482 Sketch from the Irish Bench. ( Nov. 
government, as different from the rest of the empixe.as if, it;were,a, por- 
tion of the Chinese instead of the British monarchy.  Without,a resident 
government (for |the main spring of its polities lies in, Downing-street), 
without a/national legislature, its nobles absentees, its press a Nonentity, 
Ireland possesses in the bar alone a public body endowed with activity, 
character, and influence, and. possessing a sphere, of ,action sufficient, to 
fix the attention of the philosopher or. the, politician... The,bar.of 
Ireland, with its three hundred crown appointments, ,predominates,over 
all other classes and predicaments of the nation. It furnishes. the 
largest contingent to metropolitan society, and it opens almost, the, only 
arena upon which talent and industry can struggle with any hope of 
success for honours or emoluments. The administration of the laws 
indeed forms, in all countries, a very important item of their civil history; 
but in a country divided by factions, as Ireland is, it is almost the alpha 
and the omega. The appointment or the destitution of an attorney- 
general suffices to change the colour of events; and a knowledge of the 
going judge of assize goes a long way in predetermining the success 
not only of a state prosecution, but of a civil action. Of the bar, the 
bench is an important appendix ; and the honours and emoluments of 
the ermine being the great objects of legal ambition, and the rewards of 
professional eminence (however acquired), the history of those who are 
clothed in its comfortable drapery should by no means be overlooked. 
Upon the purity, the decorum, and the dignity of the bench depend, 
by the closest connexion, the due administration of public justice, the 
popular respect for the laws, the tranquillity of the country, and the 
prosperity of the entire population: nor can a better proof be afforded 
of the amended spirit of the times, and of a commencing return to 
sounder principles of government, than in the respectability of the more 
recently appointed judges, and in the departure from practices which 
made the benches of the Irish House of Commons the ladder,to the 
highest judicial appointments, 
Among the distinguished personages who. at present (preside in‘the 
tribunals of Ireland, there is no one more deserving of especial notice 
than the chief justice of the court of Common Pleas. . Whether we. con- 
sider the steps by which he arrived at the eminent station, he holds, his 
age, his personal qualifications for office, or the mode.in which he bas 
discharged his duties, Lord Norbury deservedly takes precedence of his 
yoke-fellows in dignity, in the rolls of illustrative biography. Satisfied, 
however, as we are, of the propriety of selecting his lordship as a “ theme 
of honour and renown,” we are by no means so sure of the tone to be 
observed in the progress of narration. Tragedy, comedy, and farce (as 
H. Tooke has it, in his reply to Junius) are so evenly mixed. in the 
materials of his story, that it is eminently difficult to decide which shall 
prevail; and, manage the matter as we may, we must still set,the 
unities at defiance, and remain contented with producing, such a serio- 
comical, melo-dramatical performance, as accords equally ill .with \the 
canons of theatric and of political criticism. |We-would.willingly,pre- 
serve that elevated style which belongs to the dignity of our callmg,— 
and there are circumstances to be glanced at, to which no seriousness,and 
severity could do justice ; but, by some means or other it occurs, that in 
revolying the epochs of his lordship’s career; Punch is eternally peeping 
over the shoulders of Melpomene ; and with every predisposition. to Jash 
ourselves to the true “ Cambyses vein,” we find it difficult.to attain.to 
