There are three aspects of Sir Charles Darling: Those of scholar, judge and mam of letters, any one of which would in itself be sufficient to mark him with greatness. But it is Darling's setting in wig and robes that has made the-widest appeal to us. In the very first cases which he tried, he showed his extraordinary insight into the ways and minds of men,—an insight which, aided by years of judicial experience, made him a master in the trial of human issnes_ and was never known to fail. From the moment when he came on to the Bench, either at the Old Bailey or in some gloomy Assize Court, he had the effect of quickening an atmosphere always and essentially cold and heavy for he brought with him a keen and brilliant humour backed by an acute knowledge of men and things and aided by a vast store, of reading.
The bons mots of Darling are too widely known to need repetition here but this humourous comment may be mentioned: The Judge was trying a case some Years ago in which the Trocadero Restaurant was involved. During the course of the hearing, he took occasion to remark that he had hitherto understood that the Trocadero was a place where lions were fed by Christians but that he mow gathered from counsel that it was really a place where Christians were fed by Lyons. This humour was extracted from' wherever it lay, whether from witnesses, counsel or his brethren': on the Bench. One one occasion, shortly after Mr. Justice Serutton
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.