218 Annual Report of the Council. 



" In the early days of a new country, it is of the utmost 

 importance that the foundations of her chief corner stones 

 should be well and truly laid : it is of the last importance 

 that her fountain of justice should be a fountain pure and 

 undefiled. If laborious investigation, patient research, 

 sterling integrity, and untiring industry, together with a 

 long acquaintance with and a good knowledge of law, are 

 recommendations in a Judge, we may indeed congratulate 

 ourselves that, all these excellencies being found in Sir 

 James Cockle, we have had in him the benefit of them all." 

 " If all have not been satisfied with the judgments given all 

 have been satisfied with the perfect integrity of the Judge." 

 " While the professional character of a Judge stands high, 

 it is greatly to be desired that his private character should 

 rank equally high, and happily indeed for Queensland we 

 know, from observing the career of Sir James Cockle for 

 fifteen years, that his private character stands so high that 

 no breath of scandal — in which all small communities are 

 so prolific — has ever sullied his fair fame." " To say that 

 we wish Sir James Cockle a pleasant passage to England 

 sounds a very poor wish. We wish him — in the best interests 

 of the colony, whose law courts he has presided over so ably 

 and so long — we wish him a speedy return. As an able 

 lawyer, a humane and earnest judge, a distinguished man of 

 science, a brilliant scholar, and a warm-hearted, genial, 

 hospitable friend, we are sorry to lose him even for a time. 

 However short the time may be during which he will be 

 absent, we know we shall miss him. We can only assure 

 him that all classes of our community are sorry for the 

 departure, even for a little time, of the excellent Chief 

 Justice who has so faithfully administered the law of the 

 land as largely to make Queensland what it is to-day — the 

 land of the law." {Brisbane Courier, Wednesday, June 26th, 

 1878.) 



Nearly seventeen years have elapsed since these words 

 were written, and Queensland still remembers with grateful 

 feeling her first Chief Justice. When the news of Sir 



