BARRISTER-AT-LAW

" Old ! call you him ? He is stroug yet ; ay, stronger than a horse, but not stroDger than his

arguments. n

Premio-Rkal.

A Scotch author, in his work on " British Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century," speaking of the late Mr. Canning, M. P., says : — " It was an epoch in a man's life

to hâve heard him He seemed actu-

ally to hâve increased in stature, his attitude was so majestic, his chest heaved and expanded, his nostrils dilated, a noble pride slightly curled his lip, and âge and sickness were dissolved and forgotten in the ardour of youthful genius. "

Those, and there are many, who know the subject of this sketch and hâve heard his forensic addresses, cannot help, after listening to the weightiness of his arguments and the force of his appeals, but attach to Mr. Willan the attributes which the enthusiastic writer, whom I hâve just cited,granted to the eminent Mr. Canning.

On such an occasion, as well as on that of the reading of one of the careful and better productions of Mr. Willan's facile pen, one is not only apt to forget, but forgets indeed, his carelessness in dress

and ail his other idiosyncracies, with which, alike with other men of talent, he indubitably abounds.

Of high stature, of not only handsome présence but with a beautifully classical head, sprung from an English father and a French-Canadian mother, not alone by his intellectual capacity but also by his physical appearance, he is what I should like to be allowed to call a fine example of the judicious blending of races, and in whom the finer endowments of both are so manifestly apparent.

Should inclination be felt to think in a trivial way of him, one would suspect that, after the manner of some of the old students of the university of Salamanca, his well-worn and discolored apparel, his battered hat and tieless shoes (carefully trodden down at the heels), together with

his barrister's gown, — of which it is said that "it never covers his shoulders in the same way twice " (there are so many arm-holes, or what may be taken for such, in it;, — were purposely worn to relevate and enhance his natural appearance.

However thèse and other things may be, it is an undeniable fact that my friend, were he résident in some more thickly populated country, would find a better field for rémunération of his brilliant parts. He would hâve a more prosperous présent, besides a noble future. At ail events, his légal utterances and magnificent writings will be sought and studied by générations yet to corne.

For myself, I must refrain, consistently with the nature of this album, frorn gathering hère as much as I should like of his speeches aud writings, but solely give a

very few condensed spécimens of his labors and relate a few anecdotes of him.

I cannot remember exactly how or when, but somewhere I hâve related that this well-reputed writer is mentioned în Morgan's " Bibliotheca Canadensis, " page 392, a,s " beyond ail question in ail respects the ablest and most powerful writer on the Canadian press." The same authority refers to him as a barrister-atlaw in a " leading position/' of " great powers of éloquence " and possessing " rare talents " as "an expounder of the law." Mr. Morgan continues of him ;— " he must be now * about thirty five years on the press of Canada and is supposed to possess great knowledge of the Canadian public and to be an authority on the constitutional law of the country.

* In 1867.

Without referring back to journals of older date, I content myself with taking up the file for this month of one of the local publications, tothe columns of which Mr. Willan contributes the greater number of its political articles, and I sélect three or four "leaders" so markedly his that the slightest doubt cannot be entertained as to their authorship.

The following article, which is the first that cornes to my hand, is on the now latent question of inter-imperialism : —

" The Americans may as well cease from their hostility to the impérial assimilation of queen Victoria' s European and non-European domin-

ions; inasrouch as thèir history isitself so strong an argument in favor of assimilation as to outweigh every argument their agents and adhérents in Canada can utter against it.

" What created the United States of America ? Simpiy the want of représentation in the impérial parliament. According to the old Anglo- Saxon theory of government, no free man could be taxed ;save by his consent in parliament' (to quote the words of Sir Edward Coke, the prince of english iawyers). Not oniy was this strongly felt by the Americans, its force was admitted on the other side. The English law ofificers set up an abstird technical plea to the American demands' by saying that, according to some old deeds and charters, America was part of the rnanor of East Greenwich and therefore was represented in contemplation of law in the British parliament ! Such nonsense of course had no more effect then that it would hâve now, except as a mère gloss for the acts of the government and an admission that in principle Franklin and his fellow-Americans were right in their pretensions according to the gênerai and

acknowledged maxims of England's spécial constitution asderived from remote antiquity. It was, however, on ail sides admitted that the Americans might hâve been justly taxed had they been really and fairly represented in the British parliament. Had they been so, happy indeed would hâve been the results for England and themselves î From how many needless foreign wars (many of them undertaken for no other interest than the préservation of Hanover) would not England hâve been saved ? What floods of blood, what burdens of debt and taxes would she not hâve avoided had it been necessary to consult the trans-Atlantic vote where war parties at home were in the ascendant, and Englishmen infatuated with continental alliances were in the cabinet. Nay, how great a benefit to humanity at large would not that trans Atlantic vote hâve proved ?

