1853, and joined the Oxford Circuit. He never secured a large practice, and owed his promotion to the County Court Bench, to the repute which he acquired as a law reporter to the Incorporated Council of Law Reports from its commencement in 1865 up to 1870. He was raised to the County Court Bench in 1880. "Mr. Holroyd's reports," says a judicious biographer, " had many characteristics peculiarly his own. They avoided mere verbiage; they were free to a degree from ambiguity; they were perspicuous; his citation of cases invari ably exact, and above all his legal propo sitions were sound; they were never en cumbered with needless material, while his diction was always polished and refined. Judge Holroyd was on the bench a mod el of patience and courtesy. His decisions were seldom appealed against, and when they were so, were almost invariably upheld. He was not, however, either a strong or a successful judge in his treatment of juries and they frequently took the bit in their teeth and returned verdicts contrary to the whole tenor of the charges. HIS HONOR JUDGE LUMLEY SMITH.
Judge Lumley Smith, the County Court judge of Westminster, is one of the many English lawyers who have missed the Bench of the High Court by accident. He was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1860, and soon acquired a large practice both at the South Eastern Circuit and in town. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1880, and also became Recorder of Sand wich, one of the Cinque Ports. As a law yer he was in the foremost rank of his con temporaries, and his elevation to the Bench was regarded as morally certain. But again and again other men with stronger political though inferior legal claims, were passed over his head, and ultimately he ac cepted the County Court judgeship of West minster when it was vacated by the death of Judge Bagley, who administered justice
there until he was a nonagenarian. If, as seems probable, county court judges are ere long occasionally transferred to the High Court Bench, Judge Lumley Smith will be among the first to secure promotion. HIS HONOR JUDGE MEADOWS WHITE.
Judge Meadows White belongs to the same category. He was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1853, practiced like Judge Lumley Smith on the South Eastern Circuit, was made Recorder of Canterbury, took silk in 1877, and stood at the very threshold of the High Court Bench till 1894, when he succeeded Judge Eddis as County Court judge of Clerkenwell. Unlike Judge Lumley Smith, he is too old a man to reach the High Court. HIS HONOR JUDGE FRENCH.
Judge French is a third type of the same class. He was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1872, practiced on the old Northern Circuit, took silk in 1885, was again and again mentioned for a Queen's Bench judgeship, and at last be came County Court judge of Middlesex. Probably, however, his promotion may only have been postponed. Before his appointment he was frequently engaged as counsel in the series of important recent cases as to the service of writs out of the jurisdiction. HIS HONOR JUDGE HUGHES.
Judge Hughes has a world-wide reputa tion as the author of "Tom Brown's School days" and " Tom Brown at Oxford." He was, besides this, a sound equity lawyer (not in large practice however) and a keen Radi cal politician. These three qualifications combined to secure him the County Court judgeship of Cheshire. HIS HONOR JUDGE ADDISON.
Judge Addison is not the author of Ad dison on Contracts or on Torts. He was
