BORNEO-JAPAN.

of a man of swarthy complexion, drugged with opium, running down a crowded street, pursued by the civil and military authorities, and stabbing right and left, at man, woman, and child, with a kris. This demoniac vision fades before Mr. Brooke's sketch from the living model :—

66

[Conclusion of an article in the Quarterly Review.] A FAIRER field than Sarawak for the exertions of the Christian missionary scarcely presents itself | m the uncivilized world. In that field we earnestly hope that the Church of England may be the first. The hill Dyaks in the province are estimated by Mr. Brooke at some 10,000 in number, and, as might be expected under such rule as he has es-nities with fewer crimes and fewer punishments tablished there, are fast increasing. The last accounts received speak of visits of chiefs to Mr. Brooke from a distance of two hundred miles in the interior

Simple in their habits, they are neither treacherous nor blood-thirsty; cheerful, polite, hospitable, gentle in their manners, they live in commu

than most other people of the globe. They are passionately fond of their children, and indulgent even to a fault. I have always found them goodtempered and obliging, wonderfully amenable to "These people," he states in one of his letters, authority, and quite as sensible of benefits confer"are mild, industrious, and so scrupulously hon-red, and as grateful as other people of more est, that a single case of theft has not come under favored nations "-Vol. ii., my observation, even when surrounded by objects easily appropriated and tempting from their novelty. In their domestic lives they are amiable, and addicted to none of the vices of a wild state. They marry but one wife; and their women are always quoted among the Malays as remarkable for chastity. Their freedom from all prejudice and their present scanty knowledge of religion would render their conversion to Christianity an easy task, provided they are rescued from their present sufferings and degraded state; but until this be done it will be vain to preach a faith to them the first precepts of which are daily violated in their own-applied also, as the term is, to many races quite persons.'

p. 128. Of course there is a reverse to this picture. Among their bad qualities Mr. Brooke enumerates deceit, a disposition to intrigue, superstition, and its attendant propensities to persecution and oppression. Add to these defects of the Asiatic character the outward circumstances of power in the hands of a corrupt aristocracy, all the vices without the advantages of a feudal system, and no wonder that occasional and scanty intercourse with ignorant, insolent, and unscrupulous European traders, should have led to acts of treachery and violence which have given the Malay a bad name

distinct from the real Malay, and from each other, in origin, habits, and language.

Mr. Brooke says elsewhere, (vol. ii., p. 184,) "The Dyak is neither treacherous nor cunning, Mr. Brooke's time has been too much and too and so truthful that the word of one of them well employed to allow him to make many scienmight safely be taken before the oath of half a tific additions to our knowledge of the natural hisdozen Borneans. In their dealings they are very tory of Borneo. He has, however, not failed to straightforward and correct, and so trustworthy collect some particulars of that race of quadrumana that they rarely attempt, even after a lapse of for which the island has long been famous, and years, to evade payment of a just debt." Is not which, with one exception, is supposed to approach this a better raw material for Christian manufacture the nearest to man in anatomical structure and in than the proud and warlike savage of New Zea- its consequent habits and gestures. Nor has Mr. land, or the Hindoo steeped in the prejudices of Brooke been idle as a collector. Five living specaste? Is such a field as this to be left to the cimens of the orang-outang were shipped by him Jesuit, or to the chances of Protestant sectarian in one vessel for England, but, we believe, died on zeal? We have some hope that these questions the passage. His report on the animal, published will be answered as they should be answered from in the "Transactions of the Zoological Society," rich and episcopal England; and that the great is appended to Captain Keppel's first volume. and wealthy of the land will come forward and The largest adult shot by Mr. Brooke was 4 feet tell our venerated primate-find us a man of 1 inch in height, but he obtained from the natives piety, enterprising zeal, and judgment, and we will provide the means of establishing him in a land which, with God's blessing on his efforts, to use the words of one who knows it, he will not wish to exchange for any sphere of action on this side heaven."*

