In an Irish ejectment case the other day, tried in
Dublin, the counsel for the ejecting landlord, Dr. Batteraby, Q.C., produced to the full Court a threatening letter, menacing him with death if he did not withdraw from the case. The Lord Chief Justice seems to have denounced the crime of the writer of the letter very strongly, and then to have gone on to console Dr. Batteraby by declaring that he had no doubt the writer would execute his threat if he had an opportunity, adding that such a letter would cer- tainly not produce the slightest impression on a member of the honourable profession to which Dr. Battersby belonged. There, the Lord Chief Justice, if the Times reported him rightly, surely went a little far. That no manly barrister would shrink from his duty in consequence of the receipt of such a letter we can well believe. But as for its not producing "the slightest impression" on him, after the Court bad so kindly assured Dr. Battersby that the writer would pro- bably execute his threat if he got a chance, that is asking rather too much of human nature. Would Lord Chief Justice White- side himself feel quite the same after receiving such a threat, of the seriousness of which none of his friends had suffered them- selves to entertain a doubt, as he did before ?
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