In Lord Justice Mellish the legal profession have lost a
great ornament, while every man and woman, whether learned in the law or not, will feel that the death of one who seems to have struggled throughout his professional life with pain which would have incapacitated most men for all severe work, ter- minates a career of singular moral fortitude and courage. The Lord Chancellor, on Tuesday, pronounced upon him a very terse as well as highly-finished encomium. " The public and the profession," he said, " recognised and admired in him learning which was rarely equalled, a faculty of reasoning which had not an imperfection, a perception of legal principles which amounted to an instinct. But above and beyond all these, his colleagues saw and loved a temper which could not be ruffled ; a candour of judgment which was undimmed by any warp or prejudice ; a force and spirit of exertion which triumphed over that which was almost the agony of physical suffering. Such a Judge it is diffi- cult to replace. Such a man it is impossible to forget." The Lancet hints that Lord Justice Mellish's malady was increased by the bad sanitary condition of the Court in which he sat, —in which case, some one somewhere ought to have on his conscience the burden of a real remorse, though, as, in all proba- bility it will be very difficult to say who it should be, the remorse is not very likely to be keenly felt.
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