absolutely outrageous, and he increased the sentence from a week to three months. Thomson was then removed, but, in the course of the day, he applied, through Mr. Williams, for permission to apologise, and was brought up for that purpose. H e did so by declaring that he had not the remotest intention of contemning or offending the Court; and in ordering his enlargement, Judge Willis pronounced Dr. Thomson to be the last m a n in the colony who ought to have asked for mercy from him. " T h e Doctor's meddlesome propensities were known well enough, and they would get him into a scrape some day or other unless he was very careful." The Doctor seemed so astounded that he could not at once comprehend such a caution. H e continued standing, as if fascinated, glaring through his spectacles at the now amused Judge, who grinned at him like a Cheshire cat, and such was the status quo until some friendly by-standers timidly dragged Thomson off out of the way of further harm. THE JUDGE CUT BY THE BAR.
Willis' conduct, both on and off the Bench, continued to add to the daily hostility now fretting like an angry surge around him. H e ridiculed the proceedings of the Sydney Judges, and was so infatuated as to drag some of the private dealings of Mr. Latrobe and Captain Lonsdale into publicity in one of his so-called judicial orations. The complaints of his misbehaviour were so free^uent and formidable that Governor Sir George Gipps felt it his duty to invoke the intervention of the authorities in Downing Street. One day he indulged in such grossly disparaging remarks upon the Crown Prosecutor that that official at length lost all patience, put up his back, and bowing, left the court, followed by the Barristers. This exodus was endorsed by the publication of a pronunciamento, signed by the entire Bar, viz., Messrs. Williams, Cunninghame, Raymond, Barry, Pohlman, and Stawell, declaring the Judge's remarks to be an unwarrantable attack upon Mr. Croke, and thanking him for the manner in which he had maintained the dignity and privileges of the Bar. The Judge took an early opportunity of making a viva voce reply, by assuring his hearers that both himself and the Court could get on very well without a Bar at all. The following day, it was his duty to read in Court a judgment of the Full Court dissenting from a decision of his, and he did so with much unbecoming levity. His reading of passages was accompanied by a running commentary, wherein he mixed up stale jokes with poor chaff, and exhibited himself in anything but an enviable character. The same day the quiet and harmless Mr. Pohlman (so well-known for his inoffensiveness and amiability in after years) ventured, like a stray sheep, into the wolf's den. This was hisfirstappearance there since the presentation of the Croke complimentary address, and the Judge, when he saw him, was on for a row. In a cause proceeding an attorney hastily handed Pohlman a brief, but when he intimated his appearance, the Judge, with what was meant to be a scowl of contempt, exclaimed, " D o you think I a m to be made a child of? If you do, you are much mistaken." Pohlman would gently insist that he had a locus standi, but was scared almost out of his senses by the Judge furiously vociferating, " I tell you you are not in the case at all, and I do not require an Amicus Curice. Take yourself away and cure somebody else. W h e n I a m in need oi your services I shall send for you. I wonder, after the treatment I have received, you should presume to ask any indulgence at m y hands." A n application was made to the Judge for a criminal information against his favourite newspaper, the Patriot, for the publication of a veryflagrantlibel upon Mr. John Stephen, a Master-Mason and member of the Town Council. During the discussion His Honor vented his indignation in the most furious language against his own libellers. " I well know," shouted he, " what it is to be libelled, for I have been repeatedly libelled in that scurrilous paper, the Herald; I have placed the matter in the hands of the Crown Prosecutor, who, I hope, may be able to reach the editor. I have been so scandalously libelled in that infamous paper as to make it utterly abominable. I do not care for their libels personally; but only as regards the Judge of this Court." A MAGISTRATE INCARCERATED : A CUMULATIVE SENTENCE.
On the 2nd June, the cause of Atkins v. Manton and Co., was being tried. It was an action of assumpsit, to recover ,£474 9s. nd., amount of a promissory note. Mr. J. B. Were, as a Justice of the Peace, sat on the Bench, taking no part in the business, as the trial was before two Assessors, but being
