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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 12. September 20, 1951
Persia—Painting—Peace Housing and the Lords
Persia—Painting—Peace Housing and the Lords
Member of the Judiciary, of the Legislature and of the executive, hence a complete anachronism, like the duck-billed platypus, quite an historical mammal—thus the Right Honourable Viscount Jowitt of Stevenage, Lord High Chancellor of England, described himself at the beginning of an informal Press conference at which the writer was privileged to be present. So it was that "Jowitt, L.C.," so familiar to law students, immediately stepped out of the pages of the Law Reports and became Lord Jowitt the man—matter of fact, drily humorous, exceedingly intelligent, uncannily perspicacious, not condescending or domineering but polite and quiet, and withal tall, imposing and handsome, with a cultured but unaffected English manner of speech.
His Lordship first made brief reference to the origin of his office—the keeper of the King's conscience—and to his multifarious duties and powers of presiding over the House of Lords, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Court of Appeal, of making appointments to the County Courts and King's Bench and to the many ecclesiastical livings under his patronage. The keeper of the King's conscience was originally always a clergyman and was in fact the King's confessor. Nowadays such was not the case, and he found the task of keeping the King's conscience often a good deal easier than keeping his own. People have remarked, he said, that if by any misfortune His Majesty were to die and Princess Elizabeth to ascend the throne, then surely the Chancellor would not be expected to keep her conscience! Smiling from a comfortable chair and addressing his questioners as "my dear boy," or "my dear friend," he then proceeded to answer our queries in a clear, laconic and thoughtful manner.