114-NLR-NLR-V-18-Death-of-SIR-CHARLES-LAYARD-and-MR.-WALTER-PEREIRA.pdf
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Death of Sib Charles Layard and Mr. Walter Pereira.
June 10, 1915.
Present: Wood Benton C.J., Ennis J., Shaw J., andDe Sampayo A.J.
The Chief Justice in addressing the Attorney-General, said: Itseems, Mr. Attorney, to be only a few days since here in this Court wehad occasion to lament the loss of one distinguished member of thelegal profession, the late Solicitor-General, Mr. James van Langenberg.We are called upon this morning to refer to two other greatlawyers, Sir Charles Peter Layard and Mr. Justice Walter Pereira,and to deplore their loss. Before by own arrival in the ColonySir Charles Layard's great task of rolling away for ever from thegates of the Supreme Court the reproach of justice delayed hadbeen accomplished. But I had the pleasure and the honour ofworking along with him for the first six months of my servicehere, and had ample opportunity of learning to appreciate and toadmire his keen and certain insight into every legal problem thatcame before him, his high sense of duty, and the exalted standardto which his life in every respect conformed.
The name1 of Mr. Justice Walter Pereira is known and honoured,not only ih Ceylon, but also in the whole legal world. His monu-mental treatise on the laws of this country is the subject of constantreference in the Courts of the Island, and is the standard text bookon the subject in every part of the British Empire. He was. a
i (JWl% 16 N. L. J?. 71.
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Jurist as well as a Judge. But he was a great Judge too. There■ —*'is no need for me to say much with regard to his career among you.
£ike his distinguished brother, Mr. H. J. C. Pereira, he commencedhis* professional life as a Proctor. By sheer force of character andability he fought his way to the front rank of the Bar, to the Solicitor-Generalship, and to a Judgeship of the Supreme Court—of whichhe has for «11 to short a time been an ornament. There is onerespect, however, in which perhaps Mr. Justice Pereira's work hasnot received°all the public recognition that is its due. He was fullyin sympathy with the determination both of the Bench and of theBar that the tradition handed down to us by Sir Charles Layard -should be maintained, and that, without any sacrifice of care or ofthoroughness, we should dispense speedy justice still. It was largelyowing to the extraordinary combination of rapidity with accuracywhich his own judicial work disclosed that that end has beenattained. Perhaps I might mention that on the first day of hisillness, when I went to see him, his chief if not his sole anxiety wasa fear lest his own absence froin Court should cause inconvenienceto the Bench or to the Bar. It is the spirit in which such men asthose of whom I have been speaking have lived their official livesthat has made British justice what it is.
The Honourable the Attorney-General (Anton Bertram, K.C.), inreply, said: May it please Your Lordships, on behalf of the Barand the legal profession, I should like to say a few words to associateourselves with what has fallen from Your Lordship. Your Lordshiphas metioned two honoured names, one of them I might say moreespecially endeared to us owing to the fact that he was but recentlyone of us, a member of the Bar, and even on the Bench, still retainingthe consciousness of the fact that he was a member of the Bar aswell as of the Bench. Sir Charles Layard I never had the privilegeof knowing, but I know the high traditions that prevail here withregard to his eminent attainments. But Mr. Justice Walter Pereirawas my own colleague, and I worked with intimacy with him for aconsiderable time. I shall always cherish the rememberance of hisstrong and forcible personality, a personality which combined bothlearning and weight. He possessed in an extraordinary degree aresourcefulness, a fearlessness, and an inflexibility, which impressedafl those with whom he came in contact, whether at the Bar or on theBench. Whenever 1 have dealt with him, whether as a colleague, or inchambers, or in oourt, the impression which liis personality .made uponme might be well expressed in the words, par negotm.. One felt thatone was in the presence of a man who had attainments and characterwhich made him worthy of his high office. The eminent learningwith which he combined these qualities which ,1 have mentionedhas been referred to by Your Lordship. We all of us here join withYour Lordship in deploring the heavy loss sustained by the Bench.