The passages above quoted are well calculated to excite Christian sympathy on behalf of Mr. Brooke's special protégés, the aboriginal Dyaks; but it must not be supposed that he has no corner left in his heart for the Malay, who has been scarcely less maligned by common report, than the Helot race he oppresses. We cannot profess to know what notions the term Malay conveys to our readers in general. With us it raises the vision

*The "Address" of the Rev. C. Brereton did not reach us until this article was completed. It gives an able precis of Mr. Brooke's labors, and concludes with an earnest appeal made to the English public, at his request, for assistance towards the establishment of a church, a mission house, and a school at Sarawak. Mr. Brooke is an attached member of the Church of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of London, Norwich, Lichfield, Oxford, and Calcutta, have already given their sauction to the undertaking. May 26.

a dried hand which would indicate far greater dimensions, and we think there is ground to suppose that the stature which has been attributed to a Sumatran species, fully equalling or exceeding that of man, is attained by the same or a similar species in Borneo. Mr. Brooke's observations or inquiries do not tend to elevate the character of the Bornean animal in respect of its approximation to humanity, as compared with his West African competitor, the chimpanzee. The activity in his native woods, attributed to him by some writers, is denied by Mr. Brooke, who describes him as slow in his motions, even when escaping from man, and making no attempt at defence except at close quarters, when his teeth are formidable. but the formation of his nest, a mere sort of unHe appears to be agile and dexterous in nothing covered seat which he weaves of branches with much rapidity. Mr. Brooke's account of the nidification of the animal tallies exactly with that by Mr. Abel, the naturalist to the Chinese Embassy

of Lord Amherst :

"While in Java," says Mr. Abel, p. 325, "he lodged in a large tamarind tree near my dwelling; and

formed a bed by intertwining the small branches, | not be supported and carried out by the British and covering them with leaves."

"The rude hut," says Mr. Brooke, "which they are stated to build in the trees, would be more properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort. The facility with which they form this seat is curious; and I had an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together and seat herself within a minute. She afterwards received our fire without moving, and expired in her lofty abode, whence it cost us much trouble to dislodge her."

government. Captain Wilkes did not touch at Borneo itself, but his account of the neighboring Sooloo Islands is the best and most detailed which has come under our notice.*

