Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/500

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VOL. XIII.. No, 10.

BOSTON.

OCTOBER, 1901.

LORD ALVERSTONE, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND. THE promotion of Lord Alverstone from the Mastership of the Rolls to be Lord Chief Justice has been hailed with pleasure alike by lawyers and laymen in England, for by common consent he was the fittest man at the bar or upon the bench to succeed the late Lord Russell of Killowen in that exalted po sition. To most people, and particularly to most Americans, he is better known as Sir Richard Webster. It is too often the case that when elevated to the peerage the new peer takes a title which hides his identity to such an extent that the name under which his success has been achieved is no longer known to the public. It would seem to be a needless penalty of greatness, and one that might easily be avoided. If after length of years, to which it is devoutly to be hoped the new Lord Chief Justice may attain, the peo ple become accustomed to the new name and learn to associate it with the old, compara tively little confusion will result. At present, however, while every fairly well-informed man in England knows Sir Richard Web ster, it is only the very few, outside the legal profession, who could recognize him in "Lord Alverstone." Sir Charles Russell assumed the name of Lord Russell of Killo wen (his old home in Ireland) when elevated to the bench, after which occasion he was given a life peerage. Lord Coleridge, his predecessor, was Sir John Coleridge at the bar and on the bench before becoming a peer. His predecessor, in turn, declined a peerage and was always known as Sir Alexander Cockburn. Thus it happens that while for many years the office of Lord Chief Justice has been filled, as at present, by an

eminent advocate, this is the first occasion in this long period when the occupant has assumed another name than that under which the distinction has been won. On the other hand the late Lord Esher, so long Master of the Rolls, was Sir William Baliol Brett at the bar and Lord Justice Brett during a part of his long and dis tinguished term on the bench. Compara tively few American lawyers hunting through the English law reports would identify Lord Justice Brett with Lord Esher, and yet they are the same person. Lord Justice Lopes became Lord Ludlow, and Sir Henry Hawkins, who was for a long time the most conspicuous figure on the Queen's Bench, is now a Law Lord in the House of Lords, where he sits as Lord Bramwell. Lord Alverstone, like his predecessor, looks every inch the Lord Chief Justice. He is is of commanding stature, with a massive intellectual head and an expressive counten ance. He may lack the piercing eye and the severity of demeanor of Lord Russell, but he will have equal dignity and added graciousness of manner and a never-failing courtesy. He will rule with firmness but with less of the dominating spirit and open scorn of technicalities so frequently dis played from the bench where he now sits. He may not so quickly and so unerringly arrive at the kernel of truth in the mass of husks as his predecessor did, but he will administer justice just as evenly and truly and will quite as conspicuously maintain the best traditions of the high office to which he has been called. Lord Alverstone has gained his place by