Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-03-26
How Rn IrEsh Judge BuIIdOzes the
Judges BELOW Him.
n.Lt. o. ~ W, M,

How Rn IrIsh Judge BuIIdOzes the
JudEeH below Him.
Dublin Cor. New York Times.J
We have been amused and scan
dalized here for many day by the
terrible dlatribes of Lord Justice
Christian on' his brother Judges.
Mr.. Christian is said to be the
greatest lawyer in Ireland or even
in England. He was raised to the
bench in an almost unparalleled
way-straight from the ranks of
the profession, without political
claim Of any sort. He was first
made q judge of the Court of Com
mon Pleas. and his delight here
was to prove that his chief and his
colleagues new nothing of law, to
Scorn their decisions, and hold them
up to public ridicule. From this
post he was elevated to the lord
justiceship of the Court of Chan
cery Appeal. This court, as its
name signifies, hears appeals from
all the Chancery branches and from
Chancery itself; so that it reviews
the judgments of no less than three
courts of first instance. Under
Mr.. Gladstone's administration
Lord 0'Hagan was the Irish chan
cellor, and whenever his decisions
came before the Court of Appeals
in which he himself, by curious
anomoly, had a seat-Lord Justice
Christian was wont literally to
scari(y him, and the spectacle
of one judge abusing the Judge
who sat beside him was too good
not to attract enormous audiences
to the court.
At last the matter was brought
before parliament; but parliament
preferred to let things be, and the
lord justice appeared to grow worse
than ever When Mr.. Gladstone
was defeated, Lord 0'Hagan of
course retired Ton a pension of
$4,000 Year,, and Dir. Ball, Mr..
Disraeli's chancellor took his place.
Everybody waited to see what Mr.
Christian would do. Strange to
say, he behaved wonderfully well
but he had a victim none the less.
He pounced upon the vice chance,
lor, Mr.. Chatterton, man of slight
legal attainments and a perfect
faculty for taking the wrong view.
His decisions we're invariably re-
verSed, the lord justice lacerating
the unhappy man in the most ex-
quisite style on every recurring oc-
casion. At last the vice chancel-
lor made an effort to hit the lord
justice. 1t fell out in this way: A
case of no great moment came be-
fore him and he decided against the
plaintiff, a lady. She appealed to
the court above. The lord chan
cellor and the lord Justice reversed
the decision and sent the case back
to the vice chancellor to settle
matter of accounts.
The vice chancellor now touched
his reyengp, and in settling the ac-
count mulcted the lady in the sum
of elO37 She appealed again, and |
the court above again reversed the
decision; and then Lord Justice
Christian opened a whole battery |
on Chatterton, and paraphrasipg
his judgment, said he had fined the |
lady el037 because she had dared |
to appeal against bis decision. Now,
this was clear charge of corrupt |
motive. lie took care to add that |
he did not mean that the vice
chancellor had said this to himself
and acted on it, but that this might |
as well have been the case. The
bar, however, took the matter up
warmly, and forty of the queens
counsel and forty Of the Juniors
signed a requisition calling a meet
ing to denounce Mr.. Christian. !
The next day half a hundred
others signed another requisition
to do away with the first; and SO the
bar was split into two huffe d.
visions, either side backing either
Judge. Perhaps in no country in
the world could such thing hap
pen save in Ireland. AT tthe eleventh
hour the whole warfare collapsed, |
~. z ~. = !.