Bar, lasting 188 days, of which his
summing-up occupied eighteen.

The greatest public occasion on which Sir Alexander Cockburn acted,
outside his usual judicial functions, was that of the "Alabama"
arbitration, held at Geneva in 1872, in which he represented the British
government, and dissented from the view taken by the majority of the
arbitrators, without being able to convince them. He prepared, with Mr
C. F. Adams, the representative of the United States, the English
translation of the award of the arbitrators, and published his reasons
for dissenting in a vigorously worded document which did not meet with
universal commendation. He admitted in substance the liability of
England for the acts of the "Alabama," but not on the grounds on which
the decision of the majority was based, and he held England not liable
in respect of the "Florida" and the "Shenandoah."

In personal appearance Sir Alexander Cockburn was of small stature, but
great dignity of deportment. He was fond of yachting and of sport, and
was engaged in writing a series of articles on the "History of the Chase
in the Nineteenth Century" at the time of his death. He was fond, too,
of society, and was also throughout his life addicted to frivolities not
altogether consistent with advancement in a learned profession, or with
the positions of dignity which he successively occupied. At the same
time he had a high sense of what was due to and expected from his
profession; and his utterance upon the limitations of advocacy, in his
speech at the banquet given in the Middle Temple Hall to M. Berryer, the
celebrated French advocate, may be called the classical authority on the
subject. Lord Brougham, replying for the guests other than Berryer, had
spoken of "the first great duty of an advocate to reckon everything
subordinate to the interests of his client." The lord chief justice,
replying to the toast of "the judges of England," dissented from this
sweeping statement, saying, amid loud cheers from a distinguished
assembly of lawyers, "The arms which an advocate wields he ought to use
as a warrior, not as an assassin. He ought to uphold the interests of
his clients _per fas_, not _per nefas_. He ought to know how to
reconcile the interests of his clients with the eternal interests of
truth and justice" (_The Times_, 9th of November 1864). Sir Alexander
Cockburn was never married, and the baronetcy became extinct at his
death.

AUTHORITIES.--_The Times_, 22