Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/386

 316 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S. IX. OCT. 15. 1921. TRIAL FOB HERESY : A BARRISTER'S "BoN MOT" (12 S. ix. 272). MR. H. J. AYLIFFE will find a full account of the trial to which he refers, together with the epi- taph, in Nash's ' Life ' of Lord Westbury vol. 2, pp. 73-79. I append the epitaph. It arose out o: the judgment of the Privy Council on the appeal of two of the authors of ' Essays anc Reviews.' The epitaph was attributed to Sir Philip Rose : RICHARD BARON WESTBURY, Lord High Chancellor of England. He was an eminent Christian, An energetic and merciful Statesman, And a still more eminent and merciful Judge. During his three years' tenure of office He abolished the ancient method of conveying land The time-honoured institution of the Insolvents And [Court, The Eternity of Punishment. Towards the close of his earthly career, In the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, He dismissed Hell with costs, And took away from orthodox members of the Church of England Their last hope of everlasting damnation. G. T. S. Liverpool. Your correspondent, MR. AYUFFE, probably has in mind the suggested epitaph for Lord Westbury, generally, and rightly I believe, attributed to E. H. Pember, Q.C., a well- known practitioner at the Parliamentary Bar. It was a propos of the judgment delivered by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case against Dr. Rowland Williams and Mr. Wilson insti- tuted by the Bishop of Salisbury. Lord Westbury was then Lord Chancellor and read the judgment. The following is the latter part of the epitaph : In the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council He dismissed Hell with costs, And took away from orthodox members of the Church of England The last hope of everlasting damnation. A fuller account of the case and the whole of the epitaph is set out in the second volume of Nash's ' Life ' of Lord Westbury, p. 78, J. E. LATTON-PICKERING. The case referred to under this heading was tried by Lord Chancellor Westbury sitting in 1864 as member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to hear appeals on the ' Essays and Reviews ' cases, when he acquitted the defendants on all counts, and decided that a disbelief in the doctrine of eternal punishment did not con- stitute heresy. The bon mot referred to was attributed at the time to one of the counsel engaged in the case, and was subsequenty expanded into the following epitaph : M.S. RICHARD BARON WESTBURY Lord High Chancellor of England He was an eminent Christian : An energetic and successful Statesman : And a still more eminent & successful Judge. During his three years' tenure of office He abolished The time-honoured institution of the Insolvent Court, The ancient mode of conveying land, And The eternity of punishment. Towards the close of his earthly career In the Judicial Committee of The Privy Council He dismissed the day of judgment with costs, And took away from evil doers In The Church of England Their dread Of everlasting torment. This epitaph was published anonymously after the death of Lord Westbury in 1873. J. E. HARTING. The bon mot referred to occurs in a mock epitaph which circulated in the Temple after Lord Westbury (Lord Chancellor 1861-65) had pronounced the decision of the majority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the famous cases which arose from the publication of ' Essays and Re- views ' (Bishop of Salisbury v. Williams) Fendall v. Wilson, 2 Moore P.C. (N.S. 375.) One of the points at issue was whether the Rev. Henry Bristow Williams had expressed unorthodox views on the subject of eternal punishment, and in giving the decision of bhe Court on this point Lord Westbury remarked : We are not required, or at liberty, to express any opinion upon the mysterious question of inal punishment, further than to say that we lo not find in the formularies to which this article refers any such declaration of our Church upon in expression of hope by a clergyman that even demned in the Day of Judgment may be con- istent with the will of Almighty God. There are several versions of the mock jave rise. One is given by MR. LEONARD PRICE in ' N. & Q.' (11 S. xii. 422), but a setter and more pointed one is that supplied US. xii. 464) by SIR HARRY B. POLAND,
 * he subject as to require us to condemn as final
 * he ultimate pardon of the wicked who are con-
 * pitaph on Westbury to which this judgment