We have already referred to Mr. Davidson's volume. It is the work evidently of a man of very distinguished natural ability, and though proceeding from one whose life seems to have been devoted to mercantile industry and adventure, the style of its literary execution is such as most professed men of letters might well envy. He gives Our accounts of the chimpanzee in its native us a most agreeable résumé of observations collectstate are perhaps little to be relied upon; but it is ed in some forty passages across the ocean to India, certain that in its gregarious and terrestrial habits the Indian Isles, China, and Australia. He deit has a greater affinity to man than the solitary and fends the opium trade, insinuates a desire for the arboreal orang-outang. The former is said to retention of Chusan, and advocates a compulsory build a hut on the ground not much inferior to the opening of intercourse with Japan. Against this dwelling of the negro-but, unlike him, to build it, latter suggestion-with much respect for Mr. Danot for his male self, but for his wife and family. vidson, and with grateful veneration for the memoHe uses a club, possibly for support in locomotion, ry of Sir S. Raffles, who did more than cast a longmore certainly and with tremendous effect for assault ing eye on Japan-we enter our protest, on grounds and defence; and, if all tales be true, he buries his which have been amply set forth in two former dead. In all these accomplishments the Bornean numbers of this Journal. We believe the Japanese homo sylvestris is decidedly deficient. In youth to be a contented, prosperous, and, on the whole, both have been found gentle, playful, imitative of well-governed people, ready to rip themselves up man, and capable of strong attachment. The chim- on the appearance of the British flag in their wapanzee some time since exhibited at Paris, who ters. If one empire of the world chooses to indulge lived in the first circles of French society, was a taste for seclusion, to eschew Manchester goods, much visited by M. Thiers, and attended in his last and make its own hardware, we think it ought to illness by the court physicians, was most impatient be indulged. The risks of invasion would be seriof solitude. The maturer character of both spe- ous to the invader, and success would be purchased cies is probably much influenced by adventitious at an expense of gunpowder and blood, which, circumstances. The forests of Africa, swarming though neither Quakers nor members of a peace with huge reptiles and the larger carnivora, are a society, we abhor to contemplate. Tougher school than those of Borneo, from which "rabidæ tigres absunt et sæva leonum semina." A French navigator, Grandpré by name, tells us of a chimpanzee which became an able seaman on board a slaver, but was so ill used by the mate that he died of grief. Why does this give us a worse opinion of the mate, and a warmer feeling of indignation, than if the victim had been one of the human cargo? In their immunity from the fiercer beasts of prey the forests of Borneo have greatly the advantage not only over those Caffrarian wastes where the cowering missionary frequently reads prayers from his fortified wagon to a congregation of lions, but over the more civilized settlement of Singapore. Mr. Davidson's volume (p. 51) gives a frightful account of the degree to which the jungles of that island are infested by the tiger. Captain Wilkes, the very intelligent commander of the United States discovery expedition, who visited Singapore in 1842, affirms that before the settlement of the island tigers did not exist in it, but that they have since swum the straits, and have devoured no less than 200 human victims within a short distance of the town. It is no wonder that the botany of Singapore is, as Captain Wilkes states, imperfectly known. Its jungles come into respectful competition with the forests of Assam, from which, under Lord Auckland's government, five thousand tiger-skins were produced in one year to claim the government reward. The elephant is supposed to be extinct in Borneo, and we hear nothing of the camel, which Herrera mentions as abundant.

Having quoted Captain Wilkes, we may add that he bears the honorable and impartial testimony of an American gentleman and officer to the value of Mr. Brooke's exertions in Borneo, and that he appears to consider it impossible that they should

We are not, however, more than Mr. Davidson or Sir Stamford Raffles, indifferent to the advantages our commerce could derive from any relaxation, voluntary on the part of the Japanese, of their rigid system of non-intercourse; and we admit that there are circumstances of the present moment which may bring such a change of their policy within the verge of possibility. We have no doubt that long before this the reverberation of our guns on the banks of the Yellow River has been felt in the council chamber of the palace of Jeddo. It is not possible to pronounce what particular effect the sound may have produced on the Japanese mind. It is well known that the Japanese entertain a hereditary contempt and aversion for their near kinsmen of the celestial empire. In their commercial intercourse, the latter are subjected to restrictions as rigid, and conditions as humiliating, as those to which the Dutch have so long submitted. The original relationship of the two races was probably a near one, but a separation of ages has left the recollection of triumphant resistance to the Chinese invader unimpaired, and has produced striking differences between them, generally to the advantage of the Japanese. The habits of personal cleanliness which pervade all classes in Japan would alone constitute a strong distinction in their favor. We think it highly probable that the intelligence of the humiliation of the Chinese has been received in Japan with something of the satisfaction with which, as we remember to have heard, the Chinese wardens of the marches looked on at the discomfiture of the mountaineers of Nepaul who gave so much trouble to our best troops and commanders. Their applications for assistance or refuge were met with insult and con

* See "Narrative of the United States' Exploring Expedition." Philadelphia edition, vol. v., ch. ix.

