The Lord Chief Justice of England died suddenly on Satur-
day night, without any previous illness. He was a man of ex- traordinary power, both oratorical and judicial, and the grasp which he had of a complicated mass of evidence like the evid- ence in the Tichborne case was so strong, that he could really convince a miscellaneous multitude steeped in prejudice that they were wrong. On the other hand, he was too apt on occasions to show off his ability, and he liked to appeal to popular and patriotic feeling. His showy judg- ment in the Alabama ' arbitration was not a prudent nor a wise one. He was so opposed to the " three rules" by which our Government had agreed to be bound, that he did his very best so to minimise their meaning as to ignore the concessions they really made. In short, he posed as the representative of Lord Russell and of Great Britain, at a time when Great Britain. had adopted a line not approved by Lord Russell, and when Sir A. Cockburn, if he were bound to represent any Power at all, was bound to represent Great Britain, and not Lord Russell. Rumour points to Lord Coleridge as Sir A. Cockburn's successor.
