IRISH LEGAL REPARTEES. I. MR. DANIEL RYAN KANE, says The Law Times, who lived into the eighties and was at the time of his death Recorder of Cork, was an eminent Chancery ' pleader in the time of Lord St. Leonard's Irish chancellorships, in 1835 and 1841, as Sir Edward Sugden. Mr. Kane was gener ally known as " Mr. Dan Ran Cawn "—Sir Edward Sugden's pronunciation of his name on coming over to Ireland as chancellor when wholly inexperienced with the pronunciation of Irish patronymics. Mr. Kane was cele brated, not merely for his knowledge of law, but for his bott mots. On one occasion, when a brief had been sent to a young barrister in an insurance case in which his father, a medical man, was an important witness, a gentleman asked Mr. Kane, " Who is this young man? Is he a special counsel?" "Oh, no," was the reply, "he's counsel by prescription." Mr. Stephen Collins, Q. C., the father of the present Lord Justice of Ap peal in England, was an eminent leader at the Irish Bar and famed for the subtlety of his mind. On appearing in court as counsel with Mr. Pigot, Q. C., who was afterwards Lord Chief Baron of the Irish Court of Ex chequer, a controversy arose as to who should be the leader, as Mr. Collins, al though senior in standing to Mr. Pigot, was still in stuff, while Mr. Pigot had already taken silk. " I yield," said Mr. Collins, "my friend holds the honors." " Faith, if he does, Stephen," observed a Mr. Herrick, 'tis you have all the tricks." Mr. Jonathan Henn, Q. C., a brother-inlaw of Mr. Collins, who was for thirty years the recognized leader of the Munster Cir cuit, from which he retired some years be fore his death in 1874, was one of the most noted legal wits of his generation. When Mr. Blackburn, who was subsequently Lord
Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, had retired, with the fall of his administration, from the post of Attorney-General for Ire land, he came down as " special " to the Cork Assizes. Mr. Henn, who was counsel on the other side, thus commenced his ad dress to the jury : " Little, gentlemen, can my poor client compete with the galaxy of talent arrayed against him on the other side, including, if a theatrical phrase may be in dulged in, a star of the first magnitude, or rather, I might say (the ministry had just re signed), a comet which has lost its tail?" Someone in the presence of Henn proposed the riddle, which was new to him, " Why should the captain of a ship never be at a loss for an egg?" "Because," said Henn, immediately solving it, " he can always layto (two)." He was asked, " How came you, Jonathan, to guess that?" "Who," was the prompt reply, " had a better right to guess it than a hen?" Mr. M. J. Barry, who was afterwards Pro fessor of Law in Queen's College, Cork, was celebrated for his powers of repartee. He applied, on one occasion, on behalf of a man, who dealt in horses and sugar-sticks, for an interpleader order. The late Mr. Justice Ball, before whom the application was heard, remarked, " Your client has a strange medley of trades, Mr. Barry?" "There is a great affinity between horses and sugar-sticks, my Lord," was the reply. "How so?" inquired the judge. "The more you lick them the faster they go," was the witty reply. Mr. Barry, who was a junior contempo rary of O'Connell, related many of O'Connell's bon mots to Mr. O'Flanaghan, which have been recorded in his work on the Irish Bar. The following may serve as specimens of his inimitable humor.
