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 The English Law Courts. proceedings were afterwards approved by his government. The case was tried at bar before Parke, Alderson, Rolfe and Piatt. Parke gave the charge, and held that the ratification of the defendant's act by his government made it an act of state, for which no action could be maintained. LORD BLACKBURN. Colin (Lord) Blackburn was born in 1813

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the fact that, as joint editor of Ellis and Blackburn's reports, he had recorded Camp bell's decisions. The event however amply justified Campbell's choice, for both in the Court of Queen's Bench (1859—75) and Queen's Bench Division (1875—76), and in the House of Lords (Nov. 1876-Dec. 1886), Blackburn made innumerable contributions of permanent value to the development of English law. Before referring to some of

LIBRARY, HOUSE OF LORDS. in Sterlingshire, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as B.A. and Eighth Wrangler in 1835, and M.A. in 1838. In the same year he was called to the bar of the Inner Temple, and practiced till 1859, when Lord Campbell made him a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench. The appointment was pretty strong ly criticised at the time, for Blackburn had never had any practice on a considerable, not to say a large, scale, and adverse critics did not hesitate to attribute his promotion to

his decisions it may be as well to notice a curious case in which he was defendant. One Rosanna Dupin Fray had brought an action against a person named Voules. She claimed that certain costs of an adjourn ment were due, and obtained a rule nisi for their payment. Mr. Justice Blackburn dis charged the rule. Thereupon she sued him for damages. The learned Judge demurred on the grounds ( 1 ) that no action lies against a judge of one of the superior courts for anything done in his judicial capacity; (2)