James Liddell Purves QC (23 August 1843 – 24 November 1910) was an Australian barrister, politician. and a Chief President of the Australian Natives' Association. Background James Liddell Purves was born in Swanston Street, Melbourne, on 23 August 1843, the eldest son of James Purves and his wife Caroline. His father became a prosperous importer, race-horse-breeder and station-owner, and he gave his son the best possible education – in Melbourne, then in Germany and Belgium and at King's College London. After matriculating in 1861 Purves initially travelled in Europe before initially entering Trinity College, Cambridge with medicine in mind. He quickly changed to study law at Lincoln's Inn, London. He travelled widely on the Continent and at times supported himself by writing for London journals. The Law In 1865 he was called to the English Bar and in 1866 on his return to Melbourne he was admitted to the Victorian Bar. Purves' biographer notes that 'this varied education produced quick intelligence, a fluent and often brilliant tongue, and great charm'. She also notes that 'his influence of colonial opinion and practice [was] based less on intellect than on personality and style'. Within the legal profession Purves showed a flair for spectacular cases that were widely reported in the press. By the 1880s he was briefed to appear in almost every important jury case, and was retained as standing counsel by a large number of public and private institutions, including the Victorian railways. In 1886 he was appointed Q.C. and acknowledged as a leader of the Victorian bar. His success depended less on abstract legalities than on a ready grasp of technical skills and an ability to easily make disputed points clear to a jury. His significant contribution to forensic law in Victoria was the development of a new style of cross-examination, a persistent and focussed questioning by which a defensive witness could be led to trip up and prejudice his own case. In the early 1890s Purves successfully defended the Age in two libel cases, of which the most famous and politically significant, Speight v. Syme, carried a great load of involved technical evidence; its hearing took 98 days and a subsequent appeal of 86 days was also lost. Purves was President of the Victorian Bar from 1900 to 1903. Writing Purves published his diary of the trip to London in 1856 as A Young Australian's Log and contributed to