BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 253
attitude of speaking, and the silence in the Court waa as profound as midnight ; but at last,
after one or two ineffectual attempts, he seemed to subdue his feelings by one strong effort, and
he named the man before him in a tone that made my pulse quiver and every cheek around
me grow pale.
'' Another pause followed-and then, all at once, the face of the judge became flushed all
over with crimson, and he began to roll out the sentences of his rebuke with a fervour of indignation,
that made me wonder by what emotions the torrent could have been so long withheld from
flowing. His voice is the most hollow and sonorous I ever heard ; and its grave wrath filled the
whole circuit of the walls around, thrilling and piercing every nerve of every ear, like the near
echo of an earthquake. The trumpet-note of an organ does not peal through the vaults of a
cathedral with half so deep a majesty ; and I thought within myself that the offence must indeed
be great, which could deserve to call down upon any head such a palsying sweep of terrors. It
is impossible I should convey to you any idea of the power of this awful voice ; but, never till
I myself heard it, did I appreciate the just meaning of Dante, where he says, 'Even in the
wilderness the Lion will tremble, if he hears the voice of a just Man.'
" Had either the sentiments or the language of the Judge been other than worthy of such
a vehicle, there is no question that the effect of its natural potency would soon have passed
away. But what sentiments can be more worthy of borrowing energy from the grandest music
of nature, than those with which an upright and generous soul contemplates, from its elevation
of purity, the hlack and loathsome mazes of the tangled web of deceit ! The paltry caitiff that
stood before him must have felt himself too much honoured, in attracting even indignation
from one so far above his miserable sphere. With such feelings, and such a voice, it was
impossible that the rebuke he uttered should not have been an eloque4t rebuke. But even the
language in which the rebuke was clothed, would have been enough, of itself alone, to beat into
atoms the last lingering reed of self-complacency, on which detected meanness might have
endeavoured to prop up the hour and agony of its humiliation. Mena est id quod facit dkrfum ;
and whatever harrowing words the haughtiness of insulted virtue, the scorn of honour, the coldness
of disdain, the bitterness of pity might supply, came ready as flashes from a bursting
thunder-cloud, to scatter tenfold dismay upon this poor wretch, and make his flesh and his
spirit creep chill within him like a bruised adder. His coward eye was fascinated by the glance
that killed him, and he durst not look for a moment from the face of his chastiser. He did
look for a moment ; at one terrible word he looked wildly round, as if to seek for some whisper
of protection, or some den of shelter. But he found none. And even after the rebuke was at an
end, he stood, like the statue of Fear, frozen in the same attitude of immovable desertedness. *
" This Judge was formerly President of the Criminal Court ; and after being present at
this scene, I have no difficulty in believing what I hear from everyone, that, in pronouncing
sentence, he far surpassed every Judge whom the present time has witnessed, or of whom any
memory survives. Had any gone before him, his equal in the 'terrible graces' of judicial
eloquence, it is not possible that he should soon have been forgotten. Feelings such as this
man possesses, when expressed as he expresses them, produce an effect of which it is not easy
to say whether the impression may be likely to abide longest in the bosoms of the good, or in
those of the wicked.
" As I came away through the crowd, I heard a pale, anxious-looking old man, who, I doubt
not, had a cause in Court, whisper to himself-'' God be thanked, there's one true GENTLFXAN
at the head of them all.' "
In 1820 the President presided at the Special Commission for trying the
cases of high treason at Glasgow and other places. His address to the grand
jury, on opening the Commission, was published at their request.
On the death of the Duke of Montrose, in 1836, by virtue of an Act of
Parliament, he became invested with the office of Lord Justice General, the
highest official office in Scotland ; and he presided in the Justiciary Court on
several occasions, thus going back to the Justiciary Court after an absence of
twenty-five years. At the proclamation of Queen Victoria he wore the robes
of Lord Justice General.
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