Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/271

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244
The Green Bag.

lawyers who have occasion to practice before him would answer in the affirmative, relying on the accumulated experiences of mankind as to the physical appearance of persons in that restful state, for Lord Coleridge in the course of a trial will close his eyes, and allow his head to fall on the desk, and subsequently appear unconscious of much that has taken place in the meantime. Can anyone wonder under these circumstances that the accusation finds currency?

It is only just, however, to state that the Lord Chief Justice himself denies the imputation, al leging that he is never more acutely receptive of the argument presented to him or more alive to the forensic situation than when he adopts this demeanor, which ordinary mortals have thought lessly regarded as incompatible with due judicial vigilance. A problem thus insoluble in our own day we present for elucidation to the legal histo •«« rian of the future.