Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/290

 264 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Hon. Sir James Penn BoUCaut, K.C.M.G., Second Judge of the Supreme Court HAD it been asked some twenty years ago who was the most couraq-eous and formidable warrior in the South AustraHan Parliament, the reply would have undoubtedly pointed to the Hon. J. P. Boucaut, whose political energy and good temper were unaffected by the invective hurled at him by Parliamentary enemies, and whose bold political programme at once excited the fear and the admiration of the people. There was a good deal of the statesman about this fighter, and whatever fear was aroused bv his boldness as a legislator has been turned in later years into praise of the fine results his measures have achieved. During a period of 1 7 years of unrest and turmoil. Sir James Penn Boucaut proved himself to be a politician of the highest order, whose stamp of mind, whose courage, and whose foresight were adapted to the exigencies and rapidly - changing conditions of colonial government. And from this storm and stress he quietly entered into the repose of the Judiciary— a change comparable with that of a soldier, at war t(j-day, becoming a solemn and peace- loving country squire to-morrow. Hammer & Co., Photo Mr. Justice Boucaut is a son of Cornwall, and he has more than once boasted of the circumstance on public occasions. He was born near Falmouth, on October 29, 1831, and there received these delightful impressions found in quaint legend and hoary tradition so dear to the heart of every true Cornishman. His father was Caj)tain Ray Boucaut, and his mother was a daughter of the late James Penn, Superintendent of Her Majesty's Naval Victualling Department, Falmouth. Captain Boucaut came to South Australia with his family in 1846, and here became "a most energetic and popular man," and greatly interested himself "in all that concerned the welfare of the Province " — (George E. Loyau, '• Representative Men of South Australia," 1883). He died of apoplexy on January 29,