' good men and true,' he hesitated not, on their retiring (it was untimely certainly; for a verdict, if it be reversible, should never be an ticipated) to address the people, in endeavouring to impress on their minds the impropriety of the conduct pursued towards the theatrical manager, and in cautioning them against the recurrence of scenes tending to the disturbance of the public peace, and which would be now pronounced, by the decision of a just, impartial, and enlightened jury, equally unjustifiable, and subjected to correction of no trifling character, which would, on any future occasion, be as strictly as de cidedly enforced.' He had scarcely ended his address ere the twelve matter-of-fact judges appeared in the box, and at once gave an unanimous and unqualified verdict in favour of Clifford, with damages against Kemble (trifling in amount, it is true), in direct contradiction to the directions of the Judge, and as much to his amazement and disappointment as to the high delight of the assembled million, which filled the Hall in eager and anxious expectation of the event. One involuntary shout of ecstasy, prolonged and forceful as the well-expressed aspirations of Donnybrook fair-as a gentle difference of opinion at a female Bible Society-as the simultaneous burst of a Drury-Lane chorus in the Coronation Anthem-as the war-cry of fifty men or two women in a fight,-rang through the Hall, startled Lord Ellenborough in his distant den, threw Lord Eldon's nerves into Chancery, and excited many a quickly-successive pinch of snuff from Sir Archibald Macdonald in his hold, completely exchequering his ideas. never saw a man so thoroughly posed as Sir James; he stood aghast, thunderstruck, and confounded; for when moved he always got upon his feet-he cast one glance of fear and distrust at the rebellious dozen, and with a wrathful shake of head, which drew down clouds of powder from his perruque, left the court hastily, and in silence.

"I remember Lord Cochrane passing through the Hall at the moment his new-found constituents were indulging their vocal propensities. With all his service, he was neither weatherbeaten nor care-worn then. There was an expression of curiosity and wonder in his true Caledonian and right manly countenance, as he viewed the vagaries of Westminster. He knew as little of his companions at that time as he did of either disgrace or fear. To him it was truly Scot and Lot-a little time and much was changed. Twenty years have since gone by, and with them Bonaparte and South American slavery, the Turkish power in Greece, Brummel and Skeffington, Sheridan and Canning, Sheriff Parkins and Joanna Southcote, Kemble, Clifford, O. P. Rows, and what not?

"There was also Sir Giles Rooke, a good, quiet, simple, sad, and gentlemanlike person,' who, after having devoted a long life to the arduous study of the law, was seized in his patriarchal days with a taste for novel-reading-Mrs. Radcliffe, George Walker, the Burney, and even the emanations of the Minerva Press. He was, it is said, as little choice in the selection of writers as eager in the perusal of their works; and with all the fervour of a curtain-firing chambermaid, would sacrifice the hours best adapted to repose and rest, after the wearying duties of the day, to the enjoyment of maudlin sentiment or the horrors of overstrained romance. Often would the morning sun find Sir Giles in bed, pursuing, with no wonted ardour, the progress of some tale of

sorrow or of love; participating in the deeper miseries of Fatal Sensibility,' or the sublimer horrors and more perplexed mysteries of The Dumb Nun of St. Bog and Moat.' Had Sir Walter been then, it would have been quite another thing; but it was strange to see one of learning and of taste so employed. If I remember well, however, his was a romantic family; he had a brother, who, after having served his King with credit in the army, abandoned his native country for the land of the olive and myrtle, and, beneath cloudless climes and starry skies, sought scenes better adapted to his taste than those his proper land afforded. With a spirit of research, a mind richly stored with knowledge, and a heart flowing with charity to all mankind, he established his head-quarters at Rhodes, within the very walls once possessed by the Knights of St. John, whence he would occasionally visit in his yacht the beautiful islands of the Grecian archipelago, or direct his course to those of the Septinsular Republic, his worth and amiable qualities assuring him a grateful reception whithersoever he went. His collection of medals and manuscripts were said to have been extremely valuable; but when Colonel Rooke died (in Rhodes, I believe), it is to be feared that they became the spoil of those who more largely benefited by his bounty while living, than they were disposed to evince a due respect for his memory when dead.

"Heath seemed in his very dotage; and he who beheld the inane expression of his features-his seeming abstraction from things around -the palsied motion of his head--the death-like paleness of his countenance, and reflected on his large account of years, must have regarded him with sentiments of compassion, and esteemed him more a mockery than an ornament to the place on which he had intruded; yet his moral faculties were far superior to his physical powers: and when in tremulous accents he laboured to convey his opinion on a case of legal difficulty, one was only the more astonished at the integrity of his mind, the clearness of his views, and his force of memory. When raised to the Bench, he positively refused to be knighted, and no entreaty could prevail upon him to attend at court for that purpose. Precedent and custom were urged in vain, and he lived and died plain John Heath.

