Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/105

 THE GREEN BAG Arbitrator in the winding up of the affairs of the European Assurance Company. Never did Lord Westbury appear to greater advantage and never did Mr. Jus tice Kekewich reveal his grasp of legal principles more clearly than when dealing with a humdrum, but (to the parties) impor tant question in Chambers. There was another side to the late Mr. Justice Kekewich. In court a change for the worse came over his character. He was quick, and too often wrong in his de cisions. Himself a kind-hearted man, he would have been surprised had anyone told him that he had closed his ears to arguments which (had he listened to them) would have led him to give a different de cision. The growth of appeals in the last twenty years has been alarming. This is a sign of the times which all thoughtful lawyers re gret. This increase in the number of ap peals is greatly due (on the Chancery side) to the judgments of Mr. Justice Kekewich. The Times aptly said that the growth of appeals has introduced the "gambling element" into litigation. It has rendered it almost impossible for an honorable Solicitor to give any estimate as to the time within which the litigation he is conducting

will end, or as to its probable cost. The late Mr. Justice Kekewich possessed keen intel ligence which should have placed him among the great judges of England, but there was something wanting. He made up his mind, but in the opinion of many he made it up too quickly. The result was that even when he was right in his law, the litigant he decided against was dissatisfied and went to the Court of Appeal. A great judge, a Mansfield or a John Marshall, is one who convinces both sides that his decision is just and ac cording to precedent. In the judgments of a great lawyer, who is also a great man, there is always to be found a note of finality. On Friday, November isth, 1907, the late Judge announced his intention of not sitting till the following Wednesday, in honor of his having been twenty one years on the Bench. He never sat again. On the fol lowing Tuesday he' played his favorite game of golf; on the Friday he sank, after an operation for appendicitis. He will be greatly missed, for he was a man of keen intelligence, kindly disposition, and untiring industry. He died in harness, and with his death the last link with the legal system of Eldon seems to have snapped. LONDON, ENG., January, 1908.