Court of Session to reverse a decision pronounced in Glasgow
Sheriff Court somewhat startled the Bench by reminding them that their
lordships were only mortal after all. "Are you quite sure of that?"
asked the presiding judge. Counsel judiciously refrained from replying
to this poser. The incident recalls an occasion in the Second Division
when it was presided over by Lord Justice-Clerk Moncreiff. A junior
counsel was debating a case in the division, and, apparently finding he
was not making much headway, invited their lordships to imagine for the
moment that they were navvies, and to look at the question from the
point of view of the worker. In stately tones the Lord Justice-Clerk
informed the audacious junior that his invitation was unsuited to the
dignity of the Court.

* * * * *

A learned counsel at the Bar prided himself on the juvenility of his
appearance, and boasted that he looked twenty years younger than he was.
He was cross-examining a very prepossessing and uncommonly
self-possessed young woman as to the age of a person whom she knew quite
well, but could get no satisfactory answer. "Well," he persisted, "but
surely you must have been able to make a good guess at his age, having
seen him often."--"People don't always look their age."--"No, but you
can surely form a good idea from their looks. Now, how old should you
say I am?" "You might be sixty by your looks, but judging by the
questions you ask I should say about sixteen!"

Much amusement is afforded by the answers given by witnesses to judges
and counsel. They form the theme of legions of stories, and we append a
selection to this chapter of legal wit of the Bar.

An Irishman before Lord Ardwall was giving evidence on the question
whether having lived eleven years in Glasgow he was a domiciled
Scotsman. He swore that he was, and as a question of succession depended
upon the domicile the point was of importance. The opposing counsel
thought he had him cornered when on the list of voters for an Irish
constituency he found the witness's name. But Pat was equal to the
occasion. "It's a safe sate," he said; "they never revise the lists,"
and by way of clinching the argument, he added: "Shure there's men in
Oireland who have been in their graves for twenty years who voted at the
last election."

Legal gentlemen sometimes resort to methods not quite in accordance with
usual practice to elicit information from stubborn witnes