health." Her husband erected a monument to treasury, to hear attorneys, and young counsel, her memory, on which a tremendous Latin that came to move them about matters of form epitaph was engraven, commemorating her and practice. His lordship had a younger father, husband, children and virtues. Our brother (Hon. Roger North) who was of the author here expresses his opinion, that the eu- profession of the law. He was newly called logistic part should be left out, “because it is to the bar, and had little to do in the King's in the power of every cobbler to do the like;" Bench; but the attorneys of the Common but that the account of families cannot be too Pleas often retained him to move for them in far extended, because they may be useful as the treasury, such matters as were proper evidence of pedigree. This is a curious self- there, and what they might have moved thembetrayal, by a man of rank and family. The selves. But however agreeable this kind of utility of monumental inscriptions, detailing practice was to a novitiate, it was not worthy the dignities of ancestry, is, indeed urged the observation it had; for once or twice a but it is easy to perceive the antithesis com-week was the utmost calculate of these mopleted in the writer's mind-between all the virtues which a cobbler might share, and the immunities of which the high-born alone are partakers.

tions. But the sergeants thought that method was, or might become, prejudicial to them, who had a monopoly of the bar, and would have no water go by their mill, and supposed it was high Meanwhile, his lordship proceeded to honour time to put a stop to such beginnings, for fear and fortune. He was made solicitor-general, it might grow worse. But the doubt was, how became a candidate for the borough of Lynn they should signify their resentment, so as to Regis; and, on a visit, with his accustomed be effectually remedial. At length they agreed, prudence," regaled the corporation with a very for one day, to make no motions at all; and handsome treat, which cost him about one hun- opportunity would fall for showing the reason dred pounds." He could not, however, be pre- how the court came to have no business. sent at the election, but sent our author, and When the court (on this dumb day, as it was Mr. Matthew Johnson, “to ride for him," with called) was sat, the chief justice gave the proper directions to economize their pecuniary usual signal to the eldest sergeant to move. resources. They did so ;-" took but one house, He bowed, and had nothing to move: so the and there allowed scope for all taps to run;" next, and the next, from end to end of the bar. and as there was no opposition, all passed well, The chief, seeing this, said, Brothers, I think we and" the plenipos returned with their purchase, must rise; here is no business. Then an attorney the return of the election, back to London." steps forward, and called to a sergeant to make His lordship, however, lost his seat by the vote his motion; and, after that, turned to the court of the House-despatched "his plenipos once and said, that he had given the sergeant his more to regain it, which they did, though with fee, and instructions over night, to move for more difficulty than they first procured it; for him, and desired he might do it. But proSir Simon Taylor, a wealthy merchant of wine, found silence still. The chief looked about, in that town, stood, and had procured a butt of and asked, What was the matter? An attorney, sherry, which butt of sherry was a potent ad- that stood by, very modestly said, that he feared versary." Soon after, his lordship was made the sergeants took it ill that motions were made in attorney-general, and some doubts arose as the Treasury. Then the chief scented the whole to his right to sit in parliament; which, how-matter; and, Erothers, said he, I think a very ever, he was able to remove. great affront is offered to us, which we ought, for the dignity of the court, to resent. But that we may do nothing too suddenly, but take consideration at full leisure, and maturely, let us now rise, and tomorrow morning give order as becomes us. And do you attorneys come all here to-morrow, and care shall be taken for your despatch, and, rather than fail, we will hear you, or your clients, or the barristers at law, or any person that thinks fil to appear in business, that the law may have its course; and so the court rose. This was like thunder to the sergeants, and they fell to quarrelling, one with another about being the cause of this great evil they had brought upon themselves: for none of them imagined it would have had such a turn as this was, that shaked what was the palladium of the coif, the sole practice there. In the afternoon, they attended the chief, and the other judges of the court, and, in great humility, owned their fault, and begged pardon, and that no farther notice might be taken of it; and they would be careful not to give the like offence for the future. The chief told them, that the affront was in public, and in the face of the court, and they must make their recognitions there next morning, and in such a manner as the greatness of their offenc demanded; and then they should hear what

