Bench and Bar : Reminiscences of One of the Last
of an Ancient. Race, By Mr. Serjeant Robinson. Third edition. (Hurst and Blackett.)—The late Mr. Serjeant Robinson, encouraged by the success of his very entertaining "Reminiscence," was preparing- a second series, when the failure of health compelled him to lay down the pen. The anecdotes which he collected for a new volume will be found in an appendix to the present edition, and they add something, although not much, to the value of a 'book which is. calculated to please all readers. Although it may be chiefly com- mended as a volume for idle moments, it is far from a worthless. production, for the Serjeant has garnered up in its pages many a story of the Bench and Bar well worthy of preservation. Theses anecdotes are not all now, neither are they all attributed to the right persons ; but the author gives a reasonable excuse for defects which are inevitable in such a collection : "I never pre- tended that any part of what I have written is original, and therefore I have not been either perturbed or surprised when I have heard from a veteran friend that some of the matters I have recorded were not new to him. I was told recently by a learned Judge that I had in two or three instances attributed certain sayings or incidents to wrong personages. I think this by no means improbable, although I believe such instances to be very few. There is always a number of smart things straying about the world, like orphans devoid of ostensible parentage, till some admirer takes pity upon them, and from ignorance or from mere whim, affiliates them upon some well-known wit who is not unlikely to have been their progenitor,"
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