Some nineteenth century Scotsmen : being personal recollections / by William Knight.

  • William Angus Knight
Date:
1903 [1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some nineteenth century Scotsmen : being personal recollections / by William Knight. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    best cross-examiner of his day—acute, rapid, tena¬ cious, full of verve, without elan. He had a re¬ markable memory, which retained more varied stories than that of any notable lawyer of our time. Lord Neaves perhaps came next to him in power of memory. He commanded the confidence of agents, in a very high degree ; and they, for their part, found him a most “ satisfactory ” counsel. No adjective could be more complimentary. Not being a master of sham-pathos, he was perhaps less suc¬ cessful in the defence of criminals than in other departments. Nevertheless he was an admirable counsel with a jury. When raised to the Bench, he at first scarcely re¬ alised the high expectations which were formed of him ; but, from the very beginning his opinions were recog¬ nised as having high authority, and as being entitled to the greatest consideration, just as the opinions of Lord Corehouse and Lord Fullerton in an earlier generation carried, and have continued to carry peculiar weight. The truth is that his “ full-dress ” opinions, both in the Outer House and in the Division, are models of what a judicial exposition of the law ought to be. No better examples of Lord Rutherfurd Clark at his best could be found than his opinions in the cases of the National Bank v. the Union Bank, [13 R. 380 ;] Sandeman v. Scottish Property, &c., Building Society, [10 R. 614;] and Cassels v. Lamb, [12 R. 722.] For lucidity and compression they are un¬ rivalled. The scheme of their arrangement is beyond
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