On one occasion, when Bramwell was prefacing his sentence on a prisoner with an admonition, he was promptly interrupted by the criminal man with the words, " 'Ow much?" Few modern judges have had a higher sense of the dignity of his office than Lord Bramwell. He usually cast his re bukes in an epigrammatic form, in order that their wit might temper the pain which they inflicted, but he was quite ready to proceed to extremi ties if necessary. He once threatened t o commit Montague Chambers, Q. C, for contempt. "What would you have done, Chambers," he after wards said, " if I had carried out my threat?" "Moved for my own dis charge," was the re ply. The Bench as well as the Bar came in for a share of his caustic criticism. Of Chief Justice Denman he said, that his lordship always got uneasy when a point THE BISHOP of real law was start ed, while he commented pretty strongly on Cockburn's habit of selecting the most sen sational cases for his own list. Bramwell was an ardent individualist, and believed in the sacredness of contract with no half hearted belief. During the stormy years of Mr. A. J. Balfour's administration, when the plan of campaign had to be fought, he fre quently wrote to the papers on this burning subject, and many a letter from his pen, under the familiar signature " B.," appeared in the " Times." A few quotations from Lord Bramwell's last decision will illustrate his literary and intellectual quality. In Salt
v. Marquess of Northampton, in which an equity question relating to a fetter on re demption was at stake, Lord Bramwell (who was a common lawyer) commenced his judgment as follows : " The first thing I find it necessary to do in this case is to learn and familiarize myself with the lawwhich governs it and its language." A frank confession; but the task was well done. The Mogul Steam ship Case raised a question of great in terest. An associated body of traders en deavored to get the whole of the Chinese tea trade into their hands by offering exceptional and very favorable terms to customers who would deal exclusively with them. The Mogul Steamship Company were excluded from the association, and brought an action for damages against the association, alleging a conspiracy to injure them. The House of Lords held that OF LONDON. since the acts of the defendants were done with the lawful object of protecting and extending their trade and increasing their profits, and since they had not employed any unlawful means, the plain tiffs had no cause of action. Lord Bramwell said (after indicating doubts whether the agreement in question was illegal at all) : "I will assume that it was, though I am not sure. But that is not enough; for the plain tiffs to maintain their action on this ground they must make out that it was an offense. I am clearly of opinion it was not. It is ad mitted that there may be fair competition in trade, that I may offer to join and com
