Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/789

 20. VEEDER: A CENTURY OF JUDICATURE 775 as a judge. A litigant named Rosanna Fray, who felt ag- grieved at his disposition of her case, sued him for damages, and the case of Fray v. Blackburn, 3 B. & S. 576, formally established the principle that no action will lie against a judge of a superior court for anything done in his judicial capacity, although it be alleged to have been done maliciously and corruptly. Besides Wightman and Crompton (1853-65) in the earlier part, the other principal puisnes in the Queen's Bench during the period were Mellor (1861-79), Shee (1863-68), and Lush (1865-80). Lush was the ablest of these judges; he closed his painstaking and useful service in the Court of Appeal. During this period the Court of Common Pleas grew rapidly in importance and reached its highest standard. After Cockburn's short service in this court (1856-59) the succeeding chiefs were Erie (1859-66), and Bovill (1866-73). In this court Erie added to the substantial reputation that he had made on the Queen's Bench. The Court of Common Pleas under his presidency, as the Attorney-General said on his retirement, " obtained the highest confidence of the suitor, the public and the profession." Bovill was unsurpassed in his practical mastery of commercial law, but his work as a judge suffered from want of more careful reflection in reach- ing conclusions. The genius of this court, however, was Willes (1855-71), who was universally regarded by his contemporaries as the most learned lawyer of his time. He is said to have read systematically all the reports, from the first Year Book to the last volume of Meeson and Welsby. He was consequently familiar with the history of the law, and understood the rela- tion which the principles of his day bore to past times. He was intimately acquainted with all the changes which the common law had undergone, and with all the rules and forms of the ancient system of pleading. He knew by heart every old term and maxim. To this thorough knowledge of the principles and history of English law in all its branches he added an extensive and accurate acquaintance with foreign systems of jurisprudence. To the great fountain head of