XXX] 11 



Cockle as the first Chief Justice of Queensland, was one of some 

 difficulty. He was appointed over the head of Mr. Justice Lutwyche, 

 an able and experienced lawyer, who had previously been the sole 

 Judge of the Court, and who continued to receive for several years 

 a considerably larger salary than the new Chief Justice. No signs 

 of any friction between them, if any existed, were, however, allowed 

 to become manifest to the public. The condition of the Bar, at 

 first extremely small in numbers, and of the colony, which had been 

 constituted at the end of 1859, and was very rapidly increasing in 

 population and wealth, combined to render the office of the President 

 of the Supreme Court one of special importance, it falling to his lot 

 to a great extent to form, by precept and example, what were to be 

 the future traditions of the Court, and to earn for the Bench that 

 respect which, although generally associated by Englishmen with the 

 administration of justice, was in the first instance acquired, and can 

 only be maintained, by the personal qualities of the Judges. In this 

 task Sir James Cockle was eminently successful. He earned and 

 enjoyed the most profound personal respect. Implicit confidence 

 was felt in his -intense desire to administer justice with absolute 

 impartiality. 



" His courtesy and kindness to the profession, especially to the 

 junior members, who were without the advantage of training in 

 English Courts, were admirable, as was, on the occasion of his death, 

 pointed out by two of them who now occupy seats on the Supreme 

 Court Bench. 



" His habit of accurate thinking was impressed upon his judg- 

 ment, which erred, if at all, in being perhaps too laconic, just suffi- 

 cient words being used to convey to a reasoning mind the logical 

 conclusion from the premises. When sitting with juries, on the other 

 hand, it was sometimes complained of him that it was impossible 

 even to conjecture, from any indication of the inclination of his own 

 mind, on which side he thought the balance of probability lay, so 

 careful was he to avoid the appearance of partiality. 



" Essentially of a shy and retiring disposition, and perhaps diffi- 

 dent of his own ability, he took little part in public affairs, except for 

 a time as Chairman of Trustees of the Brisbane Grammar School. 

 But this very aloofness was, probably, in the special circumstances 

 of the colony an advantage, in that it prevented any imputation, 

 always difficult to avoid in a small community, of undue friendship 

 between judges and suitors. Of his ability as a sound and able 

 lawyer no doubt has ever been felt, and the still more important work 

 already referred to, of giving an initial direction to the administra- 

 tion of justice in Queensland, and establishing a lofty standard of 

 duty in the Courts, could not have been in better hands." 



It was, however, as a mathematician, and not as a judge, that Sir 



vol. wx. e 



