LAUGHTER IN COURT.

Shannon News, 6 July 1923, Page 2

LAUGHTER IN COURT.

MR. JUSTICE DARLING. Whar is missed in reading the jokes of Ml- Justice DRW S'tZ °cZxt, says zr 1 tt'zsssxfcsras ZZS Mm &■ fllppantjr

“our senior Judge is 73 Che has been on the Bench nearly 26 years. He is Z en n man of encyclopedic knowledge, a profound scholar, a Poet, a* accomplished linguist and a Phfios oher with wide sympathies and a pas wi niifitp IoVG Ot tl ' The secret of his joking is Perhaps revealed in this statement of a coun- “ Those who have seen him many years conducting cases '• *** that he makes brilliant use to concentrate attention on vital and to put irrelevancies to confusiom Plenty of Darling jokes read in the light of this explanation attain fresh strength in print. . . . Counsel in an engineering case. This valve was worked by a spring but your Lordship knows a spring will not las

Ion o *. Mi'. Justice Darling: Yes,- for I have read Ver non semper viret (springtime is short). Mr. Justice Darling (m . another case): Do you mean that you can get a license not'- knowing how to drive and then career all round the streets as you like ? Chauffeur: Yes. Mr. Justice Darling: I only want to know, because I sometimes walk in the streets. (Laughter.) ■ Counhel (cross-examining plajmtitr in a libel case). Were your services appreciated by the King during the war ? - Mr. Justice Darling: Whaf has that to do with it ?

Counsel: To show that he was sane. T\lr. Justice Darling: Some said that General Wolfe was mad, and the King said he hoped he would bite some of the other generals. But humour comes to his aid in all situations —even in a “ scene ” in Court.

While a woman plaintiff was giving evidence the woman defendant exclaimed: “ You wicked liar ! ” ’ Mr. Justice Darling: Mrs. W-> if .you don’t keep quiet. I will have you removed from the Court. Mrs. W.: It’s more than I can bear hearing her say that. Mr. Justice Darling: You try to bear it, will you? I have a greaf .deal more than that to bear.

Mrs. W.: Do let me speak out, sir. I must tell you the truth.

Mr. Justice Darling: In tl\is Court we can’t allow more than one person af a time to tell the truth. :

* When complaint was made in 1918 as to the acoustic properties of the Judges’ Court at the Old Bailey, Mr. Justice Darling observed: One hears rather well on the Bench, but I have heard that counsel experience great difficulty in hearing. I have been told that in a case in which a Judge pronounced a sentence of seven years’ penal, servitude the prisoner was paralysed by hearing a voice from the roof giving him another ’seven years. v

During a trial at Bristol Assizes (1921) it was stated by a solicitor that unsuccessful effort's had been made to find a man named Little. Mr. Justice Darling: It still remains true that we “ want but little here below.”

"Is there such a thing as free, will ? ” he asked on one occasion. “ The House of Lords were discussing the other day whether there was such a thing, or whether everything was not pre-destined. T think they reserved judgment.”