at
would have been adopted by a discreet and really able man. Such a man
would have made due allowance for jealousies which, under the
circumstances, were almost inevitable. Such a man would have adopted a
policy of friendly conciliation. Such a man would have refrained from
making himself specially conspicuous, at least until he had been some
time settled in his new career, and had become accustomed to the novel
atmosphere. Judge Willis's conduct was the very reverse of all this. In
his intercourse with his brother judges--one of whom, it must be
remembered, was Chief Justice--he adopted a tone of superiority, and
even, to some extent, of dictation. He was of course not to be blamed
for dissenting from their opinions--which he very frequently
did--provided that he was honest in his dissent; but he acted very
cavalierly on such occasions, and in pronouncing his own judgments
seldom thought it necessary to make any reference to the decisions of
his brethren on the bench. It was impossible for the latter to ignore
the fact that he despised, or affected to despise their legal
attainments; and their recognition of this necessarily gave rise to
irritation and anger on their part. They felt his conduct to be all the
more disrespectful to them in consequence of his admitted want of
familiarity with Common Law, his own reading and practice having been
almost exclusively confined to the Equity branch of the profession.

In the very first judgment ever rendered by him, he gave utterance to
sentiments which, to put the matter mildly, were very much out of place.
The case was one brought by George Rolph, of Dundas, against T. G.
Simons and others, for a gross outrage which had been perpetrated on the
plaintiff, who was a brother of the Attorney-General's great political
rival. The outrage had arisen out of private complications, and no
political question arose in the course of the trial. In concluding his
judgment Mr. Willis took occasion to remark that he had formed his
opinion of the case on its intrinsic merits, unbiased by any political
considerations. He added that he was totally devoid of party feelings,
and that it would ever be his most earnest desire to render to every one
impartial justice. It goes without saying that these are very proper
sentiments on the part of an occupant of the judicial bench. Such
principles were especially required in Upper Canada, where there had
long been much judicial partiality and frequent mi