors. The entente cordiale did not continue long, and was snapped thus :—John Batman had appointed Captain Lonsdale one of his executors, and after the testator's death Lonsdale irregularly transferred his part of the trust to a Mr. P. W . (" Paddy ") Welsh. Willis ferreted this out, and vowed that thefirstchance he got, he would send Lonsdale to gaol, and leave him there until he turned to a m u m m y . With exulting voice, and an ecstatic hand rubbing, he used to gloat over what he was meditating to Were, but the latter being on intimate terms of friendship with Lonsdale, did not respond so sympathetically as desired to Willis' charitable anticipations. So they cooled towards each other and Willis, who was quick in his transitions of temperament, was soon Were's inveterate foe. T h e action out of which Were's cross-examination arose on the day he got the six months' dose, was one of a series of legal ​proceedings that sprung from a curious monetary transaction known as the " Twelve Apostles," and if Willis had only given him time to answer, he could very satisfactorily have done so, as the question at issue was the consideration given for a certain bill, and the bond-fides of this could be established beyond a doubt. But the Judge did not want a satisfactory answer, and only hoped to be able to place W e r e where he so longed to send Lonsdale. H e n c e the outburst of petulant bullying and the result. Mr. Were, however, only passed one night in the prison, for the small place was so c r a m m e d that next day the Judge, on application felt forced, against his will, to permit his enlargement, but confined him within " the Rules." Mr. Were lost no time in bringing his ill-treatment under the notice of the Executive Council, and his memorial was endorsed by a number of very influential signatures. It is stated as beyond doubt, that on its receipt, the veryfirstact of the Council was to pass a resolution removing Judge Willis from office on various grounds— the principal one being his acting oppressively to suitors in his Court, not belonging to that section of the community known as the Judge's sycophants. THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Melbourne was now in the turmoil of its first election of a Legislative Council representative, and its first m e m b e r did not win his seat without a hard fight for it. T h e candidates were Messrs. Curr and Condell, and the election was decided more by the religious creed of the m a n than his political proclivities. Personal feeling and sectarian intolerance mingled their bitter waters to s w a m p the chance of Edward Curr, whose superiority over the other was never questioned; and Judge Willis, bigot as he was, leaped into the whirlpool, from which he, of all m e n in the place, should have stood aside. H e had the audacious folly to personally canvass the persons with w h o m he dealt, to vote for Condell, simply because " he was an honest man." In the height of the electioneering campaign, Willis and Curr m e t face to face at Williamson's drapery establishment, in Collins Street (now Rothschild Chambers), when Willis began a loud gushing canvass for Condell, looking and speaking at Curr all the time. Curr, though an older and more pacifically disposed man, had some notion of subjecting the sacresanct person of the Judge to a taste of corporal punishment, but he prudentially restrained himself, satisfied with hieing off to the Police Court, where he laid his grievance at the feet of the Police Magistrate, and applied for a " protection order " in the form of a warrant to apprehend the Judge, as otherwise a breach of the peace m a y be provoked. Major St. John would as soon think of jumping into the Yarra as complying, even if he had the clearest perception of his power to do so, for he stood awfully in awe of Willis, though he thoroughly detested him. So the Major pooh-poohed the affair, and Curr's good sense kept him from going'any further. This electioneering escapade of the Judge was the last straw on the camel's back; but the crowning and most cowardly of all Judge Willis' m a d tantrums remained to be enacted at the opening of the Criminal Session on 15th June, 1843. The Crown Prosecutor was obliged to absent himself through severe illness, and though this was known to the Judge, he took the opportunity to publicly blame him for the inefficient manner in which he had discharged the functions of a grand jury, viz., by omitting to find bills in certain cases where there had been open cross-swearing and conflicting affidavits. S o m e of them he particularised and connected them with the names of Were and Lonsdale. H e declared that bills would