scarriages of justice
by reason of political differences. But a judge should at least assume
that his integrity is taken for granted, and should deem it beneath his
dignity to attempt any vindication of his rectitude while an occupant of
the bench. Moreover, there were no circumstances to call forth such
expressions as were used by Judge Willis. No hint of any partiality had
ever been heard against him. There had been no opportunity for any
display of partiality by him, for he then took his seat on the bench for
the first time. Saith the proverb: "He who makes unnecessary excuses
accuses himself." In this case the Judge certainly indulged in wholly
unnecessary self-vindication. And there were reasons why any such
vindication by him was especially indelicate. The Radical newspapers had
heralded his arrival as the dawn of a new era, when judicial corruption
would cease in the land. It is pretty evident that he had been flattered
by the eulogy, and that he now went out of his way to administer a
covert reproof to his colleagues on the bench. His remarks were
undoubtedly taken in that sense, and tacitly resented by them. It may
have been that they were all the more ready to take the remarks as
applying to themselves from their consciousness of past shortcomings;
but it was not from a brother on the bench--one, too, who had been only
a few weeks in the country--that they should have been subjected to
reproof.

To the feelings of his colleagues, however, Mr. Willis paid little
consideration. His heart was specially set upon the establishment of a
court of equitable jurisdiction, and to this end he bent much of his
energy. He forced the matter upon the attention of the Attorney-General,
who, he found, differed from him in respect of certain important
details. He also prepared and submitted a scheme to the
Lieutenant-Governor. He found great difficulty in inducing any member of
the Government to discuss the matter with him. He was informed that an
Act of the Provincial Legislature was considered necessary to the
creation of such a court as the one contemplated by him. In this opinion
he did not coincide, but by way of expediting matters he bestirred
himself with a view to bringing about the necessary legislation. After a
Bill, originally prepared by his own hand, had been introduced into the
Assembly, he attended to hear the debates, and fraternized with Rolph,
Bidwell, and other members of the Opposition--a circumstance which