tumely, which broke out in such expressions as ity-and it is well calculated to make us anxious "Truly you are a great people! Who are you, for the more expanded treatise on eastern comthat you should resist the English," &c. &c. We merce which he promises soon to publish. It has, cannot, however, imagine that satisfaction of this and will probably still more, become the province description should be unmixed with apprehension of England to direct to Australia and other quarat any prospect of a visit from the conquering na- ters the streams of population and labor which tion whose exploits, seen either through Chinese only require her hand to guide them from various or Dutch spectacles, might not assume a very pre-over-peopled quarters of the east, to fertile but unpossessing aspect, particularly when coupled with peopled wastes. At page 119 of Mr. Earl's volthe last instance of the appearance of the English ume will be found some valuable observations on flag in the waters of Japan-that of the "Phae- this extensive and interesting subject. Many of ton." We are nevertheless told that reports have the islands of the Indian seas adjacent to Australia, reached Java that the Japanese government were such as Kissi and Rotti, suffer periodically from in expectation of a visit from the English, and that famine-others are only relieved of their surplus the government at Jeddo would now receive an population by the abominable expedient of the amicable commercial mission. If this be so, the slave-trade. The Celebes, China, and Continental experiment is worth trying; but if it be tried, we India, are all ready to irrigate the thirsty soil with earnestly hope that it may be committed to some streams of useful labor. Of these Mr. Earl conofficer of approved discretion-some naval Pottin- siders the Malay the cheapest, from his habits and ger-who will not stain our flag by any act of vio- requirements as to dress the best customer for the lence or illegal aggression, such as in the case of British manufacturer, and the best adapted for the "Phaeton" was to be palliated, but in our clearing new lands. The Chinese are the best agopinion hardly justified by the warlike relations riculturists, manufacturers, we believe we may add which then existed between ourselves and the miners-India furnishes the best herdsmen. It Dutch. We have no enemy now to run to earth has been found at Singapore that from these variin Japan, and if we cannot at once establish friend- ous sources the supply of labor has fully kept pace ly relations with its inhabitants, and procure from with a growing demand. Mr. Davidson says that the local authorities the usual hospitalities of a the Chinese junks bring annually to this part of friendly port, pilotage, provisions, &c., without the world from six to eight thousand emigrants, humiliating and inadmissible conditions, we know who ultimately find employment either in the not by what law of nations we can insist on a re- island, in the tin-mines of Borneo, or the Malayan versal in our favor of the code of an empire which peninsula. 'Spartam nactus es"-if we can only never itself has indulged in acts of aggression. contrive to turn to account the territory within our We doubt, indeed, whether either menace or vio-legitimate control, we shall rub on for some time lence could lead to any result more satisfactory than to come without coercing Japan. The merchant they would deserve, and we believe that in such and the emigrant to Australia will find much usedangerous waters as those of Nagasaki, the safety ful information in these two works of Messrs. Danot only of boats' crews, but even of a ship of war, vidson and Earl; and with readers for amusement might be compromised by rash contempt of Japan- they cannot fail to be popular. We could fill ese militia, and equally by rash reliance on the pages with descriptions and anecdotes of the most weakness or the good-will of a people with whom lively interest which abound in both: Mr. Davidself-sacrifice at the order of the sovereign is an in- son's especially, exhibits a rare mastery in picturesque narration.

veterate custom.

As to any such specimen of bad faith as would be exhibited in our forcible retention of Chusan, we consider it beyond the sphere of serious argument or reprehension, and we do not imagine that there is much more chance of any diplomatic arrangement with the Chinese by which we could keep possession of it, than there is of Lord Aberdeen conveying the Channel Islands in a leasehold tenure to Louis Philippe, or of his obtaining from that sovereign a reentry on our old possession of Calais.

We are, however, quite in accordance with Mr. Davidson when he advocates immediate measures for working the Borneo coal-field.

"All her majesty's steamers on the coast of China might be supplied," he says, "with fuel from the same quarter-particularly as several empty ships go to China every season in search of freights homeward, which would gladly call at Borneo en route and take in a cargo of coals to be delivered at Hong Kong at a moderate rate per ton. To establish this coal-trade on a permanent footing, a treaty would require to be entered into with the Sultan of Borneo. This, I have no hesitation in saying, might be effected, and the requisite arrangements made with the Borneo authorities by Mr. Brooke, whose influence in that quarter is deservedly all-powerful."-Davidson, p. 295.

