Word: sankey
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...oblong, dimly Gothic House of Lords, a furious drama unrolled between two Empire characters each fit to be popped straight into Gilbert & Sullivan. One was the Lord Chief Justice of England, tiny, rolypoly Baron Hewart. The other was the Lord High Chancellor, tall, severe, ascetic Viscount Sankey. Distinctly Gilbertian. with exactly the right lilt, is Lord Sankey's famed remark: "My first brief fetched two guineas-but afterward, roses, roses all the way!" Not since Sullivan set tunes to Trial by Jury has Justice provided a more diverting tale than that told on himself by Lord Sankey...
Going on was an attempt by Lord High Chancellor Sankey to ease through Parliament a seemingly innocuous bill creating two new Lord Justices and empowering Viscount Sankey to name the presidents of the two Appeals Courts. Stormed Baron Hewart: '"Such an office is unknown to the Constitution and the law! If the odious features of the bill before this House are not removed, I will adjourn my court every afternoon and come here to fight them-not clause by clause but line by line and word by word!" In effect the Lord Chief Justice thus threatened...
...came to me in a state of agitation. He told me he had been informed by the Master of the Rolls that he was not to preside in Appeal Court No. 2 and that, lest he should preside, the composition of both appeal courts would be varied [by the Sankey bill] contrary to the practice of the last 60 years...
This time it was fat Baron Hewart who wore a contemptuous, judicial smile, while lean Viscount Sankey, in defending the Government against charges of attempting to rig Justice, shouted, "Moonshine! Moonshine!! MOONSHINE...
This would fix up Hewart's friend Slesser, and Hewart showed by his expression that he would assent. Sankey, in vast relief, snatched off his full wig, wiped his perspiring brow and exclaimed : "Lord Reading's suggestion saves everybody's face...