John Inglis, Lord Justice-General of Scotland : a Memoir
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Otorn^U Slam ^rlioDl library Cornell University Library KDC 313.I52W34 John Inglls. Lord Justice-general of Scq 3 1924 024 630 141 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024630141 JOHN INGLIS. r\ '^rr/Z/if. t JOHN INGLIS LORD JUSTICE-GENERAL OF SCOTLAND. A MEMOIR. By JAMES CRABB .WATT, ADVOCATE. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM GREEN & SONS, 1893, To the Lawyers of Scotland during fifty years is respectfully dedicated this attempt to perpetuate the memory of their great Chief PEEFACE. This book, which had its origin in some contributions to the daily and periodical press, pretends to be nothing higher than a record of facts and opinions concerning the subject of it, and of the legal incidents and changes occurring in the half century during which Inglis was at the head of Scots Law. It also aims at an intelligent estimate of his character, the estimate being formed partly upon those opinions, and also in great measure from the writer's own observation. Inglis's life was devoid of what are known as popular elements, and the difficulty of obtaining biographical material has been increased by the fact that some time before his death, by his own hand he destroyed any letters and papers which might have imparted living interest to a memoir. But of available material the writer has endeavoured to make the most. That material has been selected from a great variety of sources. The chief printed sources are acknowledged in the course of the book ; but great assistance has also been derived from many contemporary journals and magazines, such as the " Journal of Juris- prudence," the " Scotsman," and the " Edinburgh Evening Courant." X. Preface. Lord M'Laren in the "Juridical Review" for 1892; Sheriff Mackay in "Blackwood" for October, 1891, and in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society" for 1892; and Sheriff Campbell Smith in a periodical of which only a few numbers were issued have written about John Inglis. The writer desires to acknowledge in the fullest way the aid he has derived from these gentlemen and their compositions. His thanks are also due to Mr. A. Wood Inglis, Mr. Christopher Douglas, W.S., Mr. John Ord Mackenzie, W.S., Mr. J. T. Clark, Keeper of the Advocates' Library, and other gentlemen, for information, assistance, and sugges- tions. The portrait of Inglis is, by permission of Mr. Irvine Smith, from the original sketch for the painting known as "The Bench and Bar," by Skeoch-Cumming. The Justiciary Mace on the back of the book is copied from a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries. Edinbukoh, Ma/rch, 1893. — 6 CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. Introductory, 1 II. Paeentage, 1 III. School and College, 26 IV. At the Bar, 46 V. Civil and Ecclesiastical Practice, 58 VI.—As A Criminal Pleader, 81 VII. Forensic Character, 91 VIII. Dean op Faculty, 108 IX. Lord Advocate, 131 X. University Reform, 172 XI. Justiciar, 191 XII. Law Reform and' Reformers, 214 XIII —Lord President, 251 XIV.—Personal, 295 Appendices— A. " Days of the High School," 329 B. Speech in Madeleine Smith Trial, 333 C. Address to the Juridical Society, 374 D. Speech to the Electors of Orkney and Shetland, 395 E. Speech—Scottish Universities Reform Bill, - 405 F. Rectorial Address, Glasgow University, 409 CONTENTS. Appendices—continued. page G. Speech at Edinburgh University Tercentenary Banquet, 422 H. Eectorial Address, Aberdeen University, 424 I. Rectorial Address, Edinburgh University, 436 J. Glencorse, 459 K. Speech at Centenary of Juridical Society, 464 L. Speech at Jubilee Banquet, 470 M. Speech at Opening of National Gallery, 472 N. Account of Funeral, 478 0. List of Lords of Session, 1800-91, 486 JOHN INGLIS. I. —Introductory. There are few in the judicial hierarchy who leave a deep impress on the history of their time. The high vocation of a judge lies aside from the tumult and applause of public life. He has no opportunities for display and he cares for none. In Scotland he administers justice within a juris- diction of fixed and inexpansive limits. Constitutional or international questions are rarely forced upon his attention—colonial questions never. His jurisdiction is purely domestic and attracts little notice from beyond its geographical and professional boundaries. In the general case he is known by head-mark to the men only whose business calls them before him. His repute, if he acquire repute, cannot be appreciated by more than a small and cultured class, and when he dies he is remembered by that class because of some outstanding