THE LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 4007, 25 November 1880, Page 2

THE LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND.

ENGLAND. '

" Men of the Time" gives the following notice of the late Chief Justice of England, whose death was recorded in our cable news from London on Wednesday :— 11 Cockburn, the Right Hon Sir Alexander James Edmond, Bart., G.C.8., born 1802, son of Mr Alexander Cockburn, formerly English minister in Columbia ; succeeded in 1850 to the baronetcy oV his uncle, the late Rev Sir William Cockburn, .dean of York. Having been educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated L.L.B. in 1829, Mr Cockburn was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, and went the. Western circuit. In 1841 hi*, became Q.C.; during the railway mania in 1846 he had the good fortune to obtain a large share of the Parliamentary practice which arose out of the various lines projected, and at" the general election in 1847 he was returned for Southampton in the advanced Liberal ' interest. He did not take a very prominent position as a debater until he made his memorable defence of Lord Palmerston's foreign policy, on the Pacifico question, in 1850, which was one of the most eloquent and successful speeches delivered in the House of Commons. He was soon afterwards appointed SolicitorGeneral, was promoted to be AttorneyGeneral in March 1851, and continued to hold the latter office till the dissolution of Lord John Russell's Ministry in the spring of 1852. On the formation of the Coalition cabinet, he resumed his post as AttorneyGeneral, and was, in 1864, appointed Recorder of Bristol. Whilst Attorney-General he was engaged in the 'Hopwood case,' and displayed consummate ability in the prosecution of W. Palmer. On the : death of Chief -Justice Jervis,, at the close of 1856, Sir Alexander Cockburn was created Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and was advanced to the high office of Lord" Chief justice of England on the elevation of the late Lord Campbell to ihe woolsack 1 in 1859. His charge to the Grand Jury at the Central Criminal Court, London, delivered April 10, 1867, in the cause of General r Nelson and Lieutenant Brand, prosecuted by the Jamaica Defence Committee, is a masterly performance, and contains the most masterly exposition of martial law and of the manner in which it has been applied in various periods of our history. In September, 1871, he was appointed to be the arbitrator , on the part of Great Britain under the stipulations of the Washington Treaty relating .to,, the settlement of the Alabama claims. He presided over the protracted trial of 'TheQueeu v Castro' in the Court of Queen's Bench in 1873-4. His charge to the jury in that remarkable case was printed under his own editorial supervision, in 2 vols., 1875."