Each day other courageous and learned men are juxtaposed before the hallowed bench in strained muscle and tone to achieve the lofty purpose. Behind the bench, presiding stately, with nothing but a small hammer to quell an unruly passage, sits that supra-being-yet-mortal who passes fair judgment on the events in his court below.

These our judges are guided by a great tradition, its precedents lighting them through the dark and difficult passages of the civil and criminal law. Their great trust and duty is to ferret out the truth of the matters before them. The truth, the truth, the truth, that is the whole business of the judge. It leads to the light of justice, where all men are deemed equal.

All seek to hear from him the truth he has found. All believe that his devotion to that great ideal is profound and sincere. None dare to question his devotion and commitment to the great cause of justice. The Commonwealth is united in its determination that the truth will be put forward before the judge, and that he will recognise it, and that he will find in fairness and justice on the matters before him.

It is tacitly accepted that he is indeed human, that he may err. But it is not accepted that he would lie. The judge must not be seen to lie. He must not lie in the acts he performs, and he must not lie in the facts of his personal activities outside his court.

But sometimes the judge does lie. Sometimes, like a schoolboy caught, he lies in order to avoid known consequences. And like a schoolboy, he soon learns that the truth is a better course than the lie. For the consequences of the truth are always less that the consequences of the lie.

If the judge lies, and knows that he lies, he is a liar. A judge who knows he is a liar is anathema to the state. When the people see that he is a liar, and they know that he knows also, then all the tradition, all the sanctity, all the proud history is made mockery, and the longer the affront is held before the public eye, the more the pain for all.

When the judge lies, and the lie is exposed, many will run to cloak him, and to excuse him, and to plead for his weakness, and to note the damage his removal will do to the country. It is wrong to mask a lie. Better to acknowledge the gown is rent, to suffer the dishonour and disgrace, and to retire that others may restore the tattered garment of the court.