Westbury, who formerly occupied the wool sack, and was distinguished as well for his legal erudition as for his caustic tongue, who when told on the occasion of Lord Selborne's promotion that his motto was " Palma Virtuti," replied, — "I suppose that must mean ' the palm to Palmer' [alluding to his family name, Sir Roundell Palmer]. It is very appropriate. I have always considered that his character was unredeemed by a single vice." Lord Westbury did not have the reputation of a saint. Lord Coke has said : " It standeth well with the gravity of our lawyers to cite verses;" so I quote from an old poet : — "A woman having a settlement Married a man with none; The question was, he being dead, If that she had was gone. Quoth Sir John Pratt, ' The settlement Suspended doth remain, Living the husband, but him dead, It doth revive again.' Chorus of puisne judges. Living the husband, but him dead, It doth revive again." Mr. Allen, in his sketches of the Lincoln Bar, of Maine, relates the following anecdote of Mr. Nathaniel Perley, one of the great wits of the Bar of Maine in an early day : — When one of the four judges of the Court of Common Pleas, not remarkable for his pro fundity, coming late into court, observed as an apology, on taking his seat, " that he be lieved there was no member of the court less absent than himself," — "True," replied Per ley, "and no one less present." (Maine His torical Collections, vol. vi., quoted in Willis's "Courts and Lawyers of Maine.") Mr. F. J. Parmenter, of the Rensselaer County Bar, who is a first-class humorist, sends me the following: —
The late Judge Rosecranz, of our New York Supreme Court Fourth Judicial Dis trict (brother-in-law of the late Wm. A. Beach), was a great wag. His wit was as ready, as bright and keen as that of any man I have ever known; nor did he care much if it " carried a heart-stain away on its blade." During the latter years of his life he was holding circuit when a cause was brought on for trial where no defence was interposed, except that of the Statute of Limitations. The action was on a promissory note for a large amount. The judge's charge was as follows : — "Gentlemen of the jury, the only defence to the plaintiffs acknowledged claim in this action is the Statute of Limitations." Then the judge explained the statute to the j ury, and added : " This is a good legal payment, gen tlemen, though regarded with more satisfac tion by the debtor than by the creditor, who as a general thing prefers cash; and among honest business men such payment is never pleaded. But notwithstanding this little dif ference of opinion between debtor and cred itor, and between honest men and rogues, it is my painful duty, gentlemen, to charge you that if you believe the defendant's testimony, such payment is good in law." Ex-Chief-Justice Noah Davis, now of our New York City Bar, was the presiding judge in the First Judicial District of the Supreme Court of New York for many years. He has a large collection of judicial jokes. He con tributes the following : — Sitting at General Term one day were Judges Davis, Brady, and Daniels. A coun sellor arguing said : " Suppose I were to draw upon your honors for twenty thousand dollars." "Your draft would be dishonored for want of funds," said Davis, P. J. "Oh, no! " said Brady, J., " not while sit ting in Bank! "