be found soon enough against poor men, but the rich m e n were overlooked, and there should not be one law for the rich and another for the poor. If the Crown Prosecutor longer declined doing his duty, it would be for him (the Judge) to make a representation of the circumstance to H e r Majesty's Government. " If such cases as these were to be smothered and nipped in the bud, then an end at once to all prosecutions, and an end to all hopes of good faith in the higher ranks of society, and bad faith will be engendered towards the mercantile community." This was about the last of his public improprieties, for the sands of his official life were running through the glass faster than he expected. H e little dreamed at the time that the Executive Pares had already pronounced his doom, and that the Atropos, whose scissors were to sever the thread of his judicial existence was then posting hither in the overland mail from Sydney. Such is an uncoloured resume of some of the almost inexplicable vagaries of the brief reign of the first Resident Judge of Port Phillip, collated, after aflightof over forty years, by the unprejudiced pen of
Mr. William Jeffcott,
The second Resident Judge of Port Phillip, arrived from Sydney in the revenue cutter " Prince George," n t h July, 1843. H e was a member of the Irish bar, and had been L a w Adviser at Dublin Castle. H e was brother of Sir John Jeffcott, once Judge in South Australia, and was described by the Sydney correspondent of a Melbourne journal as " bland in his manners, of first-rate talents, and about 40 years of age." H e had practised for a short time in the Sydney Courts, and obtained the Port Phillip appointment because no other Barrister of any standing would take it. H e was a bachelor, and accompanied as Associate by Mr. R. W . Shadforth, son of Colonel Shadforth, of Sydney. H e took up his quarters at the Prince of Wales Hotel, in Little Flinders Street east, then the most select place of entertainment in Melbourne. T h e new Judge was an early riser, a great stickler for punctuality and etiquette; and he commanded the Deputy-Sheriff and Deputy-Registrar to appear officially costumed in Court, and his Associate to mount a wig and gown. T h e wig was ultimately not insisted on. O n the 15th July, Judge Jeffcott, took his seat in the old Court-house ; but as the N e w Court-house was completed, he at once adjourned the Session there. In the N e w Court-house, therefore, the new Judge virtually made hisfirstappearance. In the civil jurisdiction, Mr. Raymond presented a petition from Mr. J. B. Were, detailing the circumstances of his imprisonment by Judge Willis, and praying to be discharged from custody. Judge Jeffcott declined to entertain the memorial in its then form, because it imputed motives to the late Judge. H e suggested its amendment by the omission of everything except a plain narrative of the circumstances connected with the imprisonment; and adjourned the Court to 3 o'clock. The amended petition apologised for any warmth of feeling evinced by the petitioner on the previous occasion, and had an affidavit attached that Were had not, and had not intended to have, committed prevarication when so summarily dealt with by Judge Willis. A document was also put in signed by Major St. John, Captain M'Crae, Messrs. Raymond, Ebden, Campbell, Welsh and others, declaring that Were had not in reality been guilty of any contempt. His Honor regretted that the memorial had not been presented to Judge Willis, who would, he believed, under the circumstances, have felt it necessary to abate the severity of the sentence. H e therefore did-what he thought the late Judge would have done, grant the prayer of the petition ; and the Sheriff was ordered to discharge Mr. Were forthwith from custody. A n d now things began to go smoothly. Judge Jeffcott was the antithesis of his predecessor. H e was good-tempered,firm,impartial, and methodical. H e presided on Mondays in C o m m o n Law, Tuesdays in Equity, Fridays in Insolvency ; and, as an enlr'e and exit rule, it was directed that spectators should use the main entrance facing south ; magistrates, barristers, attornies, and press, the western door; and jurors sheriff's officers, and officers of the Court the eastern door. H e was a vast improvement upon the gentleman he succeeded, and the Court business was no longer a series of gratuitous farces for public amusement. From a bear-garden it became a decent, well-behaved place. The golden rule of suaviter in modo et fortiter in re was thoroughly exemplified in the new Judge. Mild and courteous to a degree, his firmness and determination taught both branches of the legal profession a