Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 13.pdf/641

 596

great that illness followed, during which he resigned his position, and before his succes sor was appointed his lamented death was announced. The vacancy thus created was filled by the appointment of Lord Justice Henn-Collins to be Master of the Rolls. He had been a judge of the Appeal Court for five or six years, and by common consent was the fittest among his associates for the position. To keep the number of appeal judges up to the comple ment Mr. Justice Mathew was promoted from the яш prius bench. He was not only one of the oldest circuit judges, but one of the ablest. It was at his instance that a divi sion of the Court was constituted to hear commercial cases, in order, if possible, to in spire merchants with confidence, that if they brought their disputes into court they might have them as speedily settled as if they took them to boards of arbitration. In this he was highly successful, and to-day business is despatched in the Commercial Court with remarlcable celerity. This is due in no small degree to the way in which he insisted that pleadings should be abandoned, and that interlocutory motions should be reduced to the smallest compass. To supply his place on the circuit bench the Lord Chancellor appointed Mr. Joseph Walton, K.C., a judge. Mr. Walton had for some years been the

leader of the Commercial Court, and in order to take this position he must give up a practice second, perhaps, to none at the bar. While these changes were going on Mr. Jus tice Day resigned on account of ill health, and to fill this vacancy on the nisi prius bench the Lord Chancellor has appointed Mr. A. R. Jelf, K.C., who for years has been a leader in all kinds of common law cases. It is now announced that Lord Justice Rigby has resigned from the Court of Appeal, also on account of his impaired health, and in this instance, also, his successor has been chosen from the list of judges who .have distin guished themselves upon the nisi prius bench, Mr. Justice Cozens-Hardy having been signalled out for promotion. This then is the secret of the system which makes the "English judges the best of their generation." As vacancies occur in the House of Lords, judges are sent into that august tribunal of last retort for the whole Empire, from the Appeal Court; and to fill up the gaps in the latter body яш prius judges are promoted, while to take their places leading lawyers from the bar are selected. It is a system worth imitating, even if it may perhaps infringe upon the right of the people to elect their magistrates by popular suffrage. STUFF Govx.