Mr. Justice Mellor is assailing the wisdom of our ancestors
as embodied in proverbs in a very reckless manner. A good- humoured witness in a nisi prins case told a jury on Saturday that he was "as sober as a "—judge, he was going to say, but stopped short and begged pardon. The judge, instead of accept- ing the compliment contained in the proverb, which, considering it age, is really a high one, said it might as well be varied into as "sober as a bishop." Why not suggest at once "as sober as a tord,",and so reverse the old saying once for all by a formal judicial decision. It is in our day no more true than the corre- sponding one, which was always false, "as drunk as a beast." The long postponed discussion on the lose of the Captain came on on Thursday, but it was sterile: Mr. Childers cannot return till next session, and until he returns neither attack nor defence can be complete. The debate, which was confined to Lord H. Lennox awl Mr. Goscheu, merely confirms the public impression that Mr. Childers heartily believed in,Ceptain Coles, and sent his own son to sea in the Captain on the strength of that belief ; that he did not attend to Mr. Reed because he thought Mr. Reed pre- judiced against the whole class of ship, and that he wrote his minute holding the Constructor and Controller responsible on grounds which lie, and ho only, can adequately explain. Until he returns, therefore, discussion on that point is not only futile, but unfair.
Previous page
