866
THE CHRONLCLES
OF EARLY
MELBOURNE.
A n d so it continued up to 1851, when M r . John Barker was admitted, but did not practice. Croke, the L a w Adviser, and Pohlman, the Commissioner of Insolvency, rarely appeared in the Nisi Prius Court, which was therefore appropriated by Barry, Williams and Stawell, chiefly the last two named, w h o were almost invariably pitted against each other. E. J. BREWSTER was the First Barrister to arrive in the colony. He came from Sydney in 1839 with the appointment of Chairman of Quarter Sessions, the first Court with a criminal jurisdiction to try uncapital felonies and misdemeanours, established in 1839, which continued until the opening of the Supreme Court in 1841. H e was also thefirstCommissioner of the Court of Requests (a small debts tribunal) Brewster was a m e m b e r of opened in 1840, which he resigned in 1841, to be succeded by Barry. the Irish Bar, of moderate ability, but remarkable for his severe Quarter Session sentences. H e practised for some time before Judge Willis, w h o viewed him with an aversion he did not care to mask, and the result was that Brewster retired from business, took to land speculating and mortgage investments, at which he did better than he would have done at the Bar. H e represented Port Phillip for some time in the N e w South Wales Legislature, where he displayed a sound, practical ability, which was duly appreciated, for he was held in good esteem until his departure from the colony, to which he never returned. In 1885 he was alive and prosperous in his native land, also of the Irish Bar, was the second to put in an appearance. He also arrived via Sydney in 1839, accredited as Clerk of the Crown, Official Prosecutor, and L a w Adviser. H e was a queerish-looking, cross-grained, red-gilled customer, reputedly stuffed with a musty lore known as "black-letter" law ; and if he was possessed of anything like genuine ability, he was consummately skilful in concealing it. N o functionary was better known to all ancient colonists than " Old Croke." N o misnomer was given to him, for he was as veritable a " croaker" as could possibly be picked up. Eccentric in his brusqueness, and excessively ill-tempered when engaged in Court, his collisions with Bench, Bar, Attorneys, Suitors, Officials—and, in fact, everybody—were so frequent that he was a favourite with nobody. A s an Advocate or a cross-examiner, it would be a perversion of fact to designate him other than the veriest muff; and it was an infliction to listen to his long, drawling, lugubrious, irritable addresses to Judge or Jury, particular passages of which he used to emphasize by a vicious push at his wig or a spiteful clutching of his gown collar, as if he wished to twist the whole garment over his shoulders. With Willis, the first Judge, he never could get on, and the " scenes" between them, when they would grin at and caterwaul each other like a pair of fighting tom-cats, were rich beyond description. Willis would snarl, and bounce, and scream; Croke would grimace, howl, and defy in return. Willis would seem as if disposed to jump from the Bench and scratch the eyes out of the other, whilst Croke to all appearances would be not unlike a person preparing to spring on the table, storm the Judgment-seat, and throttle his plaguer. But though they hissed, grinned, and showed their teeth at each other, it never came to blows, though two or three times it was not far off. With the other Judges Croke got on better, though he often sorely tested their patience and forbearance. Still " O l d Croke" in his public capacity never lost the general confidence of the public. Flis legal advice to the Government was on the whole sound, and as Crown Prosecutor as a rule he performed his duties in a reasonably conscientious manner. T h e position he held as such was one of m u c h responsibility, needing good judgment; for, like the Attorney-General of the present time, he was the Grand Jury of the province, but, unlike now, had no legal deputies to w h o m he could relegate any portion of his functions. In a limited community, and with an evercarping Press, he would have been more than h u m a n had he pleased everyone; and though he was not free from mistakes, for he m a d e two or three remarkable ones, no one ever attributed his shortcomings to any corrupt or unworthy motives, but assigned them to a misconception of what he thoroughly believed to be his strict and sworn duty. At the approach of Separation Croke entertained not only expectations, but had, as he conceived, strong claims to the Attorney-Generalship of the new colony of Victoria In 1851 M r . Stawell, his professional junior, but facile frinceps, his professional superior, cut him out, when " Old J e m m y " got into a terriblefitof sulks; but upon an appeal to the H o m e Government he was, after some procrastination, appointed Solicitor-General. After sitting as a
JAMES CROKE,
