Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1879 — Cockburn on a Bust. [ARTICLE]

Cockburn on a Bust.

Sir Alexander Cockburn (pronounced Coburn) is Her Majesty’s Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s ßench, the highest court of the realm. He was one of the Geneva arbitrators on behalf of England on the Alabama claims, and is regarded as standing at the head of English jurists. But the labors of the lord Chief Justice are severe, and, like the smaller lords, and no lords, he needs rest occasionally, and so takes a vacation and a trip to the provinces, where "noble lords of high degree” arc not seen so often, and are not indigenous. On one of these trips, as related to me by a young barrister, accompanied by one or two boon companions. amid his relaxations he had regaled himself on beer so freely that he became "quite jolly.” He was at first very loquacious, then garrulous and funny, and finally, at the request of some of the company, he sang songs for their edification, and danced "a regular’ jig.” The performances went so far that, at length, without warrant from the court, the Lord Chief Justice of England was actually arrested and imprisoned—that is, taken by his friends and put to bed. The rather remarkable exhibition was, of course, "hushed up” as well as it could be, but is told as one of the odd things that will sometimes happen [London Letter.