A FAMOUS JUDGE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 2, 3 January 1930, Page 6

A FAMOUS JUDGE

HIS WIT AND WISDOM

THE CRIPIPEN CASE

QUOTATIONS IK COUIIT

•When in 1896 Mr. Darling, Q. C., was appointed Commissioner of Assize a storm of protest bursty . aiia Swelled into,.a veritable tornado a year later when he was elevated to' the Bench. He was th'eh only forty-aeveri; . and ferities alleged that neither his practice 'at the Bar nor his political standing warranted such promotion. The Press screamed and round-robins were openly circulated in the Temple against this ''political jobbery." Darling himself remained unpeirturbed by all this pother. '.It is said that when Augustine Birrell playfully criticised his sensational elevation, Darling retorted: "Well; I can read and write; what more do you want?" 6inee then Lord Darling' has become ' a national institution. If his, Hanie is primarily associated in the popular mind with "Laughter in Court," that does not alter the fact, that he was ever a shrewd, able, aid humane judge. FLritTiNG WI*H JOURNAIiiSM. How one wishes that the' aiitfior of such sparkling gems' . Us "^eintilke juris ahd '' Meditations iii & . T?afo bin "had given tis his own autobiography, says "John 6'London Week-' ly." Born in Essex in 1850, Charles Jolin Darling was'sue'h a fdeble child that, his parents despaired of hisi life. Too .delicate" f.Br early schooling; he also missed the. tJniversity, and, after being afticle3 to a. Birmingham solicitdr; was Balled to the Bar when twehty-fdiif. Flirting with journalism and playing with politics; lie published his "Meditations in a Tea-roflm" under the pseudonym. "M.P;" eight years before he atitmilly entered PaHiame'ni-^a 6Baractfsristic, and. prophetic; gesturfi.' jEEis aimus mir'ablis iyas the" year 1885, .ijfliSn he married, took silk, and fought His first election; but it was ntfc.until 1891 that he . was feturied td; Parliaiiieht with the nickname'"Deptfbrd's Little Darling;" His journalism was anonymous; On« Writer re'eqrds:-r- '... .Years ago Sir... Charles spent years' in an ..untidy office lit Northumberland street; IEIe may remember fte iwo chairs, the single ink-pot, .and the scratching of his-Somp^anion's pen. There were , xio tidy briefftoi^s, ho tidy clerks, in that office; BuSiiStidy printers' boys waited at the" door for copy. And the copy produced By Mr. Darling, Q.C., was. as gbod.a's iiiy; man's., fie had. fallen in'with a Brilliant but insufficient staff;.. Oust .was just setting the Pall Mail into its ' stride; and often, a "leader'/ needed writing when there was no ieadeiVwriter! oii the 'premises. Mr. Darling obliged!' A PAXltilNCf IN CdUBT. Mr; Justice Darling's Court Became the Jfeeea. of seh£ati6n T seekers:. of Jill ' claSses; .He was gdbd' "ed/py".-'* ■. pis Wit was keen; yg't kindly"; TKeGiiaHesTirirth, Sieyier; P'embertclhißiiling, afid "Mr. A;,".casesl,4ll fell to, his jot. (fidt fondesired, Gossip alleged!); B'iit none gave him more scope for Wit Hen. the "Great Bomney.Picture Case i* in 1917, when a Ne% .Yorke* sued a. famous firm of art dealers; the ißsne-Being whether of-,'not a eeftain,.picture' Was that" 6f Mrs/ Siddois; .afid. hef .Sister ■' painted I>y,li6mhey; The f ifttttre stood dn an eafeel Beside thg judge; wiio ftoiitfivfed diifing. this sSyen-day frial to tiuote Matthew Arnold, ShaKespeare, Wordsworth, Disfatfli; Diekehs, .^oldSmith, Tennyson; and . Lpckef-Lanipr sonT—all fin the spiir 6f the ffliment. Glowing testimony of his literary; knowledge! / It is, of course, as a criminal, judge, "that Darling's1 faing is writ largest, writ in. figures of..Steiniß . Morrison, Armstrong, Emiiia Byroii, who stabbed her stoekbrokef-lover;. in, Lombard street PoSt Office; and "Chicago Miy" (recently 'dead), who smiled, sweetly at him when1 he senteric.ed her iii fifteglii, years' imprisonment for shooting at Eddie Guerin, whom she had betrayed to the police after his escape from Devil's. Island. Sis. eEipgiiisrS WifJe. Surely his niost dramatic edse was that of CHpp'en; which; possessed all the ingredients of siiceessful x melodrama; ■ Crippen, an American doctor, arrived in London in 1900 as manager of a patent medicine business. His wife, a Pole, possessed fi voide of doubtful quality which Crippen had helped her, to. have trained. , . . . Hopes of grand opera fading; she took the liame of Belfe Elinor^ and anndunced.her intention of appearing at music halls. But her talents were woefully poor. Not-one engagement' did sh& get; yet, although havifig no. possible claim td the des6fiptito 61 anisic hall artist; she Became treasurer of the Musid-Hall Ladies' Guild—a step that was one day to place the rope found Cfippeii's heck. Denied fame; Belle Elinofei was determined at. least to see . life;; She dressed, lived; and entertained extravagantly, with the result that the driipffverishdd doctor sooii f6U£d himself rising early to do the mbriiing hdUSework himself biff ore going to busihessi . Then he fell in love with-Ethel La Neve-7-and bought some deadly poison. His neighbours accepted his explah* atioh that his wife had gone abroad and died. But her friends of the Music-Hall Guild were less credulous. , Their awkward questions and . gossip brought Inspector Dew on the scene. AEEESTED BY WIfiELESS. Whdii pdftjons of a headless! bbSy were foiind beiiekth the cellaf floor, .. Crippfeii and Ethel Le Neve (disguisea as a boy) were crossing the Atlantic* The frustratibfl of their attempt to 'es^ dape was th^ first practical demdristra* tion of the value of wireless. Such sensational cases as Lofd Dkrlihg did not try at first instance iisually. came before Mm oil appeal, amonggfc them thb^e of Seddoii, Casement, ana Smith; "the Brides in the Bath" miirl " derer. Once.in the ,Cburt of .Criminal Appeal:— . Council was pleading quite serioiisl.f' that the appellant was a person of godd character agniiist whom nothing but murder hafl been alleged. "Unfortunately," replied Bis 16rdship, "I have had to seiitence tg death too many persons whß bore the highest character to enable liie to give that argument hibfe than its flue weight."