The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-17

as bonior Judge on the Queens Bench SIDE ne
has q choice OF the cases he wants put in the list
before hin and what time he has to spare from
criminal trials he fills up with breach Of prom
ise cases or anything he can ind except dry
points Of law.
Tho only Judge besides Russell and Hawkins
whit has the gift of making tho punishmcnt ft
the crime Is Judge r, 8. Wright, a scholarly
graduate oil oxford and favorite pupil of Ben
Jamin Jowett, tho great Master of Balliol Col
lcge' wright Ia n man In tho prime Of life who
Is created with envying American judges for
the privilege no thinks they enjoy Of smoking
pipes on the bench. He can't do that in his
court here, but when he escapes his official sur
roundings a grimy clay pipo Is his favorite COM
panion. Some years ago he bought q fine resi-
DENTAL estate in tho New Forest in Hampshire
whose former owner had placardod the boun-
dorios with notices saying: "Trespassers will
be prosecuted" Judge Wright put In q mega
two and now the boards read "Trospasseru will
not be prosecuted" lie is quito willing TO
show any friendly stranger tho sights of tho
place and is not above sitting on the local par
ish'council with the village tailor and neighbor-
ing p~loughman.
Judge Collins, who Is to sit on the veuez-
uela Arbitration Court, Ia very learned In tho
law. but his knowledge is moro OF books than Of
mon, and. like other good lawyers who are littlc
else, he Is not a success in administering Justice
in the criminal courts. There is tho venerable
Baron Pollock-the last OF the barons OF the Ex-
chequer, an order to which no appointments
have been made since the isform Of legal pro-
codure-who has left his mark on tho courts
chiefly by getting o dozen Of his numerous fam
lily and relatives into comfortable per manent OF.
fees there. Judge Vaughan Williams Is chief
ly occupied In examining bankrupts and wind.
ing up public companies. He sees so much Of
the seamy side there that no has moulded his
own life on lines OF Spartan simplicity. When
~litigants seek him out in tho vacation OH ur-
gent business he is usually found loading
carts at his farm in Surrey. He can drive a
hard bargain, and when the local butcher re-
fused to pay his price for sheep the Judge had a
rival shop opened across the street and sold
mutton q penny q pound cheaper until tho
butcher gave in. lie is a'terribly straight man,
and Londoners are beginning to sympathizo
with tho Atheninns who got sick Of Aristides,
surnamed The Just.
Excepting Judge Mathew, q capital com-
merciL lawyer. nephew OF the famous Irish
temperance leader. Father Mathew, the re-
naming eight Judges on the Queens Bench, or
Common Law, side are a very commonplace
collection. The Chancery, or Equity, courts
have only ive Judges altogether. Each has
$4,000 a year, against 10000 on the
Queens Bench side. Chancery Judges have no
juries, and consequently are expected to keep
awake and listen 10 their cases. They have 10
draw up settlements in property disputes, and
are expected To know moro law than their
lower-paid brethren. Judge Roncr is rcck-
oned the best OF them. His father wrote songs,
and lie himself married u daughter Of Mark
Lemon, an editor OF Punch In its palmy days.
Earlier still he was senior wrangler at Cam
| brtdEe So Strnnu IL he In law that tho hivl,r
courts are afraid to upset his decisions. and
| l~.tigants have almost stopped thinking Of ap-
peIls from him. Tho law of patents is his
fortc. He Is the best-iooklng Judge in England,
In spite OF his single ~eyeslass and rather
perky air. His colleagues on the Chancery
side are subdued 10 the sobricty OF their sur.
roundinss, and are scarcely known out side theIr
respective courts.
1t is in the Court of Appeal that individuality
gets frcest play. 1t has six Judges, who sit
three each in two courts. Only points OF law
scarcely ever questions OF fact are argued before
thcm. They keep u running fire OF hard queries
directed at the barrister who has to conduct a
case before them. Lord Esher. the Master OF
the Rolls. is President OF the court. lie is u
big. SNOWY old man, who by consistent rudeness
and g~arrulity has earned renown as a hlufr, sen
sible Englishman who breathes native wit into
the dry bones OF the law. He has often wanted
to be Lord Chancellor, but the great men who
have had the post TO give away durins the pas,
twenty years have always given IL to some one
else. The legal lights in tho House OF Lords
are fond of upsetting his judgments. To the
average Londoner he Is n great man, but an
parently those who know most OF him think
least of him. He Is par excellence the dan6y
of the courts. In his younger days. when Dun
dreary side whiskers were the vogue. his long
blond aDDeplncps ware the AMY NJ tho usIers
in the provincial circuit courts. lie has had
them cut OF for some years now.
His colleagues in his own court are Lord.
Justices Chit,y and A. L.. Smith, who rowed fol
Oxford and Cambridge respectively in theil
younger days. Chitty Is the author of The
standard text book on the law of contract. He
has q good bass voice which he lifts up II
jovial song after the bcnchcrs OF the Tempt,
have dined well, and Is, honestly speaking, q
Jolly good fellow" So Is y. l.. Smith. ever
more so. He is probably the most generally
liked Judge in the country. and when he vas Z
Queen'sBench Judge combined commonlaw with
common sense in proportions that always com
mended themselves to intelligent people. II
man has no case he let's him know it soon. A
Junior barriSter has been known TO occupy tn,
better part of a day in quoting to him bad au
thorities in support Of a worse case. At last b,
would sit down amid his books and precedent
and await an elaborate Judgment worthy of tn,
weight of his own Smiths way O
settling the matter was to remark in his pleas
ant. conversational voice: This appeal is dis
missed with costs. What's next"
Lord Justice Kay, who died recently. knew
law and was rude to every lawyer who didn't
An a~ssertive Queens counsel, who had no
taken hisssnubbing ashe ought to. once persist
cd in his argument. Kay was amazed. HI
thundered:
al thought / could teach you law. ! knew
] couldn't teach you manners"
THAT is 30, my lord" blandly replied til,
Q. c.. and the laugh that followed was on hi
side.
Lord Justice Rigby owes his promotion I,
Mr.. Gladstone, whom he advised legally oil
private matterg. Such is the weight of hi
learning and from so many sides con he see
point of law that when once he begins to uttel
a sentence he can rarely get to the end of it
He has TO occupy much time in explaining hi
explanations. Yet no is u very eminent man
and no only became human TO the averag,