Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Thus, though my noon of life be past,
Yet let my setting sun at last

Find out the still, the rural cell
Where sage retirement loves to dwell!
There let me taste the home-felt bliss
Of innocence and inward peace;
Untainted by the guilty bribe,
Uncursed amid the harpy tribe;
No orphan's cry to wound my ear,
My honour and my conscience clear;
Thus may I calmly meet my end,
Thus to the grave in peace descend.

CANDOUR OF AN IRISH DEPONENT.

In a very excellent series of articles, entitled "Sketches of the Irish Bar," which have lately appeared in a periodical publication, we meet with the following highly ludicrous statement in the affidavit of a "process-server.”—“ And this deponent further saith, that on arriving at the house of the said defendant, situate in the county of Galway aforesaid, for the purpose of personally serving him with the said writ, he, the said deponent, knocked several times at the outer, commonly called the Hall-door, but could not obtain admittance; whereupon this deponent was proceeding to knock a fourth time, when a man, to this deponent unknown, holding in his hands a musket or blunderbuss loaded with balls or slugs,

[ocr errors]

as this deponent has since heard and verily believes, appeared at one of the upper windows of the said house, and presenting said musket or blunderbuss at this deponent, threatened, that if said deponent did not instantly retire, he would send his, this deponent's soul, to hell,' which this deponent verily believes he would have done, had not this deponent precipitately escaped."

LORD COKE AND HIS COACHMAN.

When Sir Edward Coke was brought before the Privy Council, and reprimanded for certain supposed errors in his Reports, a singular charge was made against him by the Lord Treasurer: "The Lords having thus far proceeded, the Lord Treasurer told him, that he had one thing more to let him know, that belonged to the Earl Marshall to take notice of, which was, that his coachman used to ride bare-headed before him, which was more than he could any ways assume or challenge to himself, and required him to forbear it for the future. To which the Lord-Chief-Justice answered, that his coachman did it only for his own ease, and not by his commandment." (Life of Coke, in Biogr. Britt.)

BURKE'S OPINION OF LAWYERS.

Burke, who was educated to the bar, appears not to have entertained any very great respect in

[ocr errors]

his after life for the professors of the law. On the question, whether the impeachment of Warren Hastings abated by the dissolution of parliament in 1790, Burke, Fox, and Pitt maintained that it did not, contrary to the opinion of nearly all the lawyers in the house. "This circumstance drew from Mr. Burke many sarcastic remarks, especially after one of them had remarked, that they were not at home in that house, when Mr. Burke said, he believed they were not; they were birds of a different feather, and only perched in that house on their flight to another,-only resting their tender pinions there for a while, yet ever fluttering to be gone to the region of coronets; like the Hibernian in the ship, they cared not how soon she foundered, because they were only passengers; their best bower anchor was always cast in the House of Lords." In another sentence he expressed a wish to see the country governed by law, but not by lawyers. On the 14th February, when Mr. Erskine, who had already sustained many of his biting sarcasms, complained of the length of the trial, Mr. Burke, after an able defence of the managers, upon whom certainly no blame rested, in the opinions both of the ministry and opposition, asked, "whether the learned gentleman remembered, that if the trial had continued three years, the oppressions had continued or twenty years? Whether, after all, there

[ocr errors]

were hour-glasses for measuring the grievances of mankind? Or whether those whose ideas never travelled beyond a nisi prius cause, were better calculated to ascertain what ought to be the length of an impeachment, than a rabbit who breeds six times in a year, had to judge of the time proper for the gestation of an elephant?" Mr. Fox was equally severe in his strictures upon the legal profession. (Prior's Life of Burke, p. 399.) The trial of Warren Hastings, which occupied three years, might, it is said, have been concluded in two months, had the House of Lords sate like an ordinary court of judicature, ten hours a day.

PERILS OF THE LAW IN IRELAND.

The following animated description of the dangers attending the administration of the law in the sister island, is given by a very clever writer. "The office of a process-server in Ireland, appears to be, indeed, a most perilous occupation, and one that requires no common qualities in the person that undertakes it; he must unite the courage and strength of the common soldier, with the conduct and skill in stratagem of the experienced commander; for woe betide him if he be deficient in either. The moment this hostile herald of the law is known to be hovering on the confines of a Connaught gentleman's domains, (that sacred

[ocr errors]

territory into which his Majesty's writs have no right to run,) the proud blood of the defendant swells up to the boiling point, and he takes the promptest measures to repel and chastise the intruder he summons his servants and tenants to a council of war, he stiffens their fidelity by liberal doses of the mountain dew,' (illicit whiskey,) they swear they will stand by his honour' to the last. Preparations, as against a regular siege, ensue; doors and windows are barred; sentinels stationed; blunderbusses charged; approved scouts are sent out to reconnoitre; and skirmishing parties, armed with cudgels and pitch-forks, are detached along every avenue of approach. Having taken these precautions, the magnanimous defendant shuts himself up in his inmost citadel to await the result. The issue may be anticipated; the messenger of the law is either deterred from coming near, or, if he has the hardihood to face the danger, he is way-laid, and beaten black and blue for his presumption. If he shows the king's writ, it is torn from him, and flung back in fragments in his face. Resistance, remonstrance, and entreaties are all unavailing nothing remains for him but to effect his retreat, if the powers of moving be left him, to the nearest magistrate, not in the interest of the defendant, where, with the help of some attorney that will venture to take a fee against his honour,' he

« ПредишнаНапред »