FAMOUS LONDON COURT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22000, 5 January 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

FAMOUS LONDON COURT

OLD BAILEY CENTENARY CHANGES IN 100 YEARS MORE MERCY IN THE LAW A fanfare of trumpets startled the pigeons and passers-by near' the Old Bailey in the middle of the morning of November 2. They stopped and stared, and found two trumpeters posted on the Old Bailey steps, blowing with puffed-out cheeks and swelling chests for the arrival of the Lord Chancellor. The Old Bailey was celebrating its 100 th birthday, and marked the occasion with as solemn a party as one can imagine, even in a Central Qriminal Court, says a woman correspondent of the Daily Mail. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Sankey, arrived in state. The judges and barristers arrived more soberly, in discreet, legal-looking motor-cars. The King's Justices were each presented with a bouquet of rosette-like dahlias in lace-paper holders. The Old Bailey has existed in its present form as the Central Criminal Court for one hundred years. To mark the centenary, Lord Sankey, in the presence of the judges, City aldermen. Criminal Court barristers, the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of London, Dr. Winnington-Ingram, unveiled a modest bronze tablet in the wall of the vast marble-floored first-floor landing. The marble hall was chequered black and white as a flock of magpies by the gowns and wigs of a large congregation of barristers, and scarlet as a military review with the robes of the aldermen and judges. The judges wore wigs. The aldermen were wigless, but they had the alternative splendour of sable collars on their robes. The Lord Chancellor and the Bishop of London got tired of theirs during the speeches and put them on the floor, the better to listen to the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Ilewart, and the Attor-ney-General, Sir Thomas Inskip, K.C., delivering their memorial addresses. Lord Sankey, in unveiling the tablet, said that at tlio end of the 18th century there were 200 crimes punishable by death, and even little children wero treated without any distinction from hardened criminals. At the Old Bailey a boy, aged nine, was sentenced " to be hanged by the neck until ho was dead " for stealing goods valued at 2d from a shop window. Lord Hewart paid a notable tribute to Mr. Justice Avorv. "It is a great privilege," he said, " to see hero today Mr. Justice Avory, full of years and honour, a great master of the criminal law, and to everybody who is anywhere engaged in tho work of the law an example, pattern and inspiration." The birthday party was continued at night in the hall of tho Middle Temple, when the legal dignitaries mot again—with a host of distinguished guests and without their bouquets—for a lengthy memorial banquet. |