<SAD FATE. The irony of fate is revealed in the inquest on Mr. Henry Roome. One of the ablest men at the Bar with a distinguished record and career still full of promise has fallen a victim to a burst tyre. It is one of those incidents that reminds us how narrow is the boundary line between life here and eternity. Mr. Roome was associated with most of the big cases in the criminal courts of recent years. His colleagues bear testimony to his wonderful faculty for mastering detail and reducing it to plain issues. His placid appearance and his well earned reputation for charming courtesy were a living contradiction to the old time picture so often drawn in fiction of the frowning, overbearing and loud "Old Bailey" lawyer. Like the spirit of justice which he represented it was Mr. Roome’s part to investigate and reveal facts impartially to the end that right might be done between man and man.

<A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned at an inquest at Retford recently on Mr. Henry Delacombe Roome (48), of Grovelands, Weybridge, the senior Treasury counsel, who died in Retford Hospital on Sunday following a motor smash when on a Whitsuntide holiday tour. His wife was seriously injured.

Mr. Tom Hawkins, of 27, Haigh Terrace, Hemsworth, near Pontefract, said that last Friday he saw a motor-car proceeding towards East Markham. It was swerving, and eventually turned a somersault. He ran to the car and found it was upside down. Mr. and Mrs. Roome had been thrown out of the car, and were lying about two feet apart a yard from the car. The rear wheel was broken and a tyre was flat. He thought it was a tyre accident.