Mr. Earl's volume, "Enterprise in Tropical Australia," is also a performance of sterling abil

66

PUNCH'S POLITICAL DICTIONARY.

LORDS, HOUSE OF.-One of the constituent parts of the parliament of the United Kingdom, and comprising the body known as the peers; so that they who insist that our constitution is peerless, are guilty of a slight error. The lords are either spiritual, including the archbishops and bishops, or temporal, who may have been so called from their ancestors having first obtained their dignities by a readiness to temporize. The eldest son of a peer is a peer at his father's death-as if in the aristocracy of talent the eldest son of a poet should be born a poet. From the old proverb, one would imagine this was the rule of succession to the temple of the muses: but the words poeta nascitur, must be qualified by non fit, which may be translated, "Unless he is not fit for it." Peers are sometimes created from amongst lawyers and soldiers, when, to prevent the coronet being like a tin-kettle fastened on to the head, as in the celebrated dog case it was tied to the tail, it is usua! to settle a pension in tail male, on the recipient of a peerage. The peers have been called the hereditary wisdom of the legislature; but as it is thought they can sometimes evince their wisdom better by holding their tongues, and keeping away from the house, their presence is not necessary to their votes, which may be given by proxy.

From the Spectator.

Scott, Lord Stowell, added an amenity of dispo

Mr. Townsend's LIVES OF TWELVE EMINENT sition, an elegant literature, and graces of style

JUDGES.

which few lawyers of any age could equal; whilst his good taste never allowed his learning to encumSOME of these Lives originally appeared in the ber, or his literature to ornament his composition Law Magazine: they have been reprinted, partly too much. He might be a shade over-exhaustive in consequence of the praises bestowed upon two and over-argumentative; and perhaps he wanted of them by the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, the condensed gravity of judicial eloquence: but partly in the opinion that a "collection of memoirs he gained in amenity what he lost in weight. of eminent modern judges would not be unac- These things, however, are rather of the nature ceptable to the profession and the public gene-of feature and complexion than constitutional rally" an idea which induced the composition of qualities. Lord Stowell had the acumen which the new Lives.

