Vol. XI.
No. 11.
BOSTON.
November, 1899.
SIR JOHN BARNARD BYLES. SIR JOHN BARNARD BYLES was born at Stowmarket, in the county of Suffolk, England, in 1801. He was the eldest son of Mr. John Byles of that place. He was called to the bar, at the Inner Temple, in 1831, after many years of pre paration, and at once attained a prominent place in the profession. In 1857 he was made a queen's serjeant, and in 1858 was raised to the bench. On attaining the bench he was knighted, and upon leaving it in 1873 he was made a privy councillor. He died February 3, 1884. The career of Sir John Byles was that of a most successful advocate at the bar, and a very learned lawyer as barrister and judge in one branch of legal study. " Byles on Bills " for accuracy and clearness is among the best law-books in the English language. Lawyers and judges have for years turned to it for information with absolute confi dence. It is not too much to say that with out it the codification of the law of bills of exchange would have been impossible. Sir John Byles took an interest in this book up to within a very few weeks of his death. A question whether its copyright had not been infringed was referred to him to de cide whether any and what proceedings should be taken. We believe the matter was amicably arranged, but the incident is curious as showing that one of his last acts was in vindication of the book, which in the future will be his chief title to fame. Sir John was thirty years of age before he was called to the bar, and up to that time, he had been in business. His business expe riences, perhaps, suggested to him the pro
duction of a book on one of the most important branches of commercial law. The success of the book still further determined the bent of his legal studies and practice. He became a good commercial lawyer, but he never gained any great reputation in other branches of the law. His mind wanted that breadth and clear-sightedness which are essential to the intellectual equipment of a great lawyer, who is to lay down proposi tions of universal application. He will never take the place filled by James, Willcs, or Jessel, but will always be known as Byles on Bills, a result to which the "artful aid" of alliteration conduces. Many are the stories told of Sir John Byles when at the bar and on the bench. His horse figures in several of them. When he was at the bar he had a horse, or rather a pony, which used to arrive at King's Bench Walk every afternoon at three o'clock. Whatever his engagements, Mr. Byles would manage by hook or by crook to take a ride, generally to Regent's Park and back, on this animal, the sorry ap pearance of which was the amusement of the Temple. This horse it is said, was sometimes called " Bills" to give opportunity for the combination " There goes Byles on Bills," but if tradition is to be believed, this was not the name by which its master knew it. He, or he and his clerk between them, called the horse " Business " : and when a too curious client asked where the serjeant was, the clerk answered with a clear conscience that he was " out on Busi ness." When on the bench, Mr. Justice Byles' taste in horse-flesh does not seem to 4«5
