Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/203



Reviews of Books REMINISCENCES OF A K.C. Reminiscences of a K.C. By Thomas Edward Cris of the Middle Temple. Pp. rod, 306. Met uen & Co.. London. (10:. 6d. net.)

and intellectual quality—is too interesting to omit. idge,

HIS book of reminiscences consists of two hundred and ninety-four pages of which not one page is either dull or ill-natured. Mr. Crispe was born in 1833, and was called to the bar in 1874. He is an instance of a man not called to the bar until he had reached middle-age, and rising to the first rank in his profession. Like Montagu Williams and Sir Francis Lockwood (the Solicitor-General), Mr. Crispe began his life on the stage. Montagu Williams was in turns master at a Grammar school, an officer in the militia, a playwright,

an actor, a criminal lawyer, a police magis trate, and author of “Leaves of a Life." Lockwood joined the Kendal Company as an actor, but he was preserved for the Bar,

In the Saun'n case,

Sir Alexander

Cockburn was the Judge and Sir John Coler K.C.,

led Mr. Alfred Wills as Counsel

for the plaintiﬁ.

Mr. Wills was afterwards

promoted to the bench, and retired as senior

puisne of the King's Bench-—a man immensely respected by all, and loved by his friends. In writing to a friend, Mr. Wills said, "I ex

pressed one day to Coleridge my admiration of the way in which he dealt with Cockburn, adding that it seemed to me like riding a hot-tempered, ﬁdgety chestnut mare. ‘Chest nut mare,’ he replied, ‘it's riding a barrel of gunpowder with two red-hot pokers for a bridle.’ " In justice to Cockburn it should be added that the Saurin case was an action of assault, libel and trover brought by an Irish lady, formerly a Sister of Mercy, against the Lady Superior and another. The hear ing took up twenty days, and would have tried the temper even of a phlegmatic judge.

apparently by being built on too large a scale for the stage. Lockwood was "a. fellow of inﬁnite jest," yet his reputation will scarcely survive his contemporaries. Mr. Crispe refers to Mr. Birrell's Memoir of Lockwood as not “doing his friend justice," and indeed it does not. Mr. Birrell

distinctions of the bar, wrote some lines on

“Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind,

Cockburn which Mr. Crispe justly says are no mere panegyric:—

And to party gave up what was meant for mankind." was a humorist, as well as a Chancery K.C.,

before he became Secretary of State for Ire land. His memoir of his friend, Sir Frank Lockwood, is a singular book, because although written by a wit on a wit, the quality of wit is altogether absent. Mr. Crispe's references to Lockwood, brief as they are, give you a far better idea of the man than Mr. Birrell's Memoir. Mr. Crispe was naturally drawn to Lord Chief Justice Cockburn. To know him was to love him. He was full of tenderness as well as of brain-power. Like all thorough breds, he was sensitive, and not disposed to exert his consummate powers unless he felt the occasion demanded them. His successor as Chief Justice was Lord Coleridge, the father of the present Judge of the King's Bench. Lord Coleridge's opinion of his predecessor— nho was his opposite almost in every moral

We mention these facts, as Mr. Crispe writes,

"I fear the judge (Sir Alexander) was not all I have depicted him." Poor Dr. Kenealy, who from his crass folly threw away all the

And I have seen a Court where every man Felt himself in the presence of a gentleman, Whose genial courtesy made all things genial, Wholse exquisite bearing captured all men's ove, Whose sun-bright justice brightened every cause, And sent even him who lost, away content. Sir John Coleridge was known both at the bar and in the House of Commons as "silver tongued." The office of Chief Justice of Eng land has been ﬁlled in succession by Lord Campbell, Sir Alexander Cockburn, Lord Coleridge, Lord Russell and Lord Alverstone, all of whom had in turn ﬁlled the office of Attorney-General. We will give only one in stance of Coleridge's eloquence at the bar, not only because it was reported by, and greatly impressed, his successor, Lord Russell,

but because it is proof of how intimate is the knowledge of the Bible in the middle and lower classes of England. Coleridge was a. consummate artist, but he was also a winner