perceived distinctions, the comprehension which The Twelve Judges whom Mr. Townsend has took in the entire range of the subject, the genius selected as subjects for his pen may be described which detected the principle lurking in the inas belonging to the age of George the Third; for stance; and he was thus often enabled to endow they were all appointed to the bench and left it seemingly small cases with importance and digduring the reign of that monarch, with the three nity. In these larger qualities Stowell seems to exceptions of Stowell, Eldon, and Tenterden. In us to have excelled all the rest of these eminent selecting his subjects, Mr. Townsend seems to men; the best of whom were probably only have been guided by his own test of eminence; for" judges learned in the law," and whose learning the characters and legal line of his heroes are eclipsed their philosophy. varied enough. In common law, there are Buller, Except in the case of Lord Eldon, where the Kenyon, Gibbs, Ellenborough, and Tenterden materials were ready to Mr. Townsend's hand, who, however they might differ in personal and the Lives in these volumes partake more of the professional nature, were all men of legal acquire- article or memoir than of pure biography, whether ments, who forced their way to wealth, celebrity, we consider biography in the sense of a regular and station, by indefatigable labor and perse- narrative of the incidents of a life and corresponverance, and who may be taken, each in his line, dence, or a masterly account of the career with a as a fair specimen of the hard common lawyer, portrait of the character. For the former mode, whom modern manner is gradually extinguishing, space and materials were both perhaps wanting; with his good as well as his evil. The two great to the latter Mr. Townsend is not exactly equal. equity lawyers are Eldon and Sir William Grant; He lacks the penetrative acumen, the strength of the former eminent as a chancellor, but perhaps mind, and the freedom from prejudice, required in unrivalled for a knowledge of law and a power of the more critical biographer. Indeed, he is a hair-splitting; the latter with the highest repute strong partisan in his views; which rather smack as a complete and perfect judge of any man in of the old tory lawyer, but without his insolence, modern or ancient times-though his reputation virulence, and coarseness. These prejudices peep perhaps excels that portion of his works from out in his estimate of persons in which, howwhich posterity must form its decision. Following ever, Mr. Townsend is more successful than in his these two eminent judges is Mitford, Lord Redes- criticism; for some of his selected jokes are but dale, chancellor of Ireland; a man who was indifferent, his specimens of eloquence or judgment rather an able practitioner and a respectable indi- do not always justify the praise they are put forvidual than of original and marked character either ward to support, and he has a remarkable knack as a lawyer or a man. As a popular advocate, of spoiling quotations. But the book is agreeable Erskine towers above all as a judge, he can and interesting; partly from the character of Mr. scarcely be called "eminent;" his post and the Townsend's mind, which though not very keen or figure he made in it were entirely owing to his elevated, is exceedingly well adapted to the gossip eminence at the bar. "The wary Wedderburn, of biography or of legal lore; partly from the who never went upon a forlorn hope nor ever nature of his subjects. A lawyer who rises to threw away the scabbard," and who had some-eminence has always some striking qualities: if thing about him which even treachery could not not a profound jurisconsult, or a keen and able trust," is best known as an unscrupulous but clever pleader, he must have ready and flashy parts of political adventurer, whose memory is embalmed some kind, sufficient to float him over the stormy in history for his fierce though justifiable attack competition of the bar, and make him "generally upon Franklin, his defence of Clive, and various useful" in the senate. Eminence in art, science, intrigues with every party likely to serve his turn, and literature, is necessarily attained by solitary till, finding the Foxite whigs hopeless and the meditation and experiment; but a successful lawPortland party not so pliant as he wished, he bar-yer is generally throughout his entire career, and gained with Pitt for the chancellorship. He had on his previous elevation to the common pleas been made Lord Loughborough ; a name by which he is more familiarly known than by that of Earl of Rosslyn, which title he obtained when he was obliged to retire a few years afterwards. Pepper Arden, Lord Alvanley, though not so mere an adventurer as Loughborough, was active and celebrated as a politician rather than as a lawyer; though he creditably filled the posts of master of the rolls and chief justice of the common pleas. The remaining eminent judge was a civilian, and one of the most distinguished that ever lived. To profound learning and extensive acumen, William

CXVIII.

LIVING AGE.

VOL. X. 20

always in some part of it, brought into the actual business of life; and in times of movement, such as a majority of the judges in this volume lived in, connected with the struggles of factions as well as litigants, and engaged in forwarding or baffling the arts of unscrupulous power or of parties perhaps more unscrupulous. Then, the lawyer (we are speaking of the public pleader and the judge) is a man of this world. He lives almost in public-in the courts, in the houses of parliament, in circuit clubs, and at "common tables," where there is constantly going on a keen encounter of wits; and even if in private life he is an economic recluse like Kenyon or Eldon, his strength or eccentricity

of character supplies as many strong points as would be gained from the most liberal round of entertainments." In the majority of cases, the great lawyer is a man of struggles, not only with law but with fortune. There is no turning out a "heaven-born" lawyer either at equity or nisi prius. He gathers his knowledge by time and labor, and acquires by long practice that ready dexterity in its application which looks almost supernatural to the ignorant, as if he worked by witchcraft instead of wit. Many lawyers, too, have sprung from a mean origin and very narrow circumstances; so that their early career affords examples of the pursuit of distinction under difficulties: a circumstance that adds interest to their lives, though it may taint their character with coarseness, and induce something of unprincipled self-seeking. For the public biography of modern lawyers also there are ample materials, not merely in the professional but in the newspaper reports; a large amount of their good things and very often of their bad are familiar in the mouths of the profession, and there are always many people well acquainted with their personal characteristics and their bearing both in public and private life, should the writer himself not know them. With such excellent subjects, and ample materials to his hand, and with his professional esprit de corps, Mr. Townsend could scarcely fail in producing a pleasant and useful book for the world at large, and an interesting work for the lawyer or law student.