In due time, Mr. North, wearied with the perpetual labours of extensive practice, not only in the courts of law but of equity, longed for, and obtained, the elevated repose of the cushion of the Court of Common Pleas. Here he sedulously endeavoured to resist the encroachments of the King's Bench, and showed himself sufficiently versed in the arts by which each of the courts attempted to overreach the other, and which would have done credit to the sagacity of a solicitor at the Old Bailey. His biographer relates various instances of his skill in detecting falsehood, which do not quite entitle him to be regarded as a second Solomon -of his management of counsel, which we have seen excelled in no distant period-and of his repartees, which are the worst ever gravely told as good things by a devoted admirer. The story of “the dumb day" is, however, worth transcribing, especially as our author, though he speaks of himself as usual, in the third person, was the party on whose behalf the authority of the chief justice was exerted.

"It hath been the usage of the King's Bench, at the side bar below in the hall, and of the Common Pleas, in the chamber within the

the court would say to them. Accordingly His opinions respecting libels were surprisingthey did; and the chief first, and, then, the ly liberal for a judge of the cavalier party, and rest, in order, gave them a formal chiding may serve to put shame to the courtly lawyers with acrimony enough; all which, with de- of more enlightened days. jected countenances, they were bound to hear. When this discipline was over, the chief pointed to one to move; which he did, (as they said,) more like one crying than speaking; and so ended the comedy, as it was acted in Westminster-hall, called the dumb day."

tainted with the vices of the times. His bro- | due acknowledgment of his learning, and that ther-in-law, actually fearing his virtue might he was, to his last breath, true as steel to the be visited as a libel on the court, seriously ad- principles of the times when he began his vised him to keep a mistress in his own de- career. Sir William Scraggs, the fierce vofence; "for he understood, from very great luptuary and outrageous politician, is softened men, that he was ill looked upon for want of to us by the single engaging touch, that "in doing so; because he seemed continually to his house every day was a holyday." And reprehend them;" which notable advice was Jeffries himself, as exhibited here, seems to concluded by an offer, "that, if his lordship have had something of real human warmth pleased, he would help him to one." His lord- within him, which redeems him from utter ship's regard to virtue, as well as his usual hatred. The following is a summary of his caution, which told him, "there was no spy character. like a female," made him regard this proffer "His friendship and conversation lay much with a scorn, which utterly puzzled his adviser. among the good fellows and humourists; and He was, however, tremulously alive to ridicule. his delights were, accordingly, drinking, laughAware of this infirmity, Jeffries and the Earl ing, singing, kissing, and all the extravagancies of Sunderland took advantage of a harmless of the bottle. He had a set of banterers, for visit he made to see a rhinoceros, to circulate the most part, near him; as, in old time, great a report that he had ridden on the animal. men kept fools to make them merry. And This threw him into a state of rage and vexa- these fellows, abusing one another and their tion truly surprising; he turned on his ques- betters, were a regale to him. And no friendtioners with unexampled fury, was seriously ship or dearness could be so great, in private, angry with Sir Dudley North for not contra- which he would not use ill, and to an extravadicting it with sufficient gravity, and sent for gant degree, in public. No one, that had any him that he might add his testimony to his expectations from him, was safe from his own solemn denial. His biographer, who ac- public contempt and derision, which some of tually performs the duty of confidante, as de- his minions at the bar bitterly felt. Those scribed in The Critic, to laugh, weep, or go mad above, or that could hurt or benefit him, and with the principal, is also in a towering pas- none else, might depend on fair quarters at sion at the charge. He calls it," an impudent his hands. When he was in temper, and matters buffoon lie, which Satan himself would not indifferent came before him, he became his seat of have owned for his legitimate issue;" and is justice better than any other I ever saw in his place. provoked beyond measure, that "the noble He took a pleasure in mortifying fraudulent Earl, with Jeffries, and others of that crew, attorneys, and would deal forth his severities made merry, and never blushed at the lie of with a sort of majesty. He had extraordinary their own making; but valued themselves natural abilities, but little acquired, beyond upon it, as a very good jest." He was afflicted what practice in affairs had supplied. He by no other "great calumny," notwithstanding talked fluently, and with spirit; and his weakthe watchfulness of his foes. One of his last ness was that he could not reprehend without public acts was to stop the bloody proceedings scolding; and in such Billingsgate language, of Jeffries in the West, which he did by his as should not come out of the mouth of any influence with the king. He did not long sur- man. He called it giving a lick with the rough vive the profligate prince, whom he sometimes side of his tongue. It was ordinary to hear him was able to guide and to soften. He walked say, Go, you are a filthy, lousy, nitty rascal; with in the coronation of James the Second, when much more of like elegance. Scarce a day imperfectly recovered from a fever; and, after passed that he did not chide some one, or other, a gradual decline of some months, expired at of the bar, when he sat in the Chancery; and his house at Wroxton, really hurried to the it was commonly a lecture of a quarter of an grave by the political broils and vexations at-hour long. And they used to say, This is yours; tendant on the Great Seal. "That pestiferous lump of metal," as our author terms it, was given to Jeffries, whom it did not save from an end more disastrous and fearful.