lesson by which they promptly profited. The monthly oration to the criminal jury was discontinued, and the public was allowed to go its own way, up or down, right or left, without anything of the semblance of the ultra-judicial homilies of old which always irritated and never edified. Even the improvised services of Parson Thomson were dispensed with, and the Criminal Session was opened simply by the crier's sonorous iteration of " O yez ! O yez ! " a change duly appreciated by a community desirous of no sectarian or religious ascendancy of any kind. Judge Jeffcott did not remain long in the district, for he resigned his office towards the close of 1844, and the 4th of February, 1845, witnessed his last appearance in Court. T h e Crown Prosecutor presented his Honor with a farewell address from the Bar, in which specif reference was made to the courtesy and amenity of temper, the untiring energy and uncompromiSig integrity, ability and zeal displayed by the departing functionary. T h e Judge was deeply affected by the compliment, and, in an appropriate reply, declared " that his position as sole Judge in a young colony, which was struggling at the ​time of his arrival with the severest commercial distress, would have been one of overwhelming an he had not had the good fortune to be assisted by a Bar who united with the high and honourable feelings of gentlemen, learning, industry, and ability in the discharge of their professional duties." It was not to be supposed that the Melbournians could permit a gentleman who had so endeared himself to them to leave without a parting demonstration of respect, and this assumed the form of a public dinner, at the Royal Hotel, on the evening of the 6th February, when some one hundred andfiftypersons were present. The Mayor (Mr. Henry Moor) officiated as chairman. His Honor the Superintendent was there, and everything went on " merry as a marriage bell " until the toast of " the Press " was given, whereupon there ensued "a scene" positively disgraceful. The Stewards had assigned the response to Mr. Cavenagh, the editor of the Herald, and when he was called on, the rival editors (Messrs. Kerr, of the Patriot, and M'Combie, of the Gazette) jumped up simultaneously, and loudly and vehemently objected. They were repeatedly called to order, but persisted in their disorder, until, after much persuasion, M'Combie sat down, or, rather, was pulled into his chair ; but Kerr would not give way. For nearly half-an-hour he stood, vociferating, " I'll not be put down," and clamorously insisting upon a hearing. After a lengthy interlude of indescribable confusion, the chairman, with much difficulty, succeeded in getting the disturber audience ; but thefirstsentence uttered conveyed a reflection upon some judicial decision of the guest in whose honour they had assembled, and this brought on an increased renewal of the uproar. The Superintendent and the ex-Judge contrived to slip away during the melee, and Kerr, upon discovering their flight, turned on the Mayor, whom he charged with drunkenness. The shindy was thus intensified, and so continued for another half-hour, when Kerr was ejected from the room. The plea subsequently set up for him by some of his friends was intoxication, which was indignantly denied by others on his behalf. Mr. Kerr was an Alderman of Melbourne at the time. On the nth February, a public meeting was held, at which a committee was appointed to prepare a valedictory address to the late Judge. This was done, and the document, subscribed by 1118 signatures, was presented to him by a deputation of some of the principal residents. It was of a highly complimentary character, and was suitably and feelingly replied to. Mr. Jeffcott left Port Phillip on 21st February, 1845, in the " Royal George," for England. He was accompanied to the wharf by the Superintendent, the members of the Bar, the principal Government officers, and a number of settlers, merchants, and shopkeepers. He carried with him the good wishes of the community. On arriving in Ireland, he resumed practice at the Dublin Bar, and so remained until December, 1849, when he was appointed Recorder of Pulo-Penang, and Chief Justice of Criminal Judicature for that island and Singapore. A Knighthood was also conferred on him, and in a few years after he died. THE THIRD RESIDENT JUDGE
