THE SARCASM OF LORD WESTBURY.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 96, 21 October 1908, Page 7

THE SARCASM OF LORD WESTBURY.

♦ Everyone tliiuks hard thoughts, but Westbury was bound to utter his in polished English. He was inclined, like many clever men, to be intolerant of fools, but his intolerance at once took the form of stinging and unforgettable sarcasms. He was quite impartial in the distribution of these favours. An Irish junior asserted himself in consultation. "Really," said Bethell meditatively, "this loquacious savage appears to know some law." A timid junior once congratulated him on a speech, and said, "I think you made a strong impression on the court." "I think so too," was the answer; "do nothing to disturb it." A fellow-silk, who had a loud voice, finished his argument, and sat down. Bethell arose: "Now that the noise in the court has subsided I will teH your Honour in two sentences the gist of the- case." Tlie judges were not spared. . Lord Justice Knight B-ruce, for example, was apt to be impatient. "Your lordship," said Bethell, "will hear my client's case first, and if your lordship thinks it right your lordshi]! can express surprise afterwards!" Oiico he turned to his junior in court, "Take a note of that; his lordship says he will turn it over in what he is pleased to call his mind!" The Lords fared little better-. "I perceive that the- noble duke is not listening — indeed, I perceive that the noble duke is asleep. The subject before your lordships is an intricate one, I admit, but if the noble duke will lend mo his attention I do not despair of making the matter clear even to his intellect. As for bishops, he walked round their tent with a club, like the Irishman at Donny brook, "looking for heads." I would remind your lordship," ho once said, "that the ltwv; in its infinite wisdom has already provided for the most improbable event of the imbecility of a bishop." Many of his gibes are merely rude, but we must remember that they were delivered in a dulcet voice, with a prim and measured accent, which greatly

; increased the effect. .It is awesonu • to think that he once addressed a » Young Men's Christian Asociatioa: . on the qualities he tin i success of his career, and yet his bark was much worse than his bite. —From "The Victorian Chancellors," in .Blackwood's Magazine.

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