up in a cry to heaven—or whatever Pankhurst put in its place—that their villainy might be punished. It was not, indeed, wholly without justification that some wild circuit rhymer wrote in Falkner Blair’s “Lament on Going to India”:
When I hear in the midst of the jungle O
The shriek of the wild cockatoo,
I shall jump out of bed in my bungalow
And imagine, dear Pankhurst, it’s you.
It is, of course, easy enough to make fun of a great man’s mannerisms, but Dr. Pankhurst, as a witty conversationalist, an eloquent speaker who could keep his subject well before a mixed audience on a high plane of thought, and a man of earnest convictions in moral and political affairs, was honestly admired by all who had the pleasure of his friendship. But it must be admitted that at the Bar he was not at his best. He could not readily sink to the mundane problems by solving which so many disputes are decided. I remember on a Local Government Board inquiry, presided over by Colonel Ducat, the engineer of the Board, I appeared for one district and Pankhurst for another. We were opposing inclusion into a larger district. Pankhurst, as senior, started the harangues by throwing up his arms and shouting out on a top note, “I am here to justify the opposition of the down-trodden minority of the Stand District. I say I am here to justify the opposition of the down-trodden minority of the Stand District.”
And justify it he did in passages of great eloquence,
close reasoning, and apposite quotation from history and literature, which were a pleasure and privilege to listent to. When it was all over, and his adherents’ applause had died away, Colonel Ducat looked up from his notes and said: “I’ve listened very carefully, Dr. Pankhurst, but I’m not clear even now whether you are in favour of the 12-inch drains or the 9-inch drains.”
I should like to have heard Pankhurst open M‘Lachlan’s case. Mr. Justice Hawkins listened to it for three days. At the end of that time figures were mentioned, and Hawkins got frightened, and promptly referred the matter. What a waste of time and money to have started it at all. It was a year afterwards, in the middle of the reference, that I found the case rolling heavily along, a mass of negatives and photography and correspondence and confusion. Pankhurst was unable to continue in the case, and they gave me a junior brief to Richard Smith. I never really understood what the quarrel was all about, but I do not think anyone else did, unless it was Smith, who made an excellent reply for the plaintiff.
I only remember one smile during the many weary hours we spent in those dingy chambers in Rolls Court. Sir William Agnew was being examined. He was always somewhat pompous and well-to-do in his manner, and Smith did his best to annoy him. A question arose as to the authenticity of a letter written by the plaintiff on Agnew’s Bond Street letter paper.