Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/274

 Iyer's character is well brought out in the Editorial comment of the Hindu of those days when in 1891 Mr. Subramaniem was first appointed to act as a judge of the High Court in place of Sir T, Muthusawmy Iyer.

There was not then, nor is there now, in the PublicService or attheBar another Muthusamy Iyer to succeed the great man. Not a lawyer, but a law giver, not simply a great judge but an equally eminent jurist, Muthusamy Iyer sat on the Bench as an emblem of Justice personified, patient, farseeing, riveted to the facts, intent upon the law, with fear and reverence holding fast the sceptre of justice, ever mindful not of the office or of its dignity, but of the weight of its responsibility—with the faith of a man who has to render an account of the slightest miscarriage before the Throne of Him who judges the earthly judge and culprit alike. Sir Muthusawmy Iyer was known as a model of humility not in the presence of Europeans only as so many of our high placed countrymen in and out of office are, but even before the latest "native" recruit to the office of a Munsiff of the last grade. It was not an inducted virtue in his case. That humility grew out of his greatness. But exemplary as