EARL SELBOURNE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3601, 26 January 1883, Page 4

EARL SELBOURNE.

So manj r capital stories are related of this eminent lawyer that the .space at our command Avill only permit us to make a selection therefrom. We are indebted to a barrister for the folloAving account of lioav his lordship (then Mr Palmer) in his younger days settled the magistrates when he was defending one of two prisoners charged AA-ith conspiracy. After a lengthened hearing the magistrates decided to commit for trial only one of the prisoners, namely, the ono defended by Mr Palmer. "Do I understand that the prisoner A is discharged ." said Mr Palmer. "Certainly," replied one of the magistrates. '' Very Avell then, let him come out of the dock." There being no objection to this, the prisoner stepped joyfully doAvn into court and rapidly "made his way into tho street. "Noav," said Mr Palmer, turning to his client, "you can go." Needless to say the prisoner Avas at once stopped by the gaoler, and tho magistrates' clerk informed counsel that his client stood committed for trial. Mr Palmer blandly inquired of the Bench if this Avas so, and being ansAvered in the affirmatiA-e, still more blandly enquired '' For Avhat offence ':" " For conspiracy," somewhat snappishly replied one of the great unpaid. "For conspiracy!" said Mr Palmer, intones of the utmost astonishment. "For conspiracy; and pray, sir, Avith AA-homis the prisoner supposed to have conspired ?'' This was a poser; it clearly takes tAvo- to conspire, and the magistrates • had decided the other man was not guilty. Result: Mr Palmer's client discharged also, to the confusion of the magistrates, the delight of the audience, and the triumph of the young counsel. The folloAAdng nice objection is said to have been taken by Sir Roundell in the defence of a young lady of rank charged Avith child murder. The prosecution relied mainly upon the evidence of a female accoucheur, Avho swore that she aa.is blindfolded, aud forcibly conveyed to the residence of the . young lady; and that her captors tAAdcc crossed a river on the journey. Whereupon Sir, Roundell pointed out that as there Avere but one straight river betAveen the house of the witness and that of the prisoner, if her captors had re-crossed it with the object of deceiving her as to the route they Avere talcing, they must have crossed it again a third time to get on the side on AAdiich the prisoner's house stood. The force of this ingenious observation so struck the jury that they immediately acquitted the prisoner. •As a proof of his conscientiousness and principles, it is stated that he refused to accept the retainer of £30,000 offered him by Government for his services at Geneva. In a breach of promise case, in which ho was retained for the 'faithless swain,' he is said to have secured a verdict by two Avorcls. The plaintiff was a remarkably handsome woman, and her counsellor placing her, like Mrs Bardell's little boy, full in vieAv of tho jury, pathetically and eloquently called their attention to her charms, and painted in gloAving colors the guilt of the Avrctch who could deceive and betray such beauty.

Rising- to reply'for the "defendant,;' Mr Palmer said "he fully concurred in the encomiums so lavishly bestowed by his learned friend on the features of the plaintiff ; but he had omitted from his list of charms the Avooden leg of his client." Tho plaintiff's counsel vras uuaAvare of his client's misfortune, and was so taken aback by its discovery in this manner that he lost all heart, and the jury, ashamed of haA-ing been so moA-ed, and, as they thought, taken in by the plaintiff's counsel, returned a verdict for the defendant. His quickness once saved two clients from the lash. Avhich punishment they well merited. Defending tAvo men indicted for highway robbery Avith violence, he persuaded the jury to coirvict them of a common assault only. Waiting for a moment, lie inquired of the clerk of arraigns if the sentence had been recorded, and ascertaining that it had' applied for the prisoners' discharge, "as there Avas no count in the indictment for common assault, and the A'crdiot given by the jury and entered on the records of the Court Avas cquiA-alcnt to one of not guilty." Very reluctantly tho Judge made the required order, and briefly and sternly bade the prisoners let their present good fortune prove a turning point in their lives, for he (the Judge) had determined to sentence them to be whipped. His capacity for Avork is an undoubted fact. As a barrister his lamp Avas always lit by five o'clock in the morning, and he had done Avhat most Avould have deemed a good day's Avork before lazy men had got out of bed. He Avas meeting clients in chambers, or pleading in Court, until the hour Avhon a man of ordinary endurance thought of going home to dine or rest; and, meairwhile, he had not only glanced at his briefs, but had read them from corner to corner Avith as much care as if ho Avere a junior barrister avlio could not afford to miss a chance of gaining business. After all this arduous labor he was seen in the House of Commons, Avhere, perhaps, he delivered a poAverful speech in favor of the English Church, or, seated behind the Treasury Bench, played the part of luiofficial Attorney- General andad'viser-in-chief to the Government. He came to be a kind of legal and political oracle, andAvhenhe rose to speak there Avas a deferential hush : and Avhen he cast the mantle of his character or the shield of his forensic lore OA-cr some ministerial cause, both sides of the House used to in\'cst the defence Avith an importance Avhich might almost seem to sa\-or of sxq.crstition. As one thinks of the reverence Avhich Liberal and Tory attached to any opinion chiefly because it Avas bis, cynics might almost be pardoned for fancying that some saint had gone into chambers, and had given to the IaAV Avhat avusmeant for the church. When good bishops avctc chancellors they must, Aye suppose, have been like Lord Sclbornc. He was always a match for the ablest of living lawyers in logical acumen, in the firmness withNvhieh he grasped facts, and the lucidity with which be set them in array, Avhether he Avas arguing the case of a disputed right to a patent, or pleading before tho Court of Arbitration at Geneva.

All trace of ecclesiastic-ism Acav aAvay AA-hen he had so to shape his arguments and choose his words as to impress a sensible and matter-of-fact assembly. And then, again, be lightly passed from the logical unfolding of complicated briefs, and the presentation of long chains of legal reasoning, to the editing, or even Avriting, of hymns. —Pictorial World.