taken to resign with the Ministers on account of the King's refusal to make Peers for passing the Reform Bill; Messrs. Williams and Pepys' resignation was suddenly accepted, and on the Ministers resuming their places, these two gentlemen found that her Majesty had appointed other law officers in their room. The reason assigned for this somewhat cavalier proceeding was, that it was resolved no longer to have Law officers of the Queen who were in Parliament. The emoluments of these places are moderate, the AttorneyGeneral £240, and the Solicitor only £180 salary, the rank of junior King's counsel which they enjoy, that is after all the others, could be of no use to Messrs. Williams and Pepys, who already had silk gowns. Early in 1834, upon Mr. Justice Parke removing to succeed Mr. Baron Bayley, in the Court of Exchequer, Mr. Williams was appointed a puisne Judge of the King's Bench, which important place he filled for twelve years and upwards. His private fortune, augmented by that of his wife, was ample, and the fatigues, especially of the Circuits and the Old Bailey, frequently made him contemplate a retirement, which the remonstrances of his learned brethren, added to his own love of the profession and professional society, prevented, or at least, postponed. His health, too, suffered no interruption, and he had none of the infirmities which advancing years so often bring along with them. He continued to indulge in field sports, always with him a favourite relaxation, and his early mornings were passed according to his ancient and invariable habit on horseback. For the Chief Justice, and his other parliamentary friends, before he had a seat himself, used to be frequently amused by meeting him on his morning ride, as they were returning from enjoying the "fumum strepitumque" of the Commons; we should add the "opes," on Lord Tenterden's authority, who, commenting on a very ill drawn statute, which he was forced to construe, observed that Parliament could not, indeed, be called "inops consilii," but it was certainly "magnas inter opes inops." His other relaxations were the classical studies, for which he ever had so keen a relish, and which to the last he pursued with such eminent success. The Greek epigrams (or inscriptions) which he composed at different times have been before the world for some years, being printed by himself in a small volume of Nuga Metricæ, after the venerable example of Lord Grenville, who sent him a copy of his work on seeing the Epigram (Epitaph) on Napoleon, beginning, Toλuav Ale avopov, and the Inscription on the Apollo Belvedere, beginning Ουρανιων κλιματων συλλησας. All who have seen these exquisite compositions have pronounced upon them the most favourable judgment; some, however, preferring the Apollo, while others more admire the one on Lord Byron while serving in Greece. An English translation of the Apollo was made by Mr. Baron Alderson, the first lines of which are peculiarly successful: "If old Prometheus stole the fire divine, What was his daring when compared with thine? Nothing can be more close or more happy. The present Earl of Carlisle (παν φιλόμουσος Ανηρ) almost off-hand rendered the Napoleon, for he received it, and by the same day's post sent off his translation,so that no doubt could remain of the quickness with which his work was accomplished. It thus concludes; but first we must give the original lines:— Ουδέν εμοι συμβου; θες δ ̓ ὦ ξειν' αντι Λίθοιο, "Quid mihi cum tumulo? Tumuli vice Padus et Ister, Nothing can be more perfect than such workmanship as this. When the friend who had sent Lord Carlisle the epigram gave Mr. Justice Williams the version, it drew from him an exclamation very much in his mouth, favourable to the accomplishments of our aristocracy, and the uses of educating them at public schools. His Lordship is one of the many ornaments of Eton. Of his brother Judge's lines he likewise had a high opinion; but he conceived them to be less sustained than Lord Carlisle's. There are some very able papers of his in the Edinburgh Review, especially one on the Greek orators, in 1821. We may also mention that he was the author of the Article on "Capital Punishments" in the third volume of the Law Review, No. V., and also of the memoirs of Mr. Baron Bayley, and Mr. Commissioner Boteler, in the first and third volumes.