"On the decease of Sir James Mansfield, Sir Vicary Gibbs was nominated his successor, and never was there a man more eminently qualified by legal erudition for that high station. He had strong natural talent, learning, and great eloquence; and, as he ascended the Bench, he divested himself in a great degree of that asperity of character which had distinguished him at the Bar, and of the extreme severity by which his conduct as a Crown officer had been undoubtedly marked. If he were opposed most hostilely to the public press (more so than it was generally deemed circumstances might have warranted), he might perhaps urge, in apology of his conduct, the interpretation he felt himself conscientiously bound to give to the duties of his office in times of tumult and of danger: his feelings as a man were in no wise identified with his measures as a minister of the law; he assumed the Bench upon the purest principles, and proved himself an upright and temperate judge. It was unfortunate that his constitution, ever delicate, had been severely tried by excessive study and labour;-circumstances, too, connected with his private life had cruelly thwarted his better nature:

and, already subjected to much physical infirmity, he had scarcely ascended the judgment-seat when a deplorable event, which occurred in a distant land to one near in blood as dear to his affections, conferred a shock upon his system which his weakened powers might not support, and he died, it is believed, of a broken heart.

"Sir John Richardson was one of Gibbs's colleagues. The midnight lamp had dried up in him all the strengthening juices of life; pale, emaciated, and delicate, he accepted but struggled not for the retention of his honours;-he was La legge senza corpore'*-and be wisely determined to cherish what little remained to him of existence, and, most unlawyerlike, resigned place, patronage, and profit. With a Shandean spirit, he horrified the Chancellor, and upset at once all his Lordship's ideas respecting the fitness of things,' by throwing his wig and gown and some thousands a year carelessly at his feet, as he announced his intent of seeking the fair and healthful shores of the Mediterranean, and leave law and lawyers, sessions, circuits, and that sort of rigmarole, for ever behind him. This ex officio information is said most mightily to have discomposed his Lordship: and as Sir John reasoned of Malta and Sicily-Naples, Etna, and Vesuvius— oranges and ananas-lacryma Christi, macaroni, and pleasure to come -verily he most grievously confounded the keeper of the seals, who, except from Lord Londonderry, knew as little about such things (Heaven help him) as he did of Mr. Shiel, Sir Walter Scott, or Jeremy Bentham himself. He swore that his then Vice had bitten Sir John: that there was a Carbonari conspiracy among the judges-that Best, and Park, and Bailey, and haply old Wood and Alexander, would all soon follow the example, leaving Littleton for Lazzaroni, the courts of law for those of Ferdinand and Pius. In short-but it would not dolike Sterne, with light heart and lighter health, (Richardson greatly resembles the English Rabelais in person,) he would have his way and will: and unmoved by the tears of Chancery-the predictions of Park of dangers uncontemplated before the charge of Best, or the imploring looks of his brother coifs, he disbarred himself from their embrace, and with the travelling directions of his friend, t'other Sir John,' for his guide, resolved to taste those pleasures by which his mind had been seduced, as the travelled Vice would recount to wondering benchers and petrified judges, on a grand day at Lincoln's Inn, the richness of San Carlo-the admirable architecture of La Scala-the glories of San Pietro-the soft delights of the midnight Serenata-the generous qualities of the exhilarating Aleatico-the palatable gout of Ronciglione -"la bellezza della Paesana Toscana," or the soul-subduing glances of the dark-eyed Napolitana. Verily his Honour has much to answer for; and, if Brougham do but succeed, luckily for John Bull, in cutting off the resources of the profession at home, its members may just as well pack up toga and wig, and hie them also to Naples, for it is no less the seat of pleasure than it is of law: and many, I assure them, will suit admirably well there. What pleasure to behold these two modern Minoses;-Equitas and Lex Communis arm in arm ;—the twin sages of the land disporting them on the borders of the Bay of Naples -eyeing the melon-bearing brunette with no flaw-finding eye ;-flirt+ The beauty of the Tuscan peasant.

