The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-17 00:00:00

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DEATSIR JOHN WILLIAMS.
The sea ject of this notice was at his country resi-
dence, Livermere-park, near Bury, in Suffolk, enjoying
that needful relaxation which this period of the year
usually places at the disposal of the overwrought lawyer,
where his earthly career was unhappily brought to a
close. The age of Sir John Williams was not much
short of 70 years, but those who knew him considered
that his state of general health was sufficiently good to
warrant the hope that he might be destined to enjoy as
long a life as ordinarily falls to the lot of a successful
lawyer. The learned personage just deceased had been
for the last twelve years one of the judges of the Court
of Queen's Bench ; and if he did not display in that
distinguished position talents and attainments of the
very highest order, he at least brought to the discharge
of its onerous and important duties great integrity, a
sincere and earnest desire to administer justice in exact
conformity with the existing state of the law and the ac-
knowledged principles of British jurisprudence. The
subject of this memoir reached the dignified station which
he occupied at the time of his death without much aid from
that species of connexion which in the present day is
deemed almost essential to forensic success; for he began
life at the bar with scarcely any means of procuring
clients beyond that which a distinguished university re-
putation may be supposed to confer. Sir John Williams
was a native of Bunbury, in Cheshire ; his family, how-
ever, were settled in Merionethshire, and Sir John was
always very careful to have it understood that he be-
longed to the principality. His father was rector of a
parish in Merionethshire, but he was also vicar of Bun-
bury, and was residing there when his son John was
born. At the well-known grammar school of Manches-
ter Sir John Williams received the early part of his
education, and he proceeded thence to Trinity College,
Cambridge, eminently qualified by the instruction and
discipline of his boyhood to avail himself of the advan-
tages and acquire the honours which a university pre-
sents to men of diligence and ability. He went- to Cam-
bridge in the year 1794, and obtained a scholarship the
first time that he sat. Mr. Williams took his bachelor's de-
gree in 1798, and during his under-graduate course ob-
tained several prizes; but the chief object of his youthfulstm-
bition—that to which he attached much more importance
than to any advancement in after life—was a fellowship.
In hoping for that distinction he was not destined to en-
counter disappointment ; and it is rather a remarkable
proof of his peculiar opinions upon this subject, that he
has been sometimes heard to say, he considered the
honour of a fellowship, obtained in the face of that com-
petition against which he contended, an acquisition
superior even to the dignity of the ermine. Mr. Wil-
liams, in getting his fellowship, very modestly acknovea
!edged that he achieved success over a competiter set-
perior to himself in general scholarship. That gentle-
man was obliged to struggle through life as he best
might on the scanty pittance which a poor clergyman
receives, while a more favourable fate awaited Mr. Wil-
liams ; but to his infinite honour be it recorded, that
when professional success and considerable opulence re-
warded his labours, he generously remembered his col-
lege rival ; and considering him hardly used by fortune,
allowed him an annuity in aid of the scanty income which
that learned and estimable person derived from a small
church living. It is understood that the annuity has
been continued to his widow.
Long after Mr. Williams quitted college, he devoted
his time occasionally to classical studies, as the pages of
the Edinburgh Review amply testify, for they contain
articles written by him on the orations of Demosthenes,
and on several Greek plays. Even still later in life his
classical attainments attracted attention; and Lord 'Ten-
terden, a high authority on such subjects, as well as upon
the laws of the land, pronounced Mr. Williams to be the
best scholar throughout the whole profession.
Sir John Williams was called to the bar in the year
1804, and although he did not rise to the highest rank
of the profession, he still obtained a very respectable
amount of business. Mr. Williams chose the northern
as his circuit, and the Liberal party as his political
friends. Both were bold steps; for the magnitude of the
circuit rendered success more problematical in that
quarter than in any other, while certainly no prudent
man could in the early part of the present century see a
prospect of silk gowns, or ermined robes, by connecting
himself with Whigs, Liberals, and other adversaries of
the Church, the State, and Lord Chancellor Eldon.
Slowly, but securely, did Mr. Williams advance in the
arduous profession of the law; accident never seemed to
have procured for him a client, and accident never de-
prived him of one. It could not be said that he en-
joyed a first-rate business; but he scarcely ever lost a
client, and though a man of ardent temperament his
discretion in the conduct of a cause was pre-eminent.
In proof of this, it may be stated that the late Sir John
Bayley has been heard more than once to declare that if
he were to be tried for his life he should desire to be
defended by Mr. Williams. Even the present generation
need scarcely be reminded that the proceedings against
Queen Caroline formed by far the most important occa-
sion upon which any lawyer has been employed during
the present century. The Attorney-General of that
Princess became Lord Chancellor, her Solicitor-General,
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, two of her counsel,
successively, Chief Justices of the Common Pleas, and a
fourth one of the judges of the ecclesiastical courts.
Amongst those eminent men Mr. Williams took a
conspicuous part as ono of her Majesty's advocates; and
the almost unrivalled powers of cross-examination which
he displayed upon that memorable occasion fully realised
the expectations of his friends. His skill as a ere,es.
examiner was generally acknowledged by the profession,
but it was not until after he had exercised that
astonishing power upon the notorious Theodaire Majocci
that the public at large became aware of ids matchless
talents in that branch of an advocate's duty. Soon after
the Queen's trial," as it was called, his clients became
more numerous, and his name considerably more public.
An opportunity for getting into Parliament presented
itself in the year 1822, when he stood upon the Liberal
interest for the city of Lincoln, and was returned. The
most remarkable use which he made of his powers and
privileges as a Member of Parliament was to co-operate
with Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor in denotnacing the
abuses of the Court of Chancery; but it must be
admitted that the share which he took In the delibera-
tions of the House of Commons did not very greatly
add to the reputation which he had previonsly
acquired; but upon the whole he made rather a
favourable impression on the House, and he certainly
assisted in laying the foundation, or at least preparing
the way, for several of the improvements which since
that time have been effected in the Court of Chancery.
A change of the Ministry at length procured for him
that professional position to which he had for some
years been fairly entitled. He received a silk gown,
and soon after the accession of William IV., her Ma-
jesty, now Queen Dowager, appointed him her At-
torney-General. In February, 1834, he became one of
the Barons of the Exchequer, and having sat in that
court only one term was transferred to the Court of
King's Bench, where he remained until the period of his
lamented death. It is well known that Sir John Wil-
liams appeared to considerable advantage as a judge in
criminal cases, and that he laboured unceasingly, in.
every case that came before him to reconcile his strong
sense of justice with, perhaps, his still stronger feelings
of mercy. Although Sir John Williams bad been for
some weeks past indisposed, he was not thought to be in
any imminent danger, and he had, we understand, been
considered by his physicians as labouring under soma
affection of the liver. On Monday last, however, het
complained of increased pain in the chest, and to the
great regret of that very numerous circle of society who,
could appreciate his many estimable qualities, Us
valuable life was on that day brought to a close,_.
Times.

