THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, April 3, 1857.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1019, 3 April 1857, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Friday, April 3, 1857.

LUCEO NON URO. "If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand beacons from the spark I bore

We lay befoie our readers the Chief Justice's decision in the case of Ormsby v. Ormsby j not only on account of the interest which it excites, as being the occasion of the only appeal to the Governor in Council, under Governor Grey's Act, which has yet been made, but as affording, in itself, a sufficient answer to certain strictures of the most reckless and unfounded character which have been directed personally against His Honor in the [matter. Our con temporary, the 'NewZealander/ has even gone so far as to press upon the General Government the displacement of the Chief Justice by appointment of another in his room. We had intended to have gone carefully into the question, — to have sifted it ourselves so thoroughly as to make any charges against the Judge

I recoil upon the real author of them, whom we can suppose, but do not attempt to name. But for many reasons, we touch upon the subject as lightly as our public duty will permit. We even feel some repugnance to commenting, more than can be helped, upon such painful and embittered litigation between brothers. There is cause to feel sure that, had better advice t<een tendered, this might have been prevented. TheJudgedidhisbestto mitigate it, by suggesting that the matter should be referred to arbitration, instead of being tried in Court, and so far succeeded ; but although, when an award had been made, one would have supposed that there was an end of the affair, it revived again. When the hostile brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, were both sbiin before seven gated Thebes, one would have supposed the conflict to be at an end. Yet it revived in another form. The two corpses were placed upon one funeral pile ; but the very flames are said to have divided, as if typifying the inappeasable nature of the feud. Moreover, we are unwilling to give a free opinion, while the appeal is still pending. By the granting of the appeal, it would seem that the Act is really in operation, although this, for reason. 0 which we may presently have to iudicate, appears to be a very doubtful point. The Act itself is one of the worst of those introduced by Governor Grey. It would be difficult to conceive anything more absurd than such a Court of Cassation as has been thus provided. The Governor and his Executive Council, no one among them having necessarily any knowledge of law, (the Attorney General being specially excluded by enactment,) empowered to reverse decisions of the Supreme Court ? It would also be difficult to conceive anythingmore unfair, than the casting of such a heavy jßonsibility upon them. The Act will probablynave to be repealed in the next Session of the General Assembly : we are able to state that leave to introduce a Bill to that effect would certainly have been asked during the last Session, but for the impression that it was not in operation. Another reason for refraining from expressing ourselves more fully upon the attacks which have been made upon the conduct of the judge (we include the verbal with the written,) is this: — • that they are sufficiently punished by the general indignation and surpi'ise which they have created. They are of a piece with those upon the Speaker, and those upon our much respected Resident Magistrate, Mr. Beckham. But no man in this community is any longer safe. And yet the very same parties, who can indulge in such license of diction when it serves their turn, can assume a squeamishness, towards others, which is even ridiculous. During the last Session of the Assembly, when the question of ail increase of salary to the Judges was under consideration, the member for the Bay of Islands, after observing upon the intimate knowledge of his profession displayed by the Acting Chief Justice, went on to observe that "he had not been a briefless barrister." This was construed to mean, and not unreasonably, that the Chief Justice himself, now absent on leave, had been so. But instead of treating it, on that assumption, as a simple question of fact, much unnecessary indignation was expended, in various quarters, upon what was deemed to be an expression derogatory to professional chaiaeter. >. The following is the notification of the appeal having been allowed. Private Secretary's Office, Auckland, Ist Apiil, 1357. " The Court of Appeals for the Colony of Ne.v Zealand having appointed te sit at this office on Friday, the third (3id) day of this present month of April, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, to hear the appeal of George Owen Ortnsby against Arthur Sydney Ormsby, from the Supreme Court of New Zealand ; these are therefore to give notice to all parties therein concerned to come prepared to be he*rd thereupon by their counsel at the said time. F. G. Steward, Clerk to the Executive Council. It will be observed that wo have throughout avoided expressing any opinion upon the merits of the case ; restricting oursehes top lacing before our readers such information, available at present, as we have been able to obtain.