there were elements . . . which would have justified me in refraining from the painful task I have gone through, there is not a man in this court that would have more rejoiced at it. . . . But I see no escape for this unhappy girl, and there is but one course open to you if you come to the same conclusion." The passage in which the Lord Advocate expressed his "own belief" was, of course, indefensible, and brought down upon him the censure of the judge. But possibly it meant nothing more than that he did not feel justified in withdrawing from the prosecution. Moncrieff's parliamentary career was long, brilliant, and useful. He sat in the House of Commons as M. P. for Leith (1851), for Edinburgh (1859-1868), and for the Univer sities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He was a staunch Liberal, a formidable debater, and a highly honorable and honored politician. During his official life in Parliament he carried the bill that abolished tests in the universities and schools of Scotland; the Valuation of Lands Act, 1854; and the
Bankruptcy Act of 1856. In 1869 Moncrieff was made Lord Justice Clerk of Scot land. In 1871 he succeeded to his father's baronetcy. In 1874 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Moncrieff, of Tulliebole (in Kinross-shire). In 1889 he retired from the bench. As Lord Justice Clerk, Baron Moncrieff hardly improved upon his high reputation as Lord Advocate. He was a good judge, — weighty, fairminded, dignified, and sound. We shall have something to say of the part he played in the trial of Chantrelle when we come to sketch the life of Lord Trayner. But under his regime the Second Division of the In ner House acquired a bad notoriety for impatience, or, at least, for the practice of constantly interrupting the arguments of counsel; and the blame for this state of things has fallen, perhaps unfairly, on the Lord Justice Clerk. It must have been no easy task to preside over a tribunal among whose members were Lord Young and Lord Rutherford Clark.
