after due consideration, carried out.

On January 29, 1852, after twenty-two years on the Bench, and at the
age of sixty-two, Mr. Justice Patteson wrote his letter of
resignation to Lord Truro, then Lord Chancellor, petitioning for the
usual pension. It was replied to in terms of warm and sincere
regret; and on the 2nd of February, Sir John Patteson was nominated
to the Privy Council, as a member of the Judicial Committee; where
the business was chiefly conducted in writing, and he could act with
comparatively little obstacle from his deafness.

On February 10, 1852, he took his leave of the Bar. The Court of
Queen's Bench was crowded with barristers, who rose while the
Attorney-General, Sir Alexander Cockburn, made an address expressive
of the universal heartfelt feeling of respect and admiration with
which the retiring Judge was regarded.

John Patteson's reply, read with a voice broken by emotion, is so
touching in its manly simplicity and humility that a paragraph or two
may well be quoted:--

'Mine,' he said, 'is one of the many instances which I know that a
public man without pre-eminent abilities, if he will but exert such
as it has pleased God to bestow on him honestly and industriously,
and without ostentation, is sure to receive public approbation fully
commensurate with, and generally much beyond, his real merits; and I
thank God if I shall be found not to have fallen entirely short in
the use of those talents which He has entrusted to me.' Then, after
some words on the misfortune that necessitated his withdrawal, he
continued, 'I am aware that on some, and I fear too many, occasions I