The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-07 00:00:00

RAMSHAY and OURSELVES.
(From the Liverpool Journal of Saturday.)
On Saturday last, for the first time in our life, we
were visited by bailiffs. On Monday, for the first
time in our life, under any circumstances, we were
brought before a court of justice ; and on Tuesday,
for the first time in our life, we were sent to gaol.
On Wednesday morning we awoke in Lancaster
Castle, and found ourselves in prison. On the same
morning Mr. Ramshay awoke in some house in
areat George-square, and :found himself notorious.
Forty-eight hours had served to concentrate. on the
obscure judge of a petty court the entire indignation
of the people of England. Ile bad outraged public
opinion by daring to assume a power never claimed,
certainly never exercised, in this empire by any judge
during the last hundred and sixty years. The fact
was so astounding that the electric wires were em-
ployed to convey it, and the public press everywhere
denominated it extraordinary. In Liverpool the
excitement kept within the proper moderation neces-
sary to the occasion ; but we do not, we believe err
in stating that Mr. Ramshay, on Tuesday morning,
was literally friendless. He had repelled from him
even most of those who venerated his office, and
startled into anger those who had never cared to
think previously about him. So manifest was
the public feeling that the officials of the
court, mistaking a decided earnestness for popular
anger, put themselves on Tuesday needlessly under
the personal protection of the prisoner they were con-
veying to gaol, the man whom Mr. Ramshay had so
grossly insulted when that man was judicially in Mr.
Ramohay's power. We do not compare for one
moment in respectability with Mr. Ramshay ; we are
prevented from doing so by our own self-respect ; hut
the public felt that the language of the bench on that
occasion was perfectly novel in its atrocity—cowardly
under the circumstances—unworthy under any cir-
cumstances of a gentleman, because it was low and
vulgar—such only as " beggars in their drink" resort
to, and never heard in a court of justice since Judge
Jeffries earned for himself the epithet " infamous"
Our able and eloquent, and most judicious advocate,
Sir George Stephen, was excluded by the usages of
the court from making a reply; and our experience
in the respect due to courts of justice, and the sacred-
ness of the judgment seat, imposed silence
on u
during and after this outrage on our character and 1
feeling. But—

" There is a minute,
When a man's presence speaks in his own cause,
More that' the tongues of twenty advocates."

And we are disposed to believe that the wrong-doer
only suffered from this display of mean malice.
The question between Mr. Ramshay and ourselves
has passed into the keeping of other hands than ours.
It is now in the care of the public ; and of the result
nobody can' have a doubt. The contest is unequal;
end, as our sympathy is naturally with the wea.k ,
Afr. Ramshay will have our pity when we discover in
hia.' those good qualities he claims, but of the exist-
ence of which we, in common with many, are sc,ehpa-
t
tical. At the same time it is only rghtteato say
for our
our knowledge of him is extremely i
life has been too busy to seek co_nacteurrneirament in the
has obviously
or-
dinary history of nobodies.. IN
and he has,
denied him the higher qualities
I demonstrated
within the last few days.' sufficiently nt mind;y
soundu judgment. A man
that tie is sadly wanting
notinn
attract public attention ;
in his condition could
consequence
of
this,
his appointment
and, partly in Court in Liverpool took the
as Judge of the County
public by surprise. His new situation brought him
necessarily within
the cognizance of the press, and
his unfortunate temper imposed a duty on journalists
to report the proceedings of his court fully and fairly.
The circumstance which attended his appointment,
and the offence given by his petulance on the
bench, provoked in us a few comments. The
leader will now see—what Mr. Ramshay should
have seen long before—the value of our almost pro-
phetic warnings. How these warnings should have
excited in him the intense hatred he undisguisedly
entertains towards us will, we suspect, puzzle most
of our readers, as they have certainly puzzled our-
selves. We will not attempt to account for it, but
we must be permitted to wonder at the perversity of
purpose that could single us out for persecution.
Seeking always to uphold the dignity of the profes-
sion to which we have the honour to belong, we have
firmly resisted every temptation to render our paper
an instrument of wrong towards individuals. Mr.
Ramshay, owing to his infirmity of temper and bad
health, was an unfit judge to preside in the County
Court; but when, after investigation, the Earl of
Carlisle declined to dismiss him, we, so far as we
were concerned, resolved that he should have
fair play. In this spirit we rejoiced, and
stated, as will be seen at the time, that his health was
restored, hoping he was a wiser, if not a better man,
and that the useful court over which he presided
was likely to realize all `_the benefits it was capable
of bestowing on the people of Liverpool. A commu-
nication with a friend whom Mr. Ramshay, we be-
lieve, esteems, led us to form a resolution not again
to make either him or his proceedings matter of
comment ; and to that resolution we religiously ad-
hered. We were solicitous to be in no way accessory
to the increase of an alleged infirmity, but which in-
firmity we are now convinced never existed. In com-
pliance with our tacit contract with the public, we
continued, as usual, to send reporters to his court, but
with strict injunctions to be faithful, setting nothing
down in malice. A little display of eccentricity—the
banquet at the County Court—brought to us a crowd
of letters on Mr. Ramshay's blundering invitations,
and his coach and four grey horses ; but we com-
mitted them all to the flames as soon as received ; and
had as little intention of " wilfully insulting" the
Judge of the County Court, "on his way to or from
the court," on Saturday morning last, as we have
now of " wilfully insulting" the Queen on Thursday
next, oa her Majesty's way to and from the Town-
hall.

