Evening star., 1923-10-30
BY THE MARQUIsE DE FONTENOY.

Lord Coleridge, now in his seven
tieth year, has just retired from his
s25,00O-a-year judgeship of the court
of the kings bench, after nearly
twenty years of service, on the
ground of ill health. He will be re-
membered by many of the older gen.
Grafton in this country as having ac-
companied his father, the famous lord
chief justice, on one of his longest
tours in America. In those days he
was known as the Hon. Bernard Cole
ridge, and will be recalled by those
who met him in that epoch as a
rather sharp-featured young man
with a quickness of look and a de-
cision of character that one is apt to
seek in America rather than in Eng
land. BY dint Of hard work he had
succeeded in building up quite a lu-
crative practice at the bar when he
was confronted by decision that
was, to say the least, dlscouraging
For on his fathers death he founG
that he had left every penny of his
unentailed fortune, amounting to con-
siderably over S1.000.000. TO his young
widow, his second wife, nearly half
a century his junior, whom he had
married in his old age, the union hav-
ing the effect of estranging him from
all his grown-up children by his first
wife
The marriage was the result of his
last visit to the United States. He
was on his way back to England from
New York, after addressing the an
nual meeting of the American Bar
Association, when she was intrusted
III 1at 20, 81
home. The intimacy between the two
developed on shipboard, and it was
only a few weeks after their arrival
in London that TIE lord chief justice
led Miss Amy Lawford to the altar.
She is still living in London in Hyde
Park Gate and occasionally comes to
New York.
= Y X X
In fact, the only thing that the
lord chief justice could not ALLEVIATE
and which passed to his eldest son
was a small country place in Devon
shire. at Ottery ST. Mary. yielding
no revenue, but constituting a source
Of expense. Popular opinion and
sentiment at the time favored the
contention that, having become.
through his fathers death, a peer of
the realm. he had no right to con-
tinue his very remuneratfve practice
at law, since the house of lords is
the supreme court of justice Of the
tr bupe of appeal, of which he had
become. as a peer. one of the judges.
Lord .Coleridge then demanded
whether 1t would not be possible for
him to renounce the succession to his
fathers honors and to remain a COM
moner. The legislature and the
courts took the view that he could
not do this and that an inherited
peerage pertains to the blood" and
could not be alienated or discarded
therefore. he was, in the eyes of the
law, a peer of the realm possessed
of the prerogatives Of that rank. but
also subject to its disadvantages,
among the latter being the inability
to sit in the house Of commons or
It was then recalled that some
years previously, namely, at the time
Of his second marriage, the late
ors sators chef HSs.s,h ystcs had eHasavored to
court for his elder son from the gov
ernment, but without success The
liberal administration then in office
was extremely anxious to bestow the
lord chief justiceship of England
upon Sir Charles Russell, afterward
Lord Russell Of KilIowen, but could
not succeed in inducing the late Lord
Co1ertdge to relinouish his chief JUS
ticeship. In snite Of his advanced
age. The conditions which he made
to the government for it's surrender
were unacceptable. He demanded
not merely the transformation OF his
barony into a full-hedged earldom
hut likewise the appointment Of his
Oldest son. Bernard, to seat on tho
sench Of the Wings court. with its
stipend of $25 900 year This stip-
ulation in behalf of his first born was
prompted, not by affection for the lat
ter but with the idea of reconciling him
to his young stepmother's inheritance
of all her aged husbands fortune.
4 4 = 4
After his death his children. includ-
ing the present Lord Coleridge, were
at the point OF instituting proceed
fngs to upset the will. but finally de-
-