Law without body.

ing with the more refined and graceful signorine of the Strada di Toledo ;-regaling themselves da che si parte il sole,'* with the savoury Sardines and love-inspiring glances of some female Kitchener, youthful and lively, in the open air--who, with an affected blush, exclaims in the delicious language of his delicious land, Dio il ti perdoni,'t as either elder rapturously descants on the beauties of form and feature of the nut-brown maid of Santa Lucia ;—or to observe them quaffing long draughts of delight and acqua gelata,' from the hands of some laughter-loving ragazza's of the Rua dei Guanti.'|| Indeed it is better, far better than the Law. I rather envy the lazy Lazzarone the fair humanities of his religion,' who finds no ill-grudged sustenance in the fruits and waters of his liberal land, and who enjoys them stretched in the eye o' the sun,' upon the sands of his lovely bay than he who, having wasted a wearisome and dull existence in laborious study, is poorly recompensed by tardy wealth and illtimed honours, when the zest for the enjoyment of either has long since past away.

"Gifford I have told you of-his reign in the Common Pleas was of brief duration; but while there he held the fraternity with an iron hand, and made them wince within his despot grasp. The ring-presenting coifs were as happy to get rid of him as Brougham of the Lord Chancellor, or the No Popery parsons of Canning.

"Last came-' mais il faut commencer par le commencement.' Serjeant Best was undoubtedly one of the most popular advocates of his day; when popularity was worth something, and its attainment more uphill work than it has since become. To great talent and learning he united nature's mother-wit, and a manner frank, unaffected, and engaging. He had a taste too for social enjoyment, which he has not yet, I believe, resigned, and the lawyer had never vanquished the man in him. He was always ardent and often bold in the discharge of his duties; had much of homely and useful eloquence with high moral courage ('faith he had more); with none of the solemnity of the pleader, or the pertness of the Serjeant, he identified his feelings so effectually with the cause he espoused (when it justified their being called into action,) that no man probably ever so well satisfied a losing client as Serjeant Best. It was quite delightful to see him too in a consultation at chambersdivested of all formality and stiffness-his corporeal attributes duly refreshed, knocking some long-winded didactic Coke upon Littleton dissertation on the head by untimely piquant and mirth-stirring jest, until the very dark and rigid muscles of poor Romilly himself would relax perforce that "Lancashire witch," Jockey Bell, for once forgetting Law and mathematics, would join in the laugh-even Preston afford one of his equivocal and half-frightful cachinnations-while supple solicitors would anxiously rustle among their papers in an attempt to conceal their indecorous jollity, and even the bugbearing abortions of the Law could not but venture to chuckle in the rear of their reverend masters. Then he hated refining and quiddities, and all the insufferable but profitable nonsense of the profession; he would toss away impediment and obstacles by the horns with more of frankness than cere

When the sun declines.

§ Girl.

+ God forgive thee!
Glove street.

leed water.

mony; crush objections in the bud, as indifferently as he crumbled the bank notes in the pocket of his nether man without regarding them, and bolting out his sententious say with the soul of brevity, limp on to his chambers with fun and good-humour in his countenance, nodding to all of human kind he knew with heartiness and familiarity, not even forgetting, in the bountiful dispensation of friendly acknowledgment, old Sam the shoe-black, who would hastily throw away his polisher and the arm-intrenched boot to assume a Wellington position which he had learned of the Bloomsbury and Inns of Court, Association (he was extreme polisher to the corps) to salute with due observance him whom the eccentric rubber of shoes would deign to term Brother Best. I never beheld him at that season of the day but Foote in the Lame Lover would force himself on my memory: for he could drink his wine and flavour that of others with many a well-told tale and pleasant saying. I greatly fear however, that, like Falstaff, with his well-acquired dignity he proposes 'to reform and live clean.' Frolic and good taste forbid-if Brother Wilde will but act as safety-valve for the occasional explosion of the superabundant gas of indignation when the provoking twitches of the gout and Morning Chronicle torment him, he will long live respected and beloved as a man, and have many another opportunity for boating it with Brother Burroughs in his few but joyful vacations.

"Justice Park, by no very desirable luck in the adjudication of extraordinary criminal causes, is known to the public quite as well as Irving, Hunt, Alderman Waithman, the Green Man, or the battle of Navarino. At the Bar he was never prominent, although his admirably written Treatise on Insurance' procured him ample business, which he ever conducted in a plain, efficient, and somewhat noisy manner. His voice was harsh and devoid of distinctness; his oratory without effect; and he would speak with as much warmth on a dry question of mercantile law as Erskine when he deemed the liberties of his country at stake, or Garrow when, after a perplexing cross-examination, he had beautifully intangled a suborned witness, and having once got his head under his arm milled him most unmercifully until he could no longer stand or go, but only lie. Park, however, was, and is, universally respected-he is a man of honour and integrity, with much warmth of feeling, and no one more heartily despises any thing low, grovelling, or mean, than he does."