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Mr. John Walpole Willis was the first Resident Judge, and, as the sequel will show, a more unfortunate selection could not have been made. H e was the son of Dr. Willis (who attended King George III. in his illness), a physician famed for his skill in the treatment of persons afflicted with insanity. Judge Willis was a member of the English Bar, of some standing in Equity business, and possessing official influence, he obtained a judicial office in British Guiana, where he soon so embroiled himself in a public quarrel, that a memorial was presented against him which led to his recall. It was not long before he was gazetted to a Judgeship in Canada, where he clashed with the Governor who suspended him. H e threatened legal proceedings, and as a quietus, he was next sent out as a Puisne Judge to N e w South Wales, and so comported himself towards his brother Judges and the Government, that they were only too glad to shift him to Port Phillip when the opportunity offered. H e was admittedly a m a n of much legal acumen, great application and considerable power of composition; but he was impotent to control a bad temper; he lacked dignity, and was capable of being easily prejudiced. Besides, in religion he was a bigot; in politics a partisan; an intermeddler in other people's affairs ; and always eager to overstep the bounds of judicial propriety, and dabble in matters not regularly before him. At the opening of each monthly Criminal Sessions when thefirsttwelve jurymen entered the box, it was his wont to address them as the Judges in Great Britain do a grand jury, but unlike them, rarely taking the state of the calendar as his text. His opening orations were always clever, discursive, irrelevant, pedantic, and spiced with pungent personalities. H e had an over-weening confidence in his own infallibility, and, as was said of Macaulay, " was so confoundedly cocksure about everything." H e was ever in a state of hostility towards some one, whether journalist, magistrate, merchant, barrister or attorney. H e constantly urged settlements by arbitration, as if inclined to shirk responsibility, volunteered advice (both on the Bench and off it) to rumoured litigants, and not only received petitions and communications from everyone who chose to so address him but used to act so ex parte as to send for individuals complained against, and threaten them with pains and penalties unless they agreed to some compromise. Accompanied by Mr. Samuel Raymond, as Deputy-Sheriff, and Mr. H. F. Gurner, as Clerk of the Court, and Mr. H. H . Kitson, as Associate, Mr. Willis arrived from Sydney on the 9th of March, and on Sunday the nth, indued in judicial robes, and attended by Mr. Brewster, a Barrister, in forensic costume, was present at divine service in the Episcopalian Church of St. James. The Supreme Court was opened in a temporary Court-house in Bourke Street for thefirsttime on the 12th April, when His Honor delivered an able address. The Judge, who was to officiate also as Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Commissioner of Insolvency, had been previously sworn in before His Honor the Superintendent. Mr. Raymond subscribed to the oath as Sheriff, and Mr. James Croke ditto, as Crown Prosecutor; after which, Messrs. Croke, E. J. Brewster, Redmond Barry, R. W . Pohlman and A. Cunninghame were admitted as the first members of the Port Phillip bar, and Messrs. Gurner and Kitson were sworn as officers of the Court. His Honor announced that Dr. W . B. Wilmot, recently appointed to the Coronership, had been sworn before the Superintendent and himself, on a previous day. The Criminal Sessions being commenced, thefirstprisoner favoured with an introduction to His Honor was Jeremiah Murphy, charged with stealing 100 shillings, 100 sixpences, and 50 half-crowns, the property of Thomas Halfpenny, at Melbourne, on the 22nd January. H e was defended by Mr. Brewster, found guilty, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. ThefirstCivil Sitting began on the 29th April, when there were eleven undefended causes for the recovery of small sums, and one application for probate. Messrs. Barry and Cunninghame appeared as counsel. O n the last day of the sitting, 9th May, there was a regular rush of attornies applying for enrolment, and also two barristers. Judge Willis was destined to have anything but a bed of roses, for the rose-leaves not only crumpled, but were quickly turned into thorns which stung him sometimes to the very verge of distraction. There were three newspapers then published in Melbourne, the Gazette, the Patriot, and the Herald. The Gazette and the Herald soon openedfireon the Judge, and as the Patriot was always in opposition to them, it naturally