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

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 morning.
It is true that 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 he 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
hut himself could have misunderstood. Thoroughly
imbued with the principles of the common 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 forgotten that for
neatness, brevity, and accuracy of diction,the written
judgments of Mr. Justice Wightman have seldom
been surpassed.
It cannot be said with truth that the eminent
man who has just been appointed by the Lord
Chancellor is cast in the same mould as his prede-
cessor. Universally liked by his professional bre
thren, and universally admired for his high-minded
character, his reputation at the bar, like that of Lord
Chelmsford and Chief Justice Cockburn, 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 Lord Chancellor 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 administering
the law ? If it does, what is to become of the ma-
jority 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 those 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 fur the asser-
tion that since the bench was open to men of all
persuasions justice has not been fairly administered.
Not even the Record would have the courage in
these days to propose any alteration in the present
system in Ireland. The case is surely much monger
in England. Even if a single Judge were bent
upon perverting justice, what could all his efforts
avail against all his colleagues on the Bench and a
strong Protestant population ? No Judge can com-
mit injustice, for his decision may be overruled, or
he may be removed from his place.
It is almost an offence to the new Judge to dis-
cuss so ungracious a subject. Mr. Sergeant Shee
has achieved his present position by genuine hard
work. He will no doubt sustain his reputation as
a lawyer. But if, in addition to this, he can succeed
by his impartiality and tolerance in disabusing his
more benighted fellow-citizens of the superstition
that no Roman Catholic has any sense of justice
when his religion is involved, and that those privi-
leges which in principle have been conceded to men
of all opinions ought really to be denied to Roman
Catholics, he will confer no ordinary public benefit.
It is not many years since some of the most eminent
lawyers of the day were compelled to confine them-
selves to . their chambers because they were not
members of the Church of England. That system
has been abolished, and the prizes of the profession
are in theory open to all barristers without restric
tion. To allow such a man as Mr. Sergeant Shee
to reach the top of his profession, and yet to deny
him a seat on the Bench, would be to repeat the
monstrous absurdity of allowing a Dissenter at the
University to enter the arena, but to deny him the
prizes and privileges which usually wait on success.

(From the Morning I'oBo
It is definitively known that Mr. William Shee,
Queen's sergeant-at-law, has accepted the Lord
Chancellor's offer of the puisne judgeship in the
Court of Queen's Bench, vacant by the death of Sir
William Wightman, When the fact became known
to the bar yesterday it was the cause of great satis-
faction ; Mr. Sergeant Shee being one of the most
popular, as he was one of the most able, of advo-
cates.

The new judge was born in 1804, the son of Mr.
Joseph Shee, of Thomastown, in Kilkenny county,
and is a Catholic, bat not an "Ultramontane." He
was educated at St. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, at
Durham, and at Edinburgh. In 1828 (Tune 19) he
was called to the bar by the Hon. Society of Lin-
COWS (nn, and went the Home Circuit. In 1840
he accepted the coif, and 18 years later was ap-
pointed Queen's sergeant, ranking nest after Mr.
Sergeant Manning, " Queen's ancient sergeant,"
with a patent of precedence. As a barrister Mr.
Shee first earned distinction for his intimate ac-
quaintance with shipping cases, his editions of
Abbott (Lord Tenterden) "On Shipping" and
Marshall "On Insurance" procuring him much
business. He was an eloquent advocate also in
criminal cases, and earned high reputation for the
part he took in such famous trials as those about
the Roupell property, the British Bank, Mr.
Hatch, William Palmer, the poisoner of Rugeley,
&c. _ _

At the general election of 1847 Mr. Shee stood
in the Liberal interest for the borough of Maryle-
bone, the other candidates being Sir Benjamin
Hall (Liberal), Lord Dudley Stuart (Liberal). Sir
James Hamilton (Conservative), and Mr. Robert
Owen (Chartist). The learned sergeant expressed
himself as " not an enemy of the Church " though
" not a member of it," and the electors " must
not expect him to distinguish himself by hos-
tility to the Church of the great body of
the people," though he thought that church-
rates ought to be abolished, and considered the
" Church of Ireland a scandal and a shame to Chris-
tendom." He was in favour of secular education,
for an extension of the franchise, and vote by ballot.
The show of hands was in favour of Mr. Sergeant
Shee and Sir Benjamin Hall, but the poll showed
the following result:—Sir Benjamin Hall, 5,343;
Lord Dudley Stuart, 5,367 ; Sir James Hamilton,
3,667 ; Mr. Shee, 662—a result due to Lord Dud-
ley's concession to the Dissenters on the matter of
religious endowments. " Daring the whole con-
test," said the learned sergeant, " I can say with
pride that I never heard the disgraceful yell of No
Popery' sounded against me." In 1852, however,
he was more successful ; not, however, in England.
He stood for Kilkenny county at the general elec-
tion of 1852, and was returned at the head of the
poll, obtaining 2,153 votes; his colleague, Mr. John
Greene, 1,922 ; %villa his opponents, Lord James
Butler, polled but 441 ; and the Hon. Leopold Agar
Ellis, 267. In 1857 he was not so fortunate. The
Hon. L. A. Ellis polling 2,587 votes; his colleague.
Mr. J. Greene, 1,630 ; the Hon. Mr. Mostyn, 1,314 ;
and Mr. Shee, 1,034. In 1859 he stood again, and
was again defeated, the close of the poll showing
for the sitting members, the Hon. L. A. Ellis end
Mr. J. Greene, 2,507 and 2,036 votes respectively ;
while Messrs. G. H. Moore and W. Shee, the
tcnant-right champions, had respectively but 1,774
and 1,610 votes.

In Parliament Mr. Shee was not a popular
speaker, but he was a very active member of the
Roman Catholic party, and was the promoter of a
scheme of Irish Church reform much more favour-
able to the Church—introduced by much more
candid and fair statistics—than Mr. Bernal Os-
borne's in 1863.

His lordship is, as has been said, most popular at
the bar for his sterling worth and genial manners.
He has several times gone circuit as judge of assize,
and has won golden opinions from barristers and
the public for his dignified bearing, his courtesy,
and his eminently judicial temper. A better ap-
pointment to Justice Wightman's office could not
have been made,

Mr. Shee married, December 26, 1837, Mary,
daughter of the late Sir James Gordon Gordon,
seventh baronet, of Letterfourie, Banffshire, by
Mary, daughter and heir of Mr. William Glendon-
wyn, of Glendonwyn, sister of the present baronet.
Mrs. William Shee died October 11, 1861, too late
to see her husband a judge, though not too late to
know that he had long earned the honour.

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