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took the " other side." His infirmity of temper, and the curious pranks in which he frequently indulged, presented but too m a n y openings for fair and unfair criticism ; and such was his irascibility, and so often was the Court the arena of unseemly squabbles, that people w h o had no business there, attended to see " the fun," for, as there was no theatre in town, Judge Willis was reckoned to be " as good as a play." S o m e of the attorneys of the period were finished scoundrels, whilst others were the reverse, yet with most of them, good and bad, the Judge was, some time or other, at loggerheads; and he took an early opportunity to exhibit himself against members of the Bar, w h o certainly gave him no tangible cause of complaint. H e contracted an aversion to some of the Magistracy, and by his perverseness obliged Mr. Simpson, the best liked m a n in the Province, to resign his Police Magistracy. H e brow-beat Mr. Brewster into retiring from practice, and there was not another of his Bar, with the exception of the late Judge Williams, with w h o m he did not come into collision. H e carried his Bench scoldings so far that few persons in any position escaped, until soaring for higher prey, he assailed Captain Lonsdale, the Superintendent, the Sydney judges, and even the N e w South Wales Government; and so, ultimately rushing on his fate, he paid the penalty of his infatuation. Still, he had his good points. H e usually leaned towards the poor as against the wealthy, and it was his pleasure to hawk at high rather than low game. H e was generous in assigning counsel to prisoners destitute of means, not confining himself to capital charges. Even in civil causes he permitted suitors to apply in forma pauperis, and would request counsel and attorneys to act for them. H e would m a k e great efforts to be at times impartial, but his success was a rare exception instead of a general rule. A great stickler for punctuality, he would smilingly strike out the causes if the legal gentlemen retained were half a minute behind time ; yet, as he resided at Heidelberg, and was not favoured with a good road, he was often a laggard himself, and was known to keep the Court not infrequently waiting for him. For such intromissions the two hostile newspapers were eternally rating him—whilst the third, in a heavy, lumbering way, rang out in laudation. T h e warfare was incessant without quarter or truce, and the Judge was so eager for the fray, that he might be described as always in his " war paint." In their encounters neither he nor his antagonists ever seemed to care about observing any recognised rules offighting,for both he and they struck " below the belt;" they hit out at him right and left, and his punishment was never taken kindly. Aggressive as often as defensive, he cared little h o w he struck provided he administered a " h o m e " blow. Independent of the two editors, he had many other assailants w h o adopted indirect modes of annoying him — i n fact, he was not unlike a kangaroo perched upon the stump of a tree surrounded by a pack of yelping, biting dogs, at which he used to snarl and snap in return, and, when one of them would approach too near, the " old m a n " would give him a claw or a hug which he would have reason to remember. A s a detailed account of some of Judge Willis's almost incredible vagaries will be found on page 69 of this chapter, only one amusing incident will be introduced here. O n the 15 th October, 1842, he induced the Rev. A. C. Thomson, Church of England minister, to attend as chaplain at the opening of the Criminal Sessions and offer prayers. His reverence did so, and preceding the Judge to the Bench, there knelt and prayed in approved orthodox fashion, after which he read the proclamation for the suppression of vice, a duty hitherto devolving on the Clerk. Mr. T h o m s o n continued his monthly attendance until the session of February, 1843, when he was unexpectedly absent, a discourtesy that worked the Judge into a furious rage, not abated by the non-attendance of twenty-eight jurymen, w h o were fined heavily for their default. In the course of the day the judge was informed that the reason of his chaplain's absence wras the celebration of an important marriage, which brooked no delay, whereupon he pettishly exclaimed, " O h ! then I suppose when a lady is in the case all other things must give way." His Honor introduced the custom of T e r m breakfasts, but when he quarrelled with the Bar, he was left without guests and the "feeds" were necessarily discontinued. Judge Willis's position was one in which no single person should have been placed. Even a m a n of m u c h more equable temperament and a more judicial turn of mind, would have had an arduous task to give general satisfaction in the exceptional state of things then prevalent. Assuredly his successors contrived to evade the quicksands by which he was h e m m e d in, but some of the original difficulties had been cleared away in the meantime. During 1841-3 commercial trading had been greatly overdone, and most of the merchants and settlers of the time had got their affairs into such labyrinths of intricacy and roguery that it became almost an impossibility for any Judge, not gifted with the patience of a Job, to wade through the tangled mazes of chicanery, sharp-practice and swindling disclosed by the Nisi Prius, Equity,