Evening star., 1923-10-30
Lord Coleridge Retires
From British Jud geship

very natural reluctance to expose
themselves once more to all the dis
agreeable notoriety of public family
scandal such as had been aired some
years previously when Mildred Cole
ridge, only sister of the present lord,
and now Mrs. Charles Warren, was
compelled to sue her father for nom
support. That trial was of the most ex-
traordinary character. and showed
that the late lord chief justice was
guilty of avarice pushed almost to the
point of insanity. and that he not only
Deggary, dependent on the charity of
her brothers and of her friends, but
that he likewise subjected her to fare
worthy of a miser.
Fortunately. however, the govern
nent took pity on the present Lord
Coleridge in his predicament in being
subjected not only to the loss of his
fathers large fortune, but also in
oeing obliged to sacrifice his very
lucrative and growing practice at the
bar, and. after appointing him to sew
eral more OF less judicial Offices,
among them that of commissioner of
iSsizes. il finally, three years later,
,levated him to the bench with his
S25,000-a-year salary. The pension to
which he Is now entitled for the re-
nainder of his life amounts to $4,000
which will be, of course. reduced to
about $4,000 by the income tax and
other imposts.
Lord CoIeridge has several children
by his marriage to his cousin, daugh-
ter of the late Rt. Rev. ]. F. MacKar-
ness, Bishop Of oxford, the eldest boy.
who served through the war as an Of
ficer of the Devonshire Regiment
being also married to one of his
MacKarness cousins. Among Lord
Coleridge's brothers are the Hon.
Gilbert Coleridge. master of the crown
office, and the Hon. Stephen Coleridge
who is the moving spirit of the Ma
tional Anti-Vivisection Society, and
also of the Society for the Prevention
Of Cruelty to Animals. He. more than
any other member of the family,
, seems to have inherited the literary
and poetic gifts of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, the poet. Lord Coleridge is
the third member of his family to oc-
mentioned, his father was the So
called "silvery- -tongued" Lord Chief
Justice Coleridge. while his grand
father was Sir John Taylor Coleridge
who was Judge of the kings bench
from 1885 to 1858.
It may be of interest to add, In
speaking of the retirement from the
bench Of Lord Coleridge. and Of the
efforts Of a former liberal govern
ment to induce his father to resign
! the lord chief justiceship on the
score of age, inflrmity and also the
scandal resulting from the disclosure
Of his well-nigh incredible meanness,
In the suit brought against him by
his daughter for non-support. in
which his three sons. including the
present peer, testified against him.
that judges of the supreme court of
Great Britain are subject to removal
hvy hA hvvt ~~Ix 80
ton demanding such action has been
presented by both houses of parlia-
ment in an address to the throne. the
vote in both houses being taken aft
er due investigation. The houses in
vestigate and vote separately instead
OF Jointly on the matter and the pro-
ceedings in such instances are Off
cially described as the grand in
quest of the high court Of parlia-
ment."
The last case of the removal of a
Judge of the high court of judicature
was that of Sir Jonah Darlington,
early in the last century, when he
was deprived by the crown Of his Of
| fee on the petition of both houses of
parliament as the result of their dis
covery that he had been guilty of ap-
propriating to his own private use
money paid into the court.
1t is definitely established that, al
i though the power of removal of
JiuScS VI the ulSn court IeStS Win
the crown. it cannot be effected by
means Of ministerial decision, or by
the say 50 Of premier, no matter
how masterful, but only by the king
with the sanction and at the instance
Of majority OF both houses of par
lament This, while 1t assures the
traditional independence OF the bench
from dictation, either by the sover-
eign or by the administration of the
day, sometimes leads to strange "im-
passes," as. for instance, when the late
Sir James Fitzjames Stephens, one OF
the most eminent judges of the day,
insisted upon retaining his seat on
the bench years after his reason had
become affected. 1t being shown that
he was mentally afflicted at the time
when he conducted the trial of the
American born Mrs. Maybrick and
brought about her conviction and
passed upon her q sentence OF death.
which was subsequently commuted.
Today she ie free woman and living
In her native land.