asked permission to appear for a client in an Equity suit, as all the limited Bar had been retained by the other side. T h e Judge regarded him with astonishment, as if unable or unwilling to recognise him in his disguise.
At length he roared out that his Court was not a place for "A
whiskered pandour or a fierce hussar!"
If the person w h o had spoken was desirous to appear as counsel, he ought to have assumed the semblance of one. As it was, his physiognomical get-up was enough to frighten a m a n out of his wits ! H e had better clear out, or he would not be long an officer of that honourable Court. T h e astounded Sewell, scared by such an unexpected reception, hastily retreated from the precincts of the highly irritated dignitary, and, fearful of being struck off the rolls if he put in a second hairy appearance, dashed away for the nearest barber's shop, submitted to a thorough tonsorial operation, and returned with a face and a conscience equally clear to the presence of the offended impersonation of Justice, where he was received as a repentant sinner, obtained absolution, and was taken (metaphorically) to the Judicial arms. T h e late Sir R e d m o n d Barry was one of thefirstbarristers w h o incurred Judge Willis' ire, and they used to have a set-to n o w and then ; but Barry's imperturbable politeness and equanimity always conquered. In fact, the moral magnetism of the gentleman usually cowed the privileged autocrat. Theirfirstencounter occurred in this wise :— O n e day in the month of July, 1841, M r . Barry was supporting a demurrer, when it seemed to the Judge that counsel was cutting it a little too fine in his argument, and he burst upon him with this interruption : J U D G E W I L L I S : " M r . Barry, sir, I do not wish the justice of any case to be frittered away by such special pleading. If the rules of special pleading adopted in Westminster Hall were to be introduced here, I do not think anyone would understand them." M R . B A R R Y : " Perhaps all have not the knowledge of your Honor." J U D G E W I L L I S : " I do not take to myself greater ability than that possessed by members of the Bar, but I might say that I have had more legal experience." Mr. Barry m a d e one of his most profound obeisances, and the gust blew over. At the July Criminal Sessions a prisoner was being tried for an assault, and the Judge inquired if the Magistrate before w h o m the depositions had been taken was in attendance. Committing Justices were bound to be present under 7 Geo. IV., Cap., 64. T H E C R O W N P R O S E C U T O R : " Your Honor, M r . Simpson, the Police Magistrate, was the Committing Justice in this case, and he is engaged in private business at the Bank of Australasia." J U D G E W I L L I S : " Private business at the bank, M r . Croke! Private business at the bank! W h a t do you m e a n ? Is that to be taken as an excuse ? Private business at the bank, forsooth, and by a m a n w h o styles himself, by his o w n affidavit, Acting Police Magistrate of Melbourne ! Private business at the bank, M r . Croke! W h y , if he has no better excuse than that, he is notfitto remain in the Commission of the Peace. Private business at the bank, M r . Croke, indeed ! W h a t next, I wonder ?" At this stage the surcharged choler boiled over in a sharpfitof coughing, and the Judge was obliged, by a strong effort, to save himself from asphyxia. PRESS-BAITING.
By this time the Gazette and the Herald had well taken his Honor's measure, and knew accurately the points of his armour through which they could pepper him with their paper pellets, which he soon learned to fear as m u c h as if they were bullets. They had him well in range, and very hot they m a d e it for him. Mythologically they might be assimilated to a couple of scorpions despatched to earth by the Eumenides to torture Judge Willis during his stay in the colony, and they plied their task unremittingly. Scarcely a day passed without the application of a typographical blister to the Judge, and the blistering was anything but a relief to him. Each morning he would arrive in town in high nervous excitement as to what might be in the newspapers about him, and on reaching his Chambers thefirstorder invariably given w a s — " Bring m e the Gazette and the Herald." Hastily glancing over the contents, if he found anything about himself, he despatched his tipstaff to verbally s u m m o n the offending editor, w h o waited upon him, and got rated, warned and threatened to his heart's content. Such interviews grew so m u c h