Of Port Phillip was Mr. Roger Therry, the only Roman Catholic who has as yet sat upon the Supreme Court Bench in Victoria. Pie was born on the 22nd April, 1800, was called to the Irish Bar in 1824, and was a personal friend of the great Irish lawyer and politician, Daniel O'Connell. Though wanting the legal ability of Willis, and the independence and strength of character of Jeffcott, he possessed a fair share of tact and good temper, and had acquired considerable official experience. Arriving in New South Wales in 1829, as Commissioner of the Court of Requests, hefilledthat office for eleven years, and had acted as Attorney-General during a two years' absence of Mr. J. H. Plunket. He represented the County of Camden for some time in the Legislative Council of New South Wales, and when nominated to the Port Phillip Judgeship, was in his forty-fourth year. Prior to his arrival, it was stated in the Patriot that he had been appointed by Governor Sir George Gipps without the concurrence of his Executive Council, by reason of Dr. Broughton, the Episcopalian Bishop of Sydney's declaration that he would never consent to place a Roman Catholic on the Bench. (Bishop Broughton was a member of the Executive at the time.) This was contradicted by the Sydney Herald, for the appointment could not have been made outside the Council. Mr. Therry presided for thefirsttime in the Supreme Court on the 8th February, 1845. As a New South Wales politician, Mr. Therry was not a favourite. He was a "trimmer," and ever anxious to stand well with the Government; but it would be difficult tofinda more patient, painstaking or conscientious ​Judge ; and the manner in which he presented cases to a jury rendered much satisfaction. As in Jeffcott's time, the proprieties of a Court of Justice were observed, and nothing of a "scene" occurred, except a harmless "flareup " n o w and again between the brusque old Crown Prosecutor and some opposing Barrister. In the beginning of 1846 Judge Therry tendered his resignation, to accept a seat on the N e w South Wales Bench; and on the n t h February an address, signed by all the then Bar (Messrs. Croke, Brewster, Barry, Pohlman, Williams and Stawell), was presented to him, in which the subscribers expressed regret for the loss of " a Judge whose assiduity in the unaided discharge of his duties has upheld the dignity of the Bench, and whose extreme urbanity of deportment, invariable courtesy, and considerate attention to the members of the Bar have rendered less difficult the discharge of their professional labours." In his reply, the Judge declared that " no change of position, nor time, nor distance, can ever efface or weaken the sentiments of respect, esteem, and gratitude towards the Bar of Port Phillip with which I a m deeply imbued for the kindness with which, when a stranger amongst them, they received m e on m y arrival, and for the uninterrupted manifestation of fair-minded and amicable dispositions which have marked their intercourse with m e from the commencement to the close of m y tenure of judicial office in this young, prosperous, and rapidly advancing community." T h e Attornies and officers of the Supreme Court rendered him a similar compliment, and prior to his departure he was entertained at a Bar dinner in the Prince of Wales' Hotel, where their Honors the Superintendent and the new Judge (A'Beckett) appeared also as guests. Mr. Therry returned to Sydney, and obtained a seat on the Bench there, which he held until 1859, when he retired, and proceeded to England. H e was knighted, and died on the 17th May, 1874. In ten days after Lady Therry died also. MR. WILLIAM A'BECKETT
Arrived as Resident Judge from Sydney on the 7th February, 1846, per the steamer "Shamrock." He appeared to be in very delicate health. Born in London, on 28th May, 1806, he was admitted to the English Bar in 1829, and after his arrival in N e w South Wales quickly took a good position in the Sydney Courts, where he was Solicitor-General in 1841, and ultimately Supreme Court Judge there. T o benefit his health, an exchange was negotiated between himself and Mr. Therry, who was an ardent Sydneyite. M r . A'Beckett was feted at a numerously attended Bar dinner in Sydney, and received a very laudatory address from forty-nine Solicitors. O n the 16th February, the new Judge was inducted. H e was suffering from an attack of rheumatism, and was supported to his place by the Sheriff. This was thefirstmaiden assize in the province, though the time-honoured presentation of white gloves was forgotten. Messrs. Croke and Pohlman were the only Barristers in attendance, and the absence of business was not occasioned by any dearth of prisoners for trial, because there were several in gaol; but the change of judges had interfered with the issue of the necessary venire, a preliminary without which a jury could not be constituted. Judge A'Beckett was a m a n of cultured mind, varied attainments, large intellectual calibre, and a deep groove of thought. S o m e of the Sydney newspapers passed strictures on his brief judicial career there, insinuating a vacillation of purpose, and a proneness to be unduly influenced by colleagues, but these inuendoes were not justified by Port Phillip experiences. Learned and impartial in the judgment seat, liberal in opinions, freehearted in charity, and tolerant of all religious denominations alike, a Unitarian himself, he w o n the respect and esteem of the community, and his delicate health never interfered with an official career the reverse of a sinecure. H e was, besides, an accomplished writer and lecturer. S o m e meritorious effusions from his pen appeared occasionally in the Melbourne newspapers under the nam de plume of " Malwyn," a family name, and were m u c h admired. T h e Herald was usually selected as the medium through which his bardic utterances winged their way into the world ; but a time came when some of the rival journals penetrated the anonymity, and spoke out their mind about the improper preference, so the current was cut off, and the Parnassian chirrupings heard no more. Judge A'Beckett also displayed a good deal of quiet humour on the Bench. T h e queer old Crown Prosecutor, often as uncouth in his tongue as in his general demeanour, used to be very loud in his talk at times to those about him, and one day he and ChiefConstable Sugden were " barneying " about some hitch in a criminal case. Their recrimination attracted the attention of the Judge, who, looking determinedly at both the offenders, exclaimed " Mr. Croke ​it would be extremely inconvenient for me to have to commit the Crown Prosecutor for contempt during the Criminal Sessions; but (turning to Sugden) if the Chief-Constable does not hold his tongue, I certainly shall commit him." "Old Croke" sat down with a guttural grunt which might mean anything; but the caution was not lost on the Chief-Constable, who ever after took care to keep his often loud and unruly tongue in a state of good behaviour. For several years during Judge A'Beckett's tenure of office, he was persistently and cruelly abused by some of the Melbourne newspapers, for the publication of inflammatory speeches delivered two or three times in the City Council. For printing one of these tirades an editor was committed for trial, and on another occasion an attachment was issued from the Supreme Court; but a reluctance to appear as Judge in his own case, and to resort in any way to the despotic power so abused by Judge Willis, constrained Mr. A'Beckett to treat with silent contempt the calumnies unsparingly hurled at him. In 1850, Circuit Courts were established, the first of which was held at Geelong on the 20th January. Judge A'Beckett attended divine service at Christ Church, and afterwards opened the business of his Court in an address of much research and no small rhetorical power. It was one of the most readable judicial deliverances ever printed in the colony, and, as a sample passage descriptive of the surroundings of the once romantic bay of Corio, I transcribe a brief extract:— "Let me pause to say a few words of the locality where we are now assembled. Standing within a bay, which from certain points presents no unworthy resemblance to the far-famed one of Naples, the situation of Corio is at once beautiful and imposing. Washed, but not too rudely, by the waves, and refreshed by the breezes of the sea, the town and neighbourhood afford many delightful points of attraction. Let the spectator ramble in which direction he will, he cannot but be struck by the beauty of the surrounding prospect. Before him stretches an amphitheatre of coast terminating in a mountain, which, sweeping gracefully to a picturesque height, contrasts with the silvery hue of the waters at its base, in ever-varying reflexions of the tints and shadows of the sky and clouds above. Turning towards the shore, a lovely landscape of hill and dale, and no less full of agricultural promise than of scenic beauty, everywhere meets his view. If he wander along the banks of the Barwon, he will perceive both the garden of the villa and the meadow of the farm; and if he ascend to the summit of the Barrabool Hills, he will be rewarded by a sight of one of Nature's most magnificent panoramas." For the year or two before Separation, the judicial duties were becoming too onerous for a single Judge, yet Justice A'Beckett continued at his work with unflagging assiduity; and after Port Phillip became the Colony of Victoria, he was nominated the Chief Justice of the first Full Court of three Judges. A Knighthood followed, and he retired upon a well-earned pension at the inauguration of Responsible Government in 1856. He died on 27th June, 1869.