The Coroner so bitterly attacked by Lord Farnham and Sir
Henry Edwards, M.P., for incapacity, has written and circulated an exceedingly temperate and, we think, extremely success- ful defence of himself, in which he says that he refrained from committing for contempt of Court those who so openly asserted his incapacity, from respect for the excited feelings of men terribly and recently afflicted,—and if so, what was wanting in the judge was creditable to the man and the Christian. He points out that Lord Farnham's solicitor,—and after Lord Farn- ham's arrival in person his lordship himself,—wanted him to give a certificate of burial by name for a body which it was entirely im- possible to identify as that of the late Lord Farnham, and which, in fact, turned out to be a female's ; and that when Sir Henry Edwards accused him of favouritism in granting such a certifi- cate to a poor widow, Mrs. Cripps, for the burial of her husband, Sir H. Edwards did not know what he was saying, since the body of Mr. Cripps was clearly identified. On the whole, the Coroner's defence of himself for everything, except, perhaps, sufficient judicial
firmness with his excited accusers, was adequate, dignified, and temperate.
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