FAMOUS JUDGE. SIR WILLIAM GRANTHAM'S CAREER,

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 8, 10 January 1912, Page 4

FAMOUS JUDGE. SIR WILLIAM GRANTHAM'S CAREER,

A POSITIVE INDIVIDUALITY. j [rBOM OTJK OWN COEEBSPONDENT.3 LONDON, let December. No Judge' of the King's Bench has been so much' criticised recently as Mr. 1 Justice Grantham, whose death is re- | corded. His political beliefs were ' ac strong, as his power of exasperating opponents, yet he was, on the whole, one of the beet lawyers in the King's Bench Division. A legal correspondent of the Daily Mail writes :—: — Sir William Gtrantham had 1 been a Judge for seven years when I first met him in 1893, and during the last eighteen years of hi* life he changed very little. The incisive rasping voice remained to thp end, the keen eyes, the shaven, ruddy face, which put one in mind rather of a busy, kindly, somewhat irascible physician than of a lawyer. But he was a very sound lawyer, notwithstanding. His definite opinions and blunt speech made him many enemies, so that one lost sight of the fact that his decisions were as sound ac any on the Bench. Indeed, during the last twelve months no King's Bench Judge was "upset" less often on appeal. The Judge celebrated his seventysixth birthday last October. The son of the late Mr. Gdorge Grantham, a well-known landowner, he became a barrister at twenty-eight, and entered Parliament as member for East Surrey in 1874, subsequently sitting for Croydon. He was appointed to the Bench in 1886. It is certain that he never willingly suffered political bias to colour his judgments, but his obiter dicta were sometimes unguaTded, and gave his enemies a handle. " In July of 1906 matters came to a head when Mr. MacNeill proposed in the House of Commons that there should be an investigation "of the complaints that hay« been made of the partisan and political character of the conduct during the trial of the Yarmouth election petition v of Mr. Justice Grantham." The. motion wafi withdrawn, but riot before many hard things had been said about the Judge by political opponents. PICKWICKIAN HOSTILITY. His friends knew well that he took ihese attacks very much to heart, nor were surprised when five years later he burst forth into a reply. He chose an unfortunate occasion, his charge to the Grand Jury at Liverpool, and his defence was made in an unfortunate manner, involving as it did 'some statements about the health of the brother Judge who had sat with him at Yarmouth. But the attempt to use this latest ebullition on the part of a strong and vehement personality as a fresh weapon of attack in the House was doomed to failure. The Prime Minister quietly squashed it. The truth is that much of the so-called hostility aroused by the Judge was "Pickwickian." He exasperated his opponents, but even, with them he wae never unpopular. The same may be said of M his noi infrequent brushes with cb'unsel at the Bar. Ther6 was the -historic storm roused by his statement that twenty per cent; of people accused of cj"ime are acquitted when they ought not fco ho "hy counsel endeavouring to attract the attention of the jury from the strong pointi made against them at the trial, and' thereby raising what w6 ipeak of in a technical sense as false issues.". Mr. (now Lord) Robson, the counsel who felt himself attacked; obtained an assurance from the Judge that no such I reflection on his personal honour was intended. But Sir. Robert Finlay, then Attorney-General, used the opportunity of a banquet at the Mansion House to come down uncm the Judge, with an indignant repudiation. Sir William felt thd vehement nature of the answer. But that was his character. He made vigorous statements, and then was surprised at the hornet's neet Which he aroused. .THE BECK CASE. It was Mr. Justice Grantham, it will be remembered, who put bank Mr. Beck for sentence, and shortly afterwards the discovery was made of Mr. Beck's double — the guilty man. At the subsequent proceedings, at which Mr. Beck's innocence was established, Mr. Justice Grantham was one of the first to shake his hand. Sir William, much as he resented attacks, was always fond of belling a good story against himself. H© was one© travelling ha a, non-smoking compartment when a man entered and lib a cigar. Despite Sir William's polite expostulation the man continued to smoke, until r at last the indignant judge handed the man his ;card and said he would speak •to the guard. The man put the card in his pocket, and continued to smoke. He alighted at the next station and was followed by Sit" William, who asked the guard to take the man's name and address. Pre-sently-the guafd returned and whispered to the- judge : "'lf I were you, sir, I shouldn't press tfie charge. I spoke to him and he gavd me his card. - llei'e it is, sir; you' see, he is Sir ' William Grantham." "Having, passed through the Stone Age and tbe- Bronze Age," he once remarked during the hearmg' of a libel action, "we aro now in what might be called the Age of Braes. The courts have Very little to do now but try cafees arising out of people being 'cheeky* or 'brassy' or 1 'telling lies.' " During the hearing of another case he said that under Socialism there would bo no ownership of property. Everybody would be seizing the first bit they - could get hold of, and then somebody else would come along and shoot them or fight them for it. j A TORY SQUIRE. Before all else Sir William was a country gentleman of the old-fashioned Tory type. As good a judge of a horse as any man in Sussex, he rode as straignt as he spoke. He believed in the divine right of the squire; that it was best for all concerned that the landowner should exercise a benevolent despotism over the surrounding neighDourhood. His battle in 1904 with the local district council over some cottages which ho had built at Barcombe is familiar to most people, who Temember his being suummoned to the police court, but not so many knew of his kindness and goodness to hie poorer neighbours. They at least recognised under the brusque and somewhat dictatorial exterior the loyal and lovable nature of the man. Indiscreet often in his utterances, he was a wiser man and a wiser judge than it was the fashion of late years to believe. A great personality has passed from tho English Bench — one of those definite and positive figures which flourish in England.