XXXI 



"named" Cockle for the post "on account of the estimation and 

 regard in which he was held by the good men on his circuit." 



Cockle commenced his judicial labours amid difficulties not of his 

 own creating, for they had arisen before his arrival in the Colony, 

 and were in no way connected with any action of his, but by courtesy, 

 tact, and decision, he speedily overcame them, and his subsequent 

 course was comparatively smooth. Eor fifteen years he presided 

 over the Supreme Court of Queensland, and throughout the whole 

 period he enjoyed the respect and confidence alike of his colleagues 

 on the Bench, the members of the Bar, and the community in 

 general. 



Chief Justice Erie, who watched his Australian career from the 

 beginning to the end with interest and satisfaction, often testified 

 to the excellence of his judicial administration. "With regard to 

 the duties of his office," he wrote to the Duke of Buckingham and 

 Chandos when Cockle had been for some years at work in Queens- 

 land, " I am confident that he has done ' what to justice appertains 

 according to law ' with zeal and ability, setting a good example of 

 the dignity and motives w r hich become the office. But, besides the 

 work included in his judicial contract, he has been indefatigable as 

 a legislator, systematising the law there, and bringing it up to the 

 best improvements here." In this letter Erie enumerates some 

 thirty statutes consolidated mainly by Sir James Cockle, and points 

 to his endeavours to diffuse the culture which, as a Trinity (Cam- 

 bridge) man, strong in mathematics, he " imported " with him, and 

 had " imparted in lectures and publications." " He set out in 

 troubled waters — from the clash of legislative and judicial powers — 

 which were soon calmed by hi3 discretion. I have had much know- 

 ledge of judicial men, and I am sure the Queen has never had a 

 servant who more thoroughly earned every farthing of the wages he. 

 hoped to receive." 



Equally emphatic testimony was given by men on the spot who had 

 been long and intimately associated with Cockle in his judicial ad- 

 ministration. When he was about to return to England, and before 

 it was known that he intended to resign his official connexion with 

 the Colony, the journalists of Queensland testified in warm terms to 

 the general appreciation of his public services and private worth, and 

 expressed the hope that his absence would be but of brief duration. 

 And although seventeen years have since elapsed, Queensland still 

 remembers with grateful feeling her first Chief Justice. When the 

 news of his death was cabled out to the colony, the daily papers gave 

 immediate expression to the public sense of loss. The occasion served 

 to revive old memories : the Judge, his dignified and courteous bear- 

 ing, his unwearied labours, the fidelity with which he dispensed 

 justice according to law, his varied services to Queensland, the pro- 



