The Cork Examiner of 1 December 1909 records the following story of the Limerick Winter Assizes of 1788, featuring a leading 18th century Irish judge, Sir Robert Day:
“Quite a large number of young men were indicted for high treason and, as it was expected that the hearing of the charges would occupy a goodly space of time, Judge Day announced that the cases would be tried overnight so that he might be able to keep his time for opening the Commission in Tralee. The Bar protested earnestly and vehemently against this course, but the Judge would listen to no remonstrance. After quite a round of unheeded entreaties had been urged by the members of the Bar, a note was put into Judge Day’s hand by the court crier. The Judge read it, his features broke into a smile, and he suddenly declared, ‘he would go no further that night.’
The note contained the following lines, written by a member of the circuit named Casey:
‘Try men by night! My lord forbear –
Think what the wicked world will say
Methinks I hear the rogues declare
That Justice is not done by Day.’”
The same story, with appropriate variations, is also told about a later English judge of the same surname, who may well also have been a late sitter, but the Irish version is the earlier, and presumably the original.
One judge who was obviously not familiar with the story was Sir William Cusack-Smith, Baron of the Irish Exchequer in the early 19th century, a noted insomniac who kept late hours. Although some said he never went to bed at all, Cusack-Smith’s persistent morning lateness to court suggests he may instead have been one of those who nod off at the crack of dawn.
As a consequence of Cusack-Smith’s late night hours, his judicial superior Chief Baron O’Grady made a point of taking into his carriage a stuffed owl. When his friends rallied the Chief Baron on this curious eccentricity, he replied with tears in his voice: ‘Ah, why do you ridicule me for a little matter of sentiment? I bring this bird always about with me, it so reminds me of my Brother Smith.’
The joke went a little flat after the Armagh Assizes of 1834, when Sir William insisted on not only continuing, but actually commencing, successive criminal trials after midnight. This resulted in a subsequent motion by Daniel O’Connell to have him replaced – a motion which ultimately proved unsuccessful after the point was made that a member of the bench working too hard was a matter to be commended rather than censured.
There was no love lost between the O’Connell and Smith families, with O’Connell already having nicknamed Sir William’s barrister son Thomas Berry Cusack-Smith ‘Alphabet’ by reason of the multiplicity of his forenames. Like most such nicknames, it stuck, and the younger Cusack-Smith was ‘Alphabet’ to all thereafter.
In an ironic reversal of fate, Alphabet, by now Irish Attorney-General, was tasked with prosecuting O’Connell at the latter’s trial in 1844. Alphabet’s somewhat erratic behaviour during the trial was suggested to have been due to an acute bout of the indigestion from which he was known to suffer throughout his life.
Perhaps the elder Smith’s insomnia may also have stemmed from digestive issues?
Share this:
