The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-16 00:00:00

RIOT' WATIM AT LIMON ■RThO?

reP DAT 4;.7.711111;;•da7 6h. 16 u.
10410•3011... Morning, at dip.....Abwrims. 7h. 70.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16.

Tim mat on the Bench which was occupied by
the late Mr. Justice WIGHIMAN has already been
filled. Mr. Serjeant Save has been transformed
into Mr. Justice Saes, and the profusion as well
as the public have reason to congratulate them-
selves upon the selection which has been made.
It would be unjust, indeed, to the memory of a
most excellent man and an admirable lawyer, if in
announcing the name of the new Judge no mention
were made of that of his predecessor. Having closed
a career not undistinguished at the University
of Oxford by obtaining a fellowship at Queen's, Mr.
WHIHEMAN soon acquired a high reputation as a
special pleader, and subsequently joined the
Northern Circuit, at a time when such men as
Scasx.Err and BROUGHAM were the leaders, and
PARKE, ALDERSON, and PATERSON were the chiefs
behind the bar. For some twenty years Mr.
WIGHEMAN maintained his position against such
rivals. Within less than thirty years every one
of that illustrious band rose to the judgment-seat,
and within the same period all but two have already
passed away. Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN was the last
who remained in office. Nor perhaps is there any
incident which could more forcibly illustrate the cha-
racter of the late J udge than the manner of his death.
To die at the post of duty is the wish of everytrue
soldier, and in the battle of life such an aspiration
is not less noble. To the young lawyer courage
and pertinacity are as essential to success as bril-
liancy or acuteness. Point out the man who at
the age of fourscore will undertake a winter assize
—sit on, day after day, in close courts, his mind
constantly on the rack and his pen constantly at
work, almost up to the very moment when the
hand of death is upon him, and his success
needs no explanation. Such was the fate of
the Judge whose loss we deplore, reminding
us of that sturdy Chancellor, CAMPBELL, who
after a singularly protracted career, and in
the usual pause of official business, retired to rest,
and was found by his servant sitting dead in his
arm-chair in the morn
It is true thht the very qualities which enable a
. .
lawyer ultimately to succeed sometimes expose
him to peculiar temptations. Courage degenerates
into unscrupulous audacity, and pertinacity into
impatient violence. At the bar the late Judge
never needed to kick down the ladder by which he
ascended, or to assume a virtue which be had
failed to practise. On the bench he never deigned
to court applause by pandering to popular feeling ;
or to explain away expressions used to a jury
which none but himself could have misunderstood.

Thoroughly imbued with the principles of the com-
mon law which he had to administer, his singularly
retentive memory supplied him with all the learning
on • any particular point, whilst his perspicuous
acuteness and sound judgment enabled him to
arrive at the true conclusion. Nor must it be for-
gotten that for neatness, brevity, and accuracy of
diction, the written judgments of Mr. Justice
Wioirritiag have seldom been surpassed.
It cannot be said with truth that the eminent
man who has just been appointed by the LORD
Quitter:l.l4n is cast in the same mould as his pre-
decessor. Universally liked by his professional
brethren, and universally admired for his high-
minded character, his reputation at the bar, like
that of Lord CHP.LMSPORD and Chief Justice COCK-
BURN, is due more to his abilities as an advocate
than to his merits as a lawyer. At the same time
there is no reason to doubt that he will
admirably perform the duties of his new office,
and sustain the reputation of the English bench.
It has, indeed, been whispered that the religious
faith in which the new Judge has been brought up
should have precluded his appointment. It is
fortunate, indeed, that the Loan CRANCYLLOR has
furnished the practical answer to those who hinted
at so gross an injustice. Does any reasonable man
believe that Roman Catholicism absolutely incapa-
citates a man for dispensing justice or administer-
ing the law t If it does, what is to beoome of the
majority of Christians, for they must live under
such judges? In Ireland the problem would
seem even more insoluble ; for there if Roman
Catholic Judges may be trusted in cases be-
tween theea of their own persuasion, who shall
decide between the Protestant and the Catholic
in the same suit? The question is idle, for experience
has solved it. There is no pretence for the asser-
tion that since the bench was open to men of all