OCR Text |
Show What A Great Judge Is WHAT constitutes a great judge of a court? The answer of the ordinary lawyer would be "a judicial mind and a profou d lawyer." But that would not nearly cover the cabo. The great actor is one who loses himself in the character he is personating. In the same way the great judge when on the bench must forget that off the bench he is merely human, that he has friends whom he would like to serve and enemies which it would not grieve him in the least to punish. All men must look alike to him when they come before him demanding justice under the law. There is no place for selfishness with the great judge when he is on the bench. By virtue of his office he is made arbiter of the differences between his fellow men and no extraneous thoughts must enter into his decisions. The law is given him for a guide and his only guide. Then while cognizant cog-nizant of his own official rights, he must never forget the rights of others. He must not only keep watch of those whose causes are before him, but he must keep watch of himself. There have been such judges, and they have caused the people of civilized countries to learn to respect their courts, and to feel that while executives and legislatures may give way to passion and sometimes do wrong. J the courts are their anchor; that while around them the storms of passion may rave and the furious waves of anger and partisanship may beat, they are serene, for the emblem of a court is justice. It is safe to say that if only men entirely great could preside over our courts, there would never be any doubt about the future of our country; for an awe and majesty clothes such men more sacredly than any that hedges kings about. The poor and ignorant realize that their duties lift them above the petty passions of the ordinary world; that in a free land their stations in the ' state is what the pilot's is on board a ship at sea; the waves will be met head on, and the ship will be held steady on her course. |