" To America herself the conséquences of assimilation with the parent state would hâve been still more bénéficiai. Great as she now is, how much more resplendent would be her attitude had wisdom prevailed in Britain's colonial policy during the years preceding 1776. Had represent-

ation in the impérial parliament been enjoyed by the British colonies (now the United States), their révolution would never hâve taken place, and they would hâve been sharers in glories surpassing the separate institutions now enjoyed by Great Britain and themselves as actually existing nations. They are now a powerful republic, but they are not lords of India and masters of the sea. Assimilated wifch England they would hâve been both. The forces of both countries united into one, no such power wrould hâve been seen on earth since the downfall of the ancient classic Roman empire. Gombined in one mighty whole, the Atlantic would hâve been their lake, Asia and Africa their colonies, and neither Russia nor Germany would hâve been in a position even to utter a remonstrance against their voice potential. It is in vain to foresee the prospect of this vision of the possible. It belongs to the irrévocable past. It might hâve been a splendid reality, and is now a melancholy warning, classing amongst the most mournful of lost opportunités.

" It is, however, the duty of the présent to shape the future more or less from the destinies of the

past. What might hâve been, had England been wise in time, may be yet, so far as Canada, Australia and Polynesia are concerned. California is not richer than those lands in the Pacific Océan, which proudly and gladly aeknowledge the protecting and paternal shadow of the British standard.

" Canada in area is larger than the United States and in climate far more suitable to the growth in numbors and in vigor of the Caucassian race. Its soil is capable of feuding ail Europe twice told, and it needs nothing save a policy of true imperialism to make it in ail respects a superior country to its more soutliern rival.

u The United States created by England's neglect and final misrule of lier colonies and the narrow 'localism' (to coin amuch needed word) which was the parent of that neglect and misrule, hâve profited, grown and thriven by England's neglect of her remaining colonies. It is time that négligence of her interests, and her hostility which has done so much evil, should cease, and that the centralization of Queen Vie-

toria's territories should supersede that policy of anarchy, disorder and confusion which, aiming at the loosest of confédérations, has practically dismembered the British empire."

The second article, which is on a very kindred subject to the foregoing, but referring in a more spécial manner to Canada, reads : —

u That Canada cannot stand as she is, will, we think, be generally conceded ; but independence is worse than a myth and the choice of our future lies between annexation and assimilation. Of thèse the first named holds out for us no attraction whatever. It is simply a lesser evil than independence, but it offers burdens absolutely without advantages, and the vortex of its politics are fraught with dangers for so new a partner in its business as Canada would be. On the other hand, assimilation offers us relief from our présent cause of complaint and benefits both national, political and social.

" We should continue to be protected by the

c sovereignty of the seas'*and we would share in that sovereignty. The bnrthens of our defence would not be increased, but the field of ambition for our people would.

" In order to carry confédération, the men now in office stimulated, to the utmost of their power, the sentiment of ambition and, what the Americans would call, the love of 'abigthing' in the Ganadian mind. Now there are few things more dangerous for a government than to stimulate ambition.

" Amongst the legends of the Middle Ages was that of two students of Padua who lighted on the books of Albertus Magnus, and reading a page of forbidden lore, suddenly and unexpectedly found themselves confronted by an innumerable crowd of démons who, with one accord, shouted out ' Ye hâve called us, ye hâve called us, now get us work or we will destroy ye ! ' Such is in good truth the condition to which the adventurous but incompétent politicians of the British North American confédération hâve reduced both themselves and their country. It is not their

fault that the vast resources of the British empire and the endless view both of profit and of glory, which assimilation offers to the colonist, makes annexa tion look paltry, poor and insipid in comparison with it.

