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eye, it is nevertheless of the sterling sort; no mere cockney trickery or cleverishness, but genuine attic salt, dealt out from an exhaustless girnal. The worst of it is, that Jonathan often spoils a capital thing by attempting to make too much of it. He should avoid this. But let him do what he will, he is witty even in spite of himself; and, if he had temper, would in a little time have no superior at the English, or indeed any bar on earth. He is sometimes, however, misled both by his temper and his acuteness. Infinitely ingenious himself, he supposes other people equally cunning, and hence he is often guilty of an error not common to inferior men-excessive refinement. In one department, however, he stands alone, and that is in expiscating the truth from a witness pre-determined and presold to conceal it. I saw one specimen only of his terrible powers of cross-examination. He was beaten; but the case was otherwise so strong, and his exposé of the contradictions of the witness so manifest, that he carried his point, and got a verdict.

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And here I cannot help remarking, how greatly superior to the Scotch is the English Bar in general in the invaluable talent of examining a witness. They seem determined to carry their point; and there is no artifice which they do not put in practice, rather than submit to the humiliation of a defeat. The counsel, too, seem all of them to possess a great knowledge of human nature, and to have

studied character carefully. Hence their frequent success, where Scotch barristers would undoubtedly fail. Besides, they are allowed greater latitude by the court. In Scotland, the judges too frequently interfere to protect a witness, who needs no other shield than his own impudence. Not so in England. Very seldom, indeed, does the Bench interfere. The witness is left to stand or fall by himself. This can be no hardship to a witness who means to adhere to the truth; and if any unfair advantage is attempted to be taken, he has only to throw himself on the court, and he is safe. I am not aware that, in the whole course of my life, I ever experienced so much pleasure as in witnessing the tactics of Jonathan Raine, with regard to whose frequent success in this way the young barristers are full of

anecdotes.

But I have also said that Jonathan ranks high as a classic. To this day, "Jonathan Raine and the Classics," is a standard college toast at Oxford. You have only to listen ten minutes to his pleadings to be satisfied, not only that he has the classics at his command, and can, with more than the sorcery of Owen Glendower, evoke "spirits from the vasty deep" of time, but that his own is a congenial soul; that he has drank deeply at the fountains of classical inspiration, and tasted the imperishable beauties of the Greek and Roman models. What his attainments are in general literature, I had no

means of judging. I should not wonder if, on all but his favourite subjects, he were inclined to be idle.

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In this rapid enumeration, it would be unjust to omit one of the ablest of the Queen's counsel,

Mr. Williams. With the exception of Mr. Raine, Mr. Williams is decidedly the most acute man at the English Bar; I mean in pursuing a train of reasoning to its consequences, or in piecing together the disjecta membra of a case, when these have been scattered over a vast surface. He wants Raine's wit and animation, however; but I suspect he excels him in legal knowledge, and in capability of a sustained effort. His countenance is eminently intellectual, and his fine aquiline nose gives a peculiar point to the general expression of his very significant features. All the world has heard of the matchless ingenuity which he displayed in commenting on the evidence regarding the Queen's conduct on board the polacre; a part of the case which Mr. Brougham, with his usual tact, reserved for the unequalled analytic powers of his friend ; but which some of the miserable boobies about Edinburgh, with their usual blundering malignity, supposed he had unintentionally omitted. There is only one thing deserving of regret in this business, and that is, that Mr. Williams did not receive the measure of praise on the above occasion, to

which, by the consent of men of all parties, he was so eminently entitled..:

Several counsel, eminent in their way, were also visible on the legal horizon. Among others, I discerned the broad square phiz or disc of the renown. ed Serjeant Hullock, of Commission celebrity in this country; Mr. Littledale, so famous for his extensive legal knowledge; Mr. Tindal, a very able and learned counsel; Serjeant Cross, and a few others (horresco referens), "unknown to fame."

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I had some few more little anecdotes and adventures to chronicle, as gossip for your amusement, Mr. Editor; but my paper is done, my candle `almost burnt to the socket, Betty at the door simpering out, “Your slippers, Sir," and my fingers aching with this vast effort of scribbling: So vive, valė, inquit, ANGLO-SCOTUS.)

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"Twas evening mild: the sun's departing eye
Clos'd on the hills that skirt the western sky;"
Deep from the grove the stock-dove's notes were
heard,

Tuned to the courtship of his listening bird;
Lone in the vale the abbey's tower was seen '"
Clad in the ivy's venerable green :

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From every cot the smoke in columns curl'd,
And sweetness smil'd on all the vernal world.
In such a spot Contentment seem'd to dwell,
Sick of the town, beneath her turf-clad cell:
Sequester'd here from fashion's high-bred trains,
The tenant knows not folly's secret pains ;
Unconscious he of half the joys that crown
The taste, the mode, the learning of the town;
Unconscious, too, of all their secret woe,
And all the mighty nothingness of shew.

I wander'd down the vale, and pass'd the spot
Where once my guardian held his peaceful cot;
I pass'd the house where oft, with careless look,
I named the letters from the pictur'd book;
I saw the scenes where, fond of careless play,
On thy blest afternoon, sweet Saturday!
Perhaps I rais'd the magpie's chattering tongue
I'the airy castle where she rock'd her young;
Or in hand-breadth canals decoy'd the rill
To spout upon my little water-mill;

Or, by the marsh, cut down the hollow cane,
And, uninspir'd, pip'd out my noisy strain;
Till my kind friends, in anxious search, descried
Their daubled vagrant by the streamlet's side,
And, wondering at my stay, with sharp reproof,
Led back my footsteps to their humble roof.

But, while I pass'd along, the village tower
Rung through the vale the sweet dismissing hour;

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