A point of interest connected with the book, though not necessarily with the subject of lawyers, are the events and manners over which the reader is carried. Dated from the early times of George the Third, the most striking events of that troubled reign are brought in review before us; whilst many of the anecdotes indicate the coarseness of manners and want of education not only found among the middle classes but even among the country gentlemen of the last century-the immediate successors to the Squire Westerns. Here is an instance from the life of Buller.

THURLOW ON LOUGHBOROUGH.

"Lord Thurlow survived his lucky rival more than a twelvemonth; and on hearing of his death at Bath, said candidly, 'Well I hated the fellow, he could parlez-vous better than I could; but he was a gentleman!' His dislike afterwards vented itself in a bitter gibe. Being informed, we know not how truly, that George the Third, who had been laboring under mental hallucination, exclaimed, on Lord Rosslyn's death, I have lost then the greatest scoundrel in my dominions!' Said he so,' exclaimed Lord Thurlow, then by

he is sane!' ""

"Unpopular in his own branch of the profession, the attorney-general could not boast of being a greater favorite with solicitors, especially the worse part of them. For though the temper of the man might be bad, and his manner hard, ungracious, and repulsive, his was not the abject spirit to truckle to those who had power in their hands, or to speak in honeyed speech to an efficient patron. If the action was founded in folly, in knavery, or in both, he never failed to acquaint its aiders and abettors with his opinion. His forensic bitterness always assumed its harshest tones when denouncing, as he termed them, the prowling jackHIGH SHERIFFS, SIXTY YEARS SINCE.' als, the predatory pilot-fish, of the law. One of "There is a tradition on the Oxford Circuit, this class chanced to be standing near him as he that he once met at the first assize town with a was addressing the jury; when, suddenly turning very unsophisticated sheriff, who bluntly demanded round, he rivetted the attention of the whole court of his lordship, as he was stepping into his car- on his victim- Does any of you want a dirty job riage, whether he was a bona fide judge, (the to be done? There stands Mr. (naming the indiworthy functionary made but one syllable of fide,) vidual) ready and willing to do it.' The presiding as they had been so often fobbed off with sergeants judge interposed, but Sir Vicary persisted. I in those parts? When satisfied on this important will not be silenced. The fellow deserves to be particular, he took his seat aside of the judge. A exposed, and I will expose him.' On another grave severity on the countenance of Mr. Justice occasion, an attorney having brought a very thick Buller occasioned some misgivings in the mind of brief to his lodgings in the assize town very late at the sheriff; who expressed his fear that he had night, was about to make his bow, when Sir unwittingly done something wrong. It is cer- Vicary Gibbs grasped the huge mass of paper, and tainly,' said his lordship, with a smile, against inquired, 'Is all this evidence? No, sir, replied etiquette on these occasions for the sheriff to take the attorney; there are forty pages containing his seat fronting the horses, unless,'-he put his my observations.' Point them out.' He then hand on the gentleman, who was starting up-tore these pages from the rest, thrust them into 'unless invited by the judge, as I now invite you.' the fire, and concluded the interview with the sarCradock tells a story of a learned predecessor's castic remark, There go your observations.'' encounter with another sheriff, not unamusing. The world was then not so highly refined as at present. After the usual opening of common "There were fierce struggles, we are told, betopics, such as the roads and the weather, the tween Gibbs and Garrow. He was often, indeed, high sheriff began to feel himself a little more em- in ordinary cases, an overmatch for Erskine himboldened, and ventured to ask his lordship whether, self; but Erskine could afford to sustain this defeat at the last place, he had gone to see the elephant? or this overreaching, and his temper was sweet as The judge, with great good-humor, replied, Why his nature was noble. Not such the temper of

6

6

GARROW AND GIBBS.