RECOLLECTIONS OF A JUDGE,

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 13

RECOLLECTIONS OF A JUDGE,

Fox Russell, in the Pall MalJ Magazine, tells some good stories of the humours of the Law Courts. "I may mention a case," ho says, "which was tried before me as Deputy-Judge in ono of the Midland counties. Two men and a woman were charged with stabbing in a street brawl. No less than five witnesses testified to seeing knives in the men's hands, but not one of them saw any weapon in the woman's. Tho two male prisoners were seen struggling with the injured man, but the woman stood two yards away most of the time, and never went closer than that distance to the melee. In summing up I pointed out that all the evidence went to' show that the woman was not the guilty party, but that, as far as I could sec,' the solo question for the jury to decide was as to the guilt of the men. And in. the face of all this — not ono in a crowded Court, I should say, having tho slightest doubt about the guilt of the male prisoners — the jury electrified me and nearly made the excellent Clerk of tho Peace fall off his seat with astonishment by returning a verdict of ' Not guilty ' in the case of tho men and ' Guilty ' in that of the female prisoner. I afterwards heard, by a sidewind, that these -excollont citizens had- returned this perverse verdict in ordor — in tho words of the Foreman — ' to show their independence of the Judge!' " Ever courteous; the late Lord Chief Justice Coleridge could, if occasion required, deliver a crushing rebuke. A certain rude and garrulous advocate once sorely tried his patience. At length the Chief Justice politely interposed : "Unfortunately for your case, Mr. F., the documentary evidence does not bear out your contention." The learned counsel, in extremely rude and offensive tones, said, "I say it does." "Oh, well, then, it would not bo courteous of me to contradict you," replied Coleridge, as with a gracious inclination of his head, he sank back on his cushions again. Mr. F. looked as if he had been left high and dry. Even his brazen impudence recoiled heavily under that sharp rapierthrust. In a case at one of the Metropolitan County Courts, in which the dispute was over the sale or return of a carpet which the plaintiff alleged bad been bought by tho defendant, counsel for the latter, in cross-examination, said: "There was no written agreement for the sale of this carpet?" "Well," said plaintiff, "you don t have a written agreement when you buy a loaf." "You don't cover a floor with a loaf." "Neither do you eat a carpet!" Counsel collapsed. As a young and quite unknown man, I went down to a certain Sessions Court on the Oxford Circuit to prosecute for tho Crown in a caso of extensive robbery from a goods-shed of the >London and North-western Railway. Some ten or twelve of us, all members of the circuit had accepted tho invitation of a very good fellow, also an Oxford Circuit man, to drive out that evening and dine with him at Manor. My case had duly f.T VV n ,', and l had secured a verdict of Guilty during tho afternoon. Havinc changed into evening dress, I took my place m a private 'bus, together .with my fellow-guests, for the five-miles'' drive out. About half-way there— l, as a newcomer, not having, apparently, been noticqd by the rest (the inside of the vehicle was as dark as Erebus)-a certain T '«-<v, great talker > asked in loud tones : Who was the young idiot who prosecuted to-day in that railway case?" 1 was, I promptly replied from my obscure corner; and I never, before or I since, knew a man to relapse so quickly into silence.