LITERARY REGISTER SUPPLEMENT: 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES." 
[Under this heading, in future, we mean to give a four or eight page " Supplement " with our Tropic^ 
-Agriculturist, from qiiarter to quarter, according as there is matter of sufficient value, so to be preserved.] 
JUILiY, X900. 
A LEAF FROM THE PAST: 
A FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF CEYLON 
AND THE LORD CHANCELLOR OF 
ENGLAND ; ALSO A LOCAL 
KING'S ADVOCATE AND 
A HOME SECRETARY. 
A Gift to the Supreme Goitrt by the Lord 
Chancellor.— We are glad to learn that the 
Lord Chancellor has sent as a gift to the Supreme 
Court an oil-painting of his uncle Sir Hardinge 
GifFard, a former Procurator Fiscal (i. e. A.ttorney- 
General) and Chief Justice of Ceylon. It appears 
that Lord Halsbury in a conversation with the 
present Chief Justice v^heu in England expressed 
his wish to make a replica of an old family 
portrait and present it to the Supreme Court. 
The portrait has just arrived and will worthily 
adorn the walls of the Supreme Court. The 
thanks of the judges and the legal professioa are 
due to the Lord Chancellor for his graceful 
present.— Local '"Examiner." 
The ;ibove paragraph from our legal con- 
temporary corrects an error under which 
we and many in Ceylon have hitherto 
laboured. We had somehow got the impres- 
sion that Sir Hardinge Giffard, now Lord 
Halsbury, and for the third time Lord 
Chancellor of England, was boi'n in Colombo, 
and was the son of our former Chief Justice. 
But, though evidently named after the latter, 
he is only a nephew. " Who's Who " and 
"Men of the Time" agree that Lord Hals- 
bury. born in London, September, 1825, is the 
third son of the late Stanley Lees Giffard, 
Esq., LL. D., Barrister-at-Law. The founder 
pf the family was a certain Mr. John Giffard, 
who came into political prominence in Ire- 
land during the troublous closing years of 
the last century. In a well-known, amusing, 
but not over-reliable Irish Book of Memoirs, 
we are told a good deal about John Giffard's 
■climb into notice and a Government office, 
and how during the process, he came under 
the scathing sarcasm of Grattan. Of more 
immediate interest is it to learn that John 
Giffard's eldest son, Hardinge Giffard, and 
Mr. Croker of the Admiralty, married two 
sisters, ladies of Waterford ; and that Mr. 
Croker's good luck and great political in- 
fluence enabled him to help his brother-in- 
law, " who, having tried the Irish Bar in 
vain for several years, has neverthless be- 
come Chief .Justice of Ceylon." The writer 
does not make it very clear to wliich of 
the brothers Croker— both in the Admiralty — 
he refers ; but we suppose it must be " John 
Wilson," of the Quarterly, of whose writings 
Macaulay so often made mince meat. 
Returning to Hardinge Giffard, Barrister, 
we find that he came out to Ceylon not as 
Chief Justice, but as " King's Advocate- 
Fiscal " — an office afterwards designated 
" Queen's Advocate," and now known as 
" Attorney-General." E'rom 1811 to 1820, or 
1823, Giffard did duty in this post in Col- 
ombo and then he succeeded Sir Alexander 
Johnston, and as Sir Hardinge Giffard, 
KT., LL. D., served as Chief Justice up to 
1827, when he was succeeded by Sir Richard 
Ottley. Sir H. Giffard embarked for England 
on March 2nd, 1827 ; but he cannot have 
lived long ; lor in a return of retired Judges 
on pension made up in 1832, his name 
does not occur, though those of his two 
predecessors and successor are given : — 
Sir E. Carrington, Knight.— Chief Justice, four 
years nine months, retired 12th March 1806, 
pension £1,200 per annum. 
Sir A. Johnstone, Knight.— Chief Justice, 17 
years, retired 1st March 1819, pension £1,600 
per annum. 
Sir R. Ottley, Knight.— Chief Justice, 12 years 
nine months, retired 1st January 1832, pension 
£1,200 per annum. 
Harking back, we must notice that Sir H. 
Giffard was succeeded in 1820 (or 1823) by a 
notable man in Henry Matthews, author of 
"The Diary of an Invalid"— a well known 
book in those days— who continued as 
Advocate-Fiscal till 1827 when he was sworn in 
as Puisne Justice on the same day as Sir 
