Morning journal and courier., 1886-11-25
Anecdotes of Judges.
From the St. James Gazette.

From most interesting little volume, "A
 Generation of Judges" by 'Their Reporter"
 we take few extracts. The judges that come under view range from Cockburn to Watkin Williams.
 The "reporter" recalls Chief Baron Kelly's insistance for the date of every fact. "Give
 him some date, 5 said leader to his junior
 thus hard pressed, 'tany date will do to keep
 him quiet"
 At these times it was an interesting spec
 taele to see how, when Kelly was perplexing
 8 case in Banco with endless repetitions and
 immaterial inquiries, Bramwell, his old
 pupil, sitting on his right, would firmly and
 tenderly take him in band, and make all
 plain with 8 few trenchant statements. His
 style of speaking, never in his younger days
 concise, developed in his age into tedious
 ness. My good womsn," he would say to
 witness, ''you must give an answer, in the
 fewest possible words of which you gre capa-
 ble, to the plain and simple question whether,
 when you were crossing the street with the baby your arms and the omnibus was coming down on the right side and the cab on the left side, and the brougham was trying to pass the omnibus, you saw the plaintiff between the brougham and the cab, or between the omnibus and the cab, or whether and when you saw him at all, and whether or not near the brougham, cab and l omnibus, or either or any two, and which of them respectively y-or how was it?" In the course of arguments in Banco he became garrulous, and his judgments were very easy to take down. If any passage were missed, the reporter had only to wait til he came | round to it again. Like race run in laps, Keilys judgment always passed the post sev- eral times.
 Than Baron Cieasby ''no man was ever more anxions to do right, more patient or l more laborious." He was the mildest-lnan- | nered Of all men at the bar.
 No one ever encountered a harsh word from Cleasby, except that he had way of
 sternly rebuking prisoners for the enormity of their crimes, ,and finishing with aridicuous- ly small sentence s'You are one of the worst men ever tried" Cleasby would say, land the sentence of the court is that you be inn prisoned for one month" So it came that he was not only popular with the bench and bar, but with criminals. stYou are commit ted for t1ial," said magistrate to rufian who was put up for his fourth case of house. breaking; land you may choose whether you are tried at the quarter sessions next week, or a month hence at the assizes." "Baron Cleasby," said the magistrates clerk. sOh, I'll go to 'soize,'' returned the criminal with alacrity. '.Cleasby is the judge for me-" It was with feelings of pain that he sentenced O'Connor, the half-witted assailant of the Queen, to be whipped, although it was with only twenty strokes of a birch rod. The following anecdote is told of MT. Jus
 rice Willes:
 Willes, in the days of his youth, before Lttleton and Sheppard had absorbed his romance, fell in love with A lady at Cork, where his father lived. They were engaged l to be married when he went to London to seek his fortune But learning was not high ly remunerated, and it was out of the ques- tion that a poor special pleader should marry Willes joined the home circuit, and his name began to be known; but when it was suggested from Ireland that he must be
 rich enough to to marry, Willes was unable to agree. Even when he was appointed 8 member of the commission, this was rather 8 tax on his time than source of income. At last Willes was made a judge. Now, the salary of judge can be learned from an al manac and it must be confessed that. though | not princely, it is enough to keep wife upon Willes had no longer the excuse of poverty As lawyer he knew the force of a contract while judge could hardly stand the brunt of an action for breach of promise of marriage. This is the tale accredited among lawyers of such romance as there was in Will l les life.
 Here is an example of the astuteness of MT Justice Byles as an advocate:
 "Once he was for the defendant in an &C., l ton for breach Of promise of marriage. The plaintiff proved the promise to marry, and 1 that the defendant had married some one
 else The case seemed a question of damag-
 es, but Byles put two questions to the plain
 tiff: s'Did not he promise to marry you
 when his father was deadl, "Yes" 'Is
 his father deadp "No." tThat is the case,
 my lord,'' said Byles, "his wife may die | before his father, or afterward, and
 he may outlive them both, when it will be | time to fulfill the promise" The plaintiff
 had, in fact, alleged in his pleading an abso
 lute promise and, the proof of condi
 tional promise was what was called fatal | variance, which could not be amended.
 Sir John Holker's simplicity of nature is | we'll illustrated:
 Holker one day was leaving the House oi
 Commons when he was addressed by two
 strange ladies, who asked him to show then
 the House. He politely led the way, duly
 pointing out the objects of interest. At tn,
 end one of the ladies handed to their conduc
 tor six-pence, which the Queens Attorney