* But it is time we should speak of this eminent person's judicial attainments; and we begin by stating, that with an abundant provision of legal learning, and practical knowledge of the profession for all ordinary occasions, and a perfectly legal understanding, he yet did not pretend to the acquirements of the profounder black-letter lawyer, to the legal genius of Holroyd, or the universal learning of Mr. Commissioner Evans. But he dealt most felicitously with facts: how complicated soever, he clearly perceived the bearing upon them of the law, and he closely and correctly applied it to them. His acquaintance with criminal and sessions' law, and all proceedings in its administration, was extensive and profound. No man ever had a larger experience in it, for he had been the leader in the great Lancashire Sessions nearly twenty years, and had been more consulted on such cases than any man of his day. As a criminal Judge, he was at once perfectly firm and humane in an exemplary degree. But * Mr. Justice Williams enjoyed a good fortune, and he made a most liberal use of it. His purse was always open to his friends. To one of them he advanced at different times, without any security, and, indeed, wholly careless of repayment, a sum between nine and ten thousand pounds. Y one of his most learned and able brethren, when writing respecting his death, having heard a eulogy of him confined rather to his capacity as a criminal judge, protested against any such restriction, and said decidedly that the country had lost one of her best Judges. A quality which he possessed in an eminent degree, and we hope we shall neither be charged with truism nor with paradox, when we praise him for it— was constant and inflexible love of justice. All judges in this country are, in one sense, strictly just, because corruption is unknown to them; but all are not equally patient, equally calm, equally free from personal feelings towards advocates, equally exempt from the bias of party and of sect. The excellent person of whom we now speak was a model in these essential particulars, which, as our tribunals are constituted, go to make up that exalted character, the perfectly just Judge. In Banc his attention was ever awake, and his diligence was always at the command of the suitor and the court. At Nisi Prius, he distinguished himself as might be expected from one of his long experience and great merits. In the House of Lords his judgments, where there arose a difference of opinion, were justly admired for the close texture of the argument, and the uniform rejection of all extraneous matter. While we perform the melancholy office of doing justice to one who never withheld it from others, (for no human being was ever more exempt from the vices of jealousy, envy, vanity, and pride, which too often disfigure great talents and acquirements,) we have a pleasing recollection of the aid which this distinguished Judge condescended to lend our humble labours, moved, as was his wont, by zeal for the improvement of the law, and an honest desire ever to travel onward in quest of truth. He was a reformer both in politics and in jurisprudence, of a moderate and very cautious description, desiring strongly the extirpation of abuse and further ance of improvements, but most anxious that all changes should be effected in deference to reason only, and not under the pressure of popular violence; above everything, requiring that they should be in the hands of the enlightened few, and not in those of the ignorant multitude. He was most friendly, therefore, to the Society for the Amendment of the Law, and only withheld from belonging to it by the sense of the inconvenience that might arise out of his duties as a member and as a judge. Mr. Justice Williams's death was extremely sudden. He had passed the shooting season with his valued friends, Mr. and Lady Augusta Milbanke, at the Yorkshire Moors, a family with which he had long been connected, having sat for some years for a borough of the Duke of Cleveland, her Ladyship's father. From thence he went to pass a week with Lord Brougham in Westmoreland. While there he felt a sharp pain in the chest, but this was only mentioned afterwards, for he never spoke of it at Brougham. On his way through London to his residence in Suffolk, he consulted his physicians, who considered it as connected with the liver, and of no grave importance. On his arrival at his seat he was seemingly quite well, and went out daily to shoot. After a week or ten days, he was, on the 14th of September, somewhat indisposed, but had been out riding before breakfast. He did not dine at table, there being some visitors there. Lady Williams left him pretty well in the drawing-room, and returned after dinner, but before the company retired from table. She found him apparently well, and playing with her lap-dog. She went to the dining-room, and came back for the dog in three, or, at the most, four minutes after she had left him well. No sooner did she open the drawing-room door than the animal set up a loud bark, and rushed past her violently, barking and howling all the way. She asked him what ailed the dog, but received no answer. She repeated the |