A Great Advocate
THE late Sir Edward Marshall Hall, with his eye-glass, his Roman features, his vehement eloquence, his air-cushion, smelling-salts and medicine-bottles, his great bulk and the infirmity which gave him the privilege of addressing the Court sitting down, was in recent years a famous figure in the Lay', Courts. But he had already made his name as a great criminal advocate before this century opened.
Mr. Marjoribanks has given us a big book (it must contain 170,000 words, or two average novels) of the cases in which the late Sii Edward appeared, tied together by a somewhat slender thread of biographical narrative. Perhaps the subject is top robust and forthright for any delicate psychological analysis. His mind was very concrete ; yet- he believed in Spiritualisin in his latter years ; he married twice, the first time unhappily ; he won Southport in 1900 in the Conservative interest, making speeches of amazing vivacity and inconsistency, and astonish- ing the electors with his skill as a revolver shot by shooting cigarettes out of his wife's mouth ; he had wonderful looks and fine linen and .a tongue of torrential eloquence ; he quarrelled bitterly with his judges and persuaded juries with an almoit hypnotic charm ; he was a good game shot, a first-class judge of precious stones, a mainstay of the Garrick Club, devoted to children and dogs. All this and more we learn, yet we hardly see the man himself. There is not enough shade in Mr. Marjori- banks' picture to make the subject of it stand out alive. A masterful lawyer, a good sportsman, a typical Englishman of the kind that has made the Empire must yet have some of the fears and frailties and pettinesses that go to make up every living man. That these shadings are not given may not be the biographer's fault. Sir Edward kept always a bold front to the world and was a consummate actor : we must be content with the man as he would himself be seen, with a win in hand, or telling a good story, or, best of all, in robes and wig, fascinating the jury or quarrelling with the judge.
One of the most extraordinary criminals Sir Edward defended (and perhaps the strangest murderer in history) was George Joseph Smith, literally a lady-killer by profession, who drowned three of his brides in a bath. About this man there was something more interesting and dreadful (as the author acutely observes) than callous cruelty and unspeakable hypocrisy. To the end he protested his innocence. lie appears to have possessed hypnotic power over lonely women, so that each of the three he married and murdered (there were several others with whom he lived long enough to rob and desert—he did not marry his victims unless he had to, in order to obtain their money, for women were purely business with him) wrote to their relations in similar terms : " I have every proof of his love for me. He has been honourable and kept his word with me in everything." In each case the woman made a will in the prisoner's favour. In each case letters were written by the woman on the night before her death extolling her hus- band's kindnesS. In each case the tragedy of these confiding ladies came to the same ghastly close : they took a bath while Mr. Smith was out buying some supper : when he returned they were drowned with no marks of violence upon them. Mr. Smith gave them a pauper's funeral, drew out their bank balance and insurance money, and married the next victim. On one occasion the landlady had heard him playing " Nearer, my God, to Thee " on the organ : a few minutes later lie announced his " wife's " death.
There were many other causes celebres in which Sir Edward Marshall Hall took a prominent part, including that of Seddon, the poisoner, whom he defended brilliantly, but whose soul was stripped bare by the polite but implacable Attorney- General, now Lord Reading. One cannot read this book without being impressed by the efficiency of justice as adminis- tered in this country, and the wit and wisdom and humanity of its exponents—not least the subj,,et of this book.
Previous page
