Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 155

Transcript

Mr Henry Barnes Gresson, who had been an attorney in Ireland, arrived here about 1856, and commenced practice. In ’58 I think, he was made Judge of the Supreme Court, being the first Judge appointed specially for the Canterbury and Otago portion of the South Island. Mr Gresson was then a middle aged man, with a precise, exacting sort of face, posed as being a very religious man and a stickler for the highest morality and unblemished conduct. His example unfortunately did not carry weight, even with his nearest connexions. He was not looked upon as a master hand at law, nor as one of great intellect. Intense respectability was his forte. His remarks from the “Throne of Justice” were sometimes cruelly severe, and no allowance seemed to be made by him for erring man, aye, even for erring youth. He passed some very severe sentences on unfortunate young men, not seeming to think that he was perhaps doing what, by its severity, would blast their lives for ever. But he could be lenient on occasions. How little he foresaw how some of his epithets and scorn might in later years be applied and his own name be byword for fraud.