" The conquest of the Modocs ; the breaking up of a 'whiskey ring', the discovery of another case of c ballot-box stuffing', the utterance of somebody's c opinion' as to a gubernatorial élection, the conviction of a i connterfeiter' or the flight of some imposter who for three months lias been setting the fashions to the c shoddy ' lords and their families ; such are scarcely the events, either social or political, for Englishmen to sympathize with."

A.nother production of Mr. Willan's pen, — a production which, judging frorh its heading, proposes to show ' How we are governed/ i. e. how Canada is governed, and concludes with the expression ofthe idea that, at no far distant day, much of Canadas représentative system

will be practically understood as conveniently and easily dispensable, — runs as follows : —

" The bill ( To reduce the salaries and allowances of certain public functionaries and officers and the indemnity to members of the senate and house of commons,' is a move in the right direction, and wouid unquestionably be a boon to the heavily taxed people of this country.

" The réduction of allowances and indemnity to legislators is, we repeat, désirable ; but the total abolition of such disgraceful expenses would be far more so. It is highly degrading to our legislators and our country that the senate, and législative councils, and the commons and houses of assembly should ail require to be paid ; nor is it possible to see any national ground on which such payment can be based. For the first thirty six years of parliamentary government in Canada, no payment whatever was made, either to législative councillors or the représentatives of the people, and there never was any reason why the old British constitutional system of non-

payment should hâve been departed from ; nor is there any why it should not be restored. As for the other payments under our présent System there is nothing to justify them.

a The case of Letellier has proved two things. That lieutenant-governors are nonentities and that the governor-general is the subordinate of his ministers. Such being the case — if the présent System of government is to continue — ail thèse functionaries should be swept away. The functions of governors, whether gênerai or lieutenant, should be discharged by the présidents of the executive councils or cabinet, and thus — the atrocious décision in the case of the Honorable Mr. Letellier^-would at least save a, quarter of a million of dollars per annum, a heavy expense which the country can ill-afford. Useless offices will never be too soon got rid of, and the days are coming that the people will say to the kirigs of the earth : — ' Govern or go.' "

In the last issue printed of the publication previously referred to in this chapter, and which has just been left on my

table, I find the following, respectîng English foreign policy and électoral affairs in England : —

u The attacks of Mr. Gladstone on Austria are a fresh proof of that politician's total incapacity to deal efficiently or even rationâlly with the foreign relations of his country. If ail Turkey and Roumania, and Servia also, could be placed under the Austrian flag, it would be a happy event for the human race.

" Nothing could be more déplorable as a national spectacle than Turkey as Mr. Gladstone would wish to see her. Bad as is the state of the South American republics, it would be political blessedness in comparison with the blood-thirsty anarchy which would distinguish the wild races and hostile creeds of the Turkish empire if let loose from ail central control and formed into a nest of republics as Gladstone wishes. That dismemberer of the British empire and transferrer of the Ionian Islands is disgusted to see Asia Minor and Egypt practically added to the British empire and Austria utilised in the friendly of-

tice of • covering the back of England in the Levant.'

u It is an old established maxirn of state policy that l whoever can most readily injure you is your natural enemy, and whoever can most readily injure your natural enemy is your natural ally.' In the face of this Mr. Gladstone constitutes himself the foe of non-maritime and pacifie Austria in favor of maritime, ambitious and aggressive Russia !

" It is to be hoped there will be found wisdom enough in the English constituencies to quench this peripatetic firebrand and his party in the dead sea of électoral defeat and parliamentary condemnation. "

I hère append a few anecdotes, related of Mr. Willan, the scène of each of which

is laid in some one or other court of justice, where he has, in every quoted instance, appeared as counsel for the défendant.

