The English BencJi and Bar of To-day. left for subsequent critics to do. The Rules were "explained," "distinguished," "quali fied" — a work in which American lawyers have borne an honorable part — and are at length tacitly abandoned. Now, one of the main arguments that medical criticism had urged against the legal test of responsibility in mental disease was this, — that the mind is one and indivisible, and that no court can determine the extent of the derangement caused by even a slight attack of insanity. This argument had a ring of metaphysics as well as of medicine about it, and it appealed powerfully to the versatile mind of Lord Brougham. In the leading case of Waring v. Waring, his lordship promulgated it ex cathedra with reference to the testamentary capacity of the insane. Lord Penzance fol lowed suit in Smith v. Tebbitt, and in 1867, in Hancock v. Peaty, he established the same principle with regard to the power of a mad person to marry or be given in marriage. This external standard for determining the civil capacity of the insane was disapproved of by Sir A. E. Cockburn, in Banks v. Goodfellow. In Boughton v. Knight and Durham v. Durham, Sir James Hannen destroyed it altogether; and " capacity," like responsibil ity, is once more a question of fact. Sir James Hannen's conduct of the Parnell Commission is probably the episode in his public career that posterity will remember most vividly. In the stormy debates that preceded the appointment of the Commis sioners, when the qualifications and impar tiality of his colleagues were bitterly ques tioned or denied, no shadow of doubt was cast on the perfect competency and integrity of the President. His demeanor at the great inquest amply justified this forbear ance. Determined that his court should not become a cockpit for party railleries, or a parade-ground for the exhibition of sensational
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but irrelevant evidence before the galleries, Sir James Hannen kept the work of the Commission strictly within the lines pre scribed by statute, and made Sir Richard Webster and Sir Charles Russell alike feel the pressure of his guiding hand. The Report is before the world, and speaks for itself; but the few sentences with which Sir James Hannen closed the public labors of the Commission are not so well known, and are yet eminently worthy to be recorded. When Sir Henry James concluded his elaborate address, the President said, in tones that are indelibly impressed upon the memories of his audience: "And now I have to congratu late the counsel who are still before us on the completion of their arduous task, and to thank them, and those others to whom such thanks are due, for the untiring industry and conspicuous ability which they have placed at our service, and for the great assist ance we have derived from their labors. Our labors, however, are not concluded. We must bear our burden yet a little longer. But one hope supports us. Conscious that throughout this great inquest we have sought only the truth, we trust that we shall be guided to find it, and set it forth plainly in the sight of all men." As a judge, Sir James Hannen possesses in union and harmony the three indispensable judicial qualities of patience, dignity, and knowledge. He can listen to an argument without interrupting it. He permits no liberties to be taken with the decorum of his court, and no withholding of the respect that is his due. Any effort to mislead him is foredoomed to failure. All that remains to be said of this great judge and lawyer can be stated in a few words, — he is practically a vegetarian in diet, and no amusing or doubtful anecdotes are linked to his name.
