LAW AND LAWYERS.
THESE volumes resemble Physic awl Phipician.1, in being merely a compilation ; but, if not displaying more ability than that collec- tion, they are much more valuable. This greater excellence pro- bably arises fomm the nature of time subjects. The biography of lawyers is richer than that of physic hums, and their characters are better known. It is their trade to exhibit in public ; saying good things if' they can, and engaging in great afihirs as often as possi- ble. The legal profession, too, is inure alive to the world than the medical; which, almost without exception, imbues its followers with afaculty air. In short, lawyers have more mark as men, more action in their lives, and better observers to note and gather their sayings and doings. Be the cause what it may, the two volumes before us are very readable and amusing, and not without information of a superficial kind. No great research is indeed exhibited; the compiler draw. ing ad libitum upon well-known books—as NORTH'S Lives, ate. dent biographies, and the very spirited notices of eminent lawyers that appear almost continuously in the Law Illagazine. Nor does he always display what he takes to the best advantage ; and every thing being arranged under some particular head—as "Early Struggles of Eminent Men," "Legal Eccentricity," " Former Chan. cellors"—it follows that one individual is rarely dismissed at once, but appears many times in many phases. Various things might of course be done much more efficiently—as the chapter on "Lawyers in Parliament," and still more that on " Law and Literature Neither can the book in any case be considered as an authority: but it fulfils what seems to have been the author's intention—that of furnishing a couple of volumes of anecdote and biographical sketches of our most eminent lawyers. it is long since a publica- tion so well adapted for after-dinner or any leisure reading fell in our way.
As a specimen of what this reading is, we take a few examples.
LORD KENYON'S CLASSICALITY.
Lord Kenyon's want of scholarship and good taste is well known.Ilewas fond of intruding the little information he had picked up, whether or not it was appropriate to the matter at issue. " \\ Ism he ravished," says Mr. Espinasse, " to express his opinion that the established rules of practice should Dot be departed from, it was embellished with the figurative recommendationoi the propriety, stare super untiquas vias.' * • * his praise of the wisdom of former deeisions was nut confined to the quotation before given, but was at- brevhded into the convenient form or shire decisis'—equally classical and exprtssively appreptiate. IC ruling a point at "N isi Prius, where he hehl that a party who bid for a lot at an auction should be at liberty to recall it and re- tract his bidding, by a poetical licence or changing time into place, the learned Judge expressed it by giving the bidder, as he classieally termed it, a ' loots penitenti.e.''" But the quotation " Menus eat petere finites quart sectari rivos" was the most favoured of all. Ile paraded it of every occasion, evi. dently with the greatest satitaction. Sometimes lie informed a counsel that " the Court would take time to consider is certain case, propter ditlicultatem; We will look into this act of Parliantent with eagle's eves, and compare one clause with another ; ' noscitur a sociis.' " When two learned barristers were once disputing before him whether a particular letter was evidence or not, he interposed, amid sliserved, in the blandest. accents, " Modus iii rebus—there must he an end of things-2' It is said that he once concluded a lengthy charge to the jury in these words : "Baling thus discharged your consciences., gen- tlemen, you may retire to your homes in peace, who the delightful conscious- Bess of having performed your duties well, and may lay your heads upon your pillows and say, ' aut Caesar, nut nullus2 " Another time, to ;trove the con- elusiveness of a fitet, he observed—" It is as plain as the nose on your face- /old anynis in hes/i." Ile once declared to the Court, that although he had known Mr. :Murphy tbr many years, and spent many pleasant hours with him, still he must apply to him the same rules he would to an Indian, a Turk, or a Mahm»etan. It has been said, in Paine's trial he enumerated to the jury the names of several and mi ignitied persons who had been conspicuous for their attacInneat to Christianity, concluding thus—" Above all, gentletnen, seed name to you the Emperor Julian, who twos so celebrated for the exercise of every Christian virtue that lie was called Julian the sloost/e." Indignant at the artifice td. a party desiring to gain time, he once exclaimed, " This is the last hair in the tail of procrastination."
BOUGHT KNOWLEDGE.
Carey, writing duskg the period Coventry had held the Great Seal, (in Charles the Fir, is time,) refers to the complaints which were then current, of the dssty atm.! expeLses of the Court of Cmmeery. Ile meations a case of two brothers contesting in that Court the posses-inn of a gold chain worth 60/.: the suit 1.111Ceekted Until the litigants had es petaled 100/., when the elder ma- tured to the younger brother—" You see how these men teed on us, and we are as near an enel dour cause as when we began: I will give you one half of the chain and keep the other, and so end this endless cause; and pray let us both woke much uf this twit, so clearly bOtOlt."
SEnGEANT HILL'S AnSENCE.
Ile married Miss Mcillycott, of Cotiingicno, iu Northamptonshire, a great heiri..s. On the morning of the day appointvd for the wedding, the Sergeant went down to his chambers as nsaal, and becoming inimer,,ed in business, entirely the enfttgoocht he had flamed for that morning. The bride waited for him an loog, that it wns f.:ared the canonical hour would elapse be- fore LiS arrival. A messenger was accordingly despatched to saltiest his imme- diate attendance. Ile olie.mad the summons, and hosing become a husband, returned again to business. About dinner-time, his clerk, suspecting that he had li,rgotten entirely the proceedings (,t' the morning, ventured to recall them to his reeidleetion : fortunatmly, t 1:e had at that moment dis- covered the (vs..; for whieli he had been hunting, and he returned to his house to :Tend time ev, niog in a gayer circle. By an act of Parliament, Miss Mtallycott was empowered to use her maiden name after her hsol nee; but the Surgcant (11:1 not like her exerch:ing this right. lie would hot allow lacy to sign her aeons otherwise than " Elizabeth Bill,' except on important occasions ; always observing, it' she made ally objection, " My name in I lill, and my father's natde ciao 11111; and a very goad name is Hill, too:" Ile survived his a ilis Alter h, r death, a friend called on him to condole with him on her loss. Ile fatual the Sorge:oft sitting, looking very sad and diseom.olate. At last he said, " So, poor woman, you find she is amis.(' " Pa s, Sir, 1 mostly called upon you to (sottish.. with you upon the melancholy oets,ion." " Ay, she isgone! it very goad woman ; a great loss to me, cer- tainly, Sir. ButI'll tell main one thing, Mr. —, I should ever be induced to take another wife, I would nut marry ateeciy.for wooer.,,
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