Sketches from the Parliament House. and able speeches, in which he declared that the country would demand an account of Gordon's blood from the Liberal govern ment. It became obvious that Mr. Rob ertson was not less fitted for parliamentary, than he had shown himself to be for legal work. In 1885 he carried Buteshire against a Liberal candidate, and entered the House of Commons as Tory Solicitor-General for Scotland. He became at once the foremost debater among the legal members on either side of the House. Sir Charles Russell, Mr. J. B. Balfour, Mr. Lockwood, and even greater luminaries in the political firmament than they — Sir Edward Clarke, Mr. R. B. Finlay, and Mr. Asquith — were eclipsed by his brilliance. His good-natured colleague, Mr. J. H. A. Macdonald, was out of the com petition altogether. The government came to rely on Mr. Robertson as a valuable henchman, and he was put up to defend its policy not only on Scotch, but on Irish, English, and foreign questions. On one memorable occasion he was compelled to return a one hundred guinea brief, in order that he might support the Irish Crimes Bill at a Wednesday's afternoon debate! In 1889 he piloted the Local Government (Scot land) Bill through the House of Commons with a skill that evoked the commendation even of Sir William Harcourt. Indeed, the remarkable thing in Mr. Robertson's par liamentary life was, that whatever he did "prospered well." An intelligent foreigner, taking his knowledge of English public men only from that section of the press which is opposed to them, would form a somewhat mean idea of the intellectual and moral quali ties of English statesmanship. According to the Conservative organs, Mr. Gladstone's public utterances are " unworthy," " tortu ous," and " verbose; " Mr. Morley is " a mere litterateur; " Sir William Harcourt is
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"a political swashbuckler." According to the Separatist press, Lord Salisbury is "flippant," Mr. Balfour is " led away with schoolboy rhetoric," Mr. Goschen is " a turncoat," and Mr. Chamberlain " a rene gade." The late Lord Advocate of Scotland is the only public man within recent years whose speeches were always listened to, answered, and criticised respectfully. While a torrent of abuse was being poured upon the heads of older and possibly abler men, Mr. Robertson was always "forcible," "amus ing," and " ingenious." In the Parliament House Mr. Robertson was, and will no doubt continue to be, a uni versal favorite. Like the late Lord Justice Holker, the late Baron Huddleston, and the present Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland, he was known among his contemporaries by an affectionate abbreviation of his name. There is no cause cttebre with which his reputation is peculiarly identified; but he has been for many years an integral part of the forensic life of Scotland. His practice at the bar was very large and lucrative. In one recent case he is said to have received a cheque for five hundred guineas along with his instruc tions, — a fee not by any means unusual ac cording to English standards, but very rare among the learned gentlemen who play at what Henry Erskine called " the shilling tables" north of the Tweed. When Inglis became Lord Justice Clerk in 1858, he was believed to be only a bril liant advocate. In a few years he had shown that he possessed eminent judicial powers; and when death took him he was recognized as one of the greatest jurists of the century. Mr. Robertson has ascended the bench with a forensic reputation hardly less bright than that of Inglis. We cordially hope that he will display the same judicial gifts as his illustrious predecessor.
