AT THE BAR.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 753, 6 August 1886, Page 8

AT THE BAR.

(The Melbourne Daily Telegram.y

It is one of the best of axioms that in order to understand the people, their wants, their aims iheir aspirations, you must mix with them, and of a seuse be of them. Yet how many, for instance, of our well-to-do prosperous community even pause to think of the pain and anguish of the hundreds who are called upon daily, either from the stemnecessity of the law’s behests, or from some tie of consanguinity or friendship to appear before our most important temples of justice the police court. The history of our police courts could it ever be written in full, would from every point of view, form a most fascinating tome for the lovers of sensational literature. Nor would the historian have to confine himself to the criminal side alone in drawing on the past for his facts. Where are the brilliant legal lights whose geniuses have lit up those dull walls with the fire' of their passion, the brilliancy of their wit, or the poignancy of their satire? Where the equal of Sewell, Dailey, Irelaud Dawson, Aspinal ? Men who, a score of years ago, held crowds of eager listeners for hours together hanging on their slightest utterance. On these later days it has become the fashion to decry police-court practice as somewhat derogatory to the dignity of the leaders of the bar, but nevertheless such eminent practioners as Dr Madden, Mr Purves, nnd Sir Bryan O Loghlen may be seen there on occasions of serious import, and it is no secret that thepreseut Attorney General and Solicitor-General of Victoria both won the spurs which may yet lead to knightlyhonors within the dingy walls of our policecourts. In their initial stages the magistrate deals with every case of importance that comes before tlie public. For instance,

few of the readers of this article can have forgotten the history of the Ferret case—one of the most extraordinary ever heard cf iu the world’s history, not even excepting the marvellous exploits of Captain Kidd, and other buccaneers of the good old times ; because in the old sea rover’s days there were no telegraphs or inconvenient things of that sort to play high jinks with the best laid schemes of men and mice. But in the face of all these modern improvements the steamer Ferret was absolutely stolen from an English company and navigated round the world to the port of Melbourne, where through the folly of the perpetrators of the crime, they were apprehended and brought to justice,and are now expiating their offences in Pentridge. That was one of the most remarkable cases ever heard in any court in the world—almost as remarkab'e and astounding as the preliminary inquiry into the great West Coast outrages in New Zealand, the Kinder Murder case in Sydney, or the stoi'y of the doings of Mount and Morris amongst the natives of the South Seas. Those are only instances of the most notorious of the eases which have come before the police-courts, and have gone thence to higher courts for final decision. All of these, from the great variety of their nature and the great difference of their degree, will show the amount of work which the officials of (he police-court have to per-

form throughout the whole of the colonies ; and there can be no doubt that they are exce lently well manned and conducted. All the officials are trained specially for the different branches of their work, under the weight of which many of them succumb to the ills which flesh is heir to. Such a ene was the messenger to the Melbourne courts, Mr Richard Capper a gentleman in the veryprime of life, as far as age is concerned, and as well known for his long connection with the courts as from the fact that his father, who has but just paid the debt of nature, was a companion of Fawkner and Batman. Capper, sen., was so remarkable for an iron constitution arid an iron nerve that it is not matter of wonder thathis son’s friend should, some two years ago, have noticed him dwindling to a mere shadow with feelings of most profound astonishment and grief. Celebrated erstwhile for the liveliest of spirits and the keenest cf repartee, he became gradually changed to a sullen, morose, melancholy man utterly indifferent to everything about him, and as he himself used to express it, “ indifferent much whether he lived or died, as the daily pain he had to suffer was more than human nature could endure! ” He consulted every known medical man within a radius of fifty miles of the City. Geelong’s most famous of practitioners were called in ; the best of the doctors in the faculty in Melbourne, all having known his father and himself for a generation, rallied round him, sounded him, diagnosed his case and, to a man, agreed that he was very, very ill: that he was suffering from the very worst form of kidney disease combined with most serious liver trouble ; and that, well—change of air, change of scene, and cessation from the active duties of his office might—well then would follow the usual profound shake of the head, the deprecatory shrug of the shoulders, the uplifting of the eye brows, which to the patient means a sentence of death. One doctor advised as a last resource a sojourn by the seaside, another a sojourn to the country, but still Capper held on to his post, his suffering increasing daily, until at last he announced his intention to his then medical attendant of obtaining, six months’ leave of absence, so that he might follow the advice of his many advisers, if it were possible to do so. “ Take six months’ leave of absence by all means, if you think it will do you any good ; but you 11 be in the eemetery before that time is half over, my dear fellow,” were the cheering words Capper took with him to the seaside, and from thence to the very heart of But he grew worse and worse, his body racked momentarily by pain, he fell almost to a shadow, and it is no wonder that his family and all his friends came to look upon the doctor's dictum as final, and that he himself almost longed to fall into that sleep which knows no waking. While destitute of hope and a prey to despair, feeling that if he trusted to the doctors much longer he must die from sheer exhaution unless some prompt measures were taken to save his life, he fortunately saw the advertisement of Warner's safe care, and resolved, just as those who are drowning see one glimpse of light before they sink for ever into the waters of oblivion, to give it a trial, although he was ; dissuaded from doing so by his medical advisers and others who regard all proprietary medicines with suspicion. The result of Mr

<Sar>per's experiment may be best told in his «wn words to an old friend of his ou saw me before I took Warners safe cure, did you not ? And you thought 1 was going to die eh “ Well, to tell you the truth, 1 wouldn’t have given a farthing for your life. You were yellow with bile, ieerne, worn, and emaciated ; and now, honestly, •you are as healthy a man to look at as any in the country P “ And so I am, thanks to a merciful Providence and Warner’s safe cure. You see I was so very ill, and so near death, as all the doctors told me, that when I went in for the cure, I determined on sticking to it, and following implicitly the instructions given with each bottle as to dietary, &c. That 1 have done; and although I have only taken twenty bottles, 1 am as sound a man as any of my age in Melbourne. And yet you remember, as well as I do, that the doctors told me I had not six months to lave, or that if I went away for a holiday of that period I would not come baek alive.” These are the words taken from Mr Capper’s own hps by a disinterested friend of his within the last week. They are words that need no comment at our hands, and they only go to show that there are stranger things happening daily m our midst than those which the published records of the police courts themselves close.