The Lord Chief Justice, on Wednesday, took advantage of a
dinner given by the Southampton Chamber of Commerce to complain of the calumnies and abuse to which he has recently been subjected :—" Gentlemen, the viper-tooth of calumny is
sharp and its poison is deadly, and the fable tells us that the viper does not fix its fangs in you with the less deadly hostility because you have cherished it in your bosom, and the fable tells us also that there are things upon which the teeth of the viper are spent in vain. One of (these is the confidence, however it may be wanting in deluded, infatuated, ignorant multitudes—the con- fidence which, in this country, all classes of ..thinking and educated men entertain in the integrity of the Judicial Bench." All that is perfectly true, but we would rather it were said by the educated and thinking than by the Lord Chief Justice, who, human nature notwithstanding, ought to be above the possibility of even know- ing that he is calumniated. Our Judges are as good as ever, but they seem to be losing something of their impassiveness. Mr. Justice Denman fell into- an error the- other day from indignation at crime, and Lord Coleridge, while inflicting a deserved sentence of penal servitude for life, tried to strengthen it by saying, " I sentence you to slavery." It is the silent Law which awes criminals, not the eloquent Judge.
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