On one occasion, while extollin^ the powers of a jury, in the hope of obtaining from those he addressed a verdict entirely at variance with the anticipated charge of the Court, Mr. Willan remarked that " even the Scripture favored that {.reat institution (meaning, trial by jury). The judge interrupted him, saying, " Mr. Willan, where does the Scripture even mention a jury ? He replied, " Your Honor has forgotten that the holy David has 1 said or sang/ * in J ewry is God known.5 ' A prisoner once stood at the bar on an indictment against four persons, including himself and one Peter Colliche. Mr. Willan,* defending the prisoner, moved

that the trial be postponed, on the ground of the absence of a material witness for the defence, by name Petre Colliche. The Crown resisted this, on the ground that the witness sought for was one of the three fugitives indicted with the solitary prisoner. The learned counsel replied, " Petre and Peter are not the same name nor are they even idem sonans ; moreover, one is properly a surname and the other is truly a Christian name, and the record, the highest of évidence and hère invincible, supports my application.'' The queen's counsel said " The learned gentleman knows very well they are the same person." The reply came, "The learned gentleman, as my learned friend is good enough to call him, is not on évidence. " The Court ruled for the motion.

At another time a witness appeared

against Mr. Willan's client, whose évidence was absolutely fatal, and there seemed to be no means of shaking it ; neither was anything known at the moment about the witness, who appeared to be a stranger ; when suddenly the prisoner's counsel, looking at the witness' head, said, " Where did you last get your hair eut ? " It turned out the last place that that act was performed was at the penitentiary. His cross-examiner had not known the man, but he knew "the crop" ; and his invectives, based on a conviction for felony, destroyed the witness' testimony and saved his client.

A Crown witness having been induced to make some admissions out of court fatal to his testimony and which he was resolved upon denying on oath, the subject of this sketch got the truth from him

by the following ruse. The court being very crowded and the witness a stranger to the locality, Mr. Willan suddenly raised his gown, so as to conceal two persons who happened to be in the crowd, and then, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, shouted out, " Dare you, in the présence of thèse men behind me, deny your own words of Wednesday last ? " The witness, believing that two listeners to his conversation were about to contradict him, made the admission sought for, but so reluctantly and ungraciously, that the learned counsel found no difficulty in destroying his évidence and clearing his own client.

Mr. Willan,s great knowledge of the technicalities of his profession and pleasure in using them are shown by the following instances of a mode of spécial

pleading which législation has made obsolète.

Two women were indicted for felony ; one of whom pleaded " guilty, " for the purpose of giving évidence against the other. Mr, Willan, then a very young lawyer, made interest with an old member of the Bar to get this woman brought up for judgment, and succeeded in that object. The trial of the principal criminal coming on immediately after, Mr. Willan rose as soon as "The Book" was tendered to the witness, saying, " You can't swear her : she stands attainted" This was ruled ; the Crown remaining without évidence, the défendant was necessarily acquitted.

On another occasion a prisoner stood indicted for stealing a box containing glass, of the value of seven shillings. By a very

courteous and insidious cross-examination, Mr. Willan led the witness to say the box was worth nothing ; and the acquittai of the prisoner was procured on the ground that there could be no larceny of that which was valueless : that the indictment was for stealing the box and the words "containing glass " were only a description of the box. It was held so, and the man acquitted. He was then re-indicted and brought to trial for stealing the glass. Mr. Willan pleaded " auteffois acquis" resisted évidence to prove the taking of the box, showed that there was but one asportation, if any, and procured a verdict for his client by direction of the Court.

One Brooks was on trial for having and holding burglarious instruments, and the jury found him guilty of being in pos-

session of the "prohibited articles at an unlawful hour of the night" Mr. Willan moved to stay judgment on the ground that the words amounted to an acquittai, as there was no " unlawful hour of the night " in Canada and the words " prohibited articles " could not be taken as the équivalent of " burglarious instruments." It was held so.

Mr. Willan's ready command of invective was instanced, amongst others, by the following : —

During the progress of a trial, a witness told Mr. Willan that he (witness) was " not the sort of man he took him for." u I see very well " said the learned barrister, " what sort of man you are; for you hâve the seven deadly sins on your countenance and the brand of Cain on your villainous brow."

u Only those of Aryan blood are to be admitted : no taint of Negro, Indian, Chinese or any other blood must be in the *would-be members," says a paper which I hâve before me entitled " Constitution and Preamble, Society of Aryan-America."

Persons acquainted with physical science, as the same paper rightly asserts?must know how much the blood of an inferior race mixed with that of a higher one reduces the fine standard of Aryan intelligence andlevels purity to mediocrity.

There is no doubt whatever in my mind, knowing as well as I do the gentleman of whom I am writinç, that his ancestors

left the eastern shores of the Atlantic for this continent resolved to maintain the above-mentioned purity in an orderly condition.

