SOME FAMOUS CROSS-EXAMINERS
in twenty years he had never been kept a day from court by ill health. And it is said of Curran that he has been known to rise before a jury, after a session of sixteen hours with only twenty minutes' intermission, and make one of the most memorable arguments of his life.
Among the more modern advocates of the English Bar, Sir Henry Hawkins stands out conspicuously. He is reputed to have taken more money away with him from the Bar than any man of his generation. His leading characteristic when at the Bar, was his marvellous skill in cross-examination. He was associated with Lord Coleridge in the first Tichborne trial, and in his cross-examination of the witnesses, Bangnet and Carter, he made his reputation as "the foremost cross-examiner in the world."[1] Sir Richard Webster was another great cross-examiner. He is said to have received $100,000 for his services in the trial before the Parnell Special Commission, in which he was opposed to Sir Charles Russell.
Rufus Choate said of Daniel Webster, that he considered him the grandest lawyer in the world. And on his death-bed Webster called Choate the most brilliant man in America. Parker relates an episode characteristic of the clashing of swords between these two idols of the American Bar. "We heard Webster once, in a sentence and a look, crush an hour's argument of Choate's curious workmanship; it was most intellectually wire-drawn and hair-splitting, with Grecian sophis-
- ↑ "Life Sketches of Eminent Lawyers," Clark.
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