my turn will be to-morrow. He seemed to lay nothing of his business to heart, nor care what he did, or left undone; and spent, in the Chancery court, what time he thought fit to spare. The work before us, as we have already in- Many times, on days of causes at his house, timated, is rendered more interesting by the the company have waited five hours in a mornadmirable characters which it contains of the ing, and, after eleven, he hath come out inflamed old lawyers. These are all drawn, not only and staring like one distracted. And that visage with great and most felicitous distinctness, but he put on when he animadverted on such as he are touched in a mild, gentlemanly, and hu- took offence at, which made him a terror to real mane spirit, which it is refreshing to recog- offenders; whom also he terrified with his face nise in these days of acrimony and slander. and voice, as if the thunder of the day of judgment Even those who were most opposed in interest broke over their heads and nothing ever made and in prejudice to the author, receive ample men tremble like his vocal inflictions. He justice from his hands. Hale, whose dislike loved to insult, and was bold without check; to the court rendered him obnoxious to the but that only when his place was uppermost. author, or, which is the same thing, to his bro-To give an instance. A city attorney was pether, is drawn at full length in all his austere titioned against for some abuse; and affidavit majesty. Even Serjeant Maynard, the ac- was made that when he was told of my lord knowledged "anti-restoration lawyer," whose praise was in all the conventicles, and who was a hard rival of "his lordship," receives

chancellor, My lord chancellor, said he, I made him; meaning his being a means to bring him early into city business. When this affidavit

The Lord Chief Justice Saunders succeeded in the room of Pemberton. His character, and his beginning, were equally strange. He was at first no better than a poor beggar boy, if not a purish foundling, without known parents or relations. He had found a way to live by obsequiousness (in Clement's-Inn, as I remember) and courting the attorney's clerks for scraps. The extraordinary observance and diligence of the boy made the society willing to do him good. He appeared very ambitious to learn to write; and one of the attorneys got a board knocked up at a window on the top of a staircase; and that was his desk, where he sat and wrote after copies of court and other hands the clerks gave him. He made himself so expert a writer that he took in business, and earned some pence by hackney writing. And thus, by degrees, he pushed his faculties, and fell to forms, and, by books that were lent him, became an exquisite entering clerk; and by the same course of improvement of himself, an able counsel, first in special pleading, then, at large. And, after he was called to the bar, had practice, in the King's Bench court, equal with any there. As to his person, he was very corpulent and beastly; a mere lump of morbid flesh. He used to say, by his troggs, (such a humorous way of talking he affected,) none could say he wanted issue of his body, for he had nine in his back. He was a fetid mass that offended his neighbours at the bar in the sharpest degree. Those, whose ill fortune it was to stand near him, were confessors, and, in summer-time, almost martyrs. This hateful decay of his carcass came upon him by continued sottishness; for, to say nothing of brandy, he was seldom without a pot of ale at his nose, or near him. That exercise was all he used; the rest of his life was sitting at his desk, or piping at home; and that home was a tailor's house in Butcher-Row, called his lodging, and the man's wife was his nurse, or worse; but by virtue of his money, of which he made little account, though he got a great deal, he soon became master of the family; and, being no changeling, he never removed, but was true to his friends, and they to him, to the last hour of his life.

