JOVIAL JUDGES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12621, 4 December 1926, Page 11

JOVIAL JUDGES .

Fan from the Bench Some Humorous Sallies, |

When Mr Justice Bigham was trying a ease about a charter-party re-; luting to a cargo of donkeys lor South Africa, and Mr Joseph Walton informed him that his friend Mr Bray, [ K.C., appeared, for the defendants, the judge was well within the law to ask: * “Which of the donkeys docs Mr Bray! represent?” | Mr Justice Day never made an irre- ■ levant joko in his life, but he intervened with many witty and useful in-, terniptionx that made for brevity. As j when a learned and pompous counsel iu a dull trade case about sacks and \ bags when addressing tho court at j great length and said: “Then, my i Lord, we ccuie to the question of the bags; and here I must remind vour Lordship that there arc many kinds of bags; they might have been full bags, 1 or half lull hags, or empty bags ” “Or windbags,” interjected

learned judgo in a gloomy voice. : Mr Justice Wiglninan put tho same thought in a kinder but no less amusing form to Mr Kihton, who had been [ pounding away with a hopeless argu--1 ment, repeating himself to the third or ! fourth iteration. “Really, Mr Ribton,” ! interrupted the judge at last, with a | weary .sigh, “you know you’ve said that before.” “Have I, my Lord? I am very sorry. . I quite forgot it.” ; j “Don’t apologise,” said the mild old ’judge, with perfect resignation. “I j forgive yo-u —for it was a very long < time ago.” | Commissioner Kerr, a very able but 1 eccentric judge, hated to see counsel ‘ before him wearing a moustache, j “flow can I hear you, sir,” he shouted to an offender who appeared with a beard and a moustache, “how ran T L hear if you cover un your muzzlo

like a terrier dog?” “Well, I’d rather be an English terrier than a Scotch cur.” was the unexpected reply. A prisoner tried before Judge Maule for murder and found guilty was asked in the usual way why sentence should not he passed upon him. He raised his hand to heaven with a dramatic gesture and called out: “May God strike me dead if T did it!” There was a hushed silence. The spectators gazed at the prisoner in horror. Maule stared in front of him and waited lor several moments. At length lie roughed, and in his thin, drv voice, ns if dealing with some legal point m the case, said: “Prisoner at the bar. as Providence has not seen fit to interfere in your case, it now becomes my duty to pronounce upon you the sentence of death.” Robert Macqucen, Lord Braxfieid, :» Scotch judge of the eighteenth century, was far worse than Maule himself, or even Jeffreys, in the insulting jests ho uttered on the bench. One of his cruel witty sayings was made to an eloquent prisoner whos? speech from the dock he praised without stint, and when the poor wretch imagined a lenient sentence would follow. lie wound m? with the remark: “Ye're a verva clcmt duel, mon. hut ye wad be nan. :lip waur of a hanging.” and proceeded to sentence him to death.