Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton

Henry Hawkins, 1st Baron Brampton PC, QC (14 September 1817 – 6 October 1907), known as Sir Henry Hawkins between 1876 and 1899, was an English judge. He served as a Judge of the High Court of Justice between 1876 and 1898.

Quotes

• I rejoice to think that since the days of Queen Elizabeth, our laws have been so far humanized that a bastard child is no longer a mere thing to be shunned by an overseer,—whose existence is unrecognised until it becomes a pauper, and whose only legitimate home is a workhouse, that it is no longer permissible to punish its unfortunate mother with hard labour for a year, nor its father with a whipping at the cart's tail; but that even an illegitimate child may find itself a member of some honest family, and that the sole obligation now cast upon its parents is that each may be compelled to bear his and her own fair share of the maintenance and education of the unfortunate offspring of their common failing.
  • Hardy v. Atherton (1881), L. R. 7 Q. B. 269.

• One cannot look too closely at and weigh in too golden scales the acts of men hot in their political excitement.
  • Ex parte Castioni (1890), 60 L. J. Rep. (N. S.) Mag. Cas. 33.

• No system of judicature can be suggested in which occasionally failure to insure complete justice may not arise.
  • The Queen v. Miles (1890), L. R. 24 Q. B. 433.

• Legality and oppression are not unknown to run hand in hand.
  • Roberts v. Jones; Willey v. Great Northern Railway Co. (1891), L. R. 2 Q. B. [1891], p. 203.

• Every man ought to have the fullest opportunity of establishing his innocence if he can.
  • Queen v. Dennis (1894), L. R. 2 Q. B. D. [1894], p. 480.