Richard Birnie (barrister)

He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1830, and MA in 1837.

After practising in the Central Criminal Court Mr. Birnie was appointed by the Duke of Newcastle to be Advocate-General of Western Australia, in which colony he arrived in January 1854.

He was on several occasions employed as crown prosecutor in Victoria, but has been mainly known as a contributor of several hundred essays to the Australasian.

A selection of these were later published as, Essays Social, Moral and Political by a Barrister-at-law, (Melbourne, 1879).

[1] His father, Sir Richard Birnie, was originally a saddler, but is chiefly known by his success in detecting and hunting down the Cato Street conspirators.