excellence or eccentricity rather than as a distinct personality. The death of John Inglis, however, marks the close of a distinct era in oiir history and our law. He was the chief legal figure in Scotland during the half-century which posterity will call the Victorian age ; and from a singular union of rare qualities which they found in him, his con- JOHN INGLIS. temporaries have unanimously placed him in the narrow circle of great judges alongside of Stair, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Hay Campbell of Succoth, and Robert Blair of Avonton. It is believed that posterity will ratify this judgment. In Scotland no occurrence of a similar kind had attracted equal notice since his immediate predecessor, Lord Justice-Clerk Hope, in the summer of 1858, was struck down with a suddenness sadly in keeping with the rapidity of his success and fame. The Lord President's death was an event that had impended for many months. The going down of such a luminary was bound to throw law and lawyers into gloom. Its shadow had clouded the juristic life of the country for several years, and during that time it was matter of constant inquiry in the Parliament House where one was to be found fit to fill his place. Inglis's fine spirit and resolute frame yielded slowly to the encroachments of age. For many years he had defied the menace of decay. Nature had endowed him with a firm and well-knit frame. Only once had its soundness been put to the test. More than forty years ago he had the first warning of the hepatic disorder that ultimately carried him off. About the same time he was sorely distressed by illness other than his own. His hand burned as if with fever, and for a considerable time his health was uncertain and delicate, and he had to retire for some months from the Courts. With care, however, his constitution was, as it were, renewed, and he was enabled seemingly to cast off his ailment, though he required to treat himself with great care during the remainder of his life.^ 'The specific complaint from which case of recovery from it. Many he suffered at the time here mentioned years afterwards Bright called upon is understood to have been Bright's Inglis and talked over his symptoms disease, and his was the first knpwn with him, HIS LAST DAYS. Thenceforth, while it could not be said that he possessed robust health, he was distinguished by unflagging energy. His vigour remained unimpaired until he reached a patriarchal age. In his eighth decade the ravages of time at last began to tell upon him. His handsome figure became less erect, his step less elastic, his eye less clear. There were indications also that his old enemy had not left him, and it was latterly noticed on the bench that his hearing was less acute. He became a victim to severe and torturing rheumatism, as he called it, and it was a visitation of these pains that compelled him to decline the request that he should preside at the opening of the Public Library in Edinburgh in June, 1890. Yet his spirit remained unsubdued and invincible, often impelling him to tasks which, at the same age, would have surpassed the power of ordinary men. An excess of feebleness generally supervened upon the periodic vacations of the Court. One of these intermittent attacks prostrated him about a year before he died. During the night he had fallen insensible on the floor of his house at Loganbank, and he lay exposed to the cold for some hours. It was a powerful testimony to the strength of his constitution that he survived the severe chill then received. From about this time there was a gradual, painless, and in its literal sense a pensive decline. The light burned down to the very socket with a radiance undimmed almost to the end. He continued to preside in the First Division, guiding its deliberations with his wonted learning, foresight, and flrmness. It is said he even desired to take the jury trials at the summer sittings of 1891,' and was prevented ^Oneof the cases set down for jury was reported to have been most trial at these sittings was a libel anxious to preside over the trial of action at the instance of Thomas this case, which had been before Sexton, an Irish M.P., against the House of Lords, and from its " the proprietors of the " Scotsman political importance was publicly re- newspaper. The Lord President garded as a cause ciKbre, JOHN INGLIS. doing so only by the kind importunity of his brethren. One of the last trials, if not the very last, at which he presided was that of an action for slander at the instance of a Highland parson, and Inglis's own clergyman dropped in to hear his summing up, and was astounded at its force and clearness and power.