The only mixture of race in Mr. Willan, as I hâve stated in chapter I, is that of the Anglo-Saxon with the French ; and consequently he is gifted with something of the good, and I suppose has something ofthebad qualities of both the Anglo- Saxon and the French-Canadian.

For instance, he is, after the English manner, as curt and independent with those he is not well acquainted with or does not care for, as he is, after the French habit, polite and suave with the persons he knows well and has in regard.

To illustrate his naturally exemplifying a British trait of character the two following short narrations of him will assist : —

One day a very wealthy gentleman, fishing for cheap law, as wealthy men sometimes do, asked a question (involving the construction of a récent act of parliament) of our learned légal friend, and receiving for answer that " he had not read the act/' thought to achieve the object by friendly "chaff" and said,— " What, call yourself a lawyer and not read that !" He immediately got this answer : "If you were in the dock for felony, as I hâve seen better men, and I any way interested for the prosecution, I would precious soon let you know whetherl was a lawyer or not."

Mr. Willan, being seated apart, on a bench otherwise unoccupied, on board a steamboat, wrapped up in his own thoughts, was suddenly addresssd by a young Anglican divine with whom he had no previous acquaintance and who, coming

up to him, abruptly asked : " Are you

not with " (mentioning a well-known

Canadien publisher.) The answer was :

" No, Sir, and were it not for your unwarrantable intrusion I should be alone."

It is well known that the French are noted for momentary abstraction of mind, and in this respect my friend is as French as any man can be. To say that he lias been unable to recall, once out of every twenty visits he has had the kindness to pay me, where he had laid his hat, would be to say nothing very extraordinary, or is anything but what, from my acquaintance of him, I am not surprised at ; but to mention that one day he would forget where he had put his right shoe (he invariably doffed his outer pedal coverings when visiting), and the next he would forget where his left slipper

had been lying during the whole time of one of his interviews, and also puzzle as to whether his coat was to be buttoned in front or at the back : ail thèse are facts, — facts which, to use one of his technicaî expressions, " I would affirm on oath. "

One day that Molière found himself in danger of arriving late at the play, he hired a hackney coach for the purpose of expédition, but even then locomotion was not fast enough to his thinking. What did he do but jump out of the vehicle and commence to push behind. He was only brought to a sensé of his mental abstraction by the laughter of the driver, the jeers of the citizens and the disordered and miry state of his habiliments.

This is the only sort of abstraction that I think our barrister has not been guilty

of, and this simply because he has never been known to be in a hurry. No coachman was or is ever able to please him, and so he leaves a vehicle almost before he has entered it ; and chronicles say that he has never been seen driving but once, and that was on the occasion of the funeral of a debtor's near relative.

Speaking seriously, Mr. Willan is universally considered a great authority on the Common Law of England in criminal cases and, indeed, in criminal procédure generally, and is a great " stickler " for the generous and libéral maxims of old English jurisprudence which are rapidly going out of favor.

During the Irish famine of 1847 the subject of this memoir published an elaborate scheme of relief, by immigration

from the mother country and settlement in Canada, which attracted great and favorable attention from the London press and many of the leading men both of England and Ireland, with whom he corresponded on the subject. Every portion of this scheme has since then, at différent times and places, been put in successful opération.

More than a décade subsequently he made various suggestions for criminal law amendment, which now form portions of the Statute Law both of England and Canada. He also originated in court what is now a most important rule of practice in favor of destitute défendants. At the sarne time he opposed many changes which impairedthe characteristic "individualism" of English jurisprudence and, in référence to thèse, he gave the following account of

many changes in the ancient Anglo-Saxon aspect of that juridical System :

" When the Whigs came into office, after Russell's Reform bill, having been long out of office, they carried with them a host ôf declaimers privileged to wear gowns and hungry for places. It was necessary to feed them in the Department of Justice. It was impossible to raise the capacity of thèse gentlemen to the level of the law, therefore it was resolved upon to reduce the law to the level of their incapacity. Hence we hâve the thing called law reform. " Mr. Willan was described on that occasion by no friendly critic as " having said in three minutes what other men were three hours trying to say."

" Eakl. "