of- first instance — compose the former; the latter sits in two divisions of four judges each, forming two Courts of Appeal of co-ordinate jurisdiction. The Lord Justice General presides over the first division, the Lord Justice Clerk over the second, the Lord Justice General being President of the Court of Session. The late Lord Inglis's most celebrated feat while at the bar was his defence of Madeleine Smith in 1857. The prisoner was accused of the murder of one L'Angelier, her lover. The trial excited profound interest. The evidence against the prisoner was almost conclusive; but so ex traordinary was the impression produced on the minds of the jury by the speech of her counsel, Mr. Inglis, that they returned a verdict of " Not proven." There can be no doubt that the ac cused was guilty of an aggravated murder; but she possessed great personal beauty, and, I be lieve, subsequently married a clergyman in Eng land. The speech in question is unanimously regarded as probably the greatest ever delivered at the Scottish Bar. On the bench Lord Inglis united to his high talents a most engaging suavity of demeanor toward all who appeared before him; he never spared any pains in his endeavor to mas ter the details of the most complicated case. His probable successor will be Mr. I. P. B. Robertson, the present Lord Advocate, an astute lawyer and accomplished counsel, who has made more mark in the House of Commons than perhaps any Lord Advocate since the great Dundas, who held that office in Pitt's administration at the beginning of the century. Toward the close of the last Parliamentary Ses
sion, a motion was made during the discussion of the estimate to reduce the salary of the AttorneyGeneral. This was done to raise the question whether the law officers of the Crown should be al lowed to engage in private practice; at present they are, and in the past always have been. It is most proper that they should; the custom almost never leads to any practical conflict between their pri vate and public duties. The matter first assumed dimensions of importance during the Parnell Com mission, when the Attorney-General, Sir Richard Webster, held the leading brief for the "Times." Partisan spirit led to a heated discussion as to his relations with the Government on the one hand, and his relations with his clients on the other; the only practical result has been to inaugurate an annual talk on that general subject in Parlia ment. Some of those who foster the movement aim at a wider innovation than the mere restriction of the law officers to their official salaries; they desire the creation of a Minister of Justice, who would absorb many functions at present fulfilled by the Lord Chancellor, the law officers, and the Home Secretary. I do not think we shall have a Minister of Justice as such for a' long time; in England we are not much given to the sudden creation of new offices and novel titles on the ground of mere abstract reasons. Just now, during the long vacation, there is very little of interest to chronicle. Sir Henry Hawkins, one of the most popular of our judges, has been and remains very seriously ill. Rumors of an approaching general election become more persistent, and the hopes of the Opposition law yers are rising.
- * *
