WONDERFUL OLD AGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10034, 3 May 1910, Page 4

WONDERFUL OLD AGE.

.The. (ate Sue Hasr? Sast kins, maid. tf« I ' a sw§ rial's iy&i% nfmi "&*%% *>§&*?/ j 1 and show no iaYftng oS m Vis acu-} I TSSsTi soli «£ ik l*ss& s , now in his Mm is one > of the Boat wonderful old men in j England.' He was SO when the resig- j nation of Mr Balfour compelled him , to vacate the office of Lord Chancel- j , lor, but, freed from the cares of that j great position, he plunged at once in- 1 to the enormous tasK of consolidating all the text-books on English law. To-day he is still active in mind and body. Not only does he take a vigorous part in House of Lnrds' debates, but the other day he sat in the Court of Appeal to prevent arrears of work accumulating owing to the absence j of two Lords Justice. The alertness . and grasp of law displayed by this j young gentleman of 84 made a deep impression on those in Court. The first appeal was a-complicated railway case that had occupied the Court below for many hours—the kind that can be argued for days. Lord Halsbury pounced on the weak points at once, and the case was over in less than an hour, his judgment taking one minute and a-half to deliver. Two more cases were disposed at before the mid-day adjournment. Theie I seemed to be no nfore work for the Court to do that day. but Lord Halsbury noticed that counsel in a case to come on the following day were in Court. This case was promptly "put on the machine," and finished before the Court rose for the day. A writer in the "Daily Mail" describes his penetration of a case as and bis grip of case-law as wonderful. He will give a book of law reports a casual look, and while his colleagues on the Bench and counsel are pouring over it, say authoritatively, "That case meant so and so." Yet he was called to the Bar in 1850—ten years before the new Solicitor-General was born, and became Solicitor-General while Sir Rufus Isaacs was at school. There is considerable difference of opinion about Lord Halsbury as a statesman, but there cannot he any about him as a lawyer and an example of vigorous old age.