favor of some peculiarly suggestive and agreeable sitter, and just now he is glad to rise and offer his seat for a few moments to a writer in the London "Law Journal," who has the following to say on a novel topic : — "The disinclination of judges to retire is a very natural one; it is the disinclination to self-effacement. Nobody likes to be shelved, least of all the children of this genera tion; for if there is one quality more than another charac teristic of the nineteenth century it is the passion for noto riety — ' digito monstrari et dicier hic est.' All have it — politicians, actors, authors, artists; and it is a passion which grows. How morbid it may become is shown in the case of the man who set fire to York Minster merely to enjoy celebrity — 'volitare per ora virum.' Lawyers are not exempt. Kven so great a judge as Chief-Justice Cockburn liked, so Lord liramwell tells us, a page of the 'Times' devoted every day to him and his doings, and picked out tatist-s tffjlirfs for his list. There is another cause operat ing in the case of successful lawyers which accentuates the disinclination to quit a post of honor, usefulness, and emolument, and it is that the lawyers have less than most men other resources, other pursuits and hobbies to fall back upon. No profession is so absorbing as that of the law, where the lawyer is in the full tide of professional ambition. Xo galley-slave chained to the oar toils harder than does the much-retained leader at his briefs. What is the moral? Lawyers should be wise and cultivate while they still have leisure some pursuit, some study, which will furnish recrea tion for the evening of life. Fearne, of 'Contingent Re mainders ' fame, found time to construct optical glasses and musical instruments. The late Mr. Justice Grove gained not only relaxation but renown in the abstruse problems of the correlation of forces in science. The late Lord Cole ridge had his happy hunting-ground in literature. Lord Justice Fry is a devotee of botany, and Lord Davey of gar dening — ' sua cuique voluptas.' Vith studies and pursuits like these, retirement can never be dull. It means to rest, but not to rust."
Our substitute might very well have added Lord Justice Bowen, who alleviated the austerities of the law by translating Virgil. Doubtless a very interest ing catalogue might be constructed of famous lawyers and judges who had some pet accomplishment, as for example, the great Chief-Justice' Gibson, who riddled, rilled teeth and painted, and Chief-Justice Parsons, who experimented in microscopy, telescopy, electricity, optics and chemistry, knew French, read Dante in the original, relaxed his mind in mathe matics, made bows and arrows for his son, and models to illustrate problems in conic sections; also riddles. The aversion of judges to retire is eminently illus trated in this country in the case of Mr. Justice Field of the Federal Supreme Court, who has now " beaten the record " by having been a judge longer than Chief-Justice Marshall, and scouts the privilege of retiring upon his well-earned pension. Some ani madversion has always been made, arid is now making
in the case of Chief-Justice Andrews of New York, against the compulsory retirement of judges at the age of seventy. Doubtless the old rule, which re tired Kent at sixty, was absurd, but all things con sidered, we incline to believe the present rule a wise one. It is discreet to have some limit, and seventyis probably the best. Some men might usefully serve the State after that, but many more could not. Un less there is a limit of age, the bench is in danger of being incumbered by veterans who lag superfluous. The Wise Man was right on the point of three-scoreand-ten. Whenever the Chairman has been visiting friends he has inexorably gone home when they were begging him to stay longer, so that he would be re gretted and asked again. So the right time for the judge to descend to private life is when all men are praising him and asserting that he is "good" for many years to come. So it may seem, but men fre quently go to pieces rapidly after seventy; their physical faculties become impaired suddenly, and, like old favorites on the operatic stage, they are re garded with leniency and patience only because of the remembrance of what they once were. Lawyers may be dull, but the judges should have the physical ca pacity to hear them and to keep awake under the infliction. Old age is sometimes excusably crabbed, but the exhibition of ill-temper or impatience on the bench is peculiarly painful. No man of eighty is so alert, vigorous, attentive, or capable of continuous exertion as he was at sixty or seventy. Wise is the vocalist who stops singing at fifty; wise the poet who desists from writing at seventy; and wise the magis trate who doffs his judicial gown at the latter age.
JUDICIAL CRICKET. — The Chairman once got him self into some trouble with his London editorial con temporaries by essaying the jest that some of the English judges had descended from bench to cricket. They saw no point in it; and when he explained that "cricket" meant a low stool, they said it might be American, but was not English. After a time some one over there admitted that the word was used in Yorkshire in that sense. But he learned never to try that joke on an Englishman again. Last summer, as the Montreal " Morning Star" informs us, " a large number of gentlemen were present yesterday afternoon on the grounds of • Elmcroft,' the beautiful farm of Mr. R. D. McGibbon. Q.C., near Strathmore, to witness the cricket match between the Bench and the Bar and the St. James Club. After luncheon, served by Scott in a spa cious marquee, the wickets were pitched, the St. James eleven going to the bat. The Bench and Bar won the match by seven wickets, and. after cheers for each other and a united cheer for Mr.