It is unnecessary for us to announce that we con-
sider it impossible for Mr. Ramshay to continue ad-
ministering justice in our County Court with honour
to himself or advantage to suitors. While he remains,
however, the people will respect his office, and what-
ever we may think of the man, the judge shall meet
with no wilful insult " at cur hands. If Mr. Ram--
shay has been rendered uncomfortable by the events
of the last few days, he has only himself to blame.
He assailed us openly, violently, and without provo-
cation ; bu+, humble as we are, he failed in the attack,
d in the brief rencontre he has come to the ground.
i'ablic opinion rushed to our support, and has been
too strong for him. We did not cross his path ; until
within the last few days we did not even know his
person ; and journalists prefer to fly at higher quarry
than a judge of a petty court. But Mr. Ramshay
has now, however, made his little court the worn's
talk, and exposed himself to the criticism of those who
wir endeavour to form a correct estimate of his quali-
fications. Of these qualifications we are not now
disposed to speak. Mr. Ramshay himself is of
no consideration to anybody but his friends ;
and our quarrel with him refers to a question in which
all of us are deeply concerned, and in which the in-
terests of the commuity are involved. We shall not
degrade a great principle by resorting to needless
personalities ; and we shall not imitate our opponent
by pronouncing judgment in our own case—that is
to say whether we have been legally wrong—being
at once judge, advocate, and witness. But there is
one circumstance which we cannot, in any feeling of
forbearance, overlook. Mr. Ramshay on Monday,
an. d again on Wednesday, under pretence of excusing
himself and strengthening the case aaainst us, insi-
diously sought to wound the natural affections of the
gentleman who instructed our advocate—not an ob-
scure attorney, but a solicitorrofeaiawho stands beside
those who ornament the p
Judge did not hesitate to remind hinari. of Tip. e Learne
brother's
death, and dared to insinuate that we
e aided in
killing him—an audacious falsehood, that could
be
uttered with impunity nowhere but on theben
The late judge of the County Court was so
rnacchh.
respected by us as a lawyer,and so much venerated
as one of the best classical scholars in Europe,
that not a single word hurtful to his feelings was ever
written by us. Mr. Ramshay has provoked a letter
from a son of the late Mr. Lownes ; and if Mr. Ram.
shay be the man he describes himself, he has imbibed
from that calm and dignified remonstrance a bitter-
ness of heart that will endure till death.
The persecution to which we have been exposed,
and which had reference less to the alleged offence
titan brought to imaginary libels, has to our side
troops of old and crowds of new friends, who have
maaa our cause their own. In our own profession
a generous
neces-
sity—.even warmth has relieved us from the
the possibility—of comment, unless we
repeated what has been already admirably said; and
we need not declare how grateful we are to one and
all. We have only
the moral of ymoto add, that as we
away with the mere decadence of s history
do not con-
sider
will pass
hero,
we cannot regard the
which has been aroused intensity indignation
etnoe.of the deplorable
sity of the
ject of it. In these popuslarispropertioned to the ob-
and the people learn a great leacitements the actors
principles at stake ; and that lesson lasts.
value of the
lasts.

................
midday from
On Tuesday, while the down train at
, John
Ayr to Glasgow was waiting at the Dairy *u Alacbride, grocer, Salcoats, on his way to Killan: Qn
very narrow escape from being killed. lie was etca*ihnad a
the platform awaiting the train from Glasgow tonike °a
flock, when, recollecting that he had forgetten a parcel inn.itthe
carriage he had been in, he stepped from the platform, and
was crossing the rails in order to regain it, keeping all the
while an observant eye on the advancing train from Glas-
gow, but seemingly quite unaware of the one from Kil-
marnock approaching behind him. This was within a few
yards of him. Shouts of alarm and screams of horror ema-
< •,.. V. 74 nated from the onlookers—all were unheeded. His fate
'• •
.!;:." Fterned certain, when a railway guard, disregarding his own
nikril, sprang forward, and pushed him off the rails. Both
-I ta:f Yell together, but quite unhurt. But for the presence of
miad.andrapLl resolution of the guard his death would have
.. . :71. 'lbosen inevitable. The name of the guard, we understand, is
--r.-,...4 John Auld. His bold exertion ought not to piths unnoticed.
Etlinarnoch 'journal,
1:-,-...1-' ~,-
......;‘,..4%,
l'a ... ,4t. s
j,
,r 1.4. t

'›