The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-09-22
LORD RUSSELL'S WIT
ANECDOTES OF THE LATE CHIEF JUS
TlCE CT ENGLAND.

Amusing "Reminiscences of the En-
nous Irish JHrist-LOng and Bril-
liant Career at the Bar-HtS Skill
ut Cross Examination.
A writer in The New Penny Maya
zine recently quoted the story of three
young barristers who found them
selves on the doorstep of briefess-
ness.
81 shall go to India said one, a man
with quick, bright eyes, a strong Jew
ish cast of face.
"And 1 to Shanghai" said a young
ster whose very features spoke culture
and refinement.
] The third, an Irishman little older
! than either of the others and with some
practice of his own, tried to hearten
them little and begged his two friends
not to throw away their lives for want
of a little patience. They did not emf
crate, and after many years the young
| scion of Israels house presided over
the house of lords, first of his race, by
the style Of Farrer, Baron Herschell.
The youth who dreamed of Shanghai
led the great northern circuit first and
is now speaker of the house of COM
mons. William Court Gully was his
name. And the young ITishman, after
a career at the bar almost unexampled
in brilliancy, became queens counsel,
attorney general, lord of appeal and
afterward lord chief justice of Eng
land. At the time I speak of he was
plain Charles Russell.
Lord Russell of KillOWen in America
came into contact with many members
of the bar, including Mr.. Eyarts. 1t
was while walking with Mr.. Evarts
one day along the banks of a stream
that Lord Russell was shown the point
at which Washington had thrown a
dollar right across. The water was
wide, and Lord Russell looked doubt
full. You know a dollar went farther
in those days than it does now" the
American lawyer blandly insinuated.
"Ah," said Lord Russell, quite equal to
the OCCASION land it must have been
easy enough to Washington, who threw
a sovereign over across the Atlantic"
His long and brilliant career as an
advocate was with happy good fortune
linked by one herculean labor with his
almost equal fame as politician. He
undertook to lead the defense of Mr..
Parnell and the Irish NJ. P.'s before the
Parnell commission of 1883, and nobly
he acquitted himself.
The smash of Pigott at that fatal tri-
bunal will long be remembered. Sir
Richard Webster on Feb. 81 had barely
sat down in examining Pigott in chief
when Sir Charles Russell was on his
feet bolt upright. Mr.. John MacDon-
aid tells the tale. He had clean sheet
of paper in his hand. Take that"
holding it out rapidly, and he asked
Pigott to write down a few words from
his dictation. 1t was dramatic open
ing Gle has him." a barrister whis-
pered turning round to the present
writer. The audience saw that Sir
Charles Russell was coming to the
point at once, and in the silence one
might hear pin drop.
That was the fatal secret for Pigott.
He wrote the word "hesitency," which
was misspelled as in the famous Par
nell letter. Next day the ruthless cross !
examiner reached that point and i'm
paled the wretched tool of the Tory |.
party on it. Pigott had to admit that (
he had misspelled the word in just that /
way in letter of June, 1881. He shut /
fled and wriggled. but the keen thrust /
had searched out his secret. On Feb. I
26 the court and the world were star
tied with the tidings, Pigott had es-
capped. Where was he? Sir Charles rose (
then in his wrath. with his extended
right arm. whatever you may do" he
declared to the dismayed ranks of
"PigottiSm and crime" Eve shall
search this matter to the bottom, for
we deliberately say that behind Hous-
ton and Pigott there is a foul conspira~
cy." He well fulfilled that pledge and
in his great philippe, which lasted
from April to April u, 1889, he vindi-
Gated his country and his party from
the aspersiOns cast on them. Ireland
owes him much for that great, that al
most titanic struggle that he maintain
ed on her behalf-"the old sod' that he
still loved.
At the bar Sir Charles Russell was
BY far the greatest cross examiner of