His
further elevation happened in this way: Sir Robert Collier was
Attorney-General, and it was desired to give him a high appointment
which at that moment was vacant, and could only be filled by a Judge
of the High Court. Collier was not a Judge, and therefore was not
eligible for the post. The question was how to make him eligible.
The Prime Minister of the day was not to be baffled by a mere
technicality, and he could soon make the Attorney-General a Judge of
the High Court if that was a condition precedent.
There was immediately a vacancy on the Bench; Collier was appointed to
the judgeship, and in three days had acquired all the experience
that the Act of Parliament anticipated as necessary for the higher
appointment in the Privy Council.
Instead of leading, therefore, in the case before Chief Justice
Bovill, I had to perform whatever duties Coleridge assigned to me. My
commanding position was gone, and it was no longer presumable that I
should be entrusted with the cross-examination of the plaintiff. I was
bound to obey orders and cross-examine whomsoever I was allowed to.
[The one thing Mr. Hawkins was retained for was the cross-examination
of the plaintiff. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn said, "I would have
given a thousand pounds to cross-examine him." It would have been an
excellent investment of the Tichborne family to have given Hawkins ten
thousand pounds to do so, for I am sure there would have been an end
of the case as soon as he got to Wapping.
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