your
children and grandchildren."

CHAPTER THREE

THE JUDGES OF IRELAND

"So slow is justice in its ways
Beset by more than customary clogs,
Going to law in these expensive days
Is much the same as going to the dogs."

WILLOCK: _Legal Facetiae_.

CHAPTER THREE

THE JUDGES OF IRELAND

In the days of Queen Anne corruption was rife among Irish judges, as it
was also among members of the Scottish Bench at an earlier period, and
it was not uncommon to find the former concurring in Privy Council
reports issued contrary to evidence. Within the area of the Munster
Circuit in the early years of the eighteenth century a petition was
signed and presented to Parliament by clergy, resident gentry, and
others in the district, because Lord Chancellor Phipps refused to be
influenced in his decision of cases coming before him, and had thereby
incurred the displeasure of a certain section of the Irish Parliament.
Even a Lord Chief Justice was not above taking a gift; and in this
connection O'Flanagan in _The Munster Circuit_ tells a story of Chief
Justice Pyne, who was a great cattle-breeder and owner of valuable
stock. One day before starting for Cork Assizes to try a case in which a
Mr. Weller and a Mr. Nangle were concerned, he received a visit from the
former's steward, who had been sent with a herd of twenty-five splendid
heifers for his lordship. The judge was highly pleased, and returned by
the steward a gracious message of thanks to his master. On the way to
Cork the Chief Justice's coach was stopped by a drove of valuable
shorthorns on the road. Looking out, his lordship demanded of the
drover, "Whose beasts are these, my man?"--"They belong, please your
honour, to a great gentleman of these parts, Judge Pyne, your honour,"
replied the man. "Indeed," cried the Chief Justice in much surprise,
"and where are you taking them now?"--"They are grazing in my master Mr.
Nangle's farm, your honour; and as the Assizes are coming on at Cork my
master thought the judge might like to see that he took good care of
them, so I'm taking them to Waterpark (his lordship's estate) to show to
the judge." The judge felt the delicacy of Mr. Nangle's mode of giving
his present, and putting a guinea in the drover's hand said, "As your
master has taken such good care of my cattle, I will take care of him."
When the case came on it appeared at first that the judge favoured the
plaintiff, Mr. Weller, but