K.C.'S COME TO BLOWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 93, 21 April 1908, Page 6

K.C.'S COME TO BLOWS.

A scene of a kind which, happily, is extremely rare in English Courts occurred on Wednesday, February 26th, in the Lord. Chief Justice's Court, London, where the Railway and Canal Commission was sitting to hear the application of the Great Northern and Great Central Railway Companies for permission to carry out the agreement of the 3rd December last. The morning was occupied with arguments on behalf of the, two companies. After lunch Mr Vesey Knox, K.C., returning to the seats reserved for King's Counsel a little before the members of the Commission came back, found Mr John Roskill, K.C., reading one of the law-books, and entered into a dispute with him about the removal of some papers. Ere long they came to blows, Mr Knox— so it is alleged—telling Mr Roskill he would throw him out of the seat. The two struggled together for a moment. One of the juniors of the seat behind endeavoured to draw Mr Knox back, while Sir Robert Finlay spoke to both the counsel engaged. Then Mr Vesey Knox declared in a passion, that Mr Roskill was "an insolent, despicable cur," and the latter retorted with a blow, which was quickly returned. Ultimately Sir Samuel Evans, the Solicitor-General, came across the Court, and peace was at last restored by Mr J. D. Fitzgerald, K.C., taking a seat between the two enraged lawyers. Mr Knox appeared in the case (with Mr Aspinall) for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company.