The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-11

Lord Chief Justice Russell, first Baron
of Killowen. was born at Newry, County
Down, Ireland. November 10, 1892 He was
educated at Trinity College, Dublin. and
began the practice of law at Belfast, the
former home of his mother. He was call
ed to the English bar in 1853, and became
@. c.. and was elected Bencher of Lincoln's
Inn in 1872. He represented Dundalk in
Parliament as a Liberal from 1880 10 1885,
and South Hackney from 1885 to 1894.
He was Attorney General in 1856 and
again from 1922 to 1894. He was made
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1894 on the
death of Lord Bowen. He was knighted
in 1886 while Attorney General in the
Gladstone Cabinet and was made life
! peer in 1894. In July of that year he be-
came Lord Chief Justice of England in sue
cession to the late Lord Coleridge.
Baron Russell was a member of many i'm
portant judicial commissions, notably the
Venezuelan Boundary Arbitration Tribunal
last year. to which he was appointed on the
death of Lord Herschell. Chief Justice
Melville w. Fuller and Justice David Brew
er were his American associates ana JUS
tice Sir Richard Hem Collins his British
colleague. A territory Of $4,000 square
miles was involved in the dispute Is to the
boundary between Venezuela and British
Guiana. The tribunal first met in Paris on
June Is. 1899. and a unanimous award was
made in the case on October 3.
Previously, at Paris in 1893. the then
Sir Charles Russell was leading counsel
ior the British before the Behring Sea Ar
bitration Tribunal when E J. Phelps, ex-
Minister to England, was the chief coun-
sci on the American side, The British
case in this dispute over the sea fisheries
denied that Russia had asserted jurisdic-
tion in the Behring Sea. beyond territorial
limits, except tentatively. in the case of
1921. 1t was contended that Behring Sea
was part of the Pacific Ocean under trea-
ties of 1894 and 1925. and that seals were
wild animals, no more matter of property
than fish, when found on the high seas.
The British counsel assumed that the law
of nations, instead of following abstract
principles. was restricted to positive in
ternational engagements and rights es-
tablished by consent of the nations con-
cerned.
On taking Office as Attorney General in
1892, Baron Russell gave up the old custom
of retaining his private practice. This,
in his case. had been very large, having
brought him an income of more than f25,-
coo a year. AS a barrister he was long
without 4 rival in the English law courts,
He was recognized as a sound lawyer,
skiIlful cross-examiner and a persuasive
pleader before .juries especially in ap-
parently hopeless cases.
The list of celebrated law cases in which
he was engaged is a long one. He repre-
scented Clement Scott in his action against
the late Mr. Sampson of the Referee"
In theg Chamberlain vs.. Barnwell case he
secured enormous damages for the plain
tiff. He appeared for the plaintiff also in
Wflberferce VS.. Philips, the famous Belt
case, and in the once famous Convent"
case, Saurin VS.. Starr. In the Chetwynd
and Durham arbitration case he was one
of the leading counsel.
He defended Mrs. Mayhrick in the May
brick. murder case in August, 1889, and
in the same year made his greatest foren
sic triumph during the Parnell Commits
sion.
Baron Russell was a member of the Jock
ey Club and also OF the Athenaeum. Re
form. end National Liberal clubs. He re-
ceived the degree of Ii. d. from Edin
hurgh, Cambridge, Dublin, ard Layalle uni
versities He married in 1858. Ellen.
daughter of Joseph Mulholland. NJ. P. OF
Belfast.