An Episode in Lord Coleridge s Court. appeased. This they proceeded to do, throw ing him down and gently sitting upon him for the space of about twenty-five minutes : /line illa; lacrima, hence this damage suit. As soon as Sir Henry James, who appeared for the Duke of Rutland, had gotten fairly | started on his address to the jury, the Lord Chief-Justice, with great deliberation, pro-, cceded to take a nap; whereupon a young barrister behind me leaned over, and calling my attention to the fact that his Lordship j was sound asleep, said, " You now see the Chief-Justice of England in his usual atti tude." When Sir Henry James, and Mr. i Cock, in behalf of Harrison, had finished their able addresses to the jury, his Lordship pro ceeded orally to charge the jury alter the Eng lish method, which charge to an American certainly contained, besides, of course, good law, much of what we call in America " horse sense," enlivened by some very racy dicta. He said : " You and I, gentlemen of the jury, must judge fairly between this great man and this little man. The noble lords have a right to indulge in their so-called sport; although when I was a young man it would hardly have been called sport to stand behind butts or blinds, and slaughter with ready, loaded guns, handed to the sportsmen by gamekeepers, half-tame birds driven by other gamekeepers almost to the muzzle of the deadly shooting-irons, — hardly manly sport, gentlemen of the jury; but the noble lords [there were six or seven of them sitting in the court-room just before him] rail it sport, and they have a right to indulge in it, subject to the rights of the Queen's subjects to pass and repass at pleasure on the highway. This man Harrison was evidently making a great nuisance of himself; but a man may lawfully make a nuisance of himself within certain limits. These noblemen have conducted themselves with considerable patience to wards Harrison, and in such a manner as would be expected from men of their breed ing, except a certain young nobleman [re ferring to young Lord Edwards Manners, who sat directly in front of him], who so far 6
forgot himself as not only to indulge in pro fane language, but to tell Harrison that if he came into the butts he would be shot, and if he got shot his blood would be on his own head. I must beg to inform that young nobleman that if Harrison had gone into the butts and had been shot, not only would his blood not have been on his own head, but the noble young Lord's neck would have been in danger, under the laws of this realm." At this point young Lord Manners arose from his seat and said, "Ah — ah — I beg pa'don, my Lord, but—-" Lord Coleridge, pointing his finger at him, said, " Sit down, sit down! Do not inter rupt me, sir." Down went the noble Lord like a whipped schoolboy; and Lord Cole ridge proceeded : — "An assault has been committed, gentle men, a wrong done, and the law broken; and the only question is what sum will compen sate Harrison for this assault. I would re mind you, however, that his physical injuries could not have been very severe, as the evi dence shows that when lying upon the ground with a superincumbent weight of gamekeepers upon his abdomen, he face tiously remarked, 'Won't somebody sing a song? There is nothing on now,'— which remark would appear to indicate that his physical sufferings were not very great." At the conclusion of the charge young Lord Manners again arose and said : " I beg pa'don, my Lord, but I wish to say that when I talked to Harrison about getting shot if he came into the butts I had no intention of shooting anybody. It was a mere idle threat. Your Lordship has almost made me out a murderer." Lord Coleridge fixed his satirical gaze upon the young scion of nobility, and in his blandest manner replied,— "Ah, you were an incident in this case, and I alluded to your connection with it as I thought my duty required. I have no ex planation or apology to make to you, sir. You may sit down." And down he went.
