The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-11 00:00:00

and that a Baron of the Exchequer has bee°,
,rntee
ra
Chief Judge in Ordinary of the Court of
Prot
e;
and Divorce. We desire to believe thaa` the se Ic
tion has been made deliberately, after the f°3
consideration of the exceptional circulate:ll'e" ' a-
Elected with this particular appointment,
„md v
feel no difficulty whatever iu regarding Sir J. 1";
7!s
Wilde as a man who would not have accepteel t is
post had he not been thoroughly confident 0 f h
ability to hold it with honour and conduct its dt ttii 3
with success. But the institution of a country 1°1:.
the administration of justice being among the n
delicate and important of all its establishments, Inn
coming more frequently and closely into cons act
with individual right, comfort, and Prosperity t ban
the political constitution itself, and this new co urt
being still an experiment, with extraordinary func-
tions and powers, the successor of Sir Cressy Tell
,•resswell will be watched by the public with a
tical eye,
and the responsibility of the position Be
occupiea will not be diminished by the fact theta in
the general
estimation, the deceased judge left en
arena in weiej, many were qualified to debate, but
scarcely one, excepting himself, to decide. And even'
he, at the outset, ea ,-I a mountain of prejudices and
popular fears to climb, Tile Court of Probate and Di-
ba'
vorce began its sittings; before the community wa
altogether reconciled to the strange authority it pro-
fessed to wield. There were flo precedents ; there was
no body of practice ; the casee heard were often re,.
wilting, and always painful. ,Sir C. Cresswell,
indeed, descended into the horrid depths of family
discord, marital cruelty, feminine infidelity, the
wranglings of relatives—all the vices', weaknesses,
vulgarities, and domestic abominations, which, until
then, had been hidden or only occasional .5' revealed
by a costly process in the High Court of ;he Peers
of Great Britain. He had to construe a law which.
as Chief Justice Hale expressed it, " Hed not
abidden the test of time ;" he had, in the language
of the same jurist, " to employ a vast circumspec-
tion" in dealing with the petitions laid before him ;
and how he triumphed over the perplexities, embar-
rassments, and intricate novelties of his situation
the world already knows. In succeeding him, Sir
James Wilde—who was often his colleague on the
bench of the Divorce and Probate Court—inherits
his experience, though not possibly the special and
laborious acquisitions upon which it was founded.
Every point in the career of Sir James Wilde as a
lawyer and a judge is favourable to the chance of
his successful presidency over. the new court at
Westminster. But, certainly, few human responsibi-
lities could be greater. He is the ,iudge of families,
of firesides, and of deathbeds. He breaks the bonds
of the Church, when villany or immorality have
polluted them ; he destroys by a decree all that con-
stitute a home ; he takes the son from his father, and
the daughter from her mother; he annuls the con-
tract of marriage ; hepeers into the remotest secrets
of domestic life—all its happiness, all its sorrow, all
its eccentricities, and all the anguish suffered 'When
it withers away. He—with the juries aiding hine--
interprets the last wills and testaments, and even
the latest coherent utterances and thoughts of the
dying. Such a judge, presiding over such a tribunal,
should be a man utterly dispassionate, placid, of
unwearied memory, of lucid and logical mind, of
infinite tact and acumen, of quick and yet orderly
intellect, and, above everything else, strictly faithful
to the law he administers. All this was Sir Cress'
well Cresswell. He made no effort to conceal the
loathing with which he was inspired by Pr'
Smethurst, the reputed poisoner of Richmond,
and yet he rendered to that man ungrudging
justice. We trust that, in course of time, the
same merit may be ascribed to his successor opt!,
the Probate and Divorce Bench. But he himself
must feel that the task is not an easy one--not
whit the easier because juries in that court have tc:
be so constantly checked in their displays either °'
sympathy or of indignation. They look upon
childthe
in a state of moral orphanhood, and they
for
get what the decrees of the old consistory were, all,d
are eager to give the verdict of 12 paladins. in
addition to this, legislation has not yet simplified er
reconciled all the jurisdictions which bear upon,
marriage and will causes. Our modern matrimonial
law has still in a great degree to be created, and
partly by the new Judge in Ordinary himself. Therefore, while welcoming Sir Jas. Wilde heartily
to his inheritance of great toils which may ere"
him with brilliant honours, we have a right to ex-
press an anxious hope that the judicial machine*
which has worked so well during the last five years
may work with .equal success under the guidance
of a judge whose leading qualification, of course,
must be that he comprehends, and is prepared to
carry out, the system of his predecessor.