THE NEWLY-APPOINTED LORD JUSTICE-CLERK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9244, 22 December 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEWLY-APPOINTED LORD JUSTICE-CLERK.

Tin: right Hon, John Kay Atholc Macdonal d, C. 8., Q. 0., who has given up th post of Lord-Advocate of Scotland, and with it a scat in the House of Commons, in order to accept the vacant Lord JusticeClerkship of the Scotch Court of Session, is one of the youngest of the legal luminaries on the Judicial Bench in the kingdom, being only a little way into the fifties. His education at the Edinburgh Academy and afterwards at the Universities of Basle and Edinburgh served him in good stead, and, in addition to the learning necessary for following the law as a profession, he acquired information on subjects" warious," its Mr. Venus would have pub it. Thus, beyond being a smart lawyer, he is a chemist, a mathematician, an author, and a volunteer. Not content even with these, lie added to his other studies that of theology ; and the visitor to the Catholic Apostolic Sanctuary in Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, on Sunday afternoons is frequently treated to a dissertation by the Scotch' lay wcr. Bub he is as much at home in the pursuit of amateur soldiering as at anything else, perhaps. The regiment of Edinburgh volunteers over which he presides has the credit of being one of the smartest and most efficient- in the land o' cakes, and lie is always to the fore in promoting international and other shooting matches for the enjoyment of his corps. Altogether, he is a most versatile man ; and fchosra who know him only in the House will hardly imagine the amount of pathos he is able to throw into his pulpit utterances ; on the other hand, those who meet him only at the Sabbath gatherings would hardly imagine him as one of the wits and raconteurs in the smoking-room of the Commons. As an author his book for boys, "Jean Jambon," is not a pronounced success, but his volume on the criminal law is looked upon as a standard work.