DEATHS OF EMINENT MEN.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 6 December 1880, Page 2

DEATHS OF EMINENT MEN.

LORD COCKBUEN.

The following is the recount which Men of the Time gives of this distinguished Judge, whose decease has just been announced by cablegram : —

The Bight Hon, Sir Alexander James Edmund Coekburn, Bart,, was bora in 1802. He is the son of Mr Alexander Cockburn, fbrmely English minister in Columbia. He succeeded, in 1858 to the baronetcy of bis uncle, the late Key. Sir William Coekburn, Bart,, dean of York. Having been educated at trinity Hal|, Cambridge, where he graduated L L.B. in 1829, Mr Cockburn was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, and went to the West* ecn cirouiji. The talents of the young barrister sooi, marked him out its a man likely to rise in his profession la 1841 he became a Queen's Couusel, and during the railway mania of 1846 he had the good fortune to obtain a large share of the Parliamentary practice which arose out of the specuU ations then afloat; Mr Cockburu had loug.takeu v keen interest in polilices, Mn^ afc-ibe general eleelion of 1847 he wras returned to the House ol Commons by tb 6 electors of Southampton in the advanced Liberal interest. His speeches in Parliament did not excite much ;ihtetest, until his memorable defence of Lord Pahnestorn'a foreign policy, on. the last night of the Pacific debute in 1812, gave the House of Commons and the country an idea of Me Coekburn's energy, intellect, and eloquence. On that occasion he fairly won his spurs and was soon afece appointed Solieitor*General, From that post be was promoted to be AttoraeyGeneral in March, 1851, and continued to hold the latter office till the dissolution of Lord John Eussell's Ministry in the spring of 1852, On the formation of the coalitiou Cabienfc, he resumed his post as Attor 1 ey-General, and was, in 1851 appointed Recorder of ltristol. Whilst Attorney -General he wasengagedju the ' Hopwood case,' and won a verdict for bis client in opposition to the bige3fc aristocratic influence of the county of Lancoster. aud he displayed consummate ability in the prosecution of W^" Palmer. On the death of Chief Jaccice Jervisi, at Ihe.elqsc of 1856, Sir Alexander Cock* barn was created Chief Justice of the Cemtnon Pleas. He was advgnced to high office of Chief Justice af Eogland on the late Lord Campbell's elevation to the woolsack in 1859.