Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/409

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The Green Bag.


374

man, had ceased to be a parishioner; and Burder v. Heath, the construction of the Articles of Religion (15 Moo. P. C.) SIR ROBERT PHILLIMORE.

Sir Robert Phillimore was Queen's Ad vocate from 1862 to 1867. On August 1 in that year he became judge of the Court of Arches in the place of Dr. Lushington, whom three weeks later he also succeeded as a judge of the High Court of Admiralty. He sat as a judge of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division from 1875 to 1883, when he resigned. He died in 1885. Sir Robert Phillimore was the author of the well-known treatises on international and ecclesiastical law which bear his name. A new edition of the latter has just been edited by his accomplished son, Sir Walter, who is destined to sit one day as judge of the Pro bate Division. Sir Robert Phillimore leaned to the High Church verge in the ritualistic prosecutions. His judgment in Martin v. Mackonochie (L. R. 2 A. & E.) is the most brilliant exposition extant of the historic character and continuity of the Church of England. SIR CHARLES BRETT.

Sir Charles Brett acquired a knowledge of admiralty law possessed by few of his con temporaries in the course of practice, first at the consular bar at Constantinople and then in England. He succeeded Sir Robert Philli more as a judge of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division in 1883, and in 189i,on the promotion of Sir James Hannen to the House of Lords, he became president. He died soon afterwards, however, at Wiesbaden. He was a sound lawyer and a courteous judge, though lacking the dignity and firmness of his predecessor. One of his most interest ing decisions was Scott v. Sebright (12 P. D. 21) — marriage under duress. SIR FRANCIS JEUNE.

Sir Francis Jeune. who was made puisne judge of the Probate Division when Sir

Charles Brett became president, and suc ceeded to the presidentship on the latter's death, is a son of the late Bishop of Peter borough, and one of the most distinguished ecclesiastical lawyers of this century. He was counsel for the Bishop of Lincoln before the Archbishop's court. As a judge he is painstaking and courteous, and supremely competent in admiralty work. In probate and divorce witness actions he is unsatisfac tory, too apt to make up his mind pre maturely, and too much inclined to take the examination of witnesses in his own hands, as if he were a French juge d'instruction. SIR JOHN GORELL BARNES.

On the death of Sir Charles Brett, Sir Francis Jeune became president of the Pro bate Division, and the puisne judgeshipwhich he vacated was given by the Lord Chancellor to Mr. John Gorell Barnes, Q. C. This was one of the best judicial appointments of mod ern times. The son of a Liverpool ship owner, Mr. Barnes had a large practice in mercantile cases, both on circuit and in town, and he has made an admirable judge. He was the first judge to introduce into the prac tical life of the courts '-' trial without plead ings." Soon after his elevation to the bench he broke down, owing, it is said, to the exces sive work at the bar and to the high pres sure at which he toiled, after he became a judge, in the early hours of the morning, to master the probate and divorce prac tice, with which he had been at the bar quite unfamiliar, and he was consequently absent from the bench for about eighteen months. We have not dealt in these brief sketches with Lord Stowell. He was so truly an international character that the comity of nations almost forbids us to claim him as an Englishman. Moreover the facts of his life are as familiar to every educated man as those of Bacon.