Of such was Tom Jones, who startled Mr. Justice Byles into indignant attention by opening his case with bold impertinence: “No one, my lords, who looks at this case with common fairness and honesty, can hesitate for a moment in declaring that there ought to be a new trial.”
Byles observed, “This is rather strong language to use to us, Mr. Jones. I hope you think that we, at the least, are commonly fair and honest.”
“We shall see, my lord,” said Tom; “we shall see.”
Serjeant Robinson tells us a further good story of Tom’s refusal to be hustled by the Bench.
“Our friend Tom Jones,” he writes, “was a little lengthy sometimes in the exposition of his client’s rights, and one day the chief baron said to him, ‘Mr. Jones, this case has occupied a great deal of time, and we have a very long list of cases to get through.’
“‘My lord,’ said Tom, ‘I have carefully looked through that list, and I did not find there was a single cause in which I or my client was in the slightest degree interested.’”
But these sallies should never degenerate into mere incivility or abuse, in which there is little real courage, since a judge of sense will always refrain, if it be at all possible, from reply to such attacks, which only injure the reputation of the Bar and destroy the reputation of the advocate.
In the early days of American Sessions a certain judge was violently attacked by a young and very impudent attorney. To the manifest surprise of everybody present, the judge heard him quite through as though unconscious of what was said, and made no reply. After the adjournment of the day, and all had assembled at the inn where the judge and many of the attorneys had their lodgings, one of the company, referring to the scene in court, asked the judge why he did not rebuke the impertinent fellow.
“Permit me,” said the judge, loud enough to call the attention of all the company, among whom was the fellow in question—“permit me to tell you a story. My father, when we lived down in the country, had a dog—a mere puppy, I may say. Well, this puppy would go out every moonlight night and bark at the moon for hours together.” Here the judge paused, as if he had done with his story.
“Well, what of it?” exclaimed half-a-dozen of the audience at once.