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Show I First Irishman and Roman Catholic to Hold the Office Since the Reformation Rose By His Own Efforts and J Great Abilities From a Comparatively Poor Irish Boy to Be The Foremost Jurist of Great Britain Always Loyal 1 to His Beloved Erin. l (Written for Tlie Intermountain Catholic.) Baron Russell of Killoween, Lord i Chief Justice of England, died at Kc-n- J Kington at 3 o'clock this morning. Ho hud been ill only two weeks. London Press Cablegram, Aug. 10. i Plain Charles Russell was a great ft man in the world's measurement and ft estimate of greatness. So was Lord H Charles Russell a great man. Call him what y.iu may plain citizen, subject y of the Queen, or peer of the realm the , j eminent Irishman and devout .sun of ! Mother Chureh was une and the same. True, he was a till-d person; genile- man. if you will. But he fought, not f: fur the mere title, but for the posi- ! .' tii in a living men which his exceptional natuial abilities, his profound learning j j and Keen intellectuality predestined i I T him to 1 11 1 ill to the good of all Eng- j : land. The limitation of the peerage to j I lils own lifetime, and at his own re- I quest, shows plainly that he did not S favor hereditary honors. He believed j I in all young men "winning their spurs i 1 on the battlefield. " I The late Chief Justice was essential- j I ly a Catholic. At one time he was j J editor of a Catholic paper in Ireland. He was educated in Catholic schools, i and delighted, like all scholars, in the 1 history, the art and literature of the I Church. While still a youth his par- I en's apprenticed him to a !irm of so- lienors in Belfast. He studied at Trinity Trin-ity College, an unusual course for a Catholic at that time, since that institution insti-tution had always rejected all students not of the P't-otestant belief. Lord Rus- Ssell came of a family of small gentry that had been settled in Ulster for i00 years and always retained its Catholic faith. His uncle was president of May- , nooth College from isr,7 to 1SS0 and the U friend of Cardinal Newman, who said j of him in his "Apologia pro Vita ilea:" I "He helped me more than onyone else, " I and to him Newman attributed the I chief part in his conversion to the I Catholic faith. His brother is Father i U Matthew Pussell, S. J., editor of the ft Irish Monthly, and well known as a i poet. His three sisters all became Sis- jl ters ..r Mercy. 1 Lord Russell married Miss Ellen Mul- j h-illand. daughter of Joseph Mulhol- i liuid. M. P.. of Belfast, and sister of Miss Rosa Mulholland. the Irish poet ami novelist. Mrs. Uussell before her I marriage had also acquired a reputa- Ition as a writer. They had ten children, chil-dren, live sons and five daughters. Soon after his marriage he removed to " London and entered his name as a stu- dent at Lineoln's Jnn. He was admit- i I t-'d to the bar in 1S.V.'. and thirteen j ' j years later, in 1S7. w as made a Queen's j ' counsel. While making his way in the j li'.v he for a lime reported parliament-"j I ary speech' s. The first great case that j I brought hini into notice was the no- tm ious Irish marriage case. Yeiverton j r vs. Yelverton. in which Uussell was i counsel for the wife. It established , f his reputation as a cross-examiner, and j he was frequently employed afterward i ! in sensational cases. He was usually J j Mr. Labouehere's counsel in the libel j jl suits brought against Truth; he was 1 , counsel for Mr. Clement Scolt in his j.j Kuil against The Referee, and for Lady if Colin-Campbell in her divorce suit. He rh-fended Mrs. Mayhrkk and was c on-j-1 viin - d of her innocenee. in spite of the ji vr rdici. He was one of the counsel of J Great l'.ritiiin before the Court of Aril Ar-il Kiration on the Bering Sea fishery at ji Paris. His greatest triumph at the ' I bar. however, was his management of : the cast' of Mr. Parnell against the (J 3oiidoti Times and his showing up of f the 'igilt forgeries. After two unsuccessful attempts he i was elected to Parliament for Dundalk in vmi and later sat for Smith Hark- !f rev. He was a Home Uuler as a mat- ' t'-r of course. In lSrt Mr. Gladstone on i forming his third administration made j! him his Attorney General, w hen he was j j knighted, and he resumed the office nn i I the return of the Liberals to power in I J As a parliamentary orator he fell a 'below his career at the bar. He intro duced the innovation on becoming Attorney At-torney General of giving up his private pri-vate practice, which, it was said, was then worth $l."i.or'ii a year to. him. The Attorney General's salary is $35,0(19 a year with fees usually exceeding that " Finn. Soon after Mr. Gladstone's re-it re-it lircment from the Premiership Lord i Kosebery, in May, 1ST4. 'appointed Sir ii diaries Uussell a Lord Justice of Ap-I Ap-I pc.il in Ordinary, in succession to Lord i Howen, who had died, when he was I made a life peer with the title of I p.amn ltussell of Kilowen in the County I of Down. ji On the death of Lord Coleridge, Lord !' Uussell was made Lord Chief Justice i.! of England. The fears that he might not prove a good Judge were un-i un-i founded. He proved one of the best s criminal judges on the Queen's bench. f He began by instituting reforms and J doing away as fast as he could with f abuses and red tape. The institution t of the new court for commercial cases I is due to his efforts and a number of j ether practical reforms, such as a more I ) sensible arrangement of the vacation . and assize business of the judges of the i Appeal Court are under way. Outside of his regular judicial functions Lord Pussell, after the sudden death of Lord Hersehell, served as one of the British arbitrators in the decision of the Venezuela Ven-ezuela boundary question last year. In spite of the professional and political polit-ical demands on his time, Lord Uussell Uus-sell was fond of society life and took a great share in it. He was one of the most popular men in theUnited Kingdom. King-dom. He kept up his interest in horse racing and other sports after his elevation ele-vation to the bench. He played a good game of w hist, and his astonishing energy en-ergy and strength enabled him to make time for his pleasures as well as his business. He will rank among the great lawyers, and he certainly has attained at-tained a distinction of his own. both at the bar and on the bench, mainly Unit of applying the principles of common com-mon sense to the management and settlement set-tlement of cases. It was hoped that he would b eable to clear away much rubbish rub-bish that still clogs the administration of the English law. His success in life did not spoil him: he continued to the end the keen, bright, genial, witty Irishman, with no nonsense about him, that he was at the beginning. Throughout Through-out his life he was a devout Catholic and deeply interested in the progress and welfare of his Church. He visited the United States twice, first in 18S3 before he had taken any official position, at the opening of the Northern Pacifi railroad, and again in 1SP6. Avhen as Lord Chief Justice of England he attended the meeting of the American Bar Association at Saratoga, and delivered an address on "Arbitration." "Arbitra-tion." He had been seriously ill for about a fortnight. He was to have presided over a dinner given by the British bench and bar in London, but was unable un-able to be "present and Lord Chancellor Chancel-lor Halsbury took his place. That was the first public intimation that anything any-thing w as w rong with Lord Russell. He was CS years of age and had been Lord Chief Justice of England six years and a little over a month. ! 4- LORD CHIEF JUSTICE RUSSELL. 1 |