was read, Well, said the lord chancellor, then I spirit in a loathsome frame !-But, we forget; will lay my maker by the heels. And, with that, -we are indulging ourselves, when we ought conceit, one of his best old friends went to jail. to gratify our readers. One of these intemperances was fatal to him. There was a scrivener of Wapping brought to hearing for relief against a bummery bond; the contingency of losing all being showed, the bill was going to be dismissed. But one of the plaintiff's counsel said that he was a strange fellow, and sometimes went to church, sometimes to conventicles; and none could tell what to make of him; and it was thought he was a trimmer. At that the chancellor fired; and, A trimmer! said he; I have heard much of that monster, but never saw one. Come forth, Mr. Trimmer, turn you round, and let us see your shape: and, at that rate, talked so long that the poor fellow was ready to drop under him; but, at last the bill was dismissed with costs, and he went his way. In the hall, one of his friends asked him how he came off? Came off, said he, I am escaped from the terrors of that man's face, which I would scarce undergo again to save my life; I shall certainly have the frightful impression of it as long as I live. Afterwards, when the Prince of Orange came, and all was in confusion, this lord chancellor, being very obnoxious, disguised himself in order to go beyond sea. He was in a seaman's garb, and drinking a pot in a cellar. This scrivener came into the cellar after some of his clients and his eye caught that face, which made him start; and the chancellor seeing himself eyed, feigned a cough, and turned to the wall with his pot in his hand. But Mr. Trimmer went out, and gave notice that he was there; whereupon the mob flowed in, and he was in extreme hazard of his life; but the lord mayor saved him and lost himself. For the chancellor being hurried with such crowd and noise before him, and appearing so dismally, not only disguised, but disordered; and there having been an amity between thein, as also a veneration on the lord mayor's part, he had not spirits to sustain the shock, but fell down in a swoon; and, in not many hours after, died. But this Lord Jeffries came to the seal without any concern at the weight of duty incumbent upon him; for, at the first, being merry over a bottle with some of his old friends, one of them told him that he would find the business heavy. No, said he, I'll make it light. But, to conclude with a strange inconsistency, he would drink and be merry, kiss and slaver, with these bon companious over night, as the way of such is, and the next day fall upon them, ranting and scolding with a virulence unsufferable."

His

"So much for his person and education. As for his parts, none had them more lively than he. Wit and repartee, in an affected rusticity, was natural to him. He was ever ready, and never at a loss; and none came so near as he But the richest portion of these volumes is to be a match for Serjeant Maynard. the character of the Lord Chief Justice Saun- great dexterity was in the art of special pleadders, the author of the Reports which Mr. Ser-ing, and he would lay snares that often caught jeant Williams has rendered popular by clus- his superiors, who were not aware of his traps. tering about them the products of his learned And he was so fond of success for his clients industry. He has a better immortality in the taat, rather than fail, he would set the court memoir. What a picture is exhibited of the hard with a trick; for which he met sometimes stoutest industry, joined with the most luxu- with a reprimand, which he would wittily ward rious spirit of enjoyment-of the most intense off, so that no one was much offended with acquaintance with nice technicalities and the him. But Hales could not bear his irregularity most bounteous humour-of more distressing of life; and for that, and suspicion of his infirmities and scarcely less wit than those of tricks, used to bear hard upon him in the court. Falstaff! What a singular being is here- But no ill usage from the bench was too hard what a laborious, acute, happy and affectionate | for his hold of business, being such as scarce

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