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it would be extremely inconvenient for me to have to commit the Crown Prosecutor for contempt during the Criminal Sessions; but (turning to Sugden) if the Chief-Constable does not hold his tongue, I certainly shall commit him." "Old Croke" sat down with a guttural grunt which might mean anything; but the caution was not lost on the Chief-Constable, who ever after took care to keep his often loud and unruly tongue in a state of good behaviour. For several years during Judge A'Beckett's tenure of office, he was persistently and cruelly abused by some of the Melbourne newspapers, for the publication of inflammatory speeches delivered two or three times in the City Council. For printing one of these tirades an editor was committed for trial, and on another occasion an attachment was issued from the Supreme Court; but a reluctance to appear as Judge in his own case, and to resort in any way to the despotic power so abused by Judge Willis, constrained Mr. A'Beckett to treat with silent contempt the calumnies unsparingly hurled at him. In 1850, Circuit Courts were established, the first of which was held at Geelong on the 20th January. Judge A'Beckett attended divine service at Christ Church, and afterwards opened the business of his Court in an address of much research and no small rhetorical power. It was one of the most readable judicial deliverances ever printed in the colony, and, as a sample passage descriptive of the surroundings of the once romantic bay of Corio, I transcribe a brief extract:— "Let me pause to say a few words of the locality where we are now assembled. Standing within a bay, which from certain points presents no unworthy resemblance to the far-famed one of Naples, the situation of Corio is at once beautiful and imposing. Washed, but not too rudely, by the waves, and refreshed by the breezes of the sea, the town and neighbourhood afford many delightful points of attraction. Let the spectator ramble in which direction he will, he cannot but be struck by the beauty of the surrounding prospect. Before him stretches an amphitheatre of coast terminating in a mountain, which, sweeping gracefully to a picturesque height, contrasts with the silvery hue of the waters at its base, in ever-varying reflexions of the tints and shadows of the sky and clouds above. Turning towards the shore, a lovely landscape of hill and dale, and no less full of agricultural promise than of scenic beauty, everywhere meets his view. If he wander along the banks of the Barwon, he will perceive both the garden of the villa and the meadow of the farm; and if he ascend to the summit of the Barrabool Hills, he will be rewarded by a sight of one of Nature's most magnificent panoramas." For the year or two before Separation, the judicial duties were becoming too onerous for a single Judge, yet Justice A'Beckett continued at his work with unflagging assiduity; and after Port Phillip became the Colony of Victoria, he was nominated the Chief Justice of the first Full Court of three Judges. A Knighthood followed, and he retired upon a well-earned pension at the inauguration of Responsible Government in 1856. He died on 27th June, 1869.