ON THE MIDLAND CIRCUIT.
"That's Orkins hover there," said a burly-looking sportsman as I
arrived one day at Newmarket Heath--"'im a-torkin' to Corlett. See
'im? Nice bernevolent old cove to look at, ain't 'e? Yus. That didn't
stop 'is guvin' me _five of his wery best_, simply becorze by accident
I mistook someb'dy else's 'ouse and plate-chest for my own. Sorter
mistake which might 'appen a'most to henybody. There 'e is; see 'im?
That's Orkins!"
I need not say I was frequently spoken of in this complimentary manner
by persons who had been introduced to me at the Bar. I was once
leading a little fox terrier with a string, because on several
occasions he had given me the slip and caused me to be a little late
in court. I led him, therefore, in the leash until he knew his duty.
On this day, however, as the crowd was waiting for me on the little
platform of a country station, my fox terrier jumped out in front of
me while I was holding him by the string.
"Good ----!" cried a voice from a gentleman to whom I had previously
given a situation under Government, livery and all found; "why, blow
me if the old bloke ain't blind! Lookee there, 'is dawg's a-leadin'
'im; wot d'ye think o' that?"
But persons in much higher station were no less at times fond
of chaff, which I always took good-humouredly. A story of Lord
Grimthorpe, who, many years after, had some fun with me at times over
my little Jack, will appear in his reminiscences a little farther on.
I used to lead Jack with a string in the same manner as I had done the
other, for educational purposes, and Lord Grimthorpe jocularly called
me Jack's prisoner. But I must let him tell his own story in his own
way when his turn comes.
The Midland Circuit was always famous for its ill accommodation of her
Majesty's Judges, and of late years even in the supply of prisoners
to keep them from loitering away their days in idleness or lonely
diversions.
I always loved work and comfortable lodgings, and may say from the
first to the last of my judicial days set myself to the improvement of
both the work and the accommodation.
Some Judges in their charges used to discourse with the grand jury of
our foreign relations, turnips, or the state of trade; but I took a
more humble theme at Aylesbury, when I informed that august body
that the quarters assigned to her Majesty's Judges were such that an
officer would hardly think them good enough to billet soldiers in.
"My rest, gentlemen, has been rudely disturbed," said I, "in the
lodgings assigned to me. My bedroom was hardly accessible, on account
of what appeared to be a dense fog which was difficult to struggle
through. I sought refuge in the dressing-room. Being a bitterly cold
night and a very draughty room, some one had lighted a fire in it;
but, unfortunately, all the smoke came down the chimney after going
up a little way, bringing down as much soot as it could manage to
lay hold of. All this is the fault of the antiquated chimneys and
ill-contrived building generally. My marshal was the subject of equal
discomfort; and I think I may congratulate you, gentlemen, not only on
there being very few prisoners, but also on the fact that you are not
holding an inquest on our bodies."
The grand jury were good enough to say that there was "an institution
called the Standing Joint Committee, who will, no doubt, inquire into
your lordship's subject of complaint." The "Standing Joint Committee"
sounded powerfully, but I believe no further notice was taken, and the
question dropped.
"That's a nice un," said one of the javelin-men at the door when a
friend of his came out. "Did yer 'ear that, Jimmy? Orkins is a nice
un to talk about lodgings. Let him look to his own cirkit--the 'Orne
Cirkit--where my brother told me as at a trial at Guildford the tenant
of that there house wouldn't pay his rent. For why? Because they
was so pestered wi' wermin. And what do you think Orkins told the
jury?--He was counsel for the tenant.--'Why,' he says, 'gentlemen,
you heard what one of the witnesses said, how that the fleas was so
outrageous that they ackshally stood on the backs o' the 'all chairs
and barked at 'em as they come in.' That's Orkins on his own circuit;
and 'ere he is finding fault with our lodgings."