REDUCTION 01' THE HILL AT PICCADILLT.--FOT
some time past a number of labourers have been engaged
in digging away the hill in Piccadilly, from Half Moon-
street to Dover-street, and re-paving it with broken
granite.

OFFICIAL PROMOTION.—The Commissioners of the
Customs Department having had under their notice
othe fficerrespoofrtths
the several
endfrdoempartitmmeentsto,
stiumbme
ibtytintghe ptherinnacmipl
names
of officers and clerks for promotion on vacancies, hare
considered it expedient to promulgate an order, impress-
ing upon the principals that it is their duty in such re-
ports to bring prominently under the notice of the Board
all the circumstances affecting the character and con-
duct of the parties, whether such circumstances may
have been recorded in the annual returns of capacity
and character or not ; and the Board have desired it
to be distinctly understood by the whole of the
employees throughout the departments in the United
Kingdom, in the service of the Crown, that hence-
forth any transaction of a discreditable nature, pecuniary
embarrassment, neglect of duty, or other misconduct,
will be held by the Commissioners sufficient to justify
them in withholding promotion from officers or clerks,
even in the lower grades of the service, in which promo-
tion has usually proceeded by seniority, unless it shall
be made evident to the Board that such parties have, by
continued good conduct and increased zeal and activity
in the discharge of their duties, subsequently entitled
themselves to favourable consideration. This order has
been communicated to the heads of the department in.
London and throughout the United Kingdom, for their,
government in this matter, and for the information, of
the several officers under their survey.
THE CONVICT HENRY.—Yesterday morning Joseph
Henry was sent off from the prison of La Roquette to
the hulks at Toulon, in execution of the sentence of the
Court of Peers. Until his being transferred to this
prison he maintained hopes that his appeal to the King
for a commutation would meet with some success; and
more than once sent for his counsel, M. Baroche, to
whom he expressed great anxiety as to his fate. At six
in the morning he was informed that he must prepare to
go to Toulon, undergo the usual process, and put on the
dress worn by all persons sentenced to the hulks. He
sunk into a state of despair and almost stupor, exclaim-.
ing, " Oh, God! Oh, God! All then is over! No horcie
is left." And when brought out to be put into the van,
he saluted those around him, and seeing an inspector
general of prisons among them, he raised his eyes to
him and said, while his face streamed with perspiration,
which he endeavoured to conceal, but could not,
should have preferred death." Seven other convicts,
condemned to the hulks for different terms of from five
to ten years, were sent off with him. None of them
seemed to have the least cornmisseration for their
miserable companion. Among these was Pierre Marie
Lecareux, sentenced for six years as one of Fournier's
gang of robbers, and when he was stripped for being in-
vested with the convict's dress, there was found tattooed
on the right side of his breast, Mort a Fernier et ct
Helaine Magnet (Fournier's mistress), whose confessions
and evidence formed
,the main ground of conviction.—
Galignani.

Accounts from Malaga state, that six persona have
been sentenced to be shot for the assassination of Colonel
Tubado; six banished for ten and six years from the
Peninsula; seven condemned to imprisonment in a pre.
imprisoned
for for ten and six years; and four women
for five and four years, and six and four months. Two
are also to be imprisoned for six months.