The Irish Lord Justice of Appeal, Lord Justice Christian, has
been committing another of his curious escapades, —one turning on his favourite point that certain inquiries of the Court below should be made by the Judge himself, and not by his chief clerk. In an appeal from Vice-Chancellor Chatterton's decision, an appeal heard on Thursday week, Lord Justice Christian, while affirming the judgment of the Court below, proposed to insert a declaration that as the inquiries ordered by the Court below were of a judicial character, they should be made by the judge himself, and not by his chief clerk. To this the Lord Chancellor (O'Hagan) objected, saying that such a declaration would be a gross insult to a distin- guished judge, charging him with sanctioning systematic illegality. He agreed that the inquiries were of a judicial character, and that it was the Vice-Chancellor's duty to make those inquiries himself, but insisted that it was wrong and absurd to assume that he would violate his duty and his oath. Thereupon the Lord Justice wished to insert in the records a notice of his dissent, but the Lord Chancellor adjourned the Court, remarking that whether this could be allowed was a matter for " further discussion." The Pull Mall of last Saturday founds on this scene a very dis- agreeable and contemptuous note on the Irish Lord Chancellor, hinting that he ;hares "his subordinate's contempt for law,"---he had maintained his subordinate's respect for law, and declined to sanction a needless accusation against him,—pitying him for his inferiority to Lord Justice Christian, and expressing satisfaction that the Lord Chancellor had threatened to bring the matter before the House of Lords. This, if the Mail's report may be trusted, the Lord Chancellor certainly did not do, and would have been very foolish and undigni- fied to do. Something- vague about " another audience," referring, we suppose, to the crowded state of the Court, appears to have been said. But all the Lord Chancellor did, was what seems to us the dignified and natural thing, he adjourned the Court for an opportunity of further consideration. Even sneers should be founded on an accurate conception of the facts.
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