It was not long after my arrival at Lincoln, on the first occasion of
my visiting that drowsy old ecclesiastical city, that I was waited
upon, first by one benevolent body of gentlemen, and then another, all
philanthropists seeking subscriptions for charitable objects.
One bitterly cold morning I was standing in my robes with my back to
the fire at my lodgings, waiting to step into the carriage on my way
to court, when a very polite gentleman, who headed quite a body of
other polite gentlemen, asked "if his lordship would do them the
honour of receiving a deputation from the L. and B. Skating Club."
I assented--nothing would give me more pleasure; and in filed the
deputation, arranging themselves, hats in hand, round me in a
semicircle.
"We have the honour, my lord, to call upon your lordship in pursuance
of a resolution passed last night at a special meeting of our club--"
"What is the name of your club?"
"The L. and B. Skating Club, my lord."
"What is its object?"
"_Our_ object, my lord?"
"No, the object of your _society_. I can guess your object."
The leader answered with a smile of the greatest satisfaction,--
"Er--skating, my lord."
"Your own amusement?"
The head of the deputation bowed.
"Do you want _me_ to skate?"
"No, my lord; but we take the liberty of asking your lordship to
kindly support our club with a subscription."
"When I see," I replied, "so much poverty and misery around me which
needs actual relief, and when I look at this inclement weather and
think how these poor creatures must suffer from the cold, it seems
to me that _they_ are the people who should apply to those who have
anything to bestow in charity; not those who are the only people, as
it would appear, who can take pleasure in this excruciating weather.
See if your club cannot do something for these poor sufferers instead
of collecting merely for your own personal amusement; contribute to
their necessities, and then come and see me again. I shall be here
till Monday."
The head of the deputation stared, but it did not lose its presence of
mind or forget its duty. The deputation made a little speech "thanking
me heartily for the kind manner in which they had been received."
I never saw anything more of them from that day to this.
[In a case at Devizes Sir Henry showed in a striking manner the
character he always bore as a humane Judge. He was not humane where
cruelty was any part of the culprit's misdeeds, for he visited that
with the punishment he thought it deserved, and his idea of that was
on a somewhat considerable scale.]
I was down upon cruelty, and always lenient where there were any
mitigating circumstances whatever, either of mental weakness, great
temptation, provocation, or unhappy surroundings.
A woman was brought up before me who had been committed to take her
trial on a charge of concealing the birth of a child. For prisoners
in these circumstances I always felt great sympathy, and regarded the
moral guilt as altogether unworthy of punishment. The law, however,
was bound to be vindicated so far as the legal offence was concerned.
She had already been in prison for three months, because she was too
poor and too friendless to find bail. I am always pointing out that
if magistrates would send more cases to the Judges than they do, they
would get some precedents as to the appropriate measure of punishment,
which they seem badly to need. This woman had already been punished,
without being found guilty, with three times the punishment she ought
to have received had she been found guilty. A month's imprisonment
would have been excessive.
Prisoners should always be released on their own recognizances where
there is a reasonable expectation that they will appear.
The result was that the unhappy woman, who had been punished severely
while in the eye of the law she was innocent, was discharged when she
was found to be guilty.
We have seen how Mr. Justice Maule examined a little boy as to his
understanding the nature of an oath. I once examined a little girl
upon a preliminary point of this kind, before she had arrived at that
period of mental acuteness which enables one to understand exactly the
meaning of the words uttered in the administration of the oath. The
child was called, and after allowing the form of "the evidence you
shall give," etc., and "kiss the book," to be gabbled over, I said,
before the Testament could reach the child's lips,--
"Stop! Do you understand what that gentleman has been saying?"
"No, sir."
I think it is a great farce to let little children be sworn who cannot
be expected to understand even the language in which the oath is
administered, to say nothing of the oath itself. How can they
comprehend the meaning of the phrases employed? And many grown-up
uneducated people are in the same situation. Surely a simple form,
such as, "_You swear to God to speak the truth_"--or, even better
still, to make false evidence punishable without any oath at
all--would be far better.