sea by hisfinancialcomplications, he actually put to sea in a schooner he owned, known as the "Warlock," accompanied by a merchant named Abraham, and never returned. This occurred in 1842, and no tidings came to hand of the voyagers until 1844, when a letter was received from Abraham, communicating intelligence that in November, 1843, Murray had been killed in a skirmish with some natives on the River Cote, in Borneo. was born in 1813, and called to the Inner Temple in 1833. In 1841 he married Miss Jessie Gibbon, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Gibbon, of Lonmay, Aberdeenshire, and was the only m e m b e r of the original Port Phillip Bar w h o came provided with a wife to the new settlement. Admitted here in April, 1842, he had a taste of Judge Willis ; but there never occurred anything like a shindy between the t w o — a circumstance difficult to be accounted for, because Williams was about the last m a n to patiently submit to a brow-beating. Possibly chance interposed on his behalf, for, curiously enough, Williams never held a brief on behalf of any individual upon w h o m Willis had a "down," though in almost every case of importance that came before him, the Judge exercised more or less of a predilection, or the reverse. Williams was given to a spasmodic style of address—something of a melodious bark, largely tinctured with bounce, and so loud lunged that a poetaster once, in a local squib designated him as :—" T h e Boanerges of the Melbourne Bar." Williams was thorough master of every matter he took in hand, and the care and completeness with which he placed his case before the Court went far to m a k e up for any forensic deficiencies beyond his control; so the Attornies took to him. But Williams, so far from isolating himself in his profession, was not indifferent to the world as it wagged outside the Supreme Court, for his portly figure was frequently to be seen, with a stout shoulder to the wheel, whenever any question vitally affecting the public welfare required a strong helping push. His proclivities were more anti than pro squatting, and no m a n of the time was more uncompromisingly denunciatory of the attempts periodically m a d e to turn the district into a cesspool of convict iniquity. For years he was a m e m b e r of the District Council of Bourke, a Corporate body armed with almost despotic power, wisely kept in abeyance until the abortion died out without an effort to do either good or harm. In July, 1851, he succeeded Barry as Commissioner of the Court of Requests, but was neither as painstaking nor popular as his predecessor. In January, 1852, he was appointed Chairman of Quarter Sessions, and in the succeeding April was again in Barry's track; for on the latter vacating the Solicitor-Generalship, Williams stepped into the abandoned official's shoes. This promotion brought with it a nominee seat in thefirstLegislative Council; but here he did not abide long, for fate was beckoning him upward, and in the lapse of some time he was nominated as the third Judge of Victoria. H e continued on the Bench until the early part of 1874, when he retired on a well-earned pension, and returned to England. Four years afterwards the honour of Knighthood was conferred on him, a distinction he did not long enjoy, for he died a year or so after. T h e colony has been hitherto specially fortunate in its Supreme Court Judges, for with the exception of the first (Willis) the members of the Judiciary taken generally have not been excelled by any Bench out of England ; but without disparagement to any of them, it m a y be truthfully written that as an all-round Judge, Williams was held in most esteem by the Legal Profession. It is a noteworthy coincidence that the three best C o m m o n Law-pleaders of the Victorian bar. Williams, Fellows, and Williams secundus, were all exalted to the Bench ; and equally remarkable that the Judge Williams of 1888 occupies the seat so worthilyfilledby his father, w h o was succeeded by Mr. Justice Stephen,
EDWARD EYRE WILLIAMS
(the prenomen of "FOSTER" was not publicly adopted in the colony for several years) was born in June, 1815, at a place known as Old Court, in the very Irish County of Cork. In his 18th he year entered Trinity College, Dublin ; he took classical honours during his undergraduate course, and obtained a B.A. in 1837. For a time a student of King's Inn, Dublin, he crossed the Channel, attached himself to Lincoln's Inn, London, and was called to the Bar in 1839. In 1842 the young lawyer, fancying he should find a wider scope for his abilities in a larger country, steered his course to Australia, arrived in Melbourne before Christmas, and remained there. His admittance to the Port Phillip Bar was nearly contemporaneous with the departure of the irritating and irritable
WILLIAM STAWELL
