THE LIGHTER SIDE rated for the benefit of the lay community. At the time when Vice-chancellor Bacon was one of his colleagues, Malins had before him some case in which one of the parties was of that order peculiarly obnoxious to the legal mind, namely, the "cranky" litigant. In de livering judgment, the Vice-chancellor felt himself constrained to take a view adverse to the claims set up by this individual, who de termined to avenge himself for what he chose to consider a miscarriage of justice. Accord ingly, one morning shortly after the judgment, he presented himself in court, and taking aim from amid the bystanders, hurled an overpreserved egg at the head of his oppressor. The Vice-chancellor, by ducking, adroitly managed to avoid the missile, which malo dorously discharged itself at a comparatively safe distance from its target. "I think," observed Sir Richard, almost grateful in spite of the Use majeste, for so apt an opportunity of qualifying as a judicial wag. "I think that egg must have been intended for my brother Bacon." Apropos of troublesome litigants, the days of Mrs. Weldon's forensic feats are now far distant, and, sad to relate, her solitary reap pearance, as is too often the case with retired "stars" was a dismal fiasco. But twenty years ago she was a power and something more in the High Court, in spite of public ridicule and professional prejudice scoring triumph after triumph, such as fall to the lot of few of even the most practiced advocates. One of her most effective weapons was her exquisitely modulated voice, which was capable of the subtlest inflection of scorn and irony that I have ever heard from human lips. It showed to particular advantage in one of the numerous actions which she successfully brought by rea son of having been improperly placed in a private lunatic asylum by certain well-meaning but injudicious friends. The case was tried by a judge whose well-known proclivities for patrician society and surroundings rendered him occasionally a somewhat partial arbiter. In this instance his sympathies were from the first manifestly in favor of the defendants, while he displayed toward the plaintiff, who was as usual conducting her own case, a harsh ness and brusquerie which were quite uncalled for. But judicial antipathies never greatly
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troubled Mrs. Weldon, who, as a litigant, had very soon discovered that a dead set by the judge, especially against a woman, not in frequently results in enlisting the sympathies of the jury. Accordingly, after one or two ineffectual attempts on the part of the Bench to stifle the whole business, Mrs. Weldon was allowed to proceed. I did not hear much of her opening address, but was fortunate enough to be present during the first part of her ex amination of Sir Henry de Bathe, the sub stance of which, for the sake of convenience, I will give in dialogue form. It must be borne in mind that Sir Henry had once been one of Mrs. Weldon's oldest friends, and that she was perfectly acquainted with all particulars as to his rank and status. MRS. WELDON* (to witness): [ believe your name is Sir Henry de Bathe? SIR HENRY (with lofty indifference): Yes. MRS. WELDON: A baronet? SIR HENRY: Yes. MRS. WELDON: And formerly colonel com manding the Scots Guards? SIR HENRY (with a touch of self-compla cency) : Just so. MRS. WELDON: You are also, I believe, a county magistrate? SIR HENRY (with a bored air): Oh, yes. MRS. WELDON: Anything else? SIR HENRY (after a pause) : Not that I know of. MRS. WELDON: Oh, come, Sir Henry de Bathe, just refresh your memory, please. SIR HENRY (after a longer pause): I really can't recollect. MRS. WELDON: Dear me! And I should have thought it so very important! Come, now, have you never heard of St. Luke's Asylum? SIR HENRY (with an enlightened expression) : Oh, ah, yes; but I wasn't thinking of that kind of thing, you know. MRS. WELDON: I can quite believe that. Well, now, tell my lord and the jury what your connection with St. Luke's Asylum is. SIR HENRY: Well, I am one of the governors, you know. MRS. WELDON: Exactly. You are one of the governors of St. Luke's Asylum, which, I believe, is an